by Bonnie Calhoun


Good afternoon. Let us continue with our study of the archeological evidence in support of the Bible.

It is fascinating to note that numerous biblical personalities (including Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius), who were totally repudiated by higher critics in past decades, have now been reliably verified by recent historical and archeological discoveries.

In the past, critics of the Bible's accuracy rejected the story of the defeat of the confederation of five kings from the east by the small army of Abraham as found in Genesis 14. However, continuing research by Dr. Nelson Glueck, a leading Palestinian archeologist, and president of the Hebrew Union College brought forth this report:

"Centuries earlier, another civilization of high achievement had flourished between the 21st and 19th centuries B. C., till it was savagely liquidated by the Kings of the East. They gutted every city and village at the end of that period from Ashtaroth Karnaim, in southern Syria through all of Trans-Jordan and the Negev to Kadesh-Barnea in Sinai (Genesis 14:1-7)" (Nelson Glueck, Rivers in the Desert, [New York:Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1959], p. 11).

King Nebuchadnezzar's Inscription About the Tower of Babel
From the time of Adam and Eve, "The whole earth had one language and one speech" (Genesis 11:1), before the dispersion of the population following God's supernatural act causing the confusion of their language at the Tower of Babel. God purposely confounded the language of all the people on the earth (Genesis 11:9) so they could not understand the speech of their neighbors to force them to disperse throughout the earth.

The people had gathered in sinful pride against God in their attempt to build a tower that would reach to the heavens. Moses recorded God's subsequent judgment and destruction of the Tower of Babel and the city of Babylon. The remains of the Tower are vitrified (melted to form a kind of rough glass) which indicates that God used a huge amount of heat to destroy this tower.



Scientists who study the origin of languages, known as philologist, have concluded that it is probable that the thousands of dialects and languages throughout the planet can be traced back to an original language in man's ancient history. (Joseph Free, Archeology and Bible History, Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, 1969])
The French government sent a professor to report on the cuneiform inscriptions discovered in the ruins of Babylon. One of the translations where King Nebuchadnezzar referred to the tower in the Chaldean language as Barzippa, which means Tongue-tower, clearly identified the original tower of Borsippa with the Tower of Babel described by Moses in Genesis.

Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the base of the ancient Tower, built over sixteen centuries earlier by Nimrod, the first King of Babylon. He also called it the Temple of the Spheres. During the millennium since God destroyed it, the tower was reduced from its original height and magnificence until only the huge base (four hundred and sixty feet by six hundred and ninety feet) standing some two hundred and seventy-five feet high remained within the outskirts of the city of Babylon.

Today, the ruins have been reduced to about one hundred and fifty feet above the plain with a circumference of 2,300 feet. In this inscription found on the base of the ruins of the Tower of Babel, King Nebuchadnezzar speaks in his own words from thousands of yeas ago confirming one of the most interesting events of the ancient past.

It is interesting to note that today, because of Sadaam Hussian multi-billion dollar investment, the city of Babylon is partially restored to its original elegance.