Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1997
Features
One of the most controversial issues in modern Biblical studies is the increasingly assertive contention that the Bible is essentially useless as a historical source, even for the period of the Israelite united monarchy (tenth century B.C.E.). David and Solomon, it is claimed, are mythological, not historical. The Bible, according to this school of […]
BAR readers are already familiar with a recent school of Biblical interpretation that denies any historicity to the ancient Israelite kingdom of David and Solomon.1 I call this the “revisionist” school. Others have described these scholars as “Biblical minimalists”2 or even “Biblical nihilists.” Jerusalem in the tenth century B.C.E., when David and Solomon were […]
Science is full of cases where researchers looking for one thing end up finding something entirely different, often of great importance. That is what happened to us. For more than 20 years, we have been trying to obtain evidence to help predict earthquakes by studying the longest and most continuous historical record of […]
A modern airline passenger, concerned about safety, will purchase travel insurance. In ancient times, however, travel was far more dangerous, and there was no insurance. Bandits, wild animals and hostile local populations threatened those traveling by land, the standard route to the Holy Land for Byzantine pilgrims. Whether on foot or donkey, pilgrims […]