Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1984

BAR recently published a fascinating article by Gabriel Barkay reporting on his excavation of a small rolled silver amulet, dating from the seventh or sixth century B.C. When the amulet was unrolled, it was found to contain the tetragrammaton—the four Hebrew letters yod, he, waw, he that form the unpronounceable name of God, sometimes […]

“Tophet” is a Biblical word. It is the name of a place that was on the south side of ancient Jerusalem in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, where the Israelites sacrificed their children by fire. It may even refer to the altar on which the sacrifices took place. The book of the prophet Jeremiah […]

It is a long way from the Nile Valley of Egypt to the front page of The New York Review of Books but the fascinating story of The Gnostic Gospels (Random House, 1979) by Elaine Pagels has traveled that far.

One of the greatest Biblical archaeologists of the 20th century, William Foxwell Albright, left an unfinished book manuscript when he died in 1971. But this is no secret to his friends, students and admirers. BAR readers were told of the manuscript’s existence nine years ago (see “Major Unpublished Book on the Religion of Israel,” […]

You can dig at Tell el-‘Umeiri in Jordan, a tell that has never been dug. You can explore David’s Jerusalem, where several bullae or letter seals bearing names of First Temple period Jerusalem residents have been discovered. You can don scuba gear and descend to the first Roman shipwreck discovered off the coast of […]