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March 5th, 2010
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5 Responses to “Biblical Archaeology Review”
March 5th, 2010 at 10:55 am
One can not help but wonder if Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) will ever print a truthful article. From the issues I’ve read, every recovered potsherd, regardless of its attributes, is PROOF that some silly bible story is true!
BAR is NOT in any way a scientific publication, and if one reads an authentic professional paper on the same potsherd, one quickly realizes that BAR is entirely composed of articles where wild speculation and complete falsehoods are accepted and provided as fact! It is amazing that BAR manages to stay in business publishing such obvious nonsense! I guess the gullible and stupid of the world have a need to attach some scientific significance to their pitiful beliefs, even if in name only and regardless of dubious credibility.
BAR definitely fills that niche.
As a retired archaeologist, I must admit that BAR has provided many laughs and much shaking of heads for myself and my many colleagues through the years! But then, unlike the target audience of BAR, we know and recognize phony archaeological reporting when we see it!
Rating: 1 / 5
March 5th, 2010 at 11:01 am
If you are an unquestioning believer and are looking for a magazine that both poses as an objective archeology journal while reinforcing your recieved faith-based beliefs, then this is the periodical for you. Biblical Archeology Review (BAR) is dedicated to ‘proving’ that the Bible’s text is the best source of information on the ancient Biblical world rather than empirical archeological evidence. BAR’s standard has reached an all time low recently with its editor’s oportunistic promotion of the now debunked James ossuary. It serves as a cautionary tale of the predetermined and crack pot modus operandi employed by BAR. The equation goes like this: 1. The text of the Bible is not to be questioned and 2. If you can find any archeological artifact or discovery that you can bend and twist beyond all context to support #1 than you can get it published in BAR. Also, ever present within BAR is a fear and deprication of independant empirical archeology which interprets archeological evidence without predetermined beliefs as having a primacy over the Bible’s text (a text that each generation was free to constantly redact to fit its own political exigencies of the day). BAR articles of full of unproven faith-based assumptions and are of little use to the serious student of Biblical archeology. Unfortunately, I wasn’t warned about this and subscribed to an entire year, now every few months I have to waste a few seconds taking BAR from my mailbox directly to the trash can where it belongs.
Rating: 1 / 5
March 5th, 2010 at 11:42 am
The first issue was very interesting and look forward to the next one.
Rating: 4 / 5
March 5th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
There was a time when biblical archeology was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon or a life, when the Biblical Archaeology Review was a part of that pleasant dalliance. Unfortunately, lines have been drawn in the sand, and the armies marshaled into the fray. Somehow everything has become a religious matter, and BAR, rather than playing the part of impartial presenter of the issues has let itself become a part of the problem.
I really don’t have a set opinion on the over-arching veracity of the Bible. It simply isn’t a necessary part of my religious beliefs that the Bible be absolutely and perfectly factual. So in a discussion about the authenticity of a particular artifact what I want is science and corroboration. Unfortunately BAR has gotten embroiled in the controversy over the James Ossuary and has moved well past the point of scholarly return.
Nor is this the only conflict where they have taken sides. The dating and significance of the Ahwat ruins is another sore point. And they seem to be at war with the Israel Antiquities Authority. This simply does not make for the kind of solid journalism that should mark a field of study that is important to many people of dramatically different faiths. The sad thing is that there are no alternatives that can claim the broad coverage the BAR once provided.
Once the writers veer off from the agruments and vitriol, they manage some interesting discussions, but personally, I would hold off from a subscription. Use the money to do a bit of research and find books and academic materials that may be a bit less exciting to read, but will be much more informative.
Rating: 2 / 5
March 5th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
i got the first issue of this magazine the other day. i have nearly read it cover to cover. i really enjoy it. i have learned several things from it that i did not know before and have had several points of view brought to my attention that i had not thought of previously.
Rating: 4 / 5