The Bible Unearthed

Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts

Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN:
  9780743223386
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ancient Religion

In this groundbreaking work that sets apart fact and legend, authors Finkelstein and Silberman use significant archeological discoveries to provide historical information about biblical Israel and its neighbors, reshaping our understanding of Jewish and Biblical history.

In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman draw on recent archaeological research to present a dramatically revised portrait of ancient Israel and its neighbors. They argue that crucial evidence (or a telling lack of evidence) at digs in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suggests that many of the most famous stories in the Bible—the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, and David and Solomon’s vast empire—reflect the world of the later authors rather than actual historical facts.

Challenging the fundamentalist readings of the scriptures and marshaling the latest archaeological evidence to support its new vision of ancient Israel, The Bible Unearthed offers a fascinating and controversial perspective on when and why the Bible was written and why it possesses such great spiritual and emotional power today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue: In the Days of King Josiah
• Introduction: Archaeology and the Bible
• Part One: The Bible as History?
• Part Two: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Israel
• Part Three: Judah and the Making of Biblical History
• Epilogue: The Future of Biblical Israel
• Appendix A: Theories of the Historicity of the Patriarchal Age
• Appendix B: Searching for Sinai
• Appendix C: Alternative Theories of the Israelite Conquest
• Appendix D: Why the Traditional Archaeology of the Davidic and Solomonic Period Is Wrong
• Appendix E: Identifying the Era of Manasseh in the Archaeological Record
• Appendix F: How Vast Was the Kingdom of Josiah?
• Appendix G: The Boundaries of the Province of Yehud
• Bibliography
• Endnotes
• Index
• Copyright