Hello everybody, this is FinishTall23, back with another video.
In this video, I'm going to be going through several examples of biblical archaeology,
and I've discussed this subject on my channel in the past,
but in this video, I intend to reassure the Christians out there,
but to also show the non-Christians that the Bible is historically accurate.
And this is because the skeptics of the world view the Bible as a fictional document
with stories which they believe were just made up.
And many of those who reject the Bible don't believe that it was written
until about the 7th or 6th century BCE, at least the Old Testament,
nearly a millennium after the time of Moses and the Exodus.
However, this could be further from the truth, as I'm about to demonstrate,
because the evidence shows otherwise.
It shows that the stories of the Bible, whether it's the Exodus from Egypt,
the conquest of Canaan, the period of the judges, the existence of Solomon's temple,
the time of the kings, the early monotheism of Israel, or whatever it is,
these were all historical facts. These are actual things that actually happened.
Now, because there are a lot of examples to go through, this is neither an exhaustive list
or a video where I describe every little single detail of these discoveries.
Instead, I'll just be giving several examples, just going through this list,
and for each example, I'll give a short description of what this discovery points to
and why it's important and what it is.
So without further ado, here is the amazingness of biblical archaeology, and here is the list.
So the first thing is that the remains of the cities of Sodom and Morah have been found
in the exact location where the Bible describes it, near the southern shore of the Dead Sea.
And in it, there are unnaturally shaped structures covered in ash,
there's balls of brimstone scattered throughout the desert nearby,
and piles of salt scattered through the sand,
again, fitting the biblical description of the remains of Sodom and Morah.
The Egyptian execration texts were fragments of pottery or stone which list the enemies of the pharaoh,
and the earliest of these texts are dated by Egyptologists between the 20th century and the 18th century BCE,
and they mention biblical places such as Dan, Aphek, Shechem, Tel Hazor, Akshaf, and Jerusalem.
There's also a papyrus which dated from the reign of Sobekhotep III of Egypt,
which has a list of slave names, and among the names is Shiphrah,
which is the name of a Hebrew midwife mentioned in Exodus chapter 1,
so it's early evidence of an actual biblical character.
And then at the city of Avaris, which is underneath the city of Pi-Ramesses in Egypt,
which is where the Bible says that the Israelites were settled,
a tomb was found containing a statue of a person with a Semitic mushroom haircut,
and with faded paint that showed with examination that the original paint color was red hair,
yellow skin with multiple colors of paint along the coat of the man.
And the tomb also contains no bones whatsoever, and is placed alongside 11 other tombs.
And this supports the description of Joseph and Joseph's tomb,
and the other 11 sons of Jacob in the book of Genesis.
Also in Avaris, artifacts such as the bronze daggers,
which would fit the daggers which are said to have been held by people like Levi in the book of Genesis,
Middle Bronze Age Canaanite pottery, and burials of Semitic men sideways,
all show evidence that the Hebrews were present in the land of Goshen, which is where Avaris is.
There's also the Mer-Wer, or the Great Canal, which was a waterway built during the time of Ammon-Amhot III at the Fayum Depression,
which is a place that connects the Nile River to Lake Moeris in Egypt.
And this canal is also known as the Bar Yusef, or the Waterway of Joseph.
The archaeological evidence also shows that the Semitic people living in Avaris
left abruptly at the end of the 13th Dynasty of Egypt
prior to the arrival of the other Semitic people known as the Hyksos.
And about the same time, pits in Avaris, known as the Plague Pits, were found
where bodies are just piled in without proper burial,
which could be evidence of the plagues of Egypt.
Also at Jebel El-Lawz, which is a mountain in Saudi Arabia,
which would be the actual location of Mount Sinai in the land of Midian,
because Midian is the land of Arabia,
that's where the Bible says Mount Sinai is in the Bible, not in the Sinai Peninsula.
But at this mountain, Jebel El-Lawz, hundreds of tools and pottery shards have been found,
as well as petroglyphs of Apis and Hathor, the Egyptian cow gods.
There's also a split rock and trace sandaled landmarks,
and an altar made of piled stones at the base of the mountain,
all fulfilling the description of what the Bible says about Mount Sinai.
In the city of Jericho, the walls were found to have collapsed
around the 15th century BCE by an earthquake,
and damage from fire at grain storages at Jericho have also been discovered,
showing the destruction of Jericho.
The city of Hazor in Canaan contains a palace which was burned down in the 15th century BCE,
and there's also a cuneiform tablet which was found there,
which bears the name of Yavin, which was the name of the king of Hazor in Joshua chapter 11.
Also, over 200 scarab seals have been found in Egypt with the name of a Hyksos ruler named Sheshi,
which is also the name of an Anakite who was driven out of the city of Hebron by Joshua, according to Joshua 15.
So we see an order of events, the exodus, and then the coming into the land of Canaan,
and then the driving out of certain groups like the Anakites, who would later invade Egypt as a Hyksos.
An Egyptian text from the reign of Amenhotep III, who reigned in about the 14th century BCE,
according to traditional Egyptian chronology,
mentions a nomadic people called the Shasu, who worshiped Yahu,
which is a shortened form of the name of God in the Bible, Yehovah.
Now a covenant standing stone, which the Bible says Joshua set up at Shechem,
still remains in front of the ruins of the Temple of Baal-Bereith, or the Lord of the Covenant,
in the city of Shechem at the archaeological site of Tel Balata.
There's also an ostracon called the TT99 ostracon, which was found in Luxor's tomb of Ceniferi,
which contains proto-Canaanite Semitic letters written for use of a mnemonic device,
showing the presence, or at least the importance of the proto-Canaanite language,
the Semitic languages in the land of Egypt.
The ivory pomegranate is an ornamental artifact from the 13th century BCE,
which is made out of hippopotamus bone, which bears an inscription in Paleo-Hebrew that says,
belonging to the house of Yehovah, holy to the priest.
And this is important because in Exodus 28, verse 34,
it tells the priest to have a pomegranate as an ornament on the hem of their garment,
and this was a common decoration in the tabernacle and later the temple.
Another pomegranate, this one made out of clay, was discovered recently in the city of Shiloh,
dating from about the 12th century BCE.
The Merneptah steel is one of the earliest known references to Israel itself.
Traditional Egyptology dating puts this steel at about 1200 BCE at the reign of the pharaoh Merneptah,
and in it, it refers to the conquest of Merneptah,
and in it, it says, Israel is laid waste and his seed is not.
The King James Bible leaves a Hebrew word, pim,
untranslated because the word was unknown because there was no actual known way to translate it,
but this is because it refers to a specific object, not to a word that we have in our English language.
It's actually a type of weight, which is mentioned in 1 Samuel, chapter 13, verse 21.
And several small stones were found weighing about 7.6 grams,
each with the word pim written on top in Phoenician letters and which date from about the 10th century BCE.
Another weight from about the 10th century BCE was recently discovered,
near the Mount of Olives with the Hebrew word beka written on it,
which is another measurement mentioned in the Bible in Exodus, chapter 38, as being half a shekel.
A potsherd found in the city of Tel-es-Sophi, which is the modern name for the biblical name of Gath,
which presents a name etymologically related to the Hebrew name for Goliath, which would be Goyot,
which provides evidence that this was a name used in the area of Gath at the time,
and it also dates from about the 10th century BCE.
One of the Amarna letters, which is known as EA-256,
is written by a king in Canaan named Mut-baol,
which etymologically has the same meaning as Ishmael,
meaning the man of Baal, who was the son of Saul in the Bible,
who was ordained by Abner as a king in 2 Samuel, chapter 2.
And other similarities include that both Mut-baol and Ishmael
moved the area of rule after the death of their father to the Transjordan region,
which shows evidence of the existence of Ishmael.
The Misha steel, which is also called the Moabite stone,
was a 9th century BCE steel created by King Mesha of Moab,
which claims that the god Chemosh allowed the Moabites to subjugate the nation of Israel.
And the text mentions Omri, the king of Israel, who was the sixth predecessor to Ahab.
And in fact, the story contained in the Misha steel itself describes the events in the Bible in 2 Kings, chapter 3.
The text also contains a phrase which has alternately been translated as either House of David or Balak,
which again confirms both biblical characters.
It also mentions the name of the god of Israel, Yehovah.
And speaking of Balak, there's also something called the Deir allah inscription,
which specifically mentions Balaam, the son of Beor, by name,
who was the rebellious prophet in the Book of Numbers.
It also makes reference to Shaddai, which is the Hebrew word for almighty.
The kirk monoliths are two Assyrian stelae from the 9th century BCE,
which describe the Battle of Karkar during the reign of the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser III,
and which mentions that Assyria fought against Ahahabu Sirailah, or Ahab of Israel.
Also from the reign of Shalmaneser III is an object called the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser,
which is a sculpture from the city of Calhu, also called Nimrud,
which depicts a king offering tribute to the king of Assyria with a description that identifies the king as Jehu, the son of Omri.
Again, it's another king of Israel.
The Melkart inscription, which dates from the 9th century BCE,
mentions Ben-Hadad of Syria, who was also mentioned in the Bible.
The Tel Dan stelae from the 8th or 9th century BCE is an Aramaic inscription,
which describes an Aramaic king fighting against two enemy kings,
Joram, the king of Israel, and Ahaziah, the house of David.
Now, if the Meshe stelae inscription from earlier, which I mentioned earlier,
is properly translated as Balak instead of David,
this would be the earliest known mention of the house of David,
but it still mentions it as early as the 9th century BCE.
And then a late 9th century BCE shrine found at the Sinai Peninsula known as the Kuntalit Arhud
has inscriptions which talk about Yehovah, but also pagan gods and goddesses such as Baal and Asherah.
And this confirms the biblical story of the corruption of the Israelites worshipping Asherah and Baal and other false gods along with the true god Yehovah.
The Nimrud Slav is an inscription by the Assyrian king Adad-Nirari III from the late 9th century BCE,
which mentions the Assyrians subjecting the kingdoms of Edom, Philistia, and the house of Omri, which would be Israel.
The Tel Elrima stelae is a stone tablet listing the military conquests of Adad-Nirari III,
which dates from the early 8th century BCE and which mentions Joash, the king of Samaria.
A clay seal dating from the 8th century BCE mentions Ahaz, the king of Judah, and identifies his father as Jotham.
Another clay seal from the 8th century BCE was recently discovered at the Temple Mount with the words Yeshayahu Nevi written on it.
And even though the last letter of the word Nevi is missing, if the final aleph was there, this would make the inscription Yeshayahu Nevi or Isaiah the prophet.
So there's evidence of the existence of Isaiah himself.
An inscription written on a lintel in the area of Siloam at the entrance of a tomb in Paleo-Hebrew written about the 8th century BCE talks about the royal steward of the king,
which fits the story in Isaiah 22 about Hezekiah's steward Shebna building himself a great tomb.
The Siloam inscription is a passage in an underground tunnel known as the Siloam Tunnel in the city of Jerusalem written in Paleo-Hebrew.
And the purpose of this tunnel was to bring water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam, which is mentioned in 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32, and it was built during the reign of Hezekiah.
The Calhu Palace Summary Inscription 7 is a clay tablet from the 8th century BCE during the reign of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III, which mentions both King Jehoahaz and the land of Judah.
From the Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III, the text known as 3R.9.350 refers to Menahem the Sumerian, who was a king of Israel.
One fragment of the Nimr tablet 3R.10.2.28-29 also mentions both Pekah of Israel and Azariah of Judah.
The Ezekiel inscription from the late 8th century BCE is a tablet from the reign of Sennacherib of Assyria, which mentions Hezekiah the king of Judah.
Another bulla or a clay token, a clay seal, dating from the late 7th century BCE, or the early 7th century BCE rather, has the name of Gemariahu ben Shaphan written on it, which is the name of the son of a temple scribe named Shaphan given in Jeremiah 36.10.
There is another clay seal, which is found in Jerusalem from the 7th century BCE, which bears the name of Yahukal, son of Shelomiahu, son of Shebi on it in Hebrew, which is another name of a biblical character mentioned in Jeremiah 37.
An inscription from the early 6th century BCE found at the temple at Kirbet Bet Lehi has an inscription written in Paleo-Hebrew with the earliest example of Jerusalem in Hebrew.
And the text reads, I am Yehovah thy Lord. I will accept the cities of Judah and will redeem Jerusalem. Obsolve us, O merciful God. Obsolve us, O Yehovah.
The Masaad Hesh of Yahu, Ostrachan, is a pottery shard with an extensive description of the observance of the Sabbath, which dates from the 7th century BCE.
The Kataefhanom scrolls are two silver scrolls found in burial chambers near Jerusalem, which contain the priestly blessing from the book of Numbers written on them.
Ostrachan 18, which is also known as the House of Galway, Ostrachan, is a pottery shard from the 6th century BCE, which references Jerusalem's temple.
An inscription from the early 1st century mentions Pontius Pilate as a prefect of Judea, and although Pilate is attested outside of the New Testament by historians such as Josephus and Tacitus, this establishes his existence even further.
The Pool of Bethesda, which is mentioned in John chapter 5, specifically saying that it has five porches in verse 2, has also been discovered having five porches surrounding it.
And this is important because by the time of Hadrian, the Roman emperor, the Pool of Bethesda had been changed into an Asclepion, which is a healing temple dedicated to the Greek god Asclepius and Serapis.
So this shows an early authorship of the book of John, because Hadrian lived about 130 AD.
The Nazareth inscription is an edict made by the Roman emperor himself against grave robbing or removing bodies from graves dating from the 1st century in Nazareth, and this may have been Caesar's reaction to the resurrection, thus providing archaeological evidence for the resurrection.
The temple warning inscription is a tablet dating from the mid-1st century from the 2nd temple written in Greek, warning to pagans not to enter into the temple as to defile it.
And this is important because it supports the claim of the Jews in Acts chapter 21 that Paul defiled the temple by bringing Trophimus into it.
The James Ossuary is a box with an Aramaic inscription written on it that says, James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus, referring of course to James the brother of Jesus in the New Testament.
And the list could go on and on. I've given things just scratching the surface. There are thousands of examples of archaeological findings which corroborate what the Bible says.
But one thing is for sure, just from this list which I've made, that it is the most trustworthy ancient text of what scripture says about history, about what has happened since 1600 BCE to the time of Jesus.
Everything that it says is absolutely true, and we can see that there's evidence for Sodom and Gomorrah, there's evidence for the slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt, there's evidence for the exodus from Egypt, the 40 years in the wilderness, the conquest of Canaan, the period of the judges,
Solomon's temple, the existence of ancient Israelite kings, the worship of Yehovah centuries before the skeptics say that the biblical religion developed.
So don't be deceived by the world, don't be deceived by the atheists out there who will try to tell you that the Bible is not true.
This is only the beginning. Even in the 19th century, people doubted that places like Nineveh and Babylon, that the Hittite empire ever existed.
But however, as we continue to discover new things year by year, since the mid 1800s until now, we continue to discover things that corroborate the Bible every single day, every single year.
And I don't expect that we'll run out of discoveries anytime soon. We continue to dig in the dirt. People continue to find things all the time.
A lot of these things which I mentioned on this list were only discovered recently in the last couple of years.
And I could have gone into other things like the remains of Noah's Ark, I could have mentioned the layout and remains of the temple in Jerusalem, or a multitude of other people and places which are mentioned by ancient texts, which archaeology confirms.
However, like I said, this isn't meant to be a complete list. I'm not going to go through every single thing in this video.
I just simply want to reassure you, the Christian out there, against the nonsense of those who question our faith, whether they're atheists or just people from other religions, know that the Bible is the truth.
And I think that's it for this video. I think I'm going to make another video that's pretty similar to this, that's just a list of things, but it's not going to be like this format.
It's probably just going to show the pictures of whatever the stone is, or the inscription in Hebrew, or the clay seal, or whatever it is.
I'll probably just make a video like that sometime soon. I don't know when to upload it. I'll try and get it done as soon as possible, but it'll just be the pictures, basically, and not me just talking to the camera.
So, thank you everybody for watching, and goodbye.