Inside BAR

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The town of Chorazin is mentioned in both Matthew and Luke. For hundreds of years it has lain in ruins. Now Chorazin is rising again on a serene hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. In “Ancient Chorazin Comes Back to Life,” Ze’ev Yeivin describes his excavation of domestic and public buildings and his recent partial reconstruction of the synagogue, a fifth-century A.D. masterpiece of carving in hard, black basalt stone.

Yeivin began his archaeological career as an on-site artist for Israel Department of Antiquities excavations. Today he is deputy director of the Department. He has participated in and directed numerous excavations, including Chorazin, Eshtemoa, Tel Erani, Hagosherim, Tirat Yehuda and Carmel. Previously for BAR, Yeivin wrote “Has Another Lost Ark Been Found?” BAR 09:01, in which he reported on an exquisite, carved pilaster from Chorazin. Now, in this issue, Yeivin places the pilaster in the reconstructed niche inside the synagogue, where once the Torah scrolls were stored.

The Exodus, a pivotal event in Israel’s history, took place about the mid-13th century B.C., according to most scholars who have attempted to date it. These scholars affirm that Israelites entered Canaan about 40 years thereafter. Not so, say scholars John J. Bimson and David Livingston in “Redating the Exodus.” The Exodus took place about 1460 B.C., and the Israelites entered Canaan about 1420 B.C. Citing negative evidence, Bimson and Livingston tell us that no archaeological remains from the late 13th century B.C. have been found at key sites that the Bible says the Israelites encountered, such as Jericho, Gibeon, Hebron, Arad and Ai. But the archaeological evidence fits the late 15th century B.C. to a T—even as to the location of Ai, which presents special problems. Bimson and Livington propose a new identification for Ai: It’s not et-Tell, the traditional location, but nearby Khirbet Nisya, and they display photographs of archaeological remains from Nisya dating to about the 15th century B.C.

A lecturer in Old Testament at Trinity College, Bristol, England, Bimson excavated at Khirbet Nisya, 11 miles north of Jerusalem, for two seasons. Since he wrote his doctoral dissertation, “The Date of the Exodus: A Revised Chronology of Hebrew Origins,” at the University of Sheffield, in England, he has continued to develop his theories on the Exodus. The dissertation was published as Redating the Exodus in 1978 and now appears in a second, updated edition (Almond Press, 1981). Bimson is also a contributing editor to The New Bible Atlas (Inter-Varsity Press, 1985).

Livingston has dug at Khirbet Nisya for six seasons. He is the director of the Associates for Biblical Research, which he founded in 1969. In the 1950s and ‘60s he served as a missionary in Korea and was president for five years of Eastern Korean Christian College.

Bimson also figured prominently at a recent colloquium in Memphis, Tennessee entitled “Who Was the Pharaoh of the Exodus?” In BARlines, BAR reports on this colloquium, where Bimson was joined by such world-famous scholars as David Ussishkin, Rivka Gonen, Cyrus Gordon and Hans Goedicke.

Bimson’s redating stimulated vigorous rejoinders at the Memphis colloquium, as it will, no doubt, in BAR. Anticipating disagreement, BAR requested a response to Bimson’s ideas from Baruch Halpern, of York University, which will appear in our next issue.

Lumps of clay may seem unlikely objects to inspire awe, but when they are bullae—lumps impressed by seals and used to secure ancient documents—and when they bear the names of Biblical personalities, then they are indeed awe-inspiring. Such bullae, impressed with the seals of Jeremiah’s scribe Baruch and King Jehoiakim’s son Yerahme’el, were found among a hoard of more than 250 bullae in 1975. Recently, Israeli archaeologist Nahman Avigad deciphered and published the entire hoard, and now BAR editor Hershel Shanks looks at the exciting results of Avigad’s work in “Jeremiah’s Scribe and Confidant Speaks from a Hoard of Clay Bullae from First Temple Days.”

Another Biblical personality, the high priest Hilkiah, has gained recognition from an ancient artifact. In “Name of Deuteronomy’s Author Found on Seal Ring,” Josette Elayi describes a seal ring with an inscription that tells us it belonged to “H|anan, son of H|ilqiyahu, the priest.” The ring itself is a great rarity because it still encases the seal after nearly 2,600 years. Elayi tells of her efforts to authenticate the ring and suggests that H|ilqiyahu may have been the Biblical Hilkiah, who the Bible says found a Torah scroll that scholars now identify as the Book of Deuteronomy.

Elayi is a specialist in Phoenician Studies at Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, and has published numerous articles in scholarly journals. She has taught at the University of Baghdad and at the University of Beirut.

Books in Brief features three reviews: The Monastic Realm, a visually exquisite volume that its reviewer, Stephen Gardner, finds flawed; Six New Testament Walks in Jerusalem, a guide book that Jerome Murphy-O’Connor declares “hollow”; and Uncovering the Ancient World, a broad-brush survey of great archaeolgical discoveries, and the people who made them, reviewed by Henry O. Thompson.

The town of Chorazin is mentioned in both Matthew and Luke. For hundreds of years it has lain in ruins. Now Chorazin is rising again on a serene hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. In “Ancient Chorazin Comes Back to Life,” Ze’ev Yeivin describes his excavation of domestic and public buildings and his recent partial reconstruction of the synagogue, a fifth-century A.D. masterpiece of carving in hard, black basalt stone. Yeivin began his archaeological career as an on-site artist for Israel Department of Antiquities excavations. Today he is deputy director of the Department. He has participated in and directed […]