Undermining the Critic

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 3, 1908

Undermining the Critic

FOR some years the critic has been “undermining” the Bible. Now the spade of the excavator is undermining the critic. A few years ago the critics proved that there never was such a nation as the Hittites. Not long after the publication of this “proof,” the very stones began to cry out, and proved the critic to have borne false testimony against the Bible. The record of the existence of the Hittites was found upon the rocks as well as in the Word of God.

The critic has disputed the existence of any place in Palestine by the name of Sychar, and has charged up a mistake to the author of the fourth Gospel in his record of the incident at the well of Sychar. Now the stones have cried out again, and declared the existence of the place where Jesus taught the woman at the well. In 1896, when preparations were being made for the erection of a Greek church at Medeba, in eastern Palestine, a mosaic map of Palestine was discovered among the ruins of an ancient edifice.

The value of the mosaic map was not understood by the workmen or the natives, and was not preserved with any degree of care. Later, however, the librarian of the Greek patriarchate, on a tour of inspection, discovered what was left of the mosaic, preserved it, and has made known its existence. The exact date of the map can not be determined; but it bears within itself evidence that it could not have been made later than the sixth century, nor earlier than the third. Upon this map occurs the name Sychar, and there can no longer be a question as to its existence.