Bible Archeology Discoveries

Moabite Stone
Discovered: Dibon, Jordan (1868)
From: (c. 840 BC)
Current Home: Louvre

The Mesha Stele, (Moabite Stone), is a stele dated around 840 BCE containing a significant Canaanite inscription in the name of King Mesha of Moab. Mesha tells how Chemosh, the god of Moab, had been angry with his people and had allowed them to be subjugated to the Kingdom of Israel, but at length, Chemosh returned and assisted Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab.

The stele, whose story parallels an episode in the Bible's Books of Kings (2 Kings 3:4–28), provides invaluable information on the political relationship between Moab and Israel at one moment in the 9th century BCE. It is the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to the kingdom of Israel and it bears the earliest certain extrabiblical reference to the Israelite god Yahweh.

More recent computer imaging techniques have revealed that the actual inscription refers to the "House of David" rather than the "House of Omri." This provides direct arxcheological evidence for the reality of David and his "house," or progeny.

"Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-master; and he rendered unto the king of Israel the wool of a hundred thousand lambs, and of a hundred thousand rams.
But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
And king Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel.
And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, 'The king of Moab hath rebelled against me: wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle?' And he said, 'I will go up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses.'"
2 Kings 3: 4-7

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Notable Finds

Much of what is described in Bible text is lost to history, requiring readers to assume the historicity of the scriptures.

However, many of the places and events described in the Old and New Testaments are periodically corroborated by archeological finds.

Some finds simply help us to better understand things from the ancient world. However, others provide important evidence as to the truth of scripture regarding things about which there had previously been skepticism.

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