Archaeology and the Bible: Competing or Corroborating Witness?

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Dr. Tom Petter

Is the Bible history or theology or a bit of both? If it is history, does the Bible have different ways of recording 'facts' from ours? These questions about the Bible have been debated for centuries with wildly differing conclusions. What does the material record (archaeological data) and the available documentary sources tell us about the world of the Bible? While we can't 'prove' the Bible is historically accurate, there is enough circumstantial evidence that points to the reliability of the historical record of Scripture. (Recommended further reading: On the Reliability of the Old Testament by Kenneth Kitchen)

About the lecturer: Dr. Petter received his PhD in Biblical Hebrew Language and Literature and Near Eastern Archaeology from the department of Middle and Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto. As a doctoral student, he was a member of the Tall Madaba Archaeological Project in Jordan. He regularly teaches a course on the history and archaeology of the Ancient Near East at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

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