Your Filters
- (-) Remove Hebrew filter Hebrew
- (-) Remove Bible filter Bible
- (-) Remove Authors: Jacob Milgrom filter Authors: Jacob Milgrom
- (-) Remove Authors: Gary A. Rendsburg filter Authors: Gary A. Rendsburg
- (-) Remove Authors: William G. Dever filter Authors: William G. Dever
- (-) Remove Authors: Amihai Mazar filter Authors: Amihai Mazar
Displaying 1 - 20 of 36 results
The Birth of Adonis?
Cyprus excavation suggests a connection between the Greek god and the Hebrew Adon
How does a site get lost? It happens. For nearly a decade—from 1867 to 1875—General Luigi Palma de Cesnola, a flamboyant Italian who served as both the American and Russian consul to...
Archaeology Odyssey, Spring 1998
Archaeology and the Bible—Understanding Their Special Relationship
The following article has been adapted from Recent Archaeological Discoveries and Biblical Research, by William G. Dever (Seattle: Univ of Washington Press, 1990). As a matter of principal Professor Dever does not write for BAR (see...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1990
What Archaeology Can Contribute to an Understanding of the Bible
Although Professor Dever objects to the use of the term “Biblical archaeology” (see “Should the Term ‘Biblical Archaeology’ Be Abandoned?” BAR 07:03), few are as articulate as he in describing what archaeology, and particularly Syro-...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1981
Whom Do You Believe—The Bible or Archaeology?
Is the Hebrew Bible a bunch of tales with no value to a historian? Does archaeology hold the keys to truth instead? What are the limitations of both sources of information? Is it even possible to write a comprehensive and honest history of ancient Israel? Focusing on King David as a case study, eminent archaeologist William G. Dever attempts to marry archaeology and the Bible—giving BAR readers a sneak-peak of his upcoming book.
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2017
Beasts or Bugs?
Solving the Problem of the Fourth Plague
Blood, frogs, lice, cattle disease, boils … Every spring at the Jewish holiday of Passover, the ten nasties that plagued Egypt are described in the Haggadah, the midrashic retelling of the Exodus from Egypt that is read aloud during the...
Bible Review, April 2003
Hershel’s Crusade, No. 2: For King and Country: Chronology and Minimalism
Is the Hebrew Bible a reliable source of information about ancient Israel? Does it contain true histories or just constructs? Archaeologist William Dever presents an overview of the controversy between the extreme skeptics (minimalists) and the more optimistic Biblical maximalists, highlighting the vital role of Hershel Shanks and BAR in that debate.
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April May/June 2018
A Rare Torah in the Library of Congress
The oldest Torah manuscripts survive incomplete and barely legible. But not the scroll sheet acquired recently by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Penned more than a millennium ago, this uniquely preserved parchment represents the oldest complete Torah scroll sheet totally legible by the naked eye. Explore the manuscript’s history and what makes it such a remarkable artifact.
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2019
“You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk”
An archaeological myth destroyed
One of the oldest prohibitions in the entire Bible is the injunction against boiling a kid in the milk of its mother. It is repeated three times in identical words: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”a From these words, the...
Bible Review, Fall 1985
Learning More About Israel? Or Israel?
Forgotten Kingdom
It is impossible to summarize Israel Finkelstein’s latest book, The Forgotten Kingdom, in a brief review because its numerous errors, misrepresentations, over-simplifications and contradictions make it too unwieldy...Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2014
Whatchamacallit
Why It’s So Hard to Name Our Field
Cynical observers claim that when a discipline falls to questioning its name, it is already moribund. I would argue, however, that periodic (and even painful) reassessment is a sign of...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2003
Save Us from Postmodern Malarkey
There are some who claim that the Bible contains little or no historical information about ancient Israel. I want to combat these “minimalist” or “revisionist” views of the history of ancient Israel by showing how archaeology can and does...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2000
A Temple Built for Two
Did Yahweh Share a Throne with His Consort Asherah?
First Publication: A Newly Discovered House Shrine Should We Ignore Unprovenanced Artifacts? A long, sometimes bitter debate has been going on in BAR as to whether Yahweh, the God of ancient Israel, had a consort. One of America’s most...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2008
Was King Saul Impaled on the Wall of Beth Shean?
The Bible tells us that King Saul was killed by the Philistines and that his body (as well as those of his three sons) was hung on the wall of Beth Shean: “The Philistines came to strip the slain, and they found Saul and his three sons lying...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2012
Divided Kingdom, United Critics
We present here two reviews of Israel Finkelstein’s recently published The Forgotten Kingdom. The first review is by William G. Dever, one of America’s leading archaeologists. Finkelstein is one of Israel’s leading archaeologists. I am...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2014
Reading David in Genesis
How we know the Torah was written in the tenth century B.C.E.
For the last two hundred years, a central question in biblical studies has been the authorship of the Torah (or Pentateuch). The Age of Enlightenment led scholars to realize that the traditional Jewish and Christian belief in Moses’...
Bible Review, February 2001
The Death of a Discipline
As readers of BAR may know, I have long maintained a principle of not writing articles for the magazine, although I remain good friends with editor Hershel Shanks, and I do assist with...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1995
Of Hems and Tassels
Rank, authority and holiness were expressed in antiquity by fringes on garments
In the book of Numbers, the Lord speaks to the Israelites through his servant Moses and commands them to wear tassels (or tsitsit) on the corners of their garments. The tassels must include a blue thread. The Biblical passage reads as...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1983
Unlikely Heroes
Women as Israel
Open your Bible at random and you will notice something striking: Female characters abound. And it’s not simply a lot of women, it’s a lot of strong women. These women are the antithesis of what we might expect from a patriarchal society...
Bible Review, February 2003
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
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