Q&A: Attitude Toward Archaeology
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Attitude Toward Archaeology
Question
What is the Rabbi’s attitude toward questions from archaeology that challenge the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)?
Answer
That’s far too general a question. Each difficulty has to be considered on its own merits.
Discussion on Answer
Good thing they left us some unexcavated square meter to walk on. How can one person possibly manage to excavate the whole country? Even all the archaeologists together wouldn’t manage that in a hundred years. Nonsense.
Finkelstein has been excavating a few dunams in Megiddo since 1994; excavations take years.
That’s really not what Finkelstein claims. The debate is mainly about the days of David and Solomon, and even there the argument is not whether they existed but rather what the size and power of their kingdom was.
Finkelstein excavated throughout the entire Land of Israel except beneath built-up compounds, because he still hasn’t received a permit for that, and found that there is no evidence at all supporting the claim that the Land of Israel was inhabited during the First Temple period 🙂
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