Journal: Pneumatikos
Volume: PNEUMATIKOS 15:2 (Fall 2024)
Article: Reviews
Author: Anonymous

Pneumatikos 15:2 (Fall 2024) p. 106

Reviews

The Essential Archaeological Guide to Bible Lands. By Titus Kennedy. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2024. Hardcover. 480 pp. $34.99. ISBN: 978–0–7369–8470–6.

Reviewed by:
Abigail Van Huss

Ariel University
Ariel, Israel

Introduction

Dr. Titus Kennedy’s latest book, The Essential Archaeological Guide to Bible Lands, is an attractive volume full of well-researched information. It is neatly bound in a full-color hardcover and has 480 pages. Helpful illustrations, including maps, site plans, and full-color photographs of artifacts and locations, are generously scattered throughout the text. The volume’s contents comprise five chapters, each representing a geographical region. Each chapter is sub-divided into a series of entries, each addressing a specific location within that region.

Dr. Kennedy (Ph.D., University of South Africa) is an experienced field archaeologist, researcher, and professor. He is well-traveled, and most of the illustrations in the book are his own photographs taken on location during his travels.

This volume comprises descriptions of 57 biblically and archaeologically significant locations situated within five different regions in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean. The contents cover a wide span of time, space, and culture, from some of the world’s earliest cities in Mesopotamia to Rome in the height of the Roman Empire and beyond. Most of the locations represent specific biblical cities, with the exceptions being Sinai (a region), Ararat (a mountain range), and Malta (an island). Most of the entries deal with known archaeological sites which archaeologists have identified with some

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certainty. A few exceptions exist, such as Sodom and Ai, biblical cities for which multiple candidate sites exist. In these cases, the author lists all the candidate sites, describes the nature of the controversy and advocates for his preferred site. Each location described in the volume is a standalone entry with a selected bibliography.

The introductory section discusses the purpose of the book, which is “… to provide a broader picture of the history and archaeology behind the biblical texts and to fill a niche with regard to information available” (p. 14). This section also addresses the known difficulties in identifying biblical sites and the problem of differences in dating schemes among scholars. It explains that this book follows widely accepted chronological systems. Additionally, the introductory section tackles the question of the historical accuracy of the bibli...