Can You Trust the Bible? (Part 2 of 3)
By Joel Greenwood
One of the biggest obstacles for those deciding if they want to look further into Christianity is the question “Can I trust the Bible?” Modern communication has allowed for more voices than ever before to loudly give their answers to that question, some favorably and others in opposition. However, please remember that volume does not equal accuracy. To help us in our study of Bible trustworthiness, today we’re going to look at a mysterious group of people who were identified in the Bible nearly 3,000 years before anyone else confirmed their existence.
Let’s Talk About the Hittites
Hittites in the OT
Genesis 23 tells how Abraham buried Sarah in a tomb belonging to a Hittite man named Ephron. Later on, Abraham’s grandson Esau married two Hittite women, causing little joy for his parents. When David lusted after Bathsheba, the one person in his way was her husband, Uriah, who was a Hittite.
The Hittites are a people group mentioned nearly 40 times in the Old Testament, and many times, we see people with a Hittite identity playing direct roles in Biblical narrative.
Identity Crisis
There was one major issue about the Hittites as a people: the Bible treated them as a real people group, but we had no other evidence proving their existence. While many other aspects of the Bible could be verified, the Hittites remained a mystery.
You would be correct in thinking this troubled many people and caused doubt among Christians and non-Christians. Were the Hittites a made-up people, used by Biblical authors to fill in missing pieces of the story? This started to become the commonly-accepted answer for many.
But then came the 1900s
In 1906 and 1907, archaeologists uncovered thousands of writing tablets, as well as ancient structures, near modern Boğazkale, Turkey. These tablets revealed the history of the Hittite kingdom; excavations since that time have all added to modern knowledge of this ancient people.
These discoveries played two important roles. First, they uncovered a rich history of the rise and fall of an empire. Second, they shed light on what seemed like one of the largest flaws of Biblical truth. Hittites DID exist, and their discovery only strengthened the case for Biblical accuracy.
Nelson Glueck, a rabbi who dedicated his life to Biblical archaeology, said: “It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference.”
What this teaches us
In John 8, Jesus spoke in the Jerusalem temple and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” That same light is offered to us as his followers when we step out in faith to trust him.
We can be sure that voices will always stand in opposition to the truth of God’s Word, and those voices will often be loud, perhaps even causing us to feel shame or doubt. The Bible can be trusted, however, and we are best able to see its historical accuracy when we choose to tune out loud, even confident-sounding opinions, in favor of accurate evidence.
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