Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology

1. Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology • Tim Kimberley

2. Why Archaeology?

3. Why Archaeology? ἀρχαῖος + λογία “Ancients” + “the study of”

4. Why Archaeology? Archaeology Helps • Words of Bible • Land of the Bible • World of the Bible

5. Why Archaeology? Watch out for… • Photoshop Hack • Weekend Warrior • Sophisticated Scoundrel

6. Why Archaeology? We look for… • Provenance • Significance

7. Why Archaeology? Questions?

8. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs

9. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs • 720BC Northern Kingdom of Israel is Destroyed by Assyria • The Assyrians turn their Gaze toward the Southern Kingdom of Judah • 2 Kings 18:13 - “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.”

10. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs • 2 Kings 18:17 states, “The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.” • Lachish is a good victory…Jerusalem a great victory…

11. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs

12. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs • The Assyrian Commander tells the people of Jerusalem, “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?”

13. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs • Fast-Forward 2,500 years. Austin Henry Layard is doing a dig in Nineveh in 1847

14. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs • He discovers the palace of Sennacherib... • “Palace without Rival” • “The walls of some 70 rooms were lined with limestone slabs carved with scenes of his exploits” • Room XXVI rocked the world

15. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs • This room has a piece of art 8 feet tall and 80 feet long wrapping the wall of the room...it depicts one single scene in human history

16. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs • Significance • Proves powerful importance of Israel in the 8th Century BC…in his waiting room • Brags about Lachish...not Jerusalem • Destruction of Lachish is the most widely attested Old Testament event. Occurs in: Bible, Lachish Reliefs, Assyrian Cuneiform Prisms, Monuments in Nineveh

17. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs • 8th Century BC’s equivalence of finding HD video from a battle mentioned in the Old Testament • There is a God who can defeat Assyria…just one!

18. #10: Assyrian Lachish Reliefs Q&A

19. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmaneser

20. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmeneser • Shalmaneser III ruled Assyria from 859-824BC

21. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmeneser • In 853BC a coalition comes together to defeat him “Ahab of Israel”

22. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmeneser • Ahab and Jezebel are the Bonnie and Clyde of the Old Testament • God devotes a large portion of the OT explaining their wicked leadership (1 Kings 16 - 2 Kings 10) • Jehu is raised up to take them out...Jehu becomes the new King of Israel

23. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmeneser • In 1846 Layard was digging in Iraq and discovered in the desert a 6 foot tall black obelisk

24. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmeneser “The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: I received from him silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom...”

25. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmeneser • Significance • Only artistic depiction of a person in the Bible, Jehu was still king for 10 years after the obelisk was completed

27. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmeneser • Significance • Teaming up w/Shalmaneser to defeat Hazael of Damascus was disobedient…but fits Jehu’s circumstances and character • 2 Kings 10:31, “But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.”

28. #9: Jehu’s Tribute to Shalmeneser Q&A

29. Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology • Tim Kimberley