Question: Thank you very much, Dr. Oakes. Thank God I found you. There are also 6 more objections I found and was wondering what you think of these:  [Editor’s Note: This is a follow-up to fourteen previous questions from the same person. The answers are interspersed between the questions.] 15. The historians who supposedly offered […]

Read More

Editor’s Note:  This is a series of 14 questions, so I disperse my answers after the questions.  Most of these criticisms are already refuted elsewhere at the web site, but since this poor unfortunate believer has been assaulted with so many false claims, I am including answers to all of them below.  My responses are […]

Read More

Question: Doesn’t Isaiah 44:28 force the Daniel 9:25 clock to begin at the same time as Erza 1:2? This would makeg the clock wrong as it ends in the mid-50s BC or around there? Answer: Good question.  I can see why someone might wonder about this.  In the Isaiah 44 passage we are told of […]

Read More

Question: In the thread below the author demonstrates that Israel’s idea of the Arabian tribes of the time was contradictory, and based on a 7th century BC understanding on how they worked. I’ll copy paste the comment here, but I implore you to read the entire thread. The question was “Where does the idea that […]

Read More

Question:  If Jesus’ followers were thousands at the time of crucifixion, why did they not save him? They were such cowards who let their Prophet/Messiah beaten by the Romans. Muslims were far more brave, whose 15,000 men fought against the Byzantine Empire’s army of 140,000 in 636 CE and captured the Christian Levant. Why were […]

Read More

Question:  I read that in the 7th century, Christians of Najran interacted with Muhammad in Medina. The event of the mubahala (mutual cursing) took place to resolve a theological dispute between Muslims and Christians circa 632 CE by invoking the curse of God upon liars. The Christian delegation withdrew from the challenge and negotiated a […]

Read More

Question: If the Levites and Priests already knew the criteria for recognizing the true prophet and false prophet (Deut. 13:1-5; 18:21-22), then why did false prophets flourish among Israelites? Why is there no mention of the execution of false prophets by the hands of Levites and Priests? Answer: The answer to this question is really […]

Read More

Questions: I’ve got a couple of questions. Some atheists and Jesus-mythers claim that a book like the Bible and the miracles in it are not surprising because during that time such writings and legends were common, with even serious historians like Tacitus adding miraculous or bizarre things to their writings. They say it was very […]

Read More

Question: What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? Who were the Qumran Community? Who were the Essenes? Answer: The Dead Sea Scrolls are hundreds of manuscripts found in about a half dozen caves in the desert hills to the west of the Dead Sea.  Some are entire documents, and others are mere fragments.  Most were on […]

Read More

Question: If so many experts and historians say the Bible is made up, full of errors, and has been changed, etc. then how can we trust what historians say about secular history? Answer: I assume yours is more of a rhetorical question than an actual one.  You seem to be making a point rather than […]

Read More

Questions: Doctor,  There are historical problems in the trial & crucifixion accounts of the Gospels. 1) Passover was a family holiday. Would the entire Sanhedrin (and the high priest) get up and leave their families, first as a group to arrest him, and second, for a trial of a Galilean wonder-worker? According to later Rabbinic […]

Read More

Editor’s note: I answered the question above in 2011. At that time, I had no knowledge of non-Christian sources supporting this claim, and said so.  However, a visitor to the web site has shared with me an article which does provide good support from a Jewish source in the first century that there was a […]

Read More

Question: Hello Dr Oakes. I saw a video about why Muhammad was far more peaceful than Moses. The man claimed that Christian’s don’t read the Quran and Hadith everyday in context from Muslim scholars, so we have no right to say Muhammad was violent or to quote the violent verses without historical context. But he […]

Read More

Question: I read that: Book of Daniel is forgery because his author was very ill-informed about history. He said: Belshazzar succeed Nebuchadnezzar as his son (Daniel 5; cf. Daniel 7:1 and 8:1). But Belshazzar was neither his successor nor his son; and abundant contemporary records show he was never King of Babylon, but only served […]

Read More

[Editor’s note: This is a series of challenges from a Muslim regarding Jesus to be the fulfillment of Old Testament messianic prophecies.  My answers are interspersed among the questioner’s examples in italics] Claim: There are many biblical prophecies which do not fit into Jesus, for e.g. Response: Whether Jesus fulfilled all potential messianic prophecies is […]

Read More

Question: How did Judaism form? I saw from Wikipedia that it formed from one of the Canaanite god’s called Yahweh?  Is this true? I am skeptical of this notion. Answer: It is hard to prove unambiguously the path by which what we call Judaism was formed.  The biblical evidence is that there were at least […]

Read More

Question: The theology of the Prophets before the exile had no place for the priestly blood sacrifice system. There was no atonement. The law of forgiveness worked directly and without any ritual. If Abraham, Moses, David, etc. were saved without sacrifice, it is hard to understand how blood sacrifice became necessary for salvation from the […]

Read More

Question: What writings should be called God’s word? The words which are literally said by God himself? Muslims claim that the Koran contain God’s words, not the words of Muhammad. His words are separately recorded in Hadith. Christians claim that every word in the Bible is inspired but the fact is: there’s difference between revelation […]

Read More

Questions: My Muslim friend says:  The Major and Minor Prophets echoed the words of pagans i.e. God has wife, God has sons & daughters. The New Testament authors followed them and create God’s-Son in the form of Jesus to attract Roman public. Also, if thousands of people witnessed his crucifixion (which is a hoax) and […]

Read More

Question: I’ve written questions to you before about Jeremiah. I’m now studying Daniel and have found questions regarding the language.  Daniel is written in Aramaic and Hebrew. There are different arguments about the Aramaic. Some say it is quite young – 300BC and later. Others claim it is much older. The Hebrew I think is […]

Read More

Question During the period of the divided Kingdom of Israel, who were the priests who administered the Temple in Judah? I understand that the tribe of Levite was part of the northern Kingdom of Israel.  Thank you. Answer: If you look in the Book of Joshua, you will see that the Levites were not given […]

Read More

Question: Recently an unbeliever raised an objection against the reliability of the biblical accounts, he said that the account of Moses in which he was placed in a basket on the river by his mother had been a copy of the biography of Sargon of Akkad, a Mesopotamian monarch around 2400 BC. The account of […]

Read More

Question: My Muslim friend says:  There were a number of oracles delivered by recognized prophets which did not come true. For example, Ezekiel predicted the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek. 26:7-14), but he himself later acknowledges that the king’s siege of the city was UNSUCCESSFUL (Ezek. 29:17-20). Both Haggai’s (2:21-23) & Zechariah’s (4:6-7) glorious […]

Read More

Question: Philo (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE) did not mention the crucifixion of Jesus or the 3 hours’ darkness although he was contemporary of Jesus. Christians present Josephus and Tacitus as Non-Christian proof of Crucifixion but they wrote long after Jesus. What’s your response? Answer: We have no idea of whether Philo ever mentioned […]

Read More

Comments: Can you show the continuity of the chain of transmission of So-called Gospels?  These were not revealed by God but promote a pagan concept of God/Son or Man-God which was in fashion during times of Jesus.  You will know after your death that what have you done to yourself.  Good Luck! For your kind information, […]

Read More

Question: I have recently read an article that makes the argument that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. However, there is archeological evidence of another Bethlehem this therefore means that Jesus was not born in the town of David and that the gospel writers may have either lied about him being born in David’s Bethlehem or […]

Read More

Question: My friend is losing his faith because in history we are learning about wars, and some of these wars we are studying include wars that were made because of Abrahamic religions. In these religious wars, a lot of people were murdered and tortured as well as other bad things done to them. How would […]

Read More

Questions: My Hindu friend asked 4 questions, please help me with how to respond  i. Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda teach real Christianity. ii. Jesus taught Pantheism and Monism (as said by Swami Vivekananda). He claims that ultimately what is in the Gospels were written 40-100 years after Jesus’s death- and that’s why the real […]

Read More

Question: I want to ask one question. One skeptic New Testament scholar Robert McNair Price says that since our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth was a miracle working historical person who did many miracles like multiplying thousands of bread and fishes, raised the deaths, turning water into wine, healed the sick persons, resurrected, ascended and […]

Read More

Questions: Did Moses copy the Old Testament from another book or source?   If the last statement is true then would that mean that the only reliable thing in the Bible are in the New Testament? Answer: First of all, Moses was only responsible for a limited portion of the Old Testament.  Almost certainly he did […]

Read More

Question: Did Moses copy the Old Testament from another book or source?   If the last statement is true then is the only reliable part of the Bible the New Testament? Answer: First of all, Moses was only responsible for a limited portion of the Old Testament.  Almost certainly he did not write Genesis.  There is […]

Read More

[Editor’s note: An excerpt from the article this question refers to, as well as a link to the article are found after my response to her question. It would be a good idea to look at the link in order to understand the issue being raised] Question: What do you make of this article that […]

Read More

Question: Help me!    Mythicists insist that Josephus’ account of Jesus of Nazareth in BK XVIII of his *antiquities* is a wholesale forgery.   They also insist that the passage about “James the brother of Jesus who was called Messiah” is not, in fact, about Jesus of Nazareth but “Jesus, son of Damneus”   They also insist […]

Read More

Question: Hey all at EFC, how would you respond to this quote from Robert Ingersoll in 1885: “We now know that the Hebrews were never enslaved by the Egyptians, that the entire story (Exodus) is a fiction. We know this because there cannot be found in the Egyptian language one word of Hebrew origin and […]

Read More

Question: Is there any extra-biblical evidence for the triumphal entry? Answer: No.  There is no mention of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  The non-believers who mentioned Jesus and Christians only mentioned the most general facts, such as their devotion to Christ, the death of Jesus, the fact that people believed in his resurrection […]

Read More

Question: Since the 360 day Hebrew calendar should be used when calculating the 70 weeks, if we calculated from 457 BC we would end up in 18 AD before the ministry of Christ. How can this be explained? David: According to whose authority must the 360 day Hebrew lunar year be used to make this […]

Read More

Question: I read a passage in the Bible where it said that there was a blackness and an earthquake after Jesus died. [Editor’s note: Luke 23:44 for the darkness, Matthew 27:51 for the earthquake] Is there historical evidence of people seeing this? Answer: Many people fail to recognize that we have very little information about […]

Read More

Question: I want to know about the reliability of the Bible because many of my friends who are Muslims tell me that Jesus did not die on the cross nor was he risen.  They tell me that this is not written 600 yrs later but from 2nd century or the end of 1st century itself […]

Read More

Questions: I’m not being able to protect my faith because of Muslims and they are telling that the Bible I hold in my hand is corrupted and the original manuscripts are lost. They showed me the video of a debate of Micheal licona a Christian apologist and Shabir Ally who is a Muslim apologist.  They […]

Read More

Question: I have a question concerning the kings of Syria as mentioned in Isaiah 7:1, it identifies the kings Uzziah, Pekah,and Rezin. Do we have evidence for these three kings?  My special concern is for Rezin, the king of Syria.  Do we have evidence for Rezin as a Syrian King? Alexander: Yes we do.  He […]

Read More

[Editor’s note: The questioner is from India and is attempting to respond to unsubstantiated claims that Judaism and/or Christianity have ideas substantially borrowed from Hinduism] Question: 1.Is it true that the Phoenicians traveled to India and brought some arts and ideas of Hinduism and conveyed them back to Palestine where they had influence on Judaism […]

Read More

[Editor’s note: the one asking this question did some follow-up research, finding his own really useful additional information on what Nebuchadnezzar did to fulfill the prophecies in Ezekiel and Jeremiah.  His additional information is at the end of my original response.] Question: I want to ask some things relating to some answers you’ve given on […]

Read More

Question: Bible says that the disciple whom Jesus loves was at the cross. But it doesn’t specifically mention the name so how do we know that it’s John?And some of my friends who are Christians and pastors also say that Islam came before Christianity because of Ishmael.  They say that Ishmael traveled to Arabia with […]

Read More

Question: I am a Christian but I have become very doubtful. I ask you to pray for me, and maybe you will be so kind and answer one of my questions.  Is there any other historical documents or archeological evidence that tells us about the Prophets of the Old Testament? For example Daniel became a […]

Read More

Question: How can we trust the Bible? We know that Jesus existed for sure which every historian would agree but what about what he did ? If his miracles were true as gospels record them why don’t we have historical records of them outside the Bible?There were books that say that the 1st prime minister […]

Read More

Question: I have a question about the excavation of Tyre. Are these excavations really the city of Tyre.  How do they know this if it is a sunken city? Alexander: I have been to the modern city of Tyre myself.  I have also walked the ruins of Tyre–or more accurately the Tyre of the Roman […]

Read More

Question: When Jesus said the the Church of Jerusalem will fall, did he advise the Jews about the fall as well, or was it a prophecy and is there evidence of the church fleeing to the mountains? Answer: Actually, it was not the church in Jerusalem which fell in AD 70.  It was the Jewish […]

Read More

Question: Many thanks for your kind replies to my recent questions. They are helpful.   Ancient history books of Iran & Iraq confirm incidents such as the dream of Nebuchadnezer, Daniel’s interpreteion of it, God saving Daniel & his friends from fire and the mouths of lions. They also confirm both Nebuchdnezer accepting Jehovah/God is real […]

Read More