Part 1 of this Blog discussed how The Book of Nehemiah recounts the story of the return of the Jews to Jerusalem in 445/444 BC from their exile in Babylon, including details of how Ataxerxes, the Babylonian Emperor, issued orders allowing them to reoccupy and rebuild the city and its walls.  Skeptics had long dismissed the story as later day propaganda made up by the Jewish exiles in Babylon for political reasons. This line was maintained despite the stunning fact that in 1997, Mazar using references in The Book of Samuel located David’s Palace exactly where the Bible placed it.

However in November of 2007 a team of Israeli archaeologists again led by Eilat Mazar announced that they had now discovered Nehemiah’s Wall. Predictably the initial reaction of critics was that, “the evidence did not support the claim.”  However as this research continues the critics have been silenced because of the astounding level of correspondence between the descriptions in the Bible and the materials uncovered by the archaeologists.

Part 1 of this Blog reported the confirmation of the walls existence and in the location where the Bible placed it.  The archaeology has also confirmed the Biblical dates for the reconstruction of the wall.  Even the Biblical description of the quality (or lack there of) of the reconstruction was confirmed. However the discoveries contained some additional finds of truly breath taking significance. The Mazar team has amazingly recovered seal impressions with “names” and “scenes” of “people actually mentioned in the Bible.” “Shelomit” the daughter of Zerubbabel (appointed Jerusalem’s Governor by Ataxerxes the heir to the Judean throne mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:19) is depicted and named on one of these seals. Two other clay seal impression were found one mentioned Gedalyahu and the other Yehuchal.  These two were court officials of King Zedekiah who reigned from 597 – 587 BC.  They are mentioned in Jeremiah 38:1-2.  Tellingly the two separate seals were found in close proximity. In Mazar’s own words, “How amazing these finds are!”

Reading the below source is strongly recommended because there was much more intriguing evidence uncovered that is not discussed here.

Source: “The Wall That Nehemiah Built”, by Eilat Mazar, Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2009, pp 24-33.

The Book of Nehemiah recounts the story of the return of the Jews to Jerusalem in 445-444 BC from their exile in Babylon.  Nehemiah recounts in detail how Ataxerxes, the Babylonian Emperor, issued orders that allowed them to reoccupy and rebuild the city and its walls.  Skeptics have long dismissed the story as later day propaganda made up by the Jewish exiles in Babylon.

In November of 2007 a team of Israeli archaeologists led by Eilat Mazar announced that they had discovered Nehemiah’s Wall. Predictably the initial reaction of critics was that, “the evidence did not support the claim.”  However, as this research continues the critics have been silenced because the level of correspondence between the descriptions in the Bible and the materials uncovered by the archaeologists has been astounding.

There is a continuing flood of evidence coming out of this research that will produce numerous books on the subject in the near future. The highlights of this research include the discovery of the destroyed pre-exilic wall that surrounded Jerusalem, which was ruined by the Babylonians.  One of the key questions that had to be answered about the wall was its reconstruction date.  The evidence from several different lines of research clearly puts the date when the reconstruction was preformed exactly were the Bible reports it, at about 445 BC (Nehemiah 2:11-15).

Nehemiah 3:1-32 goes on to describe how the wall was rapidly rebuilt in just 52 days by having different sections assigned to different families, guilds or settlement groups.  Several lines of evidence support this Biblical description.  These include pottery studies, architectural studies and other archaeological findings.  Scripture also indicates that the work was done in extreme hast to the ridicule of the Jews enemies (Nehemiah 4:1-2).  The archaeology also supports this claim of a rushed, high-pressure reconstruction and as would be expected, it is reflected in “shoddy workmanship.”

Christians and Jews alike believe that the Bible reports God working in human history.  Many critics claim that this is not true and that the Bible is not an historically accurate document.  Their primary evidence for this claim is their opinions.  These opinions drive their insistence on scientific evidence that provides corroboration of Biblical events independent of reports in Scripture.  This was not an unreasonable position 100 years ago or even 30 years ago. However as archaeological research progresses, it is becoming increasingly difficult, to the point of “willful blindness”, to maintain that the Bible is not a historically reliable document.

Source: “The Wall That Nehemiah Built”, by Eilat Mazar, Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2009, pp 24-33.

According to the “objective” media “religion in Europe is dead.” This “fact” has been gleefully touted, widely and frequently and occasionally is backed up by carefully selected statistics. This is also claimed to be a relatively new phenomena and is supposed to be heralding the eventual triumph of the “new atheism.” The general line of argument is that - Enlightenment Rationality, driven by secular education is finally displacing Christianity as the dominant philosophical view in Europe. European history is generally painted in the popular imagination as one where, the church dominated Medieval life, during the “Age of Faith” when church attendance was almost universal, even if it was involuntary.

Many Christians believe that Europe is now a spiritual desert and find its future prospect quite sad and depressing. Many also fear, and the media asserts that European secularism and atheism is a harbinger of things to come in the United States. For those who feel this way, I highly recommend “Discovering God” by Rodney Stark. Stark’s research holds many surprises. He shows that most prominent scholars of European religious history are in agreement that church attendance in Europe, especially in Northern Europe has always been very low and in many areas much lower than it is today. Many will find this surprising given the large number of churches and monasteries built all over Europe. As it turns out these beautiful cathedrals and churches went largely unused. The eminent English historian Keith Thomas, for example, states that during the Medieval period of British history, “It is problematical as to whether certain segments of the population at this time had any religion at all.” Alexander Murray reported the same situation existed in Italy stating that, “Substantial sections of Thirteenth-Century society hardly attended church at all.” Among those few who did attend it was often because “they were ordered to do so by their lord.”

This pattern changed little even after the Protestant Reformation. The Oxford Diocesan Visitations for 1738 reports that in its 30 parishes “fewer then 5% of the total population had taken communion” in that year. This situation around Oxford, the home of several great churches, was not unusual.

So what is the situation today? Has it gotten worse? Are there any Christians left in Europe? Those who are discouraged should view the University of Michigan research, funded in part by the National Science Foundation’s “Study of World Wide Rates of Religiosity, Church Attendance” - “Table of Adult Weekly Church Attendance” by country. It is true that in Northwestern Europe weekly church attendance is low, especially in Scandinavia but the picture in the rest of Europe is not nearly so bleak. For example:

Sweden 4%

Czech Republic 14%

Germany 14%

France 21%

Britain 27%

Austria 30%

Holland 35%

Belgium 44%

Italy 44%

Poland 55%

Ireland 84%

So the media’s version of religion in Europe is much the same as its reports of Mark Twain’s death - “greatly exaggerated.” Christians should take heart from these reports. The world is not being secularized. Europe is in fact not being deChristianized. Christian Faith in Europe is actually growing and is probably healthier then it has been in the past.

Sources:

“Discovering God: The origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief,’” by Rodney Stark, Harper-Collins, New York, 2007.

“Study of World Wide Rates of Religiosity, Church Attendance”, University of Michigan New Service: Current Archives, Dec 10, 1997 (17).