Archaeology’s “finds have revolutionized the study of early Israel and have cast serious doubt on the historical basis of such famous biblical stories as the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt and conquest of Canaan, and the glorious empire of David and Solomon” (Finkelstein and Silberman 2001: 3).<\/p>\n
“If the meaning of the archaeological evidence is clear, one might say that it gives a more ‘neutral’ history than the textual material. It is free from the Tendenz or evaluation that easily creeps into an author’s writings” (G. W. Ahlstrom, cited in Provan, Long, and Longman 2003: 63).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The foolishness of this approach should be readily evident “Until the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics, beginning in the 1970s, the Maya were widely considered a peaceful, childlike people–contentedly agrarian, artistic, enchanted with nature and the heavens. The hieroglyphic texts, however, tell a different story; often carved on stelae, these texts are devoted to the reigns of the kings who erected them, especially their conquests. According to Yale University scholar Michael Coe, the texts indicate that the Maya were not so much ‘peaceful theocracies led by priest-astronomers’ as ‘highly warlike city-states led by grim dynastsy obsessed with human sacrifice and the ritual letting of their own blood” (Archaeology Odyssey, Jan\/Feb 2006, p. 52).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What a major misread! The conflicts between the archaeological record in Israel and the biblical text are not nearly so great, but I’ll tell you which side I’ll choose when there’s a conflict. And I make this prediction: in 100 years time, my side will have “beaten” the archaeological record nearly every time. The works of those who have opted in the other direction will be forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The trend in among some in the archaeological and biblical studies field is to emphasize the archaeological record and to see little value in the historical (mostly biblical) record. There are many examples of this, but here’s two: Archaeology’s “finds have revolutionized the study of early Israel and have cast serious doubt on the historical\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/www.bibleplaces.com\/blog\/uploaded_images\/joshua-746015.jpg\")
<\/a> and is to most except some of the “brightest” scholars. One example of the difficulty of “reading” the archaeological remains can be seen from the other side of the world.<\/p>\n