Ancient Near East

Professor Julia M. O’Brien presents several engaging lectures about the many images of God found explicitly and implicitly in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. Many are familiar, such as God as a father or king. Others are perhaps more surprising: Yahweh is “a garland of glory, and a diadem of beauty” (Isaiah 28:5–6) […]

Archaeological excavations in the Middle Euphrates Valley over the last 80 years have expanded remarkably our understanding of the history of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. That history was the setting for the Biblical cultures of the time from Abraham to Philo Judaeus, Jesus, and Flavius Josephus. The discovery of Mari with its extensive cunieform library […]

What is “archaeology?” It’s the study of the human past through the excavation of its physical remains, right? Does this adequately describe what archaeologists do? BAR readers will probably find this common definition woefully lacking, as, especially in Biblical archaeology researchers often make use of textual sources as well as material remains. But the archaeologist […]

In our culture we sacrifice for children, but three narratives in the Hebrew Bible describe the sacrifice of children: Abraham of Isaac (Genesis 22), Jephthah of his daughter (Judges 11), and Mesha, the king of Moab, of his son (2 Kings 3). We will examine the art of the first two stories—the second is a […]

This lecture will examine the Exodus narrative (Exod 1–2, 13–14) as a historical report and examine to what extent historical and archaeological data support its historicity. We will explore offhanded references in the text may seem irrelevant to the narrative but that can be of major importance to its interpretation.

Nowhere in the Bible is there an explicit explanation of why the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt (Exodus 1–2). This lecture, based on ideas developed by Yair Zakovitch, will suggest that implicit reasons are provided in Genesis.

Psalms and prayer are usually thought of in vertical terms: people calling to God and above, with the hope that God hears and heeds them. But prayer was also, in Biblical times, fundamentally a community ritual. This talk will thus examine how psalms from the Second Temple served to create communities and sub-communities. It will […]

Excavations and survey from 2005-2015 at the site and environs of Tel Kabri, located in the western Galilee of modern Israel, have shown that the Middle Bronze Age Canaanite palace there is at least three times as large as previously thought, with much still remaining to be excavated. The palace is painted with what may […]

In B.C.E Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, invaded Judah and brought to an end the revolt against Assyria led by Hezekiah, the king of Judah. Sennacherib turned first to Lachish, conquered and destroyed it, and from there he sent an expeditionary force to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not attacked, and Hezekiah surrendered and became an […]

A “perfect storm of calamities”—earthquakes, droughts and rebellions—caused the demise of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1200 B.C.). The great empires and mighty kingdoms of the ancient world—the Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Minoans, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Cypriots and Canaanites—all suddenly collapsed. Learn how the lessons of this amazing historical era relate to the ongoing turbulence and uncertainty […]