Nebo-Sarsekim – the chief eunuch to King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon – is being audited. It is a darn good thing he kept his receipts.

A popular notion among scholars that has trickled down to the secular culture is that the Bible is not historically accurate and is merely a collection of myths; myths which mostly had their origins in cultures that pre-date the Jews. There is little, if any, history to be contained in the bible and this is more true the earlier you go. Stories such as those of Adam and Noah have no basis in historical reality. Stories and characters described in the old testament are simply fantasy. Stories such as the siege of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. Oops.

Nebo-Sarsekim – the chief eunuch to King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon is only a minor supporting player in the old testament ‘story’ of the siege of Jerusalem. Well, as it turns out, he is as real as you or me.

Professor Michael Jursa, an an Assyriologist, was combing through the collection of 130,000 cuneiform tablets, some dating back 5,000 years, when he made a remarkable discovery. Among the tablets discovered by Jursa was a tablet that read:

(Regarding) 1.5 minas (0.75 kg) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, [and of] Nadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert, says “This is a fantastic discovery, a world-class find. If Nebo-Sarsekim existed, which other lesser figures in the Old Testament existed? A throwaway detail in the Old Testament turns out to be accurate and true. I think that it means that the whole of the narrative [of Jeremiah] takes on a new kind of power.”

Go figure. If a throw-away detail from 2500 years ago turns out to be true and verifiable, is it possible, just possible mind you, that other elements are true? The default position of the reigning intelligentsia is, no. Without concrete evidence, the claims of the bible must be false.

Edwin M. Yamauchi in his work The Stones and the Scriptures wrote, “Historians of antiquity in using the archaeological evidence have very often failed to realize how slight is the evidence at our disposal. It would not be exaggerating to point out that what we have is but one fraction of a second fraction of a third fraction of a fourth fraction of a fifth fraction of the possible evidence”

What Yamauchi is saying is that a little humility is in order. The evidence that we have when looking at antiquity is minuscule compared to the evidence that once existed. Perhaps there is much more out there than currently meets the eye.

Nebo-Sarsekim knows what happened at the siege of Jerusalem and obviously so did the writer of that particular ‘story’ in the gospel. And they have the receipts to prove it.