Queries & Comments

BAR Charged with Bias Against Bible

To the Editor:

I am very interested in the archaeology of Biblical lands.

My failure to renew is because of your extreme bias against the truth of the Bible you claim to study. I fail to see how any intellectually honest person can take the bias you have against the basic truthfulness of the book and still have more than a passing curiosity about it.

It is also true that you reject any work of competent scholars who happen to disagree with your bias.

The Vatican Replies

To the Editor:

As Secretary General of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology and President of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, I read with great interest Letizia Pitigliani’s article about the Jewish catacombs in “A Rare Look at the Jewish Catacombs of Rome,” BAR 06:03. I realize that since Letizia Pitigliani is a painter she is quite able through her artistic sense, to perceive special qualities of ancient monuments, which at times escape the archaeologists. However, some inaccuracies compel me to make the following clarifications: