Why We Believe the Bible by Amos R. Wells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 4, 1910

Why We Believe the Bible

By Amos R. Wells

Proof of the Bible From Archeology

What is the value of the proof of the Bible from archeology?

THE discovery of records on stone, clay, or paper, that have lain buried for ages, carries us back to the very times of which the Bible speaks. So far as these records go, their testimony can not be doubted. It is as if Rameses, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus should rise from the dead, and confirm the accuracy of Scripture. Let us study a few specimens of archeological discoveries, that we may see in what way they prove the Bible:—

What is the Code of Hammurabi?

It is the most remarkable discovery ever made bearing on the Bible. It was found in December, 1901, and January, 1902, by the French archeologist, M. de Morgan, who was making excavations in Susa, in Persia (the Shushan of Esther). He discovered a mass of black diorite eight feet high, six feet in circumference at the base, and five feet at the top. It is now in the Louvre, in Paris. Upon this monument are more than 3,600 lines of inscriptions, setting forth 248 laws formulated by Hammurabi, king of Babylon, about 2250 B. C. He was the Amraphel of Gen. 14:1, who joined with five other kings in the capture of Sodom, and from whom Abraham afterward wrested the booty, including Lot and the other captives. These laws are arranged in a very systematic way, and cover a large number of subjects relating to both person and property. Though written in the time of Abraham, they show that courts and a high state of civilization existed in Babylonia for centuries before his day.

How does this discovery tend to prove the Bible?

It had been held that the laws of the Pentateuch could not have been written by Moses, because they belonged to a state of civilization centuries after his time. Indeed, for a long time it was believed by skeptics that Moses and the men of his day did not even know how to write, and had no books. The Code of Hammurabi shows us a civilization as far developed as that of the Pentateuch existing a thousand years before Moses. The resemblances between the two sets of laws are in many parts so close as to show common customs of the two nations, or else some indirect or direct knowledge of Hammurabi’s code on the part of Moses. The immense superiority of the Bible, however, is shown by the fact that, as Professor Price says, “The Hammurabi laws look rather at the external act, while the Pentateuch regards the inner thoughts, feelings, and desires.” This is the element of inspiration.

What are the Tel-el-Amarna tablets?

They are more than three hundred tablets made of baked clay, found in 1887 by a peasant woman at the village of Tel-el-Amarna on the Nile, about one hundred seventy miles south of Cairo. They proved to be cuneiform inscriptions in the Babylonian language, and are a series of letters written to two Egyptian kings about 1400 B. C., by the governors of Syria, Palestine, Phenicia, and Philistia, and the kings of Assyria and Babylonia.

How do the Tel-el-Amarna tablets help to prove the Bible?

They show that Palestine was then tributary to Egypt, but that it had been for a long time previously a province of Babylonia. They show that Palestine was at that time (when the Hebrews were captives in Egypt) in a greatly disturbed state, and among the enemies of the Canaanites is named a people called Khabiri,—probably the Babylonian equivalent of “Hebrew,”—some part of the Hebrew race. In such a state the country would be far more easily taken by the Hebrews under Joshua. The letters contain the name Jerusalem, which was not known to have been in use at that early date.

What is the Black Obelisk?

It is a famous monument of black marble, now in the British Museum. It was cut in the reign of Shalmaneser II, king of Assyria, B. C. 860-825. A series of sculptured pictures shows men of different nations bringing tribute to Shalmaneser, and among them are a file of Jews. The inscription says that these came from Jehu, whose career as king of Israel is fully set forth in the Bible.

How does this discovery help to prove the Bible?

This monument, with other Assyrian records of the time that have been deciphered, describes the wars that were waged by Assyria with Syria, and shows how Syria was a buffer state for Israel, and how the Assyrian defeat of Syria left Israel free to expand and become strong. This furnishes a perfect explanation of much in the history of the northern kingdom that the Bible does not stop to unfold, and it all fits in perfectly with the record in Kings and Chronicles.

What is the Moabite Stone?

It is a large slab of black basalt, now in the Louvre. It was found in ancient Moab, east of the Dead Sea, and was cut in the reign of Mesha, king of Moab, about 850 B. C. The stone is a tribute to Chemosh, the Moabite deity, and the inscription relates how he became angry with his people, and allowed Omri, king of Israel, to conquer them, and exact from them a large annual tribute. After the death of Ahab, the Moabites revolted, and won back their independence.

How does the Moabite Stone help to prove the Bible?

In language and literary style it comes very close to the Bible, and reads like a chapter from Kings or Chronicles. It refers to Jehovah, illustrates a number of details of the Bible, and perfectly harmonizes with what the Bible tells us about the relations between Moab and her Hebrew neighbors.

What are the Egyptian discoveries of the times of the Hebrew bondage?

The mummy of Rameses II, the Pharaoh of the bondage, has been found. The city of Pithom has been discovered, and the actual storehouses built by the Hebrew slaves, the lower portion built of bricks containing straw, but most of them being made of bricks without straw. We also have the mummy of Menephtah II, the Pharaoh of the Exodus. We possess a hymn of victory addressed to him and mentioning Israel. It is probable also that the inscriptions show the death of his son, while yet young, in the last of the plagues.

How do these Egyptian discoveries confirm the Bible record?

They all fit in perfectly with the Bible account. Other researches show the location of Goshen, where the Hebrews lived, and the line of boundary forts that turned the escaping host of slaves down

to the Red Sea. The Bible harmonizes with all that is known of Egyptian civilization.

How do discoveries regarding the Hittites confirm the Bible?

There are in the Bible many references to the Hittites, and they are pictured as a considerable nation. Until recently nothing was known of this nation except what the Bible tells us, and therefore some scholars denied that there ever was such a people. But now the records of Egypt and Assyria show us the Hittites as a people that for nearly seven centuries was one of the greatest in the world, occupying northern Syria and southern Asia Minor. In that region there have been discovered many of the ruins of Hittite buildings, and many of their crude rock carvings, together with inscriptions in strange hieroglyphics that have not yet been deciphered.

What are the Oxyrhynchus papyri?

They are very ancient manuscripts, on the brittle papyrus, found recently in a low mound near the Nile in the Libyan desert of Egypt. Among these is a fragment of a book of sayings of Jesus. The scholars conclude that it was written at some time between A. D. 100 and A. D. 150, very close to the time when the Gospels were written. Some of these sayings are also in the Gospels, and some, like the saying quoted by Paul in Acts 20:35, are not recorded by the evangelists.

What other archeological discoveries are important as confirming the Bible?

They are so many that they can only be indicated roughly. The ruins of Abraham’s birthplace, Ur of the Chaldees, have been found. We have portraits of some of the Canaanites whom Joshua fought. We have Shishak’s sculptured account of his campaign against Rehoboam, the images of captives bearing the names of Gaza, Adullam, Ajalon, Gibeon, Shunem, and perhaps Jerusalem. We have Tiglath-pileser’s records mentioning Uzziah, Ahaz, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea, five kings of Judah and Israel. We have Sargon’s account of his capture of Samaria, and Sennacherib’s history of his invasion of Palestine, mentioning King Hezekiah. Manasseh is mentioned in an Assyrian list of tributaries. Belshazzar, whose existence was so long denied by the skeptics, because he was not named outside the Bible, is recorded in the Babylonian inscriptions as being the son of King Nabonidus and coregent with him. The unearthing of Nineveh has proved its vast extent, and the extrication of the palace of Susa from the dust of ages has confirmed the book of Esther. These and many other discoveries have not only proved the Bible correct at definite points, but they have authenticated the whole trend of Bible narrative, and every year they are explaining what had not been understood in the Bible, and removing difficulties which have been the infidel’s stock in trade.—Amos R. Wells, in Christian Endeavor World.