Pre-Exilic Israel, the Hebrew Bible, and Archaeology - Integrating Text and Artefact

The nature of historical and archaeological research is such that biblical and archaeological evidence should both be taken into account so that we can attain a more reliable reconstruction of ancient Israel. Nowadays we are faced with numerous reconstructions which are very often diametrically opposed to each other owing to the different assumptions of scholars. An examination of certain issues of epistemology in the current climate of postmodernism, shows that the latter is self-defeating when it claims that we cannot attain any true knowledge about the past. Illustrations are taken from the history of pre-exilic Israel; however, the indissoluble unity of text and artefact is made clearer and more concrete through a detailed case study about the location of the house of Rahab as depicted in Joshua 2: 15, irrespective of whether this text is historical or not. Text and artefact should work hand in hand even when narratives turn out to be fictional, since thus there emerges a clearer picture of the external world which the author would have had in mind.>

About the author

Anthony J. Frendo FSA is professor emeritus of Near Eastern Archaeology and the Hebrew Bible, and Senior Fellow at the University of Malta, Malta. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, UK.

Product details

• Authors: Anthony J Frendo, Anthony J. Frendo
• Assisted by: Claudia V. Camp (Editor), Andrew Mein (Editor)
• Publisher: T. & T. Clark Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 20.06.2013
• EAN: 9780567191892
• ISBN: 978-0-567-19189-2
• No. of pages: 144
• Series: Bloomsbury T&T Clark; Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Te; The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity; RELIGION / Antiquities & Archaeology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, RELIGION / Christianity / General, RELIGION / Biblical Studies / General, Christianity, Ancient / Biblical Israel, Archaeology by period / region, Criticism and exegesis of sacred texts, Biblical Studies & Exegesis, Biblical Archaeology