
One of the benefits to any
person reading the Bible is
again to understand culture
going on in the text.
Very often when I am reading a
text with my children or with
somebody else, even myself I
start to import.
I read about somebody drinking
and I immediately think of the
cups that I would drink out of
or I think of the streets that I
would walk down and I import my
21st century assumptions into
the Bible.
And one of the great things
about archaeology is it reminds
us to start thinking like the
people who receive the word of
God in the Old and the New
Testament, it helps us reenter
that world and to think along
with them and hear the word of
God coming to us and the culture
in which it was initially
written.
So that's a huge aspect of
archaeology that really helps
every reader of the scriptures.
The other thing is I frequently
take groups over to Israel to
see the various archaeological
sites that we discuss in the
Bible.
And one of the things that
people often report is when they
go there they see that this is
real history, this is really
happening.
I was raised in a Christian home
and read the Bible from as early
as I can remember.
And there's ways of reading the
Bible can kind of be like
reading a great work of
historical narrative that's
maybe even fictional because
it's kind of like reading
Tolkien, there's maps in the
back of a good edition of
Tolkien and there's all this
great vivid imagery.
And you can become a little
distant from the real narrative
of the truth that this is God
really engaging in real history
in the Bible, the authors are
really writing about Jesus as he
really walked and where he
walked.
And so when you walk through the
land visually, when you discuss
the land visually, it reminds
you constantly that these events
really happened God really did
bring a people out of Egypt.
And that makes things even more
vivid for people, often people
who go with us overseas report
that and I think also when I'm
in class and I'm teaching
showing slides of archaeology
and discussing people report
that you know it just reminds me
that this is real, God really
did this.
