Years ago I purchased the biography of William F. Albright and ever since I’ve had a strong desire to read it. This summer was my chance and as I went through it I began noticing a number of parallels between the life of the subject and me (esp. in Albright’s early years of living in Palestine). I started making note of those to see if anything would come of it. What I thought I would try is to write a series of blog posts on various things about Albright, but mostly I expect will look at similarities between his life and
mine. Don’t take this too seriously; it’s more in the category of “summer fun” than anything else. I don’t have any delusions that I ever will equal the greatness of Albright; far from it. I’m just intrigued by the curious similarities of random (and mostly unimportant) details. I also don’t know if this subject will be of interest to any besides me, and I recognize I’m doing this more for me than for anyone else. Perhaps, though, one of the readers of this blog will find something of interest, either in Albright’s life or in mine.
Don’t know who Albright is? Briefly: Albright is generally recognized as the “father of biblical archaeology.” After running the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) program in Palestine for 10 years (1920-29), he became a professor at Johns Hopkins University, training many of the leading scholars of the next generation (who are just now retiring). Besides writing hundreds and articles, he was editor of BASOR where he had the opportunity to directly influence the field for generations. Many of his students (and “grandstudents”) have had and continue to have a major impact on the field of “biblical archaeology” (or whatever name they choose to call it by now), including G. Ernest Wright, John Bright, and D. Noel Freedman.
I was surprised to find the biography still in print after 30 years. The bibliographic information is William Foxwell Albright: A 20th Century Genius, by Leona Glidden Running and David Noel Freedman, Two Continents Publishing, 1975. Sometimes I will give the page number from the book in parentheses. My comments are in brackets after the statement from his biography. Sometimes I will reserve the right to not comment :-). I’ll start with some general things.
1. Albright thought he was going to spend about six months or so in Palestine, but ended up staying seven years (before furlough). [I came for 3.5 months the first time, and thought that would be the only time. After about a month here, I remember saying to a friend that I couldn’t imagine myself living here.]
2. Albright lived in Jerusalem for 10 years (168). In 1936, Albright “has spent much of the larger part of the past sixteen years in that land” (195). [This nearly exactly matches my history thus far – when this school year ends, I will have lived here for 10 years (1996-2006), and the majority of the last 16 years (first came in 1990).]
3. Albright’s son Paul said to him, “Dad, you ought to live in Jerusalem all the time. Here you know everything, and at home you ‘re just plain dumb!” To which his father replied with a roar of laughter” (190). [Amazing how out of place one can feel in one’s own country.]
4. “Albright had hoped to dig again at Bethel in the summer of 1938, but the periodic riots and outbreaks of actual warfare continued, making such work much too dangerous” (233). [We were digging about a mile away from Beitin/Bethel until 2000 when the intifada broke out, halting our excavation at Kh. el-Maqatir (Ai?).]
5. Albright died the year I was born.