Archaeology and History: The Spade Speaks

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The Bible is not a collection of timeless sayings detached from time and place. It names kings, cities, rulers, and events, and so exposes itself to verification. Over the last two centuries, archaeology has repeatedly confirmed details that critics once doubted [11].

Old Testament Confirmations

• The Hittites. Mentioned some forty times in the Old Testament (for example Genesis 23), they were once considered a Bible-only fiction. In 1906, excavations at Boğazköy in Turkey uncovered Hattusa, the capital of a great Hittite empire.
• Israel in Egypt's records. The Merneptah Stele (about 1208 BC) is the earliest known non-biblical mention of "Israel."
• "The house of David." The Tel Dan inscription (discovered 1993, ninth century BC) refers to the "house of David," confirming David as a historical dynasty founder.
• Hezekiah and Sennacherib. The Assyrian king's prism boasts that he shut Hezekiah up "like a bird in a cage," matching the account in 2 Kings 18:13-19:37. Hezekiah's tunnel (2 Kings 20:20) was found with its Hebrew inscription in 1880.
• Belshazzar. Daniel 5 names Belshazzar as king of Babylon, a name absent from Greek historians. Babylonian records later showed that Belshazzar governed as co-regent while his father Nabonidus was away, which explains why Belshazzar offered Daniel to be "the third ruler in the kingdom" (Daniel 5:16).

New Testament Confirmations

• Pontius Pilate. Once known only from the Gospels, Tacitus, and Josephus, he appears on a stone inscription found at Caesarea in 1961.
• Caiaphas. An ossuary inscribed with the name "Joseph son of Caiaphas" was found in Jerusalem in 1990 and is widely believed to belong to the high priest of the Gospels (Matthew 26:3).
• The Pool of Siloam. Where Jesus sent a blind man to wash (John 9:7), the pool was discovered in 2004.
• Gallio. An inscription from Delphi dates Gallio's governorship of Achaia to AD 51-52, matching Acts 18:12 and anchoring Paul's ministry in time.
• Erastus. A paving stone in Corinth names an official, Erastus, who paid for the pavement, fitting "Erastus the chamberlain of the city" (Romans 16:23).
• Politarchs. Acts 17:6 calls Thessalonica's magistrates "rulers of the city." The Greek term politarchai was an unusual title, yet inscriptions confirm it was used in Macedonia.

Luke the Historian

The classical historian and archaeologist Sir William Ramsay set out to disprove Luke's writings and ended by praising them as the work of a first-rate historian. Later scholars such as Colin Hemer catalogued dozens of incidental details in Acts, from titles of officials to the winds and ports of Mediterranean voyages, that match what is known of the first century [12]. Luke himself claimed careful investigation: "It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed" (Luke 1:3-4).

What Archaeology Cannot Do

Archaeology cannot prove that God inspired the Bible, or that a miracle occurred. It can show that the Bible's historical setting is real and that its details are the work of people who knew the world they were describing. Believers see this as important, and it is a reasonable ground for trusting the rest of the testimony. As Jesus said, "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (John 3:12).

CHAPTER 6