Teach the Controversy: Question Belief!
The Historical Facts of the Bible
Abstract
An internet Christian auntie tells us that the bible is confirmed by historical events recorded outside the bible. Out of the whole of the Christian bible, only 18 points can be found that were supposedly historical, and several of those are simply myths from other countries. The writers of the books of the bible incorporated some real events drawn from records available to them, that is plain, but it no more confirms the supernatural truth of the other parts than the historical setting of the film Gladiator confirms the historical reality of its hero, Maximus. The Romans had many Maximuses but this gladiator was not one of them. He is fictional. So is most of the bible.
© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated: Friday, July 30, 1999
September 2004
Is the Bible Historical?
One of the internet aunties tells us that the bible is confirmed by historical events recorded outside the bible. It most definitely is, they assure us, and offer us their list.
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The world-wide flood described in Genesis 6-9 is the most documented biblical event, and Babylonian documents have been discovered which describe this flood. What is more, the Sumerian lists of kings showed they reigned for supernaturally long times before the flood, but afterwards they had more typical reign lengths, just like the biblical Patriarchs.
The bible took the myth from these Mesopotamian myths, but no one but a Christian would claim they were history.
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The 11th tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic records an ark, animals taken on the ark, birds sent out during the course of the flood, the ark landing on a mountain, and a sacrifice offered after the ark landed.
The bible took the Noah myth from this Mesopotamian myth, but again no one but a Christian would claim it was history.
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The Story of Adapa tells of a test for immortality involving food, similar to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Are these Christians claiming that the Garden of Eden is history? These are myths!
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The confusion of language in the biblical account of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) is apparently also confirmed in Sumerian tablets, except that there speech was confused by the god Enki, lord of wisdom. The Babylonians had a similar account.
They seem now to be claiming that the god Enki is historical. Astonishing!
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The campaign into Israel by Pharaoh Shishak (1 Kg 14:25-26), is recorded on the walls of the Temple of Amun in Thebes, Egypt.
The Egyptian king is Shoshenq. Only Christians are convinced that Shoshenq is Shishak. The reference could be historical, but it is an assumption to believe that the event was recorded by a contemporary and was not just remembered in legend.
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The revolt of Moab against Israel (2 Kg 1:1; 3:4-27), recorded on the Mesha Inscription.
The Jewish scriptures only begin to show signs of history in the Deuteronomic history and the reason is that the authors were using Assyrian and Babylonian archives. It is history but not supernatural history!
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Fall of Samaria (2 Kg 17:3-6,24; 18:9-11) to Sargon II, king of Assyria, as recorded on his palace walls.
Ditto
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The defeat of Ashdod by Sargon II (Isa 20:1), as recorded on his palace walls.
Ditto
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The campaign of the Assyrian king Sennacherib against Judah (2 Kg 18:13-16), as recorded on the Taylor Prism.
Ditto
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The siege of Lachish by Sennacherib (2 Kg 18:14,17), as recorded on the Lachish reliefs.
Ditto
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The assassination of Sennacherib by his own sons (2 Kg 19:37), as recorded in the annals of his son Esarhaddon.
Ditto
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The fall of Nineveh as predicted by the prophets Nahum and Zephaniah (Zeph 2:13-15), recorded on the Tablet of Nabopolasar.
Ditto
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Fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (2 Kg 24:10-14), as recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.
Ditto
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The captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in Babylon (2 Kg 24:15-16), as recorded on the Babylonian Ration Records.
Ditto
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The fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians (Dan 5:30-31), as recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder.
No scholar denies that Daniel wrote many years after this event and knew it as history. It was not prophecy. The author of Daniel had, or pretended to have, Persian archives in Aramaic as his source. It is history but not supernatural.
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The freeing of captives in Babylon by Cyrus the Great (Ezra 1:1-4; 6:3-4), as recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder.
The author had, or pretended to have, Persian Chancellery documents in Aramaic. It is again history but not supernatural.
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The existence of Jesus as recorded by Josephus, Suetonius, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, the Talmud, and Lucian.
Few people see these records as confirmations of a historical Jesus as opposed to a movement based on the idea. People worshipped Hercules as a historical figure. Are we therefore to accept Hercules as historical?
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Forcing Jews to leave Rome during the reign of Claudius (41-54 AD) (Acts 18:2), as recorded by Suetonius.
Historical, yes. Suetonius was writing history, after all, but there is nothing supernatural about it.
Out of the whole of the Christian bible, only 18 points can be found that were supposedly historical, and several of those are simply myths from other countries.
The writers of the books of the bible incorporated some real events drawn from records available to them, that is plain, but it no more confirms the supernatural truth of the other parts than the historical setting of the film Gladiator confirms the historical reality of its hero, Maximus. The Romans had many Maximuses but this gladiator was not one of them. He is fictional. So is most of the bible.
