Living by Livestock in Israel’s Exodus: Explaining Origins over Distance

Edited by

James K. Hoffineier & Alan Millard

To Harvey L. and Janice Miller in appreciation for their support for biblical archaeology. Because of their generosity the future of biblical archaeology looks bright.

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Biblical Archaeology: The Recent Debate and Future Prospects

Ziony Zevit

Thomas W. Davis

David Merling

Randall W. Younker

James K. Hoffmeier

Archaeology: Approaches and Application

Edwin Yamauchi

Benjamin Edidin Scolnic

Steven M. Ortiz

Alan Millard

Using Texts in Biblical Archaeology

William W. Hallo

Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.

Daniel E. Fleming

Richard S. Hess

K. Lawson Younger, Jr.

Cynthia L. Miller

Hermeneutics and Theology

John M. Monson

Richard E. Averbeck

David B. Weisberg

Andrew G. Vaughn

Biblical archaeology has gone through some turbulent times in the past several decades. In the late 1970s and into the i98os, William Dever ignited a fruitful and legitimate discussion about the appropriateness of the discipline of biblical archaeology, especially as it had been practiced mainly by biblical scholars and theologians who had a religiously-inspired agenda and were not trained as field archaeologists. There have been many positive results from the ensuing debate, especially the concern for greater methodological precision, and many scholars are now less inclined to jump to unwarranted conclusions regarding the correlation of archaeological data with the Bible. On the other hand, there have also been many negative consequences from the debate of the past 15 years, the main one being whether biblical archaeology should even continue as a discipline. In 1999 the venerable American Schools of Oriental Research jettisoned the name of its semipopular journal Biblical Archaeologist after 6o years, replacing it with the bland title Near Eastern Archaeology. This move was undertaken over the objection of the majority of the membership. This expunging of the title Biblical Archaeologist was undoubtedly undertaken to provide ASOR with an inoffensive or academically correct title. Interestingly, Dever still is not sure what expression to use for what has traditionally been called biblical archaeology (cf. William G. Dever, "Whatchmacallit: Why It's So Hard to Name Our Field," BAR 29/4 [2003]: 56-61).

This name shift illustrates that the field of biblical archaeology has been dealt a blow from within its ranks. A second line of attack against biblical archaeology has been under way for the past two decades from outside the discipline. Here the assault has come from biblical scholars often known as historical minimalists, who have been inspired by postmodern literary approaches and tend to trivialize, ignore, or misuse archaeological data. Their extreme views, and the philosophical assumptions of these advocates, have been addressed in a compelling manner by Dever himself (cf. What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? [Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2001] ). Some of the papers in this volume will also serve as a response to the threat minimalism poses to biblical history.

In a climate of growing skepticism towards biblical archaeology and the historical worth of the Bible's narratives, the North Sinai Archaeological Project organized a colloquium in August 2001, hosted by Trinity International University (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) in Deerfield, Illinois. It was titled, "The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing Methods and Assumptions." The scholars, whose papers appear in this volume, met along with others to discuss the crisis in biblical archaeology. They believe that it is too early to write the obituary of biblical archaeology, and that there is a bright future ahead for integrating archaeological materials with the study of the Bible. The participants, attenders, and presenters came from universities, such as Chicago, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Miami (Ohio), Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Andrews, and Liverpool; liberal arts colleges, such as Gustavus Adolphus, Wheaton, Regent (Canada); and seminaries, including Southern Baptist (Louisville), New Orleans Baptist, Denver, Hebrew Union, and Trinity. The disciplines represented in this group included Syro-Palestinian archaeology, Egyptology, Assyriology, Hittitology, Sumerology, North-West Semitic languages, Hebrew studies, historical geography, geology, history, and biblical studies. The unifying feature of this diverse group was an interest in biblical archaeology.

We maintain that biblical archaeology has been misunderstood by some as the archaeology of Palestine with a religious bias. The latter embraces every vestige of human activity from Palaeolithic flint tools to loth-century rifles, but biblical archaeology is not concerned with either of those. Biblical archaeology is interdisciplinary in nature, and thus is not Syro-Palestinian archaeology, nor Assyriology, nor a branch of such fields. Rather, its focus is on the times and places, the physical remains and written documents from across the Near East that relate to the biblical text either as background and context or by more direct contact. More than a century of intensive exploration and research has produced enough discoveries, theories, hypotheses, and speculations for another century to consider! Yet new discoveries continue to be made, some strengthening existing evidence, some challenging earlier conclusions, all spawning fresh ideas. The contributors to this book believe that biblical archaeology still has much to offer, and if these papers stimulate advances in it their authors will be gratified.

The North Sinai Archeological Project, which organized this colloquium, is supported by the Harvey L. Miller Family Foundation. It was also the generosity of Harvey and Janice Miller, to whom this book is dedicated, that made both the colloquium and this monograph possible. The papers in this volume were prepared for that meeting and have been revised in the light of discussion there. The participants, religious or nonobservant, were invited on the basis that they held a positive attitude to the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament and would examine aspects of it, or parts of it, in the light of archaeological data from the ancient Near East. Some of the papers address methodological and philosophical questions surrounding the biblical archaeology debate, and others illustrate how their authors believe archeology and the Bible should be carefully and critically used.

This volume appears at the dawn of a new century and the third millennium. We hope that it sheds light on the recent debate and charts a positive course for the future of biblical archaeology.