The Plain Truth is so Happy That You Have Been Enjoying Bob’s Broadcasts.
2000 years ago, a newscaster that we know of as Jesus Christ warned us about false Christianity. The warning was not against the devil but against false Christianity…about people who come in His name and deceive many.
Most people today do not believe in many of the Old Testament Bible stories. They think they’re allegories or they’re not really things that really happened, but one of the biggest secrets probably hidden from the average American and the average person in the world today is what archaeologists themselves believe about the Bible and the accuracy of the Bible, and I think many people would be surprised if they only knew that the Bible is a lot more accurate than people think it is when it comes to history. In 1975, the world was kind of shaken.
Now, it’s been lost back to the media keeping this quiet, but the world was shaken by the discovery of the Ebla tablets, some 15,000 tablets or so, that was from the town of Ebla in what would be the area of Mesopotamia today around Iran, Iraq, where Abraham was from, and the thing that really struck the archaeologists of the day when they found these discoveries was that there were words that were, the Ebla tablets are at least 4,000 years old or from around 2000 BC. They are contemporaries around about the time of Abraham, maybe a little after Abraham, but what did they find in these texts that kind of surprised the scholars and the biblical theologians? Well, one of the things they found was some of the names. For example, most theologians up until 1975 believed that the Bible, especially the Torah, was written by several people, not Moses, over a period of 3, 4, 500 years, and that, for example, the Bible was, the book of Genesis, for example, was written by one author and then interpreted by another author, and it’s called the J document, the P document.
So there was an original story, this is the belief, there was an original story of Genesis, and then the people who believed in the name Yahweh as being the true name of God came around 500 BC, long after King David, for example. They’re trying to say King David did not know anything about the Yahweh God, and so they said it was re-edited again by the Yahwist in about 400 or 500 BC, and they rewrote some of the Bible and they added the word Yahweh, which is translated the Lord in the King James Bible, and then there was the priestly ones that added some rules and regulations that really weren’t in the originals. This was the theory.
The theory was, by theologians, there were no words such as Yah in the time of Abraham. He didn’t even understand the word Yah, or El, El is the word for God, or like the name Ishmael or Abraham, these names they’ve said were really post-Babylonian captivity. That was the general belief.
Then these ebla tablets are discovered in 1975, and what happened with the ebla tablets was they found that these 4,000-year-old documents, they were fragments of clay writing, cuneiform writing on clay tablets, and they found words they thought were quite recent in our history, and they were not available at the time of, let’s say, Moses or Abraham or Isaac or Jacob. Yet in these ebla tablets they find words such as El for God, Yah for God, David as a proper name, like King David. They found the name Ishmael, by the way, which probably was the Ishmael of the Bible, and they did find the name Abraham, and both Abraham and Abram.
And it kind of put a shockwave on the theological world and the architectural world because they, up until 1975, were pretty positive that most of the stories of Genesis, for sure, were not real. The towns were not real, the people were not real, the events were not real, and then they find these clay tablets naming certain things. Well, then you had scholars come out and say, well, maybe they did have the word El, and maybe they did have the word Yah, but they certainly did not pertain to the God of Israel.
They didn’t know anything about Abraham or Isaac or any of the stories of the Old Testament. There certainly wasn’t a Sodom and Gomorrah, for example. Oops, guess what? In the ebla tablets in 2000 BC, there were two towns talked about.
The two towns that they were trading with at the time was named Sodom and Gomorrah, and they also named the other four, three towns in the plain that is mentioned in Genesis in the time of Abraham. So here we have a time, about 2300 BC, that we find these towns, while they’re still in existence, they had not yet been destroyed, and there is the reference to these five cities on the plain, just like what you see in Genesis 14-2. And these were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zebelin, and Zohar.
And we are told in the same verse that an earlier name for Zohar was Bala. And guess what? In the ebla tablets, it says that Zohar was renamed Bala. So scientists had to either rethink what they were thinking about the Old Testament, or just kind of bury it in the news.
And that’s what happened to the ebla tablets, where most people today have never even heard of the ebla tablets. Most people who think that, you know, probably the Abraham story is not real, probably the Isaac story is not real. There was probably no such place as Sodom and Gomorrah.
The place is a place of destruction, and so vivid imaginations of the Hebrews living there a thousand, two thousand years before Christ made up stories about these places that never existed. And then we find, by gosh, they did exist. And so, like always, history either is forgotten about or people have to admit some things are true.
And here’s another thing. It is believed by scholars up until about the mid-1960s that Israel never existed at all. There was no King David, there was no House of David, there were no kings of Israel or Judah or Israel to the north, and that the Egyptians knew nothing about Israel.
Then they come across something that really surprises them. In 1990, a man named Frank Yuko, an Egyptologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, found some clues and some ancient writings in Egypt, and they found a pharaoh named Menethpoth in 1207 BC writing this on a tablet saying, or read, I believe it’s paper read, Israel is laid waste. Wait a minute.
We just were told for hundreds of years that Israel never existed. There was no Israel. And now all of a sudden we find this document that is 3,200 years old, an Egyptian document by an Egyptian pharaoh saying how Israel is laid waste.
The Bible is history. We’re going to see that in this show. Well, until 1993, there was no proof of the existence of King David.
As a matter of fact, even in my early times of reading about Bible events and stuff in 1974, 75, and 76, I did not know this little known fact that this discovery was made, and I was still reading textbooks and claiming there was no proof that there was ever a King David or a King Solomon, and that it was a Bible story made up during the captivity of a former glorified kingdom that never really existed. And that was the official story. But I did not know, and I think maybe archaeologists and theologians kind of wanted to make this clear, an ancient mound called Tel Dan in north of Israel in 1993 was uncovered, and in the words was House of David translated, and King of Israel, which proved that David was not a fable.
He really was the King of Israel, and there was no Israel. And this was found in 1993. Actually, it was found originally in 1973 and interpreted again in 1993.
And R.D. Wilson wrote a scientific investigation of the Old Testament, and he pointed out that the names of 29 kings from 10 nations, which were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and more, were mentioned not only in the Bible but also found in monuments in other countries saying the same exact thing in the same chronological order that the Bible named them. Maybe one of the more fanciful things that theologians believe that they absolutely do not tell the public is that I remember back in 1975 and 1976 reading many archaeology books and the statement being made, there is no evidence outside of the Bible that Jesus Christ really existed. Do you know back in the 1960s there actually was a book that claimed that Jesus was a code name for a mind-altering mushroom, and that when people consumed that mushroom they had heavenly experiences, a big high, for example, and they call that mushroom the Jesus mushroom, and Jesus never existed.
And I remember reading many theological books back in 1974 and 75 when I was trying to disprove that Christianity was real, and I was still clinging to my notion that God was not real and the Bible was not real, and I remember reading things to my satisfaction that there was no outside the Bible proof that Christ existed, and yet that was a downright lie, and anyone who was an historian who really researched the subject matter knew they were lying when they said there were no such extraordinary resources about Jesus Christ. There was a Roman historian named Tacticus, and he wrote about 115 AD, so we’re talking about 1900 years ago this guy was writing. His writings are well known and well studied, so people who were honest had to admit that he wrote this, quote, they, and this means Christians, got their name from Christ who was executed by a sentence by Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius that checked the pernicious superstition for a short time, but broke out afresh not only in Judea, but also Rome itself, where all the horrible and shameful things in the world were collected to be found at home, unquote.
So he is not a very pro-Christian type guy. He is saying that Christianity and that religion is one of superstition, one of terrible bloodshed, which it wasn’t, and evil in its origins, but he gave within 60 years of Christ’s death, he was talking about Christ and Christians, and this is a Roman historian who absolutely probably never read one passage of the Old Testament, the scripture of the day. Mention of Jesus can also be found in rabbinical sources, by the way, in the Tanatic period around 70 to 200 AD.
So 70 AD is when the temple was destroyed, which Jesus semi-predicted, and so this is what the Sanhedrin in 43a says about Jesus Christ. Jesus was hanged on Passover Eve. Hmm, sounds like the Bible.
40 days previously, the herald had cried out, he is being led out for a stoning because he was practicing sorcery, and he had led Israel astray and enticed them into apostasy. Whoever has anything to say in his defense, let him come and declare it. As nothing was brought forward in his defense, he was hanged on Passover Eve.
Interesting words. This was probably written around 100, let’s say 100 AD, 70 years about after Christ died. The Apostle John might still be alive when this was written.
Obviously, the second generation Christians were still alive, many of whom had actually witnessed the death of Christ and could read this for themselves from a Jewish rabbi who was writing about Christ. So the idea that Christ wasn’t known to outside this little band of Christianity is a total lie, and I was kind of shocked when I first read it. But there’s something else about this thing that was said by this guy that I think is kind of interesting.
He did not use the word crucify. Do you notice that? He said Jesus was hanged on Passover Eve. What does that imply? Well, we know from the Bible, and we know from Roman historians, like Josephus, for example, who was a Jew who also, by the way, mentioned the existence of Jesus and Christians in general, and was not pro-Christian in any sort of way.
But we know from Josephus that crucifixion was the way Romans killed people. Now we come to the position, how was Jesus crucified? The general belief in what you see on people hanging around people’s neck is a cross, and that the Romans crucified Christ by nailing his hands and his feet to a cross bar type. Some people believe it’s an ax, some people believe it’s the Christian cross, or whatever.
However, you know, the Greek word that’s interpreted cross in the Bible is tree or stake. As a matter of fact, in some interpretations of the New Testament, we see where Jesus was hanged by a tree, or hung from a tree, or crucified from a tree. And there is a very good argument that could be made, this is a side note, but I think you should be aware of everything before you make decisions, that Christ was not hung and crucified on a Christian cross, which actually dates back to pagan Egypt, the cross, called an ankh, by the way, but that he was crucified with his hands over his head, nailed to a one stake.
Think of a railroad tie, you know, one big long thick railroad tie, or telephone pole, and it’s planted in the ground, it stayed there for executions, and you would put a person up there, you would nail his hands, and then you would nail his feet, and under his feet you had a little platform that he could hold himself up until he died, and then as he got worn out, he would let himself down more and more and that caused the heart not to get blood, a heart attack would kill the person. Did you know, contrary to what the scriptures say, that the average crucifixion took days before the person died? Sometimes up to two days. That is why you read in the scriptures about Christ’s crucifixion that the soldiers started a practice, at least in Jerusalem, where they started breaking the legs of the prisoners so they could not hold themselves up in agony for that long.
It was really kind of an act of mercy, even though it must have been very painful to have somebody come and smash your kneecaps and break the femur bone in your leg where you could no longer stand. The pain must have been incredible, but because Old Testament scripture says that not a bone would be broken on the Messiah, and that is why the Passover lamb had to be cooked whole, not a bone could be broken of the Passover lamb, which symbolizes Christ, that’s why we follow Passover and not Easter, but that the scripture plainly declared that Christ was not to have a broken bone. So when the soldiers, after Christ is on the cross for a few hours, they decided, because evening time was coming, they were going to go break the legs of the people that were hanging up, those two prisoners, on either side of Christ, supposedly.
I don’t know if that’s the case, but it probably is. And then they went to Christ and they found out that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs, which is, by the way, fulfillment of prophecy. And some of these archaeological finds that I think most people have been led not to believe even occurred is, for example, you know, the Catholic Church teaches, wrongfully so, and you can prove in the Bible, that Mary remained a virgin her entire life, that she never had any other children, she’s the Blessed Virgin Mary, and always remained a perpetual virgin, and that only Jesus was her only child, which the Bible is clear, by the way, that Jesus had other brothers and sisters, and his brothers are actually named, and one of the apostles after the death of Christ, named James, and wrote a book of the Bible, was Jesus’s half-brother.
I have to say half, because James’s father was not God the Father, or the Godhead, but that Jesus had brothers and sisters, and that is something the Catholic Church absolutely says is not the case. But there’s some archaeological proof, again, that Jesus not only had brothers and sisters, but Mary did not remain a virgin her whole life. The idea of it is actually preposterous.
But then, in recent discoveries, they find some graveyard, and when people died back then, they would put them in a cave, like you read about Jesus, and they would leave you there, they would anoint your body with spices and oils, and they would leave you in that cave, wrapped in a shroud, not one shroud, but like ribbons, until you decayed over a matter of time, and probably a year or so later, you became nothing but bones. And then they would go into that cave, because the family cemetery was a cave, and they would then see all of the bones, all the flesh is gone, all the stink is gone, there is nothing there but bones. And they would have, at the time, a stone box that they call an ossuary, and it’s probably about a foot and a half long, and maybe a foot wide, and maybe a foot high.
They had to be long enough to harbor the longest bone, which is the bone in your leg, to fit in the box without breaking it. And so they would take that stone box that was hewn out with a cover, and they would take the bones, and they would carefully place them into that box, and then they would bury that box back in the tomb, along with all the other relatives. And when the next person died, they would lay him out on the same slab for another year or so, until he became bones, and they would put him in a box, and put that box away, and that was the family cemetery.
That’s how it worked. It’s kind of nice in a way, when you think about it, but that’s how it was done. That is why it was important, when you saw that Jesus was the very first person to lay on that slab.
It was a rich man’s tomb that had never been used. It was probably Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb for himself. He was still alive.
He carved it out, out of that rock, for his people did, for himself, and when Jesus died, he let Jesus use that tomb before him, and that is the tomb where Jesus laid down. Later on, was that tomb used by Joseph of Arimathea himself and his family? We do not know, but that is why you see that story, that he’s laid out in a rich man’s tomb. They lay him out with spices, with cloths around them, until they become bones, and they put their bones in a box.
But here’s a strange thing. The boxes, or the ossuaries, of two important people were found in the last 50 years. The first one was a person that nobody ever believed existed.
I don’t know why, but they never believed that he existed, and that’s Caiaphas, the high priest. Caiaphas was considered a figment of the Christian imagination, and Jewish scholars, and biblical scholars, and historians, and archaeologists could not find what they thought was any reference to Caiaphas as a high priest in the time of Jesus or any time. Unfortunately, archaeology often disproves what historians and theologians want to teach you.
Case in point, two ossuaries were found in the last few years that kind of really threw the world of theology in a tailspin. Caiaphas, who they said never existed, turns out that they find Caiaphas’ ossuary, and it says, Caiaphas, high priest, and they find his ossuary, and it got his name on it, and it calls him the high priest of the Jewish people, and it was about the time of Jesus’ crucifixion and death. And that was the first one.
And then there’s another one, which is even more troublesome for many people who do not want to believe in either Jesus had brothers and sisters by Mary, who was not a perpetual virgin, or that Jesus even existed. And that is, another ossuary was found, and it’s now part of historical dispute and fighting and infighting, because the truth of the matter be told, most people simply do not want to believe what’s in the Bible. They find an ossuary or a bone box with the name of James on it, but not just James, not just, you know, James is a ordinary name.
Now, we know that James the Just, as he is called, was an early leader of the Jerusalem church, and he was Jesus’ half-brother. His mother was Mary, and he died approximately 69 AD, right before the destruction of the temple. He is described in the Gospels of both Matthew and Mark as the brother of Jesus, who is called the Christ.
So they unearth on the Temple Mount of all places, in the bottom area of the Temple Mount, in the Kidron Valley region, an ossuary or a bone box by a person named James. It’s a limestone box that held bones. And when you have one of these really ornately carved ivory limestone boxes, I don’t mean ivory, I mean limestone boxes, it usually means it’s a very important person was in there, his bones were very in there.
But this is what this box, inscribed on this box, says, and it dates from the time of the first century AD. It says this simple inscription, and you think about this, James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. Now Jesus was not Jesus, so that’s a Greek rendition of the word Joshua or Yahshua in Hebrew.
You know, you have these people who think you got to use the holy name, and you got to use the real name, you know, Jesus is a fake name. It’s not. It’s the Greek version of Joshua, which is the English version of the Hebrew word Yahshua.
So it would say, really, James, and I don’t know what the Hebrew word for James is, Ben, it means son, like in the movie Judah, Ben-her, Judah, son of her, Ben. So it’d be James, Ben, Yosef, brother, I don’t know the Hebrew of that, of Yahshua. And those words, those three names, really caused all kinds of dissension in the theological world, because the last thing people needed to find was proof, maybe, that Jesus did exist, and he did have a brother named James, who was the son of Joseph, and, by the way, that Mary was not a perpetual virgin.
So, one last thing, two last subjects I want to bring up real quickly before the show ends. Believe it or not, under King Ahab and Jezebel, which is only found in the Bible, or so they said, and most people believe that Jezebel was an allegory of an evil woman, and she never existed. Unfortunately, a 3,000-year-old seal was discovered, and guess what? It was Queen Jezebel’s name carved into it, marking her name as Queen of Israel.
Old Testament Fables? Archeology and the Bible
It’s just another one. Another one, by the way, is Isaiah. They thought that Isaiah didn’t exist, and that the book of Isaiah was written after the facts, that’s what made the prophecies come true, by Jewish people in captivity.
They wrote the book of Isaiah, and they lied, saying it was written 300 years earlier, and that’s why the predictions came true. They actually made the predictions to come true, because it already happened, and they’re trying to predate a prophecy. But that didn’t work too good, because, again, what do they find in exploring the area of Jerusalem? They find works of Isaiah with Isaiah’s name from the time frame that Isaiah was claimed to have lived.
Just the last two things I thought was important. Well, one last thing, because I got a minute and a half left. Another person they said did not exist is Goliath.
Goliath, this giant of a man, and he probably was seven to nine feet tall, which there are people today that have lived that are anywhere from seven to nine feet tall. In fact, they have found bones of people. Not many people know this.
They have found bones of people, and they seem to be, by the bone structure, as high as 10 to 11 feet tall, just pointing that out. And if you were the average Israelite of the day, maybe five foot five, five foot eight, some guy eight foot tall, like a basketball guy, would look awful menacing to you. But they said Goliath never existed.
But what did they do? They find an inscription in a town where Goliath came from, using the name Goliath as a fierce warrior from that time frame, and it’s a 4,000-year-old or 3,500-year-old document. So, again, we find these things all the time, where the Bible always proves itself to be accurate, and mainstream Christians who don’t really want to follow the Bible as the Word of God get upset when that happens. Well, that’s it. the show for today. Bye Bye