Chapter 3: Other Old Testament Finds and Copying Rules

There are many other Old Testament Archaeological finds:

1. Jonah and “the whale”
2. Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
3. “Seven Years Famine” in Egypt
4. Building with bricks without straw
5. Death of the firstborn
6. Joshua’s name
7. Deborah’s victory over the Canaanites
8. Writings in the time of Moses
9. Priority of monotheism over polytheism

1. Jonah and “The Whale” (Jonah, chapters 1 and 2).  This story is one of the best known in the Old Testament, as well as in modern reference.  Critics and scoffers have labeled it as a fictional allegory.  Yet Jesus regarded the incident as an historic fact (Matt 12:39-41) and made the deliverance of Jonah as an illustration of His own resurrection.  The word “whale” is mistranslated simply from being a great fish.  It may have been a whale, however.  As to human possibilities of a man surviving inside such a great fish, there is more than one account in the past 150 years of a such a thing occurring.  The name of the recovery ship “Star of the East” is given in at least one contemporary newspaper account; the men survived.  Such a thing is not impossible.

2.       Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis chapters 18 and 19).  Albright and Kyle in 1924 found quantities of debris of a period dated 2000 to 2500 BC, showing overwhelming evidence of the truth of the Genesis account.  It included evidence that the population ended abruptly about 2000 BC.  The sites, now covered by the Dead Sea, had asphalt, pitch, and “brimstone” (19:24) with a stratum of salt about 150 feet thick, with a stratum of free sulfur above it.  “ Lot’s wife” was slain by the rain of salt upon her.  The site can still be visited today and is uninhabited.  A modern gambling enterprise applied to the Israeli government for a permit to build a casino and entertainment center here.  The government refused, saying “once was enough.”

3.        “Seven Year Famine” in Egypt (Genesis 41:46-57).  There is remarkable confirmation of this account given in Brugsch’s History of Egypt, taken from the archives of the Egyptian court.  The same history records a story resembling that of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.  The same story, called “Tale of Two Brothers” is in an ancient papyrus now in the British Museum and is recorded by Brugsch.  Sir Flinders Petrie in 1912 discovered the ruins of what he believed was Joseph’s palace.

4.       Building With Bricks Without Straw (Exodus 3:11; 5:7-19).  At Pitom, Kyle and Naville in 1883 found structures described above with these levels, the top of brick with straw and the bottom without straw.

5.       Death of the Firstborn (Exodus 12:29).  The Pharaoh of the Exodus was Amenemhet IV (1456-1446 BC), according to Stewart, using the information provided by Ipuwer, who said that the pharaoh died by “pouring power” (drowned in the Red Sea).  Inscriptions have been found that he was not succeeded by his firstborn son.

6.       Joshua’s Name (Josh. 1:1).  Occurs in the Amarna tablet, written from the land now called Israel by Pharaoh.

7.       Deborah’s Victory Over the Canaanites (Judges 4:23-24; 5:19).  The Oriental Institute in Chicago in 1937 found at Megiddo a stratum belonging to the 12 century BC (the time of Deborah).  It indicated a tremendous fire on top of a layer of Canaanite relics, evidencing their terrible defeat.

8.       Writings in the Time of Moses.  Modern (higher) criticism denied its existence.  This is despite the hundreds of books proving otherwise.  In Egypt thousands of inscriptions have been found, outdating Moses by a millennium.  Alphabetic writing dating from 400 years before Moses was found by Petric in Sinai.  The Rosetta Stone (discovered in 1799) was the key that unlocked Egyptian hieroglyphics, all pre-Mosaic.  The critics were wrong again.

9.       Priority of Monotheism over Polytheism (Genesis 1:11).  Critics claimed that polytheism preceded monotheism, which they saw as a later evolutionary development.  W. Flinders Petrie found indications that Egypt’s first religion was monotheism.  Stephen Langford of Oxfordfound early Babylonian inscriptions that belief in one God was man’s first religion and that it declined into polytheism and idolatry.  Moses, speaking for God, brought Israel to reassert belief in one God and condemned polytheism.

  Most of the above archaeological data is based upon notes in Halley’s Bible Handbook .

The Sons of Noah (Genesis 10)