Truth springs up from the earth (Psalm 85:11, NLT).
Archeology is a relatively new science that began in the nineteenth century.
Since the Bible describes events, cities, and historical narrative in a rather confined geographic area of the world — there should be archeological evidence to support the Bible.
And there is! Lots of it.
One scholar reports that in the last 100 years, there have been over 25,000 archeological discoveries that support Biblical accounts. With relative peace in Israel (until recently) and interested financial backers, there has been a torrid pace of archeological discoveries supporting the Bible.
To report on the record amount of positive discoveries Christianity Today published an article entitled “Biblical Archeology’s Top 10 Discoveries for 2012” and has added a new edition every year since.
That’s right, the top ten archeological discoveries by Christianity Today for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2o23.
One of the avowed purposes of Interruptions has me spending time examining articles that no one else reads and reporting back to you on what I think is fascinating. The result is that you either get excited or want to take a nap after reading my findings.
But I persevere.
Below are my favorite archeological discoveries from nine of Christianity Today’s Top 10 lists:
2015: Childhood home
A home in Nazareth was found to be considered (since Byzantine times) to be the boyhood home of Jesus.
Amazing.
2016: Amen for wine.
At a wedding in Cana, waterpots were used in Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine (John 2). A stone jar factory was discovered close to Cana. It’s probably the location where the water jugs were made that Jesus used to turn water into wine.
Wow.
2017: Hold your noses for this one.
Fake scholars for years have been skeptical of the Bible’s depiction of a powerful and centralized Israel during the time of King David. Archeologists found donkey dung in southern Israel that was 3,000 old. And this at-one-time-smelly evidence contained feed known to have come from Jerusalem.
Stupendous.
2018: On death and taxes.
Ben Franklin said that only two things are certain in life — death and taxes. Exodus 38:26 reads that a “beka” was used to measure the temple tax. An actual “beka” was found in excavations near the temple in Jerusalem. Yep, certainty for taxes and death!
Incredible.
2019: Oops!
In 2014, ISIS blew up a shrine to the Prophet Jonah as an insult to both Jews and Christians, which enabled a discovery in 2019. The shrine sat upon a mound of earth that could then be investigated after the shrine was removed.
In this mound, archeologists found the palace of King Esarhaddon. His name was found inscribed in tunnels dug originally by ISIS.
For Bible scholars of minutiae, we recognize that Esarhaddon is mentioned in 2 Kings 19:36-37 and Isaiah 37:37-38, describing the assassination of his father, King Sennacherib, to then became king himself.
Thanks to ISIS, we have proof that because of a name found in their tunnels, two Old Testament passages are historically accurate. I don’t think they meant to do that.
Dang.
I’m so excited by all this evidence that I’m shouting, “Amazing! Wow! Stupendous! Incredible! Dang!”
Now I have a problem.
Since I write early in the morning, I realize that my wife’s still sleeping. Also, I’m out of word space in this blog with the archeological evidence of 2020, 2o21, 2022, and 2023 still to come.
I will get up early tomorrow morning and finish the task for tomorrow’s Interruption, and my wife will be upset with all of you for waking her up at 5:30 a.m. for two days in a row.