The Bible Unearthed
Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts
Chapter One
Introduction: Archaeology and the Bible
The story of how and why the Bible was written - and how it fits into the extraordinary history of the people of Israel - is closely linked to a fascinating tale of modern discovery. The search has centered on a tiny land, hemmed in on two sides by desert and on one side by the Mediterranean, that has, over the millennia, been plagued by recurrent drought and almost continual warfare. Its cities and population were minuscule in comparison to those of the neighboring empires of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Likewise, its material culture was poor in comparison to the splendor and extravagance of theirs. And yet this land was the birthplace of a literary masterpiece that has exerted an unparalleled impact on world civilization as both sacred scripture and history.
More than two hundred years of detailed study of the Hebrew text of the Bible and ever more wide-ranging exploration in all the lands between the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers have enabled us to begin to u ... read full excerpt from The Bible Unearthed ebook
