Sacred geometry is a part of the world's religions. It is found in ancient Africa, the ancient Middle East, ancient China and Asia and tribes in America. Methods of determining the spread of humans around the earth from artifacts fossils and cave painting it is possible to gain a temporal map of early humans and the cultures of these early humans. There is a common cultural trait amongst humans that have spread around the world in that of religion and the belief in God. These faiths involve a sacred geometry that is used to explain the beliefs of their cultures and can be found by archaeology in their architecture and objects of these cultures. During the phases of the ages such as the Bronze and Iron age, we find the use and knowledge of crystal geometry in forming metal tools in forges and the common geometric patterns in jewelry & symbols of these cultures. Science uses mathematics as an expression of scientific thought and geometry is used as an explanation of life on earth from fractal patterns in nature and Fibonacci to the golden Ratio and the movement and formation of the elements of the universe. If we all share this same interest in mathematics as an explanation of the world then why is there so much disagreement around the world in our religions and their deniers? This might sound like a naive question. However I wondered how Christianity could shed some light on this as they believe in the Trinity, a triangle of the form of God?

[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jericho#Historicity) explains three archaeological studies of the Jericho site, and concludes that the city was abandoned at the time the supposed Biblical battle took place. How do Christians reconcile the Biblical account with this science?

I've heard a lot of religious chatter concerning what exact "sea" was parted by God to allow Moses and the Israelites to cross out of Egypt. Seems productions by the History Channel and other such sources have made statements about it but they also talked about the Mayan end of the world ideas. I know my bible says "Red Sea" but I've heard that could be a mistranslation. I was just wondering if there was any solid evidence to support either location? Such as archaeological findings or other sources. > "18 So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red > Sea." -Exodus 13:18

Various theories for the location of Mount Sinai have been suggested. One is Jebel Al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia, which was in Moses's time part of Midian. The most popular location is in the south of the peninsula of Sinai at either Jabal Musa or Jabal St Catherine. St Catherine is the higher of these two peaks. What is the evidence for any of these, or any other, mountain peaks?

There is a great set of answers that covers some of my question regarding the interpretation of this passage [over on the Biblical Hermeneutics site](https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/q/223/36) , but it didn't answer all of my questions. Today I heard an old pastor speak about when he saw one of those gates for himself in Jerusalem. If I understand it right, the gate he saw was even labeled with "The eye of the needle" or something similar (though his interpretation was not the classic, because he was sure of that there was no way a camel could get through the gate he saw). 1. What gate (which obviously exists today) is this pastor speaking about? 2. Is there really any part of the Jerusalem walls left since Jesus time? Weren't all of the walls destroyed after the siege of Jerusalem 70 A.D? ## Update 1 Even since before asking this question, I never doubted that Jesus was speaking about a real "eye of the needle", and not a gate. Even though I marked one answer (which was really clarifying) as accepted, it would be really interesting to nail this myth and go down to the details. According to the New Bible Dictionary, third Edition, p. 562, there is one remaining ancient wall "at the present-day Damascus Gate". What does "ancient" mean in this context? Could it have survived since the days of Jesus? In that case, how big is this part? Are there other ancient walls that could be from the days of Jesus? And are there any "gates" in these ancient walls that have been suggested as the "needle eye gate"?

Young Earth Creationists believe in a young earth, followed by a literal global flood based on the belief that Scripture is written as history. Often, in comments, discussion forums, and discussions in general, they will refer to "overwhelming physical evidence" that backs up their theological belief. What phsyical evidence do they teach or believe can be interpreted as consistent with the idea of a global flood?

Two answers to a question regarding the Book of Mormon contain the following: > Without the Book of Mormon, nothing at all remains. If the Book of > Mormon is true, Joseph is a prophet and everything else that entails. > If it's not true, then so is the claim that Joseph is a prophet, and > everything comes crashing down. It might still be a good spiritual > book, but of human origin (and of a human who then wrongly claimed to > be a prophet). > > Joseph Smith himself stated: > > > “Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our > > religion? We have none” (Minutes and Discourse, 21 April 1834, Church > > History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt > > Lake City). > > What impact is made within LDS theology regarding the spiritual content of the Book of Mormon when the historical claims therein are shown by both secular and Mormon scholars to be factually unsupported? > > None. **Just as the bible is not an archaeological/scientific text > (garden of Eden, Noah flood, etc), the Book of Mormon is not as well.** > It, like the Bible, is a religious text. Archaeological/historic > evidence is nice to have but not necessary (though plenty of evidence > exists IMO. The above are partial responses to the question "How does LDS theology suffer when Book of Mormon historical claims are unsupported?" I know that this is a very difficult, perhaps impossible, question to turn towards the Bible since there are multiple hundreds of individuals, cities, nations, and events described in the Old and New Testaments that have been verified through archaeology, contemporary writings, and other scholarly efforts. Having said that, where science appears to contradict biblical content, the traditional Christian response is often strikingly similar to the Mormon response emboldened above: > Some Christian fundamentalists seem to lose their spiritual balance by reacting too much against science. Others look upon the Bible as an ancient science book. It is not. - faithmag.com There are others, though, who appear to rest quite heavily upon external verification: > I often have people tell me that “the Bible’s not a science textbook!” But the Bible is actually a textbook of historical science—and the only such textbook that is totally reliable and infallible. - Ken Ham Again, acknowledging the complication that the reliance upon external verification may be strong **because** it actually exists, the question I am clumsily attempting to ask is: How would traditional Christian theology suffer if there were little or no verification of the Bible's historical content? * I do not know how to ask this without risking closure due to it's suppositional nature and broad target audience. Apologies.

I've heard from multiple sources that there isn't even the slightest of (extra-biblical) evidence of the Exodus story or even evidence for the presence of Israelites in Egypt. If this is true, why is this and how do Christians get over this lack of evidence? If this isn't necessarily true, what extra-biblical evidence is there of Israelites being enslaved, escaping, and wandering in the desert for 40 years?

I have been trying to find any additional information on the news that were published in 2016 about underground church discovered in Turkey, Nevsehir. But there is nothing. Can anyone help? Here is one of the news: https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/historic-church-discovered-in-turkeys-nevsehir-could-change-history-of-orthodoxy-94309 Here is a photo of one of the frescos from the news.

Charles Taze Russel, the founder of the 19th century Bible Students movement that eventually become the Jehovah's Witnesses, taught extensively that the [Great Pyramid of Giza had esoteric meaning relevant to Christians and even that the Pyramid had been built under divine influence](https://archive.org/details/TheDivinePlanOfTheAgesAndTheGreatPyramid) . The Jehovah's Witnesses [no longer teach this, but do admit that the Great Pyramid may have been built using astrological lore that Christians should not have anything to do with](https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1956362) . There has been some speculation that the Great Pyramid and/or the Pyramids in general were built by Joseph as grain silos, but [this idea doesn't seem to be official teaching in any church](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/a/44965/31636) . Are there any Christian groups today, in the 21st century, that have specific teachings on the relevance of the Great Pyramid to Christians or believers in the Christian Bible? By specific teachings, I'm not referring to the belief that it exists (it obviously does), but that it has some esoteric or other special meaning that is not found in modern-day academic Egyptology. This would include, for example, teachings on any of the following: 1) That the Great Pyramid was built on divine command or by intervention of God or other creatures of God mentioned in the Bible such as angels or the Nephilim. 2) That the Great Pyramid was, or is, a temple to God (i.e. as opposed to a pagan deity or deified pagan ruler). 3) That the Great Pyramid had some specific relevance to the Old Testament Antediluvians, Patriarchs, or Israelites (e.g. that it was built by Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, or some other Biblical figure for some specific purpose that just happens to have not been made crystal clear in the extant Biblical texts). 4) That the Great Pyramid contains hidden messages for Christians. 5) That the Great Pyramid has some other specific relevance to ancient and/or modern believers beyond simply being a cool ancient building. Discussion: *To be clear*, I'm not asking for links to texts on 19th century or later Pyramidology or other forms of what is considered today to be fringe archaeology. Those are easy to find. Obviously, many Pyramidologists are and have been Christians, but I'm asking about churches that have formal teachings in the way that the Bible Students did, not about what individual Christians believe or believed. While I have read some of the works of Ron Wyatt, a famous fringe archaeologist and Seventh-Day Adventist who claimed to have made many fantastic discoveries in the Middle East, neither his findings nor his conclusions seem to have been accepted by any church, even his own. To make an analogy, there may well be a Christian artist out there who painted Methuselah as a ginger, but that doesn't mean that any Christian church, sect, community, order, or other type of group officially teaches that Methuselah was ginger or that his being ginger had any specific spiritual or doctrinal effect. The reason *why* a particular church would have teachings on this would be interesting, but would not directly affect whether a teaching counts. The teaching could be based on any combination of Biblical exegesis, archaeology, ancient traditions or claims of ancient tradition, modern-day prophesy by or direct revelation to leaders (for churches that believe in such), or extra-Biblical or apocryphal texts. Obviously science-fiction or fantasy stories that include mystical or fantastical teachings on the Pyramid or Egyptian pyramids in general, such as the Stargate franchise, are *right out*. Those are interesting stories but are not religion, even though they often reference religion or include religious content.

Just watched this glorious video. In watching it, the similarity of the imagery to the description of God's presence as fire and smoke in the wilderness of Exodus and especially on Mt. Sinai was striking. > Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. (Exodus 19:18, NIV) I'm wondering if any research has been done into whether Ancient Israel, and in particular the author of Exodus would have had knowledge, experience, or read descriptions of volcanoes to have influenced his choice of language.

This question is very similar to a question I just asked, but it's not a duplicate (just hear me out). Since there are many ways to read the Bible, I wanted to understand multiple points of view, that being: 1) those who understand this as a non-literal, non-historical event (modern, liberal scholars, perhaps) -- the previous question ; 2) those who interpret the events as literal, specifically the pericope of the Resurrection of the Holy Ones as cited in Matthew's Passion narrative specifically -- this question. Of course, the main body of the question will be similar, but I wanted to direct the question towards a different audience and provide a venue for that. There are also a variety of other questions geared for those who interpret it as literal. The scripture of focus is: > And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to > the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the > graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, > And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the > holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they > that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those > things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the > Son of God. (Matthew 27:51-54. KJV) With phenomenal events such as an earthquake so mighty it opens a number of graves and then the righteous dead arise and interact with the community, one would expect Matthew to explicate these miracles beyond the pithy lines in his text; or, at least, expect the other evangelists to also document these incidences in their narratives. The Markan narrative denotes the temple’s rented veil and the centurion’s response, but does not make any mention of an earthquake or the resurrection of saints. Similarly, Luke and John do not make even the slightest reference to these events. Additionally, during Peter’s pontifical address during Pentecost, not even a nebulous reference to a powerful earthquake or the resurrection of these saints is conveyed. Pentecost occurred fifty days following Christ’s resurrection and the supposed Holy Ones’ appearance to “many.” Therefore, the omission of these events in Peter’s address, especially to an audience that were likely witnesses to these events, is a curious oversight. Why didn't the other Gospel writers write about these? Why aren't there other extra-biblical sources for these events? It seems like more than Christ's followers would have witnessed these events.... And it certainly seems like something people would continue to talk about for ages thereafter... Are there other sources that may imply the opening of tombs and rising of the deceased? Or were only the righteous ones able to "see" these? Or is it that there weren't that many "righteous" individuals in the scheme of things -- that it was hardly noticed? Or that the resurrected beings, looked just like everyone else? Or did the High Priest somehow cover-up this story? (For instance, we read that they tried telling people that Christ's body was stolen). Or did they just destroy all the records they could get their hands on? (and the general witness to these events were illiterate)? Or we simply have not unearthed these records yet? After all, an absence of evidence is not evidence for something, right? Just confused why no one else mentions it. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!) Also, do we have any archaeological records of tombs breaking open? And does the geological record correspond to an earthquake happening in this region? ***If you are interested as to a non-literal, modern interpretation, please see my other question for the answer provided there.

In War 1.650ff, Josephus describes a confrontation between the Herod and the people over a statue of an eagle that he had put up over the entrance to the temple. What was the significance of this eagle? The eagle was a complex symbol in the ancient world. It was a Greek symbol of Zeus (an Egyptian religious symbol before that), appeared on lots of Ptolemaic coins and might have been a sort of dynastic symbol, but also a symbol of the Roman Empire. The eagle appears in relief on lots of temples of the time, but Josephus' description makes it sound like the eagle is fully 3D (rather than a relief), like those on the treasury at Petra. Why did Herod put up the eagle? It is the only animal representation we have evidence of in Herod's temple (or at any time in the Second Temple). He knew it would make the people mad, so what was he after? I'm interested in historical arguments based in academically credible source material.

According to the ancient historian, Mantheo, the fifteenth dynasty of Egypt were a people known as the [Hyksos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos) , literally the "rulers of foreign countries" or, as sometimes been translated "the Shepherd Kings." These Hyksos were the rulers of Egypt roughly 1700 BC, were clearly not Egyptian, and centered in and around Goshen - all facts that line up with the time period and story of [Joseph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_(son_of_Jacob)) . Still, scholars do not think this is archeological "proof" of Joseph. Why is this the case?

[Göbekli Tepe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe) is an ancient archaeological site in southern Turkey, dated to around 12 thousand years ago. Do young earth creationists say: * that is not 12,000 years old? * that it was created immediately after man was created 12,000 years ago? * that it was from a previous creation/"world"?

This is from the 2/1/2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Society : >...For almost two hundred years after the crucifixion, Roman cities are entirely devoid of any trace of early Christians; to date, no one has ever found any object that’s been plausibly connected to them. As an archaeologist and a historian, I think it’s time we start taking this silence seriously and stop trying to fill it with any more sensational “discoveries.” Many of Jesus’ followers—men and women who lived in the first, second and even third century Roman Mediterranean—simply didn’t want to be found. > >That’s not exactly the first thing that usually comes to mind when we think about early Christians, but the evidence is insurmountable at this point. For almost four hundred years, there were no manger scenes anywhere in the Roman world. There were no crucifixes displayed in homes or schools. There weren’t even any bound Bibles tucked into church pews. In fact, we actually don’t even know what “churches” looked like, at least, not until the middle of the third century. For a community that would later come to remember its earliest history as a time of vicious persecution, answered with outspoken acts of martyrdom, this archaeological silence poses a slight problem. Where are these people?...

There are Christian churches and abbeys including very old ones in Hungary where we can find frescos about astrological signs. These frescos are relative new, probably a few hundred years old. As far as I know Christianty and astrology are mutually exclusive, so I wonder how these frescos were accepted. I guess this is not restricted to Hungary, but maybe it is something relative common. Is there any archeological or historical explanation about this?

I have read several books that identify archaeological evidence in support of hundreds and hundreds of biblical places, cultures, and historical events. What is the archaeological evidence for the events in the Book of Mormon?

Is it true that there is an inscription of Yahweh found that is older than when Moses was revealed the name of God in the Bible?

Exactly as the title says. What is the archaeological evidence that Sodom and Gomorrah existed and were destroyed by fire from the heavens (Genesis 19:24 )?