Books in Brief

006

A Century of Biblical Archaeology

P.R.S. Moorey

(Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992) 205 pp., $14.99, paper

In this lucid survey of the history of archaeology in the Near East, especially in the areas now known as Israel and Jordan, Roger Moorey, keeper of antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and president of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, manages to include an extraordinary amount of detail within a small format. Six chronological chapters cover the following periods: The Birth of Biblical Archaeology (1800–1890); Excavations and Texts: Early Confrontations (1890–1925); The Golden Age of Biblical Archaeology (1925–1948); New Nations: New Methods (1948–1958); The Passing of the Old Order: Towards an Identity Crisis (1958 1974); The Growing Impact of the Natural and Social Sciences (1974–1990). Each chapter summarizes the principal excavations of the period and sketches the biographies of key scholars. Although the focus is on Palestine, discoveries throughout the Levant are treated when appropriate. Interwoven is a judicious discussion of the development of, and debates about, archaeological methods, and of the strengths and weaknesses of individual scholars as excavators and as interpreters.

It is good to have a British perspective on such key American figures as William F. Albright, Nelson Glueck, George Ernest Wright, Paul Lapp and William Dever. Moorey’s criticism of them as well as of others, such as Kathleen Kenyon and Yigael Yadin, is balanced and often incisive. It is especially valuable to have an outsider’s view of the New Archaeology, in which the social sciences rather than history are the source of methods, terminology and research designs, and of what Moorey aptly terms the “delicate and equivocal relationship” between archaeology and Biblical studies.

The phenomenon known as “Biblical archaeology” and the opposition to it are in some ways peculiarly American. The separation of politics from religion in the American tradition is only apparent; Biblical models and Biblical imagery have pervaded the American political idiom since the 17th century. Yet at the same time, there is also, especially in American academic circles, a suspicion of religion and of religious studies. Religion is often regarded as an illegitimate subject for “objective” investigation and as inappropriate in any form on a university campus. Not surprisingly, the apparently value-free approach of the New Archaeology had considerable appeal as Biblical archaeologists attempted to justify their somewhat hybrid discipline within the context of the modern American university. The New Archaeology further offered, with typically American optimism, the prospect of “holistic” integration of all data into a coherent explanation of every aspect of human societies, both ancient and modern. This self-justifying secular idealism had little use or need for texts, especially those with a religious bias.

The strongest opposition to the excesses of Biblical archaeology—and even denial of its validity—has often come from scholars whose backgrounds were extremely conservative; as they rejected the religious traditions of their formative years, often the basis of their interest in Biblical matters, some of these scholars have also attempted to distance themselves from overzealous correlation of archaeological and Biblical data by separating them entirely. Ironically, in doing so they can exhibit the same dogmatic certainty, self-righteousness and polemical argumentation that characterized the writings of their religious forebears.

There are some questionable pronouncements. Moorey asserts that Wright, in his excavation of Shechem, “did not understand and apply stratigraphical analysis” in the way Mortimer Wheeler and Kenyon had (p. 100); in fact, key members of Wright’s staff at Shechem had worked with Kenyon, and meticulous recording of stratigraphic details as practiced by Kenyon became, at Wright’s insistence, a characteristic of the Shechem project and of those directed by Shechem alumni. In his discussion of the interpretation of the finds at Qumran, Moorey seems to side with the more skeptical of recent interpreters, who have rejected excavator Roland de Vaux’s views of the chronology and interpretation of the site. (A surprising omission is the absence of any mention of the growth of BAR and of its role in the controversies over the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls.)

The book includes a brief glossary 008of archaeological terms, a select bibliography and indexes of personal names and of places.

The poorly written publishers’ blurb on the back jacket and in their catalogue is misleading: This is not a study of Tell el-Hesi, but rather a comprehensive critical survey (using Flinders Petrie’s excavations at Hesi 100 years ago as a somewhat arbitrary point of departure in order to provide a catchy title) of the history of the discipline variously known in the English-speaking West as Biblical archaeology, Palestinian archaeology and Syro-Palestinian archaeology. It is a classic of its kind.

Archaeology and the New Testament

John McRay

(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker 1991) 432 pp, $39.95

Books treating archaeological themes related to the Old Testament abound. In fact, the term “Biblical archaeology” is usually employed with the Old Testament in mind. (Consider, for example, the recent celebrated work by Amihai Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible 10,000–586 B.C.E. [Doubleday, 1990]) By comparison, Jack Finegan’s The Archaeology of the New Testament, since its publication in 1969,^a has virtually stood alone as a comprehensive work treating archaeological data relevant to New Testament studies. Now John McRay’s laudable book lengthens the list of such works to two.

Drawing upon a lifetime of experience in the classroom and in the field, McRay has written an excellent volume illustrating both the values and the limits of what present archaeological knowledge can bring to New Testament studies. While his goal, “to provide information that will enable others to better understand and apply biblical teaching” (p. 13), may be overly ambitious, he gives the reader an opportunity to view the ancient world out of which the New Testament and early Christianity emerged.

After a helpful, if somewhat brief, discussion of archaeological methods, McRay presents his material under four main headings: “The Architecture of New Testament 080Times,” “The Building Program of Herod the Great,” “Archaeology and the Life of Christ” and “Archaeology and the Church.”

In the first of two chapters on the architecture of New Testament times, McRay provides a good overview of the layout and major architectural features of Greco-Roman cities, including Roman bathhouses and Greek and Roman theaters and amphitheaters. Beginning students will find especially helpful his explanations of many of the technical terms used to describe the architectural features of these structures. In the next chapter, McRay turns to religious and domestic buildings. Readers will find much of value here, especially the author’s descriptions and illustrations of synagogues. Of particular note is McRay’s observation that the long-held view that synagogues can be dated by their architectural style is no longer tenable.

McRay devotes the next two chapters to the building program of Herod the Great: chapter 3 covers Jerusalem, and chapter 4 considers other cities. Much of the discussion of Jerusalem concentrates on the Temple Mount. Detailed plans of the Herodian city would have strengthened this section. Without such plans, the discussion can become extremely confusing, especially for the novice. Nevertheless, these chapters offer a good summary of what is known of the remains of Herod’s building projects.

While few archaeological remains have been found that can be dated with certainty to the time of Jesus, McRay does an excellent job of using geography and texts to illuminate the world in which Jesus lived. He not only examines the archaeological evidence of important sites such as Bethlehem, Nazareth, Capernaum and Chorazin, but also discusses relevant textual sources, including Josephus. His arguments that Kursi, located on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee, should be identified with ancient Gergesa (see Mark 5:1 and parallels) are cogent, and he presents a balanced discussion on the controversial subject of the burial place of Jesus. He even includes a brief but lucid discussion of the Shroud of Turin.

The largest section of the book deals with the spread of the Christian Church across the Greco-Roman world. Here McRay takes the reader on a tour of Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. Although many of the sites discussed have little or no remains from the New Testament period, McRay still manages to leave his reader with a vivid impression of what much of that part of the world must have been like during the expansion of the early Church. His chapter on Corinth and Rome is particularly helpful in bringing to life the world of the apostle Paul.

In his final chapter, McRay provides a helpful discussion of ancient textual discoveries that have contributed directly to the study of the New Testament. For readers who know little or nothing of the complex discipline of textual criticism, this chapter should be an eye-opener.

McRay also provides 33 pages of detailed footnotes—which readers will find invaluable for more in-depth study—several tables, a glossary of technical terms and a subject index. Thirty-two diagrams, eight maps and many black-and-white photographs illustrate the volume.

The book has surprisingly few errors for such a long work. Readers will find this highly recommended work to be comprehensive, thorough, up-to-date and reliable.

A Century of Biblical Archaeology

P.R.S. Moorey

(Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992) 205 pp., $14.99, paper