Tag Archives: Biblical History

The Bible’s authenticity

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In his book Walking The Bible, (published 2001 by William Morrow) Bruce Feiler writes about taking a trip, by various modes, through the lands of the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible). These books describe Moses’ journey through , essentially, the Sinai, Jordan and Israel. Over 400 pages of Feiler going to some of the most challenging sites described in the Bible; walking, all terrain vehicles, jeeps, camel, donkey. It is definitely an interesting read, in which he also includes a lot of the contemporary political situation in the area. As much as I can remember Feiler doesn’t write about any of his personal religious beliefs. Furthermore he regularly contributes to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and also writes for the New York Times, Conde Nast and Gourmet. None of which makes one think of “Christianity Today”, in other words, if he is a Christian or Jewish, he doesn’t make it apparent in 400+ pages.

There is doubt, there are questions, reservations, disagreements, but through it all he interacts with Arabs, Bedouins, Christians all of various stripes and he seems to maintain a respect even admiration for vastly different people. He seems to maintain a good level of professional objectivity (which is becoming very rare in this day and age), and let’s the facts and guidance of various people take him where it seems most reasonable to go. So yes, overall, definitely a worthwhile read.

This leads me to one of his closing observations: “Put tautologically: The Bible lives because it never dies. As a rabbi friend of mine said, it’s like a fungus that can live underground for long periods then pop up and thrive whenever it appears.”

“Though my friend quickly regretted his remark, he actually made a significant point. Easily the most impressive thing I learned during my trip was that the Bible’s ability to be relevant to contemporary life was by no means guaranteed. If anything, over the last two hundred years it has undergone the most concentrated and ruthless academic scrutiny that any written book has ever faced. This scientific interrogation, from every conceivable corner – archaeology, history, physics, metaphysics, linguistics, anthropology – was designed, in many cases to undermine the Bible, to destroy its credibility. But in every case (at least the ones involving historical events, after the primeval stories of Creation), the Bible not only withstood the inquisition but came out stronger, with its integrity intact, and its nuances more on display. The doesn’t mean that the stories are true, but it does mean that they’re true to their era. The bible lives today not because it’s untouchable but precisely because it has been touched – it has been challenged – and it remains undefeated.” ( Bruce Feiler Walking The Bible pp 408-9, 2001).

The Bible, Jesus, have been the most highly scrutinized book and person in history, by far. Does kind of make you wonder why this agenda to so relentlessly and aggressively try to undermine the Bible. If, as most sceptics like to point out, the Bible is a book of fables and myths, why is there this zealous need to take it down. And then ironically, not weaken it, but strengthen the Bible’s scholarly authenticity, in addition to the fact that it is the inspired word of God. So it does stand to reason the more God’s word is scrutinized, the more it would validated, whether that was the intent of the scrutinizer or not.

No missing link here

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Neanderthal Men Were Modern Men

by Brian Thomas, M.S. *

A set of fossilized human remains has been discovered in Iberia that shows partial Neanderthal characteristics, proving again that Neanderthals interbred with anatomically modern men.1 This adds to a growing list of evidence, consistent with biblical history, that demonstrates Neanderthal to have been fully human, rather than an evolutionary transition.2

Though evolution models once held that Neanderthal man was one of the “missing links” between an ape-like ancestor and modern man, the repeated discoveries of Neanderthal remains right next to those of modern humans—instead of in separate, lower, older strata—have forced him out of the pool of “pre-human” evolutionary ancestor candidates. In contrast to ever-evolving naturalistic interpretations, the biblical creation model has consistently maintained that Neanderthal man was just that—man.

Neanderthal did have distinct characteristics that are apparently now either extinct or diffused, but his family line was fully human for several hundred years after Noah’s Flood, when humans repopulated the earth about 4,300 years ago.

The mounting evidence for Neanderthal and modern man’s coexistence calls into question whether the Neanderthal and other human varieties even lived in separate times, as the evolutionary story still maintains. Both the Bible and science indicate that this was not the case. Biblical history has no place for such a separate, distant time of evolutionary development, but it does allow for variations within the human kind in its 6,000-year history.

Anthropologist Marvin L. Lubenow has shown that Neanderthal, other than having a larger cranial capacity, was anatomically the same as Homo erectus.3 Their fossils do not fit into the depiction of a linear evolutionary ape-to-man transition that is iconic today, but were simply comingling variations of humankind. Furthermore, a fossil elbow (KP 271) and the Laetoli footprints are indistinguishable from modern man, and both have been dated by evolutionary scientists at 4 million years or older—predating the earliest Neanderthals!4 Thus, within the published evolutionary dates, “anatomically modern Homo sapiens, Neandertal, archaic Homo sapiens, and Homo erectus [as well as Lucy-like Australopithecinces] all lived as contemporaries.”3

As seen in the fossil remains from Iberia, the more that is discovered about Neanderthal, the more evolutionary models morph to accommodate the data. In contrast to this ambiguity, both the Bible and science confirm that man and apes—though many small differences can be discerned within each kind—nevertheless remain totally separate, untransitioned created kinds.

References

  1. Walker, M. et. al. 2008. Late Neandertals in Southeastern Iberia: Sima de las Palomas del Cabezo Gordo, Murcia, Spain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online before print December 12, 2008.
  2. Duarte, C. et al. 1999. The early Upper Paleolithic human skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and modern human emergence in Iberia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 96 (13): 7604-7609.
  3. Lubenow, M. 1992. Bones of Contention. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 178.
  4. Tuttle, R. 1990. The Pitted Pattern of Laetoli Feet. Natural History. March Issue, 60-65. Quoted in Lubenow, Bones of Contention, 170.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer.

Article posted on December 18, 2008.

Evidence for Creation