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The truth behind Ron Wyatt's archaeological discoveries.

Redemptionsong

Well-Known Member
Years ago, the biblical archaeologist and adventurer, Ron Wyatt, came to Britain to give talks about his discoveries. He was giving talks in the county of Oxfordshire, England. I invited him to speak at the school where I taught, and he kindly spoke to our students about the things he had discovered during his archaeological adventures in the Near/Middle East. He was involved in the search for such things as Noah's ark, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the resting place of the Holy Ark, and the site of Mount Horeb (Sinai).

I have my doubts about the sites he associated with Sodom and Gomorrah, because he located these cities at the southern end of the Dead Sea, whereas I believe, from the scriptural evidence, that they were at the northern end; but, apart from that, I have a lot of sympathy with his detective work and honesty before God.

To me, the most striking of his discoveries were the site of Mount Horeb, in Arabia, and the place that he associated with the Holy Ark, Jeremiah's Grotto.

Some of Ron's discoveries have since received a lot of attention, especially the site he associated with the grounding of Noah's ark in eastern Turkey. Mount Horeb has also received a lot of attention, not least from Saudi authorities.

What, I wonder, is the situation with Jermiah's Grotto and the Holy Ark? Do Israeli authorities know about Ron Wyatt's claims to have found its hiding place? Maybe you know more than I do and can tell me more?
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
What, I wonder, is the situation with Jermiah's Grotto and the Holy Ark? Do Israeli authorities know about Ron Wyatt's claims to have found its hiding place? Maybe you know more than I do and can tell me more?
What's stopping him from unearthing it or providing some footage?

Edit: I was not aware he was dead...
 
Last edited:

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Anyone can claim anything. I don't pay attention to all such unless and until evidence is produced.
 

sooda

Veteran Member
Years ago, the biblical archaeologist and adventurer, Ron Wyatt, came to Britain to give talks about his discoveries. He was giving talks in the county of Oxfordshire, England. I invited him to speak at the school where I taught, and he kindly spoke to our students about the things he had discovered during his archaeological adventures in the Near/Middle East. He was involved in the search for such things as Noah's ark, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the resting place of the Holy Ark, and the site of Mount Horeb (Sinai).

I have my doubts about the sites he associated with Sodom and Gomorrah, because he located these cities at the southern end of the Dead Sea, whereas I believe, from the scriptural evidence, that they were at the northern end; but, apart from that, I have a lot of sympathy with his detective work and honesty before God.

To me, the most striking of his discoveries were the site of Mount Horeb, in Arabia, and the place that he associated with the Holy Ark, Jeremiah's Grotto.

Some of Ron's discoveries have since received a lot of attention, especially the site he associated with the grounding of Noah's ark in eastern Turkey. Mount Horeb has also received a lot of attention, not least from Saudi authorities.

What, I wonder, is the situation with Jermiah's Grotto and the Holy Ark? Do Israeli authorities know about Ron Wyatt's claims to have found its hiding place? Maybe you know more than I do and can tell me more?

Ron Wyatt was a con artist to lived by lying and taking money from innocent believers. WTF are you doing?
 

sooda

Veteran Member
Years ago, the biblical archaeologist and adventurer, Ron Wyatt, came to Britain to give talks about his discoveries. He was giving talks in the county of Oxfordshire, England. I invited him to speak at the school where I taught, and he kindly spoke to our students about the things he had discovered during his archaeological adventures in the Near/Middle East. He was involved in the search for such things as Noah's ark, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the resting place of the Holy Ark, and the site of Mount Horeb (Sinai).

I have my doubts about the sites he associated with Sodom and Gomorrah, because he located these cities at the southern end of the Dead Sea, whereas I believe, from the scriptural evidence, that they were at the northern end; but, apart from that, I have a lot of sympathy with his detective work and honesty before God.

To me, the most striking of his discoveries were the site of Mount Horeb, in Arabia, and the place that he associated with the Holy Ark, Jeremiah's Grotto.

Some of Ron's discoveries have since received a lot of attention, especially the site he associated with the grounding of Noah's ark in eastern Turkey. Mount Horeb has also received a lot of attention, not least from Saudi authorities.

What, I wonder, is the situation with Jermiah's Grotto and the Holy Ark? Do Israeli authorities know about Ron Wyatt's claims to have found its hiding place? Maybe you know more than I do and can tell me more?

The Saudi authorities had NOTHING to do with Wyatt. He simply LIED.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Years ago, the biblical archaeologist and adventurer, Ron Wyatt, came to Britain to give talks about his discoveries. He was giving talks in the county of Oxfordshire, England. I invited him to speak at the school where I taught, and he kindly spoke to our students about the things he had discovered during his archaeological adventures in the Near/Middle East. He was involved in the search for such things as Noah's ark, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the resting place of the Holy Ark, and the site of Mount Horeb (Sinai).

I have my doubts about the sites he associated with Sodom and Gomorrah, because he located these cities at the southern end of the Dead Sea, whereas I believe, from the scriptural evidence, that they were at the northern end; but, apart from that, I have a lot of sympathy with his detective work and honesty before God.

To me, the most striking of his discoveries were the site of Mount Horeb, in Arabia, and the place that he associated with the Holy Ark, Jeremiah's Grotto.

Some of Ron's discoveries have since received a lot of attention, especially the site he associated with the grounding of Noah's ark in eastern Turkey. Mount Horeb has also received a lot of attention, not least from Saudi authorities.

What, I wonder, is the situation with Jermiah's Grotto and the Holy Ark? Do Israeli authorities know about Ron Wyatt's claims to have found its hiding place? Maybe you know more than I do and can tell me more?
Rationalwiki has this to say about Wyatt:
QUOTE
Ron Wyatt (1933 - 1999) was a pseudoarchaeologist famed for alleged discoveries of material evidence in support of some of the major events recorded in the Bible.

His work was typically rejected by mainstream archaeology and Christians alike, the bulk of his support coming from the more extreme fringes of evangelical Christianity.

Wyatt's work is best characterized as being highly interpretive and suffering from a deficit of evidence. A schism developed after his death in which the ownership of his records fell in to dispute. This led to some of his records being difficult to locate.

Answers in Genesis (AIG) provides an appraisal of Wyatt's remarkable good fortune in discovering so many artifacts and sites of the bible:

“”Are the claims true? If they are, such a staggeringly impressive list would mean that Ron Wyatt had been almost as miraculously assisted by God as the patriarch Moses. If, however, a careful examination of just one or two of these claims reveals them to be false, fanciful or fraudulent, the ‘divine leading’ option evaporates, and it is clear that Christians are being seriously misled.[1]
This may be one of those odd occasions in which AIG is correct, since the alternative is to accept that Wyatt, an amateur archaeologist, did the archaeological equivalent of developing General Relativity, Gravitational Theory, and after a break for lunch went on to develop the Theory of Evolution.

Wyatt's work is typically cited by fundamentalists as proof that events in the Bible actually occurred, but even this is only attempted by the terminally ignorant or stupid. When AIG shies away from something, it's a pretty good indicator that it's broken on through to the other side of crazy.
UNQUOTE

There seems little more to add.

I am intrigued as to what sort of school it was you taught at, that would invite a fraud like Wyatt along.
 

Redemptionsong

Well-Known Member
What's stopping him from unearthing it or providing some footage?

Edit: I was not aware he was dead...

He did provide shots of the entrance to the Grotto, but nothing that clearly defined the contents.

Even before his death, I believe he said that someone had tried to unearth it, but had died of a heart attack! So, his conclusion was that God's time had not yet arrived.
 

Redemptionsong

Well-Known Member
Anyone can claim anything. I don't pay attention to all such unless and until evidence is produced.

Evidence supporting Jebel el Lawz as the site of Mount Horeb (in Saudi Arabia) is probably stronger than the evidence for the traditional Mount Sinai location in Egypt.
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
Even before his death, I believe he said that someone had tried to unearth it, but had died of a heart attack!
There's a similar story in the Talmud, that a priest found the location of the Ark, but before he could tell anyone about it, he died.

BTW, what meaning do Christians find in the Ark?
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
There's a similar story in the Talmud, that a priest found the location of the Ark, but before he could tell anyone about it, he died.

BTW, what meaning do Christians find in the Ark?
People die. One can always make outrageous claims about them after the fact.

Besides, we all know that it was Indiana Jones that found the Ark of the Covenant.
 

Redemptionsong

Well-Known Member
Rationalwiki has this to say about Wyatt:
QUOTE
Ron Wyatt (1933 - 1999) was a pseudoarchaeologist famed for alleged discoveries of material evidence in support of some of the major events recorded in the Bible.

His work was typically rejected by mainstream archaeology and Christians alike, the bulk of his support coming from the more extreme fringes of evangelical Christianity.

Wyatt's work is best characterized as being highly interpretive and suffering from a deficit of evidence. A schism developed after his death in which the ownership of his records fell in to dispute. This led to some of his records being difficult to locate.

Answers in Genesis (AIG) provides an appraisal of Wyatt's remarkable good fortune in discovering so many artifacts and sites of the bible:

“”Are the claims true? If they are, such a staggeringly impressive list would mean that Ron Wyatt had been almost as miraculously assisted by God as the patriarch Moses. If, however, a careful examination of just one or two of these claims reveals them to be false, fanciful or fraudulent, the ‘divine leading’ option evaporates, and it is clear that Christians are being seriously misled.[1]
This may be one of those odd occasions in which AIG is correct, since the alternative is to accept that Wyatt, an amateur archaeologist, did the archaeological equivalent of developing General Relativity, Gravitational Theory, and after a break for lunch went on to develop the Theory of Evolution.

Wyatt's work is typically cited by fundamentalists as proof that events in the Bible actually occurred, but even this is only attempted by the terminally ignorant or stupid. When AIG shies away from something, it's a pretty good indicator that it's broken on through to the other side of crazy.
UNQUOTE

There seems little more to add

I am intrigued as to what sort of school it was you taught at, that would invite a fraud like Wyatt along.

All speakers have a bias of some sort. It's a matter of priming students to recognise that alternative views exist, and give them a chance to question. It was also discussed at length afterwards, and many students did express their doubts about his discoveries.

What is interesting from your response is that you rely upon a rationalist website without even questioning it! What does rationalwiki have to say about the Bible as whole?
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
All speakers have a bias of some sort. It's a matter of priming students to recognise that alternative views exist, and give them a chance to question. It was also discussed at length afterwards, and many students did express their doubts about his discoveries.

What is interesting from your response is that you rely upon a rationalist website without even questioning it! What does rationalwiki have to say about the Bible as whole?
I am relying on Rationalwiki to expose a pseudoscientist. For that, I find it a good source. I also look people up on the Encyclopedia of American Loons. If somebody's name appears in either, it is good sign not to take them seriously. What is amusing in this case is that even "Answers in Genesis" is suspicious of Wyatt!

But if you prefer, here is the Wiki entry on Wyatt: Ron Wyatt - Wikipedia
The guy has no credibility.
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
Well, rest assured, he came to our school without charge, so I'm not going to lose sleep over that one.
How do you know that?
Your school might not have paid him, but putting it on his resume might very well have boosted his income


That's the problem with conman liars. You never really know why they're doing what they do or saying what they say.
Like Trump.
Tom
 

Redemptionsong

Well-Known Member
I can provide shots of the Loch Ness monster and Yeti.
But they don't actually demonstrate anything other than pics aren't particularly trustworthy.
Tom

That's fair comment. But in the case of the Holy Ark, there is biblical evidence, and a tradition, that supports the idea that Jeremiah was involved in hiding the Ark.
 
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