Norman Geisler Quotes

Biblical archaeology was developed early in this century in an effort to substantiate the authenticity of the Biblical account. It's by now generally recognized in Biblical scholarship that it has done the opposite. The Bible is not a historical text, and has only vague resemblances to what took place, as far as can be reconstructed. For example, whether Israel ever existed is not clear; if so, it was probably a small kingdom somewhere in the hills, apparently virtually unknown to the Egyptians.

The Bible's historical accuracy is a reminder that while "the heavens declare the glory of God," there's also plenty of evidence among the rubble and ruins.

The accepted versions of the Bible are all substantially correct.

I have found two Roman sites in the area that I live in.

With us [Jews] it is not open to everybody to write the records …. The prophets alone had the privilege obtaining the knowledge of the most remote and ancient history through the inspiration which they owed to God….We do not possess myriads of inconsistent books conflicting with one another.

It is impossible to write ancient history because we do not have enough sources, and impossible to write modern history because we have far too many.

You can't cast Hittites as Trojans; I'd love to do it, but sadly, there are none available!

Scientific accuracy confirms the Bible is the Word of God.

Someone has asked me to paint Biblical pictures, and I say no, I'll not paint something that we know nothing about, might just as well paint something that will happen two thousand years hence.

The Bible writers didn't care that they were bunching together sequences some of which were historical, some preposterous, and some downright manipulative. Faithful recording was not their business; faith was.

Ancient history has an air of antiquity. It should be more modern. It is written as if the specator should be thinking of the backside of the picture on the wall, or as if the author expected that the dead would be his readers, and wished to detail to them their own experience.

The great thing about writing about the ancient Spartans or Athenians is that so much knowledge is no longer extant that no one, except maybe a Cambridge or Oxford don, can call you out and prove you wrong.

Let it simply be said that we know more about the details of the hours immediately before and the actual death of Jesus, in and near Jerusalem, than we know about the death of any other one man in all the ancient world.

We must learn, and we are gradually learning, how to write history with the help of archaeology.

But then history does not only consist of documents.

Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.

Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances

Whether every story that's there [in the Bible] is a historic truth ... Again, I'm not concerned.

Historical fiction of course is particularly research-heavy. The details of everyday life are there to trip you up. Things that we take for granted, indeed, hardly think about, can lead to tremendous mistakes.

The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it.

If one discards the Bible as being unreliable, then he must discard almost all literature of antiquity.

On the subject of the history of the American Revolution, you ask who shall write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it? Nobody, except merely its external facts... all its councils, designs and discussions having been conducted by Congress [behind] closed doors - and no members, as far as I know, having even made notes of them. These, which are the life and soul of history, must forever be unknown.

I've always been drawn to writing historical characters. The best stories are the ones you find in history.

Historical! Must it be historical to catch your attention? Even though historicity, like notoriety, denotes nothing more than thatsomething has occurred.

We have used the Bible as if it was a mere special constable's handbook — an opium-dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded — a mere book to keep the poor in order.