13
T h e . K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
January 1930
flftC H Ç 'ü k OG>if ¿5 . T\ - t U T W W t T l O W & v/ v 4^V\ û € S The Ola Testament on Trial B y J. A . H uffman , D. D.
There is a close relation between archeology and the Bible, for upon these two sources we are entirely de pendent for our knowledge of the most ancient peoples and their history. Concerning this fact Professor Del- itzsch, in his volume “ Babel and Bible,” says: “ The Old Testament formed a world by itself till far into the last
puagftkmutfO most people it seems strange that any portion of the Holy Bible should be placed on trial. But w /ib, such is the case. The Old Testament especially jgfe? is being submitted to a grueling test at the hands of the prosecutors, the critics. The question is, f r i l What will be the outcome of the trial to which the Old Testament is being sub mitted ? One of the chief witnesses for
century. It spoke of times whose latest iimits the age of classical an tiquity barely reached, and of na tions that have met either with none or with the most cursory allusion from the Greeks and Romans. The Bible was the whole source of our knowledge of the history of hither Asia prior to 550 B. C. But now the walls that formed the impenetrable background to the scenes of the Old Testament have suddenly fallen, and a keen, invigorating air and a flood of light from the Orient per vades and irradiates the hoary book, animating and illuminating it the more as Hebrew antiquity is linked together from beginning to end with Babylonia and Assyria.” D oes A rcheology C orroborate T he B ible ? What, then, is the testimony of archeology to the historical trust worthiness and accuracy of the Bible? This is the question which I propose to answer. If archeology corroborates the statements of the Bible, by that silent but powerful testimony it witnesses to its trust worthiness. Believers do not need such evidence to prove their Bible true, but they welcome everything which corroborates its records. Such things stimulate faith and con vince the unbelieving. W riting A n O ld A rt First of all, archeology puts to rest forever the contention that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch because the art of writ ing was unknown in his day. The fact is now settled beyond dispute that the art of writing was highly developed a thousand years before the days of Moses. The au thor has in his possession several clay tablets written in the Baby
the defense is the youthful but in teresting science of archeology. It speaks a silent but powerful word for or against the Book. Which shall it be? In fact, its evidence must be translated from the inscrip tions on walls of temples and tombs, from pillars erected millenniums ago, and even from clay tablets, queer-looking as those we portray. From wherever these testimonies are gathered the characters used in the writing are much the same— either the hieroglyphic, picture writing, or the cuneiform (wedge- shaped characters). Those shown in the illustrations are the cunei form. It is with these odd-appear- ing witnesses and what they say that we are interested. The word '“ archeology” is com posed of two Greek words meaning “ words about things belonging to the beginning.” Archeology is, then, the science of ancient things. The materials with which archeol ogy deals are architecture, monu ments, inscriptions, art, language, implements, customs, and, in fact, everything which can be found which belongs to ancient times. The tomb of Tutankhamen, re cently discovered in Egypt by Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter, a f fords an illustration of the mate rials with which archeology has to deal. It was an undisturbed tomb dating back to more than a millen nium before Christ, making its con tents more than three thousand years old. It is not likely that any thing will be found in the tomb of Tutankhamen which will have any direct bearing upon the Bible, for he likely belonged to the latter part
A CLAY TABLET —Courtesy of American Sunday School Union
THE MOABITE STONE -Courtesy of American Sunday School Union
lonian cuneiform, which date further back than 2000 B.C. The accompanying pictures are fair representations of the cuneiform clay tablets. These are illustrations of the highly developed condition of the art of writing long be fore the days of Moses. The code of Hammurabi, who
of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, a period after the Is raelites had left Egypt; but his tomb, with its implements, furniture, jewels, art, vessels, food deposits, etc., is an illustration of the materials with which archeology has to deal.
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