New Books on Biblical Archeology

The monthly biblical archeology column.

Lawrence T. Geraty is an assistant professor of Old Testament, Andrews University.

 

EACH year THE MINISTRY provides its readers with a brief review of the most recent books in the field of Biblical archeology and related topics. The last such review appeared in the July and August, 1975, issues. Unless otherwise noted, this review covers significant works published in 1975. Depending on a minister's individual interest, those works marked with an asterisk (*) are suitable additions to his general library. Other volumes are either more technical or more restricted in their scope and therefore of greater value to the specialist, though the minister should be aware of their availability.

Reference Works

Probably the single most important book to be published last year was Volume I (in a four-volume series) of the new Encyclopedia of Archaeological Ex cavations in the Holy Land, * edited by Michael Avi-Yonah (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall; 341 pages; 750 photos, maps, and diagrams; $25). Each important archeological excavation of the past one hundred years in Palestine from Abu Ghosh to Dothan is described and analyzed (alphabetically) by a recognized archeological authority. Data of significance to the Bible are emphasized and good bibliographies are given.

A new single paperback volume at tempts similar coverage but is obviously much less thorough and complete. Archaeology* (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, Box 7145; 1974; 260 pages, with as many photos and maps) is com piled from material originally published in the Encyclopaedia Judaica. An annotated list of archeologists, a glossary, bibliography, and index all add to the usefulness of this little book.

For readers interested in Biblical sites (such as Gibeah of Saul, Taanach, and Ramoth-Gilead) excavated by the late Paul Lapp, there is a paperback collection of his articles edited by Nancy L. Lapp, The Tale of the Tell (Pittsburgh: Pickwick Press; 148 pages; 31 photos and maps; $6.50).

Eleanor K. Vogel's Bibliography of Holy Land Sites,* originally published in 1971 and already described in THE MINISTRY, is now available in paper back, with a foreword by G. Ernest Wright, for $4 from the American Schools of Oriental Research, 126 Inman Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139. Along with the encyclopedia mentioned above, it may be considered indispensable to any serious archeological research.

A very important new paperback bibliography for those interested in the Dead Sea scrolls is Joseph A. Fitzmyer's, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Major Publica tions and Tools for Study (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press; 171 pages; $4.20).

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is always a popular subject. Summarizing in a masterful way the results of the tremendous archeological activity of the past few years is the Israel Exploration Society's Jeru salem Revealed: Archaeology in the Holy City 1968-1974* (Jerusalem: I.E.S.; 136 pages; numerous photos and maps). It contains 33 important articles that were previously available in He brew only.

To be recommended for the traveler is Hershel Shank's paperback The City of David: a Guide to Biblical Jerusa lem* (Washington, D.C.: The Biblical Archaeology Society; 128 pages; 30 illustrations; $4.95).

Joachim Jeremias' Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus * (Philadelphia: Fortress; 405 pages; $5.95) is now available in paperback. The authoritative investigation into the economic and social conditions in the city during Jesus' time, it should be on the shelf of all who are interested in the background of the New Testament.

Museum Catalogs

One usually thinks of museum catalogs as dry and boring, but the past year saw the production of some very interesting books in this category. Two of them were published in conjunction with the Biblical Archeological Exhibition held at the University of Wisconsin, April 13-May 4, 1975. Both paperbacks are edited by Menahem Mansoor and are available from him at 1346 Van Hise Hall, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. The Book and the Spade (48 pages; 31 photos; $1.10 postpaid) is a catalog and description of the objects in the exhibition, but The Book and the Spade: A Guide to Biblical Archaeology * (80 pages; 15 photos; $1.10 postpaid) is a collection of useful essays that introduces one to the method, results, and value of archeology for the Bible.

Madeline Noveck's The Mark of An cient Man (New York: Brooklyn Museum; 96 pages, with as many photos; $4.95) is more than a catalog of the Gorelick Collection of ancient Near Eastern seals—it is a helpful introduction to seals in general, the greatest single source of visual information from Mesopotamia.

A revised catalog that has just come to my attention is Inscriptions Reveal: Documents From the Time of the Bible, the Mishna, and the Talmud (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1973; 400 pages; nearly 300 photos); it contains photos, transcriptions, translations, and discussions of nearly 300 important documents produced by Palestinian archeology.

Archeology and the Bible

Two fine new books retell the Biblical story from the vantage point of the new data produced by archeology. Harry Thomas Frank's Discovering the Biblical World * (New York: Harper & Row; 288 pages; 250 photos—150 in color; 60 maps; $16.95) is the most ambitious. Its illustrations are superb and its text well-informed.

Mark Link's These Stones Will Shout: A New Voice for the Old Testament* (Niles, Illinois: Argus Communications; 228 pages; 155 illustrations; $5.95) is a paperback with a contemporary format —a collage of photos, quotations, facts, and short essays.

Two more conservative authors have given us fine archeologically based studies of specific books. John J. Davis' Paradise to Prison: Studies in Genesis * (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House; 363 pages, 45 charts, maps, photos, and drawings; $7.95) does a good job of marshaling all the ancient Near Eastern data available to illuminate a Mosaic Genesis.

Leon Wood's Distressing Days of the Judges * (Grand Rapids: Zondervan; 434 pages; 9 maps; $9.95) attempts a similar goal for the book of Judges.

A Light Unto My Path: Old Testament Studies in Honor of Jacob M. Myers (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1974; 529 pages; $20), edited by Howard N. Bream, R. D. Heim, and C. A. Moore, contains 33 important essays on both general and specialized topics, including several of archeological inter est. The book concludes with Professor Myers' bibliography from 1932 to 1972.

History

Several new historical studies were published in 1975. The most comprehensive was Siegfried Herrmann's A History of Israel in the Old Testament Times* (Philadelphia: Fortress; 364 pages; 8 maps; $15.50), which builds substantially on the standard histories by John Bright and Martin Noth, but incorporates fresh insights and original work. Clear, reliable from the stand point of scholarship, and up-to-date, this book can be recommended as a liberal introduction to the subject.

Other books deal with certain aspects or periods of Biblical history. The most controversial will be John Van Seters' Abraham in History and Tradition (New Haven: Yale; 335 pages; $15), which challenges the traditional dating of the patriarchs and the Genesis narratives about them. Rejecting the usual archeological "proofs" for a date in the second millennium, he proposes that Abraham is a product of the exilic period! Since Van Seters is a well-in formed and careful critic, his evidence and arguments will have to be dealt with.

Morgan Cogan's Imperialism and Re ligion: Assyria, Judah and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C.E. (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press; 136 pages; 3 figures; $4.20) is a paper back revision of the author's doctoral dissertation, which probed the nature of the political-religious relationship that was obtained between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Israelite states. He finds, for instance, that the blame attributed to Manasseh by the book of Kings for the fall of Judah is vindicated.

Extremely important for New Testament backgrounds is the appearance of Volume VII in "The World History of the Jewish People." Containing essays by five recognized authorities on Jewish history, The Herodian Period * (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press; 402 pages; 70 illustrations and maps; $25), edited by Michael Avi-Yonah, covers the one hundred years from 63 B.C. to A.D. 66, dealing with the impact on history of such famous personages as Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate, the Roman emperors, and the High Priest Caiaphas.

Israel's Neighbors

To properly understand Israel and its role, one must know something of her historical context. A useful little paperback will help in this regard. The Ancient Near East, Volume II: A New Anthology of Texts and Pictures * (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press; 300 pages; 110 illustrations; $3.95), edited by James B. Pritchard, follows the format of Volume I, which was published in 1958, but makes avail able some of the most important recently discovered source material for the historian and student of the Bible. It contains, for instance, Nebuchadnezzar's account of the conquest of Jerusalem and the earliest extra-Biblical document to mention the Sabbath (from the time of Josiah).

A more specialized topic is dealt with in Alessandra Nibbi's The Sea Peoples and Egypt (Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Press; 161 pages; 36 plates and figures; $18). It is a much needed careful look at the actual data in hand and goes a long way to sketching the methodological solution to a knotty problem related to the date of the Biblical conquest.

Even more specialized is the beginning of a series of paperback sources and monographs on the ancient Near East, published by Undena Publications in Malibu, California. Among them are Adam Falkenstein's The Sumerian Tem ple City (21 pages; 75c), Benno Landsberger's Three Essays on the Sumerians (18 pages; 70c), I. M. Diakonoff s Struc ture of Society and State in Early Dy nastic Sumer (16 pages; 50c), Richard I. Caplice's The Akkadian Namburbi Texts: An Introduction (24 pages; 80c), and Mark E. Cohen's Balag-Compositions: Sumerian Lamentation Liturgies of the Second and First Millennium B.C. (35 pages; $1).

Chronology

Since chronology is a topic of interest to most readers of this journal, it may be worth mentioning the republication of Martin Anstey's classic Chronology of the Old Testament * (Grand Rapids: Kregal Publications, 1973; 271 pages; numerous diagrams, charts, and tables; $12.95), which was first printed in 1913 as The Romance of Bible Chronology. Though much new data is now avail able, this old study is still useful be cause it traces the dated events of the Old Testament step by step, attempting to explain every difficulty.


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Lawrence T. Geraty is an assistant professor of Old Testament, Andrews University.

 

September 1976

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