Archaeology Keeps Shouting Yes!

You are, or could be, of unimaginable value.  If you are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and seeking Him with your might, you are known in the Scriptures as a “peculiar treasure” (Exodus 19:5).  This will sound bizarre, but it is clearly an understatement: One blood-bought soul is worth more than the aggregate wealth of the entire earth and its universe.  Consider that the earth and its universe were created just over 6,000 years ago.  In Bishop Ussher’s highly-acclaimed book, The Annals of the World, which was published in 1658 AD, the first day of God’s creation is pegged as Sunday (the first day of the week), September 21, 4004 BC.   When you add 4004 BC with 2023 AD (the year of this writing), you have 6,027 years.  Now add in 1,000 years for the soon-coming millennial reign of Jesus Christ here on the earth, plus Revelation 20:7-9, and the entire tenure of this creation appears to be just over 7,000 years.  Mix in this prophecy from II Peter 3:10-13:

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Soon, all of the earth and its heavens will be destroyed, but the BORN AGAIN will live eternally, one with the Father through Jesus Christ the Lord (John 17).  This carnal vanity is but a vapour.

If you gathered all the wealth in this carnal world, it could not purchase the salvation of one single soul.   Jesus explains the value of a person’s soul in Matthew 16:24-26:

24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

There is only ONE who can, and did, pay the unearthly price for a soul’s salvation, and that ONE was seen as a beaten, spat upon, mocked and crucified, naked pauper.  His name? Jesus Christ, the Righteous. 

One blood-bought soul is worth more than the aggregate wealth of the earth and its universe.  A soul’s salvation can only be purchased by the naked pauper.  BORN AGAIN is a greater miracle than creation itself, and the greatest miracle man can know.  Surely an understatement.  Without BORN AGAIN, life is an exercise in foolish vanity that ends in utter and eternal despair.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN? In just a moment, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt.  If you do, you will be BORN AGAIN, born a literal second time, this time of the Spirit of God. John 3:3:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 

Today, all your sins and shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood. Today, all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken—the bigger, the better. Today, you will become a new creature.  Some of you have arrived at this invitation more than once but have rejected the offer.  Your door of opportunity will soon close.  Act now while God’s hand is still extended to you.  Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 41:45:

And Pharaoh called Joseph''s name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

GOD SAID, Exodus 2:1-10:

1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river''s brink.

4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river''s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.

6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews'' children.

7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh''s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

8 And Pharaoh''s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child''s mother.

9 And Pharaoh''s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.

10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh''s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

GOD SAID, I Samuel 17:4-10:

4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.

7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver''s beam; and his spear''s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.

8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.

9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.

10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. 

MAN SAID: No serious person of any academic stature would embrace the Biblical “record” as anything but myth.  Everybody knows that.

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1150 that will once again stand to the miraculous and inerrant beauty of the Book. All of these faith-building features are available to you at no charge, and are presented to you in text and streaming audio for your edification and as a platform from which to cast your nets.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.

Thank you for coming.  We are honored by your presence.  May your life be filled with the Cross.

The Biblical minimalists, those who reject the Bible’s accounts and offer up their own carnal concoctions, are being fully minimalized by sundry discoveries very regularly. They have trashed Biblical inerrancy and have cast doubt into the hearts of billions. Soon, they will give an account for all their hard speeches.  Jude 1:14-15:

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

This GodSaidManSaid feature will demonstrate the beautiful perfection, the unerring accuracy, of God’s Word. Every historic declaration, every judgment, every precept and commandment, every stream of hope, and every miraculous account is true and righteous altogether.  Everything depends upon God’s Word—EVERYTHING!  

GodSaidManSaid uses a four-step proof platform to establish the bonafides of the Holy Bible.  The first category is archaeology, which also includes geology, paleontology, ancient history, ancient societal records, and microbiology. This first category, archaeology, establishes the full and perfect credibility of God’s majority-text Holy Bible.

World-renowned archaeologists testify of the marvels of an ancient book, God’s Holy Bible:

In the following excerpts from Encyclopedia of Bible Life you’ll find a quote from one William F. Albright who stood a giant in the field of archaeology. He was an orientalist and Professor of Semitic Languages at Johns Hopkins University. Albright was Director of American Schools in Jerusalem and lead excavations in numerous places. A bibliography of Albright’s work was written by Henry M Orlinsky, where 473 items were listed. The following is from Encyclopedia of Bible Life:

Nothing that has happened in the past fifty years has put the Bible on sure a footing as the development of biblical archaeology. Without starting out to “prove that the Bible is true,” research has a posteriori come upon facts confirming and illustrating point after point, especially of Old Testament record. Higher criticism has received a blow and must henceforth be considered only in connection with the findings of archaeology. We now know that Abraham was not merely a Mesopotamian folk hero but a historic personality, though not contemporary with Hammurabi, whose date is not 2000 B.C. but between c.1728 B.C. and 1686 B.C. We now believe, with Albright, that Jericho fell later than c.1375 B.C., (Others accept 1400 or 1250). Confirmation has been found of the destruction and desertion of Shiloh by the Philistines after the battle of Ebenezer and the capture of the ark, C.1050 B.C. Exodus I has been confirmed with the discovery of Egyptian Tanis and Pithom (Tell Retabeh), store cities of Ramesses II. The antiquity of the Song of Deborah has been demonstrated, and the pushing back of dates of portions of the Old Testament once placed in the post-Exilic period has come about. Ras Shamra in northern Syria has given us not only the lost Canaanite religious literature but has helped us construct the progress of Israel’s loftier religion by tracing its steps of ascent from the worship ways of its neighbors. We know now, since Megiddo and Ezion-geber excavations, much about the economic foundations of Solomon’s kingdom and the background of his Temple-building and chariot cities. Cross-references synthesizing Babylon with Palestinian history in the sixth century B.C. have built up satisfactory conclusions.

As Albright has pointed out in Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, the most brilliant and searching scrutiny of science has not lessened the pre-eminence of the Bible as a masterpiece of literature and an absolutely unique religious document. Nothing has been unearthed which need disturb the faith of Hebrew or Christian, but much has been excavated which heightens this faith. “No major contention of Scripture has been proved unhistoric.”

Those paragraphs were written over 70 years ago and the situation for the higher critics has certainly not improved.

The archaeologists’ spades continue to dig and God’s word is continually confirmed. You would suppose at least one uncontested victory for the doctors of unbelief, but alas…not one.

A few final excerpts follow from Dr. Grant Jeffreys book, The Signature of God:

Dr. Nelson Glueck, the most outstanding Jewish archaeologist of the last century, wrote in his book Rivers in the Desert:

It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. 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. They form tesserae in the vast mosaic of the Bible’s almost incredibly correct historical memory.

Another respected scholar, Dr. J. O. Kinnaman, declared:

Of the hundreds of thousands of artifacts found by the archeologists, not one has ever been discovered that contradicts or denies one word, phrase, clause, or sentence of the Bible, but always confirms and verifies the facts of the biblical record.

Well-known language scholar Dr. Robert Dick Wilson, formerly professor of Semitic philology at Princeton Theological Seminary, made the following statement:

After forty-five years of scholarly research in biblical textual studies and in language study, I have come now to the conviction that no man knows enough to assail the truthfulness of the Old Testament. When there is sufficient documentary evidence to make an investigation, the statement of the Bible, in the original text, has stood the test.

Can one rely upon the Word of God?  The headline in the Jerusalem Post reads, “Dr. Eilat Mazar: The Bible as Blueprint.”  A paragraph follows:

Mazar, who is both revered and reviled by some of her colleagues for being a “Biblical archaeologist,” says the Bible is unquestionably the most important historical source for her work since it contains a “genuine historical account of the past.”  “I work with the Bible in one hand and the tools of excavation in the other,” she says.  “The Bible is the most important historical source.”  [End of quotes]

An October 25, 2022 headline of Science Daily reads, “Biblical Military Campaigns Reconstructed Using Geomagnetic Field Data.” Excerpts follow:

A joint study by Tel-Aviv University and the Hebrew University, involving 20 researchers from different countries and disciplines, has accurately dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites in Israel by reconstructing the direction and/or intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field recorded in burnt remnants.  The new data verify the Biblical accounts of the Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian military campaigns against the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

The researchers explain that geophysicists, attempting to understand the mechanism of earth’s magnetic field, track changes in this field throughout history.  To this end, they use archaeological findings containing magnetic minerals which, when heated or burned, record the magnetic field at the time of the fire. Thus, in a 2020 study, researchers reconstructed the magnetic field as it was on the 9^th day of the month of Av, 586 BCE, the Hebrew date of the destruction of the First Temple and the City of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army.   Now, using archaeological findings unearthed over several decades at 17 sites throughout Israel, alongside historical information from ancient inscriptions and Biblical accounts, the researchers were able to reconstruct the magnetic fields recorded in 21 destruction layers.  They used the data to develop a reliable new scientific tool for archaeological dating.

One example given by the researchers is the destruction of Gath of the Philistines (identified today as Tel Tzafit in the Judean foothills) by Hazael, King of Aram-Damascus.  Various dating methods have placed this event at around 830 BCE, but were unable to verify that Hazael was also responsible for the destruction of Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit and Horvat Tevet.  Now the new study, identifying full statistical synchronization between the magnetic fields recorded at all of these four sites at the time of destruction, makes a very strong case for their destruction during the same campaign.  A destruction level at Tel Beth-Shean, on the other hand, recording a totally different magnetic field, refutes the prevailing hypothesis that it, too, was destroyed by Hazael.  Instead, the magnetic data from Beth-Shean indicate that this city, along with two other sites in northern Israel, was probably destroyed 70-100 years earlier, a date which could correspond with the military campaign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq.  Shoshenq’s campaign is described in the Hebrew Bible and in an inscription on a wall of the Temple of Amun in Karnak, Egypt, which mentions Beth-Shean as one of his conquests.

Professor Oded Lipschitts, supervisor of the research, adds: “The new dating tool is unique because it is based on geomagnetic data from sites, whose exact destruction dates are known from historical sources. By combining precise historical information with advanced, comprehensive archaeological research, we were able to base the magnetic method on reliably anchored chronology.”  [End of quotes]

The book, The Big Argument: Does God Exist?, carries a subhead that reads, “Twenty-four scholars explore how science, archaeology, and philosophy haven’t disproved God.” One of the book’s 24 scholars is David K. Down, editor of Archaeological Diggings, Australia’s leading ancient history and archaeology magazine. David Down pens the following under the title “The Story of Joseph:”

The heart of the Twelfth Dynasty was in the Delta.  There were palaces at Memphis, Avaris, and the Faiyyum, which provide a suitable setting for the establishment of the Israelites in the land of Goshen.  The religious center was Heliopolis, the city of the sun then known as On.  An obelisk still stands at Heliopolis, now a suburb of Cairo.  This obelisk was erected by Sesostris I and is today known as the Pillar of On.  If we understand that Sesostris I was the pharaoh under whom Joseph was vizier, Genesis 41:45 is very meaningful: “And Pharaoh … gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On.”

The Faiyyum is a vast oasis in the desert west of Meidum that today supports a population of two million people.  It was developed during the Twelfth Dynasty.  The whole area is watered by a canal dug during that period. This canal is today known as Bar Yoseph or Joseph’s Canal, though no one seems to know why. It may have carried this name ever since it was dug in the Twelfth Dynasty.  It could have been the work of Joseph in preparation for the seven years of famine.

As for Joseph himself, there was a vizier under Sesostris I who had extraordinary powers.  His name was Mentuhotep.  Of him, Brugsch-Bey wrote: “In a word, our Mentuhotep, who was invested with several priestly dignities and who was Pharaoh’s treasurer, appears as the alter ego of the king.”  Brugsch-Bey noted that there was a significance in the report that when Mentuhotep arrived, the great personages bowed down before him at the outer door of the royal palace.  The Bible record states, “Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand … and he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him ‘Bow the knee!’” (Genesis 41:42-43).  This was an unusual honor to be bestowed on an Egyptian vizier, but that was the way it was with Mentuhotep.  The fact that he is not named as Joseph is of little consequence.  The Egyptians, as well as Bible characters, frequently had more than one name.

Down writes under the heading “The Oppression of Israel:”

The Bible continues, “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).  This does not mean he was ignorant of Joseph’s services to the nation but that he wished to make no recognition of them, and as far as possible to bury them in oblivion.  Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century AD, wrote, “Having in length of time forgotten the benefits received from Joseph, particularly the crown being now come into another family, they [the Egyptians] became very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them."

By the revised chronology, this pharaoh would have been Sesostris III.  His predecessor, Sesostris II, had no living sons at the time of his death.  Sesostris III may have been related to this predecessor but he was not in direct line to the throne, so he could be classified as belonging to “another family,” as Josephus says.  From his statues and inscriptions we may conclude that he was a harsh despot quite capable of inflicting cruelty on the Israelite slaves.

The last ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty was Queen Sebekneferu, who had no children.  [That is pronounced So-Beck-NEF-er-ew.] She would have been the daughter of Pharaoh who "came down to wash herself at the river” (Exodus 2:5).  She was not down there to get clean.  She would have had a sumptuous bathroom at her palace for that.  She would have been taking a ceremonial bath, praying to the fertility river god Hapi for a baby; and when she saw this beautiful Hebrew boy floating in a basket, she would have regarded it as an answer to her prayers.  How else can we explain an Egyptian princess adopting a slave child and planning to make him the next pharaoh?

When Moses was 40 years of age, he killed an Egyptian while defending one of his own people (Exodus 2:11-15).  When Pharaoh heard of the incident, Moses was forced to flee to the land of Midian, and when Amenemhet III died, Sebekneferu assumed the throne and ruled for four years.  When she died, the dynasty ended and was succeeded by the Thirteenth Dynasty.  “Her reign, occasioned presumably by the absence of a male heir to the throne, marks the virtual end of a great epoch in Egyptian history.”

From the historical records we also learn that Asiatic slaves were used during the Twelfth Dynasty.  The Cambridge Ancient History notes that the Asiatic inhabitants of the country at this period must have been many times more numerous than has generally been supposed.  It is not known whether or not this largely slave population could have played a part in hastening, or in paving the way for, the impending Hyksos domination of Egypt.  However, Encyclopedia Britannica reports that Asian slaves, whether as merchandise or prisoners of war, were plentiful in wealthy Egyptian households. [End of quote]

Note that “Asiatic slaves” would include the Hebrews.

A headline in vol. 38 of Creation magazine’s quarterly issue from 2016 states, “Goliath’s City Gate Found.”  Excerpts follow:

Archaeologists have unearthed the gate and fortified wall of Gath, an ancient Philistine city in Israel.  This was the home of Goliath (I Samuel 17:24).  Later, David fled to Gath to escape Saul, and, feigning madness, made marks on the gates of the city (I Samuel 21:12-13). 

Other recent discoveries at the site include the earliest decipherable Philistine inscriptions, containing two names similar to the original form of the name Goliath, plus clear evidence of an earthquake—an event mentioned in Amos 1:1.  Ongoing archaeological discoveries continue to support Biblical history. [End of quote]

GodSaidManSaid carries additional features regarding the subjects mentioned in this article, along with a host of additional subjects running the gamut, from Adam and Eve to the Cross of Calvary’s hill, to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and beyond. 

If it’s all true, then John 11:25-26 is true:

25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

If it’s all true, then Romans 8:28 is true:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

If it’s all true, then Revelation 21:1-5 is true:

1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

Relax, sons and daughters of God, the Word of God IS true and righteous altogether, a place to build a life that will last forever.

GOD SAID, Genesis 41:45:

And Pharaoh called Joseph''s name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

GOD SAID, Exodus 2:1-10:

1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river''s brink.

4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river''s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.

6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews'' children.

7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh''s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

8 And Pharaoh''s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child''s mother.

9 And Pharaoh''s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.

10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh''s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

GOD SAID, I Samuel 17:4-10:

4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.

7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver''s beam; and his spear''s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.

8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.

9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.

10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. 

MAN SAID: No serious person of any academic stature would embrace the Biblical “record” as anything but myth.  Everybody knows that.

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

“Goliath’s Gate Found,” Creation Magazine, Vol. 38 No. 1, 2016

Ashton, J., & Westacott, M., The Big Argument: Does God Exist?, Master Books, 2006

GodSaidManSaid, “Joseph’s Famine”

GodSaidManSaid, “The World’s Oldest Alphabet and Joseph & the Coat of Many Colors”

Tel-Aviv University, “Biblical Military Campaigns Reconstructed Using Geomagnetic Field Data,” Science Daily, October 25, 2022

 

 

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