August 9, 2009:

Ponderings of a Pilgrim PASTOR

“The Bible As History”

            Some years ago, my teenaged son David and I spent the summer in Tel Aviv, Israel participating in an archaeological “dig.”  That sounds more exciting than it was.  Archaeology is mostly just plain hard work, removing (literally) tons of earth by pick, shovel and sometimes trowel in the hope of discovering something that will give a clue to the past.  In the course of that summer’s work I lost more than ten pounds!

            The romantic view of archaeology suggests one may find buried tombs and treasures.  The reality is quite different.  Yes, rarely are such things discovered, but usually what one finds are the remains of buildings and the usual trash we human beings leave behind, particularly broken pottery (“shards”).  Though even these can give important clues as to the past, only rarely will they “prove” who may have lived there and what they did.

            A recent Times Free Press article described this summer’s “dig” by faculty and students from our Southern Adventist University.  In recent years some scholars have begun to question the biblical account of the importance and extent of King David’s reign in first millennium B.C.E. Israel.  They believe that David was actually only a minor tribal leader, not the ruler of a significant country at that time.

            All of that makes for interesting discussions among Old Testament scholars but archaeology will not likely be able to prove or disprove it.  Rarely are written materials discovered that can firmly establish the biblical material.  Archaeology can only fill in some of the gaps.  The Bible itself remains about the only resource we have from the ancient world for the history it describes.

Love, 

Pastor Dave