Excavating the Land of Jesus, James Riley Strange, Foreword by Luke Timothy Johnson. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2023.

Summary: A description of the real work of archaelogists excavating sites in the biblical world from the time of Jesus, particularly the problems they seek to solve as they try to understand how people lived in that time.

James Riley Strange believes we have misconceptions about the work of archaeologists working in biblical lands. They are not the swashbuckling heroes and treasure hunters we see on movie screens. Nor are they the ones who will give us incontrovertible proofs confirming the biblical accounts. Rather than write a book to write about the world of Jesus time, he offers us a study of how archaeologists think and go about their work, focusing on the setting of Galilee from the second century BCE to the second century CE, the setting in which Jesus’s Galilean ministry took place. His aim is to understand how people in this time and place lived and what they valued through the objects that have survived. Strange offers this definiition of the archaeolgist’s work:

Archaeology is the systematic recovery and interpretation of ancient human detritus for the sake of understanding ancient human technologies societies, and values.

The approach of this book is problem oriented and seeks to show how archaelogists working in Galilee address these problems. They include:

• Knowing where to dig to have a reasonable hope of uncovering evidence of human activity.
• Knowing when a site excavated is one named in the Bible or another ancient document. The work uses the problem of identifying the site of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee.
• The problem of how to dig. Strange details the meticulous steps of digging, recording finds, and posing questions based on observations.
• The problem of the interplay of archaeological data and ancient texts. Often ancient texts are used as clues to topography and even the possible location of sites. The text illustrates this using the travel narratives in John.
• What can be inferred from technological artifacts about life in Jesus time? In this work, the author describes the archaeology of olive oil presses and what can be inferred about systems of food production and distribution, including impacts on such things as pottery production and road systems and maintenance.
• Finally, what can be learned about the distinctive values of Galilean Jews versus non-Jews from the objects and buildings that survive. We learn particularly about oil lamps that have Judean origins among Galilean Jews and synagogues whose layout in miniature reproduce that of the Jerusalem temple–markers of Jewish identity and the shape of their worship.

The work concludes with personal testimonies by several archaeologists of why they dig. The author’s father captures the importance of this work when current residents on the site of Sepphoris thanked him, saying, “We are here to express our thanks to you for exposing our history for us” (p. 155).

This work offers no “evidence that demands a verdict” but rather describes the careful work of trying to understand the significance of objects found and sometimes using ancient documents like the Bible to look for clues of what may be found–all in the quest to better understand the setting in which Jesus lived and ministered. The author illustrates this well with case studies, maps, and photographs. More than that, in writing, it seems that his hope is that others might consider joining digs as volunteers for the right reasons. The invitation he offers is plain: “I hope that readers who wish to dig in Israel will do it.” So beware reader–you just could find yourself on a dig!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.