Queries & Comments

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EASTER DILEMMA

Quite Interesting

I found the article “Resurrecting Easter: Hunting for the Original Resurrection Image,” by John Dominic and Sarah Sexton Crossan (BAR, March/April 2019) quite interesting and useful. For the online and printed versions of the Sunday Lectionary readings for my church (St. Paul’s United Methodist, Houston), I select and provide related art, accompanied by a short description. The piece by the Crossans has given me several possibilities for use at Easter.

Not Worth Reading

Mr. Cargill, cancel my subscription, effective immediately. Any magazine that publishes any article by John Dominic Crossan can’t be trusted and isn’t worth reading.

RITUAL PURITY AND DRINKING

Rarely Seen

The March/April 2019 edition of BAR has two articles that you never see written, much less published, at least in archaeological studies. “The Ancient Diet” and “Purity and Impurity” are both just great articles!! Thanks for the info.

Post-Exilic Homes

In “The ‘Four-Room’ House” sidebar (“Purity and Impurity in Iron Age Israel,” BAR, March/April 2019), Dr. Faust says that this house design “disappeared with the destruction of the kingdom of Judah.” What was the design of the houses during post-Exilic times, specifically the Roman era?

Avraham Faust Responds: The four-room house, indeed, disappeared with the destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Thereafter we see much variation in house design, and there is no unified house type in the region. This in itself further stresses the uniqueness of the four-room house.

During the Roman period, the great variation of building types continues, but houses were commonly organized around a courtyard, and several households often occupied a single building, sharing facilities in the courtyard.

From Pouring to Bathing

I read with interest “Purity and Impurity in Iron Age Israel.” I was especially intrigued by the recreation of the purification ritual. Was this pouring rite the one also used by Moses in Exodus 19:10, 14 to “sanctify the people”? When and why was a change later made to immersion in a mikveh?

Avraham Faust Responds: Purifying by water appears in various places in the Bible, and most are mentioned in the article. Exodus 19:10, Exodus 19:14, however, refers specifically to the washing of clothes, so it’s somewhat different. The transition to immersion in a mikveh apparently took place only in the late Second Temple period. The earliest evidence we have today is dated to the second century B.C.E., and it seems to fall in the time when the Jewish population became more concerned with the issue of ritual purity, which we can see reflected also in the greater popularity of stone vessels.

Barbaric Drinking

The excellent article by Susan Weingarten (“Biblical Archaeology 101: The Ancient Diet of Roman Palestine,” BAR, March/April 2019) mentions that a common solution to the bacteria in water was to add wine. The Greeks and Romans thought that drinking wine without a significant amount of water was degenerate. Did the Jewish people in Roman Palestine follow the same custom and routinely mix water and wine at dinners and generally when they drank wine?

Susan Weingarten Responds: Yes, Patrick, Jews in Roman Palestine do appear to have mixed their wine with water.

008

SIGN ME UP!

Nurtured by BAR

With my print subscription to BAR expiring, I have renewed as an All-Access Member. Perhaps you would be interested to know why.

In my youth, I wanted to become an archaeologist, but society’s roles for women were very limited. Even if I majored in archaeology, there weren’t many job prospects. I also had to be occupationally practical, as I had the responsibility of helping my widowed mother make ends meet. So, my biblical passion and intended career have really been just a dream that continues to live in my heart—one that for the longest time has been nurtured by BAR. However, engaging with you every two months has only been a tease.

Now, with my BAS All-Access subscription, I have more than 40 years of articles to satisfy my intellectual curiosity and am able to continue to live vicariously through the adventures and insightfulness of these incredible scholars. Thank you for publishing such an outstanding magazine. It means more than you will ever know.

REFUTING THE BIBLE

You Guys Believers?

I was wondering, after all this time reading articles about various and numerous topics, if anyone actually believes in the Bible? It seems when anything is found, your authors want to refute the Bible at every turn. They seemingly want to create doubt in everyone’s mind about the reliability of the Bible. Other sources seem to give precedence to the biblical account. I have wondered many times, and today I decided it was time to ask if any of your editors/staff/writers really do believe there is a God and the Bible is true.

Carolyn, The Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) is a nonprofit, nonsectarian, nondenominational, educational organization. We do not endorse, advocate on behalf of, or argue in opposition to any religious or confessional stance. It is never BAR’s job to tell readers what to believe. That is up to you, the reader. BAS includes people of various religious and nonreligious dispositions. We are Protestants, Catholics, Jews, atheists, and agnostics. We not only value the constitutional freedom of religion but also believe that faith is sacred and personal. We do not impose our personal religious beliefs or lack thereof on the published content. Our job is to present archaeological and biblical data from the best scholars in the world. You’ll like a lot of what you read; you might not like some articles. But you can always trust that what we publish in BAR is credible and designed to inform. What you do with that information is up to you.—B.C.