this past week has been the most insane and enlightening week yet here in israel, and for good reason. we flew doctor bryant wood over from california and interviewed him at several key archaeological sites relating to the validity of scripture when it comes to joshua's conquest in 1400 BC. there are two main archaeological sites that the mainstream scholars and archaeologists say contradict the biblical accounts, the city of ai, and jericho. the scholars and archaeologists say that the exodus and joshua's conquest didn't happen because one archaeologist dated the destruction of jericho to 150 years prior to when the bible says it happened. and at the site they believe is ai, they find it to not fit the biblical description of the ancient city, and they date it's destruction to the 13th century where as the bible would have it in the 15th century [1400 BC]. so basically the archaeologists take one site that does not fit the biblical description geographically, physically, or archaeologically, and they say, "well, this we are going to say is ai, and because it is ai and it doesn't have any similarities to the biblical ai, the bible is wrong." as doctor wood would say, it's very poor scholarship.

so taking this all into consideration, doctor bryant wood, an expert in dating pottery, took a scientific reexamination of jericho, and with all the evidence concluded that the previous archaeologist who dated the destruction to 150 years prior the biblical destruction by joshua was wrong, and that the biblical account is right. there are many many details as to why doctor wood's case for the dating of jericho's destruction is so strong, but i'll let you see it all for yourself after we release the documentary, though it will be a while before that comes about.

with the site of ai, doctor wood spent 1995 through 2000 excavating a site different than the one the mainstream archaeologists think is ai, and he believes that his ai has more accurate physical features, geography, and archaeological remains. upon his excavation there at the site that today is called khirbet el-maqatir, he found exactly what you would expect to find for the site of ai according the biblical account. and after standing on the site myself and listening to his case for why he believes that khirbet el-maqatir is the ancient city of ai, it's impossible for me to deny.

so basically, archaeological students learn at their universities that ai and jericho do not support the biblical account and that the conquest of joshua and the exodus never happened. but doctor wood has gone back behind the secular archaeologists and scholars and, using the scientific method, has two amazingly strong cases for why jericho and the ai that he excavated support the biblical account to the very detail. unfortunately the biblical archaeological world is run by seculars [?] and doctor wood being a bible believer and a proclaiming christian man is blackballed from having any credibility in the biblical archaeological world because he has a bias toward the bible being true. but so far, everything they dig out of the ground supports the bible, so i don't see any problem with his bias.

during our interviews with doctor wood i seriously dropped my jaw a few times, abandoned the camera on my shoulder and turned to scott to silently mouth, "oh. my. gosh." this has been the most educational week yet, not to mention the most exciting.

on friday we also went up on mt. gerizim and found one of the last remaining samaritan towns if not THE last. samaritans are still a people today but there are only a few hundred left. many of the people in the town are born with deformities because they've bread within their own community for so long to keep the blood line purely samaritan. this small group of samaritans also hold passover in the traditional manner in the center of their city by the slaughtering of a lamb [one lamb for each family], sacrificing it as either a burnt offering or a peace offering. next year we plan to be there for passover and to film it, so be ready for that, i am so stoked!

all that being said, i conclude: the bible is real history.

also, i've recently put up more photographs, so feel free. love to you all, peace.

www.flickr.com/photos/nathanwilliam