Scientific Breakthrough: Researchers Validate Biblical History

A significant breakthrough recently occurred, as researchers scientifically validated historical events described in the Bible, including the conquest of the land of Israel by the kingdoms of Aram, Assyria, and Babylon.

This is a collaborative research project from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University, involving 20 researchers from Israel and abroad. The study successfully dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites in Israel by measuring the Earth's magnetic field's direction and intensity as they were "recorded" during the sites' burnings.

The findings align with the biblical narrative. Among other things, the research proves that the army of Hazael, king of Aram-Damascus, destroyed not only Gath of the Philistines but also Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit, and Horbat Tevet, refuting the option that Hazael also destroyed Tel Beit Shean, as previously thought.

The research findings also indicate that settlements in the Negev were destroyed by the Edomites, who exploited the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.

Researchers explain that to understand the mechanism generating Earth's magnetic field, geophysicists try to trace historic changes in the field. They use archaeological findings containing magnetic minerals that can record the field when heated, such as during a fire. In 2020, researchers managed to measure the field as it was on Tisha B'Av 586 BCE, based on a grand structure burned by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army in Jerusalem.

In the current study, based on archaeological findings uncovered across the country over decades of research and historical information based on ancient inscriptions and biblical descriptions, the researchers were able to reconstruct Earth's magnetic field as recorded in the 21 destruction layers in the land - developing a new and reliable scientific tool for archaeological dating.

This groundbreaking research was published in the prestigious journal of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS). The study is based on the doctoral work of Yoav Vaknin, under the guidance of Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef, Prof. Oded Lipschits from the Archaeology Department at Tel Aviv University, and Prof. Ron Shaar from the Earth Sciences Department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Researchers note that previously it was known that around the year 830 BCE, the army of Hazael, king of Aram-Damascus, destroyed Gath of the Philistines, identified with Tel Tzafit in the Shephelah. However, it was not possible to determine with certainty if Hazael also destroyed Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit, and Horbat Tevet.

In the new research, the researchers identified a perfect statistical match of the magnetic field data at the time of the destruction of these 4 cities, greatly strengthening the hypothesis that Hazael also destroyed the additional three cities. At another site, Tel Beit Shean, researchers found a destruction layer that recorded a completely different magnetic field, which they argue rules out the possibility that this site was also destroyed by Hazael, as researchers had thought.

Researchers further identified through magnetic data that Beit Shean and two other northern sites were destroyed 70-100 years earlier than Gath. This timing aligns with the chronology of Pharaoh Shishak's campaign of conquest, extensively detailed in the Bible, in which the city of Beit Shean is listed as being captured under Pharaoh's hand.

Researchers also examined the destruction and end of the Kingdom of Judah. Based on the archaeological findings, researchers had previously assessed that the Babylonian destruction was not complete in different regions of the country, and, parallel to the destruction of Jerusalem and the border cities in the Shephelah, settlements continued to exist in the Negev, southern Judean Hills, and southern Shephelah with little change.

In this study, it is clearly seen through the magnetic results that decades after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple, the settlements in the Negev, and likely other areas not impacted by the Babylonian attack, were destroyed. The hypothesis is that the Edomites probably destroyed what remained. Researchers note that this fact might explain the intense hatred towards Edom reflected in the Bible, such as in the prophecy of Obadiah.