Gleason Archer On Biblical Historicity

Gleason L. Archer, Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago: Moody Press; 1974), pp. 170, 171.

‘In case after case where alleged historical inaccuracy was pointed to as proof of late and spurious authorship of the biblical documents, the Hebrew record has been vindicated by the results of recent excavation, and the scornful judgments of the documentarian theorists have been proved without foundation.

W. F. Albright, the foremost American archaeologist of this generation . . . had this to say in 1941, “Archaeological and inscriptional data have established the historicity of innumerable passages and statements of the Old Testament; the number of such cases is many times greater than those where the reverse has been proved or has been made probable.” . . .

A more recent author, John Elder, states: “It is not too much to say that it was the rise of the science of archaeology that broke the deadlock between historians and the orthodox Christian.

Little by little, one city after another, one civilization after another, one culture after another, whose memories were enshrined only in the Bible, were restored to their proper places in ancient history by the studies of archaeologists. . . .

Contemporary records of Biblical events have been unearthed and the uniqueness of Biblical revelation has been emphasized by contrast and comparison to newly discovered religions of ancient peoples.

Nowhere has archaeological discovery refuted the Bible as history.”’

******************************