The Bible and Archaeology

"The Manchester Guardian says: "Sir Frederic Kenyon's latest book is a survey of the results of archaeological discoveries during the past hundred years as they affect the authenticity, interpretation, and text of the Bible. As such, it is of special interest for Biblical and theological students; but it covers such a wide field that it will be read with profit by students of the ancient Near East in general. As a book that was needed, it fills the gap admirably. Moreover, learned as it was bound to be, it has also the merit of being entrancingly readable. "Here the reader will find full and reliable information about peoples who have been little more than mere names: the Hittites, the Hurrians, the Habiru, the Mitanni, the Tarachites. The discoveries at Ugarit (Ras Shamra) receive more adequate treatment than in other books of the kind, and we are told more about the progress made in the study of the Hittites. Appended is a good map of the Near East excavation sites. It should be added that book covers the New Testament as well as the Old." With Thirty-one Half-tone Plates and a Map." (from front flap, Harper & Brothers Publishers, No. 4427) "The importance of archaeological research has grrown greatly, both in fact and in public esteem, in the course of the last generation. In times less acutely anxious than the present, reports of excavations have received a high journalistic status as 'news' and occasionally, as in the cases of the tomb of Tutankhamen and the Royal Cemetery of Ur, as front-page news. One particular department of this research is that which is concerned with Palestine and the adjoining countries, from which light may be thrown on the books composing out Bible. Such light has been thrown from time to time, and in increasing measure during the last fifty years. New manuscripts have been found, earlier in date than any previously known; monuments, inscriptions, and books have been discovered which ........." (from preface by F. G. K., February 1940)