Norman Geisler, William Nix

Archaeology And The Old Testament Text

"A substantial proof for the accuracy of the Old Testament text has come from archaeology. Numerous discoveries have confirmed the historical accuracy of the biblical documents, even down to the obsolete names of foreign kings on occasion. 

Reference should be made at this point to Robert Dick Wilson's classic work, A Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament, or the more recent work of William F. Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity, in support of this view. 

One interesting example may be cited from even more recent findings than these. Until recently the reference to "So, king of Egypt" (II Kings 17:4) has often been used to illustrate the total ignorance of the writer of the book. No such king of Egypt was known to history. 

Now it is known, from the Egyptian spelling of the city of Sais--the capital of an Egyptian province in the western-delta of that time (c. 725 B.C.)-- that the text should read "To So [Sais], to the King of Egypt." Tefnakhte was the king of this Egyptian province at the time, and Hoshea, king of Israel, was appealing to him for help to withstand the Assyrians. 

Rather than a manifestation of complete ignorance of the facts of its day, the biblical record thus reflects a great knowledge by the writer of his day, as well as precision in textual transmission."