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The Bible Unearthed

The Bible Unearthed
The Bible Unearthed
Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts  
By Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman
This edition: eBook, 400 pages
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Description

In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman draw on recent archaeological research to present a dramatically revised portrait of ancient Israel and its neighbors. They argue that crucial evidence (or a telling lack of evidence) at digs in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suggests that many of the most famous stories in the Bible -- the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua's conquest of Canaan, and David and Solomon's vast empire -- reflect the world of the later authors rather than actual historical facts.

Challenging the fundamentalist readings of the scriptures and marshaling the latest archaeological evidence to support its new vision of ancient Israel, The Bible Unearthed offers a fascinating and controversial perspective on when and why the Bible was written and why it possesses such great spiritual and emotional power today.

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Table of Contents
Baruch Halpern author of The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History The boldest and most exhilarating synthesis of Bible and archaeology in fifty years. This powerful, provocative polemic remaps the history of Israel and explains when, why, and how kings descended from David rewrote that history to serve their political and ideological ends. It is the first archaeological overture to the birth of biblical history.
John Shelby Spong author of Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality A bold and provocative book, well researched, well written, and powerfully argued. It challenges many of the assumptions developed by the literal religious minds of the ages, opening traditional possibilities to new conclusions. I hope that Christians and Jews alike will ponder its insights.
David Noel Freedman editor of the Anchor Bible series Readable and Revolutionary. Finkelstein and Silberman have staked out an advanced position in some of the most controversial areas of biblical and archaeological research in our day. Boldly and provocatively, the authors challenge much of the received wisdom and confident assumptions of many in this discipline, and check off the hot-button points in sequence: the Patriarchs (forget it, or them); Moses and the Exodus (no evidence); the whole period of the Judges; the Monarchy, united or otherwise. In short, there is little to be said about Israel or Judah until the ninth century bce. In the end, a reconstruction and reconstitution of these ancient kingdoms is sharply etched and dramatically delineated once the debris of centuries (both ancient and modern) has been cleared. For those who like to be wakened in the morning with a spray of cold water, this book is highly recommended.
0743223381
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