Displaying 1 - 20 of 48 results
Digging the Talmud in Ancient Meiron
The Talmud is, after the Bible itself, Judaism’s most significant and revered collection of sacred writings. Although the Talmud was in fact written and compiled between the Second and Fifth centuries A.D., rabbinic tradition holds that...
Biblical Archaeology Review, June 1978
When Did God Finish Creation?
The first chapter of Genesis describes how God created heaven and earth and all that is therein, ending with the glorious fashioning of humankind on day six. Then, in Genesis 2:1, we read that “The heaven and the earth were finished; and all...
Bible Review, Winter 1987
Inside Solomon’s Temple
“Then Solomon said … ‘I have built thee an exalted house, a place for thee to dwell in forever.’” (1 Kings 8:12–13) A vision of Isaiah, “I beheld my Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of his robe filled the Temple.” (...
Bible Review, April 1994
P—Understanding the Priestly Source
Reading an introduction to biblical criticism, a beginning student might well think he or she is peering into a bowl of alphabet soup—or perhaps perusing a catalogue of foundations and corporations. Letters are all over the place, especially...
Bible Review, June 1996
From Storm God to Abstract Being
How the deity became more distant from Exodus to Deuteronomy
A spectacular sound and light show greeted the Israelites when the new nation encountered God for the first time at Mt. Sinai.1 The awesome display of divine presence and power so terrified the Children of Israel that they begged God not to...
Bible Review, October 1998
Wish Upon a Stone
Discovering the idolatry of the even maskit
Leviticus bans the Israelites from bowing upon a maskit stone. But what is a maskit? A recently deciphered Assyrian inscription may hold the key to identifying this mysterious prohibited object.
Bible Review, October 1999
Whose Earrings Did Jacob Bury?
When the patriarch Jacob returns to Canaan with his family after a 20-year sojourn with his uncle Laban, God instructs him to go to Bethel and build an altar (Genesis 35:1). Jacob immediately tells his entourage to rid themselves of the alien...
Bible Review, August 2001
The Golden Calf
Made by Man...or God?
While Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the first edition of the Ten Commandments, the people down below grew impatient and asked Aaron, Moses’ brother, to make them another god to...
Bible Review, April 2004
The Genesis of Genesis
Is the Creation Story Babylonian?
On December 3, 1872, George Smith, a former bank-note engraver turned Assyriologist, stunned the Western world by announcing that he had discovered a Babylonian story of a great Flood resembling the well-known account of the Deluge in the...
Bible Review, Anniversary Issue
Finders of a Real Lost Ark
American archaeologists find remains of ancient synagogue ark in Galilee
When we returned to Nabratein in upper Galilee for our second excavation season in June 1981, we were unaware of a movie called “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” This may be difficult to believe, but it is true. Day by day we excavated in the clear...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1981
Bronze Bull Found in Israelite “High Place” from the Time of the Judges
When he found it, Ofer Broshi was on army duty. Army life can be exhausting or boring—or sometimes both. At that moment, Broshi, a rugged young kibbutznik, was more bored than tired. He was resting on the summit of a hill in northern Samaria...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1983
Excavating in Samson Country—Philistines and Israelites at Tel Batash
The period from the time of the Judges to the end of the Israelite monarchy is known in archaeological terms as the Iron Age. It is subdivided into Iron I, the time of the Judges from about 1200 to 1000 B.C., and Iron II, the United and...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1989
Masada: Arms and the Man
Sometimes we make discoveries not by digging in the ground, but by digging in the records of past excavations. So it is with Masada, Herod’s nearly impregnable palace-fortress in the Judean wilderness, occupied and defended by Jewish Zealots...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1992
Not a Country Villa
Everyone wants to know who lived at Qumran, the settlement adjacent to the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. And sometimes it seems that everyone has a different opinion. With hopes of helping to solve the riddle, I’d like to...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1996
Picturing Imageless Deities
Iconography in the Ancient Near East
Tryggve N.D....
No Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1997
Illuminating Byzantine Jerusalem
Oil lamps shed light on early Christian worship
This is the story of how the puzzling inscriptions on some ancient oil lamps illuminate an entire era. These modest artifacts offer us a vivid picture of the spiritual life of the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1998
Will Tel Rehov Save the United Monarchy?
In the shadow of Mt. Gilboa in the northern Jordan Valley stands one of Israel’s largest, most important archaeological sites—and, until recently, one of the least known. Yet there is...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2000
How Jewish Was Sepphoris in Jesus’ Time?
Sepphoris is a bare 4 miles from Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth. So it is not surprising that the ancient city has become central to the study of the historical Jesus, especially because it...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2000
Yes, They Are
Hanan Eshel attempts to discredit the identification of mikva’ot at Sepphoris,1 but he also suggests that first-century C.E. Sepphoris, in the time of Jesus, was both a pagan and a Jewish city. This has been the subject of much...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2000
Surprises at Yattir: Unexpected Evidence of Early Christianity
Archaeology is full of surprises. Sometimes we don’t find what we had expected to find. Or we find something we never expected to find. Either way, the experience is always exciting—and...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2001