Evidence for the Old Testament

The events of the Old Testament took place a long time ago, but all this time later, there is still a lot of evidence to consider.

10 min read

In the following examples, I intend to show the reader (who should also do some research with links provided) first that the Old Testament is certainly not a book of fairytales but is rich in real history; second, that even the stories which include miracles should not be dismissed; third, that even small tidbits that did not need to be included have sometimes been verified; and finally, that some of the most disputed and mocked events and details recorded in the Old Testament are actually easily defensible.

Important Background

It is important to consider whether the Bible has a pattern of either reliable or unreliable reporting of history. After all, why believe a source that is untrustworthy about small things when it comes to miracles? And why disregard a trustworthy source when it makes miraculous claims?

The first thing those new to the topic should know is that the historical record is scant. Only a miniscule portion of writings, monuments, etc., have been preserved from thousands of years ago. Nevertheless, archeology has led to the discovery of many ancient artefacts which support the historical reliability of the Old Testament.

Much has been made of assertive but baseless claims about Israel and its history: that there never was a King David, that the great exodus from Egypt never happened, that worship of God (Yahweh) only developed much later in Israel's history, etc. Often, these have been arguments from silence, saying that if these things truly happened, there would be plenty of evidence (well over 2000 years later). Nevertheless, in some cases, just such evidence has been found—e.g., the mention of the House of David was found on what is called the Tel Dan Stele. It is a monument that was set up by an enemy of Israel which was bragging about victories over Israel.

An Ordinary Old Testament Event Verified

Hezekiah's Tunnel

As just one example of an archeological discovery tied to an event in the Bible, the Bible says that one King Hezekiah built a tunnel to divert water flowing to the upper outlet of the Gihan spring when Jerusalem was going to be besieged. In 1880, just such a tunnel was found by a truant boy, with a very old inscription (dated to the 8th century BC). The story is quite interesting, which you can investigate further below. This alone shows that the Bible is not a book of myths made up centuries after any related events.

Evidence for a Miraculous Event

Sodom and Gomorrah

While we cannot revisit the time of Abraham and Lot, we can see evidence of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that remains to this day.

“Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens.”

Genesis 19:24

When nuclear bombs are set off, they can melt sand into a glass called trinitite. This requires an extraordinary high temperature. Fascinatingly, trinitite was discovered on some of the bones at pottery at the ancient city identified as Sodom. Furthermore, there are skeletons that have been partially disintegrated.

“Human skeletons are complete up until about halfway up the backbone, and then there’s just a scorch mark, and there’s nothing on the top of the body.”

John Bergsma (reported by Relevant Magazine)

Even balls of sulfur can still be found and set alight! They have been preserved in nearby water.

For reference, the atheistic explanation for this destruction is an asteroid exploding above the ground (which happened in Siberia last century, causing tremendous destruction on a vast scale).

Now if this event was unrelated to God but was written about by an historian as a natural event, there is no question that most atheists, scientists or not, would naturally conclude that the historian was telling the truth about this incredible event. Therefore you must ask yourself: how sure am I God does not exist? and if there is a chance this all really happened, what if he expects me to search more for him?

The Small Details

Some details the authors of the Bible did not have to include can be verified all these years later. For example, Jeremiah mentioned an official in Babylon, the Chief Eunuch, and an old tablet was found to be a receipt of his (the Nebo-Sarsekim tablet).

This is evidence that the stories were not invented far later, as many claim, since there are details which only someone really in those situations would be likely to include. They do not really matter to the later reader, who is not familiar with the exact situation and all the people involved.

Supernatural History or Myths?

The Exodus

It is commonly believed that the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is clearly mythical and has been disproven by historical knowledge.

The book of Exodus claims to contain a historical record of the escape of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. But historians and archaeologists have been unable to verify any of the events described in the book. No known Egyptian records refer to the biblical Moses, the devastating plagues God supposedly inflicted on the country, the escape of the Hebrew slaves, or the drowning of the Egyptian army. Further, White tells us the records contained on Egyptian monuments show that the pharaoh ruling at the time of the alleged escape of the Jews was certainly not overwhelmed in the Red Sea.

Some Reasons Why Humanists Reject The Bible, American Humanist Association

The reality is that there is some significant evidence for the events surrounding the exodus, and there is no evidence which rules it out.

The Ipuwer Papyrus

These are direct quotes from an Egyptian official, discovered on an ancient papyrus:

Indeed, the river is blood, yet men drink of it. Men shrink from human beings and thirst after water.

Indeed, everywhere barley has perished.

The land is without light.

Indeed, men are few, and he who places his brother in the ground is everywhere.

There is even more than this. You can see a side-by-side comparison of the portions of the papyrus that match up to statements from the bible in Plagues of Egypt: Proved?.

The excuses including rejecting the timing of this papyrus—appealing to things like word choice to insist that it cannot have been written during the exodus; and insisting that the description must be fictional because that is its genre. Opposing these excuses, there is actually a record of a famous Ipuwer who lived at the right time, the word choices fit perfectly well with biblical chronology, and there is no actual evidence that the document is a work of fiction.

Amenhotep II

According to Exodus, the pharaoh who let Moses go was not a firstborn child himself, and his successor cannot have been either, since all the firstborn males in the land were killed by the final plague. He also had to have a faither who reigned for over 40 years.

Despite many scholars claiming that if the exodus happened, it must have happened later, and that Ramesses II is the only possible pharaoh, by taking the Bible seriously, it is clear that the pharaoh must have been Amenhotep II. Some key facts about him are: his successor was not his firstborn son, because he died mysteriously; he was not the firstborn of his father; his father reigned for more than 40 years (rare); and the dates of his reign match the date calculated using the dates in the Bible. All of these are details the Bible provides, though it does not give his name.

References to the Hebrews After the Exodus

Nomads who worship Yahweh are mentioned in an inscription on an ancient Egyptian temple. This is significant, because at about this time, the Hebrews had not taken their land, so they were indeed nomads of God (Yahweh).

It also appears they were also called Habiru by the people they were conquering, which is an insulting term for something like brigands that sounds similar to Hebrew, so it may have been a play on words. Incredibly, hundreds of clay tablets of correspondence between the Pharaoh and rulers in territories under his protection have been found, and among them are pleas for help against the Habiru… Pleas that were never answered. I wouldn't go back to fight against the people who brought plagues and ruin on my land either, and whose God decimated my army.

The Flood

Feasibility

Bill Nye and company are quick to point out that according to modern classifications, there are far too many species to fit one of every kind on an ark. When they start talking about millions of creatures, the argument might sound very convincing, but it is misleading.

Creationists do not believe that there had to be a Bengal tiger, a Sumatran tiger, a Siberian tiger, and so forth on the ark. We all know that each type or “kind” of animal can vary a good bit. Just look at humans: we range from tiny black pigmies to very tall white people. the classification of species is not some mystical, perfect dividing line.

Therefore, we believe that if you narrow things down to their actual created kinds instead of species and make other sensible considerations—such as bringing on some young instead of mature animals—taking the animals on board the massive vessel was perfectly doable.

Geology

Much is made of the radioactive dating, and in some people's minds, it has alone completely destroyed the Christian case. However, it has been proven to be unreliable. Samples of rocks with known ages (laid down by volcanic eruptions) have returned "ages" in the hundreds of thousands and millions of years, so let us get that talking point out of the way.

There is very strong evidence that a global flood did occur. If you consider several of the facts, you will soon see that none of the desperate alternative explanations could even hope to account for all of them. Here is a tiny smattering of the clues:

Marine rock is found all over continents.
There are fossils of sea creatures on high mountains.
Sea creatures and land animals have often been buried together (e.g., sharks and T-Rex).
Sedimentary rock (normally deposited by water) covers most of the land on Earth.
There are no signs of erosion between gigantic heights of layered rock, indicating it was all laid down at once.

Flood Stories

There are stories of catastrophic floods in many cultures. This is remarkable when you think about it. There are not stories in so many cultures about great hail, or an earthquake, or some other disaster that wiped out mankind, to my knowledge. There seems to be some agreement about a global flood.

If a real flood happened but people later turned to other gods, we would expect the story to be distorted and reinvented to support the agendas and beliefs of each group. Nevertheless, it would make sense to keep some of the details. You can see a discussion of some of the striking similarities here.

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