Rivers in the Desert: a History of the Negev

Plot

Nelson Glueck (1900-1971) was an American Rabbi, scholar, and archaeologist, who also served as president of Hebrew Union College (the main seminary for Reform Judaism) from 1947 until his death. This 1959 book is subtitled "A History of the Negev," the Negev being the desert and semidesert region of southern Israel which makes up about 60% of the country.

This is the book that contains his famous quote, "it may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries." (Christian apologists such as Josh McDowell like to use this quotation.)

There are other quotations that Bible students will appreciate, such as: "The wonder of the accuracy of historical memory in the Bible is again evident ... Somehow or other, by word of mouth from father to son and by recitals of wandering minstrels in the living tradition of unwritten lore, the story of the catastrophic conflict was transmitted from generation to generation until it achieved immortality in the pages of the Bible."

Although Glueck's conclusions (more than 50 years old, let us remember) need to be reviewed with more recent evidence (e.g., Israel Finkelstein's The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts or William Dever's What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?: What Archaeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel), this book is still of interest to those interested in Biblical Archaeology.