1993 BAS Publication Awards

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The Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Awards recognize the best new books on archaeology and the Bible. Made possible by a generous gift from the Leopold and Clara M. Fellner Charitable Foundation by its Trustee Frederick L. Simmons, the 1993 awards are for books published in 1991 and 1992.

Best Popular Books on Archaeology

A Century of Biblical Archaeology

P. R. S. Moorey, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

(Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991) 189 pp., $14.99

In an engaging style and with in-depth documentation, P. R. S. Moorey traces the history and philosophical development of Biblical archaeology from its birth in the 19th century to 1990. Moorey focuses on the intellectual political and ideological factors that have influenced archaeological research and interpretation in the Holy Land since Sir Flinders Petrie’s first scientific excavations in 1890. By highlighting collaboration and conflict between archaeologists and Biblical scholars, an intriguing picture emerges of Biblical archaeology today.

The People of the Sea

Trude and Moshe Dothan, Hebrew University and University of Haifa

(New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992) 276 pp., $25.00

Trude and Moshe Dothan here present for the general reader the results of a lifetime of scholarship and excavation devoted to advancing knowledge of the Philistines. This handsome book is a highly readable, lavishly illustrated and elegantly laid out account of the origins and cultural development of these enigmatic people. The Dothans thoroughly explore the archaeological remains of the Philistines in Palestine, concentrating on the many, important sites they themselves have excavated, particularly Ashdod and Tel Miqne-Ekron. They also review evidence for the roots of Philistine culture in the world of the Aegean Bronze Age. The Dothans have restored the Philistines to their rightful place as creators of a complex and cosmopolitan urban culture.

Judges:

Thomas E. Levy, University of California at San Diego
Lawrence Stager, Harvard University
Jane Waldbaum, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

Best Scholarly Books on Archaeology

Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times

Donald B. Redford, University of Toronto

(Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1992) 511 pp., $39.95

Since the days of Sir Flinders Petrie, archaeologists working in the Holy Land have recognized that Egypt holds the key to dating and interpreting many of the cultural developments in Canaan/Israel. In this masterful summary of the long-term relationship between Egypt and Canaan/Israel, Redford uses textual and archaeological evidence to summarize the social, political and religious influences that Egypt had on its neighbor. For the first time, archaeologists, Biblical scholars, ancient historians and graduate students have in one handy volume a concise yet detailed summary of this relationship from the Paleolithic period to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.

Subsistence, Trade, and Social Change in Early Bronze Age Palestine

Douglas L. Esse

(Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1991) 219 pp., $30

While there have been many demands to bring Syro-Palestinian archeaology into the philosophical mainstream of world archaeology, there have been few in-depth case studies that answer this plea. Douglas Esse goes a long way toward achieving this goal by focusing on the multi-causal issues of the emergence of urbanism in Early Bronze Age 025Palestine. Esse’s volume traces changes in intraregional, interregional and international trade and settlement in the third millennium B.C.E. Using northern Palestine as a case study, Esse skillfully analyses the unpublished University of Chicago materials from Beth Yerah, Megiddo and his own surveys to weave a robust picture of the processes responsible for the growth, consolidation and final collapse of the first urban experiment in the Holy Land. It is with sadness that we make this award posthumously.

Judges:

Thomas E. Levy, University of California at San Diego
Lawrence Stager, Harvard University
Jane Waldbaum, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

Best Books Relating to the Old Testament

Leviticus 1–16

Jacob Milgrom, University of California at Berkeley

(Anchor Bible Series, New York: Doubleday, 1991) 1163 pp., $42

Jacob Milgrom’s commentary, here in its first volume, is comprehensive and original. Combining a searching analysis of details with a sure sense of the larger issues and overall shape of Leviticus, it will open up that book, hitherto sealed and forbidding to many readers, in new ways. Milgrom’s ability to weave into his examination of the Biblical text a range of other sources, both ancient Near Eastern and later Jewish, is exemplary.

Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible

Emanuel Tov, Hebrew University

(Philadelphia: Fortress/Assen: Van Gorcum, 1992) 496 pp., $39.95

Emanuel Tov’s book should take its place as the best of its kind: an indispensable study of the text of the Hebrew Bible. Tov, chief editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls publication project, covers every aspect of the field in a crisp yet thoroughgoing way, bringing together a treasure trove of new materials, particularly from the Dead Sea Scrolls. The result is many new formulations of how the Biblical text developed and was transmitted. In addition, his demonstration of the practice of Biblical textual criticism will be of singular value to student and seasoned scholar alike.

Judges:

John Collins, University of Chicago
Peter Machinist, Harvard University
Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University

Best Book Relating to the New Testament

A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus

John P. Meier, Catholic University of America

(New York: Doubleday, 1991) 484 pp., $25

Although only the first of a multivolume work, A Marginal Jew is impressive for its scope. Readers are introduced to the materials, problems and methods that attend writing about Jesus by a workmanlike, straightforward and understandable author. Thoroughly knowledgeable about the scholarship on Jesus, Meier summarizes issues and makes clear his own position on every matter he takes up. He will, of course, not convince everyone, but the comprehensiveness and overall balance of this volume justifies the expectation that the completed work will be for many years a standard treatment of the life of Jesus for the general reader, as well as an interpretation with which specialists will have to come to terms.

Judges:

Harold W. Attridge, University of Notre Dame
Abraham Malherbe, Yale University
Steven Friesen, University of Missouri Columbia

Special Citation

Anchor Bible Dictionary

David Noel Freedman, Editor in Chief

(New York: Doubleday, 1992) 6 vols., 7284 pp., $360

The judges in all three categories felt that special mention must be made of one of the most significant publishing events in many years, the appearance of the Anchor Bible Dictionary. Some of their comments follow.

From “Archeaology in Syro-Palestine” to “Zoology,” the ABD provides one of the most useful scholarly research tools to appear in decades for archaeologists working in Israel and Jordan. This monumental work contains hundreds of entries germane to archaeological research. The up-to-date summaries of the principal excavation sites and conceptual problems (such as the settlement of the Tribes of Israel in Canaan and pastoralism in the ancient Near East) make this the first place to look when preparing research in Biblical archaeology. We thank Freedman and his editorial team (Gary A. Herion, David. F. Graf, John D. Pleins and Astrid B. Beck) for their contributions to our field.

The ABD summarizes issues and conclusions emerging from the modern study of the Hebrew scriptures. In addition to providing new data on established topics, it treats issues too new to be found in older reference works. Thanks to its extraordinary scope, the ABD provides a window on the field of biblical scholarship throughout the world.

For those interested in the New Testament, the ABD provides information not only on the canonical texts but on a wide variety of subjects from the Jewish and Greco-Roman environment in which early Christianity developed. A product of international and interdenominational collaboration, the ABD is a superb reference tool that treats many contemporary perspectives on the Bible.

The Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Awards recognize the best new books on archaeology and the Bible. Made possible by a generous gift from the Leopold and Clara M. Fellner Charitable Foundation by its Trustee Frederick L. Simmons, the 1993 awards are for books published in 1991 and 1992.

Best Popular Books on Archaeology