Every year thousands of enthusiasts, amateur and professional, spend the summer months digging in the sands of Israel hoping to find items that in some way relate to the places and events depicted in the Bible. This work looks at the history and archaeology of the Bible lands.

Each year archaeologists discover many new finds at sites throughout the lands of the Bible, but few of them make the news headlines. Revisionist scholars often seek to undermine and downplay the relevance of many of the discoveries, believing that Sodom never existed, the Exodus never happened, Jericho never fell to the Israelites, and David was never a great king. This work challenges the minimalist views by bringing together many of the new discoveries from the last 20 years highlighting the recent finds that are relevant to the claims of the Bible. Experienced archaeologist David Graves has assembled a helpful collection of discoveries that will take you on a journey to: -Confirm the historicity of the biblical events and people of the past -Explore the full range of new archaeological discoveries, from pottery, inscriptions, seals, ossuaries, through to coins, manuscripts, and other artifacts -Present a short history of archaeology, outlining its characteristics and role in Christian apologetics -Lay out the limitations of archaeology and its methodological fallacies -Explain the meticulous method of excavation -Explore the significance of manuscripts for the transmission of the Bible -Navigate the maze of arguments between the minimalists and maximalists controversy This insightful book will: -Illustrate archaeological finds with more than 140 pertinent photographs -Provide numerous detailed maps, carefully crafted charts and tables of previous discoveries -Include helpful breakout panes, dealing with "Quotes from Antiquity," and "Moments in History" -Include a glossary defining technical archaeological terms -Provide extensive footnotes and bibliography for future study This invaluable resource provides an interesting and informative understanding of the cultural and historical background of the Bible illustrated from archaeology. This is an accessible resource intended for laypeople who want to know more about archaeology and the Bible, whether in seminary courses, college classrooms, church groups or personal study.

An illuminating social history of ancient Israel, Chieftains of the Highland Clans offers an unusually thorough and original reconstruction of Israelite society prior to the rise of the monarchy around 1000 B.C. Using the latest archaeological research and anthropological theories, Robert Miller presents an intriguing picture of what life was like in early Israel. Ethnographic evidence from diverse cultures suggests the "complex chiefdom" model as the most appropriate for the archaeology of twelfth- and eleventh-century highland Palestine. This model details the economic and political realities of prestate societies with ascribed rank and hierarchical political control. As he applies and fine-tunes the complex chiefdom model, Miller illustrates areas of potential correspondence and contradiction between his reconstruction and the biblical text. Students of archaeology, Palestine, and the Hebrew Bible will not want to miss Miller's fresh and fascinating conclusions about the sociopolitical nature of early Israel.

Introduces readers to the theological contribution of each book of the Old Testament.

Reports of dreams, journeys into the heavens, and other alternate states of consciousness abound in the Old and New Testaments and in extrabiblical literature. While some scholars have considered such reports to be simple literary devices, John J. Pilch -- a leading expert in social scientific interpretation of the Bible -- believes otherwise. As Pilch points out, anthropological research on over 400 representative cultures in the world shows that more than ninety percent of these cultures have reported such experiences routinely. Factual or not, he says, biblical accounts of alternate consciousness are both plausible and significant because they constitute a very common, real, human experience in their respective cultures. Drawing on insights from from anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and the social sciences, Pilch investigates and interprets Old and New Testament accounts of dreams, visions, journeys into the heavens, and other alternate states of consciousness within their cultural contexts. The result is a fresh and intriguing take on familiar biblical events. Flights of the Soul sheds new light on such things as these: * Ezekiel's prophetic visions * Enoch's sky journeys * Jesus' transfiguration and ascension * Resurrection appearances in the Gospels * Paul's ecstatic vision on the road to Damascus * John's heavenly journeys described in Revelation