LeStourgeon Online

Jeremiah the Historian

Striking a blow against the skepticism of the Bible’s historical accounts, a Viennese scholar working through a collection at the British Museum discovered an ancient charitable receipt on a two inch clay tablet naming names that the prophet Jeremiah named.

The tablet itself is certainly genuine. On July 10 the Museum announced that a Viennese expert working his way through thousands of similar clay documents in its possession translated one dating from 595 B.C that described a gift of 1.7 lbs. of gold to a Babylonian temple by a “chief eunuch” named Nabu-sharrussu-ukin.

A museum official called it “a world-class find.” What makes the ancient but seemingly mundane receipt significant is that the book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) mentions the exact same official — though under a different transliteration, Nebo-Sarsekim, and a different title, chief officer, as accompanying the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar when he marched against Jerusalem in 587.

Biblical archeology time and time again confirms the basic historicity of biblical accounts.  Yet many scholars continue to adopt a level of skepticism and reconstruction regarding biblical events that is unwarranted in any other field of historical investigation.  We thank heaven for biblical scholars who will follow the evidence where it leads and we give thanks even more for those who demonstrate the fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding) that makes the faith of all of us a little bit stronger to the glory of the Lord.

Posted by blestou on July 24th, 2007 — Illustration, News, Church Life, Culture, Doctrine