Historical and Archaeological Truths of the Bible

This book establishes that large sections of the Bible are historically factual, both the Old and New Testaments. We will offer to the reader all of the recent archaeological and textual discoveries that prove this to be factual.
God is slowly but surely revealing these truths to us. I call this process “peeling the onion. “ One of the examples is the historicity of Jesus. If some one from antiquity has two separate sources, from their life span, identify them then that establish their historicity. The notorious Roman Emperor Caligula had two sources, Philo and Seneca. Jesus had three non Christian sources, Josephus Flavius a Jewish Pharisee who was also the adopted son of the Roman general Vespasian. In two sections of his book THE JEWISH ANTIGUITIES he writes about John the Baptist and the story of who kills him and why. Josephus also tells us something that is not in the Bible, who killed James the brother of Jesus. He became the leader of the Christian Church after the death of Jesus. The second source is Tacitus a Roman historian who hates Christians and wants Nero to kill them all the same way that “Pilate killed their leader”. He not only proves Jesus, he also historically establishes Pilate and the link between the two. The third source is Suetonius. He writes about Christ and his followers, he refers to them as “Christians”.
Jesus of Nazareth existed in the 1st century there is no doubt about that or many other aspects of his life. What we cannot prove is his Divinity. We can only do that with our hearts and minds. Unlike some of the secular scholars and atheists who continually lie about the factual Jesus. I proclaim Him as my Lord and Savior. I am a historian and I will state my opinions about Him but I will not bend the truth that His Father is revealing to us almost on a daily basis, both historically and archaeologically. If they do not believe that is on them. But to deny that Jesus of Galilee did not exist or that David was a myth is a lie!
These are only a fraction of the facts you will find in this book. You will also find some information in the Bible that you might have overlooked like the story of David the giant killer. Therefore we will apply an exegetical perspective to some parts of the Bible.1 Samuel: 49 “and David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth”. Verse 50 “So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Verse 51 “Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith, and when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled”.
If David slew the giant in verse 50 why did he run to the body of the giant and quickly draw his sword and slay the giant again with his own sword in verse 51. How do you kill someone twice? Is that David doubting God thereby showing his humanity, just as Peter (cephas) did in the New Testament when he took a couple of steps walking on the water but he lost faith and quickly sank. Did David look at the fallen giant and panic, thinking I must get over there quickly and make sure he is dead? Or was God displaying to us that it was His mighty right hand that killed the Philistine and all the pagan beliefs that he represented? That is for you to decide.
We will also address some items of our Faith. Verbum Caro Hic Factum Est is the inscription on a stone tablet at The Shrine of The Annunciation. When I first saw this, the realization made my body quiver and my mind explode in wonder. That the Angel Gabriel, in this the traditional home of The Virgin Mary, spoke these words “when the word became flesh” it was at that moment in that place that Jesus was conceived. I had seen the pictures of that inscription before but seeing it in person took my feelings to a new level. I believe that the history of the universe and especially the world is His -Story. That God is an active participant in His creation. If you don’t believe that then why do we pray to Him. Therefore I link some historic facts to Biblical references and let you determine if it makes sense “God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform”. The best example I can give you is Dominus Flevit from the Bible. The English translation is “The Lord wept” when God flashed the image of the destruction of Jerusalem in Jesus’ mind. Thirty years later God will give us a Jewish historian, living in Jerusalem, who watched the city being destroyed. His mother and father, who along with his wife were inside those walls. You will read the first hand account by Josephus Flavius of the butchery and destruction that Jesus perceived and made him “weep”.
Later I will refer to history being his-tory because women are not fully included. This reference is to man not to God. Constantine was given the credit for the adoption of Christianity into the Roman world when it was his mother Helena who was the real Christian of the family. She would have removed the entire pantheon of pagan Gods and made Christianity the religion of Rome.
I tried to cut down on verbiage and style in order to make this book quick and factual but also readable. This book was not intended to read like a novel it is intended to point out empirical historic facts of the Bible and also to encourage the reader to think about what they have read.
I hope you enjoy!