The Bible BC

What Can Archaeology Prove?

Leicester: IVP, 1977. Pbk. ISBN. 0851102301. pp.48.
[2 Chapters reproduced by permission]

Publisher's Preface

Alan Millard has written this booklet in response to a series of TV programmes entitled BC: The Archaeology of the Bible Lands, presented by Magnus Magnusson. The series appeared to many viewers to suggest that events which many had believed to be historical facts be dismissed as legend.

In this booklet, the author, a practising archaeologist and a specialist in near eastern languages, assesses the strengths and weaknesses of archaeology as commentary on the Old Testament. His vivid account makes clear that archaeology, like any other living science, is always in motion. Fresh discoveries lead to the abandonment of old theories. New theories arise to re-interpret known facts. Facts are always to be welcomed; problems arise when facts are misinterpreted, or theories are built on too limited a foundation.

To ask whether archaeology proves the Bible is to ask a wrong question. Equally, the absence of evidence from the ground does not disprove events recorded in the Bible. The revealed truth of the Bible and the observable facts of the past cannot conflict. Rightly interpreted, they can only enrich each other.

Two chapters reproduced by kind permission of the publisher.