For PERSPECTIVES Vol. 4 No. 4 [October-December 2001]
Please feel free to submit short questions or your comments. We reserve the right to answer and publish those we believe to be in the public interest. We reserve the right to use or not use submitted material (in whole or in part), to include your name, and to edit or condense your questions for clarity and space. Click here to submit a question or comment to the editor.
BibArch Site
Just a quick note to tell you how much I've enjoyed visiting your site ! As a Sunday School teacher I will greatly appreciate the wonderful resources you have. May God continue to richly bless you and your staff.
--Tom Slavicek
Essene Guesthouse?
The Last Seder was held at an Essene guesthouse in Jerusalem? Just what purpose does inventing an Essene connection to Jesus serve? A large dining hall in Jerusalem could just as easily have been owned by a rich man such as Joseph of Arimathea. Shades of George Moore! He wrote a novel called 'The Brook Kerith' in 1916 claiming that Jesus was an Essene who left the commune to start his own ministry, that when he was on the cross only 3 hours Joseph of Arimathea got the Roman centurion to let him down then went to Pilate to ask for his body, and, conducting it to his own newly-built tomb, realized Jesus was still alive, since it usually takes days to die on a cross, not hours. He then snuck back at night, rolled the stone back, carried Jesus to one of his houses, and nursed him back to help, concealing him to prevent recapture by the Romans. This then caused the resurrection myth to spread among his followers. Like I said, why even go there?
--T. L. Winslow
In context, the Gospels show that Jesus observed a Passover Seder 24 hours before the traditional Passover Seder of the Jews. Based upon the current state of scholarly knowledge, unless there were two back-to-back Passover days in the year of the Crucifixion there appears to be no reconciliation of the Gospel accounts. The only known Jewish group to have kept a meatless Passover in Jerusalem's Upper City during the Herodian Period were the Essenes. Our article presented the evidence that Jesus kept his last Seder at the Essene guesthouse. This is a wholly different matter than labeling Jesus an Essene.
Our tentative explanation, based upon the work of Bargil Pixner and other scholars, comes from the available archaeological and literary evidence. Just because you do not like their theory that does not falsify it. Ignoring is not particularly helpful either. In the social sciences, which is the discipline in which archaeology finds itself, falsification of theory enables us to develop improved explanations. This is how knowledge advances in science. If you want hermeneutic-based interpretation, spinning, and fantasy passing as knowledge there are plenty of opinions. For example, R. Steven Notley, writing in Jerusalem Perspective does not like the Essene proposition advanced by Bargil Pixner one whit. Read Notley's poorly researched, illogical, simplistic, and misleading Jesus and the Essene Passover. It is a classic case of theological psuedo-intellectualism -- many words, no evidence, no merit.
--editor
Study and Careers in Biblical Archaeology
I am considering changing careers and am interested in consulting with someone regarding a career in Biblical Archaeology. Are there any online degree programs available in this field?
--Rich Germaine
This site was recommended to me by some one who said that you could answer my questions concerning Biblical Archaeology. First of all, I an a 14-year-old, home-schooled freshman and I am interested in becoming a biblical archaeologist. What prep courses would be best to take before collage, would it be wise to go for my doctorate, and what would be the best collage to go to for all this stuff? I would be very happy if you could answer my questions.
--Sarah DeVeux
If you really want to become grounded in this field we suggest you explore the programs at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Tel Aviv. In the USA we doubt you will find a regionally accredited institution with a masters degree in this specialty. Stay away from diploma mills displaying themselves on the WWW claiming that some accrediting association has accredited them. Avoid them like the plague.
The research strategy we suggest is for you to explore area studies programs such as Middle Eastern Studies and Anthropology at large universities. We like Texas A&M at College Station, the University of Arizona, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago. As long as Drs. Lewis R. Binford and David A. Freidel remain at Southern Methodist University we recommend SMU for doctoral studies in archaeology. We see the preoccupation of theological schools with their own denominational biases and hermeneutic much too constrictive for them to deliver a credible scientific approach to biblical archeology but there are exceptions.
If you take the anthropology route you can emphasize old world archaeology in your program and undertake a biblical archaeology thesis topic. If you proceed in a doctoral program you can elect an archeology option and use biblical archaeology as a specialty. In any case, get a second and third opinion.
--editor
Decree of Artaxerxes
I have been researching the date of when Artaxerxes signed the decree to rebuild Jerusalem of which started the prophetic clock which Jesus would come. I have read many articles and Encyclopedias that say 457 B.C, 445 B.C, 444 B.C. If this is such a important event as many say it is, why are there differences of when it took place? Can you share with me the evidence for which date is correct?
--Kelly Powers
The precise date is unknown. What you see in the literature are approximate dates based upon different analyses and assumptions. Artaxerxes I (465-424 BCE) ruled Persia while Nehemiah was governor of Judah and the time of the activities of Ezra the scribe. Ezra 7:11-26 tells of the decree of Artaxerxes, ca. 458 BCE, permitting the Jews to return to Eretz Israel and engage in worship. Nehemiah 2:1-8 tells of the issuance of letters by Artaxerxes in ca. 445 BCE to Nehemiah authorizing the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Archaeologists have not discovered these documents. Hence, the Hebrew Scriptures remain the sole record of them. The chronology remains uncertain.
--editor
Gold of the Exodus
Thanks for a such an informative website! It is truly a blessing. i recently read a book ''The Gold of Exodus''. It is about the true mount Sinai located in Saudi Arabia. Will I be able to find out more on this subject in the future?
--Ricky Simmons; Skippers, Virginia
You refer to The Gold of Exodus, by Howard Blum, a pop-archaeology adventure story about the Bob Cornuke and Larry Williams expedition to locate Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia. A major motion picture based on The Gold of Exodus, from a script written by John Sayles, is in production by Castle Rock Entertainment, Warner Bros. Studios. The book and the forthcoming movie are entertainment not science. It is pop-archaeology and a lot of fun. Details of the exploits of these adventures and their current undertakings is at the BASE Institute Web site.
For biblical scholars, whose adventures are usually no further than the nearest library or conference, the question of where the true Mount Sinai lies is a matter of dispute, as is the Exodus itself, and the Conquest of Canaan. As a biblical archaeologist I endorse scientific explanation developed through the methods of science.
If we assume that the Israelites left Egypt precisely as described in the Hebrew Scriptures, a very literal approach, then we would have the parting of the Red Sea by a miracle ca. 1443 BCE. The Israelites would have proceeded inland over a period of several weeks to Mt. Horeb (Exodus 3:1, 3:12). A population of the magnitude suggested in the Hebrew Scriptures, probably well over a million men, women, and children, plus their cattle, sheep, and other animals, and the like, would move fairly slowly. The simplest answer would then be that the Mt. Horeb of Moses' day was on the present day Sinai Peninsula.
In hermeneutics, as opposed to science, literally scores of possible routes of the Israelites and Mt. Horeb are possible. The advocates of various theories select ancient literary accounts, quote authorities (usually those they agree with), and argue selected archaeological discoveries to support their opinion. This is not science. The approach only brings about more argument and more questions not understanding, fact, and truth.
Scientific analysis of the Exodus route, still assuming a literal one as reported in the Hebrew Scriptures, through biblical archaeology is quite difficult. Nomadic peoples leave very little surviving material culture to excavate. They didn't manufacture the pottery and build the villages, towns, and settlements that we can excavate today. That does not mean that there is no evidence. One day we will develop more information about this matter and place it on bibarch.com. Our opinion, for whatever that is worth, is that the biblical Mt. Horeb is today the place called Jabal Musa or Gebal Musa in the southern Sinai Peninsula. Nevertheless, I plan to view The Gold of Exodus movie as I enjoy a good adventure too.
--editor
Early Date for the Exodus
I believe in the early date for the Exodus (1440's B.C.). Why in the Bible in Exodus does it refer to the building of the cities of Rameses? Do you have an explanation for this?
--George Kann
We appear to be dealing with a retrospective usage or modernization of an older name similar to the name Dan in Genesis 14:24 used instead of the older name Laish (Kaiser 1990:289).
--editor
Page last edited: 12/31/05 08:11 AM
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