Which book is causing the most scientific controversy? Most likely it is the Bible. Some researchers believe that the Bible is completely a collection of myths, another part claims that a decent part of the information in the Bible is true.
Which one is right? I think for this we need to turn to science, which definitely cannot lie - archeology. Let's look at a few archaeological finds that can support the truth of the events described in the pages of Scripture.
We have all heard the legend of the Great Flood, which had a huge impact on our home planet. The Bible describes this event as a terrible catastrophe on a planetary scale. Did archaeologists manage to find anything interesting?
It turns out, yes. And it was in the first half of the last century - in 1928-1929, the English explorer Leonard Woolley conducted archaeological excavations on the territory of modern Iraq (Mesopotamia).
And during excavations, he discovered a rather large layer of silt underground, the thickness of which reached several meters. Silt has been found in layers dating back to the fourth millennium BC. Woolley first discovered a layer of ancient silt in the city of Ur.
Later, he discovered silt in many other ancient cities in the region. What does this mean? Woolley suggested that the flood really could have been, but it was simply exaggerated by the authors of the Bible and did not have a planetary scale.
Promotional video:
But the very fact that there was once a catastrophic flood on the territory of Mesopotamia can be considered proven. What is known about the life of Abraham? The Bible says that he lived with his family in the ancient city of Ur, after which he moved to the territory of Canaan.
The Bible describes in sufficient detail the family tree of Abraham - with dozens of names. Some researchers believe that Abraham may have lived between 2000 and 1500 BC.
Once, during archaeological excavations in Mari, an ancient city on the territory of modern Syria, archaeologists discovered the ruins of an ancient royal palace of enormous size, and among the ruins they found thousands of clay tablets from the royal archive.
The finds were called “tablets from Marie's archive”. Archaeologists have established that they could have been compiled from 2300 to 1760 BC. So, in these tablets were found the names found in the biblical genealogy of Abraham.
Does this indicate that Abraham's family tree in the Bible was completely true? Of course not. However, this suggests that it could not have been COMPLETELY invented.
Another interesting information about Abraham - the Bible says that his wife could not have children. And for this reason, Abraham got himself another wife so that she would bear him a son. The second wife of Abraham, according to the Bible, was a servant from Ancient Egypt, Hagar.
It should be noted that the act of Abraham was not something out of the ordinary - information about such a practice was discovered by researchers in the ancient texts of Hammurabi, as well as in the texts of Alalah dating back to the 19th century BC.
That can also be an indirect confirmation that this story could not be completely fictional. There is information in the Bible about two ancient cities - Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed by God for the sins of their inhabitants.
For a long time, it was believed that this story is a fiction from beginning to end. However, during the next archaeological excavations east of the Jordan River, archaeologists discovered the ruins of an ancient city. Its age is fully consistent with the early historical period of the Bible (3500 - 1540 BC).
Researchers were able to establish that the city was suddenly abandoned by the end of the Middle Bronze Age, which roughly corresponds to the date of the destruction of the biblical Sodom. Does this mean that the city was destroyed by God? Of course not. However, this may be proof that the story of these cities was not entirely fictional.
The Bible contains a lot of information about King Herod. For a long time, this character was considered mythological. However, archaeologists find traces of his ambitious projects throughout Palestine.
And in the Old City of Jerusalem, not far from the Tower of David, researchers stumbled upon the ruins of an ancient huge palace. And according to the Bible, it was here that the palace of King Herod was located, where Pontius Pilate pronounced his famous sentence on Jesus.
And there are a huge number of such archaeological finds.
All of them cannot be described in one article. One can only come to the conclusion that to one degree or another the biblical events actually existed, but somewhere they were exaggerated, somewhere they were embellished, etc.
Personally, it seems to me so. What do you think about this? Write your opinion in the comments.