Religion: Biblical Detective Story

Christians revere the Bible as a treasury of divine revelation; skeptics regard it as an unreliable collection of fable and folklore. Over the past century a host of scientists-archaeologists, geologists, astronomers, botanists-have added a third perspective. Beneath the barren plains and foothills of the ancient Biblical country, they have made discoveries revealing that, whatever else it may be, the Bible is a remarkably faithful chronicle of history. In The Bible as History (William Morrow & Co.; $5.95), published in the U.S. next week, German Scientific Journalist Werner Keller skillfully sifts and summarizes the recent archaeological and scientific discoveries relating to Biblical times and places. The result is a lively blend of drama and reporting that reads like a detective story grafted on a history book.

Significant Mud. Digging through ancient rubbish at Ur near the Persian Gulf in 1929, British and American archaeologists came upon a 10-ft. layer of mud far beneath the surface. Underneath the layer they discovered artifacts from the Stone Age. Excitedly, the scientists flashed a message to the world: “We have found the Flood.” Tests in surrounding areas showed that the layer of clay was the residue of a vast, catastrophic deluge that had in about 4000 B.C. covered the river plains of southern Mesopotamia, the center of the known world of that time.

Such discoveries may disconcert the skeptics, but other findings are bound to upset Biblical fundamentalists, who insist on miracles where science is ready to offer natural explanations. Many scientists are now convinced that the rocks which Moses struck, “and the water came out abundantly,” were water-storing limestone, whose hard crust was broken by the blow. The bush that “burned with fire” and yet “was not consumed” could have been either the gas plant fraxinella, whose highly volatile oils sometimes ignite if approached with a naked flame, or certain mistletoe twigs whose crimson blossoms in full bloom resemble flames. As for the manna that nourished the Israelites in the desert, an expedition in 1923 confirmed an old suspicion: the manna was doubtless an edible white secretion of the tamarisk tree. When the tree is attacked by a species of plant louse, the substance oozes out, crystallizes and drops to the ground, where the Isiaelites found it. Without debating the divine intervention that the Bible clearly indicates, Keller points out that this secretion has all the appearances and properties of the manna the Bible describes (“and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey”). The Israeli government, relying on the newly confirmed stature of the Bible as botanical expertise (“and Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba”), recently planted 2,000,000 tamarisk trees there.

Tumbling Walls. At the turn of the century, a German-Austrian expedition uncovered ancient Jericho, and by 1936, explorations had proceeded far enough for a British expedition to determine that the walls of Jericho had indeed fallen with great violence. Reported Expedition Leader John Garstang: “The space between the two walls is filled with fragments and rubble. There are clear traces of a tremendous fire.” Says the Bible: “When the priests blew with the trumpets . . . and the people shouted with a great shout … the wall fell down flat … and they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein.” Scientists conclude that an earthquake may have tumbled the walls.

From 1899 to 1917, a team of Germans worked to excavate Babylon. In the process, they unearthed the remains of the Tower of Babel. The scientists were able to calculate that it had been 295 ft. high, or about as high as the Statue of Liberty. The Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon with “spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones” had often been thought a pious tale until archaeologists uncovered the ruins of Sheba in Yemen in 1951, found indication that the kingdom’s chief trade route ran through Israel. This threw new light on the Queen’s visit: it was probably a high level business conference.

Shooting Planets. Scholars have long disputed the year of Christ’s birth. Some astronomers argue that the star of Bethlehem was actually an uncommon conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. By calculating the position of the planets backwards for centuries, they place the conjunction in 7 B.C. More recently, climatologists have also disputed the convention of accepting Dec. 25 as the date of Christ’s birth. One reason: St. Luke’s mention of cattle in the fields. Since the climate of Israel has not changed very much in the past 2,000 years, meteorologists know that Bethlehem was in the grip of frost in December. In Palestine, no good shepherd would think of keeping his flock in the fields under such circumstances.

In general, Keller reports, science’s discoveries have proved the Bible startlingly accurate in many checkable details. Keller cites the case of a Bible-reading British major who surprised and decimated a Turkish force in Palestine in World War I by attacking through the same narrow mountain pass which Saul and Jonathan had used to fall upon the Philistines centuries earlier. The Bible told just where to find it: “And between the passages . . . there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side . . . the forefront of the one was situate northward over against Michmash. and the other southward over against Gibeah.” A few years ago Israeli Businessman Xiel Federmann began to brood over the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (“and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace”), guessed such conflagrations might indicate underground gas-and underground gas meant oil. He was right. In 1953 Israel’s first oil well went into operation near the ancient site of Sodom and Gomorrah.