Historical Accuracy

Many people challenge the validity of the Bible. The Bible discusses many things about God and His nature, so much so that some call it the Word of God. If the Bible is valid then, we can know that God does exist. Now, there is no way to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that everything in the Bible is true. But there are plenty of reasons for someone to rationally believe the Bible is true. One of these reasons is the incredible historical accuracy of the text.

The Bible is an incredibly complex work and was written by dozens of different authors over thousands of years. Many ancient texts speak of civilizations and cultures that are long extinct. Of all the ancient texts, however, archeologists and historians have found the Bible to be the most accurate. Here is what the Smithsonian says in regards to the Bible:
“Much of the Bible, in particular the historical books of the old testament, are as accurate historical documents as any that we have from antiquity and are in fact more accurate than many of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or Greek histories. These Biblical records can be and are used as are other ancient documents in archeological work. For the most part, historical events described took place and the peoples cited really existed. This is not to say that names of all peoples and places mentioned can be identified today, or that every event as reported in the historical books happened exactly as stated.”

There is very little, if any, evidence that the Bible reported things in an inaccurate way. Some of the cultures and events the Bible described have no current evidence of ever existing, but they do not have any evidence against them either. However, as people continue to work through history, they find more and more evidence in favor of the Bible. For instance, for a long time there was no evidence that King David even existed. Then, in 1993, for the first time, proof was found outside the Bible that David was a real person. Before 1993, it would have been convenient for someone to say, “See, there is no evidence of King David, therefore the Bible is bogus.” The problem, however, was not that there was no evidence of David. The problem was that evidence had not been found. But now that it has, we can be sure that David, along with countless other Biblical events and characters, was real.

In the future, I will be posting more examples of the Bible’s historical accuracy. But with so many examples of the Bible being historically accurate, one must consider the possibility of it being true. Obviously, the historical accuracy of the Bible does not prove the Bible to be inerrant, but it certainly helps its chances.