Biblical Archaeology: Discovered Secrets and Ancient Manuscripts: How Excavations, Inscriptions, and Lost Texts Illuminate the World of the Bible

For most of history, the Bible stood largely alone as a witness to its own ancient world. That changed dramatically as archaeologists began excavating the lands of the ancient Near East — uncovering inscriptions naming biblical kings, clay tablets confirming biblical events from the enemy's own perspective, and ancient manuscripts that placed copies of the biblical text, some over a thousand years older than previously known, directly into scholars' hands.

This book surveys the most significant of these discoveries — from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Tel Dan Stele confirming King David's dynasty, from the Cyrus Cylinder to the earliest known New Testament papyrus fragments — explaining what was found, how, and what it does and doesn't tell us, honestly distinguishing settled findings from genuinely contested ones.