The relevance of biblical archaeology to biblical scholarship

Abstract

The theme of Professor Anthony Frendo’s book reminds me of my own scant experience when it comes to significant archaeological sites or actual digs. Whilst doing research for my doctoral dissertation on the Psalms at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem back in 2011 and 2012, the trips to Qumran and Murabba’at with the eipgraphist Emile Puech were indeed memorable. When books of conspiracy theories about the Dead Sea Scrolls were still being sold, our lecturer Stephen J. Pfann, President of the University of the Holy Land, noted that, contrary to what such books implied, the Dead Sea Scrolls could not be published earlier in their entirety because of the humongous work involved in putting tiny fragments of the scrolls together. He enticed us students to get involved in this project, but this was something that, at the time, would have taken us away from our studies in Rome. Years later, my plans to join Dennis Mizzi on his dig at ’Einot Amitai in 2018 fell through due to pressing unversity commitments. [excerpt]