Day 1- THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

One of the biggest archeological finds that confirms the Bible to be true are the Dead Sea Scrolls. The opponents of the Bible do not have much to go on in refuting the New Testament because of the things you learned last week. There are thousands of New Testament manuscripts. But the Old Testament is a different beast. The original manuscripts of the OT were written on animal skins. Geisler and Brooks, in their book “When Skeptics Ask” explained the Jewish tradition states that copies of the OT “law” were burned when worn out. Geisler and Brooks also explained that scribes who standardized the Hebrew text probably threw out older copies that didn’t agree with theirs. Most of the Old Testament text was passed on through oral tradition. These facts do not look good for those who want to defend the accuracy of the Old Testament. The Bible’s opponents have often used these points to prove their position that the stories of the Old Testaments are myths and not real stories. The good news is that all the manuscripts found before 1947 agreed with each other. But God did something really cool.
Read Luke 19:40
The Pharisees asked Jesus to silence what His disciples were saying about Him when He entered on a donkey into Jerusalem. What did Jesus say would happen, even if the people were silenced?
Between the years of 1947-1956 in an area 13 miles east of Jerusalem, the rocks literally cried out. 1,300 feet below sea level in 11 different caves, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. In total, there about 825 ancient scrolls found. Some of the manuscripts were biblical and some were historical but fragments of every manuscript of the OT (except the book of Esther) were found. Many of the Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts were 1,000 years older than the oldest copy we had! The greatest part is that the Dead Sea Scrolls and our copies matched exactly!

Day 2- THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS PART 2

Read Psalm 145:3
What does this verse say about God? Concerning the facts you have learned so far about the Bible, do you believe the words of the psalmist to be true?
Here are some more interesting facts about the Dead Sea Scrolls that prove the accuracy and historical purity of the Bible.
There were 30 copies of the Psalms, 25 copies of Deuteronomy, and 19 copies of Isaiah found. The Isaiah scroll is 1,000 years older than any other copy we have had.
The majority of the Scrolls were written in Hebrew and Aramaic and the rest were written in Greek.
The Scrolls contain never before seen psalms of David and Joshua.
The Scrolls contained previously unknown stories about biblical figures such as Abraham, Noah, and Enoch.
One of the Scrolls found in the caves is called the Copper Scroll. This scroll lists 64 underground hiding places for silver, gold and what most believe are the 1st Temple treasures hidden for safekeeping.  A real life treasure hunt? Have they been found? The truth is, it has taken years to understand what the scrolls say and there has been much debate about them. There are teams of people wanting to gently start to excavate, but due to politics and policies no one can go in with a backhoe and start digging. Source: www.copper-scroll-project.com
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a major find, some by Bedouins who just happened upon them and others by archeologists. Think about how God was able to place, protect, and reveal these documents to prove His Word to be true and accurate!

Day 3- BIBLE ARCHEOLOGY- NINEVEH

Read the book of Jonah today. Just enjoy the story of Jonah and the whale.
For many centuries, men questioned the truth of the story of Jonah because there was no proof of a city called Nineveh where the Bible claimed to be the Assyrian capital city. In 1842, the British archeologist Henry Layard uncovered the remains of the ancient of Nineveh. Once again, archeology proves the Bible to be true.

Day 4- HISTORY ACCOUNT OF KINGDOM OF GREECE

Daniel Chapter 11 was written by Daniel during the Persian Empire. The interesting thing about Daniel 11 is that God, through Daniel, tells what is going to happen to the kings of the empire of Greece. Greece was the power who defeated Persia. When you read Daniel’s prophecy, don’t be discouraged if you don’t understand it. Just know, he is predicting the events of the Greek Empire.
Read Daniel Chapter 11. How detailed is Daniel in these predictions?
The more details listed, the more possibility for errors. Is this a pretty bold prophecy?
Here is a little history lesson: Persia was defeated by Alexander the Great who was considered a mighty warrior and very strong. He died young without any heir to his kingdom, so he divided his kingdom among his four generals. One ruled the north, one ruled the south, one ruled the east and one ruled the west. Daniel 11 speaks of the events of the Northern Kings – The Seleucids and the Southern Kings, the Ptolemies. Grab your history book if you are intrigued, because you will find that Daniel accurately maps out exactly what happened in history with these two sets of kings (and their predecessors). In fact, it was so accurate that many people believed Daniel 11 was a fake. Many believed someone else claiming to be Daniel wrote the prophecy after the events in Greek history. If Daniel did in fact write chapter 11 BEFORE the events in history, the original text would have been in the Hebrew language. Here is why. The entirety of the Old Testament had already been written before Greece was in power. In the middle of the rule of Greece, the Old Testament manuscripts were translated from Hebrew to Greek so more people could read them. This translation is called the Septuagint. One reason it would be almost impossible for Daniel 11 to be fake is that it would have been impossible to reclaim all those translated documents and add to them. If Daniel 11 was written after the fact, there would be no Hebrew manuscripts of Daniel available to us.  We do, in fact, have Hebrew manuscript copies of Daniel 11 and more were found in the caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls to confirm the ones we have. God proves again His Word is accurate and true!Day 5- EVIDENCE EXISTS

Any opponents of the gospel would be insane to use archaeology to defend their position. The evidence in support of Scripture is overwhelming. Hundreds of places listed in the Old Testament and New Testament are still there today. Archaeologists are continuing to find artifacts that verify the dates and times the Bible claims to be a part of history. Spend some time today thanking God for giving us physical proof of His Word.