Journal: Bible and Spade (Second Run)
Volume: BSPADE 24:2 (Spring 2011)
Article: Archaeology And The Bible
Author: D. James Kennedy

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BSpade 24:2 (Spring 2011) p. 32

Archaeology And The Bible

D. James Kennedy

I use the term “higher criticism” to mean that attempt by unbelievers to use the Bible against itself; critics employ this attempt by carefully searching its pages, hoping to find anything to use as an ax to destroy Scripture. I find it very interesting to note that at the beginning of the 19th century, as this movement was beginning, something else of note was occurring, and that something is known as modern archaeology. These two movements grew up simultaneously and have grown to have a significant effect on both science and religion.

One was based upon theories which were spun in studies and locked in libraries around the world. The other was based on first-hand facts dug up by those who, with shovel and pick, were uncovering the past right before their eyes.

The remarkable thing about this is that on the one hand, the higher critics very quickly came to their conclusions, conclusions which they no doubt already had reached before they began their studies: that the Bible was a very unreliable, unhistorical, and mythological book. Further, that you could be sure that most anything it said on any historical subject was not to be taken seriously.

However, archaeologists, at the same time, were coming to very diverse conclusions. Also, I think it is important to remember that many of them went forth as unbelievers, skeptics who were convinced by the higher criticism, people like Professor Sayce, the greatest of the Assyriologists, Sir William Ramsey, and D.J. Wiseman. But they, when confronted with

Ruins of a ziggurat or temple tower “reaching to heaven.”

BSpade 24:2 (Spring 2011) p. 33

the cold facts of history which they held in their hands, finally came to conclude that the Bible was indeed a remarkable book. The more facts they uncovered from the ground, the more they became convinced that the Scriptures were indeed the very Word of God, that they were accurate in all of their details.

The field of archaeology is an enormously vast field. There are no doubt hundreds or thousands of books that have been written on this subject. But I would like to share with you just a few of what I consider interesting discoveries that have been made by archaeologists, which confirm many of the statements found in the Scripture.

Why A Decline In Longevity?

Let us consider, first of all, some facts that we see in Genesis. The Bible records that in the early days of the human race, people lived for a long time. We are well aware of the fact that Methuselah lived to the grand old age of 969 years, and that Adam, am...

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