THE WlTxVESS OF ARCHEOLOGY TO THE BIBLE. 213 



Dr. Orr says, "It is a striking fact tliat there is hardly a 

 single point of contact with foreign powers in the period of the 

 kings which does not receive illustration from the monuments." 



This is especially the case with regard to Assyria. The black 

 obelisk of Shalmaneser, now in the British Museum, represents 

 Jehu, king of Israel, prostrating himself before Shalmaneser 

 in the act of paying tribute. It records between twenty and 

 thirty campaigns of the great Assyrian king. Three of these 

 were against Benhadad and a fourth against Hazael, kings of 

 Damascus, all of them agreeing with Bible history. 



" Considering the countless millions of persons and events in 

 those ancient millenniums, the wonder is that, among the com- 

 paratively small number mentioned in the Bible, any of them 

 should have appeared in archaeological research."* 



We notice this again in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III., 

 under whom the Assyrian Empire rose once more into power. 

 He mentions six kings who are named in the Bible. It was he 

 who introduced the new policy of carrying away captive to 

 Assyria the original populations of conquered countries, placing 

 in their stead populations likewise carried from a far distance, 

 over whom he placed Assyrian officials. We have a well-known 

 illustration of this in the case of Samaria. 



Waiting of Sennacherib and Hezekiah, Prof. Sayce says: — - 



The Assyrian and the Biblical accounts supplement on(> 

 another. Sennacherib naturally glosses over the disaster that 

 befell him in Palestine . . . but he cannot conceal the fact that 

 he never succeeded in taking the revolted city or in punishing. 

 Hezekiah as he had punished other rebel kings, nor did he 

 again undertake a campaign in the west."! 



The excavations at Nineveh have proved its vast extent and 

 confirm Jonah's estimate of it, just as we have already seen the 

 excavations at Jericho confirmed the Bible hint as to the small- 

 ness of that city. Prof. Rawlinson has pointed out that at the 

 time of Jonah Nineveh was undergoing what seemed to be a 

 final eclipse. Thus the time was ripe for Jonah's message. 



The Witness of the Four W^orld-Empires. 



We must briefly consider the witness of the four great world- 

 empires of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. 



The fact that there have been these four world-empires — just 

 four and never another, notwithstanding the efforts of ambitious 

 conquerors — is in itself a witness to the truth of the Bible, and 

 confirms us in the belief that there will never be a fifth univer- 



The Deciding Voice of the Monuments," p. 107. 

 t" Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments," p. 116. 



