The 19th century higher critics, for example, used to deny the historicity of the Hittites, the Horites, the Edomites, and various other peoples, nations, and cities mentioned in the Bible, for the expressed reason that other ancient historians did not mention them. This "argument from silence," however, has long since been silenced itself by the archaeologist's spade, and few critics any longer dare to question the geographical and ethnological reliability of the Bible.
The same is true of the histories of kings and empires. The Davidic-Solomonic empire, the histories of the kings of Israel and Judah, the Babylonian captivity, and the return from exile are all now considered to be historical, whereas once they were questioned or denied.
It is significant that the names of over 40 different kings of various countries, mentioned at various times in the Old Testament, have also been found in contemporary documents and inscriptions outside of the Old Testament, always consistently with the times and places associated with them in the Bible. By comparison with gross errors in such matters known to exist in other ancient histories, it becomes obvious that the writers of the Bible narratives not only were contemporaries of the people and events so named, but that they were extremely careful in what they wrote, and furthermore, all those who later copied and transmitted their writings were also extremely careful. Nothing at all exists in ancient literature which has been even remotely as well-confirmed in accuracy as has the Bible. Even those names which once were doubted by the critics (e.g., Belshazzar, Darius, etc.) have now long since been confirmed.
One of the earliest biblical events of sufficient geographical extent to be of possible interest to non-biblical historians is the record of the confederation of kings from the East who invaded Canaan and were defeated by Abraham, as recorded in Genesis 14. This story was long denied by the critics.
However, Dr. Nelson Glueck, once widely recognized as the dean of Palestinian archaeologists, president of the Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Institute of Religion, found abundant evidence of this invasion. He said, describing these events:
Centuries earlier, another civilization of high achievement had flourished between the 21st and 19th centuries B.C., till it was savagely liquidated by the kings of the East. According to the biblical statements, which have been borne out by the archaeological evidence, they gutted every city and village at the end of that period from Ashtaroth-Karnaim, in southern Syria through all of Trans-Jordan and the Negev to Kadesh-Barnea in Sinai (Gen. 14:1-7).[7]
Dr. Glueck, though not himself a believer in biblical inerrancy, systematically explored the land of Israel for archaeological records, and found the Bible to be amazingly reliable at all points. Often he used it successfully to lead him to new discoveries, sometimes of significant economic value to the developing Israeli nation. All of this experience finally led him to make the following sweeping generalization:
As a matter of fact, however, it may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries. They form tesserae in the vast mosaic of the Bible's almost incredibly correct historical memory.[8]
The Testimony of Christ
We have seen in the previous chapter that the New Testament records are historically authentic, and that they represent Jesus Christ to be the perfect and infallible Son of God. He was also the perfect Son of Man, sinless and without defect, as well as perfect in knowledge and power, all that the writers claim Him to be and that He himself claimed to be, or else the gospel records are inexplicable.
That being true, His own evaluation of the accuracy and reliability of the Old Testament Scriptures is of supreme determinative importance, especially to those who profess to believe in Christ. It is therefore significant, and there is no question at all about the fact, that Jesus Christ accepted the Old Testament Scriptures throughout as both historically authentic and divinely inspired. The same is true of all the writers of the New Testament.
There are at least 320 direct quotations from the Old Testament in the New, always cited as of absolute authority, in addition to hundreds of other allusions.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, among other things: "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35), and "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail" (Luke 16:17). He accepted Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (Luke 24:27; John 5:46-47), Isaiah as the author of both major "divisions" of the Book of Isaiah (Matt. 13:14 citing Isa. 6:9-10, and John 12:38 citing Isa. 53:1), and Daniel as the author of the Book of Daniel (Matt. 24:15).
Christ accepted the historicity of Adam and Eve (Matt. 19:4-5), of Abel (Matt. 23:35), of Noah (Luke 17:26), of Abraham (John 8:56-58), and Lot (Luke 17:28). Likewise, He believed that the Genesis records of creation (Mark 10:6-9) and the Flood (Matt. 24:37-39) were historically true. He even believed in the recency of creation (Mark 10:6).
Neither did Christ have any problem in believing the Old Testament miracles, as do the modern critics. He believed in the supernatural destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:29) and the calamity of Lot's wife (Luke 17:32). He accepted the miracle of the manna (John 6:32), the healing of the serpents' bites (John 3:14), the miracles of Elijah and Elisha (Luke 4:25-27) and the deliverance of Jonah from the whale (Matt. 12:39-40).
It is no light burden which modern liberal preachers and theologians assume, when they presume to know more about such matters than did the One whom they profess as their Master. To Christ and the Apostles, the Old Testament was absolutely reliable, authentic, and verbally inspired of God, and that should settle the matter for all who claim to be Christians.
The Continuing Witness of the Passover
We have noted in an earlier chapter that the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper provided a continuing witness to the early Christians concerning the genuineness of the New Testament Scriptures. These ordinances were established by Christ himself and were enjoined upon the members of each local church as soon as they were won to Christ and organized into churches by the Apostles and evangelists traveling out from Jerusalem.
Had it not been so, the New Testament Scriptures, which describe the establishment and transmission of these ordinances, could never have been received as genuine and authentic when they first began to be circulated among the early churches. They would have been rejected immediately as spurious, describing as they did these ordinances as having been ordained by Christ and taught by the Apostles, if in fact they knew that no such ordinances were in effect at all.
In somewhat the same way, the observance of the Passover supper afforded a continuing testimony to the genuineness of the books of Moses which described it. The higher critics attribute these books to a number of priests or others who wrote them hundreds of years after Moses — if, indeed, Moses ever existed at all!
But the Book of Exodus describes in much detail God's instructions to the people through Moses concerning the Passover inauguration, along with His commands for its perpetual annual observance. It describes the first Passover and then the miraculous deliverance from Egypt, which the children of Israel were commanded to recall each year through the Passover observance.
Now, suppose that none of this had really happened. Then, suppose also that sometime around 700 B.C. a group of scribes and priests decided to formalize a system of worship which they had developed, and thus, to solidify their own control over the people. They therefore developed a body of religious literature, using various sources, in particular establishing on a formal basis their own priestly offices and powers, finally imparting to all of it an aura of sacred authority by attributing it to the great legendary founder and lawgiver of the nation, Moses.
But they soon would have realized they had slipped up, by including this unfortunate story of the founding and continuing observance of the Passover feast. When the people came to read this, they would immediately have rejected