Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1980

I would like to provide BAR readers with a response to the article entitled “New Ebla Epigrapher Attacks Conclusions of Ousted Scholar,” BAR 06:03. The BAR article is a summary of an article by Professor Alfonso Archi which appeared in the Italian journal, Biblica (Vol. 60, 1979, pp. 556–566), published by the Pontifical Biblical […]

The original Italian article from which the foregoing article by Professor Pettinato was adapted has not gone unanswered. Professor Archi has responded to Professor Pettinato in the Italian journal Studi Eblaiti in an article entitled, “Ancora Sul-Ebla e la Biblia” (“Again on Ebla and the Bible”). With this summary of Professor Archi’s recent response […]

The findings of archaeologists sometimes seem to confirm the Biblical text. At other times, the excavation results present a problem. Perhaps the best known case of the latter is Jericho. Most scholars date the Israelite conquest of Canaan to the Late Bronze Age, to a time (13th century B.C.) when, according to Jericho […]

The first murder recounted in the Bible is Cain’s slaying of Abel (Genesis 4). Cain, the farmer, brought an unidentified agricultural offering to the Lord. Abel, the shepherd, on the other hand, brought the first born of his flock. The Lord ignored Cain’s offering but highly regarded Abel’s. Cain’s reaction, according to most English […]

Hundreds of years from now when a new generation of archaeologists uncovers a 20th century cemetery on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, they may come upon the bones of a man buried without his head.