A major exhibit at Israel's national museum is devoted to Herod the Great, the Roman-era king of Judea at the time of Jesus. Read all about him in Scripture.
And that is the point. As as a guide who became a friend told me on the first of my 19 visits to Israel in 1979, there has never been an archaeological discovery in Israel that has disproved the Bible. Not one.
While physical evidence alone never brought anyone to faith, it certainly confirms, for those who have been drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit, what we already knew. The Bible is accurate about places and times. The people about whom it speaks are real. So are the towns and cities it mentions. And we can say that since archaeology constantly confirms biblical truth, what it says about Jesus and his redemptive life, death and resurrection is also true. Witnesses testify to it. Human nature says if it weren't true, one of the disciples would have said so and spared his own life.
Herod wasn't so great after all. But Jesus is.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Publication date: February 18, 2013
