Did scholars prove an angel killed 185K Assyrian troops?

#maklelan2100

[Valohir]

This popped up in my news feed this morning and I literally thought, "I bet Dan's gonna do a video on this." 😂

[michaelbell]

Dan, you've got to be my favourite theist. You have the capability to present facts without bias. That is a rare skill, indeed.

[Phylaetra]

I just saw it yesterday!

Of course - the headline did not match the _article_ - that was fairly nuanced, and pointed out that (1) it looks like they found where an Assyrian fortification _might_ have been; and (2) there was a lot of work needed to support that conclusion, but this might be a good place to start looking; and (3) that scholars had several alternative thoughts...

[welcometonebalia]

"Wildly inaccurate" is one way to put it.

[roypiltdown]

how would you *prove* angelic interaction via archeology? i dont remember any techniques from my anthro courses.

[Wkumar]

This reminds me of the Facebook post my mom shared about evidence of Moses drowning the army of Egypt in the Red Sea.

[FeliciaByNature]

tl;dw: no, they did not, but there's some cool archaeology happening.

[noahroad]

Hi Dan. I have a very brief question concerning the texts of Genesis 3:15 and 16:10. Is the word used for “Seed” the same for both (as I suspect it is)? Thank you.

[inwyrdn]

The only angels on the battlefield are medics, and the Archangel of them all is Desmond Doss.

[brycedyck]

On a side note, the sizes of ancient armies were always exaggerated wildly! If historical documents say an army was 100, 000 strong, the reality was probably more like ten thousand 😊

[lordofuzkulak]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t Jerusalem been besieged multiple times since Sennacherib’s siege? In which case until excavation work is done on that hill, it’d be a bit hasty to claim that as Sennacherib’s camp rather than a camp from a later siege. It’s a good possibility it is (and likely it was used in the later sieges also), but it’s still extremely tenuous to claim it validates the biblical account until further research is done on the site (I sincerely doubt that evidence that backs up the biblical account beyond Assyria besieged Jerusalem one time that fits the approximate time frame will be found, if any).

[scienceexplains]

Sometimes when I think I know *why* the answer to the video title question is obviously No, I hesitate to watch the video. But I usually do, anyway, in case there is more than one way that the implied claim is wrong (e.g. that historians proved the slaughter).

[naggoob]

Very fascinating. I love learning about history. 👍👏

[bzfgt]

Weird question--the burden of proof on anyone making this claim would be immense

[ElfInflicted]

Could they raise armies that big back then? Did they have the logistics to outfit and support that many people on a protracted campaign?

Either way the archeology aspect is really cool.

[Cornelius]

Wait wait… so the relief portraying the battle is actually an accurate aerial map of the city/surrounding area? Must’ve been aliens

[MichaelWalker-denf]

Did they enjoy 'la quiche' in Lachish?

[Geminous]

Actually it was 184, 999 troops that were killed by the angel, I think.... ;-)

[jd]

i haven’t watched this yet, but i have little doubt the answer is “yes, scholars totally proved that”

[grieftex]

I remember learning in school that it was probably a plague that struck his siege camp and forced him to end his campaign