Highlights of Biblical Archaeology in 2013

For our readers who are into Biblical archaeology, here are a couple of articles you might enjoy.

First, Christianity Today has an article entitled Biblical Archaeology's Top Ten Discoveries of 2013.

Second, the Bible Archaeology website has an article entitled 2013 Roundup of Significant New Discoveries. This article is especially interesting.

Note: The picture on the left is of a fragment of a sphinx excavated at Hazor in 2012. It provides further evidence of the accuracy of the Bible's description of that city as of major importance during the time of Joshua.

The Miriam (Mariam) Ossuary is Genuine

Back in 1990 the ossuary of Caiaphas, the High Priest who presided over the trial of Jesus (Matt. 26:57-67), was discovered. But about three years ago there was another ossuary discovered, this time dedicated to Miriam, the granddaughter of Caiaphas. Specifically, the inscription reads, “Miriam daughter of Yeshua son of Caiaphas, priest of Maaziah from Beth Imri.”

On June 29 the Washington Post reported that Israeli scholars have concluded that the ossuary is indeed genuine.

Yesterday Christopher Rollston, Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Studies at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, posted a helpful article assessing the evidence and its importance in further confirming the identity and existence of Caiaphas as High Priest and how this evidence squares nicely with the New Testament references to him.

So we have yet another example of how archaeological discoveries continue to support the veracity of the Biblical accounts. But, of course, none of this blog's readers should be at all surprised by this!

Latest News on Possible Noah's Ark Find on Mt. Ararat

The Fox News website updated an article today entitled Has Noah's Ark Been Found on Turkish Mountaintop? The article reports that:

A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say wooden remains they have discovered on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey are the remains of Noah's Ark.

The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories.

Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team that made the discovery, said: "It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it."

You can read the rest of the story here.

Update 29 April 2010

There are a couple of articles that express doubt about this find.

First, the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) posted an article Tuesday entitled Chinese Explorers Claim Noah's Ark Find, in which Dr. John Morris expresses uncertainty about the find.

Second, the Christian Science Monitor posted an article yesterday entitled Doubt Cast on Noah's ark found in Turkey, in which Dr. Randall Price of Liberty University is cited as expressing some grave doubts about the authenticity of the find.

The James Ossuary

The much debated James Ossuary, with an inscription reading ""James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," has still not been conclusively ruled a fake. Although no one doubts that it dates to the time of James and Jesus, there has been some question whether or not the inscription was a forgery. However, after having been ruled a fake early on by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), many experts afterward questioned this finding and believed it to be authentic.

A couple of articles at the Biblical Archaeology Society website question the earlier findings.

For example, in an article excerpted from Theology Today 52:4, entitled "The James Ossuary and Its Implications," J.A. Fitzmeyer reminds the reader that...

(a) The ossuary had been examined by scientists of the Geological Survey of Israel and also by expert curators at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto; neither of these teams concluded that the ossuary or its inscription was fake. In fact, the scientists of GSI went out of their way to stress that “the patina does not contain any modern elements (such as modern pigments) and it adheres firmly to the surface. No signs of the use of a modern tool or instrument was [sic] found.” (b) The reaction of the IAA is simply the same as the attitude of most archaeologists about artifacts obtained from antiquities-dealers, as already mentioned. Only now, it has become a matter of politicized archaeology, advocated by the highest authority on antiquities in the State of Israel.

In addition, Edward J. Keall, in an article entitled "New Tests Bolster Case for Authenticity," concludes that...

The studies we [at the Royal Ontario Museum] conducted have convinced us that the ossuary and its inscription are genuinely ancient and not a modern forgery. This conclusion, of course, is consistent with the findings of leading Semitic paleographers and Aramaic linguists, as well as the Geological Survey of Israel, and contradicts those who assert that the inscription must be a forgery simply because it is "too good to be true" or because it surfaced on the antiquities market rather than having been found in a professional archaeological excavation.

The Supposed “Tomb of Jesus”

Recently the story that Jesus' “family tomb” has been found has been making some waves. This is mostly due to a so-called “documentary” produced by James Cameron and aired on The Discovery Channel. The program is called The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and it presents the ides of an orthodox Jew named Simcha Jacobovici, who makes the claim that the tomb includes the bones of Jesus and His supposed wife and son (among other family members). Without getting into all of the claims made or attempting to refute them myself, I wanted to let Reformed Baptist Blog readers know about three solid responses already available:

1) Andreas Kostenberger's blog article entitled The Jesus Tomb.

2) Darrell Bock's blog article entitled Hollywood Hype: The Oscars and Jesus’ Family Tomb, What Do They Share?

3) Ben Witherington's blog article entitled Problems Multiply for Jesus Tomb Theory.

It is really a sad thing that some are so willing to believe even the most obvious nonsense. It reminds me of something G.K. Chesterton once said, “When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything.”