Synopses & Reviews
Biblical archaeology has long been a discipline in crisis. "Biblical minimalists," who believe that the Bible contains little of actual historical fact, today are challenging those who accept the historicity of Scripture. In this volume Jewish and evangelical Christian archaeologists, historians, and biblical scholars confront the minimalist critique and offer positive alternatives. Bringing a needed scientific approach to biblical archaeology, the contributors construct a new paradigm that reads the Bible critically but sympathetically. Their work covers the full range of subjects relevant to understanding the context of the Bible, including proper approaches to scriptural interpretation, recent archaeological evidence, and new studies of Near Eastern texts and inscriptions.Contributors: Richard E. AverbeckThomas W. DavisDaniel E. FlemingWilliam W. HalloRichard S. HessJames K. HoffmeierHarry A. Hoffner Jr.David MerlingAlan MillardCynthia L. MillerJohn M. MonsonSteven M. OrtizBenjamin Edidin ScolnicAndrew G. VaughnDavid B. WeisbergEdwin YamauchiK. Lawson Younger Jr.Randall W. YounkerZiony Zevit
Synopsis
In recent times Biblical archaeology has been heavily criticised by some camp who maintain that it has little to offer Near Eastern archaeology. However, some scholars carry on the fight to change people's views and this collection of essays continues the trend towards reassessing and reemphasising the link between the Bible and archaeology. Taken from a colloquium held by the North Sinai Archaeological Project in Illinois in 2001, the nineteen contributors take a variety of archaeological, linguistic, textual, factual, theoretical and methodological approaches to the historicity of the Bible. Argued to be a product of self-examination the authors in this volume suggest that the discipline has, and in some cases continues, to be misunderstood and indeed has a contribution to make to archaeology and history.