Archbishop Ussher’s historical sources, a skeptical archaeologist starts out to disprove the bible and ends up becoming a believer, and a couple book recommendations
James Ussher, archbishop for the Anglican Church in Ireland in the 1600s, was one of the world’s greatest scholars, well acquainted with Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, and all the ancient historians. He wrote the “Annals of the World”, a 1000 page history of the world. He considered the bible the one history source that was with totally reliable, but he included all the other histories had been written and he compiled a timeline interwoven with all that was going on throughout the known world simultaneously with the biblical record.
Vast resources
Ussher had some sources that have since been lost, so he had an advantage over us moderns. Here is a partial list of the ancient historians that he drew from in addition to the early church fathers and the bible:
Herodotus, Thucidides, Arrian, Eusebius, Julius Africanus, Censorinus, Strabo, Ovid, Diodorus, Agathias, Josephus, Ptolemy, Manetho, Tremelius, Xenophon, Photius, Dionysius, Appian, Scaliger, Athenaeus, Diogenes, Theophrastus, Berosus, Clement, Pliny, Justin, Cicero, Xenophon, Sulpicius Severus, Plutarch, Polyaenus, Porphyry, Seneca, Lucan, Ctesias, Valerius, Ammiannus, Aelian, Curtius.
The first three were the ones I personally studied at Hamilton College, in a required course on Ancient Civilization, taught by a professor who was fluent in the original languages. He brought history to life for me.
skeptics that turned around
It takes a lot of solid evidence to get a skeptic to change his mind. That’s why the following examples are so impressive, especially since they were intellectual giants who knew their field of expertise, archaeology and ancient documents, and how to study the evidence.
recommended: “St Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen” by William M. Ramsay
Sir William M. Ramsay
Sir William Ramsay graduated from Oxford University with a doctorate in philosophy, for his work with ‘orthotoluic acid’. He discovered Krypton and Neon and received distinguished awards from numerous societies (including Pope Leo XII, and the Royal Geographical Society). He taught at Cambridge and Oxford. Ramsay was raised as a Biblical non-believer, by his atheist parents.
Sir Ramsay, was determined to undermine the historical accuracy of the Bible (which he preferred to call a “Book of fables”). He studied archaeology with the aim of disproving the Biblical account. Once ready with the necessary scientific tools and learning, he travelled to Palestine and focused on the book of Acts, which he fully expected to refute as nothing more than myth.
After 25 years of work and research, traveling Asia and the Middle East, Ramsay was awestruck by the historical accuracy and evidence of the New Testament. In his quest to refute the Bible, Ramsay discovered many facts which confirmed its precision. He was forced to concede that Biblical events and settings were exact even in the smallest detail. Far from attacking the Biblical account, Ramsay produced a book, “St. Paul, the Traveler and Roman Citizen”, which supported Biblical events.
Eventually, William Ramsay shocked the intellectual world by writing that he had converted to Christianity. Ironically, this man who set out to refute the Bible, found himself accepting the Bible as God's Word because of his academic explorations and factual discoveries.
Others - he wasn’t the only one…from news24.com
Professor William F. Albright
He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and was best known for his role in the authentication of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. He is considered the leading authority in theorist and practitioner of Biblical archaeology. Albright was awarded the "Worthy One of Jerusalem”- the first time it was awarded to a non-Jew. He insisted that the Biblical book of Genesis was historical and the details should be considered accurate.
Sir Frederic Kenyon
He was President of the British Academy and also director of the British museum. His expertise in archaeology showed us how science can corroborate many of the historical events of the Bible. A British palaeographer, Biblical and classical scholar, he made a life-long study of the Bible, especially the New Testament as an historical text. His book Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, showed how Egyptian papyri and other evidence from archaeology can corroborate the historical events in the Gospel. Sir Frederic Kenyon is considered second to none, as an authority on ancient manuscripts by secularists, Muslims, and Christians. As one of the greatest authorities on the subject, he said in his book “Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts”:
“The number of manuscripts of the New Testament, or early translations from it in the oldest writers of the Church, is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some one or other of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book in the world”.
He was convinced of the historical reality of the events described in the New Testament - and is often quoted by those who share this most commonly with these words: “the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.”
Professor Nelson Glueck
He was another president of the British Academy and also director of the British Museum. His expertise in archaeology showed us how science can corroborate many of the historical events of the Bible. Specifically, he pursued the correlation between history and Biblical facts.
Gluck’s contention is that very little was lost in the transmission of text from more than 24,000 ancient manuscripts of the New Testament. He states,
“There is more evidence for the reliability of the text of the New Testament than there is for any ten pieces of classical literature put together. It is in better textual shape than the 37 plays of William Shakespeare which were written a mere 300 years ago, after the invention of the printing press!”
“Besides the massive numbers of early New Testament documents, the Old Testament can also be substantiated by the Jewish community who continue to corroborate the proof for its accuracy, as well as documents such as the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls which give added weight to the claim that it has never been changed. Even the Qur'an, possibly written during the 7th-8th centuries recognized the authority of our scriptures (see suras 2:136; 3:2-3; 4:136; 5:47-52, 68; 10:95; 21:7; and 29:46).”
“It has been proved that, outside of the very few scribal errors, the historical events and personages are adequately correct, as they do not confuse names, dates and events, and in fact, surprisingly, continue to coincide with current archaeological findings. This is indeed significant, since with each successive year, ongoing documental and archaeological discoveries fail to divulge any historical contradictions. Instead they continue to corroborate what the Bible has been saying for 2,000-3,000 years (examples such as the Ebla tablets, or the newly discovered tomb of the priest Caiaphus give continuing credibility to the scriptures historical trustworthiness).”
Recommended: “Archaeological Evidence for the Bible”
This little 5X7, 143 page book by Charlie H. Campbell is a gem. I ordered it from AlwaysBeReady.com. It has a good table of contents and index so you can zero in on the parts you’re most interested in. There are over 100 color photos, a bible-history timeline, and 300+ footnotes for further study. It’s a perfect for your skeptical friends and relatives who may have doubts about the inspiration of the bible.
next week - A thorough study of baptism What it is and what it is not, Why Jesus submitted to it and tied it to Salvation, Why Peter commanded it