Hidden Hittites
| by | Kyle Butt, M.Div. |
Almost
fifty times in the Old Testament, we can read about a people known as
the Hittites. They were major players in Jewish history, and were listed
as one of the nations that the children of Israel needed to conquer
when entering the Promised Land (Joshua 11:3-4). Also, King David had
among his army a valiant Hittite named Uriah, who was murdered by David
because the king had committed adultery with his wife, Bathsheba.
Without a doubt, the Old Testament frequently mentions the Hittites as a
very real group of people. But for many years in secular history and in
archaeology, the Hittites were as invisible as men from Mars. No solid
archaeological evidence could be found that verified the existence of
the Hittites. For this reason, many people scorned the biblical record
and insisted that the absence of information concerning the Hittites
proved that the Bible was filled with incorrect material.However, the year 1906 saw many people changing their minds about both the Hittites and the Bible. An archaeologist, Hugo Winckler, visited a city in Turkey named Boghaz-Köy. Upon excavating portions of the city, he found a breathtaking number of human artifacts—including five temples, many sculptures, and a fortified castle. But more important, he found a huge storeroom filled with over 10,000 clay tablets. After completing the difficult task of deciphering the tablets, it was announced to the world that the Hittites had been found. The sight at Boghaz-Köy had been the Hittite capital city, Hattusha (see Price, 1997, p. 83).
All the people who had used the absence of archaeological evidence about the Hittites to mock the Bible’s accuracy were shamefaced and silent, and another small piece of evidence was added to the ever-growing mass of facts verifying the Bible’s accuracy.
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