It’s trendy to today view the Bible as little more than a collection of national folklore, even here in Israel. But again and again, new scientific methods are confirming the biblical narrative is not only inspirational, but also an accurate historical record. Which in turn lends weight to the overall veracity of scripture, including the more miraculous elements.

Israeli researchers on Thursday confirmed the biblical account of the conquest of the Philistine city of Gath by Hazael, king of Aram-Damasus, as described in 2 Kings 12:17.

To accomplish this, they used a new technology that measures the Earth’s magnetic field to identify burnt materials discovered in excavations and estimate their firing temperatures.

The researchers published their findings in the scientific journal PLOS One, in an article titled “Applying thermal demagnetization to archaeological materials: A tool for detecting burnt clay and estimating its firing temperature.”

“Our findings are important for determining the intensity of the fire and the scope of destruction in Gath—the largest and most powerful city in the land at the time, and also for understanding construction practices in the region,” said co-author Professor Aren Maeir from the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan.

This new technique was developed by researchers at four Israeli universities who have similarly used the earth’s magnetic field to create a kind of archaeological “clock” by which they can “test” the biblical account.

When the breakthrough technology was first announced in late 2022, Israeli media hailed it as “the research that proves the biblical stories.”

Even liberal secular publications had to acknowledge that the data coming from this new research “dovetails well with a biblical episode.”

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