Posted By admin on September 22, 2021
From Noah to Joshua: the Hebrew Scripture is Extraordinarily Accurate & True to History
For preliminary background information on the dispute about biblical maximalism vs. minimalism, and the dates of the patriarchs and major OT events, see my article on those topics. This paper is basically a chronological bullet-point survey of some of the fascinating things I have found in studying archaeology (and in several cases, science in general) in relation to the Old Testament over the last six months or so (originally stimulated by atheist skepticism).
Nothing is very in-depth; however, I will systematically provide links to the papers that do deal in greater depth with any given topic. Readers, therefore, may peruse the overall topic as much as they like by following the links to more substantial treatments, extensive documentation from scientific studies, etc.
*****
Three Great Books About Biblical Archaeology (Maximalist Outlook)
Kenneth A. Kitchen (b. 1932), On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003)
James K. Hoffmeier (b. 1951), Israel in Egypt:1996)
James K. Hoffmeier,AncientIsrael in Sinai:2005)
***
1) Noahs Ark & the Flood
a. I have compiled an extensive scientific argument for a local Flood in the Mesopotamian plains, near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (present-day Iraq). The Bible doesnt require a universal Flood. This was noted as early as the old Catholic Encyclopedia from 1910.
b. At Shuruppak and Uruk in this area, can be found clay deposited by a flood: nearly two feet and five feet thick, respectively: dated at approximately 2900 BC. The Sumerian King List [22nd-21st c. BC] informs us that Noah (Ziusudra) lived in Shuruppak [Tell Fara]: excavated back to 3,000 BC.
c. The traditional landing-site of the ark (up till the 11th century) was not the current Mt. Ararat, but rather, Jabel Judi (just north of the flat floodplain), which is 6,854 feet in elevation. The biblical text doesnt require the ark resting on top of a mountain. It says came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat (Gen 8:4), in other words, a region. The Mt. Ararat in present-day Turkey near Armenia wasnt even known by that name until the Middle Ages.
d. Noahs Ark, built (as we deduce from many historical clues) in the Mesopotamian plain, was covered inside and out with pitch [same thing as bitumen / tar / asphalt] (Gen 6:14). We know that this was readily available in the area at this time: used as waterproofing for reed boats on the Euphrates by the early 4th millennium BC (early 3000s).
e. Wood for the ark wasnt available locally, but we know that wood was available for trade and purchase by 2900 BC in Syria, Elam (now Iran), and Anatolia (Turkey): floated down the Euphrates River. It was likely either cedar or cypress.
f. One skeptical argument against Noahs Ark is the taunt that the carnivores would have insufficient food. This is answered in many ways. There is salt-cured meat and dried and salted cod. The Wikipedia article Food Drying notes that Dehydration has been used widely for this purpose since ancient times: many thousands of years before Noahs Ark.
2) The Tower of Babel
a. Genesis 11:2-3 (RSV, as throughout) And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. [3] And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
b. Four historical clues: i) Shinar: early word for Babylon, ii)Plain: Mesopotamian floodplain, iii) burned bricks = kiln-fired bricks, iv) bitumen for mortar.
c. Ziggurats: about 25 in ancient Sumer,Babylonia, andAssyria: the earliest dated to 3500 BC at the latest.
d. In the ancient Near East, and also anywhere else in the world, baked bricks were rarely used in architecture until c. 3100 B.C.
e. As for bitumen, theAnu Ziggurat inUruk (modern Warka) built in c. 3517-3358 BC. was coated on its top with bitumen and overlaid with brick.
For much more information, see: Tower of Babel, Baked Bricks, Bitumen, & Archaeology (Also, Archaeological Verification of Sufficiently Available Bitumen and Wood for the Building of Noahs Ark)
3) Abraham and Anachronistic Camels
[Kitchen thinks Abraham was born . . . earlier in the nineteenth century at the latest: i.e., 1800s BC]
Mention of Abraham and camels is made in Genesis 24. Apparently, he received them from the Pharaoh of Egypt (Gen 12:16). This has been claimed as historical anachronism, but excavations have shown that the presence of camels in Egypt dates back at least to the First Dynasty (3100 B.C.) with domestication preceding the age of the patriarchs. Orthodox rabbi Joshua Berman stated: read Genesis carefully and you see that all its camels come from outside of Israel, . . . nowhere in Genesis does anyone ride a camel originating in Canaan. Genesis 42:26-27 shows us that Josephs brothers went to Egypt on donkeys (cf. 43:24; 44;3, 13; 45:23). Further reading: Abraham, Moses, Camels, & Archaeological Evidence and OT Camels & Biblically Illiterate Archaeologists.
The consensus atheist skeptics and archaeologists is that domestication of camels in Israel occurred in the 9th century BC. The Bible (rightly understood) agrees. 1 Chronicles 5:21 notes that camels were owned by the Hagrites (5:19), who lived east of Gilead in present-day Jordan. Note that the Israelites carried off fifty thousand of their camels (5:21): certainly enough to start widespread domestication in Israel. This was in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel (5:17). Jeroboamwas the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel (as opposed to Judah). He reigned for 22 years, sometime in the last third of the 10th century BC. In other words, this wasright before the first archaeological evidence of widespread camel use in Israel, in the 9th century BC. Further reading: When Were Camels Domesticated in Egypt & Israel?
4) Abrahams Journeys
His presence at Beersheba is said to be an anachronism, as the city didnt exist in his lifetime. But the Bible refers to it as the wilderness of Beer-sheba (Gen 21:14) in Abrahams time. Its never called a city in eleven times in Genesis, save for 26:33, which is clearly a later added editorial note (the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day). See: Abraham & Beersheba, the Bible, & Archaeology. He lived in Haran (Gen 11:31; 12:4-5). Its known from cuneiform sources, in both Eblaite and Akkadian, to date back to 3000 BC. See: Abraham Lived in Haran, Which Did Exist at the Time! Abraham was in Shechem (Gen 12:5-6; 33:18). Archaeology shows that it was re-settled c. 1900 BC, just before Abraham was born. See: Abrahams Shechem Lines Up With Archaeology. Abraham dwelt at Hebron (Gen 13:18; 23:2, 19; 35:27). Archaeology tells us that it was established c. 2700-2200 BC, destroyed by fire but rebuilt c. 1800 BC: all long before Abrahams birth. See: Abraham & Hebron: Archaeology Backs Up the Bible. Abraham met Melchizedek in Salem (Gen 14:17-18): believed by most Bible scholars to be Jerusalem, and was willing to sacrifice Isaac on Mt. Moriah: where the temple was later built (Gen 22:2). Is that too early? No problem. Archaeology holds that the city was first established no later then 3500 BC, if not much earlier and rebuilt, c. 1800 BC. See: Abraham, Salem, Mt. Moriah, Jerusalem, & Archaeology.
5) Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in Abrahams time (Gen 19:24-29). Recent excavations highly suggest that it was located north and east of the Dead Sea, rather than further south (Tall el-Hammam in Jordan). The most interesting thing about the excavations is evidence of a possible meteor explosion in the area, dated to 1750-1650 BC. A pottery sherd found on the site melted under extreme temperatures, and has a glass surface as a result. See: Sodom & Gomorrah & Archaeology: North of the Dead Sea? and Was Sodom Destroyed by a Meteor in Abrahams Time?
6) Joseph: Sold Into Slavery
[Kitchen estimates that the patriarch Joseph was born c. 1737-1717 BC]
Genesis 37:25, 28. . . looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. . . . [28] Then Midianite traders passed by; and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver; and they took Joseph to Egypt.
Atheists try to deny that this trade route existed at this time (1720-1710 BC). The beginnings of this incense trade and the Incense Road have been dated to 1800 BC (prior to Josephs birth). Egypt (not far away) had been importing myrrh from further south in Africa for the previous thousand years. Genesis 37:17 informs us that the incident where Joseph was traded into slavery occurred at Dothan (now the archaeological site Tel Dothan, which is roughly in the middle on a line between the sea of Galilee and Tel Aviv. Dothan was located on a different trade route, later called theVia Maris. The Wikipedia article on it states that it dated from the earlyBronze Age: which age in Mesopotamia lasted from c. 33001200 BC. See: Genesis, Joseph, Archaeology, & Biblical Accuracy.
The price of slaves in the ancient Near East from 2000-1400 BC (we know from various texts) was 20 shekels: exactly what the Bible states Joseph was sold for in the early 18th century. After that it became 30 shekels. If this story was written in the 6th BC or later, as skeptics claim, the price would have been 90-100 shekels: the going rate at that time. See: Joseph in Egypt, Archaeology, & Historiography.
7) Joseph: Investiture
Genesis 41:41-42 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. [42] Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Josephs hand, and arrayed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
[Donald] Redford . . . [analyzed] over forty scenes spanning from the reign of Thutmose III to the Twenty-first Dynasty (ca. 1479-950 B.C.). These scenes typically show the king sitting on a throne, often under a canopy, while the recipient stands before the monarch wearing a gold necklace and adorned in white linen. . . . An important diagnostic feature of investiture scenes is the presence of some sort of insignia of the new office (standard, staff, or seal). . . . (Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt, 91)
Huy, Viceroy of Cush under Tutankhamun . . . [is shown] receiving a rolled-up linen object along with a gold signet ring. (Hoffmeier, ibid., 92)
Of the Egyptian nature of the trappings for royal appointments to high office linen robe, gold collar, state seal, etc. there can be no doubt whatever. (Kitchen, 478). See: Joseph in Egypt, Archaeology, & Historiography.
8) Pitch for Baby Moses Basket?
[Moses birth and death dates, deduced by Kenneth Kitchen, are c. 1340-c. 1210 BC]
[see Ex 2:2-3]
I discovered an atheist making a claim that got me started on this lengthy excursion into biblical archaeology (thanks much!). He said, pitch was not available in Egypt at the time of Moses, but was in Sumeria. Even he conceded that it was available somewhere at the time. Bitumen and pitch are essentially synonymous terms (tar and asphalt also similarly used). Lo and behold, it turns out that bitumen was available in Egypt by trade at this time. A 1992 scientific article concluded:
This study is the first evidence of the trade and export of raw bitumens from the Dead Sea area within Canaan and to Egyptian trading centers on the mainland route to Egypt between 3900 and 2200 BC . . .
This study demonstrates that detailed organic geochemicalanalysis permits the identification in Maadi excavations(3900-3500 BC) in Egypt of asphalt imported from the DeadSea and enables the reconstruction of thebitumen trade routeswithin Canaan and to Egypt.
See: No Pitch / Bitumen in Moses Egypt? and Atheist Throws a Screwball Pitch (Part II of Pitch / Bitumen in Moses Egypt).
The same article also noted that bitumen is found in Egypt itself:
[A]sphalt is foundin only a few localities in Egypt(in oil springs at Jebel Zeit,termed Mons Petrolius by the Romans, or in sandstones atHelwan, south of Cairo; . . .
Our atheist friend had also wrongly concluded: Contrary to Moses [sic] account, bitumen does not exist in the Nile river or the Nile delta. Wrong! Helwan is part of Greater Cairo, on the bank of the Nile, and its delta begins just 12 miles north of Cairo (20 kilometers).
9) Hebrew Slaves in Pi-Ramesses
[see Gen 47:11; Ex 1:11; 12:37; Num 33:3, 5]
PharaohRamesses II (12791213 BC) built a new capital Pi-Ramesses at Qantir, near the old site ofAvaris on the then-easternmost branch of the Nile. Archaeology has determined that it had a population of over 300,000, and was 3.7 miles long by 1.9 miles wide. This Pelusiac branch of the Nile began silting up c. 1060 BC, leaving the city without water, at which time the capital was moved to Tanis, 12 miles away. Thus, the name used in the Bible fits the time period (roughly 210 years) perfectly. See: City of the Exodus (Pi-Ramesses), Bible, & Archaeology.
10) Hebrews Build Pithom
Exodus 1:11 . . . they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Ra-amses.
Archaeological consensus appears to be thatTell el-Retaba is the site of ancient Pithom. Wikipedia elaborates: Here was found a group of granite statues representing Ramesses II, two inscriptions namingPr-Itm (Temple of Atum), . . .
Polish-Slovakian excavators in 2017 concluded: In the 13th century BC, during the reign of Ramesses II, a fortress surrounded by Wall 1 was established.As for the biblical reference to store-cities the researchers described various structures on the site that would be consistent with that notion, such as stables for animals, granaries, burial chambers, and small silos.
Thus, we see that the Bible is dead-on accurate as to: 1) the name, 2) its function as a store-city, and 3) its being built (or technically, rebuilt / fortified) at the same time as the reign of Rameses. See: Moses Store-City Pithom & Archaeology.
11) Hebrew Slaves, Mud Bricks, and Straw
Exodus 5:6-8, 18-19 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, [7] You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves. [8] But the number of bricks which they made heretofore you shall lay upon them, you shall by no means lessen it; . . . [18] Go now, and work; for nostrawshall be given you, yet you shall deliver the same number ofbricks.[19] The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in evil plight, when they said, You shall by no means lessen your daily number ofbricks.
Straw (we know from archaeology) was added to the standard mud bricks in ancient Egypt because it reduced shrinkage and prevented cracking. About a halfpound of straw was needed per cubic foot of mud. A leather scroll from Ramesses IIs reign and a papyrus Merneptahs reign [1213-1203 BC] refer to brick making. According to the scroll, the daily quota was 2,000 mud bricks. See: Egyptian Mud Bricks and Straw: Bible = Archaeology.
12) How Many Hebrews Left Egypt in the Exodus?
[Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchens estimated date of the Exodus is c. 1260-1250 BC]
Several sources indicate that Pi-Ramesses had 300,000 people. One scholar (John Madden) estimated that slaves in Egypt were never more than 10% of the population. Madden cited other scholars who thought the number was closer to 13.5% (40,500), while physicist Colin Humphreys concluded (by analysis of odd use of numbers in the early books of the Bible, and the concurrence of three other credentialed Bible scholars) that the number leaving in the Exodus was 20,000 (6.7%). Averaging the three estimates, we get 30,167, or almost exactly one-tenth of the population of Pi-Ramesses (back to Maddens guesstimate). See: Archaeology: How Many Hebrew Slaves in Pi-Ramesses? (And Could 20,000 Nomadic Hebrews Survive in the Sinai Desert for Forty Years?)
The Bible refers to about 600,000 men leaving in the Exodus, which is really approximately two million people total. This has long been a loud skeptical objection to the Exodus story. As we have seen, this would be almost seven times the estimated population of the city they departed from. But if those numbers arent literal, the overall equation changes quite a bit, and the data fits nicely. See: How Many Israelites in the Exodus? On the question of biblical numerology, see also: 969-Year-Old Methuselah (?) & Genesis Numbers
13) How Could 20,000 Nomads Survive in the Sinai Peninsula?
They could. How do we know that? Its because we have an analogous group of peopletoday: the portion ofBedouins who are still nomadic: about 115,000 in the Negev Desert: the southern portion of Israel that is similar in topography and arid climate to the neighboring Sinai Peninsula. The Negev is 4700 square miles in area, whereas the Sinai Peninsula is 23,166 square miles, or 4.93 times larger. The ancient wandering Hebrews had 29 times more area to live in than the current-day Bedouins, in similar conditions and an estimated six times fewer people. This is a non-issue. See: Archaeology: How Many Hebrew Slaves in Pi-Ramesses? (And Could 20,000 Nomadic Hebrews Survive in the Sinai Desert for Forty Years?).
14) Quails in Sinai: Possible and Plausible Natural Explanation
[see Ex 16:11-13; Num 11:4-5, 13, 18-20, 31-34; Ps 78:26-31]
Kenneth Kitchen noted observable migration patterns of quail:
Twice on their travels (down to, and up from, Mount Sinai), the Israelites got involved with migrating quail. The first time, in the Desert of Sin (west coast; Exod. 16:13) [should be 16:1], quail alighted one spring evening [on the fifteenth day of the second month: also 16:1]; the second time, again in the spring (Num. 11:31-34; date, cf. second month, 10:11) [second month, on the twentieth day], a flight of quail was blown the few miles inland (up the seaward end of Wadi Sal?) and fell to the Israelites. It is a fact that quails do migrate via Sinai twice a year. They fly from farther south up to Europe in the spring, going through the Suez and Aqaba gulfs in the evenings (hence their presence on the Sinai Peninsulas west and east flanks then). (p. 273)
Thus, the Bible informs us that (again, positing a natural event):
1) quails migrate through theSinai Peninsula,
2) particularly along thecoastlines, and
3) they do soin the spring.
Season (down to the day) and specific places are both recorded. A map of quail distributionfrom theBirdlife International website, shows that one area is the west coast of the Sinai Peninsula (between the words Egypt and Israel on the map): precisely where the biblical accounts locate them. It involves scores of millions of birds every year. The secondHebrew monthisIyar, which usually falls into April-May of the Gregorian calendar.
Another article from Birdlife International(3-21-19) states that Having journeyed across the sea they fly low, heading for a place to rest . . This may coincide with the description of Numbers 11:31: a wind from the LORD,. . . brought quails from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp, . . . about two cubits above the face of the earth.Abiblical cubitis about 19-23 inches.
Thus, this passage could be saying that they were flying 38-46 inches above the ground (32 to 310), alongside the sea, as the article, says, looking for a place to pitch. If so, its yet another of innumerable examples of minute (in this case, botanical or ornithological) biblical accuracy, from about 3,300 years ago.
Scholars speculate as to what caused the very great plague resulting from eating quail, up to and including death (Num 11:33-34). Numbers 11:32 describes what seems to be a drying-out of the quail: they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. Before long, bacteria would develop; likely a variety of Salmonella, leading to severe sickness and even death. See: Quails, Wandering Hebrews, & Biblical Accuracy.
15) Location of Mt. Sinai
Jebel Musa (or Jabal Musa or Gebel Musa: Mount Moses) in the Sinai Peninsula is the leading candidate for the biblical Mt. Sinai. Jebel Musa and Ras es-Safsafeh sit at opposite ends of a three-mile long granite ridge. Ras es-Safsafeh (or Gebel Safsafeh or Willow Peak) also has much in its favor. Holman Bible Dictionary (Mount Sinai) states:
Ras es-Safsafeh (6,540 ft.) [lies] on the north, northeast of Jebel Musa. Many explorers think Ras es-Safsafeh is the biblical Sinai because it has a plain, er Rahah, on its northwest base, which is two miles long and about two thirds of a mile wide. This plain was certainly large enough to accommodate the camp of the Israelites.
The er-Rahah plain is adjacent to Ras es Safsafeh, not Gebel Musa. The Bible states that Israel camped therein front of the mountain (Ex 19:2, NRSV; cf. NIV, NASB, Moffatt, REB, Confraternity, NAB, Goodspeed: in front of; Amplified: at the base of; Knox: in full view of; NEB: opposite the mountain).
Secondly, the top of Ras es-Safsafeh, unlike that of Jebel Musa, can be seen from the plain, which the Bible requires:
Exodus 19:11 . . . on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Exodus 24:17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.
Thirdly, Jebel Musa has anindistinct border at its base, making it difficult to determinewhere it begins, so as to not be killed for touching it: as a matter of ritual impurity (Ex 19:12). Ras es-Safsafeh, on the other hand, rise abruptly and dramatically from the plain, much like El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. See: In Search of the Real Mt. Sinai (Fascinating Topographical and Biblical Factors Closely Examined)
16) Moses Wouldnt be Able to Write / Written Hebrew Didnt Exist in the 13th century BC (?)
Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen, armed with a mountain of relevant research, begs to differ with the usual skeptical / minimalist viewpoint:
[F]rom the fourteenth/thirteenth century onward, the [Canaanite] alphabet could be freely used for any form of communication. The contemporary north Semitic texts found at Ugarit in north Phoenicia illustrate this to perfection . . . the Amarna evidence [c. 1360-1332 BC] and handful of pottery finds prove clearly that Canaanite was the dominant local tongue and could be readily expressed in alphabetic writing . . . Thus we should consider a Moses or a Joshua writing on papyrus, skins, or even waxed tablets in alphabetic late Canaanite. (Kitchen, 304-305)
[T]he recently invented West Semitic alphabet [was] a vehicle deigned by and for Semitic speakers (and writers). The oldest known examples have been the Lachish dagger epigraph from a seventeenth century tomb and the Tell Nagila sherd (Middle/Late Bronze, ca. 1600); we now have also the Wadi Hol graffiti in Egypt from northwest of Thebes, about the seventeenth century. These oldest examples occur in homely, informal contexts, showing that it could be, and was, readily utilized by anyone who cared to do so, and not solely by government elites. To these must be added the proto-Sinaitic inscriptions of disputed date circa 1800 or circa 1500. This system of not more than thirty simple, semipictographic letters would have been very easy to use in writing up (on papyrus) a first written edition of the patriarchal traditions from Abraham to Jacob, to which a Joseph account could be added. This set of basic narratives could then be recopied from circa 1600 to the thirteenth century, then given a late Canaanite editing in that phase of the script, eventuating into early standard Hebrew language and script from the united monarchy [c. 1000 BC] onward. . . . This straightforward view is at least consistent with all the factualdata that we currently possess, and keeps theorizing to a minimum. (Kitchen, 370-371)
See: Archaeology, Ancient Hebrew, & a Written Pentateuch
17) Near Eastern Treaty-Type Covenants and the Sinai Covenant
Kenneth Kitchen wrote in his his article, Archaeology and the Hebrew Exodus:
At the heart of Exodus + Leviticus (and almost all of Deuteronomy) we have two exposs of a treaty-type covenant between Israel and its heavenly King, echoed also in Joshua 24. . . . From the ancient biblical world, between c. 2800 BC and Julius Caesar (46 BC), we have from the Near Eastover 100 examplesof such documents. Importantly, the formatvariesfrom age to age and that of Ex-Lev., Deut. & Jos 24 is consistent in all 3 casesexclusivelywith the forms current withinc.1350 toc. 1180 BC,and with no other period, earlier or later. In short, those three are contemporary with the dates of Moses and Joshua as now known, and neither earlier nor later. . . .
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Learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, was Moses, as Acts 7:22 so well puts it. As a foreigner at court, he surely was put to serve in the Egyptian foreign office (yes, the ancient Egyptians actually had one, that early in history!) There, he would be involved with treaties, laws, etc. And it is shown off to perfection in Ex-Lev. and Deut.
Exod. 2:10 notes the full adoption of the boy [Moses] by his princess patron; that implies his becoming a member of the ruling body of courtiers, officials, and attendants that served the pharaoh as his government leaders under the viziers, treasury chiefs, etc. . . .
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OT & Archaeology: 25 Fascinating Confirmations | Dave Armstrong - Patheos
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