Queries & Comments

Syrian Concerns On Ebla Are Understandable, Says Professor Brownlee

To the Editor:

One is appalled by the repeated intrusion of politics into the Biblical Archaeology Review. The latest example being the article “Syria Tries To Influence Ebla Scholarship,” BAR 05:02. How can one be silent against this scandalous article—scandalous, not because of a nonfactual basis, but because it is not presented with any understanding of history in the Near East during the last sixty years. There are always some Zionists, both Christian and Jewish, who misuse the Scriptures to maintain an exclusive Jewish right to the Land which has belonged to others for many centuries—people with a monotheistic faith, who revere the God of Abraham, Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul. These people are not guilty of any of the Canaanite abominations for which they were dispossessed. If Abraham had to wait four hundred years to lay hold of Canaan, since the Amorites were not wicked enough to warrant dispossession (Genesis 15:12–16), what possible justification can there be for a deliberate policy of dispossessing Christians and Muslims—people who are not guilty of any of the abominations of the Canaanites?