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by Dr. Paul S. Bauman, Vice-President, Grace Theological Seminary A rchaeology is the study of ancient things, but as a correlated science, archaeology is not old. It dates back a little more than one hundred years, and its begin nings can be considered nothing short of providential. The story of the way that God has cared for His Word down through the centuries, despite the machinations of sinful man, is a fascinating one. Those who know this story will find it a real source of encouragement to their faith in these days of doubt. The church has always faced heresies, but on one truth there has been almost universal agreement: the inspiration of the Bible. Even heretics appealed to the Scriptures in an effort to substantiate their views. It is hardly necessary to say that belief in an inspired Bible is rejected by many today. Whence this remarkable change of attitude? A little more than one hundred and fifty years ago, there began within the church a movement, which, as time went on, more and more openly denied the historical accuracy of the Bible. This movement, known as higher criticism, became the parent of the religious liberalism of our present day, and is now to be recognized under the more common, but somewhat inaccurate, term, modernism. Destructive criticism gained such momentum in religious circles that many Christians began to wonder if they could reasonably maintain, in the light of develop ing research, their belief in a historically accurate, and hence, an inspired Bible. Then something happened which can hardly be explained on the grounds of mere coincidence. Simul taneously with the growth of higher criticism, there began to develop a science which has done more to prove false the theories of destructive criticism than anything else in existence. This science is known today as archaeology, and the story of its beginning is worth our consideration. Scientific archaeology originated in the days of Napo leon. When he invaded Egypt in 1799, he took with him a staff of scholars whom he commissioned to investigate and report on the ancient monuments of the land. These scholars were beset by one major difficulty, for, while there were hundreds of inscriptions to be found on the ruined walls, pillars, and ceilings of the ancient palaces, temples, and tombs, the knowledge of the Egyptian language had been lost long since, and no one could read the inscriptions. It was while excavating at Rosetta, near the mouth of the Nile, that a French engineer by the name of Boussard uncovered a strange black granite stone, about three feet nine inches high, two feet four and one-half inches wide, and eleven inches thick. The stone contained inscriptions in three languages, written in three registers, one above the other. The top register was immediately recognized as Egyptian hieroglyphics, though no one could read it. The second, likewise unknown, was written in Demotic, a modified form of the Egyptian, something like our shorthand. The third was in the Greek script. It occurred to the scholars that what had been written
THE ROSETTA STONE in the known language; that is, the Greek, might likewise be written in the unknown, and for years efforts were made to decipher the Egyptian inscriptions. Finally, in 1818, a Frenchman named Champollion began a com parison in an effort to unlock the secret of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and after several years of tireless effort, “ the inscriptions on the idols which had remained dumb for over two thousand years were made to speak.” * Now, just what bearing did all of this have on the truth of the Bible? Let us not forget that a considerable portion of Biblical history is interlocked with the history of Egypt. Abraham is said to have journeyed into Egypt (Gen. 12:10). The children of Israel sojourned in this land for about 450 years. There are numerous other allu sions to this great country throughout the Old Testament. With the secrets of the Egyptian language now known, scholars, for the first time in more than a millennium, were able to reconstruct from the ancient inscriptions an accurate history of that great country. This history could be checked with certain Biblical statements, and the accuracy of the Bible tested. Numerous corroborations of Biblical history have resulted from the unlocking of the Egyptian language. For example, destructive criticism long refused to recog nize the existence of the Hittites, a people mentioned more than forty times in the Old Testament. Such references were considered “ tales of Oriental fiction.” Here, as oft- times before, the Bible weathered the test. One of the most important historical monuments ever encountered is the famous Kamak inscription of Thothmes III, discovered on a pylon of the Temple of Thebes, in Egypt, and dated at about 1479 B.C. It contains the earliest references to Canaan in the Egyptian royal in scriptions and mentions many places familiar to the student of Old Testament history.* However, of supreme importance in this record is its reference to the Hittites. Prior to the decipherment of the Egyptian language, nothing was known of the Hittite people except that which was related in the Bible, and of course, according to the critics, this source was to be largely discounted. (Continued on next page)
JUNE, 1960
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