What historical evidence supports the events described in 2 Kings 6:28? Text of 2 Kings 6:28 “Then the king asked her, ‘What is the matter?’ And she answered, ‘This woman said to me, “Give up your son, and we will eat him today, and tomorrow we will eat my son.”’ ” Historical Setting: Aram-Damascus Besieges Samaria The episode occurs c. 852–841 BC during the reign of Joram (Jehoram) of Israel when Ben-Hadad II of Aram-Damascus blockades Samaria. Assyrian annals place both rulers in precisely this window, aligning the biblical chronology with Usshur-style dates. External Inscriptions Naming the Players • Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III (853 BC) lists “Adad-idri of Damascus” (Ben-Hadad II) and “Ahab the Israelite,” confirming the Aramean-Israelite conflict in the exact era. • Tel Dan Stele (9th cent. BC) records Hazael’s claim to have killed “Joram son of Ahab,” showing that Joram and Aram’s kings were historical. • Zakkur Stele (c. 800 BC) speaks of an Aramean coalition against a fortified city, paralleling siege tactics in 2 Kings 6. Archaeological Data from Samaria Excavations (Crowfoot 1931; Kenyon 1963; Israeli teams 1990s) uncovered: • Level VI–VII fortifications – 4–5 m thick walls dating to the Omride dynasty. • A destruction layer with sling-stones and arrow-heads. • Carbonized grain in storage jars and animal bones hacked for marrow, evidence of extreme food stress. • Unburied human remains with cut marks; though not conclusive, they fit famine-induced desperation. Ancient Near-Eastern Parallels to Siege Cannibalism • Mari Letter ARM 26 191: “Women have eaten their children.” • Ashurbanipal Prism B II 94-100: defeated Arabs “ate the flesh of their sons and daughters.” • Sefire Treaties (8th cent. BC): curse formulas threaten, “You will eat the flesh of your sons.” These independent Akkadian and Aramaic texts show that cannibalism during sieges was a grim but recognized phenomenon. Biblical Intertextual Confirmation Deut 28:53-57 and Leviticus 26:29 predicted covenant curses involving cannibalism. Later histories (2 Kings 25; Lamentations 2:20; 4:10) report the same horror under Babylon. Multiple authors, centuries apart, record identical outcomes under siege, underscoring consistency. Josephus’ Independent Witness Antiquities IX.4.4 retells the 2 Kings 6 account verbatim, showing first-century Jewish historians treated it as factual. In War VI.3.4 he documents cannibalism again during Rome’s siege in AD 70, confirming the practice recurs in real crises. Paleoclimatic Evidence of Famine Conditions Dead-Sea varve cores (Bookman et al., 2014) reveal a sharp aridity spike between 850–840 BC. Corroborating pollen data from Tel Dan and Lake Kinneret registers crop failure precisely when 2 Kings 6 situates the siege. Theological Coherence The fulfillment of covenant warnings validates Scripture’s predictive integrity, the same network of prophecy that announces and authenticates Christ’s resurrection (Isaiah 53; Psalm 16:10; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Conclusion Inscriptions naming the belligerents, archaeological strata evidencing siege and famine, comparative ANE texts describing identical behaviors, paleoclimatic drought data, Josephus’ corroboration, and airtight manuscript transmission create a convergent, multidisciplinary case that the cannibalism reported in 2 Kings 6:28 reflects genuine historical events, not legend. |
    |