5 Responses to “What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?: What Archaeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel”

1. Michael Freeman Says:
   March 2nd, 2010 at 9:15 am

   . . . DESPITE the name of the book club from which I purchased the book.

   I was most disappointed in this book. I’d rate it “zero stars” if there was such a thing. I plodded about 1/3 of the way through and got so disgusted with it I refused to finish it.

   Let me give some examples: He states on p. 41 that “virtually all biblical scholars” have abandoned the idea that Canaan was conquered by the Israelites (under Joshua), as the Bible teaches. VIRTUALLY ALL??? The author should have taken a few more math classes in his earlier years…

   More examples: On pages 62 and 63, the author states that the “exodus from Egypt” and the “pan-military ‘conquest of Palestine’ have all now been shown to be essentially nohistorical, ‘historicized fiction’ at best.” Sounds like liberal drivel to me.

   And, in a footnote on page 98, the author says “[n]o scholar, revisionist or otherwise, thinks these materials [biblical stories] anything other than ‘myth.’” Well, he certainly hasn’t done much research in that area! I can name dozens of scholars who think otherwise.

   I guess one reason I was so disgusted with the book was that when I bought it I expected to learn about archaeology from a Christian perspective, not a self-proclaimed agnostic who doesn’t even believe in the historical truths in and of the Bible. All the liberals and the athiests/agnostics seem to rate the book highly. That, however, is not for me.

   I won’t even bother going deeper into the premise of the book. Readers of this review who are like me won’t care about that anyway, and the liberals are going to flame me no matter what else I say.
   Rating: 1 / 5

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2. sara Says:
   March 2nd, 2010 at 10:38 am

   For someone who claims to be writing a book which supports historicity of the Bible, and an anti minimalist stance, Dever’s work is a disappointment. According to Dever, the historicity of the Bible is basically limited to the period of kings. He thinks that no researcher takes the early Israelite history such as the Exodus seriously, a point of view which is definately not true.
   Rating: 2 / 5

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3. John C. Landon Says:
   March 2nd, 2010 at 1:21 pm

   Correctly putting the history of the Old Testament in focus is like Dr. Magoo trying to read street signs. The genre proceeds from Spinoza to the present–no Zarathustra’s end times–in a series of dialectical reversals now seen in the battle over the minimalists.
   The beautiful enigma (for a secularist)of the Old Testament’s creation lies in its skewed compression around the exile plus or minus, for reasons that are not clear from either the text or the history but which become obvious from seeing the history by comparison with the riddle’s (partial) solution, the era of the Axial age.
   This book neatly recounts the way in which the debate goes back and forth over the early or late composition of the text. This work tries to put the extreme versions in their place, and the author has a point. We can, without reintroducing myths, produce the significant historical account the minimalists wish to dispose of, etc… A reasonable version lies in The Bible Unearthed, by Finkelstein and Silberman, or Freedman’s Who Wrote the Bible.
   Noone, religious or secular,sees the remarkable nature of the tale once the myth has been taken out, and there the Axial context produces a new mystery, one that thrives as well with the corrected minimalist account found here as with the religious one.
   Rating: 5 / 5

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4. Midwest Book Review Says:
   March 2nd, 2010 at 2:58 pm

   What Did The Biblical Writers Know And When Did They Know It? uses archaeology to reconstruct what ancient Israel must have been like, in an attempt to shed light on the historical background of biblical scriptures. Written in clear language for general readers, What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? examines the Iron Age of ancient Palestine (1200-600 B.C.) and more. Author William Denver draws upon his extensive experience and expertise as a professor of archaeology and anthropology, and his 30 seasons’ worth of archaeological expeditions excavating in the Near East. From his own experiences, logic, and interpolation, he successfully turns historical evidence into a vivid living world.
   Rating: 5 / 5

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5. J. Heiner Says:
   March 2nd, 2010 at 4:55 pm

   Engaging in a diatribe against his fellow academicians can only result in allienating his general reading public. He should engage in those discussions in his journals, not in a book meant for the general reader. I found his arguments exceedingly boring.
   Rating: 3 / 5

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