He never ...

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Since I was looking at the ancient cities and cultures mentioned in the Bible, I guess the ones with ultimate significance would be those related to "ancient Israel". So that's where I focused next. Mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible, Jericho was the initial entry point into the "Promised Land" for the Israelite people. 1 Archaeology has now confirmed the location of this fortified city of walls and towers that guarded entry to the land of Canaan from the east.2 "Shechem" was also an important city throughout the Old Testament. In fact, King Jeroboam made it the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel in the 10th century BC. 3 Excavations have uncovered huge walls and a fortified gate system containing such important finds as the temple of Baal from the biblical story of Abimelech.4

Excavations in the north have also revealed the city of Dan, which was a Canaanite stronghold conquered by Israel (specifically, the tribe of Dan) around 1150 BC. 5 The rebuilt city, which became the northern boundary of Israel, has delivered a wealth of artifacts with biblical importance. 6 The southern boundary of Israel was Beersheba, which became a fortified city during the period of King Solomon. 7 Excavations between 1969 and 1976 have revealed massive walls, gates, wells and storehouses consistent with biblical accounts. 8 The ancient city of Jerusalem, dating to the time of King David's initial conquest, was discovered and excavated between 1978 and 1985. Prior to this time, nothing apart from the Bible was known about King David's Jerusalem, which has now revealed a palace, towers and the famous Siloam spring. 9 The ancient ruins of Gibeah were discovered about three miles north of Jerusalem. Gibeah was the home to Saul and the tribe of Benjamin, and later became King Saul's capital city. 10 Excavations have revealed Saul's fortress palace dated to about 1100 BC.11

Megiddo was a Canaanite city conquered by Israel in the north. It was a walled fortress that sat on a hill near an expansive plain that witnessed many battles of historical significance. In the 900s BC, King Solomon fortified the city, 12 and later in the 600s BC, King Josiah lost a battle to the Egyptians there. 13 Megiddo (also known as Armageddon) has now been extensively excavated, revealing such treasures as the Canaanite religious "high places" mentioned throughout the Old Testament.14

I was never disappointed! I found that the "archaeological evidence" for the ancient cities mentioned in the Bible was absolutely compelling. OK, but what about the evidence for the ancient Israelites themselves? Some scholars propose that the ancient Canaanites existed in these cities, but the Israelites didn't come on the scene until centuries after the Bible declares.

I continued my exploration of ancient Israel...

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Let's begin our look at Israel archaeology with the "Merneptah Stele" (also known as the Israel Stele), which is an upright stone slab measuring over seven feet tall that contains carved hieroglyphic text dating to approximately 1230 BC. This Egyptian monument describes the military victories of Pharaoh Merneptah and includes the earliest mention of "Israel" outside the Bible. Although the specific battles covered by the stele are not included in the Bible, the stele establishes outside evidence that the Israelites were already living as a people in ancient Canaan by 1230 BC. 1 In addition to the Stele, a large wall picture was discovered in the great Karnak Temple of Luxor (ancient Thebes), which shows battle scenes between the Egyptians and Israelites. These scenes have also been attributed to Pharaoh Merneptah and date to approximately 1209 BC. 2 The Karnak Temple also contains records of Pharaoh Shishak's military victories about 280 years later. Specifically, the "Shishak Relief" depicts Egypt's victory over King Rehoboam in about 925 BC, when Solomon's Temple in Judah was plundered. 3 This is the exact event mentioned in two books of the Old Testament. 4

Outside Egypt, we also discover a wealth of evidence for the early Israelites. The "Moabite Stone" (Mesha Stele) is a three-foot stone slab discovered near Dibon, east of the Dead Sea that describes the reign of Mesha, King of Moab, around 850 BC. 5 According to the Book of Genesis, the Moabites were neighbors of the Israelites. 6 This stele covers victories by King Omri and King Ahab of Israel against Moab, and Mesha's later victories on behalf of Moab against King Ahab's descendants. 7 The "Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser" is a seven-foot, four-sided pillar of basalt that describes the victories of King Shalmaneser III of Assyria, including defeats of Tyre, Sidon and "Jehu, Son of Omri." Dated to about 841 BC, the Obelisk (now in the British Museum) was discovered in the Northwest Palace at Nimrud and shows Israel's King Jehu kneeling before the Assyrian king in humble tribute. 8

OK, everything I found establishes that the ancient Israelites did in fact exist. However, there's a big difference between historic generalities and the specific people and events mentioned in the Bible. For instance, King David and his son, Solomon, are huge parts of Jewish history in the Old Testament. Shouldn't we find archaeology in Israel to support for their reigns and activities as well?

In one of the books I picked up, I was surprised to read that the historical David never existed. Another article I read referred to the well-established "David Myth" -- a literary invention drawn from heroic tradition to establish the Jewish monarchy...

Kathleen Kenyon, a very credible archaeologist I came to trust and enjoy, declared:

To many people it seems remarkable that David and Solomon still remain unknown outside the Old Testament or literary sources derived directly from it. No extra-biblical inscription, either from Palestine or from a neighboring country, has yet been found to contain a reference to them. 9
Well, I guess we don't have to find archaeological evidence for every person and place mentioned in the Bible, but David was huge to me. I discovered he's mentioned 1,048 times in the Bible -- the subject of 62 chapters and the writer of probably 73 Psalms in the Old Testament. Boy, I really wanted to see some evidence for that guy...

Guess what? Since Kenyon made the above statement in roughly 1987, the validity of the ancient biblical record regarding King David received a huge lift!

In 1993, archaeologists discovered a stone inscription at the ancient city of Dan, which refers to the "House of David." The "House of David Inscription" (Tel Dan Inscription) is the first ancient reference to King David outside the Bible. 10 Specifically, the stone is a victory pillar of a King in Damascus dated a couple hundred years after David's reign, which mentions a "king of Israel of the House of David." Over the next year, more inscription pieces were discovered at the site, which allowed archaeologists to reconstruct the entirety of the declaration: "I killed Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel and I killed Ahaziahu son of Jehoram king of the House of David." Remarkably, these are Jewish leaders linked to the lineage of David as recorded in the Bible. 11

The archaeology of Israel was proving powerful!

1 Price, The Stones Cry Out, 145-146. Hoerth, Archaeology and the Old Testament, 228-229.
2 Hoerth, Archaeology and the Old Testament, 230.
3 Ibid., 301-302.
4 1 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles 12.
5 Hoerth, Archaeology and the Old Testament, 308-310.
6 Genesis 19.
7 2 Kings 3.
8 Hoerth, Archaeology and the Old Testament, 321-22. See also, 2 Kings 9-10. 9 Kathleen Kenyon, The Bible and Recent Archaeology, rev. ed., John Knox Press, 1987, 85.
10 Price, The Stones Cry Out, 166-67.
11 Ibid. 167-72.

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Septuagint - What is It?
Septuagint (sometimes abbreviated LXX) is the name given to the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures. The Septuagint has its origin in Alexandria, Egypt and was translated between 300-200 BC. Widely used among Hellenistic Jews, this Greek translation was produced because many Jews spread throughout the empire were beginning to lose their Hebrew language. The process of translating the Hebrew to Greek also gave many non-jews a glimpse into Judaism. According to an ancient document called the Letter of Aristeas, it is believed that 70 to 72 Jewish scholars were commissioned during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus to carry out the task of translation. The term “Septuagint” means seventy in Latin, and the text is so named to the credit of these 70 scholars.

Septuagint - Influence on Christianity
The Septuagint was also a source of the Old Testament for early Christians during the first few centuries AD. Many early Christians spoke and read Greek, thus they relied on the Septuagint translation for most of their understanding of the Old Testament. The New Testament writers also relied heavily on the Septuagint, as a majority of Old Testament quotes cited in the New Testament are quoted directly from the Septuagint (others are quoted from the Hebrew texts). Greek church fathers are also known to have quoted from the Septuagint. Even today, the Eastern Orthodox Church relies on the Septuagint for its Old Testament teachings. Some modern Bible translations also use the Septuagint along side Hebrew manuscripts as their source text.

Septuagint - What Does It Contain?
The Septuagint contains the standard 39 books of the Old Testament canon, as well as certain apocryphal books. The term "Apocrypha" was coined by the fifth-century biblical scholar, Jerome, and generally refers to the set of ancient Jewish writings written during the period between the last book in the Jewish scriptures, Malachi, and the arrival of Jesus Christ. The apocryphal books include Judith, Tobit, Baruch, Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), the Wisdom of Solomon, First and Second Maccabees, the two Books of Esdras, additions to the Book of Esther, additions to the Book of Daniel, and the Prayer of Manasseh.

The Apocryphal books were included in the Septuagint for historical and religious purposes, but are not recognized by Protestant Christians or Orthodox Jews as canonical (inspired by God). Most reformed teachers will point out that the New Testament writers never quoted from the Apocryphal books, and that the Apocrypha was never considered part of the canonical Jewish scripture. However, the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches include the Apocrypha in their Bible (except for the books of Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh).

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Biblical Prophecy: Divine Inspiration?
Biblical Prophecy is evidence Christians hold to validate the Bible's claims of Divine inspiration. Is this authentic evidence or an illegitimate claim to bolster Christianity? Prophecy is defined as a Divine declaration of events yet to pass. As natural man is unable to foresee future events, prophecy would be an acceptable evidence of Divine inspiration. The Bible, written by at least 40 authors over a period of at least 1,500 years, is comprised of 66 books. These 66 books claim to contain over 1,000 Divinely inspired prophecies. We will examine a few...

Biblical Prophecy: Ezekiel 26
One example of Biblical Prophecy is found in the Book of Ezekiel. Chapter 26 of the Book of Ezekiel claims to have been written in 586 BC, the 11th year of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah. On nine separate occasions throughout the chapter, the writer claims to have been inspired by God with statements such as "thus says the Lord GOD." The text describes the fall of mainland Tyre to the armies of Nebuchadnezzar the following year. It further describes the events of Alexander the Great's siege against the island fortress of Tyre (a half mile off the coast of mainland Tyre) 253 years later. The chapter describes how the invaders would tear down the ruins of mainland Tyre and throw it into the sea. That they would "scrape her dust from her and leave her as the top of a rock" (v4). That "they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water" (v12). "I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets" (v14). Secular history records that Alexander the Great laid siege to the island fortress of Tyre in 332 BC. His army demolished mainland Tyre and threw it into the sea. In their effort to construct a causeway to the island, they scraped even the dust, leaving only bare rock. Historian Phillip Myers in his history textbook, General History for Colleges and High Schools (Boston, Ginn & Co.), writes, "Alexander the Great reduced Tyre to ruins in 332 BC. Tyre recovered in a measure from this blow, but never regained the place she had previously held in the world. The larger part of the site of the once great city is now as bare as the top of a rock -- a place where the fishermen that still frequent the spot spread their nets to dry" (pg.55). The fate of mainland Tyre was accomplished as foretold in the book of Ezekiel.

Biblical Prophecy: The Book of Daniel
Another example of Biblical Prophecy is found in the Book of Daniel. Because of the stunning foresight found within the Book of Daniel, it is claimed by its critics to have been written after the events it describes. For example, chapter 11 describes in such detail the interactions between the Ptolemies and the Selucids from the death of Alexander the Great to the rise of the Roman Empire, that critics insist it must have been written after 160 BC. However, Flavius Josephus, court historian for three successive Roman Emperors, records (Antiquities of the Jews XI, viii, 3-5) Alexander the Great receiving a copy of Daniel upon his annexation of Jerusalem in the autumn of 332 BC (immediately following his conquest of Tyre). Furthermore, the Septuagint (LXX) was translated from Hebrew into Greek in the 3rd century BC. Daniel is included in the Septuagint version. Daniel is also included in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is dated from about 200 BC.

Biblical Prophecy: Daniel 9:25
A most compelling Biblical Prophecy is found in Daniel, chapter 9, verse 25. Written 500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ (the oldest preserved copy dating 200 years before the birth of Christ), it foretells the very day Christ would enter Jerusalem. The prophecy states: 69 weeks of years (69 x 7 = 483 years) would pass from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, until the coming of the Messiah. This is according to the Babylonian 360-day calendar, since Daniel was written in Babylon during the Jewish captivity after the fall of Jerusalem. Thus, 483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days. According to records found by Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson in the Shushan (Susa) Palace, and confirmed in Nehemiah 2:1, this decree was made on March 14th, 445 BC, by Artaxerxes Longimanus. Exactly 173,880 days later, on April 6th, 32 AD, Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem upon a colt (fulfilling the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9). The world celebrates this day as Palm Sunday. Four days later, Christ was murdered upon the cross. Actually, the form of His execution and even His last words were foretold in Psalm 22. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, fulfilling numerous other prophecies of our Messiah

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Septuagint - Is it a Reliable Translation?
Since the Septuagint is a translation, scholars speculate if it accurately reflects the Hebrew scriptures of the 2nd century BC. A close examination of the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text (the early Hebrew text of the Old Testament) show slight variations. Were these errors in translation, or are the Septuagint and Masoretic Text based on slightly different Hebrew manuscripts? The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has helped to shed light on this question. Discovered in the Qumran region near the Dead Sea beginning in 1947, these scrolls are dated to as early as 200 BC and contain parts of every book in the Old Testament except Esther. Comparisons of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint show that where there are differences between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, approximately 95% of those differences are shared between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic text, while only 5% of those differences are shared between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint. Does this mean that the Septuagint is unreliable and that our Old Testament is wrought with contradictory sources? No. It is imperative to note that these “variations” are extremely minor (i.e., grammatical errors, spelling differences or missing words) and do not affect the meaning of sentences and paragraphs. (An exception is the book of Jeremiah, in which the actual passages are arranged differently.) None of the differences, however, come close to affecting any area of teaching or doctrine. The majority of the Septuagint, Masoretic Text and the Dead Sea Scrolls are remarkably similar and have dispelled unfounded theories that the Biblical text has been corrupted by time and conspiracy. Furthermore, these variations do not call into question the infallibility of God in preserving His word. Although the original documents are inerrant, translators and scribes are human beings and are thus prone to making slight errors in translation and copying (Hebrew scribal rules attest to how exacting scribes were). Even then, the Bible has redundancy built into its text, and anything significant is told more than once. If grammatical mistakes were introduced that makes a point unclear, it would be clarified in several other places in scripture.

Septuagint - Dramatic Evidence for the Credibility of Messianic Prophecy
The Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls establish a very dramatic piece of evidence for Christianity – that the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah unquestionably predated the time that Jesus Christ walked the earth. All theories of 1st Century AD conspiracies and prophecy manipulation go out the door when we realize that prophetic scripture like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 were fixed in written form at least 100 years before Christ, and probably many more. Again, despite time, persecution, and the incredibly minor instances of scribal mistakes, the Septuagint is just another example of how the Biblical text has remained faithful in its message and theme. The Holy Bible is truly a divinely inspired and preserved letter from God that is deserving of our time and attention.

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

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The history of the Bible starts with a phenomenal account of history! It's not one book like I always thought -- It's an ancient collection of writings, comprised of 66 separate books, written over approximately 1,600 years, by at least 40 distinct authors. The Old Testament contains 39 books written from approximately 1500 to 400 BC, and the New Testament contains 27 books written from approximately 40 to 90 AD. The Jewish Bible (Tanakh) is the same as the Christian Old Testament, except for its book arrangement. The original Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew, with some Aramaic, while the original New Testament was written in common Greek.

The history of the "Bible" begins with the Jewish Scriptures. The historical record of the Jews was written down on leather scrolls and tablets over centuries, and the authors included kings, shepherds, prophets and other leaders. The first five books are called the Law, which were written and/or edited primarily by Moses in the early 1400's BC. Thereafter, other scriptural texts were written and collected by the Jewish people during the next 1,000 years. About 450 BC, the Law and the other Jewish Scriptures were arranged by councils of rabbis (Jewish teachers), who then recognized the complete set as the inspired and sacred authority of God (Elohim). At some time during this period, the books of the Hebrew Bible were arranged by topic, including The Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nebiim), and the Writings (Ketubim). The first letters of these Hebrew words - T, N and K -- form the name of the Hebrew Bible - the Tanakh.

Beginning as early as 250 BC, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek by Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt. This translation became known as the "Septuagint", meaning 70, and referring to the tradition that 70 (probably 72) men comprised the translation team. It was during this process that the order of the books was changed to the order we have in today's Bible: Historical (Genesis - Esther), poetic (Job - Song of Songs), and prophetic (Isaiah - Malachi).

Although the Jewish Scriptures were copied by hand, they were extremely accurate copy to copy. The Jews had a phenomenal system of scribes, who developed intricate and ritualistic methods for counting letters, words and paragraphs to insure that no copying errors were made. These scribes dedicated their entire lives to preserving the accuracy of the holy books. A single copy error would require the immediate destruction of the entire scroll. In fact, Jewish scribal tradition was maintained until the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400's AD. As far as manuscript accuracy, the recent discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has confirmed the remarkable reliability of this scribal system over thousands of years (I'll get back to the Dead Sea Scrolls later).

After approximately 400 years of scriptural silence, Jesus arrived on the scene in about 4 BC. Throughout his teaching, Jesus often quotes the Old Testament, declaring that he did not come to destroy the Jewish Scriptures, but to fulfill them. In the Book of Luke, Jesus proclaims to his disciples, "all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me."

Starting in about 40 AD, and continuing to about 90 AD, the eye-witnesses to the life of Jesus, including Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter and Jude, wrote the Gospels, letters and books that became the Bible's New Testament. These authors quote from 31 books of the Old Testament, and widely circulate their material so that by about 150 AD, early Christians were referring to the entire set of writings as the "New Covenant." During the 200s AD, the original writings were translated from Greek into Latin, Coptic (Egypt) and Syriac (Syria), and widely disseminated as "inspired scripture" throughout the Roman Empire (and beyond). In 397 AD, in an effort to protect the scriptures from various heresies and offshoot religious movements, the current 27 books of the New Testament were formally and finally confirmed and "canonized" in the Synod of Carthage.

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Well, I discovered that Bible prophecy took care of this! I found that the Bible itself declares the test for divine inspiration! The test is established as 100% fulfilled "prophecy".1

In all candor, when I read this, I kind of laughed… Yeah right… this is the test of the tabloid press too... Whenever a major world event happens, people love the hype of prophecy and urban legend. The tabloids love to showcase the ancient (and not-so-ancient) prophecies of "Nostradamus", Jean Dixon, "Edgar Cayce", and the Bible... Why was the Bible lumped together with all that goofiness…? These so-called prophets get one thing right, and the public could care less about all their other predictive failures. What a game ...

Wait. The Bible declares that its test for supernatural inspiration is 100% fulfilled "prophecy". That means no predictive failures whatsoever. Wow, that's really remarkable. 100%. No misses. I really had to absorb that. Would the multi-billion dollar gambling and lottery industries exist today if people could legitimately and consistently tell the future? Of course not. Maybe this prophecy thing wasn't as laughable as I first thought.

OK, I guess the power in the Bible's 100% fulfillment standard is directly proportional to the number of prophecies declared in the Bible. Obviously, 100% of two isn't that staggering ... I decided to carefully and honestly study Bible prophecy ...

With the help of some study aides, I discovered over 1,000 prophecies in the Bible. Of those, an astonishing 668 of them have been fulfilled and none have ever proven false (three seem to be unconfirmed). The others focus on events that are supposed to take place in the future. Come on! These must be generalized, self-fulfilling predictions that find their fulfillment within the pages of the same book. One religious zealot writes a prediction (God will do something specific and dramatic) and another writes the fulfillment (God did something specific and dramatic). The predictions and fulfillments are confined to the pages of the same "holy book." Not too meaningful... Where's the outside support? What does secular history say, if anything, about these events?

I decided to take a hard, calculated look at some of the "Bible prophecy" that was connected to verifiable history …

1 Deuteronomy 18:20:22. See also, Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and 2 Peter 1:20-21.

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I started a notebook and looked for "Bible prophecies fulfilled" in history...

The Decree of Cyrus

In about 700 BC, Isaiah names Cyrus as the king who will allow the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild its Temple. 1 At the time of this prophecy, there was no king named Cyrus and the Temple in Jerusalem was totally built and in full operation.

In 586 BC, more than 100 years later, the Babylonian King "Nebuchadnezzar" sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. The Jews living in Jerusalem were either killed or taken captive to Babylon. 2 In about 539 BC, the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persians. Shortly thereafter, a Persian king named Cyrus issued a formal decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. 3 This decree is confirmed by secular archaeology in the form of a stone cylinder that details many events of Cyrus' reign, including the decree to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. 4

Remarkably, Isaiah predicted that a man named Cyrus, who would not be born for about a hundred years, would give a decree to rebuild a city and a temple, which were still standing and fully active at the time!

I had to check more of these out…! Are there more Bible prophecies fulfilled in history...?

The City of Tyre

In 586 BC (confirmed by secular sources as the 11th year of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah), "Ezekiel" predicts the fall of mainland Tyre to the Babylonian armies of Nebuchadnezzar. 5 The text further describes the siege against the island fortress of Tyre (a half mile off the coast of mainland Tyre) hundreds of years later. Ezekiel's prophecy describes how the future invaders would tear down the ruins of mainland Tyre and throw them into the sea. They would "scrape her dust from her and leave her as the top of a rock". 6 "They will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water." "I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets." 7

Secular history records that Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the great mainland city of Tyre about a year after Ezekiel's prophecy. The Encyclopedia Britannica says: "After a 13-year siege (585-573 BC) by Nebuchadnezzar II, Tyre made terms and acknowledged Babylonian suzerainty." 8 When Nebuchadnezzar broke through the city gates, he found it nearly empty. Most of the people had moved by ship to an island about a half mile off the coast and fortified a city there. The mainland city was destroyed in 573 BC (Ezekiel's first prediction), but the city of Tyre on the island remained a powerful city for several hundred years.

Secular history next records that "Alexander the Great" laid siege to the island fortress of Tyre in 332 BC. His army destroyed the remains of mainland Tyre and threw them into the Mediterranean Sea. As Alexander's army constructed a causeway to the island, they scraped even the dust from the mainland city, leaving only bare rock. Historian Phillip Myers in his history textbook, General History for Colleges and High Schools, writes, "Alexander the Great reduced Tyre to ruins in 332 BC. Tyre recovered in a measure from this blow, but never regained the place she had previously held in the world. The larger part of the site of the once great city is now as bare as the top of a rock -- a place where the fishermen that still frequent the spot spread their nets to dry." 9

Wow, this was dramatic stuff - I had no idea…

The City of Samaria

The prophets Hosea (748 - 690 BC) and Micah (738 - 690 BC) each predicted the destruction of Samaria, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Not only did these prophets predict violence and destruction, but they declared that this great city would become "as a heap in the field," with its stones poured down into the valley, and vineyards planted in place of its great walls, with even the foundations being removed. 10

History tells us that Sargon took Samaria by the sword in 722 BC. Later, Alexander took the city violently in 331 BC, as did Hyrcanus in 120 BC. What's remarkable is not the violent demise of Samaria and its people, but rather, some of the historic specifics of what then happened to that once great city.

Reactions upon visiting the ancient spot have been recorded for centuries. In 1697, Henry Maundrell declared: "This great city is now wholly converted into gardens, and all the tokens that remain to testify that there has ever been such a place, are only on the north side…" Floyd Hamilton continues: "To-day the top of the hill where Samaria stood is a cultivated field with the foundations of the columns marking the place where the palaces and mansions stood. At the foot of the hill, in the valley, lie the foundation stones of the city …" 11 Finally, from Van de Velde:

Her foundations discovered, her streets ploughed up, and covered with corn fields and olive gardens… Samaria has been destroyed, but her rubbish has been thrown down into the valley; her foundation stones, those grayish ancient quadrangular stones of the time of Omri and Ahab, are discovered, and lie scattered about on the slope of the hill. 12
I read prophecy after prophecy …

I read them closely and let them sink in …

I took notes and collected excerpts and articles …

I was fascinated with the probabilities of these Bible prophecies being fulfilled …

1 Isaiah 44:28; 54:1
2 McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 2, 346
3 2 Chronicles 36:22-23
4 McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 2, 347
5 Ezekiel 26
6 Ezekiel 26:4
7 Ezekiel 26:12, 14
8 43/xxii 452
9 Phillip Myers, General History for Colleges and High Schools, Boston, Ginn & Co., 2003, 55
10 Hosea 13:16 and Micah 1:6
11 McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, 282
12 Ibid., 283

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The power of prophecy is illustrated in the classic book, Science Speaks. In it, Peter Stoner reviews some of the historical prophecies of the Old Testament, including Babylon, Tyre, Samaria, Gaza-Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Palestine, Moab-Ammon, and Petra-Edom. He uses peer-reviewed mathematical analysis and principles of probability to conclude:

No human being has ever made predictions which hold any comparison to those we have considered, and had them accurately come true. The span of time between the writing of these prophecies and their fulfillment is so great that the most severe critic cannot claim that the predictions were made after the events happened.1
For me, these historical prophecies weren't a tabloid lark… They weren't a contrivance ... They weren't an after-the-fact hoax ... They were absolutely legitimate.

As I reviewed my notes, I was truly excited, yet somehow uneasy with the power of prophecy...

As I studied these predictions, I couldn't deny a recurring theme in the Old Testament ...

Who was this predicted "Messiah" (Shiloh) mentioned as far back as the Book of Genesis? 2

Who was this coming "Ruler" that the prophet Micah said would be born in Bethlehem, yet preexisted time itself? 3

Who was this "Immanuel" (literally, "God-with-us") who the prophet Isaiah declared would be born of a virgin? 4

Who was this "Redeemer" that Job said would come to save him and the world from death? 5

Who was this prophesied "Son" that would be referred to as "Wonderful," "Counselor," "Mighty God," and the "Prince of Peace?" 6

For me, the biblical test of prophecy came through! Intellectually, I had no choice but to accept the facts -- the fulfilled prophecies of the Old Testament authenticate its inspiration from outside our time dimension. There was no other logical conclusion ... as hard as I tried to find one!

But what about all those predictions of a coming Jewish "Messiah" (Savior) found throughout a number of books in the Old Testament? What was I to make of them? Did I really need to deal with those as part of my prophecy analysis?

I was so uneasy with what the Old Testament was revealing to me that I went out and purchased an English version of the Hebrew Tanakh. I figured that some of these predictions had to be after-the-fact insertions by non-Jews. I decided to go "right to the source" and clear this up ...

Guess what? The same "Messianic" "predictions" were there in the Jewish Scriptures -- plain as day ...

The power of prophecy was real to me, and my heart was truly uneasy ... I needed to slow myself down ... I needed to retreat to my intellect again ...

I went back to my original list of questions and issues in my notebook ...

1 Peter Stoner, Science Speaks: An Evaluation of Certain Christian Evidences, Moody Press, 1963, 115http://www.geocities.com/stonerdon/science_speaks.html#c8
2 Genesis 49:10
3 Micah 5:2
4 Isaiah 7:14
5 Job 19:25
6 Isaiah 9:6

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OK, prophecy aside, what about all those Bible contradictions and textual inaccuracies? If this is some kind of special book from God, how can I reconcile an imperfect Bible with a supposedly perfect source?

The alleged inaccuracies and errors in today's Bible translations were a major intellectual barrier for me -- so I decided to dive into that argument for awhile… When I started this journey, I hadn't read much of the Bible yet. However, I still maintained a "list" of "Bible contradictions" to help substantiate why I totally rejected it! It was time for me to pull out that list again ...

To be fair, I knew I needed to analyze my list of alleged Bible errors according to traditional rules of logic and reason. Like many things in life, certain facts can appear contradictory, but further investigation reveals something different. "The Law of Non-Contradiction," which is the basis of all logical reasoning, maintains that something cannot be "a" and "non-a" at the same time. For instance, it can't be day and night at the same time and at the same place. Therefore, if a biblical scripture violates this Law, it has been established as a contradiction. However, based on the same Law, two statements can differ without being in contradiction.

For example, one witness in a court case might testify that he saw two people at a crime scene, Jake and Sam, while another witness may only testify to seeing Sam. These statements are not contradictory. In fact, in a court of law, these statements could be considered complementary.

I quickly discovered that this is the nature of many of the alleged contradictions in the Bible. For instance, in Matthew, we read that Jesus met two blind men. In Mark and Luke, we read about Jesus meeting only one blind man. 1 In Matthew and Mark, we read that Jesus went to pray alone three times in the Garden of Gethsemane, whereas, in Luke, we read that Jesus went alone to pray on one occasion. 2 Under legal rules of evidence and the Law of Non-Contraction, these aren't contradictory scriptures, and yet they made my list.

Some "Bible contradictions" appear contradictory solely because of the intricacies of Bible translation. Analysis of the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament) can solve many apparent issues. It's no different than any other textual review of translated material. All languages (including especially Hebrew and Greek) have special limitations and nuances that cause difficulty in translation. The historical context of the translation can also cause some misunderstanding.

For instance, the Book of Acts has two accounts of Paul's conversion on the Road to Damascus. In Acts 9:7: "…the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man." In Acts 22:9: "…they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me" (King James Version). At first glance, these accounts seem contradictory -- one says that Paul's companions heard a voice, while the other says that no voice was heard. However, the Greek text solves the matter. "The construction of the verb 'to hear' (akouo) is not the same in both accounts. In Acts 9:7 it's used with the genitive, in Acts 22:9 with the accusative. The construction with the genitive simply expresses that something is being heard or that certain sounds reach the ear; nothing is indicated as to whether a person understands what he hears or not. The construction with the accusative, however, describes a hearing, which includes mental apprehension of the message spoken. From this it becomes evident that the two passages are not contradictory." 3 Therefore, Acts 22:9 doesn't deny that Paul's companions heard certain sounds; it simply says that they didn't understand the sounds that they heard.

As I continued to pick apart my list, I was actually embarrassed with myself. Sure, there are a few inconsequential names and numbers in the Bible that must be considered copyist errors that arose over thousands of years. However, I was able to logically explain every alleged inconsistency of any real significance on my list.

I hadn't even checked this stuff out! I called myself an intellectual skeptic, and yet I hadn't treated this matter with much credibility. Sadly, I had rejected the Bible by focusing on a little list of "alleged Bible contradictions". Yet, when presented with the miracle of the Bible's structure, survival, integration, historical veracity, archaeological evidence, scientific insights, outside corroborating records, and hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, I stubbornly looked the other way. Now, the double standard I was living started to reveal itself to me!
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I actually stopped reading (or even thinking) for about a week ...

I had no where else to go ...

What was I going to do with all of these "new realities" in my life ...?

What was I going to do with those Old Testament prophecies of a coming Messiah ...?

1 Matthew 9:27-31; Mark 8:22-26 and Luke 18:35-43
2 Matthew 26:36-46 and Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46
3 W.F. Arndt, Does the Bible Contradict Itself?, 13-14