Bible Passages Blog

Sitting at the opening of a 2,700 year-old tomb near Jerusalem, Dr. Gabriel Barkay reflected upon one of the world's most celebrated discoveries: “I couldn’t bear the sight of this boy anymore." He was remembering how Nathan had continuously tugged at the back of his shirttail as he directed a major archaeological dig southwest of Jerusalem. He was “always asking silly questions, but so it happens,” as Barkay continued, “he made one of the most important discoveries in my l

BY JOHN W. MOORE The headliner for the Assyrian Post of 701 B.C. reads “Lachish Destroyed, Jerusalem Spared.” Of course, the Assyrian Post is fictional and newspapers didn’t exist in Biblical times—or did they? Between 700-681 BC an Assyrian “newspaper” did in fact report on the famed military exploits of Sennacherib and his conquest of the Levant, including Judah. The campaign included attacks against Lachish, Libnah, and Jerusalem as described in the Bible (2 Kings. 18;

“Has anything like this ever happened?” This is a paraphrase of the question that God asked the people of Israel through his prophet Joel. The question is in response to a locust plague that had affected the people of Israel. The answer to the question is a rhetorical “no”; nothing like this had ever happened. Joel is trying to get the people of Israel to wake up, consider the plague that was sent from God, and see it as a sign of the coming Day of the Lord. Nothing like this

IMAGE INSIGHTS - It is hot, rugged, and home to a some of the rock badgers and wild goats of Israel. With its thousands of small caves and fissures it is an ideal location for finding refuge and escape from an enemy or the heat of the desert sun. This 56 by 12-mile-long barren and inhospitable land is wedged between the Dead Sea and the mountains of Judea and was the setting for several important events of scripture. In this barren location of Judah's territorial allotment,

IMAGE INSIGHTS (Qumran and Isaiah 40:8): Located near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, the Wadi Qumran is the celebrated site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essene community of the Jews. Nearly 1,000 manuscripts of the biblical text (and others) were represented in the thousands of fragments and scrolls written on parchment and papyrus. Discovered in a series of caves between 1947 and 1956, the Dead Sea Scrolls are arguably the most important discover

By John W. Moore It might be unfamiliar. It might even sound to us like one of those peculiar literary devices discussed in a course on biblical hermeneutics (the science of interpretation). Even pronouncing it can be challenging, but verisimilitude is a helpful term used in such disciplines as philosophy, literature, and law. It is also important to biblical archaeologists as I came to observe in our production of Go Now to Shiloh, when Dr. Scott Stripling spoke of it duri

by Jordan Moore While no one is sure who first made the statement, there are those in the world who ascribe to the idea that “the Bible is the most dangerous book in the world… [and that] it must be kept under lock and key.” Through history, many attempts have been made to try and thwart the influence of the word of God. Holy scripture has been tossed into fire, outlawed, and blacklisted. However, Christians can thankfully have confidence in the words of Paul to Timothy, that

With all of the current discoveries of archaeology, it is certainly a tough time to be a critic.