I was introduced to biblical archaeology back in seminary. (“What do you mean, Indiana Jones isn’t real?!”) I learned that archaeology is not essential to prove the veracity of the Scriptures, yet archaeology has unearthed many evidences that affirm the Bible’s reliability.

Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser has listed fifteen of what he considers to be the top finds from biblical archaeology, including:

1. Ketef Hinnom Amulets

In 1979, two tiny silver scrolls were discovered in a cave near Jerusalem. These scrolls date from the 7th to 6th century BC. It took three years to develop a method to unroll the scrolls without causing them to disintegrate. Quoting from Numbers and Deuteronomy, they are the oldest Old Testament text fragments known to date!

3. Dead Sea Scrolls

“Probably the most sensational manuscript discovery of our times,” these scrolls, fragments and documents date back to the 2nd century BC and contain portions or entire texts of every Old Testament book except Esther. This discovery showed the remarkably accurate preservation of the Old Testament:

“…after a gap of 1000 years in textual copying tradition … only three words in the whole book of Isaiah showed any difference—and those differences were variations in spelling comparable to the difference in English and American spellings of “honour” versus “honor.”

You can read about the other fascinating finds here: PDF