The
older scriptural narratives show of the doings of other nations than
the Israelites, they describe situations in times long past, where
owing to broken and imperfect records, it has been difficult to get at
the exact facts. Unfortunately in some quarters the tendency has been
to cast doubt upon the Old Testament writings where the statements
were not corroborated by a research in the archives, often very
imperfect, of other nations. But happily this state of affairs is
being changed and confidence in the historicity of the Old Testament
records is being greatly strengthened by the investigations of the
archaeologists in the ruins of the great empires of Egypt, Assyria and
Babylonia with which Israel came so closely in contact. Until recently
the Old Testament stood alone in its assertion of a comparatively high
civilization antedating Moses and Abraham, but now we know from
excavations made in Nippur and other buried cities that the contention
of the Bible is true to the letter. The situation in Egypt and
Palestine about the time of the Exodus is made plain by the
Tel-el-Amarna tablets. The history of first and second Kings is not
only corroborated but amplified by the monuments. Much yet remains to
be done along this line, some views may have to be changed, but the
period of destruction has passed and that of construction has begun.
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