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The Bible in the British Museum: Investigating the Evidence

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T. C. Mitchell is an expert on the Ancient Near East. He looks at the material evidence for the Biblical accounts in British Museum. This book is a great book to take along when you visit the museum if your area of interest is Biblical Archaeology. If you forget your copy pick up one in the museum bookstore and give yours away. Whoever you give this book to will be greatful.

There's nothing like the British Museum. It contains more significant pieces of archaeology on display than any other museum in the world. T C Mitchell's book showcases some sixty of them that relate to the Bible. Moreover unless one has thought about it, one will be amazed by the biblical artifacts that can be found in the British Museum.

Among items included in Mitchell's book are the Atrahasis Epic, the Merneptah Stela, the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the Moabite Stone, a Lachish Ostracon, the Cyrus Cylinder, a DSS scroll jar, a portion of an unknown gospel known as Egerton 2, and Codex Sinaiticus. Mitchell begins his book with short essays on biblical archaeology, ancient texts, and chronologies and maps of biblical times. His descriptions of the items he discusses in his book are clear, concise, and accurate.

It just makes me want to go back to the British Museum.

THE BIBLE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM - Interpreting the Evidence by T. C. Mitchell. Paulist Press, 997 Macarthur Blvd., Mahwah, NJ 07430; www.paulistpress.com; jillg@paulistpress.com. 2004, this edition. 136 pp. $22.95 trade paper, ISBN 0-8091-4292-9. maps, photographs, illustrations, bibliography, indexes.
This author who is a former Keeper of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum does not try to solve any esoterica or controversies in the Bible in discussing a wide variety of antiquities mostly from the Near East with some from adjacent Mediterranean lands. Rather, Mitchell uses the diverse, interesting antiquities as direct or related references to the historical periods covered in the long time span of the Bible and the cultures of the different lands and civilizations which are parts of its tales. The photographs of the numerous antiquities are photographed as if part of a museum exhibition on the subject. A group of 7th-century B.C. pottery vessels found in a tomb near Bethlehem exemplify the "metaphor of the potter [Jeremiah] used to clarify his prophetic message." Hieroglyphics, statues, passages from ancient texts, and impressions on coins are similarly used to illustrate parts of the Bible. From Mitchell's approach, limited though it is to materials from the British Museum, one learns a good deal about both the Bible and related ancient cultures.

It cost me more for shipping than it did for this two-dollar book. It arrived within the specified time and was in perfect condition. I don't imagine that there are too many of us into cuneiform or Sumerian History. Less of us still that research clay tablets that are clearly the original source of Noahs Flood,the Bible's Book of Genesis, and several other religious stories . If you wish to objectively debate scripture, this book offers collaboration for some of the episodes detailed in the Torah, Koran, & Christian Bible; as well as exposes numerous embellishments in the same texts. The greatest lesson that I learned from this publication is that besides expressing willingness to debate one's religion of choice; very few are swayed by the inconvenience of facts or truth. To be able to cite a tablet number and a translation by a verifiable scholar...priceless.