On a recent trip to Chicago, I made a brief stop at the University of Chicago’s campus in order to visit their Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. I know that museums are not everyone’s cup of tea, but this one has an exhibit that is of great significance for Christians. The exhibit I am speaking of is a six-sided clay prism about 18 inches tall, commonly referred to as Sennacherib’s Prism. Inscribed on each side of this object are about 80 lines of miniscule writing. The writing on this artifact is a royal decree by the ancient Assyrian King Sennacherib in which he boastfully describes several of his military campaigns. If his name sounds familiar to you, that’s because we also read about Sennacherib in the Old Testament. Sennacherib’s prism is a well-preserved piece of history that confirms the reliability of the Old Testament. It provides corroboration that the events recorded in the Old Testament really did happen.

On the prism, Sennacherib recorded the following: “As for the king of Judah, Hezekiah, who had not submitted to my authority, I besieged and captured forty-six of his fortified cities, along with many smaller towns, taken in battle with my battering rams. … As for Hezekiah, I shut him up like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem. I then constructed a series of fortresses around him, and I did not allow anyone to come out of the city gates.” (Column 3, Lines 18–30.) He also describes how he imposed a tribute upon King Hezekiah. Compare that with 2 Kings 18:13–17a: “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. … And the king of Assyria sent [his officials] with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.”

Sennacherib conveniently omitted the fact that although he confined Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a caged bird, he never managed to take the city. That’s because the Lord was fighting for Jerusalem and decimated the Assyrian army (2 Kings 19), leaving Sennacherib to limp home with his tail between his legs. While my faith in the reliability of the Bible does not rest on the archaeological record, it is confirming to see that time after time, the archeological evidence does support the Bible. Sennacherib’s Prism is one of many such pieces of evidence showing that the Bible is historically reliable. The prism is also a tangible reminder that the things we read about in the Bible really happened in real places to real people with real fears and hopes and dreams, just like you and me.