BAS Publication Awards

041

The 2001 Biblical Archaeology Society Pulication Awards recognize the best books on archaeology and the Bible published in 1999 and 2000.

The biennial awards are made possible by a generous grant from the Leopold and Clara M. Fellner Charitable Foundation through its trustee, Frederick L. Simmons.

Best Book Relating to the Old Testament

The Material Culture of the Bible: An Introduction

Ferdinand E. Deist
edited by Robert Carroll
(Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000)

An understanding of the material culture of the Biblical world is vital to understanding the meaning of the Bible. In this posthumously published book, Ferdinand Deist, former professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, offers insight into the oft-neglected cultural systems reflected in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. Deist analyzes and systematizes the socio-anthropological and material aspects of Israel’s culture, including economic systems, technology, natural ecology and political organizations. While making readers fully aware of the difficulties of constructing past cultures from ancient texts, the author concludes that the text of the Hebrew Bible, although adjusted to meet the needs of the Persian period, accurately preserves much of the substance of pre-Exilic culture.

This volume was largely complete when Deist died in 1997 and was then edited by Robert Carroll, who died in 2000.

Judges:

Sidnie White Crawford, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Richard D. Nelson, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University
Phyllis Trible, Wake Forest University Divinity School

Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology

Wine and Oil Production in Antiquity in Israel and Other Mediterranean Countries

Rafael Frankel
JSOT/ASOR Monograph Series 10 (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999)

Rafael Frankel’s Wine and Oil Production in Antiquity is a tour de force about a core economic activity that affected virtually all aspects of ancient Israelite society. In this comprehensive and detailed typological study, Frankel, a senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Haifa, traces the development of the installations that gave shape to the oil and wine producing industries of ancient Israel. At the same time, he places this technological development within its broader historical and social context. The book successfully integrates archaeological and textual sources, and clearly presents illustrative materials and supporting documentation. This impressive and substantive work promises to become a standard scholarly reference for years to come.

Judges:

Timothy P. Harrison, University of Toronto
Brian Hesse, University of Alabama, Birmingham
James F. Strange, University of South Florida, Tampa

Best Book Relating to the New Testament

Paul and the Stoics

Troels Engberg-Pedersen
(Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2000)

The hallowed partition erected between Judaism and Hellenism by earlier generations of scholars has begun to crumble in recent decades. This book will make it still harder to prop up.

In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have attempted to understand Paul’s letters in the context of Greco-Roman moral philosophy. This book represents the most ambitious attempt to date to explain Paul’s thinking in terms of Greco-Roman ethics, specifically those of the Stoics. Focusing on three Pauline letters, Troels Engberg-Pedersen, a lecturer in New Testament studies at the University of Copenhagen and an acknowledged authority on Greco-Roman moral philosophy, argues that Pauline thought displays, to an until now unsuspected degree, profound structural affinities with Stoic thought. Future investigators of Paul’s intellectual world will need to take account of Engberg-Pedersen’s arguments, whether or not they are persuaded by them.

Judges:

Adela Yarbro Collins, Yale University
Stephen Moore, Drew University Theological School
Stephen J. Patterson, Eden Theological Seminary

Best Popular Book on Archaeology

The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age

Eric H. Cline
(Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2000)

In The Battles of Armageddon, Eric H. Cline offers a creative look at the long and eventful history of warfare in ancient Israel as seen from the strategic vantage point of Megiddo. Cline, an assistant professor of ancient history and archaeology at George Washington University, succeeds admirably in the difficult task of communicating, both accurately and effectively, archaeological knowledge about the world of the Bible to a lay audience. The result is a well-crafted historical study, informed in its use of archaeological and textual source material, yet fascinating and interesting to read. The Battles of Armageddon not only highlights the strategic importance of Megiddo and the surrounding region in the historical past, but puts into context the continuing cultural and religious significance of the site today.

Judges:

Timothy P. Harrison, University of Toronto
Brian Hesse, University of Alabama, Birmingham
James F. Strange, University of South Florida, Tampa

The 2001 Biblical Archaeology Society Pulication Awards recognize the best books on archaeology and the Bible published in 1999 and 2000.