Can You Dig It?

By: Randall Price

When I first climbed the Great Pyramid of Egypt, I was 28 years old. I will never forget what happened to me when I scaled that mysterious marvel of engineering, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

On the way up, I could only see the millions of blocks of limestone used to build it. But when I reached the summit, the view changed. From this high vantage point I could see the remains of the past in a way I had never seen before.

From here I could see the outline of the ancient causeway that connected the pyramid to the Valley Temple and the giant tombs of the pharaonic sun-boats. From here I could also catch a better view of the present. Stretching from the horizon was the great metropolis of Cairo, which like the surrounding sands was now encroaching upon the pyramid city of Giza.

I reflected on this pyramid's place as a still point in the onward march of time. These stones had seen the flowering and fall of the Egyptian empire. These stones were already a thousand years in place when Abraham passed through to claim his inheritance in Canaan.

They were a symbol of refuge in the days of Joseph when he brought Jacob and his sonsto settle in their shadow. They had witnessed the oppression of the Israelites and the exodus under Moses. They beheld the infant Jesus in His flight from King Herod. If only these stones could speak, what stories they could tell!

The Bible uses the symbolism of speaking stones to remind us that God has always left a witness to His works. In the case of the Babylonians, blinded to their own self-destruction, the prophet Habakkuk wrote: "Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, and the rafter will answer it from the framework" (Hab. 2:11, emphasis mine).

When the religious leaders sought to silence those praising Jesus' messianic entry into the rock walls of Jerusalem, "He answered and said, 'I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!'" (Luke 19:40).

And, though an ancient figure of speech, the stones still speak today. Standing on one of the great archaeological relics of the world, I was able to see more than I had before. Archaeology has provided us all a better witness to the work of God as revealed in His Word. As new evidence of old truths, it provides a mound of ancient artifacts for us to climb for an enhanced vision of eternal things.

Stones and Scriptures

Since the birth of archaeology about 150 years ago, students of the Bible have been aided by thousands of discoveries that have confirmed, complemented, and clarified the biblical text. Forgotten empires and individuals, many only known from the stories of Scripture, were uncovered with great fanfare in the last century. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Rome have now all been brought to life for our historically illiterate age.

The Hittites, once thought a fable, were shown to be, as the Bible stated, a great nation. Ebla, an empire predating the biblical patriarchs and unmentioned in the Bible, invaded history with more than 15,000 clay tablets detailing its importance in the ancient world.

In Israel and Jordan, exciting finds of monuments and artifacts giving the names of biblical characters and events have opened up a new window to the world of the Bible. Like "snapshots" in stone, these rock reliefs have painted for us a more accurate portrait of the past, greatly improving our own portrayal of the biblical drama.

For example, compare modern Hollywood's depiction of biblical events with those produced more than a half century ago. No longer does a pale-faced Jesus wearing starched linen stroll demurely on carpet grass visiting cities built with acme bricks. Today He appears in backgrounds true to the times, with the rugged garb of a first-century Judean Jew, surrounded by the Herodian architecture of His age.

And today, too, thanks to the ongoing accomplishments of archaeology, new artifacts are shedding a brighter light on the Bible than ever before.

Digging Up David

Look at King David, a biblical character known by every child who ever went to Sunday school. Besides his exploits with the giant Goliath, his presence looms large on the pages of both the Old and New Testament, being mentioned 1,048 times. With such a high profile in Scripture, it may seem surprising that until quite recently books dealing with the history of the Holy Land had to admit that no trace of David had ever been found in the archaeological record.

As one archaeologist put it: "...the figure of King David is about as historical as King Arthur." Because no "rock solid" proof of David's existence had come forth, historical revisionists proposed that the David of the Bible was a myth. According to their theory, David's heroic conquests and royal reign were just the fiction needed by Jews returning from Babylon to justify their political ambitions.

But the critics were forced to reconsider when such evidence was unearthed in 1993 and 1994. At the northern Israelite site of Tel Dan, "rock solid" proof emerged on pieces of a nearly 3,000-year-old monumental basalt stone inscription (known as a stele). Written by one of Israel's enemies, this ancient advertisement of a victor's boast included the words in Aramaic: "King of Israel"... "King of the House of David."

Professor Avraham Biran, director of the excavation, identified these kings based on the inscription's context: "The king of Israel that is referred to is 'Jehoram'...the son of Ahab. The king of the house of David is Ahaziah, both of whom are mentioned in the Bible. The exciting thing here is that you have a historical stele referring to historical events of which the Bible speaks at great lengths" (2 Kings 8:7-15; 9:6-10).

Professor Biran has dated the inscription to the time of the Aramean usurper Hazael whom he believes authored the inscription. Hazael's entire reign was characterized by war with Israel, and he went down in biblical history as one of the Israelites' most brutal enemies (2 Kings 8:7-15).

This rock record affirms the biblical claim that Israel and Judah were significant kingdoms at this time, otherwise they would not have been considered worthy of mention by this enemy.

Even more important is the fact that a foreign ruler, whose politics were not seeking to glorify the Jews, 300 years before the Jews return from Babylon, clearly identified the Judean kings as descendants of David. Therefore, if there was a universally recognized royal "house" (lineage) of David in the ancient Near East, there must have also been a King David as the progenitor of that house!

Fascinating Finds

Recently other fascinating finds have come to light which add the "flesh-and-blood" of historical reality to various people on the pages of the Bible. Last year, while clearing rubble from an excavation at the first-century Israelite fortress of Masada, a fragment of a jar that had contained wine also had an inscription. The three-line inscription gives the time and place where the wine was made, but more notably, for whom it was made.

This is seen on the last line which reads in Greek: "Herod the Great, King of Judea." Here was the name and title of the New Testament tyrant who built the temple in Jerusalem, met the wise men searching for the infant Jesus, but whose own search for Jesus ordered the slaughter of infants in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1-18).

Also last year two archaeologists, Seymour Gitin and Trude Dothan, who had long been excavating a Philistine site known as Tel Miqne, found a stone inscription that told them they were actually digging at the biblical city of Ekron. Remarkably, the stone identified not only the name of the city, but also the name of two of its kings.

As a result, the language and culture of the Philistines, who occupy a prominent place in the Bible as one of Israel's foremost enemies, will become better understood.

To these discoveries we may add the recent find of what appears as an old clay "button," but is actually a seal used to fasten a scroll in the time of the prophet Jeremiah.

While hundreds of such "seals" have been found, this one was unique, for still preserved in the now hardened clay was an ancient fingerprint. The seal says it belonged to Jeremiah's scribe, Baruch, so apparently the fingerprint is also his. But not only have such scroll seals been preserved, but sometimes even ancient scrolls themselves.

Secrets of the Scrolls

Perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery of all time was a collection of ancient scrolls known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. They have shed new light on the New Testament. Today almost a household word, 50 years ago the Dead Sea Scrolls were unknown even to biblical scholars. It was then that a young shepherd (now nearly 80 years old!), searching for his lost goat, stumbled upon a cave high in the cliffs along the shores of the Dead Sea. Inside the cave were jars with old leather scrolls, which though he thought worthless, turned out to be one of the greatest and most priceless treasures of all time.

His initial discovery led both members of his Bedouin tribe (nomadic desert Arabs) and archaeologists to eventually unearth some 1,100 documents. Among them are representatives of every book of the Old Testament (except Esther), and extensive commentaries and records by a religious Jewish sect, who originally hid the scrolls in the caves to preserve them. Their value to students of the New Testament is that they reflect much of the same history and interact with many of the same political and religious groups as did Jesus and His apostles.

Take, for instance, the issue of Jesus' crucifixion. Theologians once questioned whether the Bible's account calling for Jesus' crucifixion was accurate. It was once thought that because crucifixion was a Roman method of execution and not permitted for Jews under Jewish law that the Jewish authorities would not have requested it for one of their own. But among the Dead Sea Scrolls was a document known as the Temple Scroll. Written about a century and a half before Jesus, it gave explanations of Jewish laws including one concerning Jews who betrayed their nation.

Based on a passage in the book of Deuteronomy (21:22-23) that mentioned the punishment of "hanging on a tree," they interpreted this as legal grounds for the crucifixion of seditionists. It is clear from the Gospels that Jesus' claim to be the Messiah was regarded by the Jewish authorities as an act of treason (John 11:48-50). Now, thanks to the Temple Scroll, we know why the Jewish Sanhedrin handed Jesus over to the Romans.

The insights into the testaments brought by the scrolls have yet to be exhausted even though volumes of books have been written on the subject. Though many of the scrolls are still being translated by scholars, new scroll caves continue to be found. Many more unexplored caves dot the barren terrain of the Judean desert, and hold promise in days to come of even greater discoveries.

Seize the Stones!

If men fail to receive the witness of the Word there can be added the witness of the rocks! As the psalmist said: "Truth shall spring out of the earth" (Ps. 85:11). We live in an astounding age of opportunity in which discovery after discovery are testifying to God's timeless truth.

Today we often hear the cry to "Seize the day!" I would borrow from that challenge and call upon us to "Seize the stones!" They still speak of Him, and through our witness, may in fact shout more loudly than words to an age that needs a clearer view of eternal things.

About the Author: Randall Price is president of World of the Bible Ministries. He holds a Th.M. from Dallas Seminary and a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Studies. He is author of The Stones Cry Out: New Discoveries in Archaeology and the Bible as well as Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls (both from Harvest House). E-mail us: Send us your comments, feedback or a letter to the editor.

© 1996 Strang Communications