Beer-sheba of the Patriarchs, Ze’ev Herzog, Biblical Archaeology Review (6:6), Nov/Dec 1980.

The findings of archaeologists sometimes seem to confirm the Biblical text. At other times, the excavation results present a problem.

Perhaps the best known case of the latter is Jericho. Most scholars date the Israelite conquest of Canaan to the Late Bronze Age, to a time (13th century B.C.) when, according to Jericho excavator Kathleen Kenyon, there was no settlement at Jericho, let alone a city whose walls could be trumpeted down. According to the Bible, the next city to fall to the Israelites, was Ai. There is a problem in this case too. Professor Joseph Callaway, who excavated Ai, found no settlement from that period.

We have encountered a somewhat similar problem at Beer-shebaa with respect to the Patriarchal Age. The problem is even more complicated because scholars disagree wildly as to the date of the Patriarchal Age.

Read the rest of Beer-sheba of the Patriarchs in the online Biblical Archaeology Society Library.