ARCHAEOLOGY & THE BIBLE. Introduction and Overview

ARCHAEOLOGY & THE BIBLE Introduction and Overview

LIMITATIONS, USES, PROBLEMS

Introduction: Limitations Cannot prove the Bible in a theological sense

Introduction: Limitations Cannot always, or even frequently, prove historicity of biblical people & events

What it can do, and has done 1. Provide backgrounding to biblical events / stories / people

What it can do, and has done 2. Demonstrate coherence of biblical events / stories / people

What it can do, and has done 3. Validate existence of biblical person or place occasionally

What it can do, and has done 4. Illumine understanding of ancient customs, beliefs data for interpretation

What it can do, and has done 5. Situate biblical events in history chronology, reference points

Also produces problems 1. Archaeological Ages (metals, urbanism, pottery) 2. Chronology (synchronisms, astronomical basis, literalism of biblical material?) 3. Expectations raised by the above

General Observations 1. Archaeology = friend, not foe of the Bible

General Observations 1. Archaeology = friend, not foe of the Bible 2. Doesn t answer every question; creates some difficulties for further study.

General Observations 3. Evangelicals often given stilted view because of apologetics. 4. Commitment to interpretation in light of ancient context = Commitment to truth Realization of cultural / worldview gaps

OVERVIEW OF EXAMPLES Old Testament: Genesis 1-11

600-500 BC 1. Shabaka Stone (Memphite Theology)

1. Shabaka Stone (Memphite Theology) (Wikipedia) 600-500 BC A relic from the Nubian 25th Dynasty (??) of Egypt incised with an Egyptian religious text. The text claims to contain the surviving content of a worm-ridden, decaying papyrus that was found as pharaoh Shabaka was inspecting the temple of Ptah in Memphis, Egypt.

600-500 BC 1. Shabaka Stone (Memphite Theology)... [A]dvances in our understanding of Egyptian grammar and theology have now made a date in the Nineteenth Dynasty more likely. = New Kingdom (1292-1189 BC); dynasty of Ramesses II (the Great) James P. Allen Memphite Theology; Text 1.15, vol 1 of William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, The Context of Scripture (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997), 2122.

2. Sumerian King List Several sources; oldest ca. 2000 BC This one: WB 444 List of kings in Sumer before and after the great flood

2. Sumerian King List Resemblances to Genesis 5 Very long-lived antediluvians Flood comes Shorter-lived post-diluvians. Gen 5 has ten generations from Adam to Noah SKL = 8, 9, or 10 (depending on the version)

2. Sumerian King List

Enmeduranna / Enmeduranki 7 th king from beginning Name = "chief of the powers of Dur-an-ki "Dur-an-ki" = the meeting-place of heaven and earth"

Enmeduranna / Enmeduranki seventh from Adam -? The figure of Enoch is to some degree modelled on Enmeduranki, founder of the guild of barûs, or Babylonian diviners Enoch is listed in Genesis as seventh in line from Adam. In the Sumerian King List, the seventh king is Enmeduranki or Enmeduranna. Sippar, the city ruled by this king, was a center of the cult of Shamash, the sun god.

Enmeduranna seventh from Adam -? Enoch is associated with the solar calendar: his age is given as 365 years in Genesis and the Astronomical Book [contained in 1 Enoch] presupposes a calendar of 364 days. Enmeduranki was also the founder of a guild of diviners and a recipient of revelations. John J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination (1998), 26, 45.

2. Sumerian King List Nature of the two lists? Ziusudra = hero of the Sumerian flood story

3. Erra Epic / Poem of Erra Tablet IV One of major sources for the apkallu Another source = Adapa and Enmeduranki = cuneiform lists of seven sages (apkallu) and the kings they taught.

4. Sumerian Akkadian Flood Stories Dates for Mesopotamian texts vary widely due to: Version of story / tablet recovered Sumerian precursor (?) Incompleteness of an entire story / text

4. Sumerian Akkadian Flood Stories Eridu Genesis (ca. 1600 BC) Sumerian

4. Sumerian Akkadian Flood Stories

4. Sumerian Akkadian Flood Stories Atrahasis Epic (ca. 1600 BC) Akkadian / Babylonian

4. Sumerian Akkadian Flood Stories Gilgamesh Epic (2150-1400 BC) Akkadian / Babylonian

4. Sumerian Akkadian Flood Stories

4. Sumerian Akkadian Flood Stories Latest contribution Tablet shown to Irving Finkel in 1985; brought to BM Babylonian clay tablet, acquired by man s father in in Iraq in the 1940s. Part of a Babylonian story of the flood Owner would not leave the tablet for study. Finkel only allowed to examine it in 2009. coracle

Coracle Ark (?)

5. Biblical World Geography The Babylonian World Map 6th century BCE one of the oldest known world maps Discovered in 1899

5. Biblical World Geography

6. Tower of Babel Leading candidate: Etemenanki ( temple of the foundation of heaven and earth ) ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk by Nabopolassar 6th century BC A ziggurat at Babylon is mentioned much earlier (in Enuma Elish)

6. Tower of Babel