Abstract
Current debates between traditional and revisionist scholars have centered on the veracity of the biblical text. Another more recent trend is to focus on establishing, or refuting, the 'ethnicity' of the ancient Israelites. Both of these currents in biblical scholarship fail to address the potential usefulness of the Bible in elucidating ancient cultures. Suggesting that the Bible can be an informative ethnographic analogy for archaeological data, this article sees the book of Judges as a case in point. Beginning from the reports on excavations and surveys from Iron Age sites, it explores the relationships between human beings and the natural world by correlating the text with the material culture.
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