The Bible and history

Does ancient history support the Bible?
Many have taken a view that, where there is no supporting evidence from history, the events and people mentioned in the Bible may well not be true. Historians have not always substantiated everything of what the Bible says about the ancient world. However, in many instances, they have found historical evidence for events mentioned in the Bible.

For example:

Evidence for the Exodus
The book of Numbers (chapter 33) records the list of the places where the Israelites camped during their exodus from Egypt to Israel. Some have dismissed this account as a myth.

But a route map found on the walls of the ancient Egyptian temple of Amun in Karnak lists a number of these place names. Significantly, they are all listed in the same order as they are in the book of Numbers.

Evidence for the book of Ezra
The Cyrus Cylinder, discovered in 1879, is a record of events during the reign of a Babylonian king, Cyrus. It tells us that King Cyrus allowed refugees to return to their homelands and worship their own gods. This tallies with events recorded in the Bible.

The book of Ezra says that Cyrus issued a decree, allowing the Jews to return home and to rebuild the Temple (Ezra chapter 1). The Cyrus Cylinder can now be seen in the British Museum.

Evidence for the existence of Jesus
There is a lot of historical evidence for the existence of Jesus. For example, the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55-120) wrote about him.

He said that the emperor Nero had ‘inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate’ (Annals, 15.44).

Some have argued that Tacitus got his facts wrong, or was just repeating hearsay. However, we can tell from his writings that he was actually a very thorough historian.

He also checked his sources very carefully. When Tacitus reported hearsay, he identified it as such – which he didn’t do in this case.