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Archaeological evidence that the Bible is true! with Paul Weaver · The Becket Cook Show

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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  Speaker 2: You are listening to The Beckett Cook Show with your host,
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  Speaker 2: Beckett Cook. For more information about Beckett and his ministry,
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  Speaker 2: visit his website at beckettcook.com. To help support the podcast,
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  Speaker 2: visit patreon.com slash thebeckettcookshow. Please consider subscribing to the podcast
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  Speaker 2: and leaving a five-star rating.
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  Speaker 3: Hey guys, welcome to the show. Today my guest is Dr.
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  Speaker 3: Paul Weaver, and he has a book out called Faith
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  Speaker 3: Affirming Findings, 50 Archaeological Discoveries That Validate the Historicity and
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  Speaker 3: Reliability of Scripture. These are amazing archaeological finds, and they
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  Speaker 3: are very much faith affirming. And we're going to talk
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  Speaker 3: about many of them, several of them. And there are
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  Speaker 3: several of them that silent, skeptical, critical scholars who denied
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  Speaker 3: a person, place, or thing mentioned in the Bible, but
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  Speaker 3: were later proven wrong by the archaeological record. So we're
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  Speaker 3: going to look at those because you can't deny the
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  Speaker 3: veracity of the Bible and the people, places, and things.
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  Speaker 3: But first, a word from our sponsor. Please welcome Dr.
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  Speaker 3: Paul Weaver.
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  Speaker 1: Well, thank you for the opportunity to be with you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to our conversation.
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  Speaker 3: I am too. This book was amazing. I, like I
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  Speaker 3: said in the intro, it really is faith affirming. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: these kinds of archeological findings are, they just boost your
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  Speaker 3: faith and they're very important. So tell me, first of all,
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  Speaker 3: why this book now, why did this even, why did
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  Speaker 3: you even write this book?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So my PhD is in biblical studies and, but I
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  Speaker 1: did take courses on archeology along the way. I just
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  Speaker 1: love the background of the Bible. I love things that
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  Speaker 1: help the Bible come to life, and I think biblical
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  Speaker 1: archaeology does that. Of course, the second thing that I'm
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  Speaker 1: really passionate about, one, is helping people to get excited
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  Speaker 1: about studying the Bible, and two, is helping people to
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  Speaker 1: recognize and understand and have greater confidence in the historicity
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  Speaker 1: and reliability of Scripture. Biblical archaeology does both of those things.
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  Speaker 1: It helps you to see the Bible in 5K, if
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  Speaker 1: you will, and it also helps affirms our faith in
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  Speaker 1: the historicity and reliability of scripture. So I've always been
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  Speaker 1: interested in biblical archaeology. In my PhD studies, I did
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  Speaker 1: more of that. Then in my dissertation, while I was
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  Speaker 1: considering what I wanted to do for my, you know,
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  Speaker 1: spend this one year of time studying and writing, I thought,
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  Speaker 1: you know, there's a big chasm, in my opinion, between
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  Speaker 1: the field of biblical studies and the field of archaeology.
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  Speaker 1: You have a lot of archaeologists and and you have
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  Speaker 1: a lot of biblical scholars, but not many are both.
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  Speaker 1: It's really an interdisciplinary task. And so I thought, well,
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  Speaker 1: maybe I can help bridge this divide, this gap. Commentaries
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  Speaker 1: on Corinth, on 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, in my estimation,
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  Speaker 1: didn't give enough of the archaeological background to their commentary.
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  Speaker 1: So I wanted to provide almost a handbook, if you will.
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  Speaker 1: There's 23 volumes on the archaeology of Corinth. Well, you
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  Speaker 1: can't deal with all of that in a commentary, but
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to provide in my dissertation the most important
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  Speaker 1: discoveries from Corinth that relate to the exposition of 1 Corinthians.
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  Speaker 1: So that was my dissertation, and I loved the faith-affirming
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  Speaker 1: aspects of that as well. And then I just reached
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  Speaker 1: out to Kriegel, and I posed this idea, and they
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  Speaker 1: were excited about it as well. So really helping people
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  Speaker 1: to see the biblical text that relates to the discovery
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  Speaker 1: of describe the discovery and then give the three, four, five,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes six, seven, eight things from that discovery, a site
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  Speaker 1: or a artifact that affirms a real person, a real place,
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  Speaker 1: real things recorded in the Bible. And so it was
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  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. And then I created, you know,
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  Speaker 1: 51 videos, six to 10 minute videos to go with
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  Speaker 1: it and 51 PowerPoint presentations. So I hope people use
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  Speaker 1: it to study it for themselves, study the scriptures to,
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  Speaker 1: study these discoveries, but then also use it in their
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  Speaker 1: Bible studies and preaching and teaching and personal study. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: You mentioned in the, I think in the introduction or
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  Speaker 3: in the beginning of the book, you mentioned how this
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  Speaker 3: would be a valuable tool for pastors or preachers. And
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  Speaker 3: I think, I mean, I think that's so, so important
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  Speaker 3: to be able to connect the dots and for when, when,
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  Speaker 3: you know, when a pastor is preaching on a certain, um,
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  Speaker 3: passage and that archaeological finding is part of that passage,
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  Speaker 3: to put that up on the screen, I think would
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  Speaker 3: just really bring it home. So I think this is
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  Speaker 3: really important for pastors and, as you said, people leading
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  Speaker 3: Bible studies, etc.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this week, and I preached a message out of
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  Speaker 1: Daniel 5 in Belshazzar, and I think we're going to
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  Speaker 1: talk about that. And I used these discoveries to as this,
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  Speaker 1: you know, as an illustration and a side note to
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  Speaker 1: say what we're reading is real person, real event, real place. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I love that. Okay. So let's get into some of the,
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  Speaker 3: by the way, I mean, when you did, we're doing
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  Speaker 3: your research, were there any, was there anything that genuinely
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  Speaker 3: surprised you in terms of the archeological evidence?
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  Speaker 1: Nothing surprised me. I, I, In the process, I reached
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  Speaker 1: out to about 25 different archaeologists and biblical scholars and
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  Speaker 1: asked them to give me their top 50 discoveries. So
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  Speaker 1: that was fascinating to hear what people would choose as
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  Speaker 1: their top 50 most important discoveries to talk about. And
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  Speaker 1: probably the top 40 were similar. But then depending on
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  Speaker 1: their interests, Old Testament studies, or if they're a New
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  Speaker 1: Testament scholar, or if they're into textual criticism and the manuscripts,
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  Speaker 1: of course, they included their interest there. And discoveries most
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  Speaker 1: interested in each one of many of them have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of interesting stories as to their discovery. I think
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  Speaker 1: that was fascinating for me, some of the stories that
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  Speaker 1: I did not know specifically. And so I went back
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  Speaker 1: to the original primary sources to read things that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: 100 years ago were written down as to how the
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  Speaker 1: discoveries made. So not just about the discovery, but I
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  Speaker 1: also try to include the fascinating stories that are about
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  Speaker 1: how they were discovered.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, okay, well, let's get into, and you say
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  Speaker 3: the first, I think, five we're going to go through,
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  Speaker 3: you say that these discoveries silenced skeptical or critical scholars
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  Speaker 3: who denied a person, place, or thing mentioned in the Bible,
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  Speaker 3: but were later proven wrong by this archaeological record. So
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  Speaker 3: this is very interesting. Let's start with the House of
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  Speaker 3: David Steely. Is that how you say it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That's good. I like that. Steely is a good... Some
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  Speaker 1: people pronounce it Stella and others Stell. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: a British pronunciation, Steely. Steely, like Steely Dan. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So tell us what this is all about and why
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  Speaker 3: it's important.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Let me tell you briefly about minimalists first, right? It
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  Speaker 1: silenced the critics. Minimalist scholars are those that are archaeologists
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  Speaker 1: and biblical scholars who... don't believe the Bible is historically reliable.
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  Speaker 1: They have an anti-Bible bias, and they'll only accept what's
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible, in the New and Old Testament scriptures,
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  Speaker 1: that are also affirmed by extra-biblical sources. And so for
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  Speaker 1: a long time, up until 1993, when this discovery was made,
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  Speaker 1: the House of David Steely, there were those who were
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  Speaker 1: denying that King David ever existed, because they did not
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  Speaker 1: find yet an archaeological artifact or or with the name
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  Speaker 1: David on it, and that could be affirmed to be
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  Speaker 1: the King David described in the Bible. And so the
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  Speaker 1: House of David steely did silence the critics. And we
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  Speaker 1: as maximalists who hold to the Bible as being historically reliable,
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  Speaker 1: and we accept the maximal amount of content within it,
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  Speaker 1: we would say not guilty until proven innocent like they would.
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  Speaker 1: We'd say the absence of evidence is not the evidence
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  Speaker 1: of absence. So just because we don't have something yet
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  Speaker 1: discovered doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's not out there
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  Speaker 1: or that Abraham didn't exist. The fact is the further
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  Speaker 1: back we go, the less and less archeological remains we're
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  Speaker 1: going to find. And there's other reasons as well, um,
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  Speaker 1: because God did not want Abraham to magnify himself. Most
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  Speaker 1: of the discoveries we find are Kings and Pharaohs bragging
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  Speaker 1: about their military exploits. So, um, so the absence of
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  Speaker 1: evidence is not the evidence of absence. Right.
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  Speaker 3: Um, Okay, so should I bring up this slide?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: So this is the House of David inscription. And Tel
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  Speaker 1: Dan is where it's discovered. So sometimes it's also called
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  Speaker 1: the Tel Dan inscription. And Dan, a tel is simply
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  Speaker 1: a mound of dirt.
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  Speaker 3: It's a hill.
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  Speaker 1: But underneath that hill is the ancient civilization. So archaeology
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  Speaker 1: is a destructive science, if you will, to get down
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  Speaker 1: to the layer of That you want to study, you
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  Speaker 1: have to go through other layers of civilizations oftentimes, unless
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  Speaker 1: it was only inhabited for one period of time and
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  Speaker 1: then abandoned. There's sometimes that happens, but not very often.
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  Speaker 1: But to tell then is if that city has been
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  Speaker 1: abandoned um like dan like um then it's going to
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  Speaker 1: grow over it's going to become a mound of dirt
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  Speaker 1: or it's going to fill in and grass and vegetation
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  Speaker 1: is going to be grow on top of it so
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  Speaker 1: in the north is where dan is the ancient city
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  Speaker 1: of Dan. And it was identified by a man by
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  Speaker 1: the name of Edward Robinson in the 1800s, 1838. But
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  Speaker 1: then Avraham Biram was an archaeologist that discovered this House
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  Speaker 1: of David stele or House of David inscription. And it
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  Speaker 1: was discovered in 1993. And on this slide, you can
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  Speaker 1: see the larger portion was discovered in 1993. It's labeled
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  Speaker 1: on that slide A. But then in 1994, the next
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  Speaker 1: excavation season, B and C, those two other fragments were discovered.
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  Speaker 1: And Biedon writes, and I'm going to quote him now,
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  Speaker 1: the 27 years of excavation at Tel Dan, for 27 years,
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  Speaker 1: produced very little written material until on July 21st, 1993,
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  Speaker 1: an inscribed basalt stone was discovered. And this, the largest
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  Speaker 1: portion again, discovered in 1993. The second and third portion,
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  Speaker 1: the B and C, discovered in 1994. There's still two
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  Speaker 1: portions that have yet to be discovered, the top portion
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  Speaker 1: and bottom. But this is an incredible find because this
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  Speaker 1: victory stele was written in Aramaic on this basalt stone slab.
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  Speaker 1: And it's commissioned by a king by the name of
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  Speaker 1: Hazael of Aram. and Aram would have been an enemy
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  Speaker 1: of Israel, and they would have been north of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: And so this time, of course, well, I haven't gotten
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  Speaker 1: to that yet, but this is going to describe some
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  Speaker 1: events relating to the 10 northern tribes known collectively as Israel, who,
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  Speaker 1: after Solomon died, we have the breaking away of the
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  Speaker 1: 10 northern tribes and the two southern tribes. So this
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  Speaker 1: is dealing with the 10 northern tribes and this king Aram.
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  Speaker 1: Hazael of Aram, who's bragging about his military exploits. And
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  Speaker 1: that's what a stele is. It's a monument. And on
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  Speaker 1: it is inscribed several names. We see the name Jehoram,
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  Speaker 1: son of Ahab. Those are biblical names. Ahaziah, son of Jehoram. Again, kings,
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  Speaker 1: biblical names. And then it says, from the house of David.
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  Speaker 1: From the house of David. Now, I mentioned to you
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  Speaker 1: the minimalists. Philip Davies is one of those minimalists. And
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  Speaker 1: he wrote infamously. He wrote the following. He is a
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  Speaker 1: professor at Sheffield University. He wrote the following. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: the only scholar who suspects that the figure of King
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  Speaker 1: David is about as historical as King Arthur.
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  Speaker 3: We'll be right back after this short break.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this discovery in 1993 and then 1994 happened. affirms
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  Speaker 1: several things, right? First, the house of David Steely silenced
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  Speaker 1: the critics. The Steely dated over 100 years after David reigned.
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  Speaker 1: And so it's speaking of these kings who are from
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  Speaker 1: the house of David, right? And so it's mentioning this dynasty,
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  Speaker 1: this line of kings from David. And if there's a
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  Speaker 1: line of kings from David or a dynasty from David,
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  Speaker 1: then there must be a David himself. And so it
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  Speaker 1: silenced the critics there. It also mentions, again, those different kings. Aram,
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  Speaker 1: that's mentioned in scripture in 2 Kings 8, 28, mentions
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  Speaker 1: how Ahaziah, also on that victory stele. Jehoram, son of Ahab,
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  Speaker 1: went to war against Hazael, king of Aram. And that's
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  Speaker 1: 2 Kings 8, 28 and 29. So real people, real places,
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  Speaker 1: real events etched in stone. not by the Israelites, but
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  Speaker 1: by the enemies of Israel.
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  Speaker 3: And what did the, was he a professor at Sheffield?
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  Speaker 3: Like what did he, what was his reaction to this discovery?
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  Speaker 1: You know, I'm not sure that he has anything in writing.
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  Speaker 3: He just quietly just ignored it.
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  Speaker 1: And that happens, right? So now the They move the goalposts,
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  Speaker 1: and now they say, well, King David, he probably did exist.
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  Speaker 1: We acknowledge that. But he was just this little chieftain,
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  Speaker 1: like just this little tribal chief, not a king of
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  Speaker 1: an empire that's described in the Bible. You know, David
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  Speaker 1: conquered and expanded the empire. And since then, we've found
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  Speaker 1: a place called Kerbet Kayafa that has a fortified city
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  Speaker 1: from the time of David. And there's no pig bones, right?
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  Speaker 1: Indicates this is not the Philistines or Canaanites. These are
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  Speaker 1: people that have a ban on pork and there's no
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  Speaker 1: idols either. So again, it moved the goalposts, but here
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  Speaker 1: we found another discovery that seems to support David's existence
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  Speaker 1: and that he ruled over a kingdom, not just a
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  Speaker 1: chieftain of a little tribe.
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  Speaker 3: Right, okay, good. Okay, well, next is this. I can't
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  Speaker 3: pronounce it, so you're gonna have to do it.
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  Speaker 1: Nabonidus. This is the Nabonidus cylinder, the Nabonidus cylinder. And
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  Speaker 1: your listeners and viewers would not be, maybe not familiar
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  Speaker 1: with Nabonidus, but you would be familiar with his son,
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  Speaker 1: a man by the name of Belshazzar. And again, this
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  Speaker 1: discovery is fascinating because Belshazzar, again, the minimalists, those who
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  Speaker 1: deny the historical reliability of scripture, unless there is an
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  Speaker 1: extra biblical source that will affirm this, the detail in
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  Speaker 1: the Bible? Well, they denied, even going back to 1850,
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  Speaker 1: they denied that Belshazzar ever existed. They just said he
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  Speaker 1: is just a figment of their imagination. Well, Daniel 5,
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  Speaker 1: anybody that has read Daniel 5 and the Feast of
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  Speaker 1: Belshazzar and the handwriting on the wall, obviously it mentions
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  Speaker 1: Belshazzar by name a couple times, many times in that
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  Speaker 1: one chapter. And that writing on the wall, mene tekel pedes, right?
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  Speaker 1: Daniel interprets that three words after Belshazzar tries to seek
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  Speaker 1: after his wise men to try to interpret it. They can't.
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  Speaker 1: And Daniel is able to interpret these three words and says,
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  Speaker 1: God has weighed you. He's found you morally deficient and
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  Speaker 1: you're going to fall to the Medes and the Persians. Well,
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  Speaker 1: the Nabonidus cylinder mentions Belshazzar by name and it, It
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  Speaker 1: includes details relating, it's really a prayer to the king,
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  Speaker 1: excuse me, to the gods, the Babylonian gods. And at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the prayer, he mentions his son, Belshazzar.
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  Speaker 1: And this is the prayer, I'll read it for you.
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  Speaker 1: As for me, Nabonidus, king of Babylon, save me from
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  Speaker 1: sinning against your great Godhead and grant me as a
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  Speaker 1: present a long life. And as for Belshazzar, my eldest son,
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  Speaker 1: instill reverence in him for your great Godhead. So he's
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  Speaker 1: praying to his God and saying, give me long years
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  Speaker 1: and give my son honor for you and him long
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  Speaker 1: years as well.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: This silences this, again, notion that this is just a
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  Speaker 1: figment of the Jewish people's imagination.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I like that. OK, so let's move to what
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  Speaker 3: is this one?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is also named after Nabonidus. It's called the
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  Speaker 1: Nabonidus Chronicle. And so if you want something to survive antiquity,
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  Speaker 1: something to survive thousands of years, you don't write it
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  Speaker 1: on ancient paper. You put it on etched in stone
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  Speaker 1: like this. This would have been a stone tablet. Or
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  Speaker 1: you put it in clay and harden it in an oven.
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  Speaker 1: And so that's what the Nabonidus cylinder was, a clay cylinder.
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  Speaker 1: This is a stone tablet. inscription etched in stone. And
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  Speaker 1: I love discussing this discovery coupled with the Nabonidus cylinder
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  Speaker 1: because both of them mention Belshazzar by name as the
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  Speaker 1: son of Nabonidus. This was a rectangular tablet in the
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  Speaker 1: Akkadian language, one of the oldest languages that we know of,
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  Speaker 1: in cuneiform script, which is a wedge-shaped script. And so
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  Speaker 1: much like our ancient Alphabet can be used for other languages.
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  Speaker 1: So cuneiform script is used for different languages, not just Akkadian.
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  Speaker 1: And it records the events during Nabonidus' reign. Now, in
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  Speaker 1: Daniel chapter 5, it mentions that Belshazzar is the son
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  Speaker 1: of Nebuchadnezzar. Now, that's an interpretive or a translation problem.
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  Speaker 1: That word actually means a male descendant. So it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: mean literally the son of, and in fact, from the
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  Speaker 1: Babylonian records, we realized that there are several Kings between
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  Speaker 1: Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus and then Belshazzar. And so, um, Belshazzar
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  Speaker 1: was a male descendant from, um, from.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, Nebuchadnezzar.
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  Speaker 1: Nebuchadnezzar. I'm sorry. I'm having a brain lapse today and
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  Speaker 1: the heat here in Dallas, right?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So, but, um, And so Nabonidus was the father of Belshazzar,
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  Speaker 1: and Belshazzar would have been the descendant of Nebuchadnezzar. So
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  Speaker 1: the Nabonidus Chronicle why is this important? The Nabonidus Chronicle
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  Speaker 1: not only mentions that Belshazzar is the son of him, Nabonidus,
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  Speaker 1: but also mentions that Nabonidus was down in Arabia for
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  Speaker 1: 10 years. Well, why is this significant? Because three times
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  Speaker 1: in the biblical text, it says that three, that, the
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  Speaker 1: wise men were first offered to become third in power
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  Speaker 1: if they could interpret these three words. That's in Daniel 5.7.
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  Speaker 1: And then when they're not able to interpret these three words,
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  Speaker 1: the handwriting on the wall, then Belshazzar reaches out to
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Daniel and offers him third place in power. That's Daniel 5.16.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And then when Daniel does interpret these three words, Nabuchadnezzar, Nabonid,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: excuse me, Belshazzar, actually does what he promised and made
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Daniel third in power. Now, it only lasted one day
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: because that night Darius the Mede would conquer him. But
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the point is, for generations, scholars and Bible students of
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the word have been scratching their head and they didn't
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: know the why. They knew the what. The biblical text
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: says the what. He was offered third in power. But
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: now we know the why. Because Nabonidus was down in
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Arabia for 10 years, and he put his son in
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: charge of Babylon in Babylonia, in the city of Babylon.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: And so Nabonidus was first in power, Belshazzar second in power,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Daniel was offered third in power.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: So what are we looking at here?
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, this is a fascinating discovery as well. We've looked
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: at a couple artifacts, right? The Nabonidus Chronicle, the Nabonidus Cylinder,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Now we're going to look at what's a site. This
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: is in Magdala, which is on the Sea of Galilee.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: But this is probably where Mary Magdalene was from. And
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: this is a synagogue, an ancient synagogue. Now, when we
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: read the biblical text, it's clear, according to the Gospels
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and the Book of Acts, that, first of all, Jesus
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: went into synagogues. Matthew 4.23, Jesus was going throughout all Galilee.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: This would be Galilee, part of Galilee. went throughout all
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, Matthew 4.23. Luke as
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: well mentions that Jesus went to Nazareth and went into
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: the synagogue, right? And that's the great passage where he
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: stands up and quotes from Isaiah and says, this has
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: been fulfilled basically, right? Yeah. So synagogues were clearly used
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: according to the gospels. And then you think of other places,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: that was Jesus' mode of operation, going into the synagogues,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: speaking from the scriptures, Jesus warned his disciples that they
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: had been treated in the synagogues. He warned them of
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the hypocritical Pharisees who loved to sit in places of
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: honor in the synagogues. And Paul persecuted Christians in the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: synagogue of Jerusalem. So these, then talk about Paul, right?
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: You could go through the book of Acts. The word
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: synagogue is used a total expression of 37 times in
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Gospels and Acts. And so minimalists, again, denied this to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: be the case. They said synagogues would not have been
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: used until 8070 when Jerusalem was destroyed and when, and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: now you would need synagogues because there's no temple. And
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: so they argue.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Okay. I didn't know that.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: So they'd argue it's a competition with the temple, right?
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: And that's just not the case. So they were saying
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't need synagogues until after AD 70 when the
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: temple's destroyed. Well, in the intertestinal period between the close
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: of the Old Testament and opening of the New Testament,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: these 400 years of silence or so, you have the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: synagogues coming to use and you have rabbis now becoming
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: teachers of the law in the synagogues. And so the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: temple is a place for sacrifices, but the synagogues were
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the places of the teaching of the law, right?
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: And so this discovery in Magdala with benches around it,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the mosaics, pillars, and clearly this is a synagogue from
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the first century. And there's another synagogue discovered in Capernaum
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: or Capernaum. And so these again, silence the critics. And
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: there's even a, In my book, I have a picture
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of it and the videos as well. There's what we
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: call the Magdala Stone. And that's fascinating because on the
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Magdala Stone, it actually has pictures of the temple, aspects
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: of the temple. That is the pillars of the temple,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: oil representing the temple. And all of that points to
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the fact that they did not see synagogues as a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: competition with the temple, but rather being used in concert with.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: So. Yeah. It was kind of a teaching place. Um,
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: and so who, who would sit on the benches? Was
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: that for like the, the, like the, you know, the,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: the groundlings or was like, or where was the place
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: of honor in these synagogues versus like where the groundlings
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: would sit?
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great question. Which of these benches in
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: this picture, where would be the place of honor? Maybe
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: in the front, probably in the front there. Um, But
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know that we know exactly which is the
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: place of honor. But those benches would have been sat
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: upon by first century devout Jewish followers of Yahweh listening
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: to the law being preached. And Jesus probably was in
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: this very synagogue in Magdala.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Hmm.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: And of course, the one in Capernaum, we're pretty sure
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: as well. It's so close to what we think is
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Peter's house, which has also been discovered. So there's so
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: many incredible discoveries. It was hard to narrow it down
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: to 50. Yeah.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: Okay. So let's go move on to what is this?
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is another incredible find. It's a crucifixion heel,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: a heel bone of a crucified victim. Now, obviously this
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: is not Jesus' heel bone because he rose from the grave.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: But this was a first century crucified victim. And there's
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: several things important in this picture.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: It's been detected. It looks really painful, by the way.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: There's a huge nail, like giant nail, iron nail through
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: the heel bone.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So this points to the horrific and gruesome way
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: of death that our Savior would have gone through as
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: this would have been violently nailed through his ankle. And
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: this victim was 24 to 25 years old. It's estimated
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: you can see the curl on the end of that nail.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: That's very significant. We're thankful for that curl. Because of
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: that curl that remained in the ankle of the rather
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: than being removed and used again in another crucified victim's death.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: And on one side of the nail, in this picture,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: if those are joining, viewing this, on one side, there
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: was a piece of olive wood that would have been
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: on the, the head of the nail would have been
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: nailed through the olive wood into the ankle and to
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: keep it stationed on the ankle, not to move as
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the nails being violently damaged. nailed through the ankle bone.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: And then on the other side, there's a portion of the, uh,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: left remained from the, the crucified beam. A small portion
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: of that has been detected as well. So how does
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: this silence the critics?
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: Well, well, first of all, why was it, why was
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: the nail curled? So it wouldn't slip out. Is that why?
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Uh, the nail, we don't know why the nail curled itself.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Uh, the olive wood that was placed between the head
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: of the nail and the ankle bone on the right
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: in this picture, um, was the olive wood that kept
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the nail from slipping when it would have been nailed
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: into the ankle bone. But the curl, we don't know. Um,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe it had been used over multiple crucifixions
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: and it lost its strength, but hit a knot in
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the wood. Some suggest, uh, we don't know why it curled.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was struck by a hammer, um, as well. Um,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: But typically, you know, nails were very expensive, so they
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: would have removed them typically and used them again. But
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: because of that curl, we're thankful for it because now
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: we have the first first century crucified victim nail embedded.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: And why is this important? Because critics, skeptics said that
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: nails were too expensive to be used in crucifixion attempts.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: But the biblical narrative, the gospel is clearly indicate that
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Jesus was nailed to a cross, John 19, John's gospel,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: John 20, and verse 25, doubting Thomas says, unless I
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: see the nails and marks in his hands and put
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: my finger where the nails were, I will not believe.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: And then John 20, 27, Jesus says, put your finger here,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: see my hands, stop doubting and believe. So clearly, The
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: biblical text indicates nails were used. And here we have
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: the first century crucified victim, probably crucified under Pontius Pilate
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: as well. It was a man by the name of Yehohanan.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: It was discovered in 1968 in Nazareth. chamber, and the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: bone box was labeled Yehohanan, so his name was on it.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: So in the first century, a small window of time,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: ossuaries were used, which were simply limestone bone boxes, were
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: used in a second burial process. So the first burial
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: process was the individual who died would be placed on
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: a flat surface. And of course that happened to Jesus.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: He was placed on a flat surface. That's the first burial.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: But then a year later, the loved ones of the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: person that has died would, after all the skin and
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: flesh has rotted off the bones, all that's left are
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the bones. A year later, they would come and collect
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: those bones and put them in an ossuary, a bone box.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: And this process, this second burial process, was only used
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: from the middle of Herod the Great's, I almost want
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: to say ministry, but reign until AD 70, and Jerusalem
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: was destroyed. So if you find a bone box, an ashware,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: you know it's 1st century BC, 1st century AD, right?
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: So that narrows it down. And this was etched, Yehohanan's
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: name was etched on it. And there are other contributing
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: factors that indicate this was 1st century AD. AD and
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: probably died under Pontius Pilate as well. And so obviously
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Jesus was not buried, a second burial process, but Yehohanan's
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: bones point to nails used. And then also a second
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: thing that skeptics said, skeptics, critics said that crucified victims
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: would never be given an honorable burial, an appropriate burial.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: They would be left to be eaten by dogs or
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: left to rot and thrown into nameless site along with
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: other enemies, robbers and thieves. But this particular crucified victim
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: was given two burials, right? The first process of being
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: laid on a flat surface and then a year later.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: And so this silenced the critics in both of those areas.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: And so would Jesus have been... crucified this way? Would
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: it have gone, the nail gone through his ankle bone
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: instead of his foot?
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think so. I think that also is
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: something that we didn't know about before the discovery of
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: this crucified victim, Yehohanan's ankle bone. And so as you
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: indicate in pictures, some pictures you'll see crucified victims with
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: rope around their hands, right? That's what they thought before
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: they found that this ankle bone had nailed through it.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: So And then you also often see feet with a
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: nail driven right through the top of the two feet together.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: But this indicates it was probably from the sides. The
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: ankles would have been on the sides of the beam
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: and violently driven with that olive wood in between it
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: into the ankle and then into the beam.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: That doesn't seem very pleasant to be a part of that.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: And then... then the need to get breath every time
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: pushing up on those nails would have been incredibly painful. Yeah.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: Okay, so what is this?
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is another artifact, inscription in stone. And we
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: call it the polytarch inscription. And polytarch means the one
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: who serves as a polytarch, or one who serves as.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: In this position, it's an office or a position in
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the city, a city official. And this is significant because Luke,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: who makes it clear in his gospel, Luke 1.1, that
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: he's giving a careful, documented history of the words and
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: works of Jesus. And then the book of Acts, his
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: second volume, he is written to Theophilus as well to
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: continue that story, the historical narrative now of the Apostles.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: and the growth of the church. Well, Acts 17, Luke
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: records for us this engagement here regarding Paul. And it says,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: when they did not find them, speaking of Paul, they
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Polytarch is the word there. Shouting, these men who have
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: upset the world have come here also. They stirred up
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: the crowd and the city authorities, Polytarch, who heard these things. Now,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: significance is this word polytarch is only used here, and
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: it's only used by Luke in the book of Acts.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: And so, again, skeptics, critics of the Bible who treat
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the Bible as guilty of errors and exaggerations and sometimes
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: even falsehoods had indicated that Luke was, or whoever wrote it,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: was just error that polytarch was not a word that
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: was used at that time of that location. And so
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: here's a discovery that was discovered in Thessalonica, ancient city
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: of Thessalonica, which is in modern day Greece. And it
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: was on an arch called the Vardar Arch. And it's
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: about two and a half feet tall, six feet long.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: The arch no longer exists there because over time it
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: was removed. But the the inscription itself, the polytarch inscription,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: was preserved. And so at one time, these minimalist scholars
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: questioned Luke's veracity, claiming there was no such thing as
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: a polytarch. Now, Clyde Fant and Mitchell Reddish, two scholars
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: in their book, write the following. Of the more than
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: 60 known inscriptions, now we have more than 60 inscriptions
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: that mention polytarchs, three-fourths of them are from Macedonia. That's
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: where Paul was in Acts 17, with approximately half of
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: those being in Thessalonica, which is where Paul was when
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Luke records the events of Paul in Acts 17. So
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: John McRae, a New Testament scholar who's now with the Lord,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: and he did a lot in the area of archaeology
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: as well, he said the following, it is incontrovertible that
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: polytarchs existed in Macedonia long before the time of the
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Apostle Paul. And so this discovery of the polytarch inscription,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: amongst many others later discovered, silenced the critics. Once again,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the Bible is historically accurate. Luke accomplished what he intended
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: to do to provide a careful documentation of the history
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: for Theophilus, the Gospel of Luke, and the Book of Acts.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: And so we're thankful for this discovery and many others
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: like it.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: Wow, okay. All right, let's do this one. Caiaphas, the ossuary,
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: what is this about? I mean, we talked about ossuaries,
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: but tell us about this.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so Yehohanan's ossuary was much more simple, right? It
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: was just a bone box, limestone bone box, not very
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: ornate at all. But this one, this discovery known as
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: the Caiaphas Ossuary was much more ornate. It has intricate design,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: rosetta flowers there, six of them in the middle of
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: a big circle. But how was it discovered? This is
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: another fascinating discovery and the stories of these discoveries. Again,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: some of them, the Pool of Siloam was discovered because
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: the septic system was broken and they had to go
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: and fix it, and they discovered the Pool of Siloam. Well,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: this is another discovery by accident. I tell people this way,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: that it's expensive to build in Jerusalem. not only because
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: of the resources it requires to build, and not only
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: because of the labor, although those are expensive, but because
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: when you excavate to build something, you are likely to
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: find something 1,000 years old, 2,000 years old, 3,000 years old,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: and you'll have to stop everything and call the Israel
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: antiquities authorities and have them come and check it out. Well,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: this discovery was found in the Peace Forest, which is
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: southwest of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And they were
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: using heavy moving equipment, bulldozer, and the bulldozer fell into
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: a tomb. And we know it's a first century tomb.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Because there were ossuaries or ossuaries, both pronunciations. And these
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: ossuaries were strewn all over, broken and thrown all over.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: So they had discovered a first century tomb full of ossuaries.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: And I have the recounting of how that came about
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: in my book. But the tomb looks kind of like
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: a hand with no pinky. These are different kokim, different
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: locations where these ossuaries would be placed. So this second
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: burial process. And there is one, the thumb of this hand,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: if you would, if you'd imagine the tomb being like
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: a hand, the thumb, thankfully, the grave robbers who had
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: found fingers or had found all the, um, the, the
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: ossuaries in the fingers, they had broken them and robbed them.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: The thumb was not discovered. And so sitting in place,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: I'm thankful God's sovereignty and, and, uh, uh, wisdom, he
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: chose to preserve it for us. He did not get
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: discovered by these grave robbers and it remained intact. And
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: so it's a beautiful ossuary. It is very ornate, as
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, as approximately 29 inches long, 14 and a
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: half inches high, has the design. This would have been
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: a wealthy individual in it. The two large circle patterns
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: include six smaller circles. And these are rosetta flowers, which
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: were common in the first century. On the side is etched,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: you can see one of the two etchings. And in it,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: it's etched in Aramaic, the name Yehoshaph Bar-Kiapha, or Joseph,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: son of Kiapha. So then two different places, two different
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: forms of the same name. And so the remains of
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: a 60-year-old man are found in it. Coins dated to
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: AD 42, 43 are discovered in it, helping to date
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: this as well. Pottery from the first century as well. Now,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: the question is, we know Caiaphas, but we don't know Joseph.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: What's it got to do with this name Joseph of
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Caiapha inscription on the side of the ossuary? By the way,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: it looks like just scratchings, right? Because it's a nail.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: They would crawl into, place the ushery there, and they'd
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: just etch it on the side. So everything else would
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: have been pre-bought, pre-made. And that's why this is very
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: different than the rest of this ornate discovery. But what
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: about Joseph? Well, Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian of the
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: first century, helps us by explaining that this is Joseph
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: who was called Caiaphas of the high priesthood. And so Josephus,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Joseph was a common name in the first century. And
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: so on it, they, and so Caiaphas would have been
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: the nickname, the family name, nickname for this Joseph. So
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: separating Joseph from all other Josephs, this is Joseph Caiaphas.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: And so this discovery helps us in Josephus Flavius, again,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: another Joseph, right? Another form of Joseph, Josephus tells us
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: that Caiaphas' real name was Joseph His nickname was Caiaphas.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: And so, again, the ornate details of this point to
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: a very wealthy person. This was not a common ossuary.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: And then the name there on the side, there's agreement
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: that this is indeed the Caiaphas who was the enemy
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: of Jesus, the villain of the story that brought Jesus
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: before us. The Sanhedrin then led Jesus off to Pontius Pilate.
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: Let's look at this. Is this the one you're talking about?
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So this inscription, the Pilate inscription was discovered in
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: 1961 in the place known as Caesarea Maritima. Now Caesarea
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: Maritima is a very important city. Um, it was actually
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: built by Herod, the not so great, I call him. Um,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to Israel, you'll see Herod's
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: handiwork everywhere, right? He was, it really fits the description
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: of this megalomaniac, right? Who's paranoid. And he's built all
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: of these different, the Herodium, he names it after himself.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: That's where he's buried. This big city on a hill
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: that he built. Caesarea Maritima is one of these cities
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: that he built from nothing. There's basically very little there
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: before he built it. But this is going to be
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: the place that future Herod leaders uh future kings and
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: prefects are going to live and this is where Pontius
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Pilate lives on the Caesarea Maritima and you can see
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: why he would live there because it's on the Mediterranean
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Sea and it's beautiful and and Herod the Great had
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: built this palace that extended into the Mediterranean Sea so
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: at this location is where Pontius Pilate would have lived
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: and he was in Jerusalem to uh to keep the
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: peace during the Passover because the Passover pilgrimage feast. And
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: that's why he's there and he can judge Jesus. But
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: he's not there to worship on the Passover. He's there
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: to keep the peace.
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: That's when the pilgrimage feast that basically every devout Jewish
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: male was expected to be there. And so you've got
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem 10 times the size it normally is. This is
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: a perfect time for a rebellion as they're worshiping Yahweh
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: and reminded that Yahweh says one day these Gentile enemies
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: will no longer be over you. Well, Pontius Pilate would
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: have been in Jerusalem for that occasion. So back to
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Pontius Pilate, this is the first inscription discovery of the
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: name Pontius Pilate. and it was discovered in 1961, and
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: it was repurposed. So it was initially probably part of
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: a temple that was used to honor and worship Tiberius.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: And the inscription itself, reconstructed, we don't have the whole thing,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: as you can see in that picture, it only says
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Tiberium and Pontius Pilate and Prefect of Judea. But reconstruction
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: of it, we think, is probably the Tiberium, identifying the location,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: the Tiberium that Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, has built
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: for the people of Caesar in honor of Tiberius. So
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: this would have been a stone, kind of like a
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: cornerstone that would have been built to identify this Tiberium
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: as a place of honor or deification, worship of Tiberius,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: but it mentions Pilate who would have built that Tiberium. Well,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: this stone, when the Tiberium was you know, probably at
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: some point was no longer being used. This stone was repurposed.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Maybe you like to repurpose things. My, my wife certainly
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: does or has me repurpose things. So this, this stone,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: which was a part of the Tiberium was repurposed and
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: used and discovered where it was discovered was in the
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: theater there in Caesarea Maritima. And so this, Important location,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Paul sailed in and out of Caesarea Maritima, the Praetorium,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: the place where Herod the Great built and future prefects
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: like Pontius Pilate would have lived. And even Paul would
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: have been in jail there at one point. And all
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: of this is very significant. But this particular discovery, the
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Pilate Stone, one more detail about the person that's so
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: important that he's mentioned here. So many times in scripture, right?
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Pontius Pilate, 51 times in the gospel, three times in
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: the book of Acts, once in 1 Timothy. We have
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: an apostle's creed that mentions Pontius Pilate. He suffered under
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Pontius Pilate. Here we have an inscription that mentions Pontius
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Pilate by name. And so we have one more detail
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: that's etched in stone that affirms the biblical record.
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: Wow. This information, I think, is so vital for not
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: only Christians, but for, for unbelievers who think that the
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: Bible is some ancient myth. And I mean, I used
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: to think that, and, um, actually I'm reading John Lennox's book, uh,
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: his bio autobiography. He's coming on the show in a
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: couple of weeks, but, um, he talks about this and
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: how the kind of art, he was very into this
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: as a kid. He was into the archeological stuff, like
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: all of the evidence of, of Christ and of the
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: Bible and the, um, underpinning the veracity of the Bible.
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: But this, I mean, I think if non-believers took the
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: time to not only read the Bible, but to read
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: books like yours, like it would just be kind of undeniable, right?
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: To believe that the Bible is true.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. If the Bible is true and it is, I
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: say this often, if the Bible is true and it is,
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: then we'd expect the archeological record to affirm it. And
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: it does time and time again.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: So if we can believe that people, places, events, and things,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: which are historically accurate, and I think they are, then
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: we can trust, I think gives good argument to trust
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: the theological concepts in it, right? That salvation is by
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: grace through faith, that Jesus Christ died in our place,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: that Jesus is God and his substitutionary atonement forgives sin
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: if we accept him as our savior. So we do
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: need to go that next step, right? It's not enough
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: just to believe the Bible is historically reliable. We need
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: to trust in what it says about Jesus as our savior. Yes.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Amen to that.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Well, let's leave it there. And guys, the book is
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: Faith Affirming Findings, 50 Archaeological Discoveries That Validate the Historicity
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: and Reliability of Scripture. Dr. Paul Weaver, thank you so
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: much for coming on the show and talking about this.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: My pleasure. It's been a joy.
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: Wait, don't touch that dial. Please like and subscribe. And
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: also please consider becoming a patron on Patreon.com. For as
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: little as $ 5 a month, you can really help us
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: out on the show. The link is below, and we so,
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: so appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: Listening to this episode of The Beckett Cook Show. Your
• 48:59
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• 49:03
  Speaker 2: Cook Show are also available on YouTube. For more information
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: about Beckett and his ministry, visit his website at beckettcook.com.