Biblical Archaeology
Media Reviews
Sorry, there is very little here right now except an outline. It will take a little while to write all this good stuff, but stay tuned! In the meantime, wear your hard hat - this section is under SERIOUS construction.
If you need some reviews right away, you can locate the Dig the Bible Echo. Digger Doyle regularly posts messages there on this subject and will eventually compile some for this section.
Books
Magazines
Biblical Archaeology Review
Biblical Archaeology (ASOR)
Biblical Illustrator
Television Series
Ancient Mysteries Series
This A&E series on Mysteries of the Bible is pretty good at times. It is mainline in archaeological interpretation and features well known archaeologists. As a result, it is not very conservative at times (from a conservative Christian viewpoint, that is).
Biblical Movies
DreamWorks The Prince of Egypt
Check out Dig the Bible's Review of this new movie!
TNT Bible Collection Series
These are some of the better Biblical movies out there. They are not perfect, but one seldom cringes from an archaeological perspective or a literal Biblical perspective. TNT deserves to be applauded for this series, which includes Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samson, and David. By far the best of the movies is Joseph, being very entertaining and very true to the Biblical text and historical setting. More will be forthcoming on this series, but feel free to visit TNT Original Productions for more information (and while you are there thank them for the movie series).
Indiana Jones Series
While this movie series is entertaining, it is pure fiction and a bit far fetched from a Biblical and Archaeological perspective. To make matters worse, the bad guys appear to be better archaeologists and Dr. (Indiana) Jones doesn't come out much better than a treasure hunter. For more information on why Indiana isn't a good archaeologist, visit What Does an Archaeologist Do? Sorry, Indy.
Software
Logos' The Dead Sea Scrolls Revealed
Softkey's Pathways Through Jerusalem
This program is now a little dated for CD ROM software technology (1995), but still good if you can find it. Pathways is really about Jerusalem through history, and not limited to the Biblical period. It includes quotes from the Koran and information about Islam since Jerusalem was under Muslim control for quite some time.
Nonetheless, it does have some good archaeology stuff in it. The tour is also more entertaining than documentary; but, you can still learn a little from it. There are several tour guides for different time periods, including David for the majority of the Biblical period and Herod for the inter-testament and New Testament period. Having only two tour guides for the Biblical period does cause some almost comical events. David tells about the temple his son Solomon built and Herod tells about some things Jesus did. Herod is also shown smoking a cigar with two thugs carrying machine guns - a touching caricature, albeit a little out of sync with time. Even though there are only two tour guides for the Biblical period, the other seven guides touch on archaeological information from the Biblical periods when there sites coincide with Biblical events.
This program is also available for the Macintosh.
