Nineveh and Biblical Archaeology

Back in August, 2020 I posted this devotional. I think it is a good time to re-post it since Christians and the Bible are being ridiculed greatly in our society. I believe that the scientific field of archaeology is something that skeptics, who don’t view the Bible as a book of history, should take a close look at. For the Christian the study of biblical archaeology should prove a powerful apologetic to strengthen their faith in the reliability of the Scriptures.  

The story of Jonah and the whale may be familiar to many people who do not even read the Bible. Jonah was a great prophet of the Lord. He was commissioned by God to warn a great city of ancient times to repent of her wickedness. We read about this mission in (Jonah 1:2), when God told Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” Jonah at first disobeyed, “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17).

Nineveh was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. It was the Assyrian capital, known throughout the Bible for its great wickedness. It fell in 612 B.C. to the combined forces of the Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians. From that point on Nineveh disappeared from history and its location was not discovered again until 1847, by Henry Layard.1

The significance of the discovery of Nineveh is truly monumental. First of all, over 25,000 clay tablets were unearthed from the fabulous royal library of King Ashurbanipal (668-626 B.C.), which was one of the most important libraries of the ancient world.

Secondly, as Keller stated, “They contained the essential material for understanding the historical and intellectual background of Mesopotamia, its people, its kingdoms with their arts and crafts, cultures and religions. Among them were the Sumerian flood story and the Epic of Gilgamesh. What had been until then a mysterious sealed chapter of our world’s history was suddenly opened and page after page was turned over. Rulers, cities, wars and stories which people had only heard about through the Old Testament revealed themselves as real facts.”2

Thirdly, and perhaps the most significant facet of the Nineveh find, and excavation, was how the Bible played an instrumental part in its discovery. For if it were not for the Bible and its mentioning the city of Nineveh, we probably would never have sought to find her, because we would have no idea that such a city existed. In the case of Nineveh, the great wealth of information we learned about ancient Mesopotamia might never have come to light if it were not for our Bible. So much of our knowledge of the history of the ancient Middle East exists today due to the very diligent efforts of archaeology. But much of the credit behind the scenes has to go to the Bible, for the Bible gave the archaeologist the clues on what to look for and where to look for it. The archaeological excavations have proven the Bible to be historically accurate. In addition, this one amazing book has itself been the guiding light illuminating the pathway of discovery after discovery into the fabulous mysteries of our ancient history.

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1 Howard F. Vos, Beginnings in Bible Archaeology (Chicago: Moody Press, 1978), p. 89.

2 Werner Keller, The Bible as History (New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1980), p. 267.