Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 33:2 (May 1971)
Article: Archaeology and Scripture
Author: Donald J. Wiseman

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WTJ 33:2 (May 71) p. 133

Archaeology and Scripture

Donald J. Wiseman

[This lecture was delivered at Westminster Theological Seminary while Donald J. Wiseman, professor of Assyriology in the University of London, was Visiting Lecturer in Old Testament in November 1969. It includes matter prepared for a Seminar on the Authority of Scripture held at Wenham, Mass., on June 21, 1966. It is offered here as a tribute to the late Professor Edward J. Young.]

The primary aim of this lecture is to summarise the results of recent archaeological researches which relate to the biblical doctrine of inspiration and revelation with particular emphasis on the evidence provided for the transmission and accuracy of the text of Scripture. I propose to concentrate on the bearing of recent discoveries on the Old Testament:

I. The text

II. The literary environment

III. The historical situation

The science of archaeology has “come of age” in the sense that increasing materials, specialisation, and a consequent improvement in method and interpretation make it an essential tool in the study of history. In relation to the ancient Near East in particular, its discoveries uniquely enable us to make comparisons between its peoples, periods, and even phrases and those of the corresponding contemporary Old Testament. Since there are a number of reliable accounts of recent archaeological work available it is not proposed to discuss any one discovery in detail; nor is this the place to make more than a general reminder that archaeology, as all progressive branches of study, often has recourse to hypotheses in view of the inevitable incompleteness of the evidence so far produced.

I. The Text

The find of manuscripts in 1947–56, commonly known as the Dead Sea or Qumran Scrolls from their provenience, has an immediate bearing on our subject. Some 40,000 fragments,

WTJ 33:2 (May 71) p. 134

making up almost 500 documents, of which about 100 are biblical texts representing the whole Old Testament canon (except Esther), range in date, on palaeographical and archaeological grounds, from the late 3rd century B.C. to A.D. 68. These provide the earliest extant copies of the Hebrew Old Testament and afford important evidence for the transmission of the text.1 The biblical texts are of at least three distinct types:

i) Proto-Massoretic

The majority of the texts substantiate the basic consonantal text of the traditional Massoretic version (MT), except for the freer use of vowel letters.2 Thus the theory that the MT was a Jewish recension of the early 2...

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