“I believe in analyzing the Bible by using `the horizontal approach'”, said the Rev. Dr. Paul L. Maier, as he spoke at a seminar at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Peachtree City recently.

He is a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University and campus chaplain to Lutheran students as well as a frequent expert on the Arts and Entertainment network's “Mysteries of the Bible” series. He also is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles.

Maier began his seminar by pointing out that the audience held a special position, sitting in the same latitude as the Holy Land. He also commented that the meaning of the word “Adam” is “red clay,” so perhaps Adam was created in Georgia.

“The horizontal method” as defined by Maier is the study of the Bible in conjunction with studying topographical and geological places in the Bible, by reading historical sources, especially those written in the first three centuries, and by visiting archeological sites.

“It's a thrilling time to be alive,” he said. “We have the advantage of being able to personally compare the current finds with those mentioned in the Bible. At this point in time, 90 percent of the places in the Old Testament and 97 percent of the places in the New Testament have all been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

He added that 100 percent of the places traveled by the Apostle Paul have now been positively identified and proven to be a fact.

“Just think of the number of the world's religions that do not have a special `place,'” he said. “Christianity can be very proud of the fact that we not only have a book describing our special places — we can actually identify them.”

The first bones discovered and proven to be someone mentioned in the Bible are those of Joseph Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin Council high priest who indicted Jesus early on Good Friday, Maier reported. They were unearthed in an ossuary just south of Jerusalem in November 1990. His name was on the “bone box” and the manner in which it was fluted and adorned and the way the bones were handled was used only in the first century. There is now no doubt that the name mentioned in the Bible in connection with Jesus, belonged to a real person, Maier said.

Maier pointed out that the further away we get in time from A.D. 33, the more we can prove the places and customs of the Old and New Testaments.

Everyone has access to microfiche, the Internet, CD ROM's, and a number of translations and interpretations both in the Bible and the early writings of historians, such as Flavius Josephus, he said.

Josephus was born in A.D. 37 and wrote 20 volumes on his times, including quite a bit on Jesus. Due to the fact that he never converted to Christianity, he writes from a historical and impartial point of view.

“People today know more than any previous great church man, such as St. Augustin, Martin Luther, John Wesley, etc.,” said Maier.

“Stay tuned,” he concluded, “because before you die, a number of new discoveries will have been made and the people and the places in the Bible will be even more meaningful to you.”

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