Is the Old Testament Reliable?
If the Bible is the word of God, then of course it should be true and reliable on spiritual, social, and moral matters. But it must also be reliable on matters of historical fact. By showing the Bible is correct on historical events does not prove the Bible is God's word. But it can silence critics on issues of reliability. On the other hand, one can make the claim that if the Bible is accurate on historical events, then the authors had a framework to accurately record events and could be expected to be accurate on matters of divine intervention, like the parting of the Red Sea, the Egyptian plagues, and the burning bush.
In this regard, the Old Testament is unique as a historical record because it is the only recorded chronicle where negative events are openly portrayed. Civilizations generally only record military victories or embellish military defeats. You don't see this in the Old Testament documents, rather you see a long litany of embarrassing events and military defeats. The Old Testament is unique in many other ways, of most importance is the concept of one God who is creator of heaven and earth. Worship, of course, was central to ancient civilizations. While all of the surrounding civilizations had a plethora of gods and goddesses, the nation of Israel was the first to depart from this concept, to worship the one true God. No small thing.
Many have made claims that some of the events of the Old Testament are plagiarized from other cultures. The most obvious example is Noah's flood. Tales of a great flood have been found in ancient writings, on almost every continent in the world. So many skeptics claim that the Bible writers simply plagiarized them, seeing many predate the Old Testament. But the truth is when two separate cultures have the same story in their folklore, their ancestors must have either experienced the same event, or they both descended from a common family, which passed the story down through generations. The theory that they are plagiarized fails to explain how such similar stories emerged on separate continents.
On matters of divine intervention, the most common objection that I've heard is one of experience. If God parted the Red Sea and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, why don't we see these miraculous events happening anymore? But the fact is, we do see these events happening in our lifetime. The most obvious is the rise of Israel as a nation.
Lets start with the prophesy from Ezekiel which predicts the destruction of Israel and the scattering of the people. Ezekiel 11:16-17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.”’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”’ the Books of Joel, Hosea and Amos contain similar prophesies.
The first part of this prophesy was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when the Roman siege ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Determined to avoid another rebellion in the future, the Roman Emperor, Titus, dispersed the Jews that remained. Israel ceased to be a self-governing nation. For 2,000 years, the Jewish people lived in communities around the world, often under heavy persecution. After the Holocaust, the United Nations was determined to find a sanctuary for the Jewish people. The region of Palestine was selected and debated. Also debated was the name of the new nation. Then on May 14, 1948, a vote by the United Nations gave birth to the state of Israel, completing the prophetic words of the prophet Isaiah, that the nation would be born in a day. "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?" (Isa. 66:8).
Several epic miracles have taken place so far. First, the fulfillment of the complete destruction of Israel, the Temple and the scattering of the people. The greater miracle is that after 2,000 years, the Jewish culture and religion was still intact. Anthropologists agree that cultures and religions survive as long as they are geographically concentrated. Once a people disperse, they are always assimilated into the existing culture of that nation or region. A good example is my family. My mother and father came to America from Cuba. My brothers, sister, and I all learned Spanish and religion from them. But surprisingly, none of our children speak fluid Spanish, practice my parents' religion, or eat Cuban food for that matter. The rule is generally two or three generations and the culture has seriously diminished. In the case of the Jews, the passing of 2,000 years did not diminish their culture, nor did they engage in interracial marriage. This is astonishing.
The final and probably the greatest of all these events begins just 12 short hours after the pronouncement of the United Nations. It was then that the entire Arab world declared war on the infant Jewish nation. In his book The History of Middle East Wars author John Westwood writes, “But they were to attack from several directions against Jewish forces that were tiny, and not so much ill-equipped as non-equipped.” Despite the overwhelming odds, the Arabs were routed in a miracle of Biblical proportions. Following the War of Independence in 1948, was the ‘Suez Affair‘ against Egypt in 1956, the Six Day War victory of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War victory of 1973. In every case they were victorious despite overwhelming odds. And all record unusual events such as the Egyptian tank commander in the Sinai Desert who surrendered to a vastly inferior Israeli force on the second day of the Six Day War, because a desert mirage made him see hundreds of Israeli tanks where there were no more than a dozen. Taken alone, any one of these events is enough to convince a skeptic that a miracle has taken place. Combined, they are overwhelming evidence that miracles on Biblical proportions still take place and that God will fulfill his promise to Israel.
Returning to our original question of the reliability of the Old Testament on historical facts, below we have several examples that highlight the indisputable accuracy of the Old Testament which is also known as the Tanakh or the Masoretic text. It consists of:
Ancient Manuscript Terms
Old Testament Documents
The Septuagint
The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament which originated in Alexandria, Egypt. between 300-200 BC. It was widely used among Greek speaking Jews that had spread throughout the Roman empire. According to an ancient document called the Letter of Aristeas, it is believed that 70 Jewish scholars were commissioned during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus to translate the Bible from Hebrew to Greek. The term “Septuagint” means seventy in Latin. The text got its name in recognition of these 70 scholars. In his book New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell asserts that Jesus and His disciples quoted from the Septuagint.
Dead Sea Scrolls
Recovered in a cave in Qumran in 1948, the Dead Sea Scrolls comprises roughly 825-872 documents dated from the third century B.C. to 68 A.D. The library contains some well preserved works and fragments or scraps of parchment of other documents. The Dead Sea Scrolls represents nearly one thousand different compositions. They are written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Approximately 30% of the scrolls consist of fragments from the Old Testament, including all the books except the Book of Esther and the Book of Nehemiah. But most significant was that an entire manuscript of Isaiah was found dating to 75 B.C. Old Testament scholars were able to compare this text of Isaiah with the earliest existing copy of Isaiah dating to 1008 A.D. They concluded that 95% was accurate word for word. The 5% variations consisted of omitted letters or misspelled words. The significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls is that it bridged an 1,100 year gap from the then earliest manuscript, and despite bridging such a large gap in the manuscript record, our translations were extremely accurate.
Nash Papyrus
Nash Papyrus is a collection of four papyrus fragments acquired in Egypt by W. L. Nash. The fragments were the oldest Hebrew fragments known at that time that contained certain passages later included in the Bible. Initially dated to 2nd century A.D., but now dated to 100-150 B.C. They include parts of the Masoretic text, specifically the Ten Commandments and the Shema Yisrael prayer.
The Old Testament – Extra-Biblical Accounts
The Shiloah Inscription
This inscribed text was found in the Siloam tunnel wall which brings water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam, located in Jerusalem. The inscription records the construction of the tunnel by Hezekiah, which has been dated to the 8th century B.C.
"Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city - are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?" (2 Kings 20:20).
The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
This black limestone relief sculpture is one of the most important discoveries in Biblical Archaeology. This panel depicts the Hebrew king Jehu, or possibly one of his servants, bringing gifts to Shalmaneser III and kneeling at his feet. This was prophesied because of Jehu’s failure to eradicate all false worship in Israel that Jeroboam instituted. The stone reads: “The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: I received from him silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for a king, and spears.” See 2 Kings 10:31-36.
Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder
This clay cylinder measuring 20.8cm is one of three cylinders found in the ruins of ancient Babylon that describe several building projects by king Nebuchadnezzar including the rebuilding of the temple of Shamash, the Akkadian sun god, in Sippar See Daniel 4:30 – “Is this not Babylon that I have built?”
Babylonian Chronicles
The Babylonian Chronicles record events in ancient Babylon dating from about 750 B.C. to 280 B.C. The ABC 5 tablet is part of that chronicle and records events from 605-594 B.C. including Nebuchadnezzar II's military campaigns in the west. It also records the defeat of Nineveh in 612 B.C. and the fall of the Assyrian Empire. It records Nebuchadnezzar's rise to power, it records the removing of Jehoiachin, King of Judah and inserting Zedekiah as king in his place, as recorded in Scripture, and it records the capture of Jerusalem on the 16th of March, 598 B.C. See 2 Kings 25:8-11.
Cyrus Cylinder
The Cyrus Cylinder speaks of Cyrus the Persian's conquest of Babylon. The Cylinder's text has traditionally been seen by biblical scholars as corroborating the Biblical account wherein Cyrus allows the Jewish captives to return to their homelands, following their Babylonian captivity. Though the text is not specific as it refers to the restoration of cult sanctuaries and repatriation of deported peoples, it can be inferred that this included the Jewish captives. The Bible records that “the decree of Cyrus” gave permission to the Hebrew captives to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild their Temple. See 2 Chronicles 36:22-23.
Moabite Stone
This stele (inscribed stone) corroborates the story found in 2 Kings 3:4–8 of the Moabites paying tribute to Israel. It is the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to the kingdom of Israel; it bears the earliest extra-biblical reference to the house of David and Israel's God Yahweh. Time Magazine, December 18, 1995, Volume 146, No. 25 notes that "The skeptics’ claim that King David never existed is now hard to defend." Found in 1868 at the ruins of Dibon, it was later broken and reconstructed, and is now in the Louvre in Paris. In the Bible, it says that Mesha the king of Moab was paying tribute to Israel and that they suddenly stopped. This is King Mesha's account of the rebellion. See 2 Kings 3:5.
The Elephantine Papyri
The Elephantine Papyri is a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts dating from the fifth century B.C. They come from a Jewish community at Elephantine, the island in the Nile at the border of Nubia. The ‘Passover letter’ of 419 B.C. (discovered in 1907), which gives detailed instructions for properly keeping Passover, is in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The documents were first acquired in 1893 by New York journalist Charles Edwin Wilbour. After lying in a warehouse for more than 50 years, the papyri were shipped to the Egyptian Department of the Brooklyn Museum. It was at this time that scholars finally realized that “Wilbour had acquired the first Elephantine papyri.” The papyri are reported to confirm the account found in the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, specifically mentioning two people mentioned in the book of Nehemiah, Sanballat the Horonite and Johanan. See Nehemiah 2:19; 12:23.
Though there are literally thousands of archaeological and textual discoveries that support the accuracy of the Bible as a historical text, we only had room to cover a few. Never the less, Christians can say with confidence that the Bible is historically reliable and accurate.
Articles
Does Archaeology Support the Bible? Clifford Wilson
Does Archaeology Support The Book Of Mormon? Luke P. Wilson
The Dead Sea Scroll and Biblical Integrity Garry K. Brantley
In this regard, the Old Testament is unique as a historical record because it is the only recorded chronicle where negative events are openly portrayed. Civilizations generally only record military victories or embellish military defeats. You don't see this in the Old Testament documents, rather you see a long litany of embarrassing events and military defeats. The Old Testament is unique in many other ways, of most importance is the concept of one God who is creator of heaven and earth. Worship, of course, was central to ancient civilizations. While all of the surrounding civilizations had a plethora of gods and goddesses, the nation of Israel was the first to depart from this concept, to worship the one true God. No small thing.
Many have made claims that some of the events of the Old Testament are plagiarized from other cultures. The most obvious example is Noah's flood. Tales of a great flood have been found in ancient writings, on almost every continent in the world. So many skeptics claim that the Bible writers simply plagiarized them, seeing many predate the Old Testament. But the truth is when two separate cultures have the same story in their folklore, their ancestors must have either experienced the same event, or they both descended from a common family, which passed the story down through generations. The theory that they are plagiarized fails to explain how such similar stories emerged on separate continents.
On matters of divine intervention, the most common objection that I've heard is one of experience. If God parted the Red Sea and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, why don't we see these miraculous events happening anymore? But the fact is, we do see these events happening in our lifetime. The most obvious is the rise of Israel as a nation.
Lets start with the prophesy from Ezekiel which predicts the destruction of Israel and the scattering of the people. Ezekiel 11:16-17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.”’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”’ the Books of Joel, Hosea and Amos contain similar prophesies.
The first part of this prophesy was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when the Roman siege ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Determined to avoid another rebellion in the future, the Roman Emperor, Titus, dispersed the Jews that remained. Israel ceased to be a self-governing nation. For 2,000 years, the Jewish people lived in communities around the world, often under heavy persecution. After the Holocaust, the United Nations was determined to find a sanctuary for the Jewish people. The region of Palestine was selected and debated. Also debated was the name of the new nation. Then on May 14, 1948, a vote by the United Nations gave birth to the state of Israel, completing the prophetic words of the prophet Isaiah, that the nation would be born in a day. "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?" (Isa. 66:8).
Several epic miracles have taken place so far. First, the fulfillment of the complete destruction of Israel, the Temple and the scattering of the people. The greater miracle is that after 2,000 years, the Jewish culture and religion was still intact. Anthropologists agree that cultures and religions survive as long as they are geographically concentrated. Once a people disperse, they are always assimilated into the existing culture of that nation or region. A good example is my family. My mother and father came to America from Cuba. My brothers, sister, and I all learned Spanish and religion from them. But surprisingly, none of our children speak fluid Spanish, practice my parents' religion, or eat Cuban food for that matter. The rule is generally two or three generations and the culture has seriously diminished. In the case of the Jews, the passing of 2,000 years did not diminish their culture, nor did they engage in interracial marriage. This is astonishing.
The final and probably the greatest of all these events begins just 12 short hours after the pronouncement of the United Nations. It was then that the entire Arab world declared war on the infant Jewish nation. In his book The History of Middle East Wars author John Westwood writes, “But they were to attack from several directions against Jewish forces that were tiny, and not so much ill-equipped as non-equipped.” Despite the overwhelming odds, the Arabs were routed in a miracle of Biblical proportions. Following the War of Independence in 1948, was the ‘Suez Affair‘ against Egypt in 1956, the Six Day War victory of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War victory of 1973. In every case they were victorious despite overwhelming odds. And all record unusual events such as the Egyptian tank commander in the Sinai Desert who surrendered to a vastly inferior Israeli force on the second day of the Six Day War, because a desert mirage made him see hundreds of Israeli tanks where there were no more than a dozen. Taken alone, any one of these events is enough to convince a skeptic that a miracle has taken place. Combined, they are overwhelming evidence that miracles on Biblical proportions still take place and that God will fulfill his promise to Israel.
Returning to our original question of the reliability of the Old Testament on historical facts, below we have several examples that highlight the indisputable accuracy of the Old Testament which is also known as the Tanakh or the Masoretic text. It consists of:
Ancient Manuscript Terms
- Papyrus – Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant.
- Parchment – Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin. Its most common use is as the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is not tanned, but stretched, scraped, and dried under tension, creating a stiff white, yellowish or translucent animal skin. The finer qualities of parchment are called vellum. It is very reactive with changes in relative humidity and is not waterproof.
- Scroll – scroll is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper which has been written, drawn or painted upon for the purpose of transmitting information or using as a decoration. It is distinguished from a roll by virtue of being intended for repeated use rather than continuous, but once-only use of the roll. Scrolls in general have greater value.
- Codex – Similar to modern book formats today, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover. It was a Roman invention that replaced the scroll. During the second century, Christian texts began to be written down in books rather than on rolls; the name ‘codex’ was transferred to them. The pages that formed the earliest Christian books were made from the reeds of the papyrus plant.
Old Testament Documents
The Septuagint
The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament which originated in Alexandria, Egypt. between 300-200 BC. It was widely used among Greek speaking Jews that had spread throughout the Roman empire. According to an ancient document called the Letter of Aristeas, it is believed that 70 Jewish scholars were commissioned during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus to translate the Bible from Hebrew to Greek. The term “Septuagint” means seventy in Latin. The text got its name in recognition of these 70 scholars. In his book New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell asserts that Jesus and His disciples quoted from the Septuagint.
Dead Sea Scrolls
Recovered in a cave in Qumran in 1948, the Dead Sea Scrolls comprises roughly 825-872 documents dated from the third century B.C. to 68 A.D. The library contains some well preserved works and fragments or scraps of parchment of other documents. The Dead Sea Scrolls represents nearly one thousand different compositions. They are written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Approximately 30% of the scrolls consist of fragments from the Old Testament, including all the books except the Book of Esther and the Book of Nehemiah. But most significant was that an entire manuscript of Isaiah was found dating to 75 B.C. Old Testament scholars were able to compare this text of Isaiah with the earliest existing copy of Isaiah dating to 1008 A.D. They concluded that 95% was accurate word for word. The 5% variations consisted of omitted letters or misspelled words. The significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls is that it bridged an 1,100 year gap from the then earliest manuscript, and despite bridging such a large gap in the manuscript record, our translations were extremely accurate.
Nash Papyrus
Nash Papyrus is a collection of four papyrus fragments acquired in Egypt by W. L. Nash. The fragments were the oldest Hebrew fragments known at that time that contained certain passages later included in the Bible. Initially dated to 2nd century A.D., but now dated to 100-150 B.C. They include parts of the Masoretic text, specifically the Ten Commandments and the Shema Yisrael prayer.
The Old Testament – Extra-Biblical Accounts
The Shiloah Inscription
This inscribed text was found in the Siloam tunnel wall which brings water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam, located in Jerusalem. The inscription records the construction of the tunnel by Hezekiah, which has been dated to the 8th century B.C.
"Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city - are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?" (2 Kings 20:20).
The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
This black limestone relief sculpture is one of the most important discoveries in Biblical Archaeology. This panel depicts the Hebrew king Jehu, or possibly one of his servants, bringing gifts to Shalmaneser III and kneeling at his feet. This was prophesied because of Jehu’s failure to eradicate all false worship in Israel that Jeroboam instituted. The stone reads: “The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: I received from him silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for a king, and spears.” See 2 Kings 10:31-36.
Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder
This clay cylinder measuring 20.8cm is one of three cylinders found in the ruins of ancient Babylon that describe several building projects by king Nebuchadnezzar including the rebuilding of the temple of Shamash, the Akkadian sun god, in Sippar See Daniel 4:30 – “Is this not Babylon that I have built?”
Babylonian Chronicles
The Babylonian Chronicles record events in ancient Babylon dating from about 750 B.C. to 280 B.C. The ABC 5 tablet is part of that chronicle and records events from 605-594 B.C. including Nebuchadnezzar II's military campaigns in the west. It also records the defeat of Nineveh in 612 B.C. and the fall of the Assyrian Empire. It records Nebuchadnezzar's rise to power, it records the removing of Jehoiachin, King of Judah and inserting Zedekiah as king in his place, as recorded in Scripture, and it records the capture of Jerusalem on the 16th of March, 598 B.C. See 2 Kings 25:8-11.
Cyrus Cylinder
The Cyrus Cylinder speaks of Cyrus the Persian's conquest of Babylon. The Cylinder's text has traditionally been seen by biblical scholars as corroborating the Biblical account wherein Cyrus allows the Jewish captives to return to their homelands, following their Babylonian captivity. Though the text is not specific as it refers to the restoration of cult sanctuaries and repatriation of deported peoples, it can be inferred that this included the Jewish captives. The Bible records that “the decree of Cyrus” gave permission to the Hebrew captives to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild their Temple. See 2 Chronicles 36:22-23.
Moabite Stone
This stele (inscribed stone) corroborates the story found in 2 Kings 3:4–8 of the Moabites paying tribute to Israel. It is the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to the kingdom of Israel; it bears the earliest extra-biblical reference to the house of David and Israel's God Yahweh. Time Magazine, December 18, 1995, Volume 146, No. 25 notes that "The skeptics’ claim that King David never existed is now hard to defend." Found in 1868 at the ruins of Dibon, it was later broken and reconstructed, and is now in the Louvre in Paris. In the Bible, it says that Mesha the king of Moab was paying tribute to Israel and that they suddenly stopped. This is King Mesha's account of the rebellion. See 2 Kings 3:5.
The Elephantine Papyri
The Elephantine Papyri is a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts dating from the fifth century B.C. They come from a Jewish community at Elephantine, the island in the Nile at the border of Nubia. The ‘Passover letter’ of 419 B.C. (discovered in 1907), which gives detailed instructions for properly keeping Passover, is in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The documents were first acquired in 1893 by New York journalist Charles Edwin Wilbour. After lying in a warehouse for more than 50 years, the papyri were shipped to the Egyptian Department of the Brooklyn Museum. It was at this time that scholars finally realized that “Wilbour had acquired the first Elephantine papyri.” The papyri are reported to confirm the account found in the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, specifically mentioning two people mentioned in the book of Nehemiah, Sanballat the Horonite and Johanan. See Nehemiah 2:19; 12:23.
Though there are literally thousands of archaeological and textual discoveries that support the accuracy of the Bible as a historical text, we only had room to cover a few. Never the less, Christians can say with confidence that the Bible is historically reliable and accurate.
Articles
Does Archaeology Support the Bible? Clifford Wilson
Does Archaeology Support The Book Of Mormon? Luke P. Wilson
The Dead Sea Scroll and Biblical Integrity Garry K. Brantley