The contributions of archeology have reached almost every branch of study, but to no particular group of people have they been more timely and valuable than to students of the Bible. The hoary antiquity of the Book which has been received in every generation by the intelligent and the discerning as the Word of God, has its roots in the same generations that archeology is investigating today. It is inevitable that much of the material being recovered by modern excavations shall have important bearing upon the various questions skepticism may raise concerning the text of the Scripture.
To the open-minded scholar who approaches this subject without prejudice, the science of archeology has a twofold contribution to make. Some of the evidences derived from digging are (a) of incalculable value in illuminating the text of the Scripture, and are (b) equally priceless when viewed as a body of indisputable evidence. Under this latter heading the proofs would come into four classifications:
1. The historicity of the text
2. The accuracy of the account
3. The authenticity of the record
4. The inspiration of the whole
By way of illustrating the manner in which the Scripture may be illumined by the findings of archeology, we would introduce a semi-humorous and partially tragic event that occurred in the dim and distant days of our own earlier studies. During a short term spent at a well known California college, we were specializing in the field of history. The teacher of this course, Professor Rosenberger, was one of the ablest pedagogues who ever wasted her life in the more or less important task of teaching a rising generation how to think! At the end of the first few weeks in a class in English history, she informed the student group that the following day we would be privileged to have a test in this particular subject. When the class gathered for the happy event, there were twenty questions written on the board which were to constitute our examination.
The first question was something like this, “What new treaty had just been signed between France and Spain at this particular period?”
The next question had to do with the political commitments of the Holy Roman Empire.
The third question took us into the Germanic states, and in all of the twenty questions not one word concerning England was mentioned!