Even Briefer

Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Honor of Philip J. King

Edited by Michael D. Coogan, J. Cheryl Exum and Lawrence E. Stager (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press), 428 pp., $25.00

A festschrift in honor of Philip J. King’s 70th birthday, this collection of 24 original essays brings together material by leading archaeologists and Biblical scholars who have done fieldwork. In recent years, King has concentrated on synthesizing the results of archaeological investigations with the technical studies of Biblical scholars. He has, the editors write, “demonstrated how archaeological data can … illuminate the Bible, and … how that anthology of the writings of ancient Israel and early Judaism and Christianity is … an artifact that can be understood only in the light of its context.” The contributors were asked to follow King’s lead and concentrate on “integrating the results of excavation and the conclusions of exegesis.” The authors include many familiar to BAR readers: Avraham Biran, Dan P. Cole, Frank Moore Cross, William G. Dever, Israel Finkelstein, David Noel Freedman, Carol and Eric Meyers, Alan Millard, Anson F. Rainey, Ephraim Stern and David Ussishkin, among others.

Chronicle of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt