I'd like to add to this, so as to not just be a naysayer refuting your sources without adding any real content. Sorry if you already replied,
Nichole, it took a while to compile this reply.
William F. Albright, a respected archaeologist, said,
The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, certain phases of
which still appear periodically, has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details,
and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history. (pp. 127-128)
(The Archaeology of Palestine. Rev. ed. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Pelican Books, 1960.)
Nelson Glueck, a Reformed Jewish scholar, is quoted as saying in John Mongomery's Christianity for the Tough Minded, that there has been no
archaeological discovery that has ever "controverted a single, properly understood biblical statement" (P. 6) Granted, that was in 1973, but
Dever's argument is pretty much a rehash of Baruch Halpern's The Emergence of Israel in Canaan published in 1983, and you accept that argument.
There are many others, but instead of quoting folks, let's look at the supporting evidence.
One example of archaeologists stating that the Biblical tradition that Moses wrote the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible, also known as the
Pentateuch) is that writing did not exist in Moses' time, or at least very sparsely used. As a result, it was assumed the author of the Torah had to
be someone later than Moses. Then the
Black Stele was discovered, a pre-Mosaic
stone with wedge shaped writing on it detailing the laws of Hammurabi, 3 centuries
before Moses! This led archaeologists to believe that there
was a chance Moses was literate. Considering Hammurabi had his laws written on stone and placed prominently, his people must have been capable of
reading them.
Another example of archaeology making assumptions based on what they had not discovered is in the case of the Hittites. For a long while, there was no
record of the Hittites besides the mention of them in the Old Testament. However, later archaeological finds have shown that the Hittites not only
existed, but were a civilization for more than 1,200 years! A civilization that existed for 1,200 years was completely forgotten except for the
account in the Old Testament for thousands of years, and archaeologists assumed they were a myth because of this lack of discovery.
Yet another example that's also mentioned in the link I provided for the Black Stele is David's conquest of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, that site
takes its text for that section directly from S.H. Horn’s “Recent Illumination of the Old Testament” from Christianity Today, published in 1968,
without any reference to it
I wrote to them letting them know, though, so hopefully that will be taken care of. The gutters or water spouts Joab
climbed did not exist at that time on city walls, so how could that have happened? It was only later that archaeology discovered what this account was
talking about. Jerusalem at the time was a smaller city in a great defensive position. However, the only water source was outside of the city. In
order to bring water into the city and still be able to withstand a siege, a series of tunnels were created to transport water from the spring into
the city.
A problem still remained, though. The waterspout appeared to end before the actual walls. That didn’t make any sense, as it defeated the whole
purpose of transporting the water. Further archaeological digs revealed that the discovered walls were actually from the Hellenistic period (approx.
323 BC – 31 BC), while the walls mentioned in Second Samuel and First Chronicles mention come are suspected to be from the Jebusite period, and a
tower discovered from Davidic origin.
There are several other examples I could go into detail on, such as the legitimacy of the book of Daniel, Elba, the Mari and Nuzi tablets,
extra-biblical references to Abraham, the heavy doors in Sodom, Joseph’s story, the use of camels mentioned in the Bible, Ostraca, the Gedaliah, and
more.
As Dr. Albright said, “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old Testament tradition.”
