Biblical Evidence #5: The Stones

This is the Archeological discoveries throughout history. Do these discoveries support or cast doubt on the claim that the Bible is true? Archeology can confirm all kinds of facts such as people, places, dates, and customs. While it can’t tell us the truth of things that can’t be uncovered through archeology, it can show the accuracy and truth of what the factual claims the Bible makes, and that does lend greater credence to believing the accuracy and truth of the things that we cannot check.
There have been instances in the past where people have though that the Bible was wrong about something only later to be shown that the Bible was right and they were wrong. For instance, many skeptics of the Bible had asserted for years that there was a discrepancy in the Bible concerning the healing of the blind man in Mark 10:46 and Luke 18:35.
Mark 10:46 “Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging.”
Luke 18:35 “As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.”
Notice that Mark says that they were leaving the city, while Luke said that as Jesus approached Jericho. Taking this at face value would seem that there was a mistake in the biblical record despite the fact that it would not seem all the consequential. But as archaeologists have done excavations in and around Jericho, they have found that the city had “at least four different locations as much as a quarter mile apart in ancient times” (McRay as cited in Strobel, 1998, p. 98) due to being destroyed or moving closer to water supply, ect.
Archaeology also has confirmed some of the miraculous events that the Bible records. For instance, in Joshua 6, we find the biblical account of how the Israelites defeated Jericho. It says they marched around the city for seven days and on the seventh day they marched around seven times and shouted and the walls came down.
“When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city” (Joshua 6:20).
The archaeological excavations are consistent with the walls coming down most likely by God’s use of an earthquake of which there is evidence. There is one thing that is strange however. There was a portion of the wall that remained standing while the walls in all the other locations were fallen. To a student of the Bible, this would not be strange at all, but consistent with the Bible.
In Joshua chapter 2 we learn that Rahap helps the spies from Israel escape from Jericho, so they promised to spare her and her family if she and her family stayed in her house. Do you know where her house was? “for the house she lived in was part of the city wall” (Joshua 2:15). For her and her family to stay alive, God arranged that the entire wall came down except where her house was located.
The wall that had not fallen was found through archaeology to have houses built against it. The evidence that is uncovered continues to support what the Bible says in every detail. Even if it was an earthquake that brought down the walls of Jericho, it was still a miracle because God caused the precise moment that the earthquake would bring down the wall and caused to remain standing the areas needed to ensure the safety of Rahab and her family just as was promised. This also further illustrates that God is able to protect those who trust in Him in absolutely any circumstance. We just need to be obedient and trust.