Keith N. Schoville
Keith Schoville is professor of Hebrew
and Semitic studies at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Author of Bible
Review's Hebrew for Bible Readers
column, Schoville wrote Biblical Archaeology
in Focus (Baker, 1979).
I will celebrate the 20th anniversary of BAR
as enthusiastically as anyone, because it has
been a source of information, intellectual
stimulation, aesthetic appreciation and much,
much more to me over the years. You have
done more than most of your critics to
arouse interest in archaeology in the Lands of
the Bible and (to paraphrase Frank Sinatra's
song) "not in a shy way, you've done it your
way."
Biblical Archaeology's Greatest Achievement
Biblical archaeology's greatest
achievement has been to bring the past into
the present, to clothe the imaginary with
robes of reality. Under the stimulus of
Biblical accounts most of us imagine the
individuals and events of its world.
Archaeology recovers bits and pieces of a
world that we can see, touch, feel and even
taste (some of my field archaeologist friends
when "reading" pottery touch it to their
tongues!). The sensual
connection with the remnants of the past-
be it experienced in the field on a dig, in a
museum or exhibit, or through graphic
representation as in BAR-grips skeptic and
saint alike with a sense of historical reality.
Biblical archaeology's greatest failure?
The failure to publish results in a timely manner.
We experience irretrievable losses when the
archaeologists most intimately involved in
excavations die with their intuitive
interpretations still in their minds and not on
paper.
Biblical Archaeology's Greatest Challenge
Biblical archaeology's greatest challenge is
twofold: first, to attempt to publish results
in a timely manner; second, to give the Bible
greater historical credibility in interpretation.
Why should we be severely skeptical of the
human events recorded in the Bible? Let the
art of archaeological interpretation be
balanced by an appreciation of our greatest
literary artifact-the Bible, a work written
by honest, God-fearing authors.