New Book

I think I've found what I'm going to talk about with this blog... it started out that everything was going to start with "This reminds me..." (hence the title), however I don't think I'm going to stick to that very well...

I think I'm going to start discussing books I'm reading...

I just finished one! Which I'm really excited about because I haven't actually finished a book in a very VERY long time...

This one is called, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? by William G. Dever.

Dever is a highly respected archaeologist/historian, not just in biblical archaeology, but in archaeology in general.

This book is great because he doesn't take the approach of "God said it; I believe it; that settles it!" He takes a more logical approach to the study of biblical archaeology. He discusses 5 approaches to using archaeological evidence that people generally follow. (and I know people that follow each) They are:

"1: Assume the biblical text is literally true, and ignore all external evidence as irrelevant.

2: Hold that the biblical text is probably true, but seek external corroboration.

3: Approach the text, as well as the external data, with no preconceptions. Single out the "convergences" of the two lines of evidence, and remain skeptical about the rest.

4: Contend that nothing in the biblical text is true, unless proven by external data.

5: Reject the text and any other data, since the Bible cannot be true."

(To Approach 5: a man on a train in Ireland told me, "Oh! The Bible, huh? That's a good book of myths and fairy tales!" not much of a thinker and he's probably never read it...)

Dever states, "... I shall resolutely hold to the middle ground - that is, to Approach 3 - because I think that truth is most likely to be found there."

And he does!

I know that there are a lot of issues between the facts that are found in the ground and what the Bible says, but I'm still not discounting the Bible and its message... I do believe in God and I do believe in His son, Jesus... and I do believe in Heaven and Hell... and I do believe in sin and salvation and Jesus' death and resurrection... and I believe there is a story to be told in the Bible. However, I don't believe that every story told is 100% fact... there are a lot of literary devices that the writers of the Bible used that were being used in their time in other writings to describe what actually happened...

By the end of the book, Dever has pointed out all the issues between archaeology and the biblical text... (i.e. there is no evidence for the Exodus, there is no evidence for the conquest of Canaan, there is no evidence of any hostile take over of the land, there's no evidence of a historical Moses, etc...)BUT what he discusses is the possibility that these stories are ancient Israel's method of telling the story of their beginnings as a country... as Dever puts it, a "metaphor for liberation" which is a device used commonly by ancient civilizations.

Also something to remember is that the Israelites were bedouin, pastoral hill-dwellers, so the chance of having an exact representation of their full history is slim to none....

I would elaborate on this, but I feel this is already too long... if you want me to talk more in detail about it, let me know and I will...