Archeology and the Bible by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 12, 1916

Archeology and the Bible

By L. L. C.

The last hundred years, with the wide circulation of the Holy Scriptures by the Bible societies, have been a period of greatly increased Bible study. It has also been a period of Biblical criticism. Some have studied the Bible reverently, with a desire to know the truth revealed by the Bible itself concerning its origin and the messages of its several component parts; others have studied it skeptically, to cavil and find fault.

Knowing that in these last days destructive criticism would raise many questions which would tend to undermine belief in the authenticity and inspiration of the Bible, God in his providence has preserved in the very bowels of the earth that which is not only proving an answer to the destructive critic, but a great aid to the reverent student of the Bible. We refer to the archeological remains which have been brought to light within recent years.

Archeology, as a science, is little over one hundred years old. No systematic examination of Egyptian antiquities had been made until Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. The army was accompanied by nearly one hundred eminent scholars and artists, and their discoveries were numerous. In the settlement with England in 1802, the French were forced to surrender their archeological treasures to the English, but were permitted to publish the results of their observations and explorations. This work advanced slowly, and it was not until between 1820 and 1822 that, embodied in seven volumes, it was given to the world.

Among the objects discovered by the French at the time of Napoleon’s expedition was the famous Rosetta stone. The inscription on this stone was in three kinds of writing, hieroglyphic Egyptian (picture writing), demotic Egyptian (conventionalized symbols), and Greek. Though it was generally assumed that the three inscriptions were identical in meaning, for a period of twenty years no one succeeded in reading either of the Egyptian portions. It was Jean Francois Champollion to whom the honor of successful translation fell. Thus was unlocked the door to the treasures of ancient Egypt, and since then the study of Egyptian inscriptions has gone steadily forward, opening up vistas of history hitherto but little known.

It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that study of the archeological remains of Babylonia and Assyria really began. The British East India Company, hearing that there were bricks with curious inscriptions on them to be found in the Mesopotamian valley, instructed its resident in southern Babylonia to secure some if possible. He did so, and early in 1801 the first case arrived in London. The latter half of the century witnessed archeological explorations by men too numerous to mention in this article. Suffice it to say that the first correctly to read and interpret a long inscription in old Persian was Henry Rawlinson. When in Persia with other British officers sent to reorganize the Persian army, Rawlinson’s attention was attracted by the great Persian inscriptions on the mountains near Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana. He attained considerable success in reading these inscriptions, but it was not until 1846 that he published a full interpretation of the Persian column of the great Behistun inscription of Darius I.

Various scholars continued to wrestle with the more difficult problem presented by the Babylonian column. Again Rawlinson attained the first great success. In 1851 he published one hundred and twelve lines of the Babylonian portion of the Behistun inscription, accompanying the same with a translation, and with numerous notes in which were set forth the principles of the grammar. Since then the archeological study of Babylonia and Assyria has made rapid strides.

Scientific study of the antiquities of Palestine dates from 1838, when an American, Prof. Edward Robinson, of Union Seminary, New York, traveled through that country. He made a second journey in 1852. Robinson’s labors were continued by Tobler, Guerin, Renan, and many others. An American exploration society was founded in 1870. Previously the Palestine Exploration Fund had been organized in London in 1865. Under the permanent body thus created, a large share of the subsequent explorations in Palestine were conducted. Considerable has also been done by the German Palestine Society, organized in 1877, and under the auspices of the American School of Oriental Research in Palestine, opened at Jerusalem in 1900.

The archeological discoveries of the last hundred years have proved the truth of many statements of the Bible which had been challenged by the critical skeptics. The sincere believer in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures is often led to marvel at the inscrutable providence of God, who is now causing this witness from the centuries of the past to speak to us in confirmation of the revelation which has been given us in the pages of God’s Holy Word.

Of some special points illuminated by archeological discovery we will speak in a subsequent article. L. L. C.