Top Ten Discoveries in 2020 in Biblical Archaeology: Digging for Truth Episode 120

welcome to digging for truth sponsored by the associates for biblical research i'm your host henry smith once a year pastor brian wendell joins us to highlight the best top 10 discoveries in biblical archaeology from the past year today he joins us to do our annual countdown of the top best discoveries of 2020. good to see you again brian thanks so much henry it's always great to join you and talk about biblical archaeology yeah we're we're going to be you're going to be piloting the ship today fast we're going to be moving at warp speed so we asked the audience to buckle in and get ready to go we're doing our top 10 countdown for 2020. so before we get into it though why don't you share with the audience a little bit about please a little bit of what criteria you use to determine the top ten because there is some subjectivity involved in all this there absolutely is and every year i sift through about 200 news stories or more from the world of biblical archaeology so every week one of my jobs for abr is to write a breaking news update on the best news article from the past week in biblical archaeology and then at the end of each month i do a top three on my own website biblearchaeologyreport.com and then at the end of each year i take the top 10 from all of those reports through the year and here are my criteria first of all the discoveries have to be directly related to people places or events mentioned in scripture or to the composition of scripture itself as opposed to many of the discoveries from the world of biblical archaeology which are helpful they provide background information on the culture but for the purpose of this list i've chosen to narrow my focus the second thing is that they have to either be studies new studies or new discoveries that as opposed to announcements so oftentimes announcements are made in biblical archaeology which make news they're important in may 2020 for example they announced that they were beginning new excavations at the city of petra and jordan now petra is a hugely important site that was big news but i haven't considered it for my uh top 10 list and finally i should note this henry 2020 as we all know was quite a year and the pandemic led to the cancellation of many many excavations despite this there were some great discoveries in the past year and so i'm really looking forward to talking about the top 10 with you all right well in that regard my friend let's jump right in and start with uh number ten i believe you want to couple that with number nine i think they're a little bit of a relation there so why don't you go ahead brian sure well the number 10 discovery on my list was um the bulla from a servant of king jeroboam the second was which was authenticated this was done by a professor at ben-gurion university and the bula's impression is almost identical to a much larger jasper seal that's quite famous the megiddo seal of the servant of shima the servant of jeroboam the second but that one was lost in the early 1900s it has this roaring lion image it bears the paleo hebrew inscription saying belonging to shima the servant of jeroboam and when this particular bulla um came from the antiquities market most people thought now it's just a forgery it was only purchased for ten old israeli shekels if you can believe it or not from a bedouin antiquity stealer and uh but when the the professor and the scholars of bungarian university started doing tests on it started looking at the composition of the clay started looking at the patina and studying the inscription in high detail and comparing it to all sorts of other bula that they knew of they recently announced that they were authenticating it that it is actually an authentic seal impression of shema the servant of jeroboam now if this is correct this of course affirms shema who we don't know from scripture but it affirms king jeroboam ii the son of joash from second kings 13 13 who we do know from scripture so that was number 10. that's number 10. now how about number number nine is interesting because just real quick brian i'm sorry in the 19th century scholars used to say that this guy didn't exist from isaiah 20 verse 1. why don't you go ahead with that one yeah so this is a syrian reliefs that were discovered um of of sargon ii in iraq ten stone reliefs on the wall of an ancient canal system were discovered in northern iraq now they have been noted the tops of them had been noted in 1973 and they started doing um a survey of the of the site in 2012 but then it had to be postponed because of um when isis took control of the area but in the fall of 2019 they actually did excavations they they um they unearthed this carving that had um the main assyrian god and goddesses riding on animals and and a king an assyrian king who the archaeologists believe is sargon ii paying homage to the gods and of course this was on the wall of a canal system the canal was used for irrigating probably the barley and wheat fields nearby that fed the city of uh of nineveh now as you mentioned sargon ii is mentioned in scripture and for a long time there was no other confirmation of him outside of scripture and we now of course know quite a lot about sargon the second he was a real historical assyrian king and this is yet more evidence of that it's a great lesson uh once again you know when scholars say this or that thing from the bible hasn't been discovered uh just let's wait it out church and see what happens because here's here's another example of it we've known about sargon the second for quite a while okay so we said we were going to go warp speed so here we go number uh number eight this has to do with king david go ahead brian absolutely king uh david uh when david reigned there was a kingdom called gesher and um they recently unearthed a fort fr in the golan heights that dates was in use from the 11th to the 9th century so right in the time when david was king in the 10th century um and they believed that it's gesherite and the reason for that is that they discovered this stone with these two horned figures with outstretched arms and it was similar to um a relief that was discovered at tel which many scholars believe was the capital of the kingdom of gesher and so they believed that these two sites were linked both politically and spiritually both they've interpreted these um these images as people worshipping the moon god now how does this relate to king david well in scripture king david married makah the daughter of talmai the king of jesher that's in second samuel 3 3 and it was to jeshur that absalom fled seeking refuge after he killed his brother amnon in 2nd samuel 13 23 so this particular site shows us and and gives us more information about the kingdom of gesture at that time yeah another another example of sort of his historical background you know we don't have an inscription that says you know david was here or something like that but but again this is another example of we have the description of the kingdom of david and uh in that context that's exactly what we find consistent with scripture that's right that's right time and time again it aligns with what we know about scripture at that time well very good like we said folks we were going to be moving quick we've we've gone fast paced through our first segment here covering uh three archaeological discoveries from 2020 the top ten we're doing a countdown please don't go away we'll be right back with pastor brian wendell in a culture of intense bible-denying skepticism associates for biblical research exists to strengthen followers of jesus by affirming the authority of the bible our archaeological field work and original research form a strong foundation in upholding the reliability of the scriptures for students or anyone asking if they can really trust the bible please visit our website and partner with us by joining our prayer team or financially supporting this ministry and thank you for standing with us [Music] hi welcome back to digging for truth i'm your co-host henry smith i'm here today with brian windall abr staff member and we're counting down the top 10 discoveries of 2020. now brian uh we're we're moving quick we're at number seven we're going to talk about a synagogue that was discovered at beshemish why don't you go ahead sure number seven is a first century synagogue that was discovered at beth shemesh now as often happens in israel they were building a highway and as they were building this highway near bethchemis what they discovered were the remains from a first temple site and so they diverted the highway and when they diverted the highway they had to call the archaeologists back because they found remains from a second temple era site and at that second temple era site what they discovered was the remains of a synagogue and so they couldn't divert the highway yet again so they dismantled the synagogue they're hoping funds permitting to reassemble it somewhere else but it's an important discovery because the bible says that jesus frequently taught in synagogues all around the area particularly in galilee and so any first century synagogue that we can find is very helpful to help us understand where jesus taught and there are a group of scholars who still don't think that there were synagogues in the first century that those were something that came after 70 a.d and i think we're up to i think dr scott stripling has documented i don't know eight or more um first century synagogues from the area so an important discovery yeah we have six yeah we wanna just point uh sorry about that brian point people to a previous episode with dr stripling all about synagogues i interview him about that and we encourage people to watch that episode so go ahead number six i don't want to get in your way yeah i know six is a first temple era weight that was discovered near the western wall now this is a two shekel wait it dates to the first temple period and it was discovered in material from excavations that were carried out beneath wilson's arch near the western wall and it was found in debris that had likely been used as part of the backfill when herod the great expanded uh the temple mount and it was interesting it was missed in the initial excavations of dry sifting but it was found in the secondary process of wet sifting and of course as many of our viewers know wet sifting is a really important process that abr uses in uh in our digs at shiloh and so this is uh this was a find that was uh found in that process and this two shekel weight um is interesting for a couple of reasons number one we know uh from history what a shekel weight was it was an 11.5 grams and when they weighed this particular two shekel weight we know it was a two shekel weight because it had the two slashes un underneath it which which demonstrated that it was a two shekel weight and when they waited sure enough it was 23 grams now given given the location of the discovery right near the temple mount with something that was likely used given the shekel's importance in matters relating to the temple this is yet more evidence that the temple was actually located on the temple mount exactly as the bible seems to indicate and certainly as historical writings would indicate all right brian now uh here we go we're breaking into the top five number five sir please go number five is a bronze age canaanite temple that was unearthed that lahish now archaeologists who were excavating there unearthed a structure that they identified as a bronze age canaanite temple and it had two columns and two towers had a large hall now what was really interesting was when they went into the inner sanctum of it what they discovered there were two smiting god figurines and so these two figurines are are quite famous throughout canaan they're found all over the particular area the smiting god figurine many think that it represents the canaanite god baal now what does this have to do with scripture well this is in an area that was israelite at the time this dates to the time of the judges and it would certainly seem to affirm what's written in the book of judges that in judges 2 11 and 13 it says israel did evil in the sight of the lord and served the baals they abandoned the lord and served the baals and the ashtareth and so we have here evidence from a site in israel with a canaanite temple with the bales that would seem to affirm what scripture was saying so that was number five why don't i just go on to number four two number four is um an ancient hebrew inscription that was unearthed that abel beth makah this scholars were analyzing the a rim of a jar a large wine jug at abel beth macaw and they discovered an inscription that reads lebanon which means belonging to baniyou this is a hebrew name we know because it has the classic yahwehist ending to it and they believe that it was they believe was found in a storehouse that belonged to a hebrew man named banayu it indicates obviously a hebrew presence in the city of abel beth makah at the time now why is this important well minimalist scholars believe that abel beth macabre was not israelite in nature hebrew in nature until much later in the 8th century bc and yet we have evidence in scripture that it was populated by israelites in the 10th century bc because in second samuel 20 verse 19 during the days of king david abel beth mccause called a city that is mother in israel and so what do we have now from abel beth mccall we have um an inscription that is hebrew that dates right to the time of david 10th or 9th century bc indicating a hebrew presence in the city just like the bible describes fantastic now uh brian a couple thoughts one is for number five there we were talking about uh lakeish uh just for so our viewers know that uh down the road uh we're gonna have uh dr michael hazel on the show who was the lead excavator co-excavator at lakeish and so friends we just want to ask you to look look for that episode coming up in a few months with dr hazel uh and then this the second part here is we have about uh 45 seconds left in this segment brian maybe you could just expand on this dating controversy just a little bit for abel beth mccaw and what the minimalist scholars say why don't you tell the audience a little bit about that sure i i mean it's a huge it's a huge issue that you can delve into and go down a rabbit hole but basically there are scholars who want to shift the dating in particular as it relates to the time of king david so that things that we would point to to say see that would be related to king david they would say no no that's much later in time period probably the time of of hezekiah or manasseh or josiah or one of the much later kings and so minimalist scholars look at able beth macaw and they go no no no the bible describes them during the time of david but that was really really only the time of the eighth century bc or so that it would have been israelite in nature and so the importance of this discovery at abel beth macaw is that we have something dated to the 10th century which is clearly hebrew in nature just as the dating in scripture would indicate yeah it fits the paradigm that we would advocate much better than the other paradigm you just described well friends were counting down the top 10 discoveries in archaeology in 2020 related to the bible we'll be right back with our final segment don't go away bible in spade is a non-technical quarterly publication published by the associates for biblical research written from a scholarly and conservative viewpoint bible and spade supports the inerrancy of the biblical record and is a must read for both the serious bible student and anyone asking if they can really trust the bible archaeological evidence properly interpreted upholding the history of the bible subscribe today at biblearcheology.org [Music] hi welcome back to digging for truth i'm your co-host henry smith i'm here with pastor brian wendell and we're counting down the top 10 archaeological discoveries of 2020. brian we are now on number three and you got a couple two three and two together three is actually not a discovery per se but it's a pretty sad discovery but it needs to be talked about once you go ahead and talk about it sure it would fall under the criteria of discoveries or a study of discoveries related to the composition of scripture and it was the announcement that came out in march 2020 that all of the dead sea scroll fragments that were held in the collection of the museum of the bible were forgeries now there were there was some debate about them all the way along but the museum of the bible had colette lawl of art fraud insights do gave her complete independence to do a study to determine whether they were authentic or whether there were forgeries there was no input from the museum of the bible and they guaranteed that the report would be made public immediately which it was and what they discovered was that the fragments were on the wrong material first of all most of the authentic dead sea scrolls are on parchment and these were on leather which is much thicker and much bumpier secondly testing revealed that the fragments have been soaked in some sort of an amber liquid probably with the attempt to try and give them the sheen of the real dead sea scrolls and microscopic analysis showed that the ink that was written on them actually pooled in the cracks of the ancient leather and so it was of clearly painted onto already ancient leather and finally they discovered that they would just been dusted with um dust from qumran and so the conclusion was that these particular fragments all of them in the museum of the bible's collection were forgeries now it has what much wider implications than that because in 2002 a group of about 70 or so new dead sea scroll fragments hit the antiquities market out of nowhere and this group from the museum of the bible were part of that group and so if these are all forgeries it certainly does call into question the rest of those particular ones what it does not call into question and this is really important are the original dead sea scrolls those are authentic and very important witnesses to the composition and transmission of scripture so that was number two you're right it was a sad announcement but an important announcement that we get that settled and uh and they did that right agreed number two was a much a much happier discovery number two was uh was this iron age judah height administrative complex that was unearthed in outside of the old city of jerusalem and evidence suggests that it operated as an administrative center and storage facility during the reigns of hezekiah and manasseh in the 8th and 7th centuries vc now what they discovered within this site were over a hundred and twenty jar handles that were inscribed um in in ancient hebrew and some of them with the phrase lamellic lamelic means belonging to the king very famous handles that have been found with this stamped winged scarab all over uh sites all over judah and um the other a whole bunch of the other jar handles were inscribed with with the names of probably the rich and the famous people in the area at the time interestingly they also found little um cultic idols and figurines at the time now all of this helps us understand a little better the administration of the kingdom of judah under hezekiah and manasseh and it's interesting that these idols were found because scripture is clear that for a lot of manassas reign he abandoned the practices of his father and and with great wickedness worshiped idols all throughout the kingdom and so that was number two just the sheer number of handles alone makes this one of the most important collections ever discovered in the kingdom of judah so it was our number two find of the year yeah this divided kingdom period you know hezekiah and the other these other kings is we have such an embarrassment of riches that's remarkable and just uh one editorial comment i'll make too back to the the fake dead sea scrolls there's a lot of fake information out on the internet and social media about archaeology too we just want to tell folks that are watching when you hear about a discovery go to the abr website go to brian's bible archaeology report and vet it before you pass it on and try to share it as an apologetic or something like that we're here to serve the church in this way to help people vet these kind of discoveries so it happens on the lay level too in social media now with that thought brian it's drum roll time because we've reached number one and i'm going to let you go ahead and share with the audience the number one discovery from 2020 well the number one discovery from 2020 i think was number one on just about everybody's list there are a number of people who make top 10 lists at the end of each year gordon govier does an excellent list for christianity today todd boland does an excellent top 10 list at his website bibleplaces.com i do my list i'm sure i think it was number one on all of them and it was these stunning capitals from the first uh temple era a palatial structure discovered um in jerusalem there were three capitals that were discovered capitals are these uh beautiful ornate column heads and they exhibit a design that's very famous in judah at that time and when they unearthed one the archaeologists were thrilled but when they took it out they discovered a second one underneath it and they appear to have been intentionally buried and so this residence was dated to the 7th century bc based on the pottery that was there and what's really interesting is that it dates to after the period of the assyrian invasion and so what it seems to indicate is that um the rich and the famous people out in jerusalem at that time obviously felt secure enough in and around jerusalem after the assyrian invasion to be building these beautiful vistas and royal states outside of the city walls and it also testifies to the wealth in the kingdom of judah during that time which is something that's alluded to in scripture second kings 21 13. just the sheer stunning nature of this discovery the beauty of them um it just it was the number one find on everybody's site and it certainly um helps us to understand the kingdom of judah even better at that period in history well fantastic job brian well believe it or not we've only got about 20 seconds left so i'm gonna have to close the show and say thank you very very much for doing this counting down these top 10 discoveries you do an excellent job for the ministry and thank you for the hard work that goes into it top 10 discoveries of 2020. friends we want to thank you for joining us for digging for truth thank you for being here today and uh we just want to encourage you that you can trust the bible and these top 10 discoveries from 2020 demonstrate just that we hope you have a fantastic day thank you for watching you

Channel: Associates for Biblical Research

Views: 139,348

Rating: 4.8032789 out of 5

Keywords: Associates for Biblical Research, Digging for Truth, Old Testament, Dead Sea Scrolls, Apologetics, Archeology, Archaeology, Biblical Archeology, Biblical Archaeology, Bible Archeology, Jesus, Christianity, Bible, Gospel, Jesus Christ, Jeroboam, Sargon II, King David, Geshur, Beit Shemesh Synagogue, First Temple Weight, Lachish, Able Beth Macaah Inscription, Dead Sea Scroll Forgeries, First Temple Capitals

Id: v4IJSL8P-FI

Length: 25min 43sec (1543 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021