Does Biblical Archaeology Exist?
This article was first published in the October 2006 ABR Electronic Newsletter. It will come as news to Bible and Spade readers that, in fact, there is no Biblical Archaeology. This is according to Egyptologist Ronald Hendel as reported in Biblical Archaeology Review (July/August 2006, 20). He rather insultingly likens those who practice such mythology with eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon, who famously asked the question, “Is there a Santa Claus?” and was given the answer “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…” From Hendel’s perspective, Biblical Archaeology and Santa Claus exist only in the imaginary world of the infantile or the untutored. He continues: The more we know about the Bronze and early Iron Ages, the more the Biblical portrayal of events in this era appear to be a blend of folklore and cultural memory, in which the details of historical events have either disappeared or been radically reshaped. The stories are deeply meaningful, but only occasionally historical. To the c
