1124 - 1126 Eric Cline: Pseuo-archaeologists, Megiddo and Tel Kabri

Eric Cline is the Chair of the Department of Classical and Semitic Languages and Literatures at George Washington University. He has written commentaries attacking pseudo archaeologists,
as have I (May issue of Christianity Today, not online yet). Eric has also written a new book that also addresses the issue, called From Eden to Exile.

He doesn't write from an evangelical perspective, obviously. He's opposed to those who, let's see how should we put this, abuse the connection between the Bible and archaeology. As am I. I think he would probably draw the line of distinction a little differently than I would. But unlike some archaeologists, Eric does not disparage the Bible as a source of reliable information about the ancient world. His book focuses on what we know from the Bible and from archaeology, and I think an honest and trustworthy source of information is always commendable. So that's what we talked about in the first program of this series.

The second program is about Megiddo and Armageddon. Eric is an associated director of the latest Megiddo excavation and can be seen in a nice little video on the dig website. Eric has also written a book called The Battles of Armageddon. As he points out, the plain outside Megiddo is probably the scene of more battles than any other site on earth, except for Jerusalem. The first battle recorded in history was fought there. And, of course, the last battle is prophesied to be fought there. More fascinating conversation.

And then in our last program we discuss another site that Eric is working on, Tel Kabri. We've mentioned it several times on the program in years past. It's not a Biblical site, as far as is known, but it has a fascinating story. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of Minoan frescoes dating back to around the 18th century B.C. There was a large palace at this site, just a few miles northeast of the coastal city of Akko. In fact two palaces have been found, one on top of the other. There's lots more work to be done here.

1122-1123 Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor

If you're going on an archaeological trip to Israel, your best resource is a good guide. And a good guidebook can also be very handy. If you don't have a guide, or even if you do, Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor's guidebook will be helpful.

Actually, one thing it might come in handy for is keeping your guide honest. Some guides are better than others in their archaeological knowledge.

On our most recent 25th anniversary trip to Israel we paid several visits to the Ecole Biblique, which has a number of archaeological distinctives. First of all it's the home of a large Iron Age tomb complex, within which are buried (still) the bones of many Byzantine monks who lived at St. Stephen's monastery (as it's also known). A more modern area of the complex is a mortuary for 19th and 20th century Dominicans who lived at the monastery, many who are well known in the annals of Biblical Archaeology, such as Roland DeVaux, the excavator of Qumran.

The first non-French Dominican to join the faculty of the school, as a professor of New Testament, was Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor. He is a much-sought-after authority on Biblical Archaeology, in large part because of the archaeological guide book he authored, called The Holy Land. In addition to his gifts as a teacher and scholar, he has at his disposal one of the best archaeological libraries in Israel at the Ecole Biblique.

So, with the assistance of one of our Jerusalem correspondents, Tom Powers, we were able to arrange an interview with Father Jerry, as he is known. He told us the story of the guide book and offered some additional archaeological insights, for which we were very appreciative.

1121 - Ancient Seals Found in Jerusalem

While we were in Israel on our Book & the Spade tour we spent more time than in the past in the area of the Temple Mount and the City of David. The reason is that there's more archaeology going on there than there has been for a number of years. And in two of the digs in that area, seals were recently found, adding to the growing number of names of important officials from Biblical times.

Sometimes seals that are found contain the names of men who are known from the Bible, sometimes not. In these two cases, the seals' owners were not previously known. One of the seals was found in an excavation along the western edge of the western wall plaza, where a number of finds from the First Temple period have been discovered, preserved under a later Roman-era street. The seal owner was Netanyahu ben Yaush (shown). The other seal was found along with a number of seal impressions, near the Gihon spring.