To
Winifred Margaret Wight
Devoted wife, whose inspiration
and encouragement have been a
constant help in the task of writing,
this volume is affectionately dedicated.
PREFACE
“THROUGH THE YEARS the best answer to many liberal views of the Bible has been the discoveries of the excavators in Bible lands. This book is designed to be a textbook for students of Bible archaeology, and is, therefore, fully documented with numerous reference notes. It is hoped that ministers, Sunday school teachers, Christian workers, and Christians in general will find it to be a practical source book of helpful material to explain Scripture and to defend it against destructive critics.
We do not attempt to report on every archaeological expedition in Bible lands, or to tell about all the finds that have bearing on the Bible. To do so would be to produce a volume too large to be practical. But a sincere effort has been made to write about those discoveries which are of most value to the Bible-believing student.
We send this book forth with a prayer that it may serve to ground young people and adults in the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to express his appreciation to the following publishers and writers for permission in writing to quote from their copyrighted publications. Acknowledgment of the author quoted, name of book, publisher, and page from which the quotation is taken, are all given in the text of the book.
The University of Chicago Press, for material reprinted from Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, by Daniel D. Luckenbill, two volumes, copyrighted 1926, 1927, by University of Chicago.
Dr. W. F. Albright, and the American Schools of Oriental Research of Jerusalem and Baghdad, for quotations from Prof. Albright in: The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and also in: The Biblical Archaeologist.
Dr. John Garstang, and Marshall, Morgan & Scott, Ltd., of London, for quotation from: The Story of Jericho, by Professor Garstang, copyright, 1940.
Stephen L. Caiger, and Cassell & Company, Ltd., of London, for quotations from: Archaeology and the New Testament, by Canon Caiger, copyright, 1939.
Penguin Books, Ltd., of Harmondsworth, Middlesex, for quotations from: The Archaeology of Palestine, by W. F. Albright, copyright, 1941.
Fleming H. Revell Company of New York, for quotations from: The Archaeology of Palestine and the Bible, by W. F. Albright, copyright, 1933.
The Clarendon Press of Oxford, for quotations from: Bible and Spade, by Stephen L. Caiger, copyright, 1936.
M. H. Wise & Co., Inc., of New York, for quotation from: The Bible and Archaeology, by Sir Frederic Kenyon, copyright, 1949.
Harper & Brothers, of New York, for quotation from the article in the supplement of: Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible (20th edition, copyright, 1936), by W. F. Albright, entitled: “Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands.”
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., of Grand Rapids, for quotation from: Excavating Kirjath-Sepher’s Ten Cities, by Melvin G. Kyle, copyright, 1934.
Princeton University Press, of Princeton, for quotations from: Ancient New Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, edited by James B. Prichard, copyright, 1950.
The American Tract Society, of New York, for quotations from: The Bearing of Archaeology on the Old Testament, by George L. Robinson, copyright, 1941.