Biblically Compatible Archaeology and Geography

by Damien F. Mackey Both directly and indirectly, I have found certain insights of William Foxwell Albright to have been enormously beneficial in helping to piece together the biblico-historical (archaeological) picture puzzle. In one particular case, though, I consider his proposed reconstruction to have been an unmitigated disaster. 1. The big positives (a) - (d) “W.F. Albright, in full William Foxwell Albright, (born May 24, 1891, Coquimbo, Chile—died Sept. 19, 1971, Baltimore, Md., U.S.), American biblical archaeologist and Middle Eastern scholar, noted especially for his excavations of biblical sites”. https://www.britannica.com/biography/W-F-Albright I find that professor W. F. Albright - although a scholar working within the restricting confines of the conventional model of archaeologico-history - had the unusual ability sometimes to burst through the seams of that tight model and to produce some very insightful new observations. (a) His smashing impact on earl...

by Damien F. Mackey “Go to Kalneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?”. Amos 6:2 Presumably this text pre-dates that of the son of Amos, Isaiah, who will record the words of an all-conquering Assyrian king, Sargon II/Sennacherib (Isaiah 10:9-11): ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus? As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria— shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’ For Samaria, which apparently had not yet been dealt with when Amos spoke (cf. 6:1): “Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!”, had fallen to the Assyrians by the time Isaiah wrote...

by Damien F. Mackey “A severe pain also arose in [King Agrippa’s] belly, and began in a most violent manner… And when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life”. Josephus (Antiquities) Poor King Herod. Just as he was turning into a god right before his adoring people, he suffered severe intestinal pain and began to be eaten away by worms (Acts 12:21-23). Thereby was fulfilled, once again - as it had been with king Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’ - the pronouncement made by Judith the Simeonite more than half a millennium earlier (conventional reckoning) (Judith 16:17): ‘Woe to [those] that rise up against my people. The Lord Almighty will punish them on the day of judgment. He will send fire and worms into their flesh; they shall weep with pain forever’. But about which King Herod are we talking here? The Jewish historian, Josephus, who gave an account of the king’s spectacular demise somewhat akin to that which we find recorde...

by Damen F. Mackey “… you are at least an uneducated and indoctrinated individual, or the worst and more plausible possibility, you are a liar who manipulate gullible people”. Canadian student A writer can perhaps feel like a person who has cast out a fishing line, and who has managed, for the most part, to get absolutely no reaction at the other end of the line. It is far preferable, I think, to provoke a reaction, even if it is not a favourable one, than to have no response at all, as if the only thing at the end of the line is dead sea weed. Anyway, a student from a Canadian university has reacted strongly to my article (revised slightly today, Passion of John the Baptist, August 29, 2024): Yahweh, Solomon, Jerusalem - Ningirsu, Gudea and Girsu (DOC) Yahweh, Solomon, Jerusalem - Ningirsu, Gudea and Girsu | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu And rightly so. This article is not only most radical from a conventional point of view, it is even radical from a revisionist ...

by Damien F. Mackey Somehow, Judean history has drifted into Sumerian folklore and become much earlier dated. Last year I wrote: A friend sent me this article (below) yesterday (29th May, 2023), with the comment: …. Thought of you when I saw this story on the new palace discovery. If I've understood your revision correctly this supposedly Sumerian palace would be a C9th Solomon era palace in Iraq. Nonetheless an interesting find to help fill out the archeological picture especially when you can make your own corrections for chronology. ….   'Lost 4,500-yr-old Sumerian Palace Found in Iraq'   …. And he said to [Abraham], “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” – Genesis 15:7 (ESV) Cradle of Civilization A team of Iraqi and British archaeologists recently discovered the ruins of a lost palace belonging to Sumerian kings from the ancient city of Girsu, now modern day Tello, Iraq. The dig site,...

by Damien F. Mackey Now, this was more like it – at last, a firmer base for King Hammurabi of Babylon as a younger contemporary of kings David and Hadadezer, and thus situated in c. C10th BC (about 1450 years later than Hammurabi’s first placement in c. 2400 BC). This was the biblical link for which Dr. Courville had been searching. (i) To which Era does Hammurabi belong? This question already presents us with a significant problem. The chronology of King Hammurabi has been shifted about to such an extent that revisionist scholar Dr. Donovan Courville had described the king as “floating about in a liquid chronology of Chaldea” (The Exodus Problem and its Ramifications, 1971). Starting at c. 2400 BC, historians have shifted Hammurabi about, now finally settling his reign (at least for now) at c. 1792 to c. 1750 BC. Dr. Courville, however, looking to establish the era of Hammurabi solidly with the assistance of a biblical synchronism, hit on the time of Joshua for Hammur...

By Damien F. Mackey “Why is there a problem?” Nita Gleimius will introduce the enigmatic Sumerians with the phrase commonly used for them, “The Sumerian Problem” (2022): https://www.thecollector.com/sumerian-problem/ The Sumerian Problem(s): Did the Sumerians Exist? Did the Sumerian civilization really exist? Were they immigrants? And why is their language so unique? Oct 22, 2022 • By Nita Gleimius, BA Ancient Near Eastern Cultures & Biblical Archaeology Controversies regarding the Sumerian people — generally called “The Sumerian Problem” — started almost as soon as their civilization was rediscovered. After almost two centuries of discoveries and interpretations, and the deciphering of ancient cuneiform texts from various ancient Near Eastern sources, the very existence of the Sumerians as a distinct nation is still questioned today by some learned scholars. Add to this the various theories about ancient aliens and mysterious teachers, and we have a veritable me...