Archeology has never disproved a Biblical point

[Skeptical Greg]

.......

Only yesterday the current Pope visited a Mosque in Jordon. ....

Yeah, that's a really nice change from when the Pope used to send Crusaders to visit those mosques..

 

[MG1962]

Yeah, that's a really nice change from when the Pope used to send Crusaders to visit those mosques..

Completely agree

 

[MIKILLINI]

Looking back at my source for the similarity between "The Bachae" and Acts, "Who Wrote the Gospels?" by Randel Helms, I found this on pp. 90, 91. When Peter is imprisoned in Jerusalem, he is miraculously relased (Acts 12:10a):

When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate leading toward the city. It opened to them of its own accord.

When Paul and Silas are imprisoned in Philippi something similar happens (Acts 16:26):

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations fof the prisn were shaken; and the doors were opened and every one's fetters were unfastened.

Lines 447-8 of "The Bacchae" say:

The chains on their legs snapped part by themselves. Untouched by any human hand, the doors swung wide, opening of their own accord.

When Paul recounts his conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts 26:15, Jesus says to him, "It is hard for you, this kicking against the goads." In Greek th phrase "against the goads" is "pros kentra laktizien." In "The Bacchae, Dionysos tells Pentheus that that the king has ignored his (Dionysos') warning and kicks against the goads. In Greek the phrase is "pros kentra laktizoimi."

I may have overstated my case with respect to Acts being patterned word for word on "The Bacchae," but you can see the similarities and the repitition of certain key phrases nearly word-for-word.

Tim you bring interesting study to these threads and I was wondering if you have been reading the Scriptural Literacy thread? I believe your biblical knowledge would make a great contribution to that thread also.

 

[Springfork]

Prof. Israel Finkelstein and his American colleague, the historian and archaeologist Neal Asher Silberman, authored "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts" Finkelstein is currently the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University and is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel. The authors use real archaology to blow the Bible and Jewish texts right out of the water. It's stunning.

 

[shadron]

Yeah, that's a really nice change from when the Pope used to send Crusaders to visit those mosques..

Yeah, what a difference 930 years makes. The US could drop a pair of nukes on Japan and be buying steel from it in 20 years, drop loads of bombs on VN and have them as a trading partner in 20, even after having not defeated them. Gives you a sort of contra-religious perspective.

 

[boloboffin]

Prof. Israel Finkelstein and his American colleague, the historian and archaeologist Neal Asher Silberman, authored "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts" Finkelstein is currently the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University and is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel. The authors use real archaology to blow the Bible and Jewish texts right out of the water. It's stunning.

Finkelstein was just in a TV special I recorded on the origin of the ancient Israelites. I really liked it a lot. The "limited Exodus" working hypothesis is not something I can get behind (although the traditional story is right out!), but I guess it will do until somebody finds a campfire. I thought it did a great job of explaining the Documentary Hypothesis.

 

[Darkhole]

Prof. Israel Finkelstein and his American colleague, the historian and archaeologist Neal Asher Silberman, authored "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts" Finkelstein is currently the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University and is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel. The authors use real archaology to blow the Bible and Jewish texts right out of the water. It's stunning.

Fantastic book. It should be obligatory on schools.
No old testament: no Judism, no Christianity and no Islam.