Book Of Myths And Legends (a.k.a. The Bible) Proves Accurate (again)

Though it wasn't reported anywhere that I know of in the so-called "mainstream press," a recent issue of Biola University's alumni magazine reported on a tiny clay tablet that's impact on the veracity of Christianity is inversely proportional to its size. You can read the article here for details but suffice it to say that many critics of the Bible have long claimed that the Old Testament book of Jeremiah is fictional. But the tiny tablet (which was actually dug up in the 1870s but, because it was written in cuneiform, remained previously undecipherable), contained the name of a chief officer in the Babylonian court of Nebuchadnezzar II -- and was recognized as such by a visiting Viennese researcher. This tiny detail looms large because it offers proof that the book was actually written in about 595 BC by "someone with firsthand knowledge of the Babylonian court."

This was a case of "lost in translation" brought on by unfamiliarity with the ancient Akkadian language that rendered the name in question ambiguous in differing manuscript versions. But it was by comparing the translations of different versions of the Bible with someone educated in the discipline that scholars were able to determine which was the most accurate. This process -- like it always does -- resulted in vindicating the Bible against those who had denounced its veracity.

Though such a find does not speak directly to the claim that the Bible is Divinely inspired, it does serve to solidify its historicity and thereby makes it all the more reasonable to accept the rest of what it says as well. For a book that has been compiled over thousands of years of history, numerous geographic locations, and a diverse band of authors, the message that comes through is incredibly consistent; the prophecy is inexplicably accurate; the correlation to scientific discoveries which were not verified until thousands of years later is eerily spot on. This is one incredible book -- a book that has yet to be successfully discredited.

Our man-centered world may claim that "the devil is in the details," but the more details we examine in this book, the more they reveal that our trust in the Creator and the Book He gave us is a well-placed trust indeed.