William F. Albright

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William F. Albright
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisThe Assyrian Deluge Epic[1] (1916)
Doctoral advisorPaul Haupt[2]
InfluencesLouis-Hugues Vincent[3]
Academic work
Discipline
Sub-disciplineBiblical archaeology
School or traditionBiblical archaeology
Doctoral students
Notable studentsHarry Orlinsky[12]
Influenced

William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891– September 19, 1971) was an American

ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars",[17] having become known to the public in 1948 for his role in the authentication of the Dead Sea Scrolls.[18] His scholarly reputation arose as a leading theorist and practitioner of biblical archaeology
.

Biography

Albright was born on May 24, 1891, in

American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem from 1922–1929, and 1933–1936, and did important archaeological work at sites in Palestine such as Gibeah (Tell el-Fûl, 1922) and Tell Beit Mirsim (1926, 1928, 1930, and 1932).[23]

Tumulus 2 (Jerusalem), excavated by Albright in 1923. His excavation trench is still visible at the top of the structure.

Albright became known to the public in 1948 for his role in the authentication of the

ancient Caananite religion had a reciprocal relationship, in which "both gained much in the exchange which set in about the tenth century and continued until the fifth century B.C".[26]

Although primarily a biblical archaeologist, Albright was a

Shishaq—came to power somewhere between 945 and 940 BC.[27]

A prolific author, his works in addition to Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, include The Archaeology of Palestine: From the Stone Age to Christianity, and The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra. He also edited the Anchor Bible volumes on Jeremiah, Matthew, and Revelation.

Throughout his life Albright was honored with awards, honorary doctorates, and medals, and was proclaimed "

American School of Oriental Research, Jerusalem, was renamed the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, in honor of Albright's archeological achievements.[33][34]

Historical research and hypotheses

From the 1930s until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the acknowledged founder of the

George Ernest Wright inherited his leadership of the biblical archaeology movement, contributing definitive work at Shechem and Gezer
. Albright inspired, trained and worked with the first generation of world-class Israeli archaeologists, who have carried on his work, and maintained his perspective.

Other students such as

T. L. Thompson, John Van Seters, Niels Peter Lemche, and Philip R. Davies developed and advanced a minimalist critique of Albright's view that archaeology supports the broad outlines of the history of Israel as presented in the Bible. Like other academic polymaths (Edmund Husserl in phenomenology and Max Weber in the fields of sociology and the sociology of religion), Albright created and advanced the discipline of biblical archaeology, which is now taught at universities worldwide and has exponents across national, cultural, and religious lines.[citation needed
]

Influence and legacy

Albright's publication in the

Israeli archaeology into a science, instead of what it had formerly been: a digging in which the details are more or less well-described in an indifferent chronological framework which is as general as possible and often wildly wrong".[36]

As editor of the

Palestinian archaeology.[33] Albright advocated "biblical archaeology" in which the archaeologist's task, according to fellow biblical archaeologist William G. Dever, is "to illuminate, to understand, and, in their greatest excesses, to 'prove' the Bible."[37] Here, Albright's American Methodist upbringing was clearly apparent. He insisted, for example, that "as a whole, the picture in Genesis is historical, and there is no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the biographical details" (i.e., of figures such as Abraham). Similarly he claimed that archaeology had proved the essential historicity of the Book of Exodus, and the conquest of Canaan as described in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges
.

In the years since his death, Albright's methods and conclusions have been increasingly questioned. In a 1993 article for

The Biblical Archaeologist, William G. Dever stated that:

[Albright's] central theses have all been overturned, partly by further advances in Biblical criticism, but mostly by the continuing archaeological research of younger Americans and Israelis to whom he himself gave encouragement and momentum... The irony is that, in the long run, it will have been the newer 'secular' archaeology that contributed the most to Biblical studies, not 'Biblical archaeology.'[38]

Biblical scholar Thomas L. Thompson wrote that by 2002 the methods of "biblical archaeology" had also become outmoded:

[Wright and Albright's] historical interpretation can make no claim to be objective, proceeding as it does from a methodology which distorts its data by selectivity which is hardly representative, which ignores the enormous lack of data for the history of the early second millennium, and which wilfully establishes hypotheses on the basis of unexamined biblical texts, to be proven by such (for this period) meaningless mathematical criteria as the "balance of probability" ...[39]

Publications

  • The Archaeology of Palestine: From the Stone Age to Christianity (1940[40]/rev.1960)
  • From the Stone Age to Christianity: Monotheism and the Historical Process, Johns Hopkins Press, 1946
  • Views of the Biblical World. Jerusalem: International Publishing Company J-m Ltd, 1959.
  • Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan: An Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting Faiths (1968)
  • Matthew (with C. S. Mann) in the Anchor Bible series (1971)
    ISBN 9780385086585
  • The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra
  • Albright, William F. (1923). "Interesting finds in tumuli near Jerusalem".
    S2CID 163409706
    .
  • Albright, William F. (1953). "New Light from Egypt on the Chronology and History of Israel and Judah". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 130 (130): 4–11.
    S2CID 163812912
    .

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Levy & Freedman 2009, p. 7.
  2. ^ Sherrard 2011, p. 42.
  3. ^ Albright 1961, p. 3.
  4. ^ Running & Freedman 1975, p. 195; Sherrard 2011, p. 178.
  5. ^ Sherrard 2011, p. 79.
  6. ^ a b Shanks, Hershel (October 18, 2012). "The End of an Era". Bible History Daily. Washington: Biblical Archaeology Society. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  7. ^ Sherrard 2011, p. 68.
  8. ^ Sherrard 2011, p. 36.
  9. ^ Sherrard 2011, p. 64.
  10. ^ Lieberman 1991, p. 148.
  11. ^ Sherrard 2011, p. 8.
  12. ^ Long 1997, p. 72.
  13. ^ Sherrard 2011, p. 65.
  14. ^ Prag 1973, p. vii; Sherrard 2011, p. 7.
  15. ^ Sherrard 2011, p. 159.
  16. ^ Heim 1973, p. xii.
  17. ISSN 1384-2161
    .
  18. ^ Keiger, Dale (April 2000). "The Great Authenticator". Johns Hopkins Magazine. Vol. 52, no. 2. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  19. ^ Running & Freedman 1975, p. 5.
  20. ^ Rowse 1969.
  21. ^ Running 2007, p. 103.
  22. ^ Running & Freedman 1975, pp. 91–92, 96.
  23. ^ Albright 1932.
  24. ^ Keiger, Dale (April 2000). "The Great Authenticator". Johns Hopkins Magazine. Vol. 52, no. 2. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  25. ^ Bradshaw, Robert I. (1992). "Archaeology and the Patriarchs". BiblicalStudies.org.uk. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  26. ISBN 978-0-485-17407-6
    .
  27. S2CID 163812912
    .
  28. ^ Meyers 1997, p. 61.
  29. ^ Blatt, Benjamin (May 24, 2016). "Digging with the Bible". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  30. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  31. ^ "William F. Albright". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  32. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
  33. ^ a b "UXL Newsmakers, at Findarticles.com". Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
  34. ^ W.F. Albright and the history of pottery in Palestine March 2002, Herr, Larry G. in Near Eastern Archaeology, Chicago, Vol. 65, Issue 1 (ProQuest website)
  35. ^ Hayes 1999, pp. 139–140.
  36. ^ "G.E. Wright, quoted in UXL Newsmakers, at Findarticles.com". Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
  37. ^ Tatum 1995, p. 464.
  38. S2CID 166003641
    .
  39. ^ Thompson 2002, p. 7.
  40. ^ Thiollet 2005, p. 249.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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Professional and academic associations
Preceded by President of the Society of Biblical
Literature and Exegesis
1939 		Succeeded by
Chester C. McCown
Awards
Preceded by Gold Medal Award for Distinguished
Archaeological Achievement
1967 		Succeeded by
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