British Museum Makes Important Breakthrough in Biblical Archeology

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

Book of Jeremiah Confirmed?
July 23, 2007
by Laura Sexton

Scholars link biblical and Assyrian records.
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Spelling variations may seem like a minor problem, but they highlight a greater issue, namely the inconsistency between archaeological evidence and biblical text. One notorious discrepancy involves the 701 B.C. Babylonian campaign against Jerusalem. According to the Bible, Sennacherib, the Babylonian king who reigned from 701-681 B.C., was unsuccessful in his attempt to sack the city of Jerusalem. The Old Testament states that an angel came during the night to kill 185,000 soldiers, forcing Sennacherib and his weakened army to retreat (II Kings 18-19).

King Sennacherib, however, left a conflicting report on an artifact now known as the Prism of Sennacherib. Standing 38 cm high, the hexagonal clay prism contains 500 lines of writing on six columns. In direct opposition to the Bible, it states that Sennacherib captured settlements belonging to the King of Judah, took the king's daughters and enforced a heavy tribute. Both historical accounts cannot be completely correct, but in the absence of further archaeological evidence, historians can only speculate about what actually occurred.


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http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/jeremiah/
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/21_nebosarsekim.html

Sennacherib may have taken some of the cities but was driven off when his army was destroyed when he came against Jerusalem.