Another source of evidence is found in tools and artifacts which show the culture of any given time and region. Knowing how the people worked and what they wrought, has been of priceless value to the Biblical archeologist. Since the critics made so great a case out of the alleged culture of the people in every age, it is eminently fitting that the refutation of their error should come from the people themselves.
Still another source of archeological material is to be found in the art of antiquity. It seems that from the time of Adam to the present hour the desire to express our feelings and emotions in the permanent form of illustration has been common to man. The sites of antiquity testify to this fact in unmistakable terms.
In the art of the days of long ago many subjects were covered. Much of the painting and sculpture had to do with the religion of the time. Thus we can reconstruct the Pantheon of Egypt very largely from the illustrations that come to us from monuments and papyri.
Another large section of ancient art dealt with the history of the time in which the artists lived and wrought. Since the work of such artists was generally intended to flatter and please the reigning monarch, most of this illustrated history is military in nature. Thus we are able to confirm much of the Old Testament history through the recovery of ancient art.
Other artists, in turn, dealt with the human anatomy, the style of dress and the industries of old. When we gather together all of this illuminating material, it is safe to say that ancient artists have brought to us a source of material which is not the least of the treasures of antiquity.
A final source of material is found upon the walls that made up the actual dwellings of old. This business of scribbling names and dates upon public buildings or objects of interest is not unique to modern men. Deplorable as the custom may be, this ancient vulgarity has, nevertheless, proved a great boon to the archeologist of our day. For instance, many of the scribes and officials of antiquity, traveling about the country upon the business of their lords, would visit one of the tombs of a former age. Prompted by curiosity and interest in the grandeur of antiquity, they came to stare and to learn. Their emotions being aroused they desired some expression. This desire they sometimes satisfied by inscribing upon the wall of a certain tomb or temple their names and the fact that at such a date they visited and saw this wonder. Since they generally dated their visit by the reign of the king under whom they lived and served, a chronology may be builded for antiquity from this source of material alone.
It has been more or less customary in our era for the itinerant gentry to leave valuable information for fellows of their fraternity who come along after them. This custom also is a survival of an ancient day. A man journeying from one region to another would stop by the side of a blank wall and inscribe road directions for any who might follow after him. Sometimes he would add his name and the year of the reign of a given monarch. It was not unusual also for such an amateur historian to make some caustic and pertinent comments upon the country, the officials, or the people. These spontaneous records are priceless. They are the free expression of an honest opinion and are not constructed with the idea of deluding posterity with a false standard of the grandeur of some conquering king.
It is rather amusing now to look back to the long battle that was fought between criticism and orthodoxy in this very field. With a dogmatic certainty which was characteristic of the assumptions of the school of higher criticism, these mistaken authorities assured us that the age of Moses was an age of illiteracy. In fact, the extreme scholars of this school asserted that writing was not invented until five hundred years after the age of Moses. We have ourselves debated that question with living men.
One such occasion occurred recently, when we were delivering a series of lectures at Grand Rapids, Michigan. The subject had to deal with archeology and the Bible, and the men in attendance seemed to appreciate the opening lecture extremely. Therefore, we were the more surprised when a gentleman, clad in clerical garb, came forward and in the most abrupt and disagreeable manner demanded,
“By what authority do you state that Moses wrote the Pentateuch? Your dogmatic assertion is utterly baseless!”