Did the Ancient People Groups Listed in the Bible Really Exist?
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| Hittite Archer and Chariot (Photo credit: voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com) |
peoples listed in the Bible never actually existed. However, archaeology and
other historical references have served to validate the accuracy of the
Bible’s account. The Hittites provide a good example.
The Bible makes about three dozen references to the Hittites, but critics used
to charge that there was no evidence that such people ever existed. Now
archaeologists digging in modern north-central Turkey in the city of Boghazkoy
(called Hattusa by the Hittites) have discovered a large archive library
belonging to the Hittites that includes letters, military instructions and
laws. As the great archaeologist William F. Albright declared, “There can be
no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old
Testament tradition.”
Noted Roman historian Colin J. Hemer, in The Book of Acts in the Setting of
Hellenistic History, shows how archaeology has confirmed hundreds of details
from the Biblical account of the early church. Even small details have been
corroborated, like which way the wind blows, how deep the water is a certain
distance from shore, what kind of disease a particular island had, the names
of local officials and so forth. / Adapted from interview with Dr. Norman
Geisler
