Between Text and Artifact: Integrating Archaeology in Biblical Studies Teaching (Archaeology and Biblical Studies)

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aninstructoris sometimesc.:onfrOllK"ciwithquestionsaboutthelmlhofthe
textandthetruthofthearchaeological(bta,andhowthet\VQrelate,ina
waythattheEgyptologistsimplyneednOtconsider.Moreover,inmanyreli-
giouscommunities,theNewTestamentandthe Hebrewl3ibleenjoythe
statusofhallowedtextsIhalpurpontobereadilyunderstandableonrheir
own,innoneedofexplamHo'Ydatathatmightcornefromtheenvironsof
thetexts'production.Thisadds;\layerofcomplexityfortheinstructorwho
maynotfeciIhalheorshehasanadvancedgraspofthearchaeological
fieldtobeginwith.[ntheavemgestudent'smind,thereseemstobea pre-
dispositiontoregardarchaeologyasatoolthateitherprovesordisproves
the biblicalnarr.l1ive;this requires theteachertospendadditionaltime
"yingtointroducesomelevelofmethodologicalsophisticationtotheclass
andtountangleissuesthatsimplyarenotpresentinotherfields.
Theselfsamedisciplinaryboundariesthatdiscouragebiblicalscholars
from studying materialcultureare embedded in the structuringofthe
coursesweoffertoundergraduates. Hatherthan teaching"BiblicalCul-
tures," ''The Worldof the Bible," orsome such class, we teach and
constructcoursesalongcanonic~llboundaries,offering,forexample,intro-
ductionstoNewTestamentorHebrewBible.Indeed,ifaHebrewBible
coursewereconceivednotasastrictlyliteraryenterprise,butasacourse
on Israelite religionorIsr.tcland theancientNearEast, thenecd and
Oppoltunityforbringinginarchaeologicalevidencewouldexpanddr:llnat-
kally.ItrequiresnoargumentthattheHebrewBibleisnotanaccurateor
completepictureofreligiouspracticesoftheIsraelites,sinceitwascol-
lectedandeditedwithspecificideologiesinmind,forthemOStpartlong
aftertheeventsnarrated,withlittleinterestinprovidinga neutralaccount
ofIsrael,itsactivities,anditsinteractionswithitsneighbors.
Thesituationissomewhatdifferentwhenoneistcachinganintroduc-
tiontotheBiblecourse.Bydefinition,sucha courseisanintroductionto
a literarycollectionratherthanastudyofacultureasawhole.TheBible
itselfbecomesinsomesensean artifact,and ratherthanattemptingto
understand~lparticularculture,oneinsteadisattemptingtounderstanda
literarycorpuswithinitsculturalsetting.Thedistinctionmayseemtobe
hair-splitting,butitloomslargeinthetendencytofocusontextf'"..ltherthan
physicaldatainthiskindofcourse.Theemphasisliesonthethemesand
worldviewsthatemergeinthelitef<lrycollection,whichcert~linlycanand
ought 10 be illuminatedbysome allempt toidentify related historical
evenl~,acrualpractices.<Indsoon.Nonetheles~,inthelimitedtimeofa
singlesemester,witha largeliterarycorpustohandle,andinviewofthe
inhibitingfactorsdiscussedabove,itdoesbecomeseductivelyeasyforthe
instructortoleithelextbearmostoftheweightofthecourse.
DifficultiesaccessingthedataareqUicklycompoundedbyinterpretive
problems.Afterreadingarchaeologicalinformation,howdoesoneinterpret