For years and years, critics viewed the biblical story of David and Goliath as a fanciful tale of religious fiction. Recently “archaeololgists digging at the purported biblical home of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4) have unearthed a shard of pottery bearing an inscription of the Philistine’s name, a find they claimed lends historical credence to the Bible’s story of David’s battle with the giant”. This is the oldest Philistine inscription ever discovered, dated to 950BC–within 70 years of the biblical narrative. Doubting scholars for years assumed that “there were no Hittites at the time of Abraham, as there were no records of their existence apart from the Old Testament.
However, later “archaeological research…uncovered more than 1200 years of Hittite civilization. In similar fashion, critics assumed that the biblical patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were fictional figures from Hebrew folklore. Yet cuneiform tablets discovered in the royal archives of the palace of Mari in northern Syria dating from the start of the second milleniumBC (the approximate time of the patriarchs) mention “such names as Abam-ram (Abraham), Jacob-el and Benjaminites. All these discoveries support the biblical record and refute the charges of critics.
An inscription near Jerusalem refers to “Joseph, son of Caiaphas” (Caiaphas was the high priest in Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s crucifixion (Matthew 26:57). An inscribed stome from first century Caesareans reads, “Pontius Pilate, the Perfect of Judea” (Pilate was the governor at the time of Jesus” crucifixion (Matthew 27:2). Such evidence, carved in stone, supports the conclusion that the Bible writers were recording facts and not fiction.
The manner in which archaeology has verified the historical accuracy of the Bible has been nothing short of remarkable. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible”. William F. Albright, who stated, “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition…The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries…has been progressively discredited. The evidence of history and archaeology defies the critics, and supports Scripture.
