You will hear many thoughts on the goal of biblical archaeology. From Wheaton College’s website their goal so to speak is as follows:
The combination of these disciplines provides a strong liberal arts foundation for a variety of vocations as students will be equipped to think historically, linguistically, and archaeologically. Of particular importance for the Christian is the way in which biblical archaeology provides a foundation for biblical study. (source)
To many people, the goal of biblical archaeology is to learn more about the people, events, and civilizations related to the Bible and biblical lands. But mostly, what you will hear is what the goal is not.
To most people, the goal of biblical archaeology is NOT to prove the Bible true. But that statement is hard to justify as when you do find physical evidence that supports the biblical record, then you have proven the Bible true.
It is basically impossible to confirm the biblical message without proving it true. To truthnet.con, the following seems to be its goal for this research field:
Knowledge of Israel’s history is important if one is to understand the message of the Old Testament. Both message and history are inseparably intertwined. Israel’s history is divinely ordained as preparatory for the coming of Christ. One cannot understand Him without knowing of those events, which called for and led to His coming. Archaeology is a tool that can help one understand biblical history better. (source)
None of these goals are wrong. They are all reachable and realistic. Trythnet provides 5 values for archaeology in general and biblical archaeology specifically:
1. Illumination: Archaeology helps to illuminate the people and places in the Bible by providing background information and shedding light on what the world was like during the time of the Old Testament. The Bible is not a full and complete record so the customs, clothing, religion and travel for some of the people in the Bible are sometimes not known or fully understood. Archaeology provides information about the customs of the people, their clothing, material objects, economy; it uncovers information about their trade routes, types of travel, occupations, housing, government and religion. All of this extra-biblical information relating to illumination provides a context for understanding the Old Testament.
- Supplementation: The Bible is not a complete record of mans history even though it begins with Creation. It only comes down to the life of Jesus Christ and the early Church. The Bible deals with a history of God’s working among the Jewish people and the doctrine of salvation through His Son. However, there are many other historical events taking place at the same time outside of what God records in His Word. Archaeology helps to supplement understanding of the entire historical situation surrounding the Bible.
- Confirmation: Archaeology confirms the historical references made in the Bible.
– Many scholars used to question the existence of a Roman Governor with the name Pontius Pilate, the procurator who ordered Jesus’ crucifixion. In June 1961 Italian archaeologists led by Dr. Frova were excavating an ancient Roman amphitheatre near Caesarea and uncovered a limestone block. On the face is an inscription, which is part of a larger dedication to Tiberius Caesar and clearly says, “Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea.” This is the only known occurrence of the name Pontius Pilate in any ancient inscription (Fig. 5).
– About a century ago British archaeologist William Ramsay (1851-1939) focused on the book of Acts in an attempt to show it was historically inaccurate. His quest did not turn out as he expected. After decades of research in what is today Israel and Turkey, he carefully retraced the steps of the apostles as described in the book of Acts and shocked the intellectual world when he announced he had converted to Christianity. His confessed change of mind was in great part to his surprise of the accuracy he found in Luke’s narrative in Acts.
- Translation: A fourth value of archaeology is in the translation of the biblical text. This is especially true for the Old Testament, which is written in Hebrew. Hebrew is a Semitic (Northwest Semitic) language. Semitic means a descendant of Shem. Because there are other Semitic languages similar to Hebrew translation is helped every time ancient tablets are found and translated. How this helps is in clarification of rare biblical words, words that are sometimes used only once or twice in the biblical text. When these same rare words are found in a similar Semitic language there is a better understanding of how the word should be translated. There are also cognates, words that are very similar.
- Correction: Archaeology has corrected many of the cynical ideas, false notions, and incorrect claims of biblical critics.
– For example, it used to be claimed that the Biblical references to Abraham could not possibly be historical because camels are mentioned when Abraham sent his servant to find a bride for Isaac. When they returned the Bible says that Rebekah was on a camel. Some biblical critiques said that this was not possible because camels had not yet been domesticated. Therefore, Abraham is not a historical character. Archaeology however eventually uncovered inscriptions that showed, even earlier than Abraham, that camels were clearly domesticated animals. (Ibid)
These points are all good and help those wanting to know more about biblical archaeology. They also help researchers stay focused on their work.
There are many people who criticized the early archaeologists. They accused them of having the bible in one hand and a shovel in the other. But what those accusers do not and did not realize is that the Bible was the best source book for the past in that region.
It held names of people, places, and events that were and are not extant in any extra-biblical manuscript or inscription. Secular governments may have recorded certain names and events but they are sparse and not always talking about the people named in the Bible.
While archaeologists dig up a lot of pottery with different writing on them, those writings are not official records and are not as credible as a government document would be.
The problem is most government documents found do not address anything beyond business for their countries. Plus, archaeologists have not found a lot of government documents to see what was recorded.
When they do, like the Ipuwer Papyrus, they often date such records to the wrong time period. Also, like the Egyptian Chronology, there are gaps that cannot be explained and evidence attributed to the wrong time periods, Pharaohs, and so on.
The Bible is a very important tool for biblical archaeology as its record helps people know where to dig and what to look for. The Hittites are one example but it took 1800 years before archaeologists and scholars found these people. A civilization only mentioned in the Bible until it was discovered in the late 19th century.
You cannot do biblical archaeology without the Bible leading the way.
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