Re: [asa] Half Full re wrap-up

PHS: I think the assumptions of the minimalists and accordingly of the two books named are arbitrary. I think reading these books would be a waste of time unless balanced by reading the work of a maximalist such as Kennenth Kitchen's On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Kitchen is an Evangelical
and emeritus professor of Egyptology and Archaeology from the University of Liverpool.

RF: Paul
Perhaps you need the balance and would benefit from each of these books. I don't understand why you think "assumptions" and "arbitrary" describe the most current Israeli archeology when you haven't read either of the books.

PHS: Reading Finkelstein to me would be like reading Henry Morris to get balance. I do own his book and have read part of it, but he is extreme. You don't seem to realize just how far out Finkelstein is. To quote William Dever from his review of the book in Biblical Archaeology Review, "The Bible Unearthed is an ideological manifesto, not judicious well-balanced scholarship." He calls Finkelstein, an "idiosyncratic, doctrinaire archaeologist." If you want to see more specifically why he (and I) thinks this way about Finkelstein, read his book, What did the Biblical Writers Know and When did they Know it?

Dever is a well respected Syro-Palestinian archaeologist with thirty-five years of fieldwork. He agrees with Finkelstein on more issues than Kitchen would agree to, but he is not a doctrinaire conservative.

I can only comment on Liverani that as a minimalist, his views need to be subjected to the balance that Kitchen (who is also doctrinaire but sets forth hard data) and Dever bring to the discussion.

P

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Received on Mon Jun 26 19:40:04 2006