Some may think that the geological evidence given isn't enough to prove the factuality of the flood. Others may wonder if global tribal accounts of a catastrophe are reliable. And still more may not believe that just because there is no testable proof of evolution doesn't mean that the theory is incorrect.
So, I will now turn my attention to archaeology.
The Bible is more of a history book than it is a religious book. It mentions cities, kingdoms, rulers, and wars. There are many archaeological sites that are mentioned in the Bible that have been found.
The Famine Stela is an Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription on Sehel Island in the Nile, near Aswan, Egypt, that tells of a seven-year famine and drought that occurred during the reign of Pharaoh Djoser of the Third Dynasty. It says that the Nile failed to flood annually for seven years during Djoser's reign, causing the drought and famine. The inscription's unique reference to the famine, along with the tax and land claims, fit with the biblical account of Joseph, who told Pharaoh that seven years of abundance would be followed by seven years of famine.
Genesis 41:29-31- Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.
Genesis 47:13-20- And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth. And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail. And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year. When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands: Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's.
Ron Wyatt began investigating underwater off the coast of Neweiba Beach in 1978. One of the first things he found was a beautiful gold plated chariot wheel, very fragile but clearly visible in the clear waters of the Red Sea! Four, six and eight-spoked wheels were found in the Red Sea. These wheels were typical of the wheels used in the 18th Dynasty at the time of Moses and the Red Sea Exodus. Later, Wyatt and his sons found numerous other man-made artifacts and chariot wheels. The shapes of the battle debris were still intact because coral had attached themselves to the wood, preserving evidence of the historical accuracy of the Biblical account of the Exodus and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army, estimated to be as many as 250,000 soldiers and horse drawn chariots.
Exodus 14:5-7- And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.
Exodus 14:21-28- And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.
The walls of Jericho were built purely for military purposes. These 13-foot tall walls were intended to protect the town and the citizens inside. Ancient Jerico/Tell es-Sultan is located northwest of present-day Jericho in the Jordan Valley in Palestine, the property is an oval-shaped Tell, or mound, that contains the deposits of human activity, and includes the adjacent perennial spring. The meticulous work of Kathllen Kenyon in the 1950's showed that Jericho was indeed heavily fortified and that it had been burned by fire. Kenyon's work was the most detailed. She found a heap of bricks from the fallen city walls! The renewed Italian-Palestinian excavations found exactly the same thing at the southern end of the mound in 1997. Nothing remains of the mud brick city wall at other points investigated, showing that it had collapsed everywhere else. Remnants of the collapsed city wall were actually found still in place in three places at Jericho.
Joshua 6:1-5- Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
Joshua 6:20,21,24- So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.
Tel Megiddo was a Canaanite city, and later a royal city in the Kingdom of Israel. Megiddo, also known as Armageddon, is prophesied to be the site of the end-times battle in the Book of Revelation. Archaeologists have found 26 layers of human occupation at the site.
Judges 1:27- Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.
Revelation 16:16-21- And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
Archaeologists working at the northern site of Tel Shimron (between the Sea of Galilee and Haifa) discovered a massive, 3,800-year-old monumental structure. Shimron is a second millennium BC Canaanite city mentioned twice in the book of Joshua. The City covers about 48 acres. An extraordinarily well-preserved mud brick arch has been carefully uncovered at the acropolis of a Canaanite city overlooking the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. The arch leads from a vaulted corridor deep into the tel, a layered archaeological mound. Its end has not yet been uncovered.
Joshua 11:1-5- And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west, And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.
The pool of Siloam is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man and tells him to wash in the pool. Visitors to Jerusalem have been shown the steps that lined one side of the pool for almost two decades. The steps were accidentally uncovered during a 2004 sewer repair. But the excavation was limited to preserve an orchard. Archaeologists and local authorities were tantalized by the possibility of finding more, though, and decided to raze the orchard for a fuller dig. Nothing was found. The steps were apparently preserved when a road was built over them, but the rest of the stones of the pool are not there. They were likely taken in ancient times for other building projects.
Nehemiah 3:15- But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.
John 9:6-7- When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
In 1868, a missionary in Jerusalem found a stone tablet for sale that appeared to be from ancient times. The sellers broke the tablet into a number of pieces to sell them one at a time to make more money. Fortunately, a copy of the tablet was made prior to the break (this copy is in the Louvre today). On the tablet is a text written in Moabite dating to the ninth century BC. The text begins, “I am Mesha son of Chemosh, king of Moab.” Prominent in the text is the king’s version of a war fought with Israel in 850 BC, in which Moab revolted against King Jehoram of the northern kingdom of Israel soon after the death of Ahab.
II Kings 3:4-5- And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
In 1993, archaeological site surveyor Gila Cook discovered an inscribed stone within a newly excavated wall in Israel. The writing on the stone contains historical evidence of King David. Written in Aramaic, it translates as follows: “…my father went up… and my father died, he went to – there is a little bit in brackets [his fate.. Is is not in the text but it continues on …rael formerly in my father’s land…I fought against Israel and Hadad went in front of me. Hadad went in front of me .. my king. And I slew them [X number of footmen, Y number of chariots] and two thousand horsemen…The King of Israel. And I slew” . . . then a little section that is not clear” . . . and then we have got, we have to supply the word [.. the kin-]g of the house of David.”
II Samuel 5:3- So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel.
I Kings 11:21- And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to mine own country.
Recently, an article published in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology by renowned Hebrew University archeologist Yosef Garfinkel, whose team has been digging four major sites in the Judean foothills since 2007. Among the finds are rectangular beams in groups of three which match descriptions of Solomon’s palace and temple and indicate that the pattern was used at the time of King Solomon’s reign. Tenth-century fortifications in the city of Lachish correspond to the biblical account of King Rehoboam. The Judean city of Khirbet Qeiyafa sits across the Elah Valley from the major Philistine city of Gath—matching descriptions of conflict between the House of David and these neighbors.
There are many more, but just these few are proof enough that events in the Bible actually happened. They aren't just stories. They aren't myths. So, why would the first few chapters be filled with mythological tales?
The truth is evident to anyone who is willing to review it with an open mind and an honest heart. And since these bear witness to the Bible's accuracy, then a wise man would come to the same conclusion as King Solomon.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14- Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Seeing as we will be judged. It would behoove us to ensure that the verdict is in our favor.
Job 34:4- Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good.Romans 5:18- Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 10:13- For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
