Stones Still Speak

Stones Still Speak, Amanda Hope Hailey. Revell (ISBN: 9780800746483) 2025.

Summary: Shows how biblical archaeology helps us understand the context of scripture, sometimes correcting misunderstandings.

Amanda Hope Hailey is a Harvard-trained archaeologist, speaking and writing as The Red-Haired Archaeologist. The focus of her work is to show how archaeological research helps us understand the context of the Bible. She does not treat biblical archaeology as a form of apologetics, providing confirmations of the truth of the Bible or of Christianity. In fact, she honestly admits where archaeology is unable to confirm things in the Bible, including the lack of evidence for Israel’s first three kings. For her, that doesn’t cast doubt on the biblical accounts. She writes: “Holy Scripture is God-breathed. It does not require or even request that humans dig into our planet’s crust to find physical evidence of its truths. It is Truth.” She also shows how what we have learned in archaeology sometimes corrects misunderstandings of Bible stories we learned in Sunday School.

After introducing the work of biblical archaeology, she walks through a number of familiar biblical accounts. For each, she offers background and context, often drawing on archaeology, but not always. She begins with the creation accounts discussing why there are two different accounts, as well as discussing key words like “day.” Her observation is that there was no editing or blending of the two accounts. She explores the various efforts to discover Noah’s ark and makes the common sense observation that after the flood, the ark probably provided building materials, since these would have been scarce. She sets Abraham in the Middle Bronze Age, discusses his sons, his travels, and his tomb.

When it comes to Joseph, she set him in the context of the Pharaohs as well as the invasion of the Hyksos, which set a precedent for foreign rulers. We also learn that a better translation for Joseph’s coat might be “long-sleeved” rather than “many-colored,” an artifact of the Septuagint translation. Haley considers possible explanations for Moses miracles, including the parting of the sea. She’s honest in saying we have no evidence, despite the proposed explanations.

When it comes to David and Goliath, many of our tellings exaggerate both Goliath’s size and David’s smallness. If he wrestled beasts in tending sheep, he was likely a full-grown adult. Likewise, Goliath probably was about seven feet–tall but not giant. Finally, slings were a potent weapon that could fling a stone at 150 miles per hour. Haley emphasizes how God had prepared David for this encounter. Considering the absence of evidence for Solomon, despite his greatness, she suggests his disobedience contributed to the disappearance of his name.

Then there is Jonah. While we have no clue what swallowed him beyond the “great fish” of scripture, we do know a lot about the Assyrian civilization and the city to which he went. She raises the intriguing question of what might have happened had Jonah preached more than his minimalist message. Likewise, we have no clue what happened to the ark of the covenant, other than it was carried off, “plundered” according to a deuterocanonical text. It’s not in an army warehouse! Haley also fills in the important history of the so-called “silent years.”

Finally, she touches more briefly on the New Testament. As have others, she observes the word translated “inn” more likely meant an upstairs bedroom used for guests. Instead, Joseph and Mary found shelter in a first floor living area, also used for the family’s animals. She discusses the sites of Jesus ministry and death.

What Haley emphasizes is how important contexts (and sometimes good translations) are to understanding the Bible. She offers a wealth of this in the text and sidebars throughout the book. However, I was surprised, and perhaps disappointed that there was not more archaeology. There are no images or diagrams. Given the title and subtitle, I was expecting more of that. But she does model how archaeology interacts with our study of scripture and other texts helping us understand context. And this is a good model for beginning students of scripture.

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