Course Presentation: Biblical Typology Session 2

I conducted the second session of the course in Biblical Typology on Wednesday evening. Again, we had a good crowd of almost 80 people. I didn't get pelted by soft fruit so I assume the session was well received. I'll conduct session three next Wednesday evening.

You can either go directly to my Bible Study page and view the course presentations and other handout material: Bible Study Website. 

...or you can view the PowerPoint here: Typology Session 2

(I corrected the bad link to the Session 1 presentation in the previous post. My apologies, and thanks to those who pointed it out to me.)

Scriptural Interpretation

I've been facilitating our parish's weekly Bible Study sessions -- one morning and one evening -- for over a dozen years. We now have close to sixty people taking part, and I sometimes forget that the participants have changed, especially as new people join us. Many years ago I devoted a session to the basics of scriptural interpretation, but of course almost all of our current participants were not in attendance. So...I decided to put together a brief (one hour) mini-course on the same subject, and conducted it for our two sessions this past Wednesday. It was well received and I have provided a link to the PowerPoint presentation that addressed the core of the material: Scriptural Interpretation.

Another Archaeology Update

If you're among the select few who actually read this blog, you'll know I've long had an interest in things archaeological. I'm certainly no expert, not even a knowledgeable amateur, but I do try to stay abreast of what's happening in this fascinating field of study. Science and technology have provided today's archaeologist with tools undreamed of just a few years ago. The result has been a remarkable expansion of our knowledge of ancient civilizations and the societies that formed them.

I'm especially interested in what is often labeled "Biblical Archaeology", that branch of the science that relates to the events described in Sacred Scripture. Of course, any good archaeologist doesn't set out to "prove" the accuracy of Sacred Scripture; rather, he tries to uncover the truth in the form of objective facts, and then based on these hard facts share with us how our ancient ancestors lived, worked, prayed, and died. Interestingly, recent findings uncovered by archaeology, palaeography, and textual philology seem increasingly to support the truth of Sacred Scripture.

I'm also intrigued by those discoveries that bring the ancient world to light and often demonstrate that the ancients were far less primitive than previously thought. I'm always pleased when the temporal bigotry that colors the thinking of today's progressives is exposed for what it is, a blind prejudice that assumes we are smarter and wiser than those who preceded us. Indeed, looking at the chaos, brutality and global destruction that typifies much of our recent history, one can make a pretty good case that we have devolved and are far less wise than many of our ancient ancestors. In itself, this is a good reason to study the ancients, how they lived and what they believed. Maybe we'll actually learn from them.

Although we moderns certainly view the world very differently from the ancients, when it comes to our interpersonal relationships we are remarkably unchanged. As a student of Sacred Scripture I find the manifestations of human nature to be one of the constants that spans the centuries between the ancients and us. One need only read Genesis, Exodus, and the Gospels to realize that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and the Apostles are very much like us as we struggle to live our faith in a world hostile to God's Word. In the loosely translated words of the French writer, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

All that being said, what's been happening lately in archaeology?

Sarah Parcak, Space Archaeologist. Dr. Sarah Parcak, a Yale- and Cambridge-educated archaeologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has led what can only be described as a revolution in her field of study. For the past decade or so she has pioneered the use of satellite imagery to identify likely archaeological sites. Her work has led to the identification of hundreds of sites in Egypt, Sinai, Rome and elsewhere throughout the world. Many, perhaps most of these sites would never have been located by means of surface-based techniques. Dr. Parcak's work will keep her and many of her colleagues busy for decades to come.

There are, of course, some archaeologists who dispute her conclusions, but I expect most would resist any new techniques, especially those that might force them to reevaluate their own work.

Here's a brief video of Dr. Parcak discussing her work.

Babylonian Trigonometry? This story really interested me since trigonometry was among my favorite subjects back in high school. Back then (I think it was in my junior year), I'm pretty sure we were told that modern trigonometry and all its sines and cosines and tangents was something developed by the Greeks. The Egyptians might have used a primitive form to help them as they built pyramids and other edifices, but the Greeks were the ones who perfected this branch of mathematics. 

Mathematician David Mansfield holding ancient tablet

Now, it seems a couple of Australian mathematicians -- David Mansfield and Norman Wildberger -- have concluded that an ancient (3,700 year-old) Babylonian tablet found over 100 years ago contains a trigonometric table with "exact values for the sides of a range right triangles." In other words, instead of using angles, the Babylonians, with their base 60 math, expressed trigonometry in terms of these exact ratios of the sides of triangles. If the Aussies are correct -- and there's no shortage of folks who dispute their claims -- it's an amazing discovery. I expect we'll hear more about this in the future. You can read more about it here.

Destruction of Ancient and Religious Sites by Islamists. This is becoming a standard headline as followers of ISIS, al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas and other Islamist terrorist entities seem determined to destroy anything that doesn't support their warped sense of history and religion.

In the Philippines, particularly in the south, where ISIS influence has increased greatly in recent years, ISIS followers regularly destroy Christian churches. A recent example is destruction of the Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippine city of Marawi by Islamists who made a video of their rampage:

Read the story here.

In Iraq, ISIS, during the two years they controlled the city of Nimrud, carried out a plan of total destruction of this ancient city. When ISIS forces were finally driven out, the Iraqi soldiers found near total devastation. ISIS used bulldozers, explosives, sledgehammers, anything that could destroy, as they went through the ancient city smashing everything in their path.

At one time Nimrud was the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire. It was an archaeological marvel, the site of temples, ziggurats and other ruins thousands of years old. The Iraqi troops also found mass graves filled with the bodies of the local people murdered by ISIS. Seemingly proud of what they had done, ISIS also made several videos showing how they destroyed much of this ancient city. Here's a video  made after ISIS had been driven from the city, showing the level of destruction:

The Islamists' war of devastation continued in Syria with the destruction of much of the ancient city of Palmyra. They also bulldozed the Christian monastery of Mar Elian. They removed ancient mosaics, presumably to sell on the black market, from the Roman trading city of Apamea. In the city of Dura-Europos, located on the Euphrates and perhaps the easternmost of Roman outposts, they destroyed one of Christianity's oldest churches, a beautiful synagogue, and many Roman temples. And they looted the bronze-age city of Mari. And all of this destruction was just in Syria. The Islamists were guilty of even more looting and damage in the Iraqi cities of Hatra, Nineveh, Mosul, and Khorsabad, to name only a few.

The Sea People. Here's a fascinating story that shows it's important to take notes and keep them.

A few years ago I read a book entitled 1177 B.C., The Year Civilization Collapsed. Written by Eric Cline, an American archaeologist who focused on the causes of the sudden and near simultaneous collapse of many of the societies that ringed the Mediterranean Sea and even beyond. Many historians and archaeologists have placed the blame on the so-called "Sea People" who embarked on a series of invasions and raids that destroyed the key cities of these societies. Even Egypt was attacked, and although the Egyptians repelled the attackers, their society never fully recovered.

Egyptian wall frieze depicting Egypt repelling the Sea People

But Egypt wasn't the only victim. Hittites, Minoans, Trojans, and others all seemed simply to disappear. Cline isn't so sure this was all the result of the Sea People and adds natural calamities and economic factors to the mix of causes. But no one was ever absolutely sure where these Sea People came from. We might now have an answer, and it comes from an unexpected source.

Back in 1878 a French archaeologist, George Perrot, came across a limestone slab in the Turkish village of Beykoy. The slab, about a foot high and almost 100 feet long, was covered with ancient inscriptions. Because the locals intended to use the stone as part of the foundation of their mosque, Perrot decided to make an accurate copy of the inscriptions before the slab was destroyed.

Copy of Luwian Inscriptions

The copy, long forgotten, surfaced in 2012 in the estate of an English historian. Its inscriptions were then identified as Luwian, an ancient language that only a handful of experts can decipher. The translation of the inscriptions describes how kingdoms in Western Asia formed a confederation -- the Sea People -- and with a united fleet conducted raids of the eastern Mediterranean. Here's the story.

That's enough. More archaeology later...

Archaeology Update

If you're a long-time reader of this blog -- a member of a very select group -- you'll know that I have an interest in things archaeological. 

My interest in archaeology first arose from a book I read in 1962 while I was enjoying myself as a freshman at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. I was in the office of a Jesuit, my New Testament professor, and spotted the book on his desk. In an effort to kiss up a bit and show that I was really interested in theology, I asked if it were an interesting book. He handed it to me and said, "Here, you can borrow it. Come back next week and let me know what you think." An oral book report wasn't the outcome I had planned, and I suspect the good Jesuit knew this. 

Anyway, he and the book he lent me had an impact. The Archaeology of Palestine: From the Stone Age to Christianity was written by William F. Albright in 1940 and then revised in 1960 to reflect the impact of later archaeological discoveries. It was this later edition that was forced on me that day. 

William Albright, an American evangelical and the son of Methodist missionaries, probably did more to advance the science of biblical archaeology than any other 20th-century archaeologist. During the latter part of his life (he died in 1971) and since his death, Albright has been strongly criticized by historical-critical scholars and others who believe his methods and conclusions were overly influenced by his Christian faith. Can you imagine? Actually approaching Sacred Scripture with faith...

For example, Albright believed that the Book of Genesis, in its depiction of such figures as Abraham, was "as a whole...historical, and there is no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the biographical details." As you might imagine, many modern scholars disagree. Indeed, too many even doubt the actual existence of a historical Abraham. But one does not have to be a literalist or a fundamentalist to agree with Albright. 

I think it's important for Catholics to realize that the teachings of the Catholic Church do not encourage scholars to doubt the historical accuracy of Sacred Scripture. Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on Divine Revelation, offers us a clear reflection of the Church's teaching on Sacred Scripture:

"Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation" [Dei Verbum, 11].

I've always thought that those who believe that the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, is littered with fictional characters must not think very highly of the Holy Spirit. After all, in effect they're saying that the Holy Spirit, unable to raise up faithful servants from among His People, instead invented fanciful heroes to carry out God's will in the world.This, of course, assumes that they accept the Holy Spirit's role as the Divine Author of Sacred Scripture. 

K. A. Kitchen

Although my interest in biblical archaeology began with William Albright's book, it was further influenced by the work of K. A. Kitchen. A Professor Emeritus in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and also an evangelical Christian, Dr. Kitchen wrote two books that I found truly fascinating. In the first, published in 1966 and entitled, Ancient Orient and the Old Testament, Kitchen attempted to synthesize the work of two very different and too often independent areas of study: Ancient Near Eastern studies and Old Testament studies. But then in 2003 Kitchen published a comprehensive work, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, in which he argues (I believe, successfully) that the archaeological and textual evidence confirms the historical accuracy of the Old Testament. 

Interestingly, what we're finding as a result of recent archaeological discoveries is that the Bible is a remarkably accurate historical document. I've included stories relating to a few of these discoveries that confirm what the Bible tells us. The links will take you to the online articles.

Shiloh's Destruction. Shiloh is the city in Samaria where the ark of the covenant was kept after Joshua and the Israelites conquered Canaan. Shiloh was later destroyed by the Philistines not long after their victory at Aphek, a battle in which the two sons of Eli, the priest, lost their lives. Although many scholars assumed these event were apocryphal, recent archaeological findings confirm the destruction of the shrine at Shiloh c. 1050 B.C., a date that corresponds closely to what the we find in 1 Samuel. The remains of Shiloh may be found is the exact location described in the Book of Judges (Jgs 21:19).

Shiloh today -- Photo by Abraham Sobkowski OFM 

Siloam Tunnel. This remarkable tunnel zig-zags for over 500 yards beneath the ancient city of Jerusalem. The construction of the tunnel, an underground waterway, is described in both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Built during the reign of King Hezekiah (727 - 698 B.C.) to protect the city's water supply in anticipation of an Assyrian siege, the tunnel was recently carbon dated to 700 B.C. confirming the Biblical description of its construction at that time. Once again, the Bible displays its historical accuracy. 

Siloam Tunnel beneath Jerusalem

Pharaoh Shoshenq and Kingdom of Israel. Many scholars have long thought that the Biblical descriptions of the early Jewish kingdoms are complete fiction, and that if David and Solomon actually existed, they were no more than petty chieftains. Increasingly, though, archaeological evidence supports what the Bible tells us. Among many recent discoveries is evidence that the army of an Egyptian pharaoh by the name of Shoshenq I (Shishak in the Bible) raided and sacked the town of Rehov in Israel 3,000 years ago. The event has been dated archaeologically to 925 B.C., just five years after Solomon's death. The Bible describes this military expedition by the Egyptians in 2 Chronicles 12. Here's a part of the narrative:

"Once Rehoboam had established himself as king and was firmly in charge, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and so did all Israel with him. So in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem, for they had acted treacherously toward the LORD. He had twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and there was no counting the army that came with him from Egypt — Libyans, Sukkites, and Ethiopians. They captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem" [2 Chr 12:1-4].

Addressing this discovery at Rahov, Professor Lawrence Stager, director of Harvard University's Semitic Museum stated, "There's no question that Rehov and the other cities that Shoshenq conquered were indeed there at the time of Solomon."

Captives with hands raised submitting to Pharaoh Shishak

David, King of Israel. Another related discovery, made in 1993, uncovered a chunk of basalt, dating to the 9th-century B.C., inscribed with words referring to the "House of David" and "King of Israel." To those of us familiar with the Old Testament, this is no great revelation, but archaeologically it represents the first time David's name had been found outside the Bible. The discovery was made at Tel Dan, located in the north of Israel.

The Tel Dan Basalt Stele

Aristotle's Grave. One last item has little to do with Sacred Scripture, but because it was announced only recently and should be of interest to anyone with a classical education, I thought I'd include it. Konstantinos Sismanidis, a Greek archaeologist, is convinced that he has located the tomb of the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. For 20 years Sismanidis has been working a site near the village of Stagira, Aristotle's birthplace. The archaeological team have uncovered the tomb and an altar both dating to the time of Aristotle. Other evidence also support Sismanidis' conclusion. The drawing below shows what the tomb would have looked like when it was built. Note the altar and the raised walkway leading to the door.

Artist's conception: Aristotle's Tomb

Today the excavated tomb is not as pristine, but check out the view:

The tomb today -- a room with a view.

And so, for those of you who struggled through the study of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, you can now make a pilgrimage to the philosopher's tomb and perhaps leave a small token of your esteem. 

Until next time...

The David Myth

I find it both interesting and disturbing that so many biblical scholars disbelieve most of what's in the Bible. The so-called "David Myth" is a good example of what I mean. According to many scholars, King David, who, along with Abraham and Moses (two other mythical figures), can only be described as a central figure in the Old Testament, simply did not exist. He was instead the fictional creation of priests and political leaders who needed to provide the people with a heroic figure who epitomized the mythological former glory of this primitive tribal people. David, the youthful shepherd who became a giant killer, a great strategist and general, and a king respected by all the nations, is simply too good to be true. Too great to have been created by God, he must have been created by man. As I said, this really disturbs me.

The documentary evidence for David's existence is, of course, substantial. It's called the Bible. If we substituted David's name with the name of some obscure ancient Middle Eastern king, and then discovered these writings in a desert cave, there would be rejoicing among the archaeologists and textual scholars that we now knew so much about this previously little known potentate. But for some reason, the Bible is generally discounted as an historical document. After all, it's filled with all those odd theophanies, all those concocted and impossible manifestations of this minor tribal god. How can anyone believe anything in documents littered with such obviously tall tales? And what really bothers these scholars is that, even in these enlightened times, so many people -- believing Jews and Christians -- still accept all of it.

Aerial view of excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa

In recent years, however, there's been a constant stream of archaeological evidence pouring out of the Holy Land in support of the Bible as real history, and this includes the story of David and his kingdom. The latest evidence comes from the excavation of a fortified Iron Age city at Khirbet Qeiyafa that dates from the time of David. The archaeological evidence points to its being a Jewish city in the Kingdom of Judah. All of this evidence argues that the Jews of the 11th century B.C. lived in urban settings, something that supporters of the "David Myth" have disputed, believing instead that urbanization didn't occur until centuries later. And so it appears that this primitive tribe of nomadic shepherds might actually have been more sophisticated and advanced than previously thought. In other words, they were pretty much just as they are described in the Bible.

To read a brief overview of the report of this excavation, click here: The Sacred Page.

To read a more detailed report, click here: Israel Antiquities Authority.

And if you're really interested in this general subject of the historical accuracy of Scared Scripture, let me suggest reading K. A. Kitchen's fascinating book, On the Reliability of the Old Testament.

In the meantime, read your Bible every day, and believe what you read.

Blessings...

The USCCB and the New American Bible, Revised Edition

The other day I mentioned that the US Bishops' website lacked information on the new translation of the New American Bible. Apparently they have corrected the omission. I visited their website a few moments ago and found that it contains quite a bit of good information on the upcoming availability of the Revised Edition. The new edition is not yet available online, but they promise it will be up and running soon.

Click here to visit the page: NAB-RE

If you want to purchase the Revised Edition -- available on Ash Wednesday -- you can pre-order a copy via Amazon right now. It is available in several bindings. Click here.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) to be Available Wednesday

On Ash Wednesday (March 9) the New American Bible Revised Edition (NAB-RE) will be available. The NAB is the US Bishops' official English translation of Holy Scripture, and this revision was approved for publication last September. It includes a complete revision of the Old Testament which hadn't been changed since 1970. It also, thankfully, includes a major revision of the 1991 translation of the Psalms. The New Testament of the NAB was revised in 1986 and will remain in the new edition.

I have not yet seen it, so I really can't comment on it. I know only that the translation has been in the works for some time -- for almost 20 years according to several reports. I've never been a big fan of the current NAB and prefer both the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version and the New Jerusalem Bible. Perhaps this translation is a more accurate rendering of the original Hebrew and Greek, as the translators claim. That would be nice. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

The US Bishops' website has a page devoted to the NAB Revised Edition but it really contains very little useful information; indeed it doesn't even mention that it will be available next week. And information about the Revised Edition is almost totally absent from their NAB Frequently Asked Questions page. I find it all a bit odd. Perhaps their webmaster is on vacation. There are, of course, no lack of opinions on the revised edition, and you can read them for yourself simply by googling "New American Bible Revised Edition".

And all you pastors and liturgists can relax and put away your parish checkbooks. There will be no changes to the version of the NAB used in the readings at Mass in the United States, so you won't have to buy new, expensive Lectionaries to match your new, expensive Roman Missals that will go into effect on the First Sunday of Advent.

Archaeology: New Discoveries

One of the more interesting things about many recent archaeological discoveries is how often they result in significant changes in our understanding of those who preceded us. And from my own very amateur observations, most of these changes seem to tell of societies that were more advanced technologically and socially than previously thought. Indeed, I can't recall an instance where the discovery led archaeologists to the opposite conclusion: that the people being studied were actually more primitive than they had thought. As I said, I'm no professional, so there probably are some cases of such unmet expectations, but I suspect they are relatively rare.

I bring this up because of a brief article I read on the Archaeology Daily News website which discusses recent finds in Syria. It seems a joint Syrian/U.S. archaeological excavation uncovered an Ubiad settlement "located at the crossroads of two major trade routes in the rich bottomlands of the Euphrates river valley." The Ubiad period in Mesopotamia roughly covered the years 5,500 to 4,000 B.C. and was, therefore, prehistoric. Accordingly, it preceded such society-changing inventions as the wheel and writing. And yet, based on the findings of this excavation, the archaeologists involved have come to the conclusion that these prehistoric people "engaged in trade [with other societies], processed copper and developed the first social classes based on power and wealth." According to the article, the archaeologists "unearthed important evidence for monumental architecture, widespread irrigation agriculture, copper metallurgy and long distance trade in luxury goods." In other words, the experts have determined that these ancient folks were a lot smarter and more organized than previously thought.

An example of Ubiad copper work unearthed in the Syrian excavation

We find this same thing happening in the field of biblical archaeology. Inevitably, the experts who have habitually considered the peoples of the Bible (especially the ancient Hebrews) to be woefully primitive, must eventually eat their words, or try to formulate new incorrect theories, based on the findings of the excavations of biblical sites. This, of course, only reveals more clearly the historical biases that consistently distort the past -- the kind of bias that results in the intellectually insulting garbage one encounters on cable channels like The History Channel or The Discovery Channel. One form of this bias is a "temporal bias" that, quite simply, assumes the people of the past were a lot dumber than us. The other is just sheer religious bigotry of a kind that strives to undermine the historical foundations of Judeo-Christian belief in general and the truth of the Bible in particular. Because these biased beliefs are not based on scientific accuracy and the truth, they will always be proven wrong.

Anyway, it's all very interesting...

By the way, the archaeology website mentioned above sends out a daily email notice to folks like me who are interested in what's happening in the field. If you share this interest, I recommend subscribing. Click here to join their mailing list.

Blessings...

More on Dating the Old Testament

Yesterday I included a link to a Fox News story on an archaeological find in Israel that indicates the Bible may have been written four centuries earlier than many scholars had previously thought. The Fox video also included some interesting commentary by Fr. Jonathan Morris, a regular religion contributor to the network.

The archaeological find  was a relatively small pottery shard on which was an inscription in ancient Hebrew. The shard dates from the 10th century B.C., the time of King David's reign, and the inscription is similar to the kind of prophecies found in the Bible.

Today I found a few additional articles that should interest those of you who, like me, have never placed much credence in the theories of most scriptural scholars.

MSN News

EurekAlert!

University of Haifa

God's peace...

Bible Written Earlier Than Thought?

Here's an interesting video from Fox News on a recent archaeological find of a tenth-century  B.C. pottery shard on which was written ancient Hebrew. Interesting stuff.

Click the below link to watch the video with Father Jonathan  Morris...

Bible Written Earlier Than Thought