Among many other things, the Bible is the ultimate history of the human race. It establishes clear landmarks against which all other histories can be tested. There is some truth to the statement that history is a system of agreed-upon myths. Historians deal with the information that is available to them. But, if the information is wrong, the conclusions of history will be wrong, also.
In the fifth century B.C., a Greek historian by the name of Herodotus took on the task of writing the history of the world up to his time. He wrote a huge nine-volume history which has been recognized as an authority since that day, earning the title, “the Father of History.” Since then, we have had a reasonably accurate history, but prior to his day, the history of the world is composed of one myth or legend after another and few historians agree about details and events of history before his day. Generation after generation handed down a system of legends, which were always slanted in favor of whichever nation was preserving the story. For that matter, not even Herodotus believed everything he wrote. He acknowledged that he included quite a few accounts simply because they made a more lively story.
For the last two hundred years or so, archaeologists have provided us with glimpses into the far distant past. Some of their findings can be very enlightening, and we would not deny the great benefit of their work. Especially, they have produced a wealth of information about the great empires of the Middle East. They have learned to decipher long-forgotten languages. They have, very painstakingly, deciphered the inscriptions on old monuments to piece together information about old kingdoms, and old wars. But for all the benefits they provide, they are still only glimpses so that what one archaeologist affirms another denies. They look at their collection of artifacts and make their best guesses. The historian reads prehistoric myths and wonders which part, if any, is true.
While some would place the Bible right alongside those ancient myths, it has proved accurate on many occasions. For example, the ancient Hittite empire was one of the most powerful nations alongside Egypt and Mesopotamia in the ancient world. Until the early 1800s, the Hittite Empire was virtually lost to history. Encyclopedia Britannica acknowledges that “the total knowledge of ‘the Hittites…… was derived from the Old Testament.” Beginning about 1810, archaeologists began to discover the remains of the Hittite Empire. Since then they have pieced together much of their story. The Bible had much to say about the Hittites, but historians could not even find them.
This kind of information can be duplicated over and over. Such consistency builds the case in favor of its accuracy. The characters written about in the Bible were real and lived at a certain time in history just as you and I do. While human history cannot reach back much farther than Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., the bible can take us back much farther. It is true that the history revolves around the Jewish descent from whom Christ was to be born, but there is other information that is found nowhere else. (Borrowed from other sources)