Five Great Archaeological Discoveries from the Old Testament Era

Five Great Archaeological Discoveries from the Old Testament Era

Associates for Biblical Research, P.O. Box 144, AkronPA17501,

1a. Royal Compound at Rameses, ca 1526–1446 B.C.

Critics claimed that Moses could not have been rescued from the Nile by a royal princess, or confronted the Pharaoh at Rameses because the royal capital was at Memphis 75 miles southwest of Rameses.
In recent years an enormous royal compound has been found at Rameses containing not one, but three palaces, plus workshops, storage facilities and military campsites.
The compound is located on the banks of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, now dried up, that flowed through Rameses in antiquity, just as portrayed in the Bible.
It is likely that this is the site of the dramatic events of Exodus 1–12.

1b. Yam Suph Crossing, 1446 B.C.

In Hebrew, the name of the sea the Israelites crossed is Yam Suph, meaning Sea of Reeds, not Red Sea. Red Sea is an incorrect interpretation of Yam Suph going back to the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament into Greek in the third century B.C.
From a relief of Seti I (ca. 1291–1279 B.C.)on the wall of the temple of Amun at Karnak in Luxor, Egypt, we know the names of the fortresses along the Horus Road from Egypt to Canaan. The third fortress was called Migdol, one of the names preserved in Exodus 14:2 describing the Israelites’ location prior to the sea crossing.
Thanks to the discovery of the first fortress, Tjaru, it is possible to determine the location of Migdol in the northeast delta. This in turn allows the location of the sea crossing—the northern end of BallahLake.
This very large lake, also named Sea of Reeds in ancient Egyptian texts, does not exist today since it was drained when the Suez Canal was constructed. The Israelite crossing place can be localized in the area of modern Qantara where a modern bridge crosses the Suez Canal today.

2. Jericho, 1406 B.C.

British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who excavated Jericho in the 1950s, claimed that the city was destroyed ca. 1500 B.C., 150 years before Joshua, and that the site was abandoned at the time of the Israelite Conquest. This has led scholars to claim that the Biblical account of Joshua 6 is unhistorical.
A detailed study of the pottery in the destruction layer shows that Kenyon was wrong in her dating and that the city was destroyed ca. 1400 B.C., the Biblical date for the Conquest.
Once the date of the destruction is corrected, the evidence at Jericho lines up perfectly with the Bible, including evidence that the city walls fell as described in Joshua 6:20.

3. Tel Dan Stela, 900–850 B.C.

Victory stela of Hazael, king of Aram, following his defeat of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and Joram, king of Israel, recorded in 2 Kings 8:28–29.
Verifies the existence of David, as Ahaziah is referred to “Ahaziah son of [Jehoram] king of the House of David.”

4. Ketef Hinnom Silver Scrolls, ca. 600 B.C.

5. Dead Sea Scrolls, ca. 200 B.C.–A.D. 68

Portions of every book of the Old Testament, with the exception of Esther, were found in caves near the Dead Sea. Esther, however, is referred to in another document found at Qumran called the Damascus Document.
Total number of manuscripts from the Dead Sea area are well over 1300.

Qumran:574 from Cave 4

227 from other caves

801 (221 Biblical, 580 non-Biblical)

Complete books: Isaiah (two copies from Cave 1), Job (Aramaic copy from Cave 11), Psalms (Cave 11)

1,000 years older than our previous oldest Old Testament manuscript.
Demonstrate that our Old Testament manuscripts have been accurately transmitted through the centuries.