Beyond Feminist and Womanist Hermeneutics: Some Critical Remarks on the Bosadi Approach of Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan'a Mphahlele)

In this study, it is argued that the trust of previous (and existing) hermeneutical approaches of promoting ancient biblical texts as applicable to the everyday life of contemporary readers is not only imaginable but also too ambitious. The Hebrew Bible emerged from an Israelite cultural context, which neither speaks to nor deliberates on issues concerning the African cultural contexts. The present essay utilises a narrative approach comprising three main overtures. Firstly, some examples of previous contributions on hermeneutics will be discussed. Secondly, this study interrogates the legitimacy of employing African biblical hermeneutics that utilises ancient Jewish texts as applicable to African societies today. Thirdly and finally, the study will critically appraise for a balanced reading of the biblical text.Contribution: The present study aims at engaging (debriefing) existing hermeneutical contributions towards proposing a balanced reading of the biblical text. In order to achieve that goal, the study engages into a dialogue following hermeneutical approaches, which are popular amongst most African scholars, namely African biblical hermeneutics, black biblical hermeneutics, contextual biblical hermeneutics, feminist hermeneutics and oral hermeneutics.

Madipoane Masenya and Hulisani Ramantswana (2012:598-637) have argued that 18 years into the democratic dispensation, South African Old Testament scholarship is still trapped in Eurocentric methods of interpreting the biblical text, deliberately avoiding any meaningful dialogue with the African context. Accordingly, this article examines the role of African Biblical Hermeneutics in the current South African context. In the first section we will engage with Christo Lombaard’s assertion that African Biblical Hermeneutics has not succeeded in its endeavor because it does not use exegesis in its methodological approach. We will also dialogue with another Western Biblical scholar, Gerrie Snyman, who uses the concept of whiteness to engage with his Western Afrikaner context. We will then move on to discuss the three poles of African Biblical Hermeneutics, before focusing on two trends and patterns in African Biblical Hermeneutics, namely, Black biblical hermeneutics and African Feminist hermeneutics. In this last section, we want to examine several challenges facing African Biblical Hermeneutics in the post-Apartheid context. We will start off by locating ourselves in the post-Apartheid context. We will then quickly move on to spell out what the role of African Biblical Hermeneutics could be in the post-Apartheid context.

This study delves into the intricate landscape of Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics within the context of African Biblical Hermeneutics, aiming to unravel its origins, discern trends, and confront challenges. Employing a qualitative research methodology grounded in extensive literature review and critical analysis, this investigation explores the evolution and current state of Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics in the African context.Findings underscore the significance of linguistic and cultural nuances in biblical interpretation, emphasizing the role of indigenous languages in shaping contextual understanding and relevance. Moreover, the study identifies persistent challenges including colonial legacies, linguistic imperialism, and theological biases that impede the full realization of Mother Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics.In light of these findings, recommendations are proposed to foster the integration of indigenous languages into biblical scholarship, advocate for linguistic diversity, and promote inclusivity in theological discourse. Ultimately, this study contributes to scholarship by illuminating the vital intersection of language, culture, and interpretation in African Biblical Hermeneutics, thereby enriching theological dialogue and advancing decolonial approaches to biblical studies. Keywords: Biblical Hermeneutics, African Biblical Hermeneutics, Mother-tongue Biblical studies, Origin, Trends and Challenges.

Often, theological debates stand in the tension between idealist and realist perspectives. This is true too of a discussion in which I have participated on the Africanisation or contextualisation or relevance of the Bible in (South) Africa. In this debate I have at times been cast as being opposed to such Africanisation or contextualisation or relevance. Such criticism is mistaken. I am, however, critical of too idealistic views on the ways in which Old Testament research can impact African problems. In an interdisciplinary manner, the sociological concept of spiritual capital proves useful in illustrating my view. With this, I hope to be understood correctly and, more importantly, to contribute to greater realism concerning the relationship between research and societal problems. In that way, the Africanisation or contextualisation or relevance of the Bible in (South) Africa can become a greater reality. This is of increased importance in the post-secular time frame in which we currently find ourselves, in which the role of religion in the public sphere is again finding greater acceptance rather than being side-lined. On all counts, thus, the plight of the marginalised may be better served. Such broader acceptance of religion also demands that Bible scholarship takes full cognisance of the societal processes through which such upliftment can occur in reality. Therefore, en route to publication, this contribution is presented for critical consideration in three intellectual fora:��The Religious and Spiritual Capital session, XVIIIth International Sociological Association World Congress of Sociology (conference theme: �Facing an unequal world�), Yokohama, Japan, 13�19 July 2014.� The Old Testament Society of South Africa Annual Conference (conference theme: �Studying the Old Testament in South Africa, from 1994 to 2014 and beyond�), University of Johannesburg, 03�05 September 2014.� The Research Day of the Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, University of South Africa, 25 September 2014, at which colleague E. Farisani�s University of South Africa inaugural lecture of 03 September 2013, �Dispelling myths about African biblical hermeneutics: The role of current trends in African biblical hermeneutics in the post-apartheid South Africa� was re-presented as �Current trends and patterns in African Biblical Hermeneutics in postapartheid South Africa: Myth or Fact?� for the purpose of critical discussion.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The intersection of Theology and Sociology adds concrete avenues for furthering the cause of the Africanisation of Biblical Studies.

This study attempts to critically re-examine certain key hermeneutical concerns of a representative group of African biblical and religious studies scholars, who ground African theological reflection on traditional African values, cultures and social realities. Most of the scholars examined are united by a focus on the past and by an attempt to interpret the present and future on the basis of it. The article critiques the backward-looking hermeneutic implicit in the work of the scholars, especially Jesse Mugambi’s backward-looking metaphor of reconstruction. It proposes a hermeneutic based on the metaphor of liberation, as employed, for example, by African women theologians or by Gerald West or Emmanuel Katongole, who focus on building the present and future on the basis of a new liberative transformative narrative and praxis that prioritises the sacredness and inviolability of human life in the context of the web of life, and in particular foregrounds the dignity of African lives, as well as all others.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article engages exposition and understanding of biblical texts by African scholars. Aspects of NT Christology or Ecclesiology are connected to theologies of traditional African socio-cultural realities. The relevance for an African theology of liberation and African theology of women is defended as necessitated by a new liberative transformative hermeneutic.

The book of Psalms is the best known, most discussed and most cited book of the Old Testament. Psalm 23 especially is the most loved book of the Psalms. That must have been the reason why it was named ‘an American icon’ and the ‘nightingale of the Psalms’. Two major ways of reading this Psalm are: as a shepherd to a sheep and as God to a human. The author of this article reads Psalms 23 Africentrically, that is, as God to a human. This means that Psalms 23 is read for the purpose of protection, provision, healing and success in all aspects of life, which are the main concerns of African people. It means reading Psalm 23 existentially with African life interest.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is concerned with biblical studies, African Traditional Religion and culture and African Biblical Hermeneutics. It seeks to challenge the traditional Eurocentric approaches for its methodological approaches that do not make biblical studies adequately relevant to African Christianity. The book of Psalms is used as a perfect example of how it can be interpreted relevantly in Africa. Further implication is that there will be reduction of the Bible and Christianity looking like a foreign book and religion.

African biblical hermeneutics is vital to the wellbeing of African society. African biblical bermeneutics is a methodological resource that makes African social cultural contexts the subject of interpretation. This is a methodology that reappraises ancient biblical tradition and African world-views, cultures and life experiences, with the purpose of correcting the effect of the cultural, ideological conditioning to which Africa and Africans have been subjected in the business of biblical interpretation. It is the rereading of the Christian scripture from a premeditatedly Africentric perspective. African biblical hermeneutics is contextual since interpretation is always done in a particular context. Specifically, it means that the analysis of the biblical text is done from the perspective of an African world-view and culture.

This guide accompanies the following article(s): Mark Sneed, Social Scientific Approach to the Hebrew Bible, Religion Compass 2/3 (2008) pp. 287–300, 10.1111/j.1749‐8171.2008.00072.x Author’s Introduction The social science approach to the Hebrew Bible has steadily gained in popularity in recent years. It is heir to the older and formerly dominant historical critical approach to the Bible but focuses on society as whole instead of just kings, high priests, and the elite. And it goes beyond the also popular social history approach by incorporating social theory into its interpretation of texts and Israelite society. It transforms the two dimensional portrayal of biblical characters in Scripture into three dimensional flesh and blood figures whose lives are motivated and shaped by larger societal forces. The social science approach also aids in foregrounding the ‘Otherness’ of the biblical text, demonstrating how the biblical text reflects a culture that is unfamiliar to our modern Western world. It also serves as a check against the currently popular literary critical approach to the Bible that has a tendency to blunt that strangeness of the ancient text and read modern cultural assumptions and notions back into the same text. But the social science approach has also become more postmodern, and its adherents are not naïve about how their own social locations influence the way they interpret Scripture and the choices they make regarding what models they apply to the biblical text. Biblical sociologists have also become more skeptical about the reliability of ancient texts for reconstructing socio‐historical reality because of their inherently biased character and have proposed ways to separate the wheat from the chaff. And finally, the social science approach has become more self‐conscious of the speculative nature of applying theoretical models to ancient texts and the danger of making the text fit the model. However, in spite of this, biblical sociologists believe it is worth the risk and that their approach makes an important contribution to biblical criticism and that it makes biblical studies exciting and relevant. Online Materials 1. http://www.kchanson.com/ A fascinating site from a New Testament sociologist. It contains tremendous amounts of information including archaeological photos, bibliographies (e.g. ‘The Old Testament: Social Sciences &amp; Social Description’), and numerous links to other related sites like Ancient World on the Web (with over 250 www‐sites) and to electronic journals. 2. http://virtualreligion.net/vri/ Its Biblical Studies: Social World of the Bible provides links to electronic journals and other related sites, some with photos. 3. http://sites.google.com/site/biblicalstudiesresources/ This site has a Hebrew Bible Resources category that includes electronic journals and the homepages of three Hebrew Bible sociologists: Don Benjamin, David J. A. Clines, and Philip Davies, with some of their articles. 4. http://courses.missouristate.edu/VictorMatthews/ Homepage of a preeminent Hebrew Bible anthropologist and Ancient Near Eastern expert that contains bibliographies and numerous links to other related sites and to electronic journals. 5. http://www.socioweb.com/ The Socio Web has links to great sites that often have articles on various sociological topics and social theorists. 6. http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/index.html A Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace is an amazing site that is colourful and filled with articles about and guides to various aspects of sociology and links to numerous related sites. 7. http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/w3virtsoclib/index.html WWW Virtual Library: Sociology: Theories has wonderful articles on the primary theorists in sociology and related resources. 8. http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/articles2005/0100/0101.php#trans The Denver Journal has various related resources, and its Annotated Old Testament Bibliography: Sociological and Anthropological Studies is helpful. Annotated Reading List 1. Weber, Max. Ancient Judaism. Translated by Hans H. Gerth and Don Martindale. New York: Free, 1952 So fortuitous for biblical sociologists, one of the fathers of sociology theorizes on the development of the Israelite religion from a comparative religion standpoint; a classic. It is not the easiest read, so it should be reserved for graduate students. 2. Gottwald, Norman K. The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250–1050 bce. Paperback ed. The Biblical Seminar. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999 The father of modern Hebrew Bible sociology draws on Durkheim, Weber, and especially Marx to trace the development of the early Israelite faith that sprang from a confederation of recently liberated peasants; another classic. Compare the following reviews: Bernhard W. Anderson ( Theology Today 38 [1981]: 107–8 – mainly critical); Robert R. Wilson ( Interpretation 38 [1982]: 71–4 – generally positive); Carol Meyers ( Catholic Biblical Quarterly 43 [1981]: 104–9 – somewhat positive). 3. Gottwald, Norman K. The Hebrew Bible: A Brief Socio‐Literary Introduction. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009 This abridged version of the 1985 classic introduces the student broadly to biblical sociology and then applies it book by book to the Hebrew Bible. Compare the following reviews of the unabridged version: J. J. M. Roberts ( Theology Today 43 [1987]: 580–1 – generally negative); Robert Gnuse ( Currents in Theology and Mission 13 [1986]: 174–5 – generally positive). </jats:

African contextual biblical hermeneutics, practiced mainly among those from the southern hemisphere, is framed by conflicting academic approaches, methods, epistemologies, rationalities, etc. The general challenge put before the Bible scholars in this part of the world mostly concerns methodologies. This paper focuses on the link between a biblical text and the context of its interpretation. To avoid any specific context or interpreter gaining hermeneutical hegemony over the text, in contextual biblical hermeneutics, the coherence should be first and foremost between the text and the context of its interpretation. The interpretation method of Ifá, the sacred orature of Yoruba and some non-Yoruba people in West Africa, helps to achieve that coherence. This paper is a theoretical presentation of what a contextual biblical hermeneutic can learn from this African Sacred literature reading in context. The hermeneutical rationale of Ifá stories is one of “speaking in proverbs”, considering both the stories and their interpretations as proverbs. In line with this rationale, the ideal link between a biblical text and its hermeneutical context is like the one between a “proverb story” and the many stories (contexts) of its harmonious utterances. The epistemological and hermeneutical functions of the context of interpretation are not to interpret the biblical text but to verify the validity of proposed interpretations.

This article investigates interpretations of the Book of Ruth from the point of view of some African scholars. Firstly, an attempt is made to understand what is meant by African biblical hermeneutics (ABH). An overview of the emergence of ABH is given, and the question why reading the Bible from an African perspective was necessary, is addressed. It appears that African biblical scholars and an African Christian community could not relate to Western European interpretations of the Bible that reflect western experiences and concerns that were vastly different from their own postcolonial experiences and concerns since the latter part of the 20th century.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The engagement between Western and ABH is discussed, and ABH as a necessary and viable means of biblical interpretation is recognised, but a point of critique is also raised at the end of this section. Thereafter an overview of ABH as appropriated to the Book of Ruth is given, and finally, some evaluative conclusions are drawn.

There was relatively little scholarship focusing on women, gender, and sexuality in the Hebrew Bible until the 1970s, when modern feminist biblical scholarship first started to emerge as an outgrowth of second-wave feminism. In the 1980s, feminist biblical criticism fully blossomed as a discipline, inspiring a large body of work focusing on issues such as the depiction, treatment, and roles of women, the interrelationship between gender and power, and views toward women’s sexuality in biblical texts, and what can be discerned about various aspects of the lives of women in ancient Israel based on biblical and other evidence. In the past few decades, as the body of scholarship on women in the Bible has continued to grow, it has also broadened its scope as new methodologies and hermeneutical approaches have been introduced. Inspired in part by the rise of third wave feminism in the 1990s, there has also been an increasing amount of scholarship focusing on the intersection of race, class, and ethnicity with gender and sexuality in biblical texts, and an increasing awareness of the need to include more voices from the “two-thirds” world in the scholarly dialogue. In addition to being subjects covered by those engaging in feminist criticism, gender and sexuality studies both emerged as discrete fields in the 1980s, as biblical scholars, building upon the methodological foundation established by theorists such as Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault, began to examine the social, cultural, and historical construction of gender and sexuality in biblical texts. The last few decades have seen a flourishing of scholarship on gender and sexuality in the Bible that continues to both build on these foundations and go beyond them, as scholars incorporate new approaches and methodologies from the areas of gender theory, queer studies, masculinities studies, and, most recently, intersex studies into their work, offering innovative and incisive readings that shed a vivid new light on seemingly familiar biblical texts.

Hermeneutics is the science of textual interpretation and comprises a wide range of disciplines, which helps to control subjective influences in the study of the Old Testament and Hebrew Scriptures. It is imperative to consider the context of any given text, as well as the context of the receiver in the interpretive process. This consideration, from the African point of view, is what may be referred to as African contextual hermeneutics. To see the effect different contexts have on the interpretation of an encountered text, using as an example 1 Chronicles 21, it was discovered that the changes in culture, religion, tradition, text and language affected the presentation of the new text, so much so that the writer made a lot of additions and subtractions from the original story in 2 Samuel 24. The diversity of the Old Testament texts requires that each text be studied within its historical framework. This also reflects the reality of life expressed by people in the African society. However, with hermeneutics in the Old Testament, the reader should be brave enough to throw off cultural ties and focus only on what matters. It requires reading the controversy and polemic in the text and not being influenced by it. What matters in any text is the relationship between God and humans, and this is what the interpreter should translate into the African context, not the culture or the controversy. There is a need for reassessment of the ancient biblical tradition and the African worldviews, cultures and life experiences, to correct the effect of the extraneous cultural and ideological conditioning. African biblical hermeneutics can be understood as the rereading of the Old Testament from a premeditatedly African perspective. African biblical hermeneutics is the principle of interpretation of the Bible that could lead to transformation in Africa. Africa’s religious practice is mostly polytheistic. In the African religion, there are new allegories, images, figures of speech, ways of reasoning, etymologies, analogies and cosmogonies to gratify the intellect.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The African contextual ideas of mysticism, tradition and initiation advance new theological inductions, astrophysical tales and ways to hypothesise moral behaviour. Nevertheless, the ideologically motivated text of 1 Chronicles 21 can still be relevant for Africa today if the following options can be taken into consideration. Israel was a confused nation, seeking identity after the exile. An author like the Chronicler wanted to give them direction by telling them that they can find identity in their relationship with God. This can be translated into the African context as a relationship with God. This means that people who are feeling confused about their circumstances and identity today can find certainty in their relationship with God, regardless of how and where they worship.

What appears to be African Biblical Hermeneutics often refers to the geographical location of the authors rather than the content. There always appears to be something new on the horizon, but the colonial umbilical cord prevents a crossing of the threshold. This article contends that, in order for it to cross the threshold, African Biblical Hermeneutics has to go beyond the geographical location of the reader/interpreter to the development of a framework that is essentially African, while not compromising the catholicity of the church. A celebration of life is proposed as the closest interpretative framework to both the Bible and the multiple African cultures.

This study read Judges 11 through the lens of childism. Childism is a hermeneutical approach that challenges the way children are marginalised in (biblical) literature and society. Just like methodological and theoretical ‘isms’ such as feminism, womanism, postcolonialism, and decolonialism are used as theoretical lenses for critical inquiry, research, and activism, childism provides a hermeneutical lens for deconstructing adult-centredness in the academy and society. Thus, when employed in biblical studies, childism critically and methodologically challenges ‘adultism, developmentalism, and ageism’ in biblical texts and contemporary society. In this article, I will utilise childism as a lens to re-read Judges 11 because Jephthah sacrificed his daughter in order to fulfil his vow to YHWH. The child-adult relationship (with its power dynamics) between Jephthah and his daughter will be read critically. Because childism is a theoretical lens that emerged from an interdisciplinary field of childhood studies, I will draw from scholars of childhood studies and childism to read and interpret an Old Testament narrative (Jdg 11). Ultimately, this study will offer an ‘age-inclusive imagination’ for the academic study of the Old Testament and contemporary society.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study demonstrates intersections between childhood studies, childism, and biblical studies. Based on childism as a hermeneutical lens, this study challenges the power asymmetry between Jephthah and his daughter. This study is interdisciplinary because I utilise childism scholars to read an Old Testament narrative.

William Dever is one of the premier American archaeologists of his generation, and in the case of his impact on biblical studies, he has sought to clarify the relationship between these two disciplines. Publishing scholarly articles, popular articles, and contributions to larger works, his more prominent footprints upon the landscape of biblical studies appear in a series of monographs published by Eerdmans between 2001 and 2012 (What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It; Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?; Did God Have a Wife?; The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel). In every case, Dever candidly discusses the archaeological data and, at times, forces evangelicals to have the awkward, but necessary, conversation about how reconsiderations of historical and cultural assumptions may be warranted. His work recently has culminated in Behind the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah (SBL, 2017). The volume reviewed here represents an attempt to provide a more accessible discussion of all the material covered in Behind the Texts (p. vii). In this work, complex discussions are simplified, which is understandable. However, it creates an impression that things are more simplistic than what they actually are. Nevertheless, Has Archaeology Buried the Bible is extremely useful, particularly for anyone who wants to have an up-to-date rubric for framing popular conceptions, a foundation for technical discussions about how archaeology relates to biblical studies, and/or just to have insight into the gist of Dever’s positions.This work is modest in its scope. There are only seven, relatively short, chapters in addition to a conclusion. Yet the topics addressed—the Patriarchal period, the exodus, the conquest, the settlement, the monarchy, and the nature of Israelite religion—ensure that the work is engaging from start to finish. For instance, chapter one sets up the subsequent chapters in a very surprising way. Summarizing the methodological developments of archaeology in Syria-Palestine with a particular focus on how it has been understood to interact with biblical studies, Dever eventually discusses the infamous Minimalist versus Maximalist debates. This then catapults him into the assertion that archaeology is the key to responsibly navigating the gauntlet constructed by these two radical positions. For Dever, archaeology must be the “primary source” in reconstructing the historical and cultural issues relevant to illuminating the biblical message. Why? Because Dever believes that archaeology alone can offer unbiased, varied, and dynamic data contemporary to the events recounted (p. 6).These considerations ultimately lead Dever into a hermeneutical corner in which most historians do not congregate. According to Dever, because the biblical text exists somewhere between completely historically accurate and fabricated, one will eventually “fall back on another traditional way of reading and comprehending Scripture, namely as allegory” (p. 7). Thus, one seeks to transcend “simplistic interpretations in order to reach a higher, and hence more authentic, Truth” (p. 7). In other words, Dever argues that while archaeology has not buried the Bible, it has shown its enduring value to be linked with a heremeneutic that is traditionally understood as ahistorical. Of course, Dever is aware of the inevitable problem. What constrains these allegorical interpretations? Archaeology. The results of archaeology, at least in part, constrain the extent of the allegory.Essentially, the rest of the book provides examples for how archaeological data can push one to see the deeper, more enduring, message of the Bible. For example, when it comes to the Patriarchs, the exodus, and the conquest, the enduring value exists with the national myths they create, which speak to Yahweh’s ability in guiding his people to their “promised land.” The settlement becomes a commentary on what can potentially hold a community together or rip it apart. However, all this raises a question: Did any of it happen? If these early historical accounts are better understood for what they symbolize, then is the historical value of the Bible diminished, or even suffocated? Dever answers somewhat positively, admitting that there are “genuine historical details that emerge” in various places (p. 50). Yet Dever makes it clear that the archaeological data forces a rather nuanced answer to questions of historicity.Dever’s tone changes in chapters five through seven, and the reason is almost certainly linked to the dynamics of the archaeological data. Because the data germane to the monarchal era (both unified and divided) and the nature of Israelite religion is less elusive and ambiguous, Dever’s conversations are more natural and insightful. By noting important data points and bringing them into direct contact with the biblical text, he begins to pull the curtain back on what a convergence between archaeology and biblical studies looks like. But perhaps most importantly, the importance of understanding the dynamics of history writing comes into view. When the convergences between the archaeological data and the text are allowed to play out naturally, the reader must inevitably ponder why the biblical writer chose to say what they did in the manner that they did. For example, if the religious tendencies among the Judean and Israelite populaces were closer to what the prophets criticized than what they advocated, then what does this say about the intentions of the writer? If the Omrides were such a positive socioeconomic and political force in the region, what does this say about the conventions of ancient history writing and the message that is derived from them? These questions, as well as others, strike at the heart of what it means to write history in the ancient world.Nevertheless, despite the welcome trajectory established by Dever’s discussions of the convergences between archaeology and the biblical text, his conclusions at times are frustratingly ordinary. In considering Tel Dan converging with 2 Kgs 9–10, Dever merely states about the historical question of who killed the Omride Dynasty, “Here we have a conflict that we cannot resolve. Both accounts seem believable and in the nature of the case archaeology can’t decide” (p. 107). Then, with respect to who sacked Samaria (Shalmaneser IV or Sargon II), “As it turns out, both versions are correct” (p. 108). In both cases, if Dever would step back from his devotion to archaeology as the primary voice and instead adopt a more mutually beneficial posture between archaeology and the Bible, the historiographic beauty of the text would be appreciated all the more. The reality is that both Tel Dan and 2 Kgs 9–10 are necessary, for only through a consultation of both witnesses can the multiple machinations that brought down the Omrides come into view. Only through both the Assyrian and biblical records can one observe the conventions of ancient Near Eastern historiography, which often exploit traditional motifs, forms, and even establish uniformity between reigns by echoing the feats of their predecessors.The reality is that the relationship between archaeology and the OT is incredibly nuanced. No cookie-cutter model will suffice, and virtually no “either/or” scenario that pits the Bible against archaeology will be able to explain the truth of the matter. Indeed, if anyone is familiar with Dever’s scholarship they realize that he understands this. However, his rhetoric in this work cuts against him. This is most clear in his conversations about the conquest and settlement periods. According to Dever, “The biblical writers and editors gave us two, diametrically opposed accounts of their origins . . . the account of Judges as ‘the ring of truth’ about it and may be earlier. . . . In contrast, Joshua is almost certainly a work of fiction, celebrating in an exaggerated fashion the exploits of a legendary military figure” (p. 139). There is no denying that Joshua and Judges speak to the same period of Israel’s history and that Joshua’s account schematically progresses in accordance with known literary conventions (namely, as conquest literature; cf. K. Lawson Younger Jr., Ancient Conquest Accounts, LHBOTS [Sheffield Academic, 2009]). But Dever’s conversation frustrates in a few ways. First, his conversation implies that a preference for Judges is linked to its witness to the “facts on the ground.” Second, his conversation doesn’t speak to how narrative poetics complement a concern for accuracy amid the endeavor of writing of history. Historiography does not stake its claim on a robotic presentation of the “facts on the ground.” Rather, historiography presents those facts in the context of communicating a point. Therefore, both Judges and Joshua have something to say for reconstructing the period of the Israelite settlement. The scholar, therefore, must engage the text critically, with a full awareness of the genre and its canons. The dynamics of genre, which Dever maintains is the key to unlocking the enduring value of the text, do not seem to be fully appreciated in places.Nevertheless, Dever remains an influential voice in the conversation of how archaeology converges with the biblical text. Evangelicals should continue to listen to him as he is bold, firm, and blunt from time to time. Most importantly, he wields the archaeological data well. However, we must also be willing to challenge any position that archaeology must be “primary.” Rather, a more fruitful way forward is to realize that the relationship between archaeology and the Bible is more mutual. Namely, the convergences don’t have to be dictated or controlled by an archaeological perspective. Rather, the dynamics should be more balanced and proceed from a respect for the conclusions of both disciplines, which is something that I have tried to argue (Pondering the Spade [Wipf &amp; Stock, 2019]).For those who cannot accept that nuance is necessary in conversations about historical sources, particularly with respect to the biblical source, this book will likely be frustrating. For those who deemphasize the issues of ancient history and culture in their interpretive endeavors, the importance of this book will likely not register. But for those who specialize in the issues of ancient history, culture, the historical books, or anything related, this work is important. I suspect that Dever’s shadow will continue to affect the contours of biblical scholarship well into the next generation as it continues to learn that archaeology has not buried the Bible but rather brings the intricacies of its message into sharper view.