Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology – serie

The story of the Exodus has been one of the most vexing historico-Biblical problems to confront scholars. The fundamental chronological problems are of the utmost complexity, yet they materially affect the view that is taken of Israel's religious development. Delivered in 1948, these lectures consider the Biblical traditions, the surviving extra-Biblical texts, and the archaeological evidence.

Delivered in 1946, these lectures discuss the use of textual criticisms in the attempt to recover the original text of Paul's Epistles. In particular, there is a detailed analysis of the manuscript P46.

From the Biblical record it is clear that the principal occupants of Palestine at the time of the advent of the Israelites were the Amorites and the Canaanites. Who were these two peoples? Excavations have shown that towards the end of the third millennium nomadic groups disrupted the urban civilization of the Early Bronze Age in Palestine. Delivered in 1963, these lectures describe these groups and show that they can be linked with the Amurru of Syria. They are thus the ancestors of the Biblical Amorites.About 1900 B.C. these were succeeded by another group, likewise derived from Syria, but from the coastal region, bringing with them an urban culture which seems to have evolved in the neighbourhood of Byblos. It is equated with that of the Canaanite towns of the Syro-Palestinian coast.The Israelites entering Palestine had little material culture of their own. They settled amongst their Amorite and Canaanite predecessors and adopted their way of life. The light thrown by archaeology upon this way of life is thus very relevant to Biblical studies. Houses and tombs, especially at Jericho, have provided much evidence, and have shown that there was no real cultural break, at least until the twelfth century B.C. A study of the systems of fortification moreover, shows that a foreign ruling aristocracy, probably the Hyksos, could be absorbed without altering the basic culture. This was the setting in Palestine at the time of the entry of the Israelites.

This is the third edition of the late Sir Godfrey Driver's Schweich Lectures, first delivered in 1944. The present edition is based on extensive revisions and additions made by the author himself.The third edition takes account of research and discoveries in the fields of Semitic epigraphy and the theory of writing. It deals with cuneiform scripts, the origins of alphabetic writing, its development from the earliest records until its transmission to the Greeks, and covers all the more important North-Semitic inscriptions. Theories regarding forms of letters, their names, place in the alphabetical sequence etc. are discussed at length.

Hazor was the largest city in Palestine in the Canaanite period and cultural and a commercial centre of some consequence in the Fertile Crescent, as well as being an important bastion of the Israelite Kingdom. Professor Yigael Yadin conducted extensive excavations on the site of the town between 1955 and 1969 as Director of the James Rothschild Hebrew University Expedition.Professor Yadin's 1970 Schweich Lectures first describe the history of Hazor as recorded in the Egyptian Execration Texts, the Mari archives, Egyptian New Kingdom documents, the Armarna Letters, and finally the Old Testament. They proceed to give an authoritative account of the fascinating results achieved in the five seasons of excavation. These include the large lower city with its earthen fortifications, the many temples, the Solomonic City, the Israelite water-system, as well as a chapter on the author's discoveries of the corresponding periods at Megiddo.

The late Fr. Roland de Vaux was the excavator of Qumran, the home of the religious establishment to which the Dead Sea Scrolls belonged. He was also the organizer of the international team charged with editing the manuscripts. He was, therefore, singularly well placed to apply the evidence of archaeology to the interpretation of the documents.In his Schweich Lectures, delivered at the Academy in 1959, and published in French in 1961, Fr. de Vaux described in detail and archaeological evidence relating both to the scrolls and to the community which owned and may have written them.Shortly before his death in 1971, Fr. de Vaux had completed the revision of these lectures, incorporating much new material which had come to light since the first edition was published. This is included in this second edition translated into English under his own supervision.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has suffered many vicissitudes. A Constantinian foundation, it was twice destroyed and rebuilt before the Crusaders took it in hand. Respected by Saladin at his conquest, the church remained much as the Crusaders left it, until in 1808 a fire broke out and spread through the whole building. In 1927 a severe earthquake shook Jerusalem causing widespread damage to the structure, so that for forty years afterwards the southern façade was supported by steel scaffolding.No one has probably had such a close knowledge of the church, from foundation to roof top, as Father Coüasnon, who, among others, was instrumental in drawing up the restoration plan agreed upon in 1959 by the various churches owning different parts of the complex of buildings. In his Schweich Lectures delivered at the British Academy in 1972, Father Coüasnon describes the history of the church in detail, revealing the fresh discoveries which have enabled the site to be planned with a new authority.

Parallels between Hittite civilisation and the Old Testament belong largely to the field of religion. In the first of his three Schweich lectures (delivered in 1976) Professor Gurney traces the historical development of the Hittite pantheon, while in his second and third lectures he selects some aspects of Hittite religion which can be compared with ancient Hebrew and Canaanite institutions. The second lecture describes the cult, both local and official, and the purpose of the open-air temple at Yazilikaya. The third is devoted to Hittite rituals of elimination and substitution and the mortuary ritual for the King. Parallels are drawn with the biblical masseba as a cult object and with the scapegoat ritual of Leviticus.

The origins and development of the Church in Egypt remain one of the vexed problems of early Christian history. In his Schweich Lectures, delivered in 1977, Dr C. H. Roberts examines the evidence of the Christian papyri discovered in Egypt to see what light they cast on the problems and how far they support statements in our ancient authorities or the theories of modern scholars. Among matters discussed are the influence of Judaism and whether Gnosticism was really as powerful in the first three centuries in Egypt as is sometimes thought; particular attention is paid to the historical significance in these early manuscripts of the nomina sacra, the abbreviations of the divine names.

Traditionally Ethiopia has formed a bridge between civilizations, with Jerusalem as vital as Aksum in the national consciousness of the Ethiopians. In this volume, Professor Ullendorff investigates the relationship of Ethiopia to the Bible. He considers the historical background, translations of the Bible into Ethiopian languages, and the impact of the Old Testament, which goes beyond anything experienced in the other Oriental Christian Churches. The book concludes with an examination of the story of the Queen of Sheba, based on the Biblical account of the queen's visit to King Solomon. It shows how this account has undergone extensive Arabian, Ethiopian, Jewish and other elaborations, to become the subject of one of the most ubiquitous and fertile cycles of legends in the Near East.

This new examination of the region of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon (605-562 BC) includes revised interpretations of the Babylonian Chronicles for his reign, especially for the years of the campaigns against the West and the capture of Jerusalem.Excavations at Babylon are used to give a view of the city in Neo-Babylonian times, including the royal `Hanging Gardens' and the ziggurat. The varied literary genres current in this city of learning in the sixth century BC (including dreams and prophecies) and the role of hostages, exiles, and prisoners of war are used to throw light on the life of the Jewish exiles there. An assessment of the character of Nebuchadrezzar as a military and political leader, religious devotee and legal administrator is attempted on the basis of textual evidence.

The broad spectrum of the Mari documents provides innumerable opportunities for comparative research into Early Israel, the Bible and Biblical Hebrew. The present volume utilizes these possibilities to obtain a new perspective on Early Israelite times.In 1936, a French archaeological expedition to Mari, the capital of a kingdom on the Middle Euphrates in Syria, began uncovering a vast archive of some 25,000 cuneiform tablets. This huge corpus of Old Babylonian documents, mostly from the Mari palace - a unique royal complex of the eighteenth century BC - is slowly revealing a vivid picture of Mesopotamia at the time when the Israelites were in their earliest formative stage.One most fascinating facet of the archives is the light they shed on the early phases of Israelite socio-history. Indeed, the Mari archives now comprise the prime extra-Biblical source for this period, for they reflect a West Semitic population analogous to the so-called `Patriarchs'.The broad spectrum of the Mari documents, from exotic prophecies to political intrigue, provides innumerable opportunities for comparative research into Early Israel, the Bible, and Biblical Hebrew. The present volume utilizes these possibilities to obtain a new perspective on Early Israelite times.

These lectures investigate the numerous miniature baked clay images from Canaan, Israel and Judah (c. 1600-600 BC). They constitute vital evidence for the imagery and domestic rituals of ordinary people, but significantly are not explicitly mentioned in the Old Testament. These terracottas are treated as a distinctive phenomenon with roots deep in prehistory and recurrent characteristics across millennia. Attention is focused on whether or not the female representations are worshippers of unknown deities or images of known goddesses, particularly in Early Israelite religion.

The first Schweich Lectures were given by Professor S. R. Driver of Oxford University in 1908 and the British Academy celebrated the centenary of the lectures with a single lecture given by Professor Davies in 2008. This book is an amplified version of that lecture, with each of its three chapters developing a theme relevant to the occasion. The Lectures, on aspects of the study of antiquity in its relationship to the Bible, were established by a gift from Constance Schweich (later Mrs Goetze) in memory of her late father, Leopold Schweich. The first chapter brings together biographical information (including some previously unpublished documents) about the Schweichs, who were an originally German Jewish family with close connections to the distinguished chemist and industrialist Ludwig Mond. The donation was the first major benefaction received by the British Academy, which had been founded in 1901 but initially had no Government funding, and the second chapter uses archival and published sources to reconstruct the circumstances and the history of the lectureship. An Appendix lists the names of all the lecturers, their subjects and details of the publication of their lectures. The final chapter, 'Archaeology and the Bible - A Broken Link?', examines broader questions about 'biblical archaeology' which arose in the later twentieth century, in the light of developments in archaeological theory and biblical scholarship, and considers whether there is still a future for collaboration between the two disciplines. The volume provides a glimpse into Jewish philanthropy in England in the Edwardian era and a critical assessment of the changing relationship between archaeology and biblical studies down to the present day.

The discovery and decryption of Ugaritic cuneiform tablets in the 1920s has given scholars an insight into the development of alphabetic writing and the origins of biblical poetry.In this book, based on his Schweich Lectures given in 2007, Professor Dennis Pardee describes the origins of the cuneiform alphabetic writing system developed in Ugarit some time before 1250 BC, the use of alphabetic writing at Ugarit, and gives a comparison of Ugaritic and Hebrew literatures

This book explores the way in which different ethnic, religious and linguistic communities co-existed and conflicted in the Roman Near East in the three centuries between the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity in 312 and the beginning of Muhammad's preaching in about 610. In the fourth century a major role was played by Greek-speaking pagans, most notably the great orator, Libanius, from Antioch in Syria. After about 400, however, the public observance of pagan rituals died away under the pressure of Christianity. But the Greek language, as used in the Church, remained dominant.Pagan Aramaic is curiously invisible in this period, but the dialect of Aramaic used by Jews in Palestine is found in very extensive use, along with Hebrew, in a mass of religious literature, including the Palestinian Talmud, Aramaic versions of books of the Bible, and in inscriptions from synagogues. Most of the synagogue inscriptions come from their often quite elaborate mosaic floors, some of which contain visual representations of scenes from the Bible. Jews used Greek also, even in the inscriptions from synagogues, and so too did Samaritans, who were a powerful force in Late Antique Palestine, mounting two major revolts against the Empire.Outside Palestine, the most notable development in the culture of the region was the emergence of Syriac (a particular dialect and script of Aramaic) as a language of Christian culture and belief. 'Syrians' however were not a distinct ethnic group. The group which was most distinct from the others was made up of the unsettled and warlike peoples on the fringes of the Empire whom almost invariably, call 'Arabs', but who in Late Antiquity were far more often referred to as 'Saracens'. By the end of the period, many of them had converted to Christianity. The major puzzle which the book poses is what is the relation between this process of conversion and the rise of Islam.

Inscriptions discovered since 1980 and fresh epigraph research have revealed much about the Archaeminid period in the Levant (533-332 BCE). André Lemaire concentrates on three areas where new data has shed light on the societies living in the largest empire that the world had known to that date.Phoenicia played a vital political and economic role in the empire because Persian kings had to rely on the Phoenician navy in their wars against Greece and Egypt in the Eastern Mediterranean. Newly discovered inscriptions from Byblos, Sidon and Tyre, as well as the results of research into coins, have illuminated the chronology, history and extent of the Phoenician kingdoms, as well as their influence in Palestine.New inscriptions have added to our knowledge of the Judean Diaspora in Babylonia, Egypt and Cyprus. The main indirect information about the Exiles previously available to us was in the book of Ezekiel. Now, epigraphic data has revealed not only many names of Exiles but how and where they lived and more about their relationship with Jerusalem.The third region described is the Persian provinces of Samaria, Judaea and Idumaea, especially during the 4th century BCE. The publication of various, mainly Aramaic, contemporary inscriptions on papyri, ostraca, seals, seal-impressions and coins, sheds new light on the daily life and religion of these provinces. The insciptions help us to understand something of the chronology, society and culture of these three different provinces as well as several Biblical texts in their historical and economic contexts.With over 90 inscriptions illustrated and fully transcribed, this book provides new insight into a period that has proved difficult to study.

Re-excavating Jerusalem: Archival Archaeology is concerned with the archaeology and history of Jerusalem, and with the story of its people over many centuries. It is a story of ongoing crisis, of adaptations and inheritance under successive rulers, where each generation has owed a cultural debt to its predecessors, from the Bronze Age to the modern world.Illustrated with over 80 photos and drawings, Re-excavating Jerusalem: Archival Archaeology reflects on events as revealed in a major programme of archaeological excavation conducted by Dame Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s, which is still in the process of publication. The excavation archive has an ongoing relevance today. Even though our knowledge of the city and its inhabitants has increased over the decades since then, the archive still reveals fresh insights to set against contemporary work. The preservation of such archives has great importance for future historians. Amongst topics addressed are the nature of a dispersed settlement pattern in the second millennium BC; a fresh look at the vexed problems of the biblical accounts of the work of David and Solomon and the development of the city in the tenth and ninth centuries BC; the nature of the defensive walls of the town re-established by Nehemiah in the fifth century BC; some evidence of the Roman occupation following the almost total destruction of the city in AD 70; and an exploration in the Islamic city during the twelfth to fifteenth centuries.

Dozens of ancient synagogues have been discovered around the Mediterranean, most of which date to the fourth-sixth centuries CE and are concentrated in Palestine. In the 1930 Schweich Lectures, Eleazar Lipa Sukenik established a typology and chronology for these buildings. Ancient Synagogues in Palestine evaluates Sukenik's conclusions in light of new discoveries since his time. It opens with an overview of ancient synagogues in the region, followed by a survey of the historiography of the study of these buildings, highlighting its ideological roots in the early Zionist movement. In the final chapters, Magness examines the evidence for the dating of the synagogues at Khirbet Wadi Hamam and Capernaum, arguing that different synagogue types overlapped and were contemporary to the fourth-sixth centuries CE instead of being sequential, as Sukenik thought. This conclusion contradicts a widely accepted view that late antique Jewish communities in Palestine suffered and declined under supposedly oppressive Christian rule.