The Bible is history / Ian Wilson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilson, Ian, 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible--History of Biblical events.

Bible.

History of Biblical events.

Bible--History of contemporary events.

History of contemporary events.

Bible--Evidences, authority, etc.

Physical Description:

256 pages : illustrations (some color), color maps ; 27 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington, DC : Regnery Publishing, [1999]

Summary:

The question of whether the Bible contains any element of historical truth has been the cause of one of the most divisive and compelling debates of this century. For modern churchmen and Jewish scholars the text of the Book of Books is seen as an amalgam of myth, mistakes and misinterpretation, yet enshrining still a large substratum of fact. While some have claimed to have made such incredible discoveries as the Ark of Noah, the site of the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Ark of the Covenant, for others even the historicity of the Biblical kings David and Solomon must be rejected.

In this gripping and authoritative book, Ian Wilson looks at the latest findings of eminent Biblical archaeologists and scholars in order to gain a crucial perspective on these arguments. He catalogues the movements of the waters and plates of the earth, takes us behind the myths of ancient peoples and searches the depths of Middle Eastern tombs to reveal some astonishing possibilities. Can Noah's flood be explained by post-Ice-Age floods pouring over the dry Bosporus into a then freshwater lake, today's Black Sea? Do Abraham's remains really lie in the disputed city of Hebron? Might Sodom and Gomorrah really have existed in the geologically unstable Dead Sea region and been destroyed by the fire and brimstone of a massive earthquake? There was a Jacob in Egypt, but does the evidence show that the famous Biblical Exodus was a real event too?

Accompanied by stunning colour photographs, maps and reconstructions of Biblical cities and buildings, this book is both a visual delight and a work of profound intellectual achievement, encompassing history, philosophy and religion, and revealing more about the most important piece of Western heritage in one volume than any other book since Werner Keller's masterpiece The Bible Was History nearly half a century ago.

Contents:

Introduction: A Rocky Road 10

1 Did the Bible Begin in Turkey? 16

2 'The Canaanites Were Then in the Land' 24

3 With 'Jacob's Brood' in Egypt 34

4 Coming Out with 'Signs and Wonders' 42

5 With Moses in No Man's Land 54

6 Conquest? What Conquest? 64

7 'Israel is Laid Waste' 78

8 Those Unsettling Philistines 88

9 A King Most Human 102

10 'In All His Glory ...' 118

11 A House Divided 134

12 Fateful Chariot 146

13 When the Assyrian Came Down 158

14 Succumbing to Babylon 166

15 If I Forget You, O Jerusalem 178

16 When Priests Fought and Ruled 190

17 True Time of the Scrolls? 200

18 The Coming of the 'New Covenant' 212

19 'A Very Minor Galilean Exorcist'? 226

20 Behind the 'Bones and Flesh' 240.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-250) and index.

ISBN:

0895262509 :

OCLC:

43765645