How do we know that the Bible isn't just a collection of stories?

How do we know that it's not just some ancient myth?

There is an interesting phenomenon in American culture in that we are fascinated by crime stories. Crime stories seem to fill up the content of television programs (such as 20/20; 60 minutes, Dateline and the like). The OJ Simpson case evidenced enough interest in the viewing public to warrant the founding of Court TV - one of Cable TV's most popular channels. Even today, one of television's most popular programs is CSI - Crime Scene Investigation. (This has actually spawned two other spin-offs: CSI Miami and CSI New York.)

Almost every criminal case involves testimony given under oath. The testimony is then scrutinized and verified by examining eye witness accounts and corroborating evidence (gathered through forensics). This is how you prove the veracity of given testimony and the credibility of a given witness.

We believe the same can be done with the Bible to prove whether or not it is a reliable witness.  The accounting it gives to the events of history can also be scrutinized.  How you ask? We can do this by looking at the archeological evidence.  

Through archeology, we can study eye witness accounts of the day and review corroborating evidence.

• For eye witness testimony we'll use ancient tablets and other documents
• For corroborating evidence we'll look at ancient structures and other archeological findings

With this mind, feel free to put on your Indiana Jones hat and jacket - and start to explore the links to the right...