Independent Historical Corroboration for Biblical Events

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Originally posted by Peter:
I'm curious to know (and I've asked this in many discussions elsewhere
without much luck) if anyone knows of historial writings or evidence
which corroborates any of the events of the bible.

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http://www.mada.org.il/website/html/eng/2_1_1-24.htmHere is some evicence for a great flood, but not a global one. The links to his sources didn't work when I tried.This, or something like it, gets my vote for the origin of the flood myths of antiquity--- Sumerian, Babylonian, etc.------------------
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I'm running late so I can't look this up right now, but I saw a program on BBC America last night about the archeological investigation of some tunnels mentioned in Hezekiah. The slant of the show was that they found a tunnel dug by Hezekiah to supply water to Jerusalem (I may be wrong about the city).Take care.------------------
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Originally posted by Peter:
This is the kind of evidence that bothers me most.

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Find some tunnels in a city where a bible story says
they were built ... does that corroborate the bible ?

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Not unless there is some evidence of the builder being
the same person and the dates being right.

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Well, that's what struck me about this program. They seemed to have all the dates right, the names, everything. I've been meaning to look for more info but haven't yet had time. If I find anything I'll post it.------------------
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Originally posted by Quetzal:
I'm not sure how far I'd take this kind of corroboration. In any good work of fiction the author tries for as much versimilitude as possible by adding as many "real" details as possible.

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I agree. Smart composers would do just what you suggest. It doesn't prove the veracity of the rest of the book. And this event is hardly critical.------------------
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Originally posted by blitz77:
I'm afraid David Rohl disagrees with you

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Which parts?------------------
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Originally posted by blitz77:
According to David Rohl The flood occurred around 3000 BC.

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Leaving 219 years for civilazation the rebound?How does this help Biblical chronology? Looks like it makes things worse.------------------
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Originally posted by Tranquility Base:
The continual claim here doubting the faithfulness of the transcriptions and translations of Scripture fly in the face of learned mainstream discourse on the subject. You all simply pretend that the Scriptures bear no resemblance to those that David would have read. You are completely wrong on that subject.

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How do you know? There are no surviving copies from that time period.

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And the fact that you wont even acknolweldge that we say that the marine innundations world wide are the flood proves that you are not participating in helful discussion. You know our POV.

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Marine inundation does not equal flood. You have to prove that all of the inundations occurred at the same time for starters. And you can't do that.------------------
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Originally posted by Tranquility Base:
We can be far more sure that what we read in Scripture today is pretty much what David was reading becasue of the obsession with history and genealogy that the Jews/Hebrews had.

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Obsessed though they were, they still got it wrong.Take Sam 14:27-- Absalom has three sonsSam. 18:18-- Absolum has no sons.------------------
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Originally posted by blitz77:
Read in context. In 18:18 it says that during his lifetime Absalom raised a monument to himself-and wrote that that he THOUGHT he would have no sons. It is not as if someone else wrote that Absalom had no sons, its just that earlier in his life he thought he wouldn't.

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Read in context it says no such thing.------------------
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Originally posted by blitz77:
Let me be more specific; he says that the flood happened during the Uruk period; about 4000 - 3100 BC on the conventional chronology.

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[This message has been edited by blitz77, 08-23-2002]

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So that puts us right back at.... where... ground zero?------------------
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Originally posted by blitz77:
Legend: The Genesis of Time-Rohl proposes that Eden and its garden was between Lakes Van and Urmin and the Caspian Sea, with Nod on its east. Then he claims the ancestors of the Sumerians migrated in the 6th millennium BC from this "Eden" to Mesopotamia, establishing Sumerian culture there, and identical with biblical Shem. The Mesopotamian and biblical Flood, he sets in the late 4th millennium BC.

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Hang on now, Sumer was PRE-flood?------------------
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Originally posted by Me:
I did not mean that no writing was done before this period - a visit to the Brit Mus will easily disprove that - but that this period marked the start of a tendency to record lots of data.

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I have to disagree. The Egyptians 2000bc and earlier recorded huge amounts of information. So did the Babylonians, and the Sumerians. In the case of Egypt, there is even a find or two eqivalent of somebody's shopping list, so writing was very common.Just a thought.------------------
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Originally posted by Me:
As you see from my quote I did not claim that writing was unknown in, say, 3000BC, just that there was a lot more in 200BC. I think you would have difficulty showing that writing was 'common' in 1000BC - common in certain circumstances, perhaps, such as with a scribe recording a tribute, but still a specialist activity.

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No webpage found at provided URL: http://www.tourgypt.net/magazine/mag02012001/magf2.htmNo webpage found at provided URL: http://www.tourgypt.net/historicalessays/discwriting.htmIn the end it all depends on what one means by 'lots of data'.[/b][/quote]The two articles I posted should give you some idea of what I mean by 'lots of data'.

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I still suspect that a lot more was written after 200BC

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If you are speaking of Egypt specifically, I'd say your wrong as it is well into decline. But with Rome at its height, the region probably had more writing than ever before.

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The question is an interesting one I would like to pursue. I hope it does not bore the others!

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I'm used to boring those around me. ------------------
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Originally posted by Me:
Though I can see that these sites indicate that writing was common in the Egyptian culture, I can see no references to back this assertion up.

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Oh sure... you want evidence! Geez! I'll have to do some more research.

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The political power of Egypt was in decline, true, but ports like Alexandria still passed a great deal of trade.

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I was thinking of the Egyptian language. In other words, if you were refering to Egyptian specifically then writing had to be in decline, but if you meant writing of any language then I also would assume an increase.

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I was trying to think of volumes of writing which might be used to cross-refer biblical 'events'. If you remember, the stress of my original post was that it would be easier to get documentary evidence from about 200BC onwards, and harder as we went earlier.

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Ok. Preservation being an issue. What I am not convinced of though is that later cultures recorded more information than did the ancient Egyptians who seemed to have been quite obsessive about record keeping. In other words, does Rome or Greece supply the level of 'common' writing that you propose? Do the later Islamic cultures display this?------------------
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Originally posted by Me:
Sorry for the delay - I am finding that a contractor needs to work on occasions! I will be rather busy for the next week.

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Same here. Contractor are you? Moi aussi.

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Just a ref to the 'shoping-list' would be appreciated, if you can find one.

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I can't find the shopping list. However, I did find a couple of things that may interest you. Internet History SourcebooksInternet History Sourcebooks

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The use of writing in a mundane manner like that would go a long way towards revising my views of Egyptian script. It is not a tribute list for an official, is it?

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As I remember it, it was a list found in the home/workplace of an artisan who probably worked on one of the pyramid projects. I can't remember which one.

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the first two of these stages depend strongly on the raw data - the latter two seem to depend more on the imagination! I have tried on occasions to go back to original paper or raw data, and found that in many cases the data was too sparse to support the theory. It agreed with it, but there are limits to what you can prove with a single fragment. What you often get is the archeologists beliefs - they may be accurate, we may want to believe them, but we are not talking about proof here.

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Can't argue with that. The field is cursed with very fragmentary data.------------------
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