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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, known for styling himself in an "Indiana Jones" fashion. He is the author of six books on biblical history relating to archaeological explorations. Critics of Cornuke have questioned the veracity of his claims, however, often labeling him derogatorily. He was unsuccessfully sued by the US Ambassador to Malta to prevent release of one of his books.

Cornuke's explorations have included the Bible's Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia; journeying in Turkey with the late American astronaut, Jim Irwin, in search of Noah's Ark, 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, though the claim is in dispute there has been no independent, scientific, objective verification of the identity of the objects found.

Cornuke has appeared on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, The 700 Club, and Fox Television’s Ripley's Believe It or Not.

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

Controversy and criticism

Mount Sinai Controversy

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 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. Furthermore, 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.

Gordon Franz noted 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

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." However, whilt this claim has been disputed, but Professor Anthony Bonanno stated the anchors that were found were "consistent" with the "era of the shipwreck of St. Paul, in 60 A.D." and "a Roman/Alexandrian grain freighter". . Gordon 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 U.S. ambassador Kathryn Proffitt (now former) 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."

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. Christianity Today: "Weblog: Apostle Paul's Shipwreck Makes Headlines" By Ted Olsen May 15, 2003
2. ibid
3. Koinonia House Online "All Anchors Accounted For" (Cornuke) 2004
4. Koinonia House Online "LBU Graduates Five KI Students" (Cornuke) 2005
5. Louisiana Baptist University "Featured Alumni" 2005
6. University of Malta "Professor Anthony Bonanno Department of Classics and Archaeology "
7. The Lost Shipwreck of St. Paul Global Publishing Services, 2003. ISBN 0971410038 (Pg 129)
8. 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
9. 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

External links

• BASE Institute
• LBU Featured Alumni
• Dictionary of Cults & Religious Groups List: CSee: Bob Cornuke
• A Critique of Bob Cornuke with a timeline Following three decades of misleading statements.
• IS MOUNT SINAI IN SAUDI ARABIA? by Gordon Franz

• Christian people
• Christian writers
• Religious scandals