The Bible AUTHENTIC HISTORY?

THEY censured rulers.  They castigated priests. They reproved the common people for their wickedness.  They even put their own feelings an sins on  public record. They were hounded and persecuted, and some were even murdered for speaking and writing the truth. Who were they?  The prophets of the Bible, man of whom contributed to the Holy Scriptures. -Matthew 23:35-37.

In his book The Historian and History, Page Smith writes:  "[The Hebrews] were as pitiless to their heroes as to their villains, to themselves as to their adversaries, because they were writing under the eye of God and had nothing to gain and much to lose by dissembling."  Smith also wrote that "alongside  the tedious chronologies of the warrior kings of Syria or Egypt, the account of the tribulations and triumphs of a people chosen by God . . . make[s] an enthralling story. The Hebrew chronicles had discovered one of the most essential elements of history-that it is enacted by real people, with all their faults and blemishes."

The Bible writers were also meticulously  accurate. After analyzing the Bible in the light of history and archaeology, writer Werner Keller said that in the introduction of his book The Bible as History:  "In view of the overwhelming mass of authentic and well-attested evidence now available, . . . there  kept hammering on my brain this one sentence..  'The Bible is right after all!' "

Next time: The Bible AUTHENTIC HISTORY?/Dynamic History With Powerful Lessons

From the jw.org publications