Scientists usually try to disprove the Bible.
Atheist scientists have always been doubtful.
But those same scientists just put their foot in their mouth after finding the remains of an ancient biblical civilization.
Archeologists have discovered the bones of Canaanites that are said to be nearly 4,000 years old.
Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down, hallelujah – or so the story goes. By the time Joshua’s feet touched the shallows of the Jordan river, God had already been trying, for years, to purify the land of Israel.
God’s protracted wrath was directed toward the Canaanites, a people who were described as being wicked idolaters.
As it is writ in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 20, verse 17: “But you shall utterly destroy them… the Canaanites… as the Lord your God has commanded you.”
It was Moses who was tasked with the duty of cleansing the Promised Land of evil and sin.
The old man did not succeed, and before his death, Moses passed the burden on to Joshua, his young apprentice.
Thus, by the will of God, Joshua found himself wading through the southward flow of the river Jordan, as it weaved its way to the Sea of Galilee. Surrounding Joshua was a powerful army of Israelites infused with the Holy Spirit, armed with the divine power of the Almighty.
And just as the Red Sea had parted for Moses, so too the Lord split a furrow in the river Jordan, making it easier for His infantry to proceed towards Jericho, where the walls soon tumbled down.
Next, the Israelites defeated the city of Ai, and together with the Amorite kings and a few miracles from God, the rest of the Canaan territories were purged.
That’s according to the version of events recorded in the Book of Joshua, but how is this affected by modern science?
The New York Post reports:
“DNA research is shining new light on the Biblical Canaanite civilization, which existed thousands of years ago in the Middle East.
The ancient civilization, which created the first alphabet and is mentioned frequently in the Bible, has long fascinated historians.
LiveScience reports that, because the Canaanites kept their records on papyrus, rather than clay, relatively little is known about them.
Now, however, scientists have found a genetic “trail” back to the Canaanites’ ancient world.
By sequencing the genomes of five Canaanites that lived 4,000 years ago with genomes from 99 people living in modern day Lebanon, researchers identified a strong genetic link to the mysterious civilization.
The results surprised the scientists, whose work was supported by UK biomedical research charity The Wellcome Trust.
“In light of the enormously complex history of this region in the last few millennia, it was quite surprising that over 90 percent of the genetic ancestry of present-day Lebanese was derived from the Canaanites,” said Chris Tyler-Smith, senior group leader at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, in a statement.
In addition to the ancient Canaanite DNA, the analysis of genomes from the modern day Lebanese people also showed a small proportion of Eurasian ancestry that may have come from conquests by Assyrians, Persians or Macedonians, according to the experts.
The researchers also discovered that the ancient Canaanites were a mixture of local people, who settled in farming villages during the Neolithic period, and eastern migrants who arrived about 5,000 years ago.
“Using ancient DNA we show for the first time who were (genetically) the ancient Canaanites, how they were related to other ancient populations and what was their fate,” explained Marc Haber, a genetic data expert at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, in an email to Fox News.
“Our work shows the power of genetics in filling gaps in human history when the historical records are absent or scarce.”
Haber added that the results complement Biblical accounts of the Canaanites. While the Israelites are commanded to “utterly destroy” the Canaanites in Deuteronomy 20:16-18, Judges I describes the survival of a number of Canaanite communities.
Canaanites once lived in what we now recognize as Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
The remains of the five ancient Canaanites studied as part of the DNA research were recovered in the modern-day Lebanese city of Sidon.
The research was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics on July 27.”
This scientific research looks promising to say the least. Who knows what else this DNA research could prove right about the Bible.