First Person: Is the Bible a Bunch of Historical Hooey?

“False Testament” blares the headline on the cover of the March issue of Harper’s Magazine. The subhead continues, “Archaeology Refutes the Bible’s Claim to History.” This is about as close to a screaming, supermarket tabloid headline as we are ever likely to get from the venerable Harper’s (the magazine began publishing a decade before Abraham Lincoln was first elected president). In the article, the author, Daniel Lazare, tries to knock down several “pillars” of Biblical history. Was there an actual Abraham? “Not only is there no evidence that any such figure as Abraham ever lived,” writes Lazare, “but archaeologists […]