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Archaeology establishes existence of biblical kingdom of Edom
Many scholars believe that the Old Testament is simply a mixture of folklore and bad theology assembled long after the events supposedly took place. Thus, they assume, biblical history bears little resemblance to actual events.
This assumption took another serious hit in recent months when archaeologists from three countries announced evidence that points to the existence of the biblical kingdom of Edom— precisely when and where the Bible says it was, and contradicting the common belief that this kingdom didn't exist until two centuries later.
The kingdom of Edom, mentioned throughout the Old Testament, is described as existing in what today is southern Jordan. The Edomites and Israelites were enemies, almost constantly in conflict.
The Bible shows Israel interacting with Edom after the Exodus in the 15th century B.C. The Edomites were descendants of Jacob's brother Edom or Esau, who lived a few centuries earlier. Yet many scholars have not accepted Edom as coming on the scene until the eighth century B.C. at the earliest.
In recent years, however, a team of archaeologists led by Russell Adams of Canada's McMaster University, Thomas Levy of the University of California at San Diego and Mohammad Najjar of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities excavated at Khirbat en-Nahas in Jordan, in what would have been Edomite territory in biblical times.
When they dated their finds using high-precision radiocarbon-dating methods, the results, as they described them in the British journal Antiquities, "were spectacular" (quoted by Michael Valpy, "Archeologist Unearths Biblical Controversy," The Globe and Mail [Toronto], Jan. 25).
The dating showed that the copper mining and smelting site was first occupied in the 11th century B.C. and a protective fortress was built in the 10th century B.C. The evidence clearly supported the existence of an Edomite kingdom 200 years earlier than Bible critics assumed it came into being.
The dates also provide powerful evidence for the existence of the Edomite kingdom precisely at the time King David and his son Solomon reigned over Israel. Bible scholars have long believed David ruled ca. 1010-970 B.C. The dates from the Khirbat en-Nahas fortress correspond nicely to David's reign, a time during which he conquered the Edomites and "put garrisons in Edom . . . and all the Edomites became David's servants" (2 Samuel 8:14).
Referring to this conflict, Professor Adams observes: "This battle between the Israelites and the Edomites, although not possible to document, is typical of the sort of border conflicts between Iron Age states. And the evidence of our new dates at least proves that it may, in fact, be possible to place the Edomites in the 10th century or earlier, which now supports the chronology of the biblical accounts.
"It is intriguing that at Khirbat en-Nahas, our large Iron Age fort is dated to just this period, suggesting conflict as a central concern even at a remote copper-production site" (quoted by Valpy, The Globe and Mail).
Many scholars who reject the Bible argue that the emergence of the regional kingdoms mentioned in the Bible didn't take place until much later, and David and Solomon, if they existed at all, were nothing more than minor tribal chieftains.
Yet again, the archaeological evidence dug from the ground is proving those critics wrong.
Survey: Majority of medical doctors reject strict Darwinism
In a surprising result, a majority of 1,482 physicians polled by HCD Research and the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies rejected strict Darwinism.
Strict Darwinism in the survey was given the following definition: "Humans evolved naturally with no supernatural involvement—no divinity played any role." Only 38 percent of the physicians polled accepted that belief. Other types of evolutionary explanations that can take into consideration a Creator received more support by a margin of 42 percent to 38 percent.
The same poll revealed 65 percent of doctors, or almost two thirds of those surveyed, believed intelligent design should be allowed or required to be taught in schools alongside the teaching of evolution. In fact, although the intelligent design explanation is quite recent, a third of the doctors polled favored it over evolution.
"Of course most doctors are skeptical of Darwinism," said Dr. Robert Cihak, M.D., former president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and a medical columnist for JewishWorldReview.com. "An eye surgeon knows the astonishing intricacies of human vision intimately, so the vague, just-so stories about eye evolution don't fool him. And the eye is just one of the countless organs and interdependent systems in the body that defy Darwinian explanation" (Discovery Institute, "Nearly Two-Thirds of Doctors Skeptical of Darwin's Theory of Evolution," May 31).
In another survey of 1,100 physicians taken by the same research firm and institute in December 2004, it was found that 74 percent of doctors believed miracles occurred in the past and 73 percent believe that miracles occur today. Further, almost half (46 percent) indicated belief that prayer is very important in their own lives and two-thirds encourage their patients to pray.
Plant defies laws of genetic inheritance
Plant scientists at Purdue University have made a surprising discovery—a plant containing a template, or a master genetic blueprint, that can correct defective genes inherited from its parents.
What is shocking is that the discovery violates traditional laws of genetic inheritance by somehow acquiring not just the chance arrangement of DNA through the standard combination of parental genes but also a copy of earlier uncombined DNA sequences from its ancestors—something deemed impossible by biologists. Equally surprising is the fact that the correcting template or agent, whatever it is, is hidden and not represented in the plant's current DNA pattern.
"The finding implies that some organisms may contain a cryptic backup copy of their genome that bypasses the usual mechanisms of heredity," says New York Times science reporter Nicholas Wade. ". . . The discovery also raises interesting biological questions—including whether it gets in the way of evolution, which depends on mutations changing an organism rather than being put right by a backup system."He continues: "The finding poses a puzzle for evolutionary theory because it corrects mutations, which evolution depends on as generators of novelty [new features]" ("Startling Scientists, Plant Fixes Its Flawed Genes," March 23).
"If you take this mutant [plant] Arabidopsis, which has two copies of the altered gene," says Robert Pruitt, the discoverer of the phenomenon, "let it seed and then plant the seeds, 90 percent of the offspring will look like the parent, but 10 percent will look like the normal grandparents. Our genetic training tells us that's just not possible. This challenges everything we believe . . .
"It seems that these [mutant gene]-containing plants keep a cryptic copy of everything that was in the previous generation, even though it doesn't show up in the DNA, it's not in the chromosome. Some other type of gene sequence information that we don't really understand yet is modifying the inherited traits" (as quoted by Susan Steeves, "Plants Defy Mendel's Inheritance Laws, May Prompt Textbook Changes," Purdue News Services).
Scientists do not yet know how many living organisms contain this master backup copy, but the search is now on. Evolutionists will be hard pressed to explain how such a mechanism could have been created in a Darwinian step-by-step fashion and inherited not from parents, but from grandparents or distant ancestors.
Research project proves biblical proverb
A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones." These words, recorded in the biblical book of Proverbs (Prov. 17:22) almost 3,000 years ago, have now been confirmed by medical science as a result of two recent studies reported by the Reuters news service.
In one study, Dr. Michael Miller and colleagues at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore tested the function of blood vessels of 20 healthy volunteers as they were shown two movies—one humorous, the other stressful. They focused particularly on the endothelium, the lining of the blood vessels, where atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) begins.
They found that blood flow diminished in 14 of the 20 subjects after they watched stressful movie clips. Their blood flow decreased an average of 35 percent during those stressful periods.
In contrast, 19 of the 20 study subjects had increased blood flow when laughing at humorous movie segments, with blood flow increasing an average of 22 percent.
"We don't recommend that you laugh and not exercise, but we do recommend that you try to laugh on a regular basis," said Dr. Miller in reporting on the study. "Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is probably good for the vascular system." He explained that "laughing may be important to maintain a healthy endothelium, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease."
He also explained that "the magnitude of change we saw in the endothelium is similar to the benefit we might see with aerobic activity, but without the aches, pains and muscle tension associated with exercise."
In the second study, 1,005 heart failure patients were tracked and tested for depression by Dr. Wei Jiang and colleagues at North Carolina's Duke University. Dr. Jiang reported that patients with mild depression were at 44 percent greater risk of dying than those not experiencing depression, excluding other factors such as age, marital status and original cause of the patients' heart failure.
Dr. Jiang noted that patients experiencing depression tended to not take medications properly or not exercise and were more prone to making unhealthy lifestyle choices in diet and smoking.
Weighty evidence for the Bible's accuracy
What is a pim? That is what translators asked themselves when they were finishing the King James Version of the Bible back in the 17th century. They had never heard of the term outside of the Bible and had to guess as to its meaning—which turned out to be wrong.
In 1 Samuel 13:20-21, they translated the Hebrew term pim as "file." It seemed to make sense at the time. The text reads: "But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads."
It was only when archaeology came to the rescue in the last century that the term was finally understood. Archaeologists digging at various sites in Israel—such as Gezer, Timnah, Ashdod and Ekron—found small stone weights inscribed with the word pim. They realized the word pim referred to a weight used in monetary transactions—about 8 grams of silver, or two thirds of a shekel.
The New King James Bible, utilizing the new discovery, corrected the verse in question. In this version 1 Samuel 13:21 reads, "and the charge for a sharpening was a pim for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to set the points of the goads."
This discovery authenticated the Bible's historical validity, since these weights were only found in the strata from the ninth to the seventh centuries B.C., after which new sets of weights were adopted. It tells us that the account of 1 Samuel was written close to the time of the actual events, as the term pim fell out of use not long after that.
Archaeologist William Dever mentions the discovery of the pim weight as evidence of the historical accuracy of the Bible. "Archaeology still provides an invaluable service. Countless hitherto enigmatic passages have been clarified . . . The translation of 1 Samuel 13:19-21 was pure guesswork until archaeologists brought to light small stone balance weights inscribed in paleo-Hebrew with the word pim, which we now know designates a silver shekel fraction of about 7.8 grams (.28 ounces)" (Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1990, p. 55).
So thanks to archaeology, we again have confirmation of the accuracy of the Bible!
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Keywords: Edom archaeology Biblical evidence Darwinism intelligent design evolution and physicians mutations humor and health pim
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