Content
- Preface
- Antiquity
- Historical period
- Ancient Jerusalem
- A list of cards
- Number list
- Summary list
- Introduction
- This section provides an overview of the geography and archaeology of the Ancient Near East.
- The Old Testament’s nature as historical evidence is introduced.
- The West rediscovers the Holy Land.
- The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the creation of the “Archaeological Bible” and “Archaeological Biblia”.
- Classic classical criticism and commentary
- The term ancient originally referred to the ancient Bronze Age in Canaan.
- Canaanite archaeology
- The Book of Genesis and the Traditions of the Patriarchs of Israel
- Israel is inside and outside Egypt.
- Research on the archaeology of Iron Age I Israel.
- Israel’s search for biblical evidence
- Philistines in the time of the Judges
- Union Empire
- Enemies surround the southern kingdom of Judah.
- Destruction and escape
- Persia and Yehuda
- Charles David Isbell
- Dictionary
- Bibliography
- Government Gazette
- Bible and Ancient Index
- Public directory
- Sponsors
Preface
In recent years, authors have started delving into the origins of college Bible classes, as well as the experiences of Bible students and ancient Israelite Bible scholars. Specifically, we wondered: What new discoveries from archaeological and historical research contributed to their understanding of ancient Israel and its history? Did the Bible study give these students the opportunity to discuss the Bible? Did the public only see the apologetic statements supported and issued by the church and synagogue? What we found was disappointing. Introductory textbooks, even at the university level, focus heavily on biblical texts and cite archaeological information only in context—usually when there is a favorable picture. The Old Testament books are based on Bible stories rather than ancient ruins. The situation for ordinary people is dire. We have failed to see how the interested and intelligent reader can understand the contributions of fields from “Biblical Mysteries” TV shows that interest viewers in watching rather than knowing through careful interpretation of books on different theologies. We utilize archeology, biblical studies, and ancient history to comprehend the history of ancient Israel. Lastly, even in cases where significant works exist, their writing style may not be easily comprehensible to novice students.
A century ago, it was true that if you wanted to understand the ancient Israelites, you had to read the Bible—the Old Testament. If you want to understand the Old Testament today, you must study the history and archaeology of the ancient nation of Israel.
The authors believe it is important to present the origins and history of ancient Israel so that students can understand the Israelites based on all the evidence and not on a single collection of ancient texts. Studying ancient Israel must be more than just studying the Bible. This book aims to address the concerns of students and the general public by showing how archaeological research, including ancient texts and documents from other lands and empires, helps modern readers understand the political forces, social, and sometimes military influences among the ancient Israelites. This, in turn, inspired the writers of the Bible.
This book brings together biblical scholars and archaeologists who comment on current research and paint a picture of the origins and history of the nation of Israel in ancient Near Eastern history. Despite the deep expertise of our writers, they have all compiled their chapters for an audience without in-depth knowledge of ancient Israel—those who want a better understanding of it than those who already know it. Fourteen experts from different periods of ancient Israelite history contributed chapters to Israel, as did the authors. This success is a result of collaboration, because despite the apparent connection between the Bible and the archeology of ancient Israel, the two fields have no history of collaboration. Indeed, critics accuse archaeologists in Israel of using one hand to dig and the other to study the Bible. However, few archaeologists receive training as biblical scholars.
As William Dever distinguishes in Chapter 5, the connection that marked ‘Biblical archaeology’ before the 1970s is not between archaeology and ‘Biblical study’ but between archaeology and theology. As Mark Elliott notes in Chapter 2, biblical archaeologists such as William F. Albright viewed themselves as opposed to “critical criticism” and related studies of the biblical text. On the other hand, few Bible scholars had the training and history to understand the details of archaeological research and were able to integrate it into their research at a basic level.Of course, academic researchers have utilized ancient texts found during excavations, but were these discoveries made during the excavations themselves? Not much.
From this perspective, the teamwork and collaboration that this book demonstrates were easy to achieve. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the other authors who contributed to the realization of the vision that forms the basis of this book. This book is capable of enduring numerous demands and requests for revision in certain areas. Thank you for your patience and kindness to us. Baylor University Press and its president, Carey Newman, have been very supportive and patient with this project. BUP’s production team completed this project through the publishing process. The authors are proud and grateful for the care and expertise shown by BUP in the preparation of this book. Another institution that deserves praise for supporting his work is the Bible.com and especially Todd Bolen. Biblefield.com has made many of the photographs in this book available for free. We also thank Norma Franklin, Jim West, and Pat Landy for reading many of the drafts and providing helpful comments, and Conor McCracken-Flesher for creating the index. Jennie Ebeling and Paul Flesher, both from the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, provided funding for the final year of work on this project. Albright named Jennie the Distinguished Professor of the Year in 2015-2016 and the Paul Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professor in spring 2016. The École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem and the Israel Antiquities Center at the Rockefeller Museum were also very helpful. Paul also expresses gratitude to Dean Paula Lutz and the University of Wyoming for granting him a sabbatical leave during the 2015-2016 academic year, during which he worked to complete this project, and to the staff of the University of Wyoming Coe Library Interlibrary Department for providing access to the following works that were not available in the school’s sound system. Jennie confirms that Alexandra Cutler and the Department of Archeology and Art History at the University of Evansville are responsible for this.
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