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Archaeology and the Bible

There is no real technical basis for not believing the
Documents, Tablets, and the Bible as it was written. Nowhere does the Biblical text
mention anything that implies evolution, nor is there
Historicity of Genesis any Biblical incident that's been absolutely proven
wrong. The only reason to doubt the clear text of the
Bible is an attempt to compromise with secularism,
Many Pastors, writers, and even seminary professors and its rejection of God. But most evolutionary scien-
rely on the "JEDP Document Hypothesis" to explain tists object just as much to theistic evolution as they
how the book of Genesis was originally written. This do to miraculous creation. And most theologians don't
concept says that for many centuries the stories were really understand the philosophical principles of evo-
passed down orally, usually with embellishments or lution -- they don't realize that you cannot attribute a
deletions, and were not committed to writing until secular theory to God. This compromise does not
much later than the events they describe. Naturally, really work, and it is a dangerous path to follow.
this idea does not inspire confidence in the literal ac-
curacy of the account. It is favored by theologians of a The Documentary Hypothesis
liberal bent.
Evolutionary theories influenced Hegel's student,
In contrast, the "Tablet Theory" suggests that portions theologian K.H Graf (1815-1868), and his student
of Genesis were originally written on clay tablets by Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918). From an idea first
men who personally experienced the events described. proposed by Jean Astruc (1684-1766) they developed
The tablets were later compiled by Moses. Since the the "JEDP Documentary Hypothesis" of higher criti-
original writers were said to be eye-witnesses, their cism, which said that the early sections of the Old Tes-
accounts should be historically accurate.
tament could not have been written during the times
they described. They believed this because they mis-
This article briefly describes the development and im- takenly thought writing had not evolved until about
plications of these two theories. 1000 BC. Therefore they assumed wrongly (again) that
sagas, epics, poetry, etc. which later were used to
Why Religious Liberalism? compose the Bible were passed down orally for mil-
lennia. The result was that the early books of the Bible
Why did so many theologians become critical of were written by various unknown scribes during the
Biblical truth? Do they have any scientific basis for Divided Kingdom era beginning about 800 BC, and
their doubts? Not really. Doubting criticism started on continued until after the Babylonian Exile.
a large scale with G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831), a Ger-
man philosopher who taught that religion, like the rest These books are said to have been compiled or re-
of civilization, developed gradually. He said that primi- dacted from stories, or documents, which were distin-
tive "cave-men" began a polytheistic worship of the guished by the name used for God. The J-Document
things around them. Later, he said, higher concepts used the name Jehovah, the E-Document used Elohim,
such as a supreme God evolved in people's minds. while the D and P documents were named for Deu-
teronomy and Priestly. This teaching led many people
A quasi-scientific basis for retreat from Biblical to lose confidence in the Bible's authenticity.
authority took root when, in 1830, Charles Lyell pub-
lished Principles of Geology, which first described the Archaeological Discoveries
so-called "Geologic Column." Here the age of a rock
stratum was supposedly given by the types of fossils Did Hegel, Graf, Wellhausen, etc. have any good basis
which it contains. This idea set the stage for Charles for their JEDP theory? No, there has never been any
Darwin's publication, in 1859, of his famous Origin of trace of the "documents" they refer to (Jehovist, Elo-
Species. His organic evolution theory captured the hist, Deuteronomic, and Priestly), and even in their
imagination of most scientists. day there had been some trace of the "documents" they

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