All posts tagged: archaeology and the Bible

It’s confirmed: The Moabite Stone does mention King David

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The Mesha or Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 and is currently on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The monument, which is 3.8 feet (1.15 meters) high, provides a description of the battle, from a Moabite perspective, that King Mesha had with Israel, an event recorded in 2 Kings 3. Discovered 17 miles east of the Dead Sea, the stone was heavily damaged after discovery but not before researchers created a paper mache copy. Since its discovery, the stone has been extensively studied, because of its connection to the Biblical story. Many claimed it actually referred to King David, Jehovah and the altar of David. However, due to the damage, this has been disputed, because in several instances letters were missing, and researchers were left filling in the blanks with educated guesses. There are some archaeologists who don’t believe that King David and King Solomon actually existed, and this stone provided concrete evidence they did. In 2015, researchers from the University of California’s West Semitic Research Project took Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) scans …

Have archaeologists found the location of Mt Horeb, where Moses delivered the Ten Commandments?

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There has been some interesting archaeological developments recently challenging long held Christian views on Israel’s exodus from Egypt under Moses. If you want to find archaeological evidence of Israel’s departure from Egypt, you need to look about 300 years earlier to the reign of Pharaoh Ahmose I (1550-1525 BC) rather than Pharaoh Ramesses II (1279 BC to 1213/12 BC) who has traditionally been considered the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The Ipuwer Papyrus dated to 1550 BC, provides a breakdown of several of the plagues mentioned in Book of Exodus. And now archaeologists are suggesting there is evidence of the location of Mt Horeb, also referred to as Mt Sinai, where Moses delivered the Ten Commandments, but it requires a major rethink of where it took place. Most Christians believe that Mt Horeb is located somewhere in today’s Sinai Peninsula. Though there has been no archaeological evidence supporting this, that isn’t necessarily unexpected because the Israelis were living in tents and would have left a very small footprint for archaeologists to discover. But according to researchers …

Apostle Peter’s house in Bethaisda discovered?

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Archaeologists working with Nyack College’s Center for the Study of Ancient Judaism and Christianity and Israel’s Kinnert College recently announced they had discovered what was thought to be the Apostle Peter’s home in Bethsaida. What the archaeologists actually discovered was the remains of an ancient Byzantium church that they believe was originally built over top of the birth home of Peter and Andrew, disciples of Christ. Though Peter eventually moved to nearby Capernaum, the Gospel of John reports that he his brother were originally from Bethsaida: 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. (John 1:44 NASV) The archaeological team led by Mordechai Aviam is referring to the Church of the Apostle referenced by a man named Willibald in 725 AD. He was the Bishop of Eichstaett located in Bavaria. During a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he wrote of visiting the Church of the Apostle in Bethsaida while sailing from Capernaum to Kuris on the Sea of Galilee. He noted specifically the church was built over the original home of Peter and …