A file for the mattocks!?
How archaeology can inform Bible translation.
Posts by Year
2023
2022
The Black Obelisk’s journey from Nimrud to London
The pretty wild ride that the Black Obelisk took from Nimrud, where it was found, to the British Museum, where it’s displayed to this day.
The Merneptah Stele: Beyond Apologetics
The Merneptah Stele’s discovery, transcription, and what it shows us about annihilation in the biblical text.
The Tel Dan Stele: Beyond Apologetics
The Tel Dan Stele’s discovery, the debate it caused, and how it shows that scripture sometimes doesn’t work the way we think it does.
2021
A critical assessment of the scientific explanation for the Ten Plagues in “The Exodus Decoded” – Plague 7: Hail
Finding out that biblical ‘hail’ was actually ‘ice and fire mixed together’, which is actually ash blobs. Or something.
Continuing our critical assessment of the scientific explanation for the ten plagues in “The Exodus Decoded” – Plagues 2 to 6
We continue our journey through the laughable ‘comprehensive scientific explanation’ for the ten plagues in the 2006 Exodus Decoded documentary.
A critical assessment of the scientific explanation for the Ten Plagues in “The Exodus Decoded” – Lake Nyos and the First Plague
Seeing through the seemingly credible comprehensive scientific explanation for the ten plagues – goal post-shifting, nonsense science, and sloppy reading.
2020
From Cornwall to Canaan: Locating the Southern Levant’s Late Bronze Age Source of Tin
‘One of the knottiest problems in the archaeology of metal sources.’
Israelite Origins: The Song of Deborah
What the (possibly) oldest text in scripture can tell us about the early Israelites.
The Biblical Date(s) of the Exodus – Video!
A short video I put together on just when the Bible says the Exodus began.
Divine Violence: the Conquest of Canaan
A talk I gave on how an appreciation of biblical genres and archaeological evidence can help us navigate difficult passages.
Israelite Origins: Asher & Judah
‘A wizard is never late… nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.’ Unlike some of the tribes of Israel…
2019
Israelite Origins: The Merneptah Stele
The discovery of this famous artefact, and what it can and can’t tell us about the Israelites.
Israelite Origins: Population decline and explosion
The archaeology of the Israelite Settlement.
A visit to the Bull Site
Off the beaten track in the West Bank looking for an early cult site.
Israelite Origins: the Late Bronze Age collapse
What brought on the end of the Egyptian domination of Canaan that paved the way for the emergence of the Israelites.
Gerasa, Gadara, Gergesa – from where did the pigs stampede?
The geographical problem of Mark 5.
Does Jude quote Enoch?
The blurred boundary between canonical and non-canonical texts.
2018
Israelite Origins: Egyptian domination of Canaan
What was happening in Canaan before the Israelites emerged.
Israelite Origins: Working backwards
The consensus view on when the Israelites emerged in Canaan.
A ‘Land Bridge’ off Nuweiba?
Debunking one of the crazier explanations for the Red Sea crossing.
Israelite Origins: Late Date Exodus
The reasoning behind the ‘Late Date Exodus’ and the assumptions its built on.
Israelite Origins: Biblical counter-narratives
The many, many passages of scripture that don’t fit with a traditional view of how the Israelites arrived in Canaan.
Israelite Origins: Putting away childish things
Why what we learned in Sunday School doesn’t work.
Israelite Origins: The Sunday School version
A refresher on main biblical narrative on how the Israelites came to be in Canaan.
Mustard seeds and confirmation bias
Countering some silly meme about the supposed illegality of planting mustard in 1st century Galilee.
Israelite Origins: An introduction
Introducing a new series of posts on just how the Israelites came to be in Canaan.
The smallest of all the seeds
Jesus’ parable on the Mustard Seed, and how fundamentalist atheists and Christians make the same mistake when it comes to the Bible and Science.
Joshua 10 and 11: Conclusion
To properly interpret a passage first identify its genre.
Joshua 10 and 11: Genre and the focus on the leader
Joshua, a one-man army.
Biblical genres – an analogy
What a craze in the mid-nineties tells us about the need to know a passage’s cultural context in order to correctly interpret it.
Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites?
Responding to critics: How should Judges 1:1 be interpreted?
Joshua 10 and 11: Genre and the common narrative structure
The relevance of Tiglath-Pileser I’s propaganda to Joshua 10 and 11, or, Joshua 10 & 11 look uncannily similar if you squint.
Stumbling across the unlabelled Annals of Tiglath-Pileser I
Unloved and unlabelled treasures gather dust on unlit shelves.
2017
Joshua 10 and 11: Genre and hyperbole
Hyperbole, the millions of ways it features in the Joshua 10 and 11 conquest accounts, and why that’s not a big deal.
Joshua 10 and 11: Genre, repetition, and redundancy
Assyrian and Hittite annals, and what they tell us about the formulaic nature of the conquest accounts in Joshua.
Joshua 10 and 11: Genre and Annihilation
What Pharaoh Merneptah, the Philistines, and Germany-Brazil 2014 can tell us about phrases like ‘they did not leave any who breathed’.
Joshua 10 and 11: A Closer Look
On closer inspection these conquest accounts don’t look like what we expect from historical narrative at all.
Joshua 10 and 11: The Problem
In this first post in a series on Joshua 10 & 11 we take a look at the many difficulties presented by a careful reading of the chapters.
The Biblical Dates of the Exodus
Take your pick, you’ve got a few to choose from.
The Exodus Itineraries
The three different journeys taken by the Israelites on the Exodus.
Shamgar son of Anath
A Canaanite amongst the Judges.
Ezer, Elead, and Exodus
What a pair of cattle rustlers in Canaan can tell us about Israel in Egypt.