New Evidence Supports the Bible

For decades scholars believed two desert fortresses in southern Jordan were built by Assyrians. While Jewish history and the Bible claim that the territory of the northern tribes of Israel stretched beyond the Jordan river, others have dismissed the biblical record to be “literary exaggeration.” Now, new research supports the fact that this northern kingdom did control territory in that area.

A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Levant used radiocarbon dating to date cereal grains found in a granary near one of the fortresses. The results were consistent: the grain appears to have been grown between 791 and 772 BC, placing the grain and fortresses at the time of Jeroboam II, king of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Bible asserts that this Jeroboam “restored the territory of Israel” in this region (2 Kings 14:25). “The findings suggest they were built by the biblical kingdom of Israel almost 2,800 years ago, and not by the Assyrian empire decades later” (Times of Israel, May 16, 2026). This supports the conclusion that the northern kingdom of Israel possessed “hegemony over the region, as documented also in the biblical narrative and based on archaeological evidence.” As the lead author of the carbon-dating study observed, “It is now crystal clear that the Kingdom of Israel was present and involved along the southern border of Judah, as it is echoed also in various biblical verses.”

While many sceptics and even scholars refer to the Bible as a work of fiction, scientific discoveries continue to prove otherwise! You can learn more by reading or listening to The Bible: Fact or Fiction?