Literacy in Bible Times Confirmed

Hand me a pottery shard, I have to leave a note for my wife...much obliged.

If someone gets a notion to slap leather with a Christian about evidence for the Bible, he'd better not be grabbing archaeology to use as his shootin' iron. Archaeology has been supportive of the Bible. (Why not? It's God's Word, after all.) Some tinhorns will use arguments from silence using archaeology (something mentioned 4,000 years ago hasn't been found, so the Bible is false), but that shows desperation as well as ignorance of logic.

Using "ancient humans were not evolved enough to be intelligent enough to write" presuppositions, people have claimed the Bible was not written by the authors we associate with the texts. This has been steadily shown to be false, and recent archaeological evidence affirms the Bible. Again.

Dead Sea image credit: Freeimages / phunphoto

It has been claimed that people in the Bible could not have written because they were not literate. How do they know that? They don't. It's an assumption based on presuppositions, and those ultimately come from evolutionary assumptions. That is, ancient humans were stupid and hadn't evolved enough yet, and we're the most intelekshul specimens of humanity, us today being them. Wrong.

Evidence has been mounting to refute their faulty assumptions, and there is some big news: pottery shards. Those things were examined, and they were used as written communication. Further, they show that people in the Old Testament times had widespread literacy, not just a few elite folks here and there.

Analysis of 16 texts written on pottery shards confirm that ordinary people were literate in Old Testament times.

The Bible is not often mentioned in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A paper by scholars including Israel Finkelstein (advocate of a late chronology) concludes that ordinary soldiers at a remote desert outpost called Arad were literate. By doing handwriting analysis of inscriptions on 16 pottery shards, they deduced that six different individuals, each of which knew how to write and spell correctly. Rachel Pells writes in The Independent:

To read what Rachel wrote, click on "Arad Texts Confirm Widespread Literacy in Judah". And, you may want to check out "Archaeologists buttress early dating of OT books".

Comments

Andy Stanley, Frank Turek, and Bad Theology

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Andy Stanley has been disappointing some people, and causing quite a few to be alarmed by his opposition to the authority of Scripture. (Note: Do not be confused. Charles Stanley is his father, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and heard on In Touch Ministries . I've found most of his teachings to be doctrinally sound, and he upholds the inerrancy and authority of the Bible.) Unfortunately, megachurch director Andy Stanley has been saying things that are destructive to the truth, including recommending the false teaching of theistic evolution. Gray wolf image credit: US National Park Service While shooting from the hip can be a good thing, someone claiming the title of pastor should reign himself in . Stanley was disrespectful of small churches, then apologized later . In another instance, " What did he just say?", Stanley may have used a very bad word in a sermon. When the segment was legally posted on YouTube

Disappointment with Young Earth Creation

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen First, a note for anyone who is curious. The usual format: introduction with some of my thoughts plus links for useful information, excerpts of featured articles, then links to keep reading. I put my name on it and call it an article when I have more to say. This one will be different. I will reference older articles, then add some thoughts that I hope will prove helpful. There is more following the excerpt and link. So, does anyone remember Ken Keathley? Medal image manufactured at Custom Medal Maker Several years ago, Ken Keathley renounced young earth creationism to accept an old earth view. Apparently, he was disappointed by people in the young earth community. No kidding? Taking Friendly Fire This is where I'm going to open up and get personal with both of my readers. Ken Keathley is not the only one who has been disappointed, and in addition, I've been deeply hurt by the young earth community. Things I have posted on social(ist) media have been &qu

Evaluating Truth Claims in Genesis

Some people try to dismiss Genesis as myth containing spiritual truth using elements from the pagan neighbors of the Hebrews. Others say it is misunderstood, as if the Creator of the universe was unable to communicate with us. With closer inspection, we see that Genesis is a historical narrative. Credit: RGBStock / Billy Frank Alexander The idea that the early chapters of Genesis are mythological should not be accepted by professing Christians, as there are serious problems that result. (One of these is that Jesus, Peter, Paul, and others referred to these chapters as literal history, so by denying this, one is calling them liars!) Also, there are repercussions with the gospel message. Read some classical mythology, then come back to Genesis and see the difference. Myths are vague and have a different flow, but the Bible is precise. Indeed, even the sequence of creation days is specific — a day itself is defined. Interestingly, many translations have in Genesis 1:5 less accurate by us

Biblical Creation and Evangelism

Search This Blog