Biblical Archaeology Review is one of the more interesting magazines around. They need to get Jennifer Lopez to do a cover for them or something to boost their circulation. But it's kind of the Scientific American of archaological research related to Biblical topics.
The Sept-Oct issue has several articles illustrating why the whole field is as fascinating as a mystery story. The cover story deals with the famous "James bone box" and discusses the various issues related to determining its authenticity.
The two pieces that especially caught my attention, though, are "Israelites Found in Egypt" by Egyptologist Manfred Bietak and "Eyewitness Testimony" by Jewish Studies professor Baruch Halpern. Both provide arguments for a late date for the events remembered in the story of the Exodus from Egypt, i.e., the late 1100s or early 1000s BCE. The prevailing scholarly consensus tends to place it late in the 13th century (1200s) BCE.
Halpern's article also gives an interesting glimpse at how scholars deal with oral tradition. He explains why some of the material in the Exodus tradition, such as the Song of Deborah from Judges 5, reflects some of the earliest versions of the tradition. He says that when these few early fragments of the text were composed, "some people were probably alive who participated in the event or remembered it - whatever it may have been."
The last phrase refers to the ongoing controversy over exactly how Canaan was settled by the people who were later known as the Israelites. The archaeological evidence indicates a widespread infiltration of peaceful settlements in the hill country. But there is also archaeological evidence of incidents of military conquests such as those described in the Bible. The archaeological evidence for the presence of a large number of Hebrew slaves in Egypt, or for a mass departure similar to that described in the Exodus story, is so far limited.
But the theme is of continuing interest, not least because the Exodus is the central theological event in the Jewish tradition.
3 comments:
on google, I found:
"Old Hickory's Weblog
... I have a photo from the 08/18/94 issue of Die Presse (Vienna) showing a smiling Schwarzenegger
shaking hands with Austrian far-right leader Jörg Haider at the ...
journals.aol.com/bmiller224/OldHickorysWeblog/ - 43k - Cached - Similar pages"
but could not find this information on the actual page. do you still have the photo? i would be very interested to see it.
The post is at:
http://journals.aol.com/bmiller224/OldHickorysWeblog/entries/113
I didn't include the actual photo there because my scanner isn't working and also because I'm trying to be scrupulous on the rules about posting copywrited material. The original article is titled "Seiermark probt kleine Koalition", but I couldn't find it archived on the paper Web site (www.diepresse.at). - Bruce
thanks for the link. tried to find the original article also but could not. perhaps it has been taken down for obvious reasons. anyway, i understand that you do not want to post for copyright issues. therefore, is it possible to send a copy to me. am very interested to see the picture.
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