Reviews

Life in Biblical Israel

Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2001) 440 pp., $39.95.

It will be a year before the Biblical Archaeology Society announces the winners of its biennial Publication Awards, which will recognize the best books on archaeology and the Bible published in 2001 and 2002. But already, Life in Biblical Israel, by Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager, has established itself as a major contender.

There’s just so much to like about this book. It’s beautifully produced, printed on thick, glossy paper and lavishly illustrated with 228 plates (most of them color). It’s written by two of today’s foremost scholars of the Bible and archaeology—Philip J. King, professor emeritus of Biblical studies at Boston College (and the only person to serve as president of the American Schools of Oriental Research, the Society of Biblical Literature and the Catholic Biblical Association) and Lawrence E. Stager, the Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel at Harvard University.