Course Catalog

REL435E Archaeology and the Old Testament (3 credits) 9340

COURSE DESCRIPTION
An introduction to archaeology as a discipline and the application of that discipline to the study of the Old Testament, with a goal toward discerning how archaeology sheds light on the Old Testament as an historical document.

LEARNING RESULTS
The learner will be able to:
• Understand basic professional archaeological terminology.
• Recognize the limitations of archaeology when it comes to questions of faith.
• Discern how professional archaeologists have used their discipline and the results of excavation both for and against the Biblical record.
• Defend the historicity of the Old Testament as that relates to specific controversies that revolve around the use (or misuse) of archaeological data.
• Express the importance of the relationship of one's worldview presuppositions to judging something as true or false by means of discovering how the archaeologist's own worldview presuppositions influence their interpretation of the data and thus their view of the Old Testament's historicity.

REQUIRED TEXTS AND MATERIALS
The student is required to read the following materials in their entirety. It is up to the student to obtain the many articles used in this course. These materials include the required textbooks (see immediately below) as well as articles that are listed under specific assignments. They can be obtained at a college or public library through either their own holdings or on loan (ask the librarian). Some can (my own) can be obtained via my website. You will find my website listed in the Course Links under the External Links section of this course. If you do not have access to ANY library at all, please notify me as indicated above as soon as possible. I will mail you a set of the articles at no cost.
• Alfred Hoerth, Archaeology and the Old Testament (Baker, 1998).
• Hoerth, G. Mattingly, and E. Yamauchi (eds.), Peoples of the Old Testament World (Baker, 1994).
• John Currid, Doing Archaeology in the Land of the Bible: A Basic Guide (Baker, 1999; 118 pp.)

To purchase textbooks, click here - AMAZON.com

INTEGRATION OF FAITH AND LEARNING
The integration of faith and learning is evidenced in this course through the required readings and the interaction of the student with those readings. Each reading informs the student about either a specific archaeological question, biblical time period, or ancient civilization encountered by Old Testament figures and the nation of Israel. Assignment questions focus on areas of the biblical account where archaeological scholarship has produced evidence in support of a biblical event and interaction with an ancient civilization, or where the results of archaeology have engendered disagreement over the accuracy of the biblical record. The student is exposed to the variety of opinions in the latter cases and asked to evaluate the writer/archaeologist's use of data and any presuppositions evident in the handling of evidence (including the Old testament itself). In this way, the student can discern both the value of archaeological findings as well as the unavoidable relevance of one's worldview (believing and otherwise) for the interpretation of data.

LEARNING DOCUMENTATION
To determine if the course learning results have been attained, students document their learning by submitting the following items:
• Questions relating to Currid’s book
• Paper evaluating the ancient cuneiform parallesis to the relevant early chapters of Genesis
• Paper on what problems has the discipline of archaeology raised in connection with the historicity of the patriarchs and the biblical narratives about them
• Discussion of questions relating to Hoerth’s book and Maggingly and Yamauchi’s book
• Paper explaining the controversy over the dating of the exodus from Egypt and the Israelite entrance into Canaan
• Summarization of the archaeological controversy concerning when the Philistines entered Canaan
• Summarization of the importance of the find at Tel Dan
• Paper on selected articles and why some believers would be troubled at the content
• Paper on Daniel and Esther
There are 9 lessons and 0 examinations for this course.

LEARNIING EVALUATION
Evaluation is on a point system:
Assignment #1 100 points
Assignment #2 100 points
Assignment #3 100 points
Assignment #4 100 points
Assignment #5 100 points
Assignment #6 100 points
Assignment #7 100 points
Assignment #8 100 points
Assignment #9 100 points
Total Points 900