The Cities That Built the Bible Read online

  MAP

  Map of the eastern Mediterranean and Ancient Near East. Image courtesy Google Earth, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Image Landsat.

  DEDICATION

  For Roslyn

  More every day

  CONTENTS

  MAP

  DEDICATION

  ABBREVIATIONS

  INTRODUCTION

  CHAPTER 1 Phoenician Cities

  CHAPTER 2 Ugarit

  CHAPTER 3 Nineveh

  CHAPTER 4 Babylon

  CHAPTER 5 Megiddo

  CHAPTER 6 Athens

  CHAPTER 7 Alexandria

  CHAPTER 8 Jerusalem

  CHAPTER 9 Qumran

  CHAPTER 10 Bethleḥem and Nazareth

  CHAPTER 11 Rome

  CONCLUSION

  PHOTO SECTION

  NOTES

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  SCRIPTURE INDEX

  SUBJECT INDEX

  CREDITS

  PRAISE

  COPYRIGHT

  ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

  ABBREVIATIONS

  General

  BCE Before the Common Era (same as BC)

  ca. circa

  CE Common Era (same as AD)

  cf. compare

  chap. chapter

  col. column

  DSS Dead Sea Scrolls

  Gk. Greek

  HB Hebrew Bible

  Heb. Hebrew

  lit. literally

  LXX Septuagint

  MT Masoretic Text

  NT New Testament

  OT Old Testament

  r. ruled

  v(v). verse(s)

  Bibliographic

  AHI Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions (Davies)

  ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Pritchard)

  COS Context of Scripture (Hallo and Younger)

  CTA Corpus tablettes alphabetiques (Herdner)

  EA Tel el-Amarna Archive (Amarna Letters; Moran)

  FGrH Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker (Jacoby)

  HAE Handbuch der althebräischen Epigraphik (Renz and Röllig)

  KTU Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani, and Other Places (Dietrich, Loretz, and Sanmartín)

  Bible Books

  OLD TESTAMENT

  Gen. Genesis

  Exod. Exodus

  Lev. Leviticus

  Num. Numbers

  Deut. Deuteronomy

  Josh. Joshua

  Judg. Judges

  Ruth Ruth

  1 Sam. 1 Samuel

  2 Sam. 2 Samuel

  1 Kings 1 Kings

  2 Kings 2 Kings

  1 Chron. 1 Chronicles

  2 Chron. 2 Chronicles

  Ezra Ezra

  Neh. Nehemiah

  Esth. Esther

  Job Job

  Ps(s). Psalms

  Prov. Proverbs

  Eccl. Ecclesiastes (Qohelet)

  Song Song of Songs

  Isa. Isaiah

  Jer. Jeremiah

  Lam. Lamentations

  Ezek. Ezekiel

  Dan. Daniel

  Hos. Hosea

  Joel Joel

  Amos Amos

  Obad. Obadiah

  Jon. Jonah

  Mic. Micah

  Nah. Nahum

  Hab. Habakkuk

  Zeph. Zephaniah

  Hag. Haggai

  Zech. Zechariah

  Mal. Malachi

  APOCRYPHA

  Tob. Tobit

  Jth. Judith

  Add. Esth. Additions to Esther

  Wisd. Wisdom of Solomon

  Sir. Sirach (Wisdom of Sirach, Ecclesiasticus)

  Bar. Baruch

  Let. Jer. Letter of Jeremiah

  Pr. Azar. Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews

  Sus. Susanna

  Bel. Bel and the Dragon

  1 Macc. 1 Maccabees

  2 Macc. 2 Maccabees

  1 Esd. 1 Esdras

  2 Esd. 2 Esdras

  Pr. Man. Prayer of Manasseh

  3 Macc. 3 Maccabees

  4 Macc. 4 Maccabees

  NEW TESTAMENT

  Matt. Matthew

  Mark Mark

  Luke Luke

  John John

  Acts Acts of the Apostles

  Rom. Romans

  1 Cor. 1 Corinthians

  2 Cor. 2 Corinthians

  Gal. Galatians

  Eph. Ephesians

  Phil. Philippians

  Col. Colossians

  1 Thess. 1 Thessalonians

  2 Thess. 2 Thessalonians

  1 Tim. 1 Timothy

  2 Tim. 2 Timothy

  Titus Titus

  Philem. Philemon

  Heb. Hebrews

  James James

  1 Pet. 1 Peter

  2 Pet. 2 Peter

  1 John 1 John

  2 John 2 John

  3 John 3 John

  Jude Jude

  Rev. Revelation

  Introduction

  You have Nicole Kidman to thank for this book. In the fall of 2004, I had the good fortune to be hired by Ms. Kidman (yes, the Academy Award–winning actress) to teach her a private version of the Introduction to the Old Testament course I was teaching at Pepperdine University.1 I kid you not. (For those of you rolling your eyes at my name-dropping, I’m telling you this to demonstrate this book’s topic is of interest to everyone—even celebrities.) Not only did she prove to be wicked smart—she still remembered her Latin—but she was kind, clever, and funny, and she has one of the most caring hearts of anyone I’ve ever met.

  One day we met on a Culver Studios set where Ms. Kidman was filming the movie Bewitched. During breaks in between shooting, she and I would go to her trailer and do our course lessons. One day while reading the book of Genesis, Nicole asked a simple question: “Where did the Bible come from?”

  I didn’t have an answer, at least not a simple one. And she’s not alone in wondering. It’s a question we’ve probably all pondered at some point. The Bible is the bestselling book in the United States; chances are, most people reading this will have at least one copy at home or on their computer, iPad, or smartphone. Whether we consider ourselves religious or not, we hear the Bible quoted everywhere from pop culture to politics. It’s part of the fabric of our nation. But the elusive question remains: Where did it come from?

  I’ve spent over a decade formulating an answer to that question, and that answer is found throughout the pages of this book. Also, now you know the answer to your book club’s first trivia question: What was the author doing with Nicole Kidman in her trailer? The answer is one that fulfills the dreams of men around the world: reading the Bible. And Ms. Kidman, thank you. It was truly an honor to work with you. I hope this book serves as an adequate answer to your question.

  WHERE DID THE BIBLE COME FROM?

  So, to answer the question about where the Bible came from, we should start with the fact that the Bible did not one day just magically appear. It did not float down from heaven as a complete document. It was not revealed verbatim to a single person whose utterances were then recorded, a claim that Islamic tradition makes about the Qur’an. Rather, the Bible’s contents were repeatedly argued over, voted on, and seldom decided upon with unanimity. In fact, the early church councils rarely took up the issue of the canon of the Bible and, instead, left the decision to certain prominent individuals tasked with reforming liturgical practices or creating copies or translations of the official Bible for various political and religious leaders. And when the church councils did issue decisions on the canon of Scripture, those decisions were often not consistent from one council to the next, so that many
of those decisions aren’t reflected in the Bible we have today.

  Furthermore, the creeds of the early church, like those stemming from the most famous of early church synods, the First Council of Nicea, were actually declared before the contents of the biblical canon were established. This means that the church was making decrees prior to a decision about what officially belonged in the Bible. What this tells us is that the popular notion, especially among religious conservatives, that the Bible is a “blueprint” for the church and that all decisions should be rooted in “Scripture” is backward, as this was not the practice of the early church. Rather, the church fathers decided what the church was to believe based on some of the writings of the Bible with other doctrines based on what they thought should or ought to be true. The remainder of the Bible was then filled out by books that supported these doctrinal decisions.

  This book examines how the Bible we know today, both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament (including the Apocrypha), came to be. But rather than examining the councils and individuals who decided what would make up the Bible, I want to take a new approach. We will examine important cities that contributed to the formation of the Bible, including its composition, redaction, and canonization. We will explore the cities that built the Bible by telling of their backgrounds, histories, and archaeology, and then we will examine the significance of these cities for the written text of the Bible.

  As an archaeologist and professor of biblical studies at the University of Iowa, I study and teach about the relationship between the archaeology of the ancient Near East and the text of the Bible. This book uncovers some topics that will be surprising to many people. For example, the books of the Bible weren’t the only Jewish and Christian books written in antiquity. There were numerous other books written about Moses, Jacob, and Jesus in antiquity, and there are far more books that were left out of the Bible than were let in. Furthermore, the process by which the books of the Bible were chosen was a messy, often political process. Of the books that were allowed into the Bible, there were multiple versions in circulation at the same time as well as various translations, and the modern English Bibles we read today pull from all of these versions.

  This book will also explore some of the more difficult biblical verses, how they got there and how the early Christians and Jews interpreted them. We’ll see what the Bible says about the birth of Jesus, and how his place of birth and virginal conception caused problems for the early church. We’ll see exactly how tall Goliath really was. At the end of this book, you should be well versed in the archaeological evidence for the literature of the Bible, what international events shaped the Bible’s stories, and who was ultimately responsible for the final form of the biblical canon. Perhaps most important, you will possess a knowledge of the stories behind the stories of the Bible, and this behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Bible will change the way you read the Bible forever.

  EXPERIENCING THE BIBLE PHYSICALLY

  The Bible cannot simply be read; it must be experienced. Put another way, you cannot read and understand the Bible without understanding the geography—the land, the cities, the rivers and lakes, the oceans, the mountains, and the weather—in which the biblical stories are set. You simply cannot understand the Bible without a knowledge of its physical context.

  In this book, I will take you with me as I travel through the Holy Land, acting as your guide through many important sites and sharing little-known information, crucial background, and even some interesting trivia. I encourage you to visit the cities described in this book (although in the interests of safety, you should refrain from visiting some of them for the time being), and it is my hope that you can take this book with you to the various cities described here and use it to understand better how each city’s geographical context and archaeological history interconnect with the formation of the Bible and the specific passages dealing with each specific city. For those of you who won’t have a chance to make the trip any time soon, I’ve included photos of the locations, so that you can get a feel for what it looks like from the comfort of your chair or study.

  DISCOVERING THE LINK BETWEEN CITIES AND THE BIBLICAL TEXT

  An important part of this book is looking at how the cities that built the Bible ultimately influenced the actual text we find in our Bibles today. The idea of how the Bible actually became a book has been the topic of many recent volumes. My UCLA doctoral adviser, Bill Schniedewind, wrote a book entitled How the Bible Became a Book, in which he articulates how the Hebrew Bible, or Christian Old Testament, went from being a set of oral teachings to a written volume commanding authority. Other books, like Neil Lightfoot’s How We Got the Bible, examine the physical manuscripts that were used to establish the standard texts we have of the Bible. The late Bruce Metzger’s classic work, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, which was recently updated and expanded by Bart D. Ehrman, looks at how the text of the New Testament was altered both accidentally and intentionally over the first few centuries. Still other volumes, like The Canon Debate, edited by Lee M. McDonald and James A. Sanders, have examined the process of canonization, that is, the process by which it was determined which books would become part of the authoritative Bible, and thereby considered to be part of the “Word of God,” and which books would be cast out as merely “instructional” or condemned outright as “heretical.”

  Books such as these have become increasingly important as people look more seriously at both the process by which the practice of writing evolved and how it came to have authority in society. In the earliest societies, the highest authority came not from written documents but from kings who verbally spoke commands and laws, but who themselves were not necessarily subject to them. The king was often above his own laws, prompting the famous Mel Brooks line, “It’s good to be the king.” But within many ancient Near Eastern societies, we see laws transition from words that may have been spoken by kings, prophets, and priests, or that may have been normative cultural practices, to words that were written down and often attributed to a deity or deities. Over time, the writing down of these laws as words steadily transfers legal authority from the one speaking the words to the written document recording those words. As subsequent generations gradually learn to revere the authority of the written word, and these written words outlast the particular kings or deities who originally were believed to have spoken them, the written word itself comes to be increasingly authoritative, until soon a “nation of laws” is established that is founded upon a legal code that becomes more authoritative than any single ruler. This very process describes the origin of the Bible, which today is understood by the faithful to be the “Word of God,” and which many believe to be more authoritative than any ruler or government.

  Of course, whenever texts are copied, there is always a chance for scribal errors, interpretations, and explanations as well as deliberate alterations over time. We can identify discrepancies within the texts by setting them side by side and examining the historical development of the textual changes from copy to copy. This is one form of what scholars call textual criticism, and I’ll demonstrate plenty of examples of textual criticism in this book. This will allow us to go beyond the mere history of these cities and instead explore the influence the cities had upon the written text of the Bible, which many people today look to as a source of great authority in their lives.

  A NOTE ABOUT THEOLOGICAL CLAIMS AND DIVINE INSPIRATION

  The purpose of this book is not to make theological or doctrinal claims. I have no denominational preference, nor do I favor one religious or nonreligious tradition over another. It’s my hope that this book will appeal to both theists and nontheists alike, devout Christians and atheists, conservative Jews and secular humanists.

  I present facts and data, explain what this information means, demonstrate how the archaeological and geographical data affect the biblical texts, and then leave what to do with that information up to you. Some people will
use it to become more literate about the history and background of the Bible. Some will use this book to plan their trip to the Holy Land’s archaeological sites and museums. Others might use it in a Bible study at church or synagogue. Still others will use it to point out some problems with the texts sacred to Judaism and Christianity. However you use it is up to you; my job is not to tell you what to believe, but rather to give you the information necessary to make and hold an informed belief.

  A quick word about divine inspiration. Most people of faith, both Jews and Christians, believe that there was some divine aspect to the composition of the Bible. Although very few people believe that the Bible is the verbatim word of God and that every letter is perfect, inerrant, and infallible (and we’ll discuss this belief later in the book), the majority of people of faith today believe that there was some level of divine “inspiration” to the creation of what today is known as the “Word of God.” This book will touch a bit on this subject toward the end, after we read the stories that resulted in the text of the Bible. But the process of canonization, that is, the process of determining which books came to comprise the Bible and which books did not, is similar to what is said about the making of laws and sausage: most people like the end result, but few want to see how they are actually made. In the same way, the canonization of the Bible is actually a very messy process, which we’ll examine in the second half of this volume. For now, understand that I am not as interested in how the divine realm “inspired” (directly or indirectly) the composition of the Bible. Rather, this book examines the human part of this process, as people of faith understand that the Bible is both a divine and a human phenomenon.

  HOW TO READ THIS BOOK

  Let me offer a few notes on formatting and abbreviations and then explain how I’ve structured the book. First, I use the scientific and professional dating standard of BCE (before the common era) and CE (common era) to represent the dates that many know as BC (before Christ) and AD (anno Domini, “In the year of the Lord”). I do this for two reasons. The first is that BCE/CE is the standard modern way to represent dates in history, as it removes dating from a purely Christian calendar. By using the same dates, but attributing them to BCE and CE, we don’t have to redate everything, but we remove the explicitly Christian reference point of the dating system. The second reason is related to the first. Many people do not realize that the “before Christ” and “Year of the Lord” dates are flat-out wrong. Jesus was not born in “AD 1,” and it’s quite simple to prove. We know from multiple literary and archaeological sources that Herod the Great died in 4 BCE according to our existing calendars. If we use a BC designation, it means Herod the Great died four years “before Christ,” and this is a problem if Jesus was supposed to have been born during the reign of Herod. However, if we simply use BCE, then we can keep the exact same dates and spare the embarrassment of using a miscalculated date for Jesus’s birth.2