The “Lachish Relief” is a set of stone panels depicting and describing the Assyrian victory over the kingdom of Judah during the siege of Lachish in 701 BCE. Carved between 700-681 BCE, it decorated the South-West Palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh and is now on display at the British Museum in London. The inscription above reads “Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judgment, before (or at the entrance of) the city of Lachish (Lakhisha). I give permission for its slaughter.” (Wikimedia Commons)
I sometime encounter people who not only reject the “supernatural” aspects of the Bible but casually dismiss it altogether as no more than a collection of fairy tales invented by primitive goat herds. As this and a host of other parallel cases plainly show, however, that’s far too broad a characterization and much too glib a dismissal. I can’t, off hand, think of an archaeologist specialized in the area — whether religious believer or not — who flatly rejects the Bible as ahistorical.
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