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Robert Cornuke is the president of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute (BASE) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is a former police officer and present-day Biblical archaeology explorer and the author of six books on biblical history relating to archaeological explorations.

Explorations

Cornuke's explorations have included the Biblical Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia; journeying in Turkey with the late American astronaut Jim Irwin in search of Noah's Ark; looking for evidence of 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 Bible's Book of Acts, chapter 27 — which he claims to have discovered, although this has been disputed.

Controversy and criticism

Mount Sinai Controversy

In Cornuke's book The Mountain of God he claimed to be the researcher of the biblical match of Biblical Mount Sinai to Jabal al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia. This was dated as happening in 1988 after he learnt from someone else about Jabal al-Lawz's likeness to Sinai.. Earlier, however, in 1984, Ron Wyatt had already claimed to be the first person to have discovered that Biblical Mount Sinai was Jabal al-Lawz and in 2002 Randall Styx noted that H. Philby in his 1957 book The Land of Midian claimed that Jabal al-Lawz was the Biblical site..

Author Gordon Franz has suggested that Cornuke "had forged a letter from the king of Saudi Arabia in order to obtain a visa into the Kingdom." However, Franz went to do debunk Wyatt, Cornuke, and Williams' claim that Biblical Mt. Sinai was in Saudi Arabia. Franz argued "biggest problem with the identification of Mt. Sinai at Jebel el-Lawz is that it does not meet the Biblical criteria for the site. These claims are based on three false assumptions and a misunderstanding of the archaeological remains that they observed." The three false assumptions were: 1) the Sinai Peninsula was within the territorial borders of the Land of Egypt, 2) "that Mt. Sinai is located in the Land of Midian, which is identified as part of the Saudi Arabian peninsul," and 3) "is that the Apostle Paul says in Gal. 4:25 that Mt. Sinai was in Saudi Arabia."

Maltese Controversy

Professor Anthony Bonanno has stated that anchors recovered by Cornuke and alledged to be from "the wreck of Paul's ship from Acts" were "consistent" with the "era of the shipwreck of St. Paul, in 60 A.D." and "a Roman/Alexandrian grain freighter" though he did not directly link the anchors with St. Paul. This claim has been disputed, however, with Cornuke being labelled by some as 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." The case was unsuccessful. This has led to some reports that "(he seems) to be more interested in the money to be gained from their claims than in providing genuine evidence for anything." Gordon Franz noted Charles Grech (a retired restaurant owner) found a third anchor in front of an same underwater cave that might have been found off the Munxar Reef, but this was not certain. Only one anchor was examined by Bananno and it was only examined in Mr. Grech's home. There has, so far (2006), been no independent verification of the identity of the objects found.

Franz unilaterally dismisses every Maltese claim Cornuke has made. Franz has noted "had no tangible proof of the anchor stocks to show the world. The first of the anchor stocks was melted down; the second, third and fourth were in private collections; and the fifth and six had been sold." So Cornuke, with "the aid of the US ambassador to Malta, Kathy Proffitt, was enlisted to convince the President and Prime Minister of Malta to offer an amnesty to anyone who would turn over antiquities found off the Munxar Reef" and the pardons were issued on September 23, 2002." As a result, "two anchor stocks" were "turned over to the authorities."

However, Franz questions Cornukes research in that "Mr. Cornuke does not interact with, or mention, some very important works on the subject of Paul's shipwreck; nor are they listed in his bibliography." All these scholars have claimed different sites where St. Paul may have been shipwrecked. Gordon also has criticized Cornuke's understanding of the biblical story and description.

Christianity Today reported that the then 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." (Cornuke would claim these "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."

Trivia

Cornuke is reported as styling himself in an "Indiana Jones" fashion.

Cornuke has appeared on CBS's Ancient Secrets of the Bible on May 15, 1992, November 13, 2000 he was on MSNBC's Dateline, July 7, 1998 The 700 Club, and on Fox Television’s Ripley's Believe It or Not February 9, 2000 (episode 105).

Bob Cornuke's Ph.D. was received from Louisiana Baptist University , an unaccredited conservative Christian School, where he also serves as an adjunct speaker .

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, 2003. ISBN 0971410038

Footnotes

1. Koinonia House Online "All Anchors Accounted For" (Cornuke) 2004
2. University of Malta "Professor Anthony Bonanno Department of Classics and Archaeology "
3. ibid
4. The Lost Shipwreck of St. Paul: The Sinking of the 'Lost Shipwreck of Paul' or Have the Anchors from the Apostle Paul's Shipwreck Been Discovered on Malta? by Gordon Franz
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Christianity Today: "Apostle Paul's Shipwreck Makes Headlines" By Ted Olsen May 15, 2003
9. "The REST of the Story"
10. Koinonia House Online "LBU Graduates Five KI Students" (Cornuke) 2005
11. Louisiana Baptist University "Featured Alumni" 2005

External links

• BASE Institute
• LBU Featured Alumni
• Dictionary of Cults & Religious Groups List: C See: Bob Cornuke
• A Critique of Bob Cornuke with a timeline
• Is Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia? by Gordon Franz

• Christian people
• Christian writers
• Religious scandals