Thursday, June 21, 2012

More Honey Proof To Prove Accuracy of Bible

Here is some more "sweet evidence" that proves the Bible accuracy.


Moses described the land the Israelites were going to inherit as a "good and spacious, ...a land flowing with milk and honey."


But what was the source of this honey?  Was the honey just the sweet juice from dates, figs, or grapes or was it the wild honey Mathew and other Bible writers mentioned?  In  Mathew 3: 1, 4 Gospel Writer, Mathew, said that John the Baptist existed on locusts such wild honey while living in the wilderness.


The Israelites made good use of such juices no doubt, , but recent archaeological finds show that some of them were skilled beekeepers. A Professsor (Amihai) Mazar of the Hebrew University has mentioned the archaeological evidence of this.


He mentions an apiary found at Tel Rehov  which dates back to the time of Solomon's Temple Period  around the 10th and 9th centuries B.C.E.


Such apiaries as this one played a significant role in early development of the Jewish nation.  This one had some 100 hives set up in three rows and according to scholar could produce up to 100 tons of honey and beeswax annually.


This  honey and beeswax was used in a number of industries.These apiaries provided the early Israelites not only with a delicious food and food sweetener, but also with a steady supply of beeswax    used in the metal and leather industries. And it was also used in the  production of writing boards which consisted of a wooden panel and recess filled with the wax.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

How Great Was Babylon Really?


Nebuchadnezzar, King of ancient Babylon seemed to think that the city he build was truly magnificent, saying at Daniel 4:30: " Is not this Babylon the Great, that I myself have built for the royal house with the strength of my might and the dignity of my majesty?" But was he deluding himself?


He was quite a builder. According to historian the main temple in Babylon featured a tower or ziggurat over 230 feet or 70 meters high. That would make it comparable many of the modern sky scrapers designed by architects today. This was in addition to many temples, palaces, walls and that magnificent terraced garden.


But according to the author of Babylon--City of Wonders The Processional Way which ran through the Ishtar gate was bordered by statues of striding lions and was his grandest project as a builder.


The gate itself  was covered with deep blue glazed bricks which featured reliefs of hundreds  of marching bulls and dragons.


Visitors to this ancient city must have been awestruck by the magnificence of this and other architectural projects --  as were the archaeologists was uncovered the evidence of much of his work in the earth part of the  Twentieth Century.  He definitely  was not  deluding himself when speaking of the city he had designed and had built.



Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Was the Flood of Noah's Day Really Global?

What do you think of the flood of Noah's Day.  Myth or reality?


Many  experts have tried to explain away the flood of Noah's day as described in the Bible as merely  the sudden flooding of the Black Sea -- and many persons accept that.


But is that all it really was. There is evidence from all over  the world that it was  a global flood. Take the frozen carcasses of elephants and other animals discovered frozen solid in the Arctic tundra with edible food still in their mouths.  Take the discovery shells and other objects found on some of the highest mountains.


And take for example  the huge flood that geologists said roared through the northwestern part of the United States thousands of years ago. One of these swept through this area as a wall of water 600 metres high at some 105 kilometers an hour. They say there is evidence of this being a huge wall of water containing  some 2,000 cubic kilometers of water and weighing  more than two trillion tons.   And much of that water is still here -- with the earth still 71 percent water.


This flood is not an isolated piece of flood evidence. Similar geological evidence of a huge flood in other areas of the globe have convinced open-minded scientists that a global flood as described in the Bible is a distinct possibility.


So the next time you read the part of the Bible  which says, "The deluge went on for forth days upon the earth...And waters overwhelmed  the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be covered. Up to fifteen cubits [6.5 metres] the waters overwhelmed them and the mountains became covered" think of the evidence that -- yes -- it really did happen.



Monday, June 4, 2012

Jesus' Death Stumbled Many

Jesus' death did stumble many. They were revolted by his impalement and stopped believing in him. As the Apostle Paul said at 1 Corinthians 1:23,  this "became a cause for stumbling."  But why?


The reason,  is that in the eyes of most Jews, according to historian, Ben Witherington III,  such as an impalement was "the most shameful way to died in the world. He says that people in the Middle East believed that the nature of your death portrayed who you were as a person  -- and being impaled was usually reserved for criminals guilty of murder or sedition. 


So in the eyes of many Jesus must have been really a scoundrel -- a person guilty of blasphemy against God and sedition against the state as the Jewish Sanhedrin alleged.


This  seems strange since  centuries earlier Hebrew prophets predicted the vile treatment that the Messiah would receive at the hands of his enemies, but still it did happen.


In view of this it does not seem reasonable to believe, as some Bible critics do, that the early Gospel writers, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John,  made up the accounts of Jesus' trial, death, and resurrection.


If they were trying to create myths about Jesus in order to attract others to their beliefs this is not the way they would have gone about it in view of the way most Jews viewed death by impalement.

Friday, June 1, 2012

What Was This Coccus-Scarlet Material?

Exactly what was this coccus-scarlet material mentioned by Moses in his description of the tabernacle, Israel's ancient center  of worship and the High Priest's clothing, as  the writing of Pliny, a Roman historian?


Moses at Exodus 26: 1 and Exodus 38:18 says tent cloths forming the walls and gate of the tabernacle...were made of "blue thread and wool dyed reddish purple and coccus scarlet material and fine twisted linen." and at Exodus 28: 1-6 he mentions that the garments of the high priest were also made using a coccus-scarlet material.


His reference to a coccus-scarlet is a dye  extracted from the bodies of female insects of the Coccidae family -- found in the Middle East as well as the Mediterranean areas on lermes oak tree.


Since it is the eggs that actually contained the dye harvesters waited until  the wingless female, about the size and shape of a pea, was filled with these eggs and then plucked them off the oak  trees.


The females were then  crushed to release the water soluble dye for dyeing linen, wool, and other materials used in the clothing of the Israelite priests as well as high ranking officials in other countries such as Italy.


It was a rich, highly esteemed color before and after the time of Jesus Christ.


( Biblical History of David and Edom Below)





Bible History of David and Edom Accurate

Critics have long sought to discredit the Biblical account of King David but archaeologists have vindicated it on two fronts. 


First of all did  King David actually exist  or is this just a piece of Biblical mythology as some claim?  Before  there was little or no proof outside of the Bible itself that he did actually exist.


In 1993, however, archaeologists discovered a basalt stone in northern Israel from the ninth century B.C.E. On it they read the words:  "House of David" and "kings of Israel".  Proof of his existence apart from the Biblical account.


Now, what  about Biblical accounts such as 2 Samuel 8: 13, 14 describing battles with  Edom? Until recently critics claimed that Edom during the reign of David was just a small pastoral society that could not possibly threaten David and Israel.


 Now, however, according  to the Biblical Archaeological Review fairly recent discoveries  have proved that Edom  was indeed a very complex society centuries earlier than critics have claimed. And could have been a serious threat to David's Israel as described in the Bible. 


So the Biblical accounts of  David's existence and battles with the Edom are accurate