Case For Christ Bible
Did the Ancient People Groups Listed in the Bible Really Exist?
During the past 300 years, skeptics have tried to claim that many of the peoples listed in the Bible never actually existed. However, archaeology and other historical references have served to validate the accuracy of the Bible’s account. The Hittites provide a good example.
The Bible makes about three dozen references to the Hittites, but critics used to charge that there was no evidence that such people ever existed. Now archaeologists digging in modern north-central Turkey in the city of Boghazkoy (called Hattusa by the Hittites) have discovered a large archive library belonging to the Hittites that includes letters, military instructions and laws. As the great archaeologist William F. Albright declared, “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition.”
Noted Roman historian Colin J. Hemer, in The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History, shows how archaeology has confirmed hundreds of details from the Biblical account of the early church. Even small details have been corroborated, like which way the wind blows, how deep the water is a certain distance from shore, what kind of disease a particular island had, the names of local officials and so forth.
Adapted from interview with Dr. Norman Geisler