An Old Testament Index To Archaeological Sources -- By: Herbert F. Lamp

Journal: Trinity Journal
Volume: TRINJ 03:2 (Fall 1982)
Article: An Old Testament Index To Archaeological Sources
Author: Herbert F. Lamp


An Old Testament Index To Archaeological Sources

Herbert F. Lamp

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

(Part 1)

Anyone intent on investigating the interrelationships between archaeology and the Bible or the contributions made by archaeology to biblical interpretation faces a bewildering array of significant bibliography. Some of the most recent entries, not available when this project was undertaken and therefore regrettably excluded from the present article (e.g. E. Yamauchi, The Archaeology of the New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980]; P. Mattiae, Ebla: An Empire Rediscovered [Garden City: Doubleday, 1981]; G. Pettinato, The Archives of Ebla [Garden City: Doubleday, 1981]; Y. Aharoni, The Archaeology of the Land of Israel [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1982]), patently illustrate that the bibliographic parade shows no sign of ending soon. Quite the contrary, one is inclined to suggest, given the veritable avalanche of new archaeological materials which bear some impact upon biblical studies, that the accumulation of pertinent bibliography will continue at an even more accelerated rate.

Another frustration confronting anyone who wishes to engage in such research is the irregular or inconsistent employment of Scripture indices. Whether supplying too little information by excluding a Scripture index or supplying too much by including an index in which not all entries are of a specifically archaeological nature, a number of existing volumes, however stellar their quality otherwise, have limited practical use as sources regularly or permanently utilized.

In an effort to gain some measure of control over the first obstacle and to attempt to alleviate the second almost entirely, I assigned to an archaeology seminar given at Trinity during the fall quarter, 1979, the task of preparing a comprehensive but archaeologically-germane Scripture index of major monographic literature published since 1950. A research tool of this magnitude, insofar as I am aware, is otherwise unavailable. Given the monumental progress achieved by the discipline of archaeology over the last few decades, it seemed needlessly tedious to retroject our investigation still further; discussions of significant discoveries prior to that date certainly have been incorporated in numerous works published since 1950.

Beyond the chronological, certain other limitations unfortunately but necessarily had to be imposed on such an ambitious undertaking. (1) We restricted our inquiry largely to monographic literature, including in addition

only the five journal series named in the list of abbreviations that follows. (2) We omitted volumes n...

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