What do Egyptologists think of the Exodus? In The Exodus, An Egyptian Story, I examined leading (English) histories of Egypt from 1905 to 2010 to determine what these prominent Egyptologists thought about the Exodus. Later in the book, I repeated the process to see what these same people or co-authors if a multi-authored book, thought […]
Biblical Archaeology and Literature
The Egyptian Exploration Fund and the Exodus
When I was researching The Exodus: An Egyptian Story, I learned to my surprise that when the Egyptian Exploration Fund (EEF), now the Egyptian Exploration Society (EES) was founded in 1882, the Exodus was a foundational goal. The Fund sought to find the route of the Exodus. This interest in the Exodus can be traced […]
Political Texts of Terror in the Book of Judges
“I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.” Greta Thunberg, World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, […]
Rule of Law: George Washington, Nimrod, the Tower of Babel and Today
On April 10, 2019, Politico posted an article entitled “Trump’s ‘truly bizarre’ visit to Mt. Vernon.” The article recounted a visit on April 23, 2018, by the French and American Presidents to Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, the first President of the United States. According to Mount Vernon president and CEO Doug Bradburn, the […]
Cosmic ASOR: Suppose a Supernatural Event Occurs in Historical Time
This blog marks the final one [YAY!] on the ASOR and SBL conferences in 2018. Suppose a supernatural event occurs in historical time. By supernatural, I am referring to a natural but infrequent event that does not lend itself to daily, weekly, monthly, annual, or even Sothic cycles. These are events in historic time which […]
How Come Gath Is in the Hebrew Bible and Khirbet Qeiyafa Is Not?
This blog is part of a series of posts about the ASOR and SBL conferences in November, 2018. They can be accessed at the IHARE website and will be posted to academia.edu. One of the developments in the ASOR and SBL conferences was the increased archaeological data from the 11th and early 10th centuries BCE […]
Parades (ASOR) and Enneateuch (SBL): The Creation of the Hebrew Bible
Note: This post is part of a series on the ASOR and SBL conferences in November 2018 Who doesn’t love a parade? Everybody loves a parade. As it turns out parades or processions provide an alternate approach to the creation of the Hebrew Bible from the Persian-period fixated ivory-tower scribal elite approach. The Israelite […]
Deborah at the SBL Conference
Deborah appeared in different formats at the SBL conference. Sometimes she was the subject of the presentation. Sometimes she was mentioned as part of a presentation where she was not the main subject. Sometimes other figures in the Song of Deborah were the focus. In this post, I will review her presence at the conference […]
Cosmos and Chaos at the SBL Conference: The Kenites and the Amalekites
With this post, I continue my examination of presentations at the ASOR and SBL conferences now with a focus on tribes. The Kenites and the Amalekites are not known by name in the archaeological record. Information about them derives from the biblical narrative. These two peoples are linked at two critical points in time. Both […]
Tribes and the State at the ASOR and SBL Conferences
Once upon a time not that long ago, tribes were very fashionable in biblical studies. From Julius Wellhausen in Arabia to Lawrence of Arabia to the amphictyony, tribes garnered a great deal of interest for the understanding of early Israelite history. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, visitors to the Holy Land […]