Archæology and the Bible

THE POLITARCHS OF THESSALONICA. AN ALTAR TO UNKNOWN GODS. AN INSCRIPTION FROM DELPHI AND THE DATE OF PAUL’S CONTACT WITH GALLIO. SOME EPISTLES FROM EGYPT. INSCRIPTIONS MENTIONIN...

The following code of laws was inscribed by order of Hammurapi, of the first dynasty of Babylon (2104-2061 B. C.), on a block of black diorite nearly eight feet in height and se...

SITUATION. GIHON. CAVE-DWELLERS. THE EL-AMARNA PERIOD. JEBUSITE JERUSALEM. THE CITY OF DAVID: Millo. David’s reign. SOLOMON’S JERUSALEM: Site of Solomon’s buildings. Solomon’s t...

GUDEA AND CEDAR-WOOD FOR HIS PALACE. THE EPONYM CANON. THE SEAL OF SHEMA. SHISHAK’S LIST OF CONQUERED ASIATIC CITIES. ASHURNASIRPAL’S DESCRIPTION OF HIS EXPEDITION TO MEDITERRAN...

THE LAND. THE PRESERVATION OF ANTIQUITIES. EGYPTIAN DISCOVERIES. DECIPHERMENT. CHRONOLOGY. OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY: The pre-dynastic period. The archaic period. The old kingdom....

THE LAND. THE PRESERVATION OF ANTIQUITIES. THE DISCOVERY OF ANTIQUITIES: By Benjamin of Tudela. By Rich. By Botta and Place. By Layard. By Loftus and Rawlinson. By Oppert and Ra...

(Practically all the remainder of Tablet V is as yet undiscovered. From a very broken fragment, preserved in the British Museum, it appears that when the gods saw the work of Ma...

THE EARLY STONE AGE. THE LATE STONE AGE. THE AMORITES. THE CANAANITES. EGYPTIAN DOMINATION: Thothmes III. Palestine in the El-Amarna Letters. Seti I. Ramses II. Merneptah. Ramse...

THE LAND: Rainfall. EARLY EXPLORATION: Place names. EARLY AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS: Robinson and Smith. Lynch. American exploration societies. PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND: Warren’s...

A FORGOTTEN EMPIRE. HITTITE MONUMENTS: Sendjirli. Boghaz Koi. Other recent excavations. HITTITE DECIPHERMENT: Sayce’s early work. Peiser. Jensen. Conder. Sayce’s later work. Tho...

A SANCTUARY OF THE PRE-SEMITIC CAVE-DWELLERS. A ROCK-ALTAR AT MEGIDDO. A ROCK-ALTAR AT JERUSALEM. HIGH PLACE AT TELL ES-SAFI. HIGH PLACE AT GEZER: Choice of site. Child-sacrific...

UNIQUENESS OF THE PROPHETIC BOOKS. AN ASSYRIAN PROPHETIC VISION. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE. THE EGYPTIAN SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. TALE OF THE ELOQUENT PEASANT. COMPARISON WITH THE BIB...

The greater part of Biblical history was enacted in Palestine and the great valleys of Mesopotamia and the Nile. The Apostle Paul, however, broke the Jewish bonds of primitive C...

Many of the El-Amarna[475] Letters were written from Palestine and Phœnicia. Some scholars think these letters come from the Patriarchal period; others hold that they are contem...

APPEARANCES OF THESE NAMES IN BABYLONIAN AND EGYPTIAN RECORDS. “THE TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS”; ITS BEARING ON THE STORY OF JOSEPH IN GENESIS. LETTERS TO A RULER LIKE JOSEPH. THE...

=1. Roads.=--From the time cities were established in Palestine there was more or less communication between them. Probably in a small way commerce was carried on among some of...

=1. Their Sites.=--The cities of Palestine were usually built on hills. These elevations, surmounted as they were by walls, created a natural means of defence from attack; (see...

Abraham hired an Ox. Abraham leased a Farm. Abraham paid his Rent. Who was this Abraham? Travel between Babylonia and Palestine. Hammurapi, King of the Westland. Kadur-Mabug. Ki...

[175] For discussions of the subject, see Bliss and Macalister, _Excavations in Palestine, 1898-1900_, 106-123; Macalister in the _Quarterly Statement_ of the Palestine Explorat...

(1) _Ovens._--The ovens of ancient Palestine were of the same kind as those used by the peasantry of that country today. Each consists of a cylinder of baked earth about 2 feet...

MEASURES. WEIGHTS. INSCRIBED WEIGHTS. MONEY: Who invented coinage? Darics. Maccabæan coins. Asmonæan coins. Herodian coins. Roman coins. The Widow’s Mite. The Piece of Silver. C...

CHARACTER OF THEIR PSALMS. BABYLONIAN PRAYERS TO THE GODDESS ISHTAR. COMPARISON WITH THE PSALTER. A BABYLONIAN HYMN TO THE MOON-GOD. A BABYLONIAN HYMN TO BEL. AN EGYPTIAN HYMN T...

The following vivid story of adventure dates from about 1100 B. C. and throws a vivid light on the condition of the coast-lands of Palestine and Phœnicia about the middle of the...

=1. Importance of Pottery.=--In all parts of the world the making of clay jars and receptacles is one of the earliest arts to be discovered, and Palestine was no exception to th...

ABRAHAM HIRED AN OX. ABRAHAM LEASED A FARM. ABRAHAM PAID HIS RENT. WHO WAS THIS ABRAHAM? TRAVEL BETWEEN BABYLONIA AND PALESTINE. HAMMURAPI, KING OF THE WESTLAND. KUDUR-MABUG. KI...

the ancient world--a machine that was run with ruthless cruelty over all conquered peoples. This king set his successors the example of flaying and impaling numbers of conquered...

A Biblical narrative that challenges attention is that in Genesis 5, which contains the list of long-lived patriarchs who flourished before the flood. This narrative finds a str...

THE NATURE OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS AND THE PARALLELS. BABYLONIAN PROVERBS FROM THE LIBRARY OF ASHURBANIPAL. PRECEPTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF ASHURBANIPAL. COMPARISON WITH THE BIBLE....

This tablet begins with a description of a place the name of which is not identified; it is, accordingly, indicated in the translation by X. Possibly it was Eridu; possibly Dilmun.

TRANSLATION OF A PAPYRUS SHOWING THAT IN THE SECOND CENTURY ENROLMENT WAS MADE EVERY FOURTEEN YEARS. COMMENTS. TRANSLATION REFERRING TO AN ENROLMENT IN THE REIGN OF NERO. FRAGME...

[407] Translated from Langdon, _The Sumerian Epic of Paradise, the Flood, and the Fall of Man_, Philadelphia, 1915, Plates I and II. Langdon, as his title shows, regards the tex...

INSCRIPTIONS OF NABUNA’ID; THEIR BEARING ON BIBLICAL STATEMENTS REGARDING BELSHAZZAR. ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON BEARING ON THE BOOK OF DANIEL. INSCRIPTION OF CYRUS BEARI...

PAPYRI WITNESS TO THE EXISTENCE OF A COLONY AT ELEPHANTINE. TRANSLATION OF A PETITION RELATING TO THEIR TEMPLE. REPLY OF PERSIAN GOVERNOR. HISTORICAL BEARINGS OF THESE DOCUMENTS...

=1. Origin.=--Three times in the Gospels the Decapolis is mentioned: Matt. 4:25; Mark 5:20 and 7:31. Decapolis is a Greek name and means “the ten city” (region). The ancient wri...

The above account of the deluge so closely resembles that in the Bible (Gen. 6:9-9:19), that nearly all scholars recognize that they are two versions of the same narrative.[399]...

1. I advanced in life, I attained to the allotted span; Wherever I turned there was evil, evil-- Oppression is increased, uprightness I see not. I cried unto god, but he showed...

=1. Burning the Dead.=--As noted in a previous chapter,[215] the cave-dwellers of Gezer burned their dead. The Semitic inhabitants of Palestine did not follow this custom, but b...

Four fragments of the Adapa myth have been found. They really present but three parts of the story, as two of them cover the same ground. These three parts of the story are tran...

The Gospel of Luke begins with the words: “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us,”--words which...

reader will find a full presentation of the bearing of these upon the different parts of the Sacred Volume. Those who hold the second of the views mentioned above will not, ther...

This tablet was published by Dr. Arno Poebel, of Breslau. It was apparently written in the time of the dynasty of Nisin, but at any rate not later than the period of the first d...

Rawlinson’s _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, Vol. V, p. 44, 17b, is glossed as Zugagib or “scorpion.” Zugagib is one of the early kings of Babylonia, who is said to hav...

For many centuries the Song of Songs has been interpreted allegorically, but even those who give it an allegorical meaning must admit that its sentiments are couched in the term...

of the Biblical heroes, and to understand the problems of their world as formerly one could not do. Exploration has also brought to light many inscriptions in the various countr...

Temple of Baal[zephon], Tar[iff of d]ues, which [the superintendents of d]ues fixed in the time [of our rulers, Khalas]baal, the judge, son of Bodtanith, son of Bod[eshmun, and...

This account of the creation has sometimes been compared with Genesis 2:4, ff., which describes a time when there was no grass or vegetation on the earth, and then goes on to de...

It is thought by some scholars of the critical school that the parallelism between the secret birth, the exposure, the rescue and adoption of Sargon, and the account of the secr...

The seventh day is the feast of Marduk and Zarpanit. It is an evil day. The shepherd of the great people shall not eat flesh cooked on the coals which is smoked. The garment of...

In the year 1970 B. C., when Amenemhet I died and was succeeded by Sesostris I, an Egyptian of high rank, named Sinuhe, for some reason now unknown to us, fled from Egypt to Asi...

and Dr. Edward Chiera for the benefit of their fresh collation of the text. This was of considerable importance, since Dr. Langdon’s copy of large portions of it had been made f...

The Early Stone Age. The Late Stone Age. The Amorites. The Canaanites. Egyptian Domination. The Philistines. The Hebrews. Philistine Civilization. The Hebrew Kingdoms. The Exile...

two accounts of the flood are divergent versions of the same story. In addition to the likenesses already mentioned, the names of the two heroes, though they appear so different...

For a hundred years or more the explorer and the excavator have been busy in many parts of the world. They have brought to light monuments and texts that have in many cases revo...

As noted in the Preface, the inferences drawn by different scholars, when they compare the Bible with the records brought to light by exploration, diverge according as their cri...

=8. Tombs with a Rolling-stone.=--One other type of tomb must be noticed even in this hasty sketch. To close a “doorway” tomb securely must always have been a matter of difficul...

UTENSILS: Ovens. Baking-trays. Bowls, etc. Feeding-bottles. Glassware. Spoons. Forks or Flesh-hooks. Needles. Spinning “Whorls.” Lamp-stands. Keys. Knives. Saws. Chisels. Awls....