Exploring the Bible

During His time on Earth Jesus preformed a number of miracles, sometimes called signs. These miracles were recorded in the Gospel accounts written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Intended to teach us about the power of God they were also intended to show us who Jesus really is. The miracles reveal God, Jesus, has the power to alter the rules of science, physics, nature and life and death. Jesus turned water into wine, calmed a raging storm, healed all types of sickness and even raised people from the dead. Each of these miracles show us who Jesus is, His power, and in many cases, a great deal more. Nearly all of us are familiar with most of these miracles. Between the four gospel accounts we are given thirty-seven miracles Jesus preformed during His earthly ministry. There are additional miracles in the New Testament which we will not look at here. These include the virgin birth of Jesus, His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into heaven. While these are certainly miraculo...

 In the 1950’s a NATO ariel survey was made in Turkey and included a section of Ararat in Eastern Turkey. When the film was analyzed, an anomaly was found which did not appear to be natural. An expedition was sent to the site and reported the large indentation in the earth had the shape of a large ship. Life Magazine did a story on the site in 1960 which brought a great deal of attention to the unusual formation.In 1977 amateur archaeologist Ron Wyatt visited the site near the city of Dogubeyazit and extensively explored the area. He found it to be very interesting as its measurements matched those of the Ark. In 1978 an earthquake in the region caused the soil to settle. As a result, a series of ribs were exposed around the perimeter of the site. Ron Wyatt visited the site again and concluded these were the ribs of a large ship.  In 1986 radar scans of the area revealed a pattern below the surface which they claimed was a large structure. This new evidence, along with Ron Wya...

 In this chapter we will take a brief look at the extra seven books included in the Catholic version of the Old Testament. It should be noted, the Protestant Bible did not exclude these books because they feel they are false or inaccurate. They were excluded because they were not considered to be Holy Scripture. These books offer a very unique and helpful insight into the time between the Testaments. These 400 years are otherwise silent. It is fascinating to see some of the details and events contained in these extra books of the Bible. Others in this grouping were written well before this information void took place. Baruch - written sometime during the 6th century B.C. - the author is thought to be Baruch, but this is highly debatable. The Book of Baruch encouraged the people to be pro-Babylonian. Not only did he consider resistance futile, but he felt it was God’s desire that the people be in exile. Baruch lived in the 6th century B.C. and was the scribe or secretary for the pr...

The Dead Sea Scrolls contained all but one of the Books from the Old Testament. In all there were some 225 copies of various biblical books found in the caves above and around Qumran. This however, was only a portion of the scrolls discovered in the caves.  The scrolls which were not Books found in the ancient Hebrew Bible fall into two categories. The first is Non-Biblical Compositions. The second classification is Documents and Letters.  Most of the Documents and Letters were found in cave 5/6 which came to be known as the Cave of the Letters. Here they found fifty-five documents. Fifteen were military letters stored in a leather waterskin. There were also thirty-five financial documents that were apparently the personal archive of a refugee named Babatha. The final five documents belonged to Eleazar, the son of Shmuel. These were contracts found in a leather purse and one hidden inside a reed. The Non-Biblical Compositions have been broken down into at least ten different ...

Roughly a year before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by a shepherd boy, another major discovery took place in Egypt. Near the city of Nag Hammadi two brothers discovered a collection of ancient writings. The actual circumstances of the discovery remain unclear.  The brothers who made the discovery were somewhat vague in the details of how and exactly where the discovery took place. It seems clear the writings were found in a grave. It is considered highly probable the brothers were looting an ancient grave when they made the discovery and thus, they were not completely forthcoming with details. Regardless of where or how it was discovered, what they found was truly extraordinary. In all, the discovery consisted of thirteen leather bound papyrus codices. These codices contained fifty-two separate entries, mostly Gnostic treatises. Perhaps the best known of these is the Gospel of Thomas. The discovery of these texts helped show the vast differences between the early Christians ...

 #4 Oldest Proto-Alphabetic Inscription in Israel Contains the Name of YHWH. A lead tablet, first discovered in 2019, only recently had its hidden texts revealed. Found during the wet sifting led by Dr. Scott Stripling, the lead tablet contained a curse written in Hebrew text. The wet sifting project was going through the dump piles from Adam Zertal's excavations on Mount Ebal. While researchers knew the tablet contained writing, they were unable to read the inscription until just last year. Using advanced tomographic scans, researchers were able to reveal the hidden texts. The tablet has been dated to somewhere between 1,200 and 1,150 B.C. While it cannot be confirmed, many believe the tablet may be connected with the renewal of the covenant on Mount Ebal found in Joshua. "At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, ...

  #8 - Shroud of Turin A new analysis of the Shroud of Turin reports a potential startling revelation. The Shroud, which many believe was the burial cloth used to wrap the body of Jesus after he was removed from the cross, has always been a subject of controversy and debate. Many believe the artifact to be genuine, while others insist it is a fake from the Middle Ages.  The debate seemed to be settled, at least to many, in 1988 when a portion of the shroud was subjected to carbon 14 dating. These tests showed the fabric to be from the Middle Ages and thus had to be a fake. Almost instantly, however, critics began to point out apparent flaws in this theory. The portion of the shroud tested, they pointed out, was a patch, not the original fabric. Also there have always been problems in accurately dating textiles with carbon 14. This is due to the porous nature of fabric. Many critics of the carbon 14 dating pointed to the fact the Chapel where the Shroud was kept experienced an ...