The Bible and Prophecy

Eze 26:3 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
Eze 26:4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
Eze 26:12 And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.
Eze 26:5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.

This is a prophecy by Ezekiel against the city of Tyre at about 567 BC. Tyre was to the sea what Babylon was to the land. The great city of Carthage was simply a daughter of Tyre, and yet at its height, the prophet in the Old Testament declared that this city would be destroyed. There are some very specific prophecies about it. Not many years after this prophecy, the great Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon brought his army to Tyre and laid seige to the city. For thirteen years the city of Tyre withstood his efforts. Finally the walls of the city crumbed beneath the onslaught, and the hordes of the Babylonian army poured into the city and put its remaining inhabitants to the sword. Thousands of the inhabitants had fled into the sea by boat however, to form the new city of Tyre on an island a half mile out in the Mediterranean. Therefore, this prophecy was fulfilled only in part. 250 years later, when Ezekiel was long mouldering in the grave, most of the walls of Tyre still stood jutting into the sky, millions of tons of stone, rubble, and timber: a silent reminder that the prophecy had not yet been fulfilled.
333BC, more than 250 years after the prophecy, Alexander the Great arrived, on his conquest of Persia. To destroy the mighty Persian navy, he decided to seal off all the ports on the eastern end of the Mediterranian. Finally Alexander came to new Tyre, built with impregnable walls a half mile out. He commanded the city to surrender, to which they merely laughed at him. Together with his chief engineer, Diades, he conveived one of the boldest and most daring plans in the history of warfare: They will build a causeway across the half mile of sea to the island of new Tyre. Where would he find the material for such a causeway? The millions of tons of rubble of the original Tyre. True to the prophecy Alexander "layed all the stones and timber and dust in the midst of the water". History tells us that they scraped the very city itself to get everything they could to create this new highway. If you go to the location of ancient Tyre today, you will see that it has became "the place for the spreading of nets".

🙄🙄🙄 Interesting stuff?!

You might find this thread interesting:

http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=20620

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
You might find this thread interesting:

http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=20620

Interesting thread. Although, I wasn't bringing this up as some great proof for anything, just FYI. As I said "interesting stuff".

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
You might find this thread interesting:

http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=20620

On the other hand. Now that I have read through that thread completely, it might be a good time to revive the debate, as that one seems to have reached a stalemate.

Originally posted by Halitose
Eze 26:3 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
Eze 26:4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
Eze 26:12 And they shall ...[text shortened]... ll see that it has became "the place for the spreading of nets".

🙄🙄🙄 Interesting stuff?!

What is your source for this information? Whatever it is, it's contrdicted by Wikipedia, which says:

Tyre consisted of two distinct parts, a rocky fortress on the mainland, called "Old Tyre", and the city, built on a small, rocky island about half-a-mile distant from the shore. It was a place of great strength. It was besieged by Shalmaneser III , who was assisted by the Phoenicians of the mainland, for five years, and by Nebuchadnezzar (586 –573 BC) for thirteen years, apparently without success. It afterwards fell under the power of Alexander the Great , after a siege of seven months in which he built a causeway from the mainland to the island, but continued to maintain much of its commercial importance until the Christian era.

You will note that this version states that Nebuchadnezzar's siege was apparently unsuccessful. And despite falling to Alexander's siege, the city was not destroyed, but "maintained much of its commercial importance until the Christian era."

So much for uninteresting "prophecy."

Originally posted by rwingett
What is your source for this information? Whatever it is, it's contrdicted by Wikipedia, which says:

[i]Tyre consisted of two distinct parts, a rocky fortress on the mainland, called "Old Tyre", and the city, built on a small, rocky island about half-a-mile distant from the shore. It was a place of great strength. It was besieged by Shalmaneser III , ...[text shortened]... its commercial importance until the Christian era."

So much for uninteresting "prophecy."

The prophecy was regarding old Tyre. You are confusing this with the new Tyre on the island that remains to this day. Maybe I didn't make this clear enough.

Originally posted by rwingett
What is your source for this information? Whatever it is, it's contrdicted by Wikipedia, which says:

[i]Tyre consisted of two distinct parts, a rocky fortress on the mainland, called "Old Tyre", and the city, built on a small, rocky ...[text shortened]... l the Christian era."

So much for uninteresting "prophecy."

and by Nebuchadnezzar (586 –573 BC) for thirteen years, apparently without success.

The historical record is clear that Nebuchadnezzar finally subjugated Tyre even though he did not raze the island. Babylonian records refer to a new king ruling Tyre after the siege, to the royal family of Tyre living in Babylon (in exile), and to a Babylonian official who governs Tyre.

bibliography: Katzenstein, History of Tyre, p. 332ff

Originally posted by rwingett
What is your source for this information? Whatever it is, it's contrdicted by Wikipedia, which says:

[i]Tyre consisted of two distinct parts, a rocky fortress on the mainland, called "Old Tyre", and the city, built on a small, rocky island about half-a-mile distant from the shore. It was a place of great strength. It was besieged by Shalmaneser III , ...[text shortened]... its commercial importance until the Christian era."

So much for uninteresting "prophecy."

Early in the sixth century B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, laid siege to the walled city for thirteen years. Tyre stood firm, but it was probable that at this time the residents of the mainland city abandoned it for the safety of the island.

http://www.middleeast.com/tyre.htm

Originally posted by Halitose
On the other hand. Now that I have read through that thread completely, it might be a good time to revive the debate, as that one seems to have reached a stalemate.

I haven't been doing my part there. I'll do some more reading and add what I think soon I hope.