"I

believe in analyzing the Bible by using `the horizontal

approach'", said the Rev. Dr. Paul L. Maier, as he

spoke at a seminar at St. Paul Lutheran Church in

Peachtree City recently.

He is a

professor of ancient history at Western Michigan

University and campus chaplain to Lutheran students as

well as a frequent expert on the Arts and Entertainment

network's "Mysteries of the Bible" series. He

also is the author of numerous books and scholarly

articles.

Maier began

his seminar by pointing out that the audience held a

special position, sitting in the same latitude as the

Holy Land. He also commented that the meaning of the word

"Adam" is "red clay," so perhaps Adam

was created in Georgia.

"The

horizontal method" as defined by Maier is the study

of the Bible in conjunction with studying topographical

and geological places in the Bible, by reading historical

sources, especially those written in the first three

centuries, and by visiting archeological sites.

"It's

a thrilling time to be alive," he said. "We

have the advantage of being able to personally compare

the current finds with those mentioned in the Bible. At

this point in time, 90 percent of the places in the Old

Testament and 97 percent of the places in the New

Testament have all been proven beyond a shadow of a

doubt."

He added

that 100 percent of the places traveled by the Apostle

Paul have now been positively identified and proven to be

a fact.

"Just

think of the number of the world's religions that do not

have a special `place,'" he said. "Christianity

can be very proud of the fact that we not only have a

book describing our special places - we can

actually identify them."

The first

bones discovered and proven to be someone mentioned in

the Bible are those of Joseph Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin

Council high priest who indicted Jesus early on Good

Friday, Maier reported. They were unearthed in an ossuary

just south of Jerusalem in November 1990. His name was on

the "bone box" and the manner in which it was

fluted and adorned and the way the bones were handled was

used only in the first century. There is now no doubt

that the name mentioned in the Bible in connection with

Jesus, belonged to a real person, Maier said.

Maier

pointed out that the further away we get in time from

A.D. 33, the more we can prove the places and customs of

the Old and New Testaments.

Everyone

has access to microfiche, the Internet, CD ROM's, and a

number of translations and interpretations both in the

Bible and the early writings of historians, such as

Flavius Josephus, he said.

Josephus

was born in A.D. 37 and wrote 20 volumes on his times,

including quite a bit on Jesus. Due to the fact that he

never converted to Christianity, he writes from a

historical and impartial point of view.

"People

today know more than any previous great church man, such

as St. Augustin, Martin Luther, John Wesley, etc.,"

said Maier.

"Stay

tuned," he concluded, "because before you die,

a number of new discoveries will have been made and the

people and the places in the Bible will be even more

meaningful to you."

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