Biblical Archaeology Review, Summer 2022
Features
Mount Nebo in the Transjordanian highlands of Moab is where Moses saw the Promised Land before he died and was then buried. That biblical tradition inspired early Christian monastic movements and pilgrimage to the region. Discover Mt. Nebo’s beautiful churches and monasteries and what they reveal about the relationship between the region’s monastic and village communities during the Byzantine period.
From the Minoans and Hittites to the Canaanites and Egyptians, numerous civilizations flourished during the Late Bronze Age. Yet, despite their advancements and interconnectedness, many collapsed around 1177 B.C. See what triggered their demise and what lessons the Late Bronze collapse may offer us today.
The Canaanite city of Gezer was brutally destroyed at the very end of the Late Bronze Age. Explore the vivid archaeological evidence for the city’s destruction and discover why the devastation might be attributed to Pharaoh Merneptah, who infamously claimed to have conquered not only Gezer but also a people known as “Israel” in the late 13th century B.C.E.
Three fragments of the Book of Ezra have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest collection of biblical texts. Yet the figure of Ezra—and his importance as priest, scribe, and interpreter of the law—does not appear in the scrolls. Did the authors of the scrolls not know his story?