What modern discovery confirmed the Old Testament?

Answer 1

The Dead Sea Scrolls is probably the single most striking discovery which confirmed the extreme accuracy of the Old Testament Hebrew text as it was handed down.

If the Old Testament historical setting is referred to there are literally thousands of discoveries which confirm specific details of the Old Testament.

Answer 2

The Dead Sea Scrolls are an example, but there are many such examples.

The entire social milieu portrayed in the Torah, once criticized as anachronistic, has been shown to be historically accurate, including customs of marriage, adoption, contracts, inheritance, purchases, utensils, modes of travel, people's names and titles, etc. Professor Gleason Archer Ph.D of Harvard University states: "In case after case where historical inaccuracy was alleged as proof of late and spurious authorship of the biblical documents, the Hebrew record has been vindicated by the results of excavations, and the condemnatory judgment of secular theorists have been proved to be without foundation."

Some specific examples1) Critics claimed that the descriptions in the Book of Esther were unrealistic. But when the French archaeologist Marcel Dieulefoy excavated Susa, he stated that the author of Esther must have been closely familiar with the details of the city and the royal palace, which by 1900 had been buried for 2300 years.

2) The critics asked how Cyrus' famous proclamation could be dated "the year one" (Ezra 1:1), seeing as it was made in the 21st year of his reign. But then archaeologists found inscriptions stating that when Cyrus conquered Babylon, they began to count the years from that date.

3) The secular scholars saw as "unlikely" the royal curse in Ezra 6:12 made by Darius. But inscriptions were found in which more terrible curses were proclaimed by Assurbanipal, Sennacherib, Sargon and other kings.

4) The critics denied the narrative of how the Judean king Menashe was captured by the Assyrians. But in the ruins of Kuyundshik was found an inscription by Esarhaddon, enumerating 22 foreign kings that he and Assurbanipal captured, including Menashe king of Judah.

5) The destruction of Sennacherib's army at the walls of Jerusalem was denied by the theorists. But then it was found that Berosus and Herodotus both state that Sennacherib's military campaign in Judea ended in plague and defeat. It should not surprise us that the Assyrians themselves didn't record their own losses.

6) The existence of the Assyrian king Pul (2 Kings 15:19) was denied. But a tablet, now in the British Museum and dated the year 22 of Darius, states that Tiglat-Pileser and Pul are the same person.

7) The critics sought to discredit the invasion of Judah by Sheshak, king of Egypt (2 Chronicles 12:4). But Champolion the French archaeologist, discovered an inscription at Karnak relating Sheshak's conquest of the cities of Judah in detail.

8) It was claimed that the camel hadn't been domesticated in Abraham's time. But the Canophorin tablet, dating from 18th century BCE gives a list of fodder for camels and other household animals. And a cylinder seal from Mesopotamia, dating from the patriarchal era, shows riders sitting on camels.

9) The term "achol et kaspeinu" ("our money was eaten," Genesis 31:15) is spoken by Rachel and Leah concerning an inheritance from their father Laban. This term is found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Five documents have been unearthed in which 18th century BCE Akkadian marriage contracts use this exact terminology, in the same context. We thus verify again that no postulated late redactor could possibly be credited with such specific knowledge of an era centuries before his own.

10) The names Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Laban, Balaam and Joseph were used in the Patriarchal period and dropped out of usage thereafter. These names appear in archaeological inscriptions from that period and no later period. How did those verses get appropriate names for that period of time (if they were created centuries later)?

Answer 3

There has never been any doubt that the Old Testament is, at least in part, true. Some modern discoveries have demonstrated the relative reliability of the Old Testament history, both before the Babylonian Exile and afterwards. Another modern discovery, the Dead Sea Scroll known as 4QPrNab, helps confirm the Book of Daniel as a second-century-BCE Jewish novel. Our modern knowledge of the Persians shows that there never was a Queen Vashti or a Queen Esther of Persia.

Of course, no modern discovery could confirm the legendary accounts in the Pentateuch. In fact Archaeology has shown, for example, that Abraham (if he existed) could not have visited the Philistine kings so many centuries before the Philistines even arrived in the Levant.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are the earliest Hebrew scriptures we have, predating the Masoretic texts by several centuries. They show that the Hebrew texts have altered very little since the time of the Qumran sect, although there are some exceptions. Randall Price says, in The Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls:

"The Samuel A Scroll (designated 4QSama-c or 4Q51-53) is especially interesting because it contains textual variants that appear to support many of the Septuagint deviations from the Masoretic Text. This was important because it provided scholars with an example of the kind of Hebrew version that was behind the Septuagint."