Scripture & RecordScripture & Record

Bible prophecy checked against the historical record

Divided Kingdoms

  • The Taylor Prism of Sennacherib, BM 91032

    Hexagonal clay prism listing the campaigns of Sennacherib, including the tribute received from Hezekiah of Judah in 701 BCE.

  • Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (1956)

    The critical edition of the Neo-Babylonian chronicle tablets in the British Museum, including B.M. 21901. Open access.

  • The Fall of Nineveh Chronicle (ABC 3), BM 21901

    Babylonian chronicle tablet recording the years 616-609 BCE, including the campaign against Nineveh. The principal external witness to the fall of the Assyrian capital.

  • Micah

    Isaiah’s contemporary from a small town — and the clearest case of one prophet being quoted by name in another book, with the effect of his words described.

  • Amos

    A herdsman from Judah with the sharpest social criticism in the Hebrew Bible, and an earthquake in the superscription that may have left a layer in the ground.

  • Hosea

    A marriage as sign-act, the last decades before Samaria fell, and Hebrew so difficult that the textual problems themselves limit what can be claimed from it.

  • Jonah

    The one prophetic book that is a story about a prophet rather than a collection of oracles — which is why this site does not grade it until the genre question is settled.

  • 2 Kings

    The point where almost every king can be checked against Assyrian and Babylonian records — and where the regnal numbers for Israel and Judah refuse to reconcile.

  • Isaiah

    Sixty-six chapters spanning two centuries, and the single most consequential authorship dispute in the Hebrew Bible — because at 45:1 the text names a Persian king by name.

  • Proverbs

    Collections inside collections, a stretch running close to Egyptian instruction literature, and the error the form invites: reading an observation as a promise.