Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – A Biblical Archaeologist – Pastor George Whitefield Samson – Part Three of Six

Thomas E Kresal January 7, 2020

Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – A Biblical Archaeologist

Pastor George Whitefield Samson Part Three of Six

Returning to Newton, he finished his course, and graduated in 1843, and was ordained at Washington in August. After four years of arduous labor, having specially prepared himself for the study of art and of Biblical archaeology, he spent a year in the East and in Western Europe, devoting half a year to Goshen, the Desert of Sinai, and Palestine ; following the route of Napoleon’s engineers in 1798-99 through the delta retraced by Seetzen in 1810, and personally finding the valley east of Jebel Mousa, regarded by early Christians as the place of Israel’s encampment, and since his visit recognized by French and German scholars.

He satisfactorily identified also the sites of Christ’s birth, baptism, transfiguration, death, ascension, and other localities. A series of letters was written for the Watchman, of Boston ; three articles on Goshen were prepared for the Christian Review ; one on Sinai for the Bibliotheca Sacra; a treatise on the places of New Testament baptisms ; a small volume on spiritualism,—all appearing between 1848 and 1851.

Thomas E. Kresal from: The Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart, pg. 361.