So, to begin, the Bible is the only surviving document of any great length from before 1000bc. It was first written—and we know this—at about 1300bc. Which is when the Exodus took place, if you study the Genealogical records of the kings dating back from Persian restoration.
And that’s important because if the Bible were written at 1300bc—it was started then—it’s pretty much what the Bible claims. And the religion was formed by Moses, when they were out in the desert. And there’s actually several pieces of evidence that suggest this happened.
The first, is a temple in Soleb, which has the name of Yahweh inscribed on it, and also a depiction of bound slaves. That’s actually in an Egyptian ruin, and I’ve seen it on a video. Which, is important because on that pillar, it says the Jews were a wandering people. Which is also what the Bible says. And when the slavery was initiated, it doesn’t say that. Only that the Jews were indeed enslaved, and they worshiped Yahweh.
So, another piece of evidence was found off the coast of Nuweiba beach. They found thousands of scattered Chariot spokes and wheels and other such things. And they recovered one, which dated exactly to the 18th Egyptian Dynasty. Which, was again, around 1300bc.
So, you’d think if this happened, there’d have to be some great revival in Egypt. The overwhelming evidence that God showed Himself to Pharaoh would have to have some impact on society. And it did. Akhenaten, a famous pharaoh, commissioned his state to be Monotheistic, and worship Aten. And, this is exactly dated at the Exodus. So, around 1340 is when Akhenaten lived. Forty years in the wilderness, there’s then going to be the conquest of Canaan. Which, you’d think there’d be historical evidence, and there is. Every siege the Bible mentions, there’s archaeological evidence supporting it. The conquests of the Jews is supported in the Late Bronze Age Collapse. There were diseases proceeding forth from God to help the Israelites win. And there’s a sharp reduction of populations during the thirteenth century. So, all of that lines up with the Biblical record.
But, you’d think if the Jews existed, they would have left evidence. Well, they did. There’s a structure that is patterned off of the biblical pattern of an altar. It was found on Mt. Ebal. There was Kosher animal ashes discovered at the site. The best records of the site date to about 1250bc. They found the lead tablet talked about in Joshua. They found the Tetragrammaton on that tablet. They found references to Jeremiah and Hezekiah—who visited the altar. And so, this is evidence yet again of the Jews right after the Exodus.
Then, there’s more evidence. Can you believe it? There’s a stele called the Merneptah stele, dated to around 1210bc, which names Israel, and Pharaoh boasts of having destroyed the Seed of Israel. Which, means he likely went through and burned all the records pertaining to them. As, Pharaoh and ancient civilizations were very keen on the records they kept. But, it mentions Israel by name. Obviously Israel wasn’t destroyed, as it’s still a people today. So, likely, this is just a fabrication of Pharaoh’s who would prefer them not to be in the Canaan strip, where they ensconced themselves, and also practiced their worship of God through the Law.
“But wait! The Bible wasn’t written until 400BC!” Nope. The Bible, because of something called Loan Words, was written in the thirteenth century. It was written in the Late Bronze age, due to Egyptian Words being used that didn’t exist at any other time. So, for that transference of data, the Bible would have had to be written around 1300bc and continued until, well, today actually. There’s still a record kept of the Jewish people, dating from this time of Moses to now.
And, you might say, “Well the Bible plagiarized Ancient Near East Myths.” Nope. Those myths are found in Assyrian libraries. The Bible does predate that. And, not to mention, there’s indirect references in the story of Abraham to a law found in Mesopotamian culture around 1950bc. It was on a law called the “Lipit-Ishtar”. And this was a law with regard to a prostitute—a concubine—and the person had to keep them like a wife. But, Abraham was told not to do this. Which shows, for that detail to exist into modern day, a continual transference of information dating back to at least 1950bc, but I would argue earlier.
So, there’s two different accounts in Genesis, and two different traditions being outlined. One of El (God) and the other of Yahweh. I believe these were both the same tradition, the one of El coming from Abraham, and the one of Yahweh coming from Jacob. And these two traditions, and the Law of God, came from the first instances of Monotheism in the world. So, the stories in Genesis were originated by the Jews, that’s what this evidence shows. And not only that, there’s two separate traditions—that’s why the Bible repeats itself sometimes, which I’ll get to later—and these two separate traditions were likely composed by witnesses of the events themselves. The slight differences are what we’d expect from witness testimony. It’s just a matter of fact, that this is what witness testimony looks like.
Which gets us to the prophets and the chroniclers of the Kings of Judah and Israel, that they were written down by witnesses, and transferred, as I’ve proven, at the time those events were taking place. So, the Old Testament, the entirety of it, were written by eye witness, and that I’ve just proven.
“Ah, but what about the New!” Here we actually have even more evidence to support. For one thing, Jesus actually existed. There’s about half a dozen references outside of the Bible to Jesus, some by famous historians. There’s internal evidence in the scripture saying Jesus lived, being that He sweat blood, a condition called hematohidrosis which the writers couldn’t have forged. And also He died, because the water flowing from His wound is consistent with a Heart Attack. This heart attack, what happens is a pustule sac develops beneath the rib cage, in pre cardiac arrest, and when it ruptures, it creates what looks like water. And when the centurion punctured Jesus, that pus flowed from His wound. Which could only be consistent with an actual death. Jesus could not have survived that.
So, also, how do we know the Gospels are true? Well, again, people as early as 90ad, were quoting copious amounts of information from the Gospels, Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and it was already established at least then. What we do have is Papais saying who wrote two gospels. Matthew and Mark. Matthew was composed in Hebrew and later translated into Greek by Matthew. And Mark was given by Peter, who spoke it to him, and he wrote it down. Luke accompanied Paul, and therefore Paul, we know, met with James and Peter, being given the first creed of the faith, “He is God who died and raised”, and not only this, Luke would have known witnesses of the Gospel, too. So Acts and Luke were written through the testimony of first hand witnesses, so was Mark and Matthew.
The only one really difficult to believe based on evidence is John’s gospel. But, it was written at about 100ad to 120ad. Which if John were even 30 years old at Christ’s death, he could conceivably live to 120. That’s not out of the realm of possibility. Especially since Rome was a pretty hearty civilization. So, the Gospels were being written about 60ad, about thirty years after Christ’s death. Because they were copiously quoted by the Church Fathers at 90ad. I just showed that their origins are documented. And John could have lived to be 120, and if he were even an eleven year old when Christ died—who knows, right?—he could have been even younger when that Gospel was written. Which, we’re not talking about a lifespan outside of the reach of a human life. We’re talking thirty to seventy years after Christ died, that’s when the Gospels were written. Within the span of a human life.
Not to mention, Papais' source for who wrote Matthew and Mark was St. John, proving he was indeed alive at 90ad, only a decade before the Gospel of John was written at the earliest.
And again, it’s important to understand that historians documented some of these disciple’s deaths. Some of these men knew Jesus, or were related to Jesus, and they died on the testimony that Christ raised, and ate and broke bread with them. They were willing to sometimes die unspeakable deaths just for this testimony. Which, is important because a person doesn’t die willingly for what they know isn’t true. It’s one thing if the faith is far removed, and it’s a story. But these people lived it… and they would be the first to know if it were faked. And, Josephus documents that James, the LORD’s brother, died by stoning for this testimony.
So… both Old and New Testament are sufficed in the evidence. And they are witness accounts from the time periods. So, I firmly believe in them.
To conclude, there’s clear evidence of Judaism existing prior to Babylonian Captivity. And the evidence puts it at right when Judaism claims to have been founded. So, it’s actually older than most of the sources we have from the ANE.
It’s neat, actually. El (God) and Yahweh are probably the original monotheistic faiths. The evidence points to this, too, and I think Genesis was meant to combine the traditions of El and Yahweh into one master tradition. That being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And as for Jesus, there's clear reason to believe the Gospels are eyewitness accounts, and not fabrications.
B. K. Neifert 