I continue my list of curious similarities between Albright and me, this time looking at his travels in the 1920s and mine today. If you missed the first post introducing this series, read it first. Quotes are from his biography, with page numbers in parentheses. My comments are in brackets.

6. “We avoided the automobile routes and’tourist ‘ points as much as possible, in accordance with the system of trips which I have outlined before. I succeeded in keeping all costs, including fees, tips, hotel bills, where incurred, etc., down to a pound a day” (113). [Well, it costs me a little more than that, but the idea is the same.]

7. While traveling, Albright found little time for research, study, or writing (136). [So true.]

8. Upon his return from an exploration trip, Albright wrote that they were “all the more convinced than ever that horses and tents are still indispensable to successful exploration in Palestine” (166). [I prefer a 4×4 when possible; tent is optional.]

9. “In Egypt they did not go south to Luxor—the weather was too hot and in those days that trip was too dangerous” (97). [Yes, it’s still dangerous today, but you can do it, with a police escort :-)).

10. “With not much time for sightseeing in Cairo, the three of them went up to Alexandria, where there was not much sightseeing to do” (98). [Alexandria ranks first on my list of most impressive cities were they to be excavated. I’ve been once and have no desire to return unless the modern city is somehow destroyed and the ancient ruins uncovered.]

11. “At Ader we discovered the first Moabite temple known thus far, though only the foundations are preserved” (120). [In the summer of 2004 I “discovered” a Moabite temple at Ataroth. To be sure, it had recently been excavated, but I had no knowledge of its existence, but just stumbled upon it and correctly identified it.]

12. His trips were usually in the spring months of March and April. [The land is so green and beautiful at this time of year.]

Sometime I’d like to do a post or two on teachers, but this post is a short reaction in response to a recent article about one of my favorite teachers. (Aside: my favorite teachers all have last names that start with “B”, which I kinda like.) Haaretz has a very long article which is essentially an interview with Gabriel Barkay and his thoughts on matters related to Jerusalem. If you know Barkay, you’ll find many interesting things in this article, including personal details.

The only thing I have time to comment on now is Barkay’s qualifications as a teacher, since his firing (many years ago) is discussed in the article. I have no knowledge of the circumstances of his dismissal beyond what the article says; I will only comment on what I know. And I know that Barkay is one of the best teachers I have ever had. His knowledge is so extensive, and his teaching style so effective that I’ve seriously considered just dropping my own projects and doing what I could to further his work (e.g., in helping him writing a book). I have asked him many times to lead our students on various trips or to give special lectures and the students’ response is always uniformly positive. This was the situation in grad school as well; the smart students knew to take every Barkay class you possibly could. Thus I doubt the reason given for his dismissal. I don’t know what the real reason was, but I do know that it wasn’t because he wasn’t a good teacher.

I would also add to this the sad observation that if he was dismissed because of a failure to publish sufficiently (Barkay disputes this was the reason), it only contributes to the sorry state of universities that have teachers that can’t teach. If you can publish, they make you a teacher and give you tenure. If you can teach well but don’t publish, you get fired.

According to the article, the then-new chair of the department who fired Barkay is Israel Finkelstein. Without speaking to the rest of his work, I would suggest the reading of his most popular work, The Bible Unearthed. Truly laughable scholarship. Laughable if it weren’t so sad that a university professor could make such false and misleading statements and yet be considered by some as a great scholar. I have written two brief posts (here and here) about this book. I wish I had time to write more.

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.

Yom Kippur started a few hours ago and I brought home Donin’s To Be a Jew to refresh my memory on the Jewish customs of the day. One of the paragraphs says this:

“The Oral Torah teaches us that in addition to prohibiting eating and drinking,’to afflict your souls’ also involves, though with less severe sanctions, prohibitions against washing and bathing, anointing one’s body…”

Contrast this with the words of Jesus:

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ^But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matt 6:16-18).

Here’s a paper topic for someone: Contradictions between the “Oral Torah” and Jesus’ Teaching. The whole idea of “Oral Torah” is worthy of a paper as well. My take, on one foot: it’s offensive for rabbis to take views contrary to Scripture; it’s doubly offensive to claim that they came from God.

I just sent out this month’s BiblePlaces Newsletter. You can view it here:
October 2005 Newsletter

You can subscribe here.

Everyone at IBEX always loves a “first” – that is, when they do something that no group has ever done before. After 20 semesters, there are fewer and fewer new things to do, it seems. But it’s also true that not all “firsts” are worth repeating. Such it was with my idea last night to sleep on Arbel and watch the sun rise over the Sea of Galilee. After whittling the group down to a “lucky” 7 (to fit in the Land Rover), we headed out. Actually, nearly everything was perfect. We found a very flat piece of ground right at the summit and no one else was around. We were all very tired, and the night was quiet and still. Thus the conditions were ideal, not only for us, but for the million mosquitos who inhabit the mountain. After 7 hours of a feeding frenzy, we watched the sun come up and headed back to En Gev to try to get some sleep. I’ve said before that it’s possible that Arbel was one of those mountains that Jesus climbed to spend the night in prayer. If so, I now understand better how he kept from falling asleep.

Update: One girl has counted 180 bites on one arm alone.

I’m in Galilee right now, with less time or ability for blogging. The first two days of the trip have gone very well: safe, fun, and profitable. In Caesarea we saw the newly excavated mansion with a huge mosaic floor. Yesterday we stopped and saw the ruins of ancient Endor, where Saul met the witch in order to bring up Samuel. Both were firsts for us. Today we’re off to Hazor, Dan, and Caesarea Philippi. More later, maybe.

Here’s a lesser known aspect of the Pool of Siloam excavations. Most people know that the pool is fed by Hezekiah’s Tunnel, but they may not be aware of a second channel (known as Channel #2, or the Siloam Channel/Tunnel) which connects the Gihon Spring and the Pool of Siloam but on the east side of the City of David. This channel runs on the western slope above the Kidron Valley and it was once believed that it watered the King’s Gardens in the valley via a series of square openings.

One of those openings is on the southern end of the City of David. Here’s a photo taken in September 2002.

You can see that the opening looks square and the channel looks full of trash. Also note the street pavement and the crack in the bedrock in the upper left.

Eli Shukron’s recent excavations of the Pool of Siloam has included work on this channel, and our students have had some involvement in that (no glory here: more like cleaning out a sewer). But you can see the difference once the pavement has been removed and the channel cleared. Stephen’s head (on the left) is at about pavement level.

My last comment in this series is a simple one. Students too often do not understand the need for a proper amount of sleep.

If your job is physical, like construction work, then getting enough sleep at night may not be as important. But when your job is largely mental, and you have to be alert in class, and sharp when reading, not having enough sleep greatly reduces the ability to do your job well.

Students often don’t think this through. They think that they must stay up until 2 o’clock (or later) in order to finish their paper. But, short on sleep, they can’t pay proper attention in class the next day. Sometimes they even fall asleep in class. The result is often: 1) a paper that isn’t the best quality because it was done when they were tired; 2) a wasted class period or day because they couldn’t stay focused.

Here’s a better approach: Decide what time you need to be in bed in order to get enough sleep. Pace yourself to finish the assignments before the designated bedtime. When that time arrives, go to bed, even if it’s not completed. Perhaps the assignment won’t get as high of a grade, but the next day won’t be wasted in class. Or wasted in trying to read (and falling asleep). It is likely that by enforcing this rule (with only very few exceptions), you will learn to work ahead and pace yourself so that assignments are completed on time and late nights are not required.

If there simply is no way to get all of the work done without shortchanging sleep on a regular basis, then I suggest this: take fewer units, reduce work hours, or say no to something else. Too many students waste the semester they paid so much for because they stay up late and zone out during the day.

PS After writing this, I saw the first in a series of posts by Gunner on “A Biblical Theology of Sleep.” Good timing!