One of the first history courses I read at uni was called 'Sourcing Archeaology'. The upshot was that there is a huge mistake in NOT looking at old manuscripts and stories (the Bible, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Red Branch Cycle and so on) as possible source material, but that field results will always provisionally trump literary sources.
In other words, if your source tells you that a particular structure was built on a particular hill, and was of such and such a size, all well and good. But if you visit the hill and your excavations find no sign of a that specific structure, the source is at fault. This is the case with the First Temple (Temple of Solomon). Although only limited excavation has been done on Mt Zion, it doesn't look promising. The Bible is fairly specific as to how the Temple was built, what it looked like, how large it was, etc. Enough excavation has been done to render the existence of the Temple doubtful at best.
But no, I don't think it is quite time to toss the entire Bible as a potential source of where to look for ancient artifacts. Just the opposite - I think it is pretty vital to continue to look and look and look and thus deconfirm the Bible as an historically accurate text.
Boru
In other words, if your source tells you that a particular structure was built on a particular hill, and was of such and such a size, all well and good. But if you visit the hill and your excavations find no sign of a that specific structure, the source is at fault. This is the case with the First Temple (Temple of Solomon). Although only limited excavation has been done on Mt Zion, it doesn't look promising. The Bible is fairly specific as to how the Temple was built, what it looked like, how large it was, etc. Enough excavation has been done to render the existence of the Temple doubtful at best.
But no, I don't think it is quite time to toss the entire Bible as a potential source of where to look for ancient artifacts. Just the opposite - I think it is pretty vital to continue to look and look and look and thus deconfirm the Bible as an historically accurate text.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
