A day at the museum

Anyone visiting London will be pleased to know that the British Museum is back to normal opening times and viewing.

After a recent tour with Moorlands College students I returned impressed as ever with what a fabulous, free-to-visit resource this museum provides for anyone interested in the historical credibility of the Bible.

The various exhibits related to the history of the Bible are well described in the Day One guide by Brian Edwards and Clive Anderson, Through the British Museum with the Bible. Of particular note is that the curators have placed together a number of tablets which make reference to people or events we know from the Bible. They are in a display case in Room 55. Seeing them together in one place makes their value particularly striking.

A case of names

The first from the left in the case is the Babylonian Chronicle. It is a record, from the Babylonian historians of the time, of the capture of Jerusalem in 597 BC and their appointment of a replacement king (Zedekiah).

The next tablet records a donation made by an official in the court of the Babylonian king called Nebo-Sarsekim. The same person is referred to by the prophet Jeremiah at the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC (Jer. 39:3).

A further tablet and a clay cylinder reveal the identity of a Babylonian king mentioned in the Bible but forgotten to history. The Book of Daniel describes Belshazzar as the last king of Babylon, though the historical records had given this position to Nabonidus. Sceptical scholars in the Enlightenment age had dismissed the Bible as erroneous on this point. But these more recently discovered inscriptions confirmed the accuracy of Scripture. They revealed that Belshazzar was Nabonidus’ eldest son and, as such, co-regent during his absence. This reference also explained the king’s otherwise mysterious elevation of Daniel to ‘third highest ruler’ in the land (Dan.5:29). We now know that, with Belshazzar himself only second in command, this was the highest position he could award to Daniel.

Ever-increasing evidence

Of course, many other people in the Bible are mentioned in artefacts housed at the British Museum, including King Jehu, King Hezekiah, Shebna the royal steward, Pharaoh Tirhaka, and Cyrus of Persia.

These names are among a growing list of characters we read about in the Bible whose existence have been confirmed by archaeology. In the 2014 issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review there was a headline article titled ‘Archaeology Confirms 50 Real People in the Bible’ by Lawrence Mykytiuk of Purdue University. Three years later the magazine published a follow-up article, ‘Archaeology Confirms Three More Bible People’. Since then a clay impression has been found bearing the name Isaiah which many think could have belonged to Isaiah the prophet. The number keeps growing.

Viewing these names for yourself in the British Museum, or even taking a friend along to see them, is a great antidote to the dismissive attitude many take to the historical value of the Bible.