How do we know the Bible is not a myth? (Part Two)

Archaeology for Christians is very important. We know Jesus is a historical person and his teachings are true, but to have physical evidence of that is very exciting, and is a great tool for us as we seek to convince others in our lives about the truth we cherish.

Recent evidence for the OT are 53 people from scripture who are confirmed to exist in evidence outside the Bible. The New Testament has some such evidence as well.

Archaeology is not trying to prove the Bible. It is trying to understand the ancient word. The by-product is evidence for the real history of the Bible.

Real People

For a long time there was no archaeological evidence of the existence of Pontius Pilate outside of history books. But archaeologists found an inscription on a tablet that confirmed both his name and his title at what would have been his residence. The Bible refwrs to him as a governor, but historians called him a military leader. But this tablet confirmed his role as governor.

The Herodian

There is a site near Bethlehem that was a fortress palace built by Herod the Great (around during the birth of Jesus). Pilate lived here later and other did too. Evidence here was found of one of his signet rings.

In Matthew 17, Jesus may have been in the shadow of The Herodian, which was a hill erected by Herod. What Herod did with force, Jesus says much more can be done with faith.

There have been many bone boxes found with inscriptions, and one was found with the name Caiaphas. This was the high priest at the time of Jesus.

Real Places

Nazareth has been discovered and proved to be a surprisingly large town. It was not wealthy and was highly orthodox. We know from the gospels that Nazareth was not highly regarded.

Capernaum was a huge base for Jesus' ministry. It was excavated mostly in the 1960s. We have discovered a lot about the home base of Jesus. There are narrow streets with black stone. There is a beautiful white synagogue that post-dates Jesus, which seems contradictory because we read about Jesus going to a synagogue. Recently a previous synagogue has been found beneath the white newer one that uses the black stone that doesn't quite line up. There is a modern-day church built hovering over a house that has been found in Capernaum. The house originally been rectangular but was extended to become octagonal. Octagonal buildings are staples of Byzantine churches. So here in Capernaum is a proto-church building. This could have been one of the very first Christian church. But why this house? Evidence suggests that this was the very home of Simon Peter where Jesus lived and worked and did miracles.

At a dig called Magdala there has been found a town with that name. This town is the namesake of Mary Magdalene and contains another synagogue from the time of Jesus.

The site of Et Tel was an abandoned ruin that is now thought to be the town of Bethsaida. By logic it was a fishing town on the sea of Galilee. Et Tel wasn't considered since it's 2km from the sea. But surveys revealed that the coastline has been moving away and once would have been right by the shoreline. This is puzzling because the archaeologists have seen the Bethsaida was thriving, yet the gospels describe a lonely place. It disappeared shortly after the gospel's timeline. Yet there are writings from a Jewish historian that shows Bethsaida was converted to a Roman city in 30AD called Julius. This means that when we read the gospels are describing the world of Jesus presicely as it was. If the gospels were written later then they would not have referenced Bethsaida. Around Bethsaida there is uncharacteristic lush green ground. In Mark 6:39 the feeding of the five thousand account references green grass. So we see that this event's description is historically accurate and is eye-witness material.