Which Bible Stories are proven accurate?

[Stupendous_man]

By accurate, I don’t mean based on some smaller event that got written down differently.
I mean accurate, and proven to have happened exactly as written in modern translations.

[DrFidelius]

There ought to be a commandment against having a sig longer than the content of a post.

My first question would be to define what you consider “stories”. I am pretty sure that most of the military engagements described are as accurate as chronicles are expected to be. The lists of rulers are also most probably accurate. Any part with a moral lesson is a YMMV issue.

I personally believe the Bible is useful for teaching and rebuking believers in its creeds. It happens to form the framework for my ethical system. I take its message too seriously to force a literalist interpretation on it.

[Diceman]

Archeaologicals have found Sodom and Gohmorrah (sp?). They’re currently submerged under the Dead Sea along the Israel/Jordan border (which has made studying them pretty difficult). The ruins do contain quite a bit of sulfur, ie brimstone, which is evidence of some kind of firery catastrophy. As to whether they were destroyed because of their wicked lifestyles, YMMV.

[zev_steinhardt]

Most of the later kings mentioned in the OT have pretty much been accepted as accurate. So has the destruction of the Temple, and the names/personalities surrounding it’s reconstruction.

Zev Steinhardt

[Chas.E]

A while ago, I read an article in the NYTimes that described how the Israeli government had shut down an archaeological dig, the scholars said that they got shut down because they were unearthing evidence that contradicted some of the fundamental incidents in jesus’ life. Apparently it caused a huge controversy in biblical circles. I can’t remember much of the specifics, I wish I could cite it, but NYTimes only has free archives for 2 weeks, this was a couple of years ago. If anyone is interested enough to spend $5, it’s easily locatable in their paid archives.

[Fear_Itself]

*Originally posted by Diceman *
**Archeaologicals have found Sodom and Gohmorrah (sp?). They’re currently submerged under the Dead Sea along the Israel/Jordan border (which has made studying them pretty difficult). The ruins do contain quite a bit of sulfur, ie brimstone, which is evidence of some kind of firery catastrophy. As to whether they were destroyed because of their wicked lifestyles, YMMV. **

If you are talking about the dubious claims of Ron Wyatt and Jonathan Gray, perhaps you should read this article, which pretty much debunks their claims:

*From the September 1998 edition of **Biblical Archaeology Review *:

Ron Wyatt claims to have discovered Noah’s Ark, the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah, the ‘real’ Mount Sinai (the one in Saudi Arabia), chariot wheels from the Red Sea, the Ark of the Covenant - well, you name it . . . We respond that we - and the academically trained archaeologists we deal with - give Wyatt little credence. If it sounds too good to be true, we say, it probably is. Wyatt is an amateur archaeologist; he makes his living as an anaesthetist. Wyatt calls himself a ‘Biblical archaeologist’ but he would be more at home in the 19th century.

[Cerowyn]

*Originally posted by Diceman *
Archeaologicals have found Sodom and Gohmorrah (sp?).

Do you have a cite for this? I had heard that some people think they might have find evidence of these cities, but I didn’t realize that it had become accepted that they are probably Sodom and Gohmorrah.

I’m sure this thread is destined for GD, but in the meantime, I think you’ll find that most scholars would agree that the Bible is more of a moral guide than a history book. Minus sources that ultimately trace back to the Bible itself, little of the history that it outlines can be substantiated. But, as somebody else pointed out, YMMV.

[Cerowyn]

Originally posted by Fear Itself *
If you are talking about the dubious claims of Ron Wyatt and Jonathan Gray, perhaps you should read this article, which pretty much debunks their claims*

Drat. Should have waited another minute or two.

[Chronos]

[Moderator watch ON]

This thread may well end up in GD eventually, but in the meanwhile, I’d like to see it stay right here for a while. Note that the OP is specifically only asking about stories that can be factually verified: Factual verifications are GQ territory. Maybe there aren’t many of them; I wouldn’t know. Fine, list the few that you know of, then.

By the way, Stupendous Man, the sig really is a bit long. We don’t have any official rules about sig length (yet), but more than four lines can get a bit annoying.

[Opus1]

Virtually all of the non-Christian characters in the NT–Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas, Annas–have been verified, although some of the info disagrees with other sources.

Most of the post-Davidic history in the OT is pretty accurate–Jehu and Omri, the Babylonian Captivity, Cyrus–have all been found elsewhere, but again with differing details:

The Moabite Stone, for example, corroborates the biblical claim that there was a king of Moab named Mesha, but the inscription on the stone gives a different account of the war between Moab and the Israelites recorded in 2 Kings 3. Mesha’s inscription on the stone claimed overwhelming victory, but the biblical account claims that the Israelites routed the Moabite forces and withdrew only after they saw Mesha sacrifice his eldest son as a burnt offering on the wall of the city the Moabites had retreated to (2 Kings 3:26-27). So the Moabite Stone, rather than corroborating the accuracy of the biblical record, gives reason to suspect that both accounts are biased. Mesha’s inscription gave an account favorable to the Moabites, and the biblical account was slanted to favor the Israelites. The actual truth about the battle will probably never be known.

(from http://www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1998/2/982front.html)

I suggest The Bible Unearthed for an in-depth, but still accessible analysis of what in the Old Testament has been confirmed by archaeology and external sources, and what is most likely political/theological fiction, or etiological myth.

[Diceman]

If you are talking about the dubious claims of Ron Wyatt and Jonathan Gray, perhaps you should read this article, which pretty much debunks their claims:

OK, I did a little looking on the net (which wasn’t easy – have you ever typed ‘sodom’ into a search engine? :D) and I found a site with some screenshots from the Wyatt/Gray video. This is definitely NOT the show I’m remembering. The ruins I’m talking about are still under water, and they had to be looked at via a mini-sub. They also happen to straddle the Israel/Jordan border, which caused no end of trouble for these guys. More than once, they had to submerge in Israeli waters, sneak into Jordanian waters to take a quick look, and return to the Israeli side before surfacing. The sub wasn’t equiped to take samples, so all they could do was look. And these ruins look like ruins, much moreso than the stuff the guys in the Wyatt/Grey video are pointing to. I’m talking about rectalinear structures with crisp right angles, not weathered formations that kinda look like walls.

[Stupendous_man]

Thanks everyone. I think I have all of the answers I will get based on the original post.
If a moderator wishes to have this moved to GD, I have no problems with that. It seems to be more interesting that way.

By the way, I hope everone notices my new shorter, less amusing, but more accurate signature. I surely don’t want to be the inspiration for any new rules.

Thanks all. On to GD!
Stupendous Man!