Faith Building Evidence

February 23
In 1850, Ferdinand Hitzig (Das Buch Daniel) called Belshazzar “a figment of the writer’s imagination.” The historians all agreed — the last king was Nabonidus, not Belshazzar. He was captured, not killed. Daniel was obviously all wrong, written centuries later and totally inaccurate.
The Cylinder of Nabonidus:
Daniel 5 tells the story of King Belsharrar’s banquet when he ordered “the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem,” (vs.2) so he and his nobles could drink out of them. Suddenly he saw a human hand, writing on the wall, but his ‘enchanters, astrologers and diviners’ (vs.7) couldn’t decipher the message. Daniel was summoned and gave Belsharrar the news that his life and his kingdom would be ended that night.
In 1854 J.E.Taylor found four clay cuneiform cylinders written by the Babylonian king, Nabonidus, from the 6th century BCE. “Toward the end of the inscription Nabonidus offers a prayer for long life for himself and his son Belsharrar!” It is believed that Nabonidus was away from Babylon a great deal during his reign, so made his son a co-regent. Belsharrar died the night the Persians captured Babylon and Cyrus spared Nabonidus’ life, since his empire was already defeated.
The Cylinder of Nabonidus provided the first extrabiblical confirmation of the existence of Belsharrar and provided more historical credibility for the Book of Daniel. There are still debates about Daniel’s reference to Nebuchadnezzar being Belsharrar ‘s father instead Nabonidus’. This may possibly be explained by the common practice of referring to your successor as ‘son’. Nevertheless, the skeptics accusations that “Daniel was obviously all wrong” have themselves been proven wrong. As a result, the assertion that it was “written centuries later and totally inaccurate” is no longer credible.




November 16
… there is significant archeological evidence that has a direct bearing on the question of whether the body of Jesus of Nazareth, crucified by order of Pontius Pilate, was placed in a tomb, as the New Testament Gospels say it was …the evidence suggests that Jesus was indeed buried, in keeping with Jewish customs, Roman tolerance of Jewish customs, and the views expressed by all Christian and non-Christian literature from late antiquity. There is in fact not one shred of evidence from antiquity that suggests Jesus was not buried, which makes it all the more curious how these ideas and rumors persist. Dr. Craig Evans
The Empty Tomb:
What is the Historical Evidence?
1. The empty tomb has specific multiple attestation in New Testament, including the four gospels, Acts 2:29; and Acts 13:29,30.
2. Mark, especially, is an early source and not subject to legendary influence.
3. The I Corinthians 15:3 – 7 creed, from the same decade as the crucifixion, referred to His burial.
4. We know whose tomb it was - Joseph of Arimathea – a member of the Sanhedrin (Matt.27:57 – 61). When Peter claimed Jesus’ resurrection in Jerusalem 50 days later, the tomb could have been checked to produce the body. (Acts 2:22 – 24)
5. Jewish Scripture and custom (Deut,21:22 – 23) required burial of the body, even the body of a criminal.
6. The Romans tolerated Jewish customs in peacetime, but not during the revolt of 66 – 70 CE.
7. Fifty years ago, the heel bone of Yehohanan, from the first century CE, was found in an ossuary box with a Roman spike in it. This proved that crucified people were buried according to Jewish customs. (See Cover)
8. The criterion of embarrassment adds historical evidence in that the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the resurrection were women. Neither in 1st century Palestine nor in contemporary Roman or Greek society were women legally allowed to be witnesses in court. Why include them as the first witnesses, unless they were the first?
9. The tomb was secured by a guard – whether Roman or Jewish is debated. Why would a band of disciples too afraid to stay with Jesus during the arrest, trials or execution suddenly decide to attack armed guards to capture Jesus body?
10. The soldiers’ story, that the disciples stole the body while they slept, (Matt.28:11 – 15) is suspect at best, but what it does confirm is that Jesus was dead, buried and now the body was missing. Otherwise there would be no reason to make up an alternate explanation.
11. No body was produced - even 50 days later a body would have seriously damaged the claim of resurrection, but none was produced in the very city where the burial took place.