John 1:1 (Whole Chapter)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Science Facts Confirm the Bible

by R. Totten, M.Div - © 2000

Background Issues

During the 1700s, various "Enlightenment" philosophers of western culture wrote articles and books which attempted to portray the Bible's view of the world as being backward, and superstitious, and un-scientific.

For example, Voltaire (1694 -1778) maintained that the Middle Ages were a time of darkness and ignorance. Marquis de Condorcet (1743 -1794) emphasized how great a step in mankind's progress it was to get rid of the shackles of barbaric, "superstitious religion," and advance into enlightened human reason, especially through science. Similarly, others such as Hume and Gibbon philosophized in the same direction.

In their work on philosophy of science, called The Soul of Science, (Wheaton:Crossway, 1994), Pearcey and Thaxton explain how this same anti-Christian viewpoint of the enlightenment continued to spread through the "positivists" in the 1800s. The positivists "portrayed the development of science as the inevitable 'march of mind' from darkness and superstition into the light of reason ---with 'reason' defined by the modern secular mind" (p.47).

One of the boldest expositors of this positivist viewpoint, was A.D. White, who wrote History of the Warfare of Science with Theology (1896). Pearcey & Thaxton summarize his work : "White combs through Western history for examples of Christians who resist scientific concepts later accepted by mainstream science, chalking up their resistance to fear and dogmatism while lavishing praise on any historical figures lucky enough to have anticipated modern concepts" (Soul of Science, p.48).

What White and the anti-Christian writers of the "Enlightenment" disingenuously ignored, was that modern science and the scientific method was founded on and grew up out of the Christian biblical worldview, assumptions and culture of Europe, as a result of discussion between Christian researchers and thinkers --such as Isaac Newton and Gregor Mendel. (See: "The Foundation of Science is The Biblical Worldview").

Disputes about new ideas in science should come as no surprise. --When there is discussion about new ideas there are often disagreements --and, naturally, the Christian founders of modern science also had disagreements then (including arguments with church officials and society at large) --just as there are disputes among scientists (both secular and Christian) today. No surprise there. --But positivism has left many people with a warped view of the history, and the proper functioning of scientific review --and religion's role in it.

Contrary to the positivist view of things, many of the principles of modern science were already spoken of in the Bible as facts of nature many years before scientific research finally made the empirical discoveries. We'll touch on a number of these areas here.

The "Big Bang" and Expanding Universe

It is now quite well established (as discovered by Edwin Hubble in 1929) that the universe is expanding sort of like a lump of dough, whereby every galaxy (like raisins in the dough) is getting further apart from the center and from all the other galaxies ...except this is happening at a speed of many thousands of miles per hour (...in fact, the rate of expansion is increasing).

Now, if we "reverse the film" on the expanding universe, and go way back, we would end up with all the matter in the universe located in a small area, which would be the beginning point. Such a "beginning" which expands out to today's universe is compatible with what is presented in the Bible. The Bible starts out by saying, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). So, there we have a "beginning" to the universe.

It should be noted that in Genesis 1:1, the Hebrew word for "created" ("bara") means a "creation from nothing," as something is brought into existence. A start from nothing, is a very good description of what cosmologists (such as Stephen Hawking) call a "singularity," which is the starting-point of the Big Bang. ---A singularity is: all the potential mass (matter), energy, and dimensions (including time) of the cosmos, reduced down to an infinitely small point of ZERO volume. --This same concept is brought out again in Hebrews 11:3 which declares that "the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." The original starting-point for the universe was invisible, and had zero volume --just as the Bible teaches... as no other ancient writing does.

Furthermore: Cosmologists and physicists teach that matter, 3-dimensional space, and even time itself virtually did not exist before the Big Bang; (when God created them). Here it is fascinating to NOTE: 1Corinthians 2:7, 2Timothy 1:9, and Titus 1:2 indicate that time itself, with all its eons and ages, had a "beginning." ---NO other ancient literature (besides the Bible) states that time had a beginning!

Then, having started from this "beginning" point, the Bible even says about God: "He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea" (Job 9:8); and "He stretches out the heavens like a tent" (Psalm 104:2); and "He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in" (Isa. 40:22); and "the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens" (Isa. 51:13); ...there are about nine such biblical references. --Notice that God stretched the heavens out in the past, and some of those verses declare that He still "stretches" the universe out today!

This "beginning" from nothing, and the "spreading" or "stretching out" of the heavens (an excellent portrayal of the expanding universe due to the Big Bang since the instant God created the universe) are words of biblical prophets that were written from about 1500 BC. ---which is about 3000 years before Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding!

The Law of Increasing Entropy

It has been established that in all physical processes, every ordered system tends over time to become more disorganized, and also to lose energy in the form of heat, and to slow down; ---everything gets old and wears out, or runs down. This increasing randomness, disorder, and cooling is called "Entropy," and this situation is described in physics by the "Second Law of Thermodynamics."

We see this principle expressed in the Bible (in about 1000 BC), when it says (concerning God): "In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end" (Psalm 102:25-27).

We know that if the stars in the heavens get very old, they will all burn out, and they will all undergo "heat-death" until everything in the universe cools off to the same temperature. ---In the first century AD, the apostle Paul brings out the same idea when he writes, "For the creation was subjected to frustration ...in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay..." (Romans 8:20-21).

So, the Bible accurately describes the modern Law of increasing Entropy, as the entire material universe relentlessly runs down and loses available usable energy, in a process of "decay."

The Number of the Stars in the Universe

In the years 161-126 BC, the man who is said to have first started the study of astronomy, Hiparchus, counted the number of stars in the heavens, and put the number at 1,080. This number was considered to be fairly accurate 300 years later, when Ptolemy announced that the number was more like 1,056.

It wasn't until the invention of the telescope that people realized that the number of the stars was huge ...in the countless millions. The Bible didn't make the mistake of saying that the number was merely a few hundred or thousand, but rather, in about 600 BC, the prophet Jeremiah says the number is "countless as the stars of the sky and measureless as the sand on the seashore" (Jer. 33:22). Also, from the year 1500 BC, the same concept comes from Genesis 22:17. And this is correct, because we now estimate the number of stars to be approximately 10 to the 26th (which may also be a fair estimate of the number of the grains of sand on all the earth's sea-shores), but the actual number is "countless" for us to attempt to precisely count. ---However, God, who is infinite in knowledge, knows the exact number, as the Bible says, "He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name" (Psalm 147:4).

The Immense Size of the Cosmos

The Bible makes it clear that the knowledge of God, and His ways of doing things, are virtually infinite beyond that of mankind, ---and the size of the starry cosmos is used as an illustration of this, when God says (in 700 BC), "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).

The Roundness of the Earth

At different times and in different places it has been thought that the earth is flat. In fact, as recently as the 16th century, sailors would threaten to mutiny on ocean-going ships that sailed too far from land, for fear of sailing off the edge of the earth, which was thought by many to be flat like a table top. There are even a few who believe in a flat-earth today!

(Some have wrongly thought that the Bible teaches a flat earth, but it does not. The Bible speaks of the "four corners" of the earth (in Rev. 7:1), but this is only a figurative way of referring to the "four points" (basic directions) of the compass ---and this same verse speaks of the "four winds," which refers to the same thing.)

In comparison, the Bible actually says, "He (God) sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers" (Isaiah 40:22 NIV). In that verse, the word translated "circle" is the Hebrew "khoog", which can also be translated as "roundness," "circle," "circuit," or "compass" (ref: Strongs Dictionary, 2329). The roundness of the earth is a viewpoint from space that no mere man had in 760 BC when those words were written. (Although, it might easily be suspected that the earth is round, by looking at the sun and moon). Furthermore, from about the year 1500 BC, it says in Job 26:10, "He marks out a circle (or roundness) on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness." Indeed, a circle would be the correct shape which describes any line between darkness and day-light along the surface of the oceans.

The Earth is Suspended in Space

For centuries various cultures around the world speculated what holds up or supports the earth among the stars and sun and moon. The ancient Greeks believed that a giant being, Atlas, stood with the earth on his huge arms and shoulders, while the Hindus believed that the earth was supported on the backs of immense elephants, which stood on the shell of a great cosmic turtle which then swam around in the "cosmic sea."

But the Bible, on the other hand, gives an amazingly accurate picture of what we have confirmed to be scientific reality today, as seen from space. The Bible says (concerning God): "He suspends the earth over nothing" (Job 26:7). This is an accurate description of what it is like to view the earth from outer space, from any direction. It also does not run counter to the gravitational (and momentum) force which "suspends" the earth in space "over nothing." ---Amazingly, these are words written in about 1500 BC!

Orderly Astronomical Movements in Space

In about the year 600 BC, God declares through the prophet Jeremiah: "Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night ...if this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever" (Jer. 31:35,36). So, there is an orderly relationship in the positioning of the sun, moon, stars and earth, which is established in relation to each other. However, this is not a static or motionless relationship, because God created the sun, moon and stars to move in a regular fashion for the measuring of time, as God said (as written in 1500 BC), "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years" (Gen. 1:14). So, the orderly relationship and motions of the bodies in space has been established by the God of the Bible, and their regular and orderly motion has a time-measuring function. Such order arises from the laws of physics which are part of what God created in matter.

Genetically Inherited Characteristics

In the early 1800s, the French naturalist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck proposed the hypothesis of the "inheritance of acquired characteristics," in which it was suggested that animals could (by exercise, diet, grooming, etc.) develop certain traits in their bodily structures, which as a result would then be passed on to their offspring. Lamarck gave as an example, the giraffe, which supposedly stretched its neck upward to get food, and after many generations of stretching this resulted in offspring which were born with longer necks.

This hypothesis has since been proven wrong, because the body cells (somatic cells) in an animal do not pass on any such developmental changes to the sexual reproductive cells (germ cells; sperm and eggs). We now know that it is the germ cells which pass on the inherited characteristics to the offspring, including any potential to develop under various conditions.

It is thus quite fascinating, that in the 30th chapter of the book of Genesis (v.37-42) we find that Jacob held a wrong view which was similar to that of Lamarck, that is: Jacob was trying to produce striped and spotted goats by putting a pattern of white and dark streaked branches in front of the eyes of the animals while they were breeding, because Jacob thought that the striped and spotted pattern being viewed by the animals during breeding would result in offspring with that spotted pattern in their coats.

However, in contrast to Jacob's false (Lamarck-type) notion of "acquired characteristics," God revealed to Jacob in a dream the actual (and genetically accurate) reason that the baby goats were being born with striped and spotted coats... as in Genesis 31:10-12 Jacob said:

"In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the male goats that were mating with the flock were striped, spotted and mottled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'here I am!' And he said, 'Lift up your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating with the flock are striped, spotted and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you."

---With this statement, God makes it clear in Genesis that it is not what the parent might see while mating, but it is the genetically-produced appearance of the coat of the parent which affects the appearance of the coats of the offspring... even though spotted goats were previously removed (which Laban did in order to "double-cross" Jacob), the genetics of the spotted males (who actually did the mating) is passed on to the young.

Although this accurate assessment of the situation was revealed to Jacob in about 1500 BC, these genetic laws were not understood by scientists until thousands of years later.

Vision of Birds of Prey

It had long been thought by generations of scientists that birds of prey (such as eagles and falcons) located their prey by means of an acute sense of smell, however it has since then been discovered that such birds actually have a very poor sense of smell. Instead, ornithologists have determined that such birds have remarkable vision capabilities. In fact, it has been discovered that while some such birds are diving to catch their prey, the shape of the cornea varies during the descent, enabling it to maintain a perfect focus. In about 1500 BC, Job 28:7 makes note of the falcon's excellent vision, and in Job 39:27-29 it states that the eagle looks down from an inaccessible cliff, and spies out its prey "from afar."

The Hydrologic Cycle

In a good brief description of world-wide air movements and the hydrologic water cycles of the weather, we read, "The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again" (Ecclesiastes 1:6-7). In similar manner, Job 36:27-28 says, "He (God) draws up the drops of water, which distill into rain from the vapor; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind," which is a statement from 1500 B.C. ---It wasn't until data and measurements were taken all over entire hemispheres of the globe in our modern era that such an understanding of the hydrologic cycle and world air-currents was achieved, and then once again, the Bible is confirmed as correct.

Conclusion

Such examples (and there are more) are evidence of divine inspiration, as they demonstrate that there are many principles of modern science which the Bible states as facts of nature thousands of years before scientists confirmed them by observation and experimentation. --Although there are various statements in the Bible which describe some things in a "phenomenological" way (such as saying the sun "rises" and moves "across" the sky), we make the exact same statements today despite being fully aware of modern scientific facts, and so the Bible should not be unfairly faulted as making a "false" statement of science when it is not actually asserting a teaching on scientific fact, but is using every-day expressions.

But the descriptions of scientific truths which the Bible does make (such as listed above), are further evidence that the Bible is authored by the true and living God who created the universe and all of nature, and those who read the Bible can therefore have solid confidence that its words are true and reliable. In fact, no statement of what the Bible teaches or asserts has ever been proven to be false or in error by any real facts of science or history.

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Archaeology Confirms the Bible is Historical
 

- R. Totten - © 2004, updates 2005

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The Bible and History

Time and time again we find that the history in the Bible is confirmed by the discoveries of archaeology, especially over the past century. Reformed Jewish scholar, Dr. Nelson Glueck, arguably one of the greatest authorities on the archaeology of Israel, once said, "No archaeological discovery has ever controverted a single properly understood biblical statement. ...Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries."

(ref: Rivers in the Desert, Glueck, New York: Farrar, 1959, p.6,31).

To continue this same line of thought, Dr. Merrill Unger continues, "Old Testament archaeology has rediscovered whole nations, resurrected important peoples, and in a most astonishing manner filled in historical gaps, adding immeasurably to the knowledge of biblical backgrounds."

(ref: Archaeology and the Old Testament, Unger, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954, p.15).

So, as a result of many examples over many years of archaeological and historical research, the Bible's reliability concerning history has repeatedly been confirmed, and never clearly contradicted.

The Bible is increasingly confirmed in its historical facticity as further archaeological discoveries are made down through the years.

Let's now take a look at some examples of this :

Archaeological Verifications of the Bible's Historicity

To begin with, one needs only to look at the maps in the back of a good Bible-Atlas or study-Bible, and one can see a large number of real places that are spoken of in the Bible. (In addition, such a study-Bible often has a fairly good archaeological section.) Most of these places either still exist today, or have been found in archaeological digs. Some cities have even been found on the basis of the Bible's statements alone about the locations of those cities. Another good place to research the historicity of the places in the Bible, is in a Bible-Dictionary. --Similarly, when the Bible asserts the existence and activities of certain people, these things have also been confirmed by histories outside the Bible.

The "Black Stele" of Hammurabi

Bible-critics once maintained that Moses could not possibly have written the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), because writing did not exist at the time of Moses (1700 B.C.), --however, the laws of Hammurabi where later discovered, and they were written on the "Black Stele," in wedge-shaped characters, in about 2000 B.C., more than 300 years before the time of Moses. --In addition, 20,000 tablets unearthed from the time of the kingdom of Ebla proves that there was abundant writing in the middle-eastern part of the world even 1000 years before Moses. -- Also, in July 2005 at a dig at Tel Zayit, even an early form of the Hebrew alphabet (similar to a form of Phoenician) has been found by archaeologist Ron E. Tappy (a professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), inscribed on a stone from about the year 1000 B.C.

(ref: Unger's Bible Dictionary, by Merrill F. Unger, Chicago:Moody, 1971, p.444)

Abraham

G.E. Wright explains that after King Shishak of Egypt fought against Jerusalem (in 918 B.C.) and took away the treasures of the Jewish Temple, as well as some gold from the house of the king of Israel (see 1Kings 14:25-26), then Shishak commissioned his artisans to carve a picture of himself smiting the Asiatics in the presence of the Egyptian god Amon, and presenting various defeated Israelite towns or localities before the god. Some of the towns and areas that were attacked were Esdraelon, Transjordan, and the hills of Israel and Judah (and even Edom). Then, there is an intriguing reference to "the Field of Abraham," evidently in the Hebron area. G.E. Wright says, "this is the first time that a source outside the Bible confirms that patriarch's connection with a locality in Palestine."

(ref: Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Vol. II, revised, by Josh McDowell, Here's Life Publishers, 1981, p.80-81)

The cities that are important parts of the account of Abraham, are historical places of that time-period. Jeffery Sheler writes:

(ref: Is The Bible True?, by Jeffery Sheler, Harper Collins Publishers, 1999, p.75)

Five Cities of the Plain

For years the account in Genesis 14, including Abraham's victory over several Mesopotamian kings, was said by some to be unreliable because the five "Cities of the Plain" (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela or Zoar) were thought to be merely fictitious legend. -----However, starting in the 1960s, tens of thousands of tablets with writing on them were discovered in northwestern Syria, in the rubble-mounds of the ancient city of Ebla, and one tablet (No.1860) from about 1900 B.C., refers to all five of the "Cities of the Plain." Dr. David Noel Freedman points out that the factuality of the time of these five cities precedes the rescue of Lot as well as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.19).

(Ref. "Archaeological Supplement", by G. Frederick Owen, D.D., Ed.D, in Thompson Chain Ref. Bible, NIV, Zondervan, 1983, p.1655)

Other Biblical Cities and Places

Archaeological research has confirmed the existence of many other cities and places named in the Bible, including:

The Exodus out of Egypt

The Exodus under the leadership of Moses is one of the most pivotal events in the Old Testament, and a discussion of its archaeological corroboration may be accessed by clicking HERE.

David, King of Israel

An amazing and important discovery was made in 1993, when an archaeological team working with Avraham Biran (of the Israeli Department of Antiquities and Hebrew Union College) were working at "Tel Dan" (a mound of rubble and remains of an ancient city) in northern Israel. In an ancient wall, a one-foot-square piece of basalt was discovered, with the beginnings of 13 lines of text, including mention of "Bet David" (the "House of David," or dynasty of David).

Part of that text [with probable missing words in brackets] reads as follows:

(ref: Is the Bible True?, by Jeffery L. Sheler,
Harper/Zondervan, SanFrancisco, CA, 1999, p.60)

The stone with the above words inscribed had been part of a larger "victory stele" made by King Ben-Hadad of Damascus, erected in about 890 BC (about 100 years after David) after a military campaign by Ben-Hadad against Dan and a few other cities in Israel. Ben-Hadad is also mentioned in the Bible, in 1 Kings 15:18 and other verses.

While some had long maintained that David was merely a character of legend, such a notion is no longer tenable. The New Testament teaches that Jesus of Nazareth is a descendant of David.

(ref: Christianity Today Magazine, by Gordon Govier, October, 1993)

Other Israelite Kings

In the 1800s, inscriptions made by the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III were found that mention the Israelite kings Omri, Ahab and Jehu, corroborating biblical accounts of their histories.

The Hittites

Fifty years ago (and before), it was insisted that the Hittite civilization was a myth, and that there were no Hittites at the time of Abraham --or any other time in history, for that matter. ---However, archaeological discoveries have unearthed hundreds of inscribed references which verify that there had been over 1,200 years of Hittite civilization.

(ref: Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Vol.2, by Josh McDowell, SanBernadino, 1981, p.79-83, 339-41)

Book of Numbers in 600 B.C.

In 1979, archaeologist Gabriel Barkay found two small silver scrolls in a Jerusalem tomb, which were dated around 600 B.C. On the little scrolls a benediction from the Book of Numbers was found, which provides evidence that the O.T. was already being copied at a time when skeptics thought the text didn't even yet exist!

The Scribe of Jeremiah

A remarkable archaeological find which verifies the historicity of the book of Jeremiah, is the discovery in 1975 of the ancient clay Seal of Baruch, the son of Neriah (Jer. 36:4). Baruch was the scribe or emanuensis who wrote down the prophecies of Jeremiah in about 607 B.C.

Read more about the Seal of Baruch at: http://home.att.net/~kmpope/SealofBaruch.html

King Nebuchadnezzar

For many decades there was no archaeological corroboration of the existence of this Babylonian king, and during the 1800s skeptics maintained that Nebuchadnezzar was a mythological figure who never existed. However, in 1899, the German archaeologist Robert Koldewey, excavated the ruins of a temple area near today's Baghdad, which turned out to be King Nebuchadnezzar's "Temple of Marduk" which included the "Ishtar Gate." Near the gate, about 300 cuneiform tablets from the sixth century BC were unearthed, confirming the existence of Nebuchadnezzar. There, among the king's book-keeping records are also references to Judah and Jerusalem, as well as a notation of a food allotment for "Yaukin, king of Judah," which evidently a reference to king Jehoiachim of Judah, who eventually was taken captive to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem in 597 BC.

(ref: Is the Bible True?, by Jeffery L. Sheler, Harper/Zondervan, SanFrancisco, CA, 1999, p.106)

Jesus Christ

It is significant that Christ is not only spoken of in the Bible, but also in historical sources outside the Bible.

Cornelius Tacitus (born about 52 A.D.) was a Roman historian, who was also a Governor of Asia in 112 A.D. He mentioned Christ at least three times, --in fact, while writing about the reign of Nero, Tacitus mentions the death of Christ ("Christus") as well as the presence of Christians in Rome:

Flavius Josephus (born in 37 A.D.) was a Jewish Historian, who became a Pharisee when he was 19, was the commander of Jewish forces in Galilee in 66 A.D. When Roman forces captured Josephus, he was conscripted to the Roman headquarters. In about the year 105 A.D., Josephus writes:

A good number of ancient and secular sources refer to Jesus. There are allusions to Christ in the writings of such ancient authors as:

• Philo of Alexandria (20 BC - 50 AD)
• Galen of Pergamum (ca 130-201 AD)
• Celsus (True Discourse, c.170)
• Mara Bar Serapion (pre-200?)
• Lucian (mid-2nd century)
• Even the Jewish Talmud and Midrash mention Jesus

Other ancient historians who mention Christ in their writings are:

• Thallus, a Samaritan (wrote about in about 52 A.D.)
• Seutonius, who was on the staff of Emperor Hadrian, wrote about Jesus in about 120 A.D. ("Lives of the Caesars," c. 125).
• "Plinius the Younger," a Governor of Bithynia in Asia-Minor in about 112 A.D., who wrote the following about the Christians:

New Testament

With regard to the New Testament, archaeological support is excellent, as F.F. Bruce remarks, "Where Luke has been suspected of inaccuracy, and accuracy has been vindicated by some inscriptional evidence, it may be legitimate to say that archaeology has confirmed the New Testament record."

("Archaeological Confirmation of the New Testament", Revelation and the Bible, R.F. Bruce, Grand Rapids, 1969, p.331)

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Widespread Agreement

Few archaeologists and scholars doubt that the people mentioned in at least the latter part of the Old Testament (such as Nebuchadnezzar, David and Jeremiah), as well as through most of the New (Jesus, Peter and Paul), were people who really existed.

William R. Albright, professor of Semitics at Johns Hopkins University, became one of the most prominent and respected archaeologists of modern times, and after working at many sites in and around Israel, he states: "Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition of the value of the Bible as a source of history."

(Randall Price, The Stones Cry Out (Eugene, Ore.: Harvest House, 1997), p.10.)

Yale archaeologist Millar Burrows maintains, "On the whole, however, archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the scriptural record. More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine."

(What Mean These Stones?, Burrows, New York, 1965, p.1).

Concerning the text of the Bible itself, Burrows says, "Such evidence as archaeology has afforded thus far, especially by providing additional and older manuscripts of the books of the Bible, strengthens our confidence in the accuracy with which the text has been transmitted through the centuries."

(same as last citation, p.42)

Because of abundant historical facticity of the Biblical accounts, the field of Biblical archaeology is so big that there are whole journals and university departments dedicated to its study in various places around the world.

The confirmation of the historicity of much of what the Bible records is very solid, and grows constantly.