A new recent discovery in archaeology has again proved the authenticity of Bible characters and events. Archaeologists documenting ISIL or ISIS’s destruction of the ruins of the Tomb of the Prophet Jonah stated that they have made an unexpected discovery. This discovery supports Bible history.
Local archaeologists in Iraq unearthed a previously untouched palace from 600 BC belonging to the Assyrian king Sennacherib. Professor Eleanor Robson, chair of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, announced, “ISIL’s destruction has actually led us to a fantastic find.” This palace was built for Sennacherib, renovated and expanded by Esarhaddon (681-669 BC), and renovated again by Ashurbanipal (669-627).
King Sennacherib is mentioned in the Bible in 2 Kings 19:1-36. Sennacherib was a strong king that conquered forty-six Judean cities during the reign of Hezekiah. And in the process, he took two hundred thousand captives and besieged Jerusalem for a time, but he did not take the city because he had to leave temporarily.
When Sannacherib came back, he sent a blasphemous and fearful message to king Hezekiah with terrible threats to what might happen to the land of Judah if the king didn’t surrender. King Hezekiah prayed earnestly to the Lord for help. The Lord answered Hezekiah by sending a message of protection.
And an “angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead” (2 Kings 19:35). Further, when Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, he was killed by his own sons (2 Kings 19:36).
Many times in the past the Bible has been vindicated by archaeology against critics. Skeptics once claimed that the Assyrian king Sargon of Isaiah 20:1 never existed, but archaeology has unearthed his entire palace. For years skeptics said the Bible was unreliable because it mentioned the Hittite nation (Deuteronomy 7:1) and cities like Nineveh (Jonah 1:1, 2) and Sodom (Genesis 19:1), which they denied ever existed. But now modern archaeology has confirmed that all three did, indeed, exist.
