John Greene review of Digging through the Bible
(Click here for the full John Greene review of Digging through the Bible)
Digging through the Bible: Modern Archaeology and Ancient Bible (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008 hardback, 2009, paperback) by Richard A. Freund, Maurice Greenberg Professor of History and Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University has produced a 381 page book with extensive bibliographies and indices. It is an introductory volume (for non-specialists) devoted to how the study of archaeology, material culture and the critical analysis of literary texts from the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, New Testament, Rabbinic Judaism, and early Christianity all work together to help us understand the ancient world. Comparisons are made from what the Bible and archaeology tell us about key people, places and events found in the Bible. The book also deals with major controversies that have emerged among scholars in the past half century in biblical and archaeological scholarship that affects our understanding of the archaeology and the Bible.
This is a book for everyone. It has how to read the Bible using archaeological discoveries as a guide. The book starts with the Hebrew Bible and raises the question of how biblical archaeology is done and not done (well). The major figures described in the Hebrew Bible are investigated: from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses, King David and Solomon, to the prophet Elijah. The book also encompasses the New Testament and the major figures of the New Testament, Jesus, his mother and father, Mary and joseph, the major Apostles, Paul, and the Roman and Jewish leaders who lived in the first century. The book also surveys figures not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible or New Testament but are very important to the rise of both Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. The “Teacher of Righteousness”, the Rabbis, and Bar Kokbha all come alive as living and breathing figures, thanks to archaeology and illuminate the world of the Bible. The women of ancient Israel, Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Tamar, and some well-known women who did not make it into the Bible are investigated in light of the archaeological discoveries of the past century, including women whose history illuminates our understanding of archaeology and the Bible: Berenice, Babatha, Beruriah. The major sites that influenced the development of our understanding of the Bible and the post-biblical tradition from northern and southern Israel, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, Qumran, Nazareth, Masada and Tiberias are all located in the book and within the excavations that have taken place there.
(Click here for the full John Greene review of Digging through the Bible)
What people are saying about the book:
“Richard Freund has produced a very readable and stimulating book that addresses a number of vexing biblical issues. Thanks to his direct involvement in excavations in Israel, he is able to offer new firsthand data to bolster the case he makes.”
Dr. James K. Hoffmeier, Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern History and Archaeology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
“Digging through the Bible does something that no other book on archaeology and the Bible does. It brings the reader in a very pedagogical as well as in a very updated and well-learned way from the Hebrew Bible through the New Testament and touches on most of the major contemporary controversies about Jerusalem, the Exodus, Jesus, and Qumran.”
Dr. Adolfo Roitman, Curator, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
“Richard Freund’s new book, Digging Through the Bible is a personal account of excavating the most important sites of the Bible, early Judaism and Christianity and is spellbinding. A provocative and fascinating account of the major controversies of the Bible, Judaism and Christianity.”
Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, The Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University
