May 24, 2016
Bible history, chronology
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Phillip Mauro gives a concise and readable chronology of the Bible in his book, The Wonders of Bible Chronology. Mauro references two other works on Bible chronology that are worth consulting when studying this important subject–one that is neglected in many churches. The first is Dr. Martin Anstey’s, The Romance of Bible Chronology, c. 1913 by Marshall Bros, London. Two volumes. Anstey’s work can be found online and is downloadable for free. Anstey’s work rests upon the statements in the Bible alone. The Bible gives a complete and consistent source of chronology that does not need outside sources to confirm it. The Bible is the only infallible book in the world. The chronology is given in close association with the genealogies in Scripture. The genealogies have one primary purpose, i.e. to record the lineage of the Messiah who would be the savior of the world. The second work is that of James Ussher, The Annal’s of the World. Ussher’s work was widely accepted until the mid 1800’s when the three-pronged attack of evolution (Darwin, c. 1859), higher criticism and textual criticism attacked the credibility of the Bible and attempted to change drastically the chronology given in the Bible. I would like to add a third resource that of Dr. Floyd Nolan Jones, The Chronology of the Old Testament (Master Books Publisher) that has been reprinted several times.
Chronology is the science of dividing time into regular intervals and assigning dates to historic events in their proper order (Jones, p. 2). The Bible does this rather remarkably. Gen. 1:1, states thatthe history of the heaven and the earth had an initial beginning at the behest and power of God. From this beginning of the history of the world, only six days pass until God creates Adam and Eve (Matt. 19:4; Gen. 1:26-27). With the creation of Adam, the history of man begins. The genealogy given in Gen. 5, gives a chronology of the history of man from the time of Adam until the time of Noah. The time that passes during this period is 1656 years. There are two individuals that connect Adam to Noah, namely, Methuselah and Shem. Mauro states, “…Adam was for 243 years the contemporary of Methuselah, that Methuselah’s life overlapped that of Shem for 98 years, and that Shem was, for 150 years, the contemporary of Abraham” (p. 28). This means that specific knowledge of the creation and of the flood would have been passed down to the people of Abraham’s day through a direct line of descent from Adam.
From Adam to Abraham, 2008 years pass. By the time a reader of Genesis gets to Genesis chapter twelve, he has reached one-half of the history of the Old Testament. The next approximately 2000 years will bring us to the time of Jesus Christ’s birth. We live in the year A.D. 2016. This means that the history of man encompasses around 6,000 years!
May 27, 2014
Bible, Bible history, Truth
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In the March/April issue of Biblical Archeology Review, there was an article titled, Archaeology Confirms 50 Real People in the Bible. A feature of BAR is “how many.” How many people in the Hebrew Bible have been confirmed archaeologically? The answer is 50!
Kings of Judah confirmed through archeology include: David, Hezekiah, Uzziah, Ahaz, Manasseh and Jehoiachin. Kings of Israel that have been confirmed through archeology are: Ahab, who angrily called the prophet Elijah “Thou troubler of Israel” (1 Kings 18:17), Omri, Jehu, Joash (short for Jehoash), Jeroboam II, Menahem, Pekah and Hoshea. That’s a total of fourteen kings!
Foreign kings are also mentioned, including: Sennacherib (Assyrian ruler who shut up king Hezekiah “like a bird in a cage” mentioned on Sennacherib’s prism), Tiglath-pilesar III, Shalmaneser V, Sargon II and Esarhaddon, all Assyrian kings mentioned in the Bible. Adrammelech, the son and assassin of Sennacherib has also been confirmed.
Babylonian monarchs mentioned in the Bible include: Nebuchadnessar (destroyed Solomn’s Temple in 586 B.C. and took the Jews to Babylon for 70 years captivity), Merodach-baladan II, Evil-merodach and Belshazzar. Belshazzar is featured in the book of Daniel and Daniel read the mysterious handwriting on the wall to him.
Persians kings mentioned in the Bible and corroborated by archeology include: Cyrus II (Cyrus the Great who issued the decree allowing the Jews to return to Palestine (written on the Cyrus Cylinder), Darius I, Xerxes, Artaxerxes I and Darius II. Xerxes plays a prominent role in the Book of Esther where he is called Ahasuerus. Xerxes is Greek and Ahasuerus is Hebrew.
Egyptian rulers include: Shishak, So, Tirhakah, Necho II and Hophra.
Mesha from Moab is mentioned in 2 Kings 3:4-27.
Rules in Damascus include: Headadezer, Ben-hadad, son of Hadadezer, Hazael, Beh-hadad, son of Hazael and Rezin.
In the Southern Kingdom, there were royal officers and priests that have been confirmed through archeology. These include: Hilkiah (priest during Josiah’s reign), Shaphan (scribe during Josiah’s reign), Azariah (high priest during Josiah’s reign), Gemariah (official during Jehoiakim’s reign), Shelemiah, (father of Jehucal the royal official-Jeremiah 37:3), Jehucal or Jucal, (official during Zedekiah’s reign), Pashhur, (father of Gedaliah the royal official), and Gedaliah, (official during Zedekiah’s reign).
This completes the list of 50. The list shows that Bible history is real/authentic. The list helps to verify the truthfulness of the Bible. Contrast this information about the Bible with the Book of Mormon which is not verfied by a single historical fact and you can see that the Bible is the more reliable and trustworthy document.
August 12, 2008
Bible history
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Massive Winged Bull (60 tons) Sargon II –king of Assyria
August 12, 2008
Bible history
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Statues From Ancient Temples (Near East)
August 5, 2008
Bible history
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This picture shows examples of chariot wheels. The wheels were made of wood and had nails driven into the edge of the wheels for additional strength. An ancient model of a chariot appears in the middle of the picture. The wheels are squashed in appearance due to the many years of being under the earth before being excavated. This picture is from the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.
August 5, 2008
Bible history
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This is the Babylonian Flood story as told in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The third tablet is dated about 1800 B.C. This flood account contains remarkable parallels to the flood account in Genesis. Wycliffe Dictionary of Biblical Archeology relates that a small but important fragment of this epic was accidentally discovered in 1955 in the debris of the Oriental Institute campaigns at Megiddo in Palestine. Twelve tablets were discovered in 1853 by Hormuzd Rassam among the cunneiform texts from the library of Ashurbanipal in Ninevah. (268).
The figure to the left is a depiction of Gilgamesh.