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Robert Cornuke is the president of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration (BASE) Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is a former police officer and present-day Biblical archaeology explorer who "consciously models himself on 'Indiana Jones.'" He is the author of six books on biblical history relating to archaeological explorations. Some of his critics have called him a con artist, a fraud, questioned his qualifications, and he was sued by a US Ambassador.
Cornuke's explorations have included claims to having discovered the "Biblical Mount Sinai" in Saudi Arabia (four years after the discovery had been claimed by someone else), exploring in Turkey, with the late American astronaut, Jim Irwin, for Noah’s Ark, ancient Assyrian and Babylonian flood accounts in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, and following the presumed trail of the Ark of the Covenant through Israel, Egypt, and the Ethiopian highlands. Cornuke has also engaged in expeditions searching the seafloor off the coast of Malta for the anchors from the Apostle Paul’s ship wreck, as described in the Biblical Book of Acts, chapter 27. He claims to have discovered these anchors, but the claim has been met with skepticism, and there has been no independent, scientific verification of the claim.
Cornuke has appeared on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, The 700 Club, and Fox Television’s Ripley's Believe It or Not.
In 2005, Cornuke completed his Ph.D. from Louisiana Baptist University, an unaccredited, conservative Christian college for which he also serves as an adjunct speaker.
Controversy and criticism
Ron Wyatt was the original person who claimed to discover that biblical Mt. Sinai was Jabal al-Lawz in 1984, but Wyatt was vaguely mentioned in Cornuke's book The Mountain of God (page 218) once. In this book, Cornuke claimed himself as the discoverer and researcher of the biblical match to the mountain in Saudi Arabia. An event that occurred with Cornuke in 1988 (four years after Wyatt) after learning from someone else about Jabal al-Lawz's likeness to Sinai.
Cornuke has been labelled a "con artist" who was claimed "to have found the wreck of Paul's ship from Acts - and then got sued for breaking 'all aspects' of an oral contract with a former US ambassador to Malta." Due to his factual errors and "lies," some believe he seems "to be more interested in the money to be gained from their claims than in providing genuine evidence for anything." Christianity Today reported that former U.S. ambassador Kathryn Proffitt sued Cornuke to stop the sale of his book after she arranged for the "Maltese government to pardon the fisherman" who owned ancient anchors Cornuke "believed were from the apostle's ship." As part of the pardon arrangement and several other issues, Cornuke agreed to remain silent about the pardon and "to allow Proffitt and the Maltese government to edit the book. He would also be required to encourage tourists to visit ancient temples." He did not keep his part of the agreement.
A federal judge denied the request to hold up publication of the book since it was already released at the time. Even still, "what the Maltese government is apparently upset about, however, isn't that Cornuke's book was published without its permission, but that it claims that the shipwreck never happened in the traditional site on the northeastern tip of the island, now known as St. Paul's Bay."
Books
- Ark Fever:Legend Chaser, Tyndale House Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1414302967
- In Search of the Mountain of God: The Discovery of the Real Mt. Sinai, Part 1, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0805420525 (Co-written with David Halbrook)
- In Search of the Lost Ark of the Covenant, Part 3, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0805420533 (Co-written with David Halbrook)
- In Search of the Lost Mountains of Noah: The Discovery of the Real Mt. Ararat, Part 2, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001. ISBN 0805420541 (Co-written with David Halbrook)
- Relic Quest: Legend Chaser, Tyndale House Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1414302975
- The Lost Shipwreck of St. Paul, Global Publishing Services, 2005. ISBN 0971410038
References
Books
Moller, Lennart. The Exodus Case: New Discoveries Confirm the Historical Exodus. Scandinavia, 2002. (Information about Wyatt's journey)
External links
- BASE Institute
- Christianity Today article on the controversies surrounding the alleged discovery of Paul's anchors.
- Ten Reasons to be wary of Bob Cornuke
- Dictionary of Cults & Religious Groups List: CSee: Bob Cornuke
- A Critique of Bob Cornuke with a timeline Following three decades of misleading statements.