By Gerry Greber

LA JOLLA, Calif—Biblical archeology is in a state of crisis, according to Prof. Thomas E. Levy, who was installed over the weekend as the first occupant of  UCSD's Norma Kershaw Endowed Chair in Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands. 

One aspect of the crisis is reflected in the how his chair is named. In former days, it might simply have been called the Chair in Biblical Archaeology.

Although the field began with scholars hoping literally to dig up the truth about the Bible, it has met disappointment after disappointment.  Levy told a symposium held Sunday, April 30, at UCSD that in 1970, for example, excavations in Jericho “failed to provide evidence of Joshua’s conquest.  This despair grew deeper by the further evacuation by Israeli archeologists in the Sinai Desert that found no evidence of the Exodus.”

Radioactive carbon dating became a tool in the 1990’s that eroded confidence in the accuracy of the various time frames provided by the Bible.  Levy said “these new methods of dating, including geo-spacious analysis, information technology, etc., provide new opportunities to examine the ‘historicity’ of the Hebrew bible in relation to archaeology.

Another of the speakers at the symposium held on the campus in the La Jolla section of San Diego was William G. Dever, former archaeology professor at the University of Arizona.  He  said “biblical archaeology” has been changed to “near eastern archaeology” at many universities.  Whatever the nomenclature, he said, Orthodox political parties in Israel “long ago declared open war on archeology and archeologists and if they had their way it would all come to an end.”

Controversies over the Bible have geopolitical consequences today, the most obvious example of this being the establishment  in 1948 of the modern State of Israel as a revival of an ancient state with which the Jewish people had an historic connection.

Prof. David Goodblatt of UCSD said the exact location of the Jewish temple was a matter of concern during the Camp David negotiations in the waning days of the President Bill Clinton’s administration.  At one point in the discussions between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Clinton described the Mount as the location of the former Jewish temple.

Goodblatt said that Arafat immediately denied there ever was a Jewish Temple at that location.  Instead, said the Palestinian, the temple had been located in Nablus, known as Shechem in the Bible. 

Intrigued, Goodblatt said he began to research the question.  He said the Roman-era Jewish historian , Josephus, was instrumental in verifying Jerusalem as the site of the temple. In a slide presentation, the scholar showed where the temple was situated in relation to the present streets of Jerusalem.  Underscoring the significance of archeology, he said, “without the books, all we had were the stones.”

Norma Kershaw, who endowed the chair, was honored at a luncheon providing a break from the nine-paper symposium that drew scholars from across the United States.  Jerome Katzin of the Judaic Studies program’s board of visitors described her as  a frequent traveler to Israel and  a participant  in numerous archeological excavations. She also has lectured  extensively on “biblical archeology.”

A final note.  What would a Middle Eastern lunch be without the inclusion of Middle Eastern dancers!  The held the audience spellbound—even the women!