While the Bible is constantly ridiculed as a book filled with historical inaccuracies and fictional legends…

The simple truth of the matter is that secular archaeologists and scholars who specialize in ancient Middle Eastern studies will often use the Bible…

As a trustworthy source document to cross-reference and support the many artifacts they have dug up.

Furthermore, even when the truthfulness of Biblical accounts comes into question…

Based on the findings of archaeology and/or apparent conflicting evidence found in extra-biblical source documents…

More often than not it is found that the problems lie with…

Misinterpretation…

Lack of evidence…

Or poor scholarship…

And NOT the Bible itself.

I think the following joke well illustrates my point.

ATHEIST: Oh Rabbi with your silly beliefs, don’t you know that there are dozens of cultures that have an ancient flood myth?

RABBI: That makes me feel so much better. I’ve often wondered how nobody heard of the flood except us Jews. Now that I know others have also heard of it, I’m sure it happened.

The rabbi in this joke has a point.

The flood is told by the Greeks, the Hindus, the Chinese, the Mexicans, the Algonquins, the Hawaiians, etc.

To me, this alone blows the “local flood theory” out of the water (pun intended).

The Scriptures report that after bobbing around for a couple of days, the ark finally came to a rest on top of an area called the Mountains of Ararat.

But where the heck is this location?

The answer is parts of what is now Turkey, Iraq, Armenia, and Iran.

According to a Turkish travel agency, “Mount Ararat may be the largest single-mass or volume mountain in the world as it is huge (one really has to see it in person to appreciate its immensity) and rises to 17,000 feet from the plains surrounding it at 2,000–3,000 feet while most other large mountains are in a mountain range with less differential and base circumference.”

© Richoka