Archeological Writings Areas

Create Date: 26-Mar-2020
 

Last updated: 27-Mar-2021
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Sections

1 Preface 2 Ancient Writings and Rigor
3 List of Historical Writings    
  Notes and Accuracy    
4 Book of Daniel Written When? 5 Sumerian Kings List
6 Hand Writing on the Wall of Daniel 5 7 Cyrus Cylinder
8 Notable Reference from CRI    

Preface

There is many excellently documented and researched works concerning the places that are described in the entirety of the Old and New Testaments that have been done.  It is fascinating to read about some of the investigations and research done by some, which lead to their greater Faith in God.  A personal favorite of this author is Lew Wallace, who is famous for writing the book Ben-Hur, where Wallace spent a great deal of time researching in the Library of Congress, USA on the Holy Land, Roman Empire and other facets, after realizing how much he didn't know from a friendly debate with Robert Ingersoll on a train ride.  Later Wallace did visit the Holly Land to see the places he read and wrote about.

Unfortunately, this author has to point out that it is blatantly hypocritical to hear some explanations in text books and even on WIKI sites that:

An example of an attempt to discredit the Bible is dealing with Cyrus the Great's invasion of Babylon written about in Daniel chapter 5, that is explained and clarified below.  There are older text books and older websites by PhD historians, that state something as fact when there was already evidence readily available to the contrary. They wrongfully state the scripture is incorrect because Daniel states that Belshazzar is mentioned as ruler when the real King was Nabonidus.  The scriptures in Daniel 5 explains Belshazzar's authority as second-in-command by the comment made by Belshazzar being able to make Daniel the third ruler, as Belshazzar was the second ruler or co-regent.  (Note: Corrections as of 2021, show many sites correcting their mistakes.)

What is aggravating to this author is reading documentations where too often graduates of a doctoral program and the self-proclaimed historians, show that they have a clear agenda to try to discredit the scripture rather than report history.  The bias becomes always evident with antidotal comments that are not germane to the research work are made in their documentation.

Ancient Writings and Rigor

There are far too few ancient writings besides the Bible and the only other sources are hieroglyphics that are always too brief.  Besides the Bible, consider this list, shown below, of ancient writings that are useful for understanding the culture, language and history of an area. 

Notice:

The rigor and discipline of preserving the original text, in the Bible, that was done by the ancient scribes of Israel is nothing short of phenomenal.  The history of the Bible and its translations is a very detailed research work that has been going on hundreds of years by almost countless individuals.   It is amazing the preservation done by people all over the world in making copies of the scriptures along with doing analysis on them.  Yes, there are known translation issues in the different versions of the Bible over time but these are usually dealing with small interpretation errors and spelling differences of names.

Before proceeding with the remaining parts of this topic, it can be essential to understand the Biblical Source Text topic.  Underneath the scriptures in the Old Testament are encryptions, codes and designs that were once partially known by the ancient Rabbis, but are now being rediscovered with computer algorithms in both the Old and New Testament, that authenticates the Bible as being written from outside of our Time Domain, which is God.   It is impossible to get over 40 different authors of 66 Books in the Bible, that are separated by multiple-centuries, to have conspired with one another to plant the encryptions in the scriptures.

Excerpt from Biblical Source Text topic:

The books of the OT and NT were written on clay tablets, vellum or papyrus with a stylus.  Clay tablets could last a very long time, albeit brittle and vellum is animal skin (cattle, goats, deer) and would last longer than papyrus.   None of the original master works have survived, but were copied over time by first the Aaronic Priests, Masorites, early Christians and others.

In the OT period, as a book approached the status of being unusable, it was then destroyed.  The procedure was once a codex was no longer usable or condemned as unfit for use then it was destroyed or put into the Geniza.  Geniza was a storage area for manuscripts that could no longer be used.  After the Geniza became full then all the defective manuscripts were buried with an elaborate ceremony to honor God.

The process of copying any codex was done very meticulously and with a high reverence for each and every letter.  When any name of God was found and copied, the manuscript writer would usually destroy the stylus and begin with a new stylus.  Additionally, the Hebrew letters on a page would be added up both across and downwards to verify that no letter was left out of a copy, which result in destroying a codex that was inaccurate.  This preserved the accuracy of the codex.

List of Historical Writings

The list below is not a complete list of ancient works, but it is very interesting when compared against the surviving manuscripts of the Old Testament.  The dating is not always agreed upon by Historians and Archeologists.  In fact, the dates seem to be almost widely different depending upon what source of information that is researched which might be compared to others historic documents.

Note that Moses was schooled in the finest of the Egyptian intellectual schooling that was possible, which included military, medicine and the arts.  Moses with all of the knowledge that he gained from the Egyptians, did not put any of the Egyptian knowledge into the scriptures of the first five books of the Old Testament.  Moses wrote a great deal concerning the creation of the Earth, the Great Flood, the laws, wisdom and so much more where none of this information has been traced back to any writings of the Egyptians, who were considered at the paramount of all cultures at the time of Moses.

Notes on the chart:

  1. This list is compiled from sources as of 2020, where new research from archeologist may yield more accurate and more discoveries.
  2. Depending upon the source of information, there is widely different estimates on the dates of how old an item's age, how many earliest copies are preserved and how many copies were preserved.
  3. The links provided, for the most part, are using WIKI because it is a secular source which will potentially have prejudices against the Judeo-Christian scripture, but those who read this topic will not feel a bias against secular sources.  Note that it is not hard to find secular sources always use earlier dates when dating something Christian but then use older dates for everything else.  In this author's opinion, it is deliberate.
  4. Some dating is based on conjecture from websites that propose the dates are based on other works from the same period.
  5. More information on some Christian Views regarding these ancient works along with some others are listed after the list.
# Author Work Religious Estimated Date Written Earliest Manuscript Time Gap (years) Between written and Earliest Manuscript Known Historical  Copies
1 Adam Mazzaroth Yes Beginning,
Approx  4000 BC		 Manuscript is n/a
God's Message in the Stars		 n/a n/a
2 unknown Epic of Gilgamesh   2100 BC 2100 BC 150 ?
3 unknown Egyptian Book of the Dead Spells 3150-1842 BC Hieroglyphs / Parchments n/a ?
4 unknown Kesh Temple Hymn Yes 2600 BC 2600 BC - Tablets n/a 10+
5 unknown Pyramid Texts Yes 2055-1650 BC Carvings reserved for Pharaohs n/a ?
6 unknown The Coffin Texts Yes 2055-1650 BC Carvings reserved for Royalty n/a ?
7 unknown Rigveda Yes 2000-1200 BC 14 to 15 Century 3500+ years ?
8 Most likely Moses Old Testament Book of Job Yes 1350 BC Dead Sea Scrolls 1100 years ?
9 Moses / Prophets Old Testament - Christian
Old Testament - Jewish 
(Identification of all books)		 Yes 1350 thru 400 BC Dead Sea Scrolls 1000 to 100 years  
10 unknown Samaveda Yes 1200-1000 BC 14 to 15 Century 2300+ years ?
11 unknown Yajurveda Yes 1200-1000 BC 14 to 15 Century 2300+ years ?
12 Amenemope Instruction of Amenemope   1300-1075 BC 525-404 BC 800 years ?
13 Homer Iliad   1260-1180 BC 400 BC 400 1757
14 unknown Atharvaveda Yes 1000-900 BC 14 to 15 Century 2500+ years ?
15 Confucius Confuciansism / Five Classics   500-479 BC 140 BC ? ? ?
16 Sophocles Plays   496-406 BC 3rd Century BC 100-200 193
17 Herodotus History   480-425 BC 10th Century 1350 109
18 Thucydides History Peloponnesian War   460-400 BC 3rd Century BC and 900 AD 200 and 1350 96
19 Plato Tetralogies   428-347 BC 895 BC 1300 210
20 Essenes People Dead Sea Scrolls Yes 408-318 BC 408 BC 1000 to 100 981
21 Demosthenes Speeches   384-322 BC Fragments 1 BC and 1100 AD 1100 to 1400 340
22 Not Enoch Book of Enoch Yes 300-200 BC 300 BC unknown 10+
23 70 Hebrew Scholars Septuagint Old Testament Yes 285-247 BC 150 BC   4
24 unknown Phaistos Disk   200 BC 200 BC n/a 1
25 Caesar Gallic Wars   100-44 BC 9th Century AD 950 years 251
26 Hebrew Scholars Aramaic Targums Yes 100 BC 1st Century AD 100 years  
27 unknown The Herculaneum Scrolls   79 AD 79 AD 1 year 1
28 Livy History of Rome   59 BC to 17 AD 5th Century 450 years 100
29 Pliny the Elder Natural History   23-79 AD 14 Century / Fragment 5 Century 250 years 200
30 Tacitus Annals   100 AD Partial 850 AD & 1100 AD 450-950 years 31
31 Apostles et all New Testament Yes 40 to 60 AD 125 AD 50 years 5795
32 Ein Gedi The En-Gedi Scroll Yes 210-390 AD      
33 Muhammad Quran Yes 568-645 AD Not known 10 years ?
34 Mayan People The T514 Glyph "Yej" Yes 700 AD Not known ? 1


Notes and Accuracy

4. Book Of Daniel Written When?

There is a great deal of prejudice against the dating of the writing of the scriptures, as noted already in this topic.  One of this author's primary examples which also exposes the lack of scholarship in too many of the academic community's research writing is the dating of the Book of Daniel.  Depending upon what source, that even includes WIKI, the reader will read a date of around 150 BC to 300 BC, which is easily proven wrong by at least these five points:
  1. Septuagint Old Testament that date back to the period of 270 BC.
  2. The Dead Sea Scrolls that were copies from at least 408 BC.
  3. Periodicity of the Book of Daniel:
    (a) The     grammar,
    (b) Etymology, and
    (c) Choice of words
    were specific for the time period that proves that the Book of Daniel was written between 604 and 532 BC
  4. The primary point of old historical scriptural copies from several sources, besides the two noted, is the old parchments do not contradict one another.  The scribes, from different geographical areas which were COPYING scriptures, did not conspire with one another to make sure there were no errors.
  5. The Book of Ezekiel in verse 28:3 mentions the Prophet Daniel where the Book of Ezekiel was written between 593 and 565 BC.
    Ezekiel 28:3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:

This author is indebted to the wonderful work done by the Christian Apologist, Florin G Laiu and many other wonderful research works.

Some of the key points from the Christian Apologist's work:

5. Sumerian Kings List

The Sumerian Kings List is sometimes is sited by ancient alien believers, as proof that human kind have gone back 70,000 years prior to the Great Flood of Noah, based on the lineage list for age, which is spurious.  The link informs the reader that the lineages of verifiable kings are running congruently and date back to the bronze age.  Prior kings and eras, are supposedly associated to the antediluvian period which are considered myths because of impossible life spans that approach immortality.
Weld-Blundell Prism - Clay Prism that contains the Kings List.

6. Hand Writing on the Wall of Daniel 5

Hand Writing on the Wall of Daniel 5 - Many Secular Historians, in old text books and websites, used the scriptural references of King Belshazzar to ridicule the accuracy of the scriptures because history shows that the real king was King Nabonidus.  More modern-day scholarship shows that King Nabonidus was with his army in several places that included Palestine and North Arabia.  During King Nabonidus's absence, he left the kingdom under the rule of his oldest son Belshazzar as co-regent. 

The history in the scriptures gives additional information to the invasion by Cyrus the Great, mentioned below.  The interesting collaboration and proof of the accuracy of the scripture reference of Belshazzar is in Daniel 5:16.

Daniel 5:16 King Belshazzar is speaking to Daniel and notice that Belshazzar says he will make Daniel the third ruler of the kingdom, and not the second ruler because Belshazzar is the second ruler. 

16 But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”
Daniel 5:24-28 The encryption is written in what is called Atbash.  The scripture verses in Daniel 25 through 28 gives the interpretation.  Notice that the interpretation was the Babylonian kingdom will pass to the King of the Medes and Persians, which is King Cyrus.

24 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

7. Cyrus Cylinder

The Cyrus Cylinder, also called the Stele of Cyrus, describes King Cyrus of the Medes and Persians, conquering Babylon.  The often-misquoted translation of “The victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused.” is given as "History is written by the Victors", which applies to the Cylinder.  It gives Cyrus's version of events in acquiring the city of Babylon.  Most historians attribute this cylinder as a tradition of conquers to have a monument or something for future readers to have that proclaim the excellency, validity and majesty of a new ruler.  The point of the Stele of Cyrus is it confirms the scriptural reference in Ezra 1:1. The Book of Ezra then gives us more background to the event in history with the verses that follow.

Ezra 1:1-4 1 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah. He stirred the heart of Cyrus to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom: 2 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. And may your God be with you! 4 Wherever this Jewish remnant is found, let their neighbors contribute toward their expenses by giving them silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock, as well as a voluntary offering for the Temple of God in Jerusalem.”

Some more interesting points:
(a) King Cyrus was known in history as "Cyrus II The Great", ruling from 559BC through 530BC.
(b) In 1971, Iran celebrated the 2500 anniversary of Cyrus the Great.
(c) King Cyrus conquered Babylon without a battle on October 12, 539BC.  According to Herodotus, "The Persians diverted the River Euphrates into a canal upriver so that the water level dropped “to the height of the middle of a man’s thigh,” which thus rendered the flood defenses useless and enabled the invaders to march through the river bed to enter by night."
(d) Daniel presented King Cyrus with a scroll of Isaiah 44:27-28 that had King Cyrus's name in it and what King Cyrus would do.  Isaiah had died 150 years before Cyrus was born.
(e) Notice that God, in the Isaiah scripture, also let King Cyrus know that Belshazzar had so much such fear that he defecated on himself from the context of Daniel 5 because of the "#2 - Hand Writing on the Wall" incident. King Cyrus most likely heard about the incident from his Generals during the takeover of Babylon when the Generals took prisoners of the royalty before executing most of them.
(f) Josephus wrote about the dispersion of the Jews in Babylon in Book XVIII in chapter 9, which shows Jews were in Babylon even after the city was conquered along with Jews going back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and temple.
(g) A great article by Chuck Missler on the Fall of Babylon versus the eventual complete destruction of Babylon is found here.  There are some Biblical Scholars that believe Babylon was already destroyed but the evidence is that Babylon still has a future judgment from God.
 
Isaiah 44:27-28 27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: 28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Isaiah 45:1-5 1 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; 2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. 4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. 5 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Daniel 5:6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

A Notable Reference from CRI

https://www.equip.org/article/the-bibliographical-test-updated/

What to read next?

See: (a) Time and Time Travel, (b) Time Domains, (c) Kingdom of God, (d) Singularity and the Big Bang Theories, (e) E=mc²,  (f) Ten Dimensions of the Universe, (g) Age of the Earth, Periods that Developed Life, Heavens, (h) Evolution