The Early History of the Hebrews

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There are many histories of Israel, but this is the first attempt to write one from a purely archaeological point of view. During the last few years, discovery after discovery has come crowding upon us from the ancient East, revolutionizing all our past conceptions of early Oriental history, and opening out a new and unexpected world of culture and civilization. For the Oriental archaeologist, Hebrew history has ceased to stand alone; it has taken its place in that great stream of human life and action that the excavator and decipherer are revealing to us, and it can at last be studied like the history of Greece or Rome. The age of the Patriarchs is being brought close to us; our museums are filled with written documents that are centuries older than Abraham; and we are beginning to understand the politics which underlie the story of the Pentateuch and the causes of the events narrated in it.

The present writer, accordingly, must be understood to speak throughout simply as an archaeologist and historian. Theologically, he accepts unreservedly whatever doctrine the Church laid down as an article of the faith. But among these doctrines, he fails to find any that forbid a free and impartial handling of Old Testament history.