Archaeology

Professional, peer-reviewed papers discussing the interaction between archaeology and key details, concepts, dates, places, and people written about in the Bible

Archaeology on Answers Research Journal

Archaeology is a crucial field of study for serious students of God’s Word. The word “archaeology” comes from the Greek words archaios (“ancient”) and logia (“word, study of”). Therefore, the Greek word archaiologia, from which “archaeology” is derived, most simply means a study of the ancient past. Modern archaeologists study sites and artifacts to understand the past. Biblical archaeology is specifically interested in sites and artifacts that shed light on people, places, and events recorded in Scripture. Biblical archaeology is primarily concerned with the area of the Levant, especially the Holy Land or Israel, but also extends beyond this area, particularly to Rome.

Archaeology provides several benefits for biblical studies. One of the most important steps of biblical exegesis is also one of the biggest challenges—understanding the original context in which the biblical authors wrote. Modern readers of Scripture are not only separated by thousands of years from the time of the original writings, but most of them are also thousands of miles away from biblical lands and sites. The archaeological record enables readers to immerse themselves in the world of the Bible. By studying material culture (physical remains), such as artifacts, architecture, biofacts (organic remains such as plants, animal bones, and pollen), inscriptions, and ostraca (pieces of pottery with writing or pictures inscribed on them), one is better able to understand the original context and setting of Scripture.

Archaeology also corroborates the historicity and accuracy of the Bible. In fact, early archaeologists used the Bible to guide their investigations. Several details of the biblical record have been confirmed by archaeological excavations. Some of these details include dates, names of kings, empires, practices and social norms of the ancient Near East, architecture, travel routes, locations of ancient biblical sites, religious practices of past humanity, and much more. Although archaeology cannot prove the Bible, it does give an extrabiblical witness to the veracity of Scripture.

Textual criticism, the study of textual variants and manuscripts to discover the original text of the Old Testament and New Testament, is also helped by archaeology. The Dead Sea Scrolls, for example, shed light on the Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch as well as demonstrate the remarkable accuracy with which the biblical texts were copied and transmitted.

As with all evidence, archaeological finds must be interpreted. It should also be kept in mind that archaeology is extremely fragmentary. Most material culture cannot survive for thousands of years. It is either intentionally destroyed or worn away by natural decomposition. Additionally, archaeology has only uncovered a very minute percentage of the material culture that has survived. Thousands of known surviving ancient sites remain unsurveyed, unexcavated, or only excavated sparsely, due to lack of funding, safety issues, or political conflict. But archaeology can never be given priority over biblical texts. The Bible alone is authoritative.