In the 1970s, with the demise of the previous generation of leading archaeologists concerned with the biblical world, Dever rose to prominence. He made a name for himself in scholarly circles by denouncing traditional biblical archaeology as an amateurish misuse of the field. He advocated the term Syro-Palestinian archaeology, grounded its theoretical basis in anthropology and social science theory, and argued that archaeology should normally inform historical studies of the Bible, rather than the Bible serve as a grid to interpret archaeology. Now in 2001, Dever culminates a decade-long series of papers with a devastating critique of the philosophical bankruptcy of postmodernism and, in particular, that version of it advocated by the so-called minimalists, whom he designates as revisionists.

Against their view that texts, and especially the biblical ones, have no historical value, Dever presents an overwhelming array of evidence where the material culture matches general and specific descriptions of society from the Bible. Against sweeping generalisations by the minimalists that maintain a complete absence of evidence for the biblical portrait of ancient Israel and the composition of the OT in the Persian or Hellenistic period, Dever examines and affirms: (1) the emergence of ‘proto-Israel’ in Palestine as seen in the Merneptah stele and the settlement evidence; (2) Israelite statehood during the tenth century BC and the mention of David in the Tel Dan stele; (3) evidence for increasing bureaucracy and an expanding state during the mid-tenth century (the age of Solomon), and the detailed congruence of every item described in the construction of Solomon’s Temple with Syrian cultic and architectural forms, many of which are found only prior to the eighth century; (4) clear cultural differences between the northern and southern kingdoms, as well as specific congruences in the names of Israelite and Judean kings between biblical and contemporary Neo-Assyrian inscriptions; (5) archaeological evidence for religious practices that the prophets decry; (6) numerous Hebrew inscriptions that leave no doubt as to the competency of some in pre-exilic Israel to compose and to read written accounts; and (7) specific congruences in matters of material culture, such as the occasional descriptions of gates in the OT that agree with the archaeological evidence of Israelite gates before the exile, but not later.

Despite this apparent movement toward an affirmation of the OT’s historical value, however, Dever has not changed his opinion from the mid-1970s on the matters noted above. Instead, he represents a middle ground between the literal interpretation of the Bible and a complete rejection of its objective statements as popularised by those he criticises here. Although this reviewer would find more in common with a God who acts in history, as affirmed by Dever’s teacher G. Ernest Wright, than with Dever’s own nontheistic neo-Pragmatism, and although one may raise objections about the dismissal of the early biblical period (patriarchs and exodus; there is at times a confusion between traditional interpretations of certain biblical texts and what the Bible actually claims), Dever’s volume represents perhaps the only significant work on the present horizon that addresses the philosophical issues surrounding postmodernism as manifested in matters of history and the OT. Drawing on the insights of literary, archaeological, historical, anthropological and other disciplines, he is competent to evaluate and critique this phenomenon and to present an affirmation of the historical value of critical textual analysis. Here is a clarion call to clear thinking and the rigorous pursuit of the traditional disciplines of philology, philosophy, and historical (especially archaeological) study for the recovery and correct interpretation of the biblical text. What Evangelicals such as Thiselton and Vanhoozer have done for the literary analysis of the Bible, Dever has provided (in a more popular and readable format) for the historical study of the Old Testament. If, as he affirms, the affirmation of an accurate historical interpretation of the biblical text is essential for the survival of Western culture, how much more is it vital for the correct understanding and worship of the God of Israel who acts on behalf of his people. History matters!

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