Stones Still Speak – How Biblical Archaeology Illuminates the Stories You Thought You Knew
Synopsis:
Many beloved Bible stories—Adam and Eve, the parting of the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Jonah and the great fish—arrive in our minds shaped by childhood lessons, films, and cultural retellings that often add details the text never intended. Harvard-trained archaeologist and theologian Amanda Hope Haley peels away these layers of tradition and modern assumption, grounding the narratives in their original historical, archaeological, and literary settings.
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Review
In thinking I was getting a book that covered biblical archaeology, what Haley provides is more commentary on biblical passages to help correct people to think through what they might think one knows. I’m not opposed to that type of book but when the book is supposed to be about archaeology and from a Christian perspective, I didn’t get as much from it as I was expecting. On top of all that it appears that Haley is quick to side with the idea that if secular mainstream knowledge hasn’t confirmed the biblical accounts we just can’t know if certain parts of the biblical account are accurate or historical. However, where secular mainline science has spoken she is quick to point out where those who believe God’s Word as being straightforward and accurate are mistaken and biblical accounts need to be softened with spiritualization as its contextualized lens. There is not much in allowing for explanation that fits inside the biblical narrative in a historical sense here.
There are also times where Haley adds stories that are not professional and backbiting at fellow Christians. For example, she takes umbridge with the fact that the Ark Encounter charges a fee to enter and that her dogs weren’t allowed to come on property. What a thing to cry over. She also says that if Young Earth Creationists were consistent in their reading the Bible, they would also believe in a flat Earth and the Earth being the center of the universe. This condensending tone carries throughout the writing and where she wants to point out poetic writing as a genre lens to view things, she will conflate that for those she’s critical of. When she gets into biblical translation of text she presents her perfered side but doesn’t really address some of the concerns with them. For example, if you are a backwater hick who takes the “days” in Genesis 1 as being a literal 24-hour period of time well you just need to realize that this could just be “a period of time” but then tries to tie the same concept to Sabbath keeping and why people work 6 days and rest for one. This is done within the span of less than a page in the book. Then says “God spent six yoms (13.8 billion years, give or take) making perfection, and humanity went and ruined it in what seems to be a short amount of time” (p.26). So, what? Ruined it in a few million years, give or take? But for her, as she said at the end of the chapter, it doesn’t really matter what you believe when it comes to how long creation occurred.
The global flood and giants during Genesis 6 to her are “a fun read, but it is not history” (p.39). Not using BCE and CE? Well, that’s just a “nonbiblical, medieval-government-imposed tradition” that you want to keep BC and AD (p.52). Most stories in Genesis “don’t have much moral value…but they do have redemptive value” (p.58). When knocking translations, especially with the use of the Septuagint, she offers no discussion on why certain considerations were made or the implications of it. After a while this start to reads like Peter Enns. And again, I kept flipping through the book waiting for actual archeology. Joseph in Egypt, the Exodus, David and Golliath – all those haven’t been shown by mainline science so we don’t really know about them maybe if the experts wrote papers about them we could maybe think Golliath is really tall but he probably wasn’t. Moses couldn’t have made all the trips up and down the mountain. Jonah couldn’t really have been swallowed by a big fish but it’s neat to think about isn’t it? Moses didn’t write the first five books of the Old Testament but JEDP Theory is probably accurate. She doesn’t give a reason for why these supposed inaccuracies would be the case. Why would Jonah talk about Niniveh in a way that wasn’t accurate. Why would the story add extra trips up the mountain for Moses? There’s no attempt to harmonize anything and it appears it’s because there’s no study to give permission to go that route.
There’s no talk of Cyrus’s scroll allowing for the Jews to return and rebuilt the Temple. The chapters on the New Testament are so short, and the areas where we have a ton of archaeological evidence is more of a discussion point on why we shouldn’t think of “hotel” for “inn” at Jesus’s birth. True, yes. However, so much is missing! So much archaeology is missing. The sources are bleak as well. Citing things like movies and Veggie Tales with limited scholarly works that would have been interesting to take someone in the field to write a popular-level book on a subject that does require that to convey the intricacies of archaeology into common parlance.
This is the only thing by Haley I read and I am not questioning her Christian convictions. This is a review solely based on the book at hand. And for the claim that the Stones Still Speak, it looks like we’ll need someone else to help transmit the message.
Final Grade
D+
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