The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology

Studies on the Bible began to be influenced by archaeological finds and evidence in the nineteenth century; since then, a distinct subfield known as biblical archaeology has developed and grown. The twentieth century saw this new discipline challenged by a number of issues: where did it fit in? (Near Eastern archaeology was already established; should this be a sub-discipline under biblical archaeology, or should it be placed under the broader category of general archaeology?); skepticism by both archaeologists and Biblical scholars on how artifacts could contribute to the understanding of texts compiled centuries later than the evidence (except for the...