Excavating the History of the Bible

Where do we begin? What is biblical archaeology (if we should even call it that)? Archaeologists examine material remains using a toolkit of methods: survey, excavation, and microarchaeology. This episode also explores the Father of Biblical Archaeology himself: the explorer and minister Edward Robinson.

In the book of Joshua, the Canaanites are the arch-rivals of the Israelites. But who were the Canaanites? Where did they live? This episode will explore Late Bronze Age Canaan, a land of big temples, big palaces, big fortification walls, urban living, and international goods. Evidence that will be considered includes the Amarna tablets, a huge collection of Canaanite correspondences with the Egyptian pharaohs that demonstrates how the Canaanite city-states lived under the thumb of the Egyptian Empire.

This episode we finally get to explore the Israelites. Who were they? Where did they come from? This episode examines the material remains of Late Bronze Age Israel, which posits that they were an egalitarian farming and pastoralist society living in the central hill country of Canaan. Evidence that will be examined includes the earliest mention of the Israelites in the archaeological record: the Merneptah Stele. This episode also dispels a common theory that the mysterious Habiru, a people mentioned in the Amarna letters, are one and the same with the Hebrews.

This episode examines another arch-rival of the Israelites: The Philistines. The episode explores our earliest evidence of the Philistines from Egypt as well as lays out the evidence demonstrating that they were migrants to Canaan, traveling over the Mediterranean from the Aegean world. The final section examines some of the difficulties scholars encounter trying to compare the biblical narrative with the archaeological record.

The city of Jerusalem looms large in the Hebrew Bible as the capital city of King David, and later, the Kingdom of Judah. This episode explores the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age history of Jerusalem. What is its topography? What evidence have archaeologists discovered from Jerusalem relating to the Canaanites or David’s kingdom?

King Ahab is a villain in the Hebrew Bible, famously always “doing evil in the eyes of the LORD” and married to his evil queen Jezebel. But who was Ahab? He was the son of King Omri, a man who founded the Omride Dynasty. The Omrides went on to be one of the most powerful entities in the region as the Northern Kingdom of Israel, conquering their neighbors and even standing up against the Assyrians in battle. This episode explores the archaeological evidence of the Omrides and the Northern Kingdom.

The Hebrew Bible contains a dramatic story of Hezekiah, King of Judah, fighting against the Assyrian Emperor Sennacherib. These events are attested both in Assyrian and Judahite sources and are well represented in the archaeological record. With so much data, we can examine how two sides of a battle can interpret the battle’s aftermath in their records. This episode will especially examine the site of Lachish, the Judahite city that Sennacherib sacks.

In the Hebrew Bible, King Josiah launches major religious reforms after the discovery of “the Book of the Law” in the Temple in Jerusalem. This episode will explore the scholarly arguments over what these reforms might have entailed, and how they may have influenced the development of many of the books in the Hebrew Bible (including Joshua, Judges, and Kings).

In 586 BCE, the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and carried the people of Judah into captivity. This disaster looms large in the history of the Israelites. This episode will examine the archaeological evidence of Judah at the dawn of this attack as well as evidence of its aftermath.

The Hebrew Bible is written, mostly, in Hebrew. But what is the earliest history of this language? What language did the ancient Israelites speak? This episode examines the origins of Hebrew and its relationship with Canaanite dialects in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. The episode will explore archaeological artifacts such as an inscription from Izbet Sarteh in Israel, which may be one of the earliest inscriptions of the Hebrew language.

For those of you that know the New Testament, Herod was the villain in the Gospel of Matthew’s version of Jesus’ birth. The Magi follow a star to Judea and consult King Herod asking where the King of the Jews has been born…referring to Jesus, not Herod. Herod sees this as a threat to his rule, so according to the story, he orders every male child in Bethlehem under the age of 2 to be killed. But besides a baby-killing tyrant, what do we know about the historical Herod the Great? This episode will examine some of the biggest building projects sponsored by Herod: The Jerusalem Temple, Masada, Herodium, and Caesarea.

The region of Galilee gets a lot of attention in the New Testament. Jesus spends most of his ministry walking from town to town around the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. But what is the character of this region? What does archaeology tell us about the towns that were inhabited in Jesus’ day? This episode examines the archaeology of the towns of Magdala, Capernaum, Tiberius, Nazareth, and Sepphoris.

Travelers to the Old City of Jerusalem today might think that they are looking at the city as it was in the time of Jesus. But much of what remains dates to the Ottoman period. This episode examines 1st century Jerusalem and what Jesus would have seen during his fateful trip south from Galilee.

In 70 CE, the Romans sacked Jerusalem during the First Roman-Jewish War. Two years later, in 72 CE, the Romans destroyed the last Judean stronghold Masada. This episode will examine a lesser-known battle at the town of Gamla near the Sea of Galilee to explore the Roman war machine in the late-1st century CE.

The Apostle Paul is known as a missionary traveling around the eastern Mediterranean spreading the news of Jesus as the promised Messiah. But how did this message spread so successfully? One theory might involve pagans who were already interested in Jewish customs. This episode will examine the pagan “God-fearers” mentioned in the Book of Acts as well as in several inscriptions discovered in and around ancient synagogues.