History and archaeology

Where the text meets the ground: dates, rulers, cities, census records and what excavation has or has not found.

Did Herod really kill the infants of Bethlehem? Matthew 2:16 Matthew 2:16-18
Matthew describes a massacre of children in Bethlehem. No contemporary historian mentions it, though Herod's cruelty is well documented.
Did Joshua destroy Jericho and Ai? The conquest and the excavations Joshua 6:20-21; Joshua 8:28; Joshua 11:23; Judges 1:19-21
Joshua describes a swift conquest of Canaan, but excavations at Jericho and Ai do not show cities destroyed at the time most often proposed, and Judges describes a slower, incomplete conquest.
Is there any evidence for the Exodus from Egypt? Exodus 12:37-41; Numbers 1:45-46; Exodus 1:11
The Bible describes six hundred thousand men leaving Egypt. Archaeology has found no direct trace of this, and scholars disagree about what that means.
Was there a census under Quirinius when Jesus was born? Luke 2 vs Matthew 2 Luke 2:1-5; Luke 1:5; Matthew 2:1
Luke dates Jesus's birth to a census under Quirinius, but Josephus places that census in AD 6, and Matthew puts the birth under Herod, who died around 4 BC.
Were there domesticated camels in Abraham's day? Genesis 12 and 24 Genesis 12:16; Genesis 24:10
Genesis mentions camels as Abraham's livestock, but the archaeological evidence for domesticated camels in the Levant is much later.
Who was Theudas? Acts 5 vs Josephus Acts 5:33-39
Gamaliel's speech in Acts mentions a rebel named Theudas who rose before Judas of Galilee, but Josephus places a Theudas decades later.