> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ministryy.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Biblical Archaeology Society - URL: https://www.ministryy.com/biblical-archaeology-society/ - Published: 2026-10-22T02:41:01.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-22T02:42:49.000Z - Author: Ministryy - Tags: Apologetics, Historical Research, Archaeological Research ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/d5/24d5d8e2-e840-471b-ac6c-29e74e44dc3e/content/images/2026/10/biblical-archaeology-society-cover-1.png) # About the Biblical Archaeology Society Hershel Shanks wasn't an archaeologist. He was a lawyer. Then he spent a year in Jerusalem. In 1972, Shanks took a sabbatical from his Washington, D.C., law practice and moved his family to Israel. While there, he became fascinated with archaeology and found himself surrounded by people studying the ancient world. He visited sites. He met archaeologists. He began following discoveries. And he noticed a problem. The scholars were uncovering fascinating things about the lands, cultures, cities, and people connected with the Bible—but much of that knowledge remained trapped inside academic circles. Ordinary people wanted to know about it. They simply needed someone to translate the scholarship into language they could understand. Shanks decided to try. ## Bring Archaeology Down From the Ivory Tower The idea eventually became the Biblical Archaeology Society. Shanks founded the nonprofit organization in 1974, and in March 1975 he published the first issue of *Biblical Archaeology Review*. That first magazine was modest. Sixteen pages. A simple design. And Shanks wrote the entire issue himself. But the purpose was already clear. Professional archaeologists were doing the excavation. Scholars were interpreting the evidence. BAR would help everyone else understand what they were finding. That principle still sits at the center of BAS. Its job isn't primarily to conduct excavations. It's to connect the people doing serious archaeological and biblical research with the much larger audience that wants to learn from them. ## Walk Into the World Behind the Bible Archaeology gives biblical places texture. Jerusalem stops being merely a word printed in a verse. You begin seeing walls, gates, streets, water systems, houses, tombs, pottery, coins, inscriptions, and destruction layers. The same transformation happens across the biblical world. Egypt. Babylon. Assyria. Moab. Canaan. Galilee. The Roman Empire. Suddenly the Bible exists within a physical landscape populated by real civilizations. BAS helps readers explore that landscape. Its articles cover archaeology connected with both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, while also reaching into the wider ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, Greek, Roman, and early Christian worlds necessary for understanding biblical history. Sometimes an archaeological discovery illuminates a biblical passage. Sometimes it complicates a traditional interpretation. And sometimes archaeology raises entirely new questions. BAS makes room for all three. ## Don't Force the Shovel to Prove the Bible That last point is important. Biblical archaeology has changed significantly over the past century. Earlier generations sometimes approached excavation with an explicit desire to verify biblical accounts. Modern archaeology is generally more cautious. Archaeologists examine material remains first. They date pottery. Study architecture. Analyze bones and seeds. Read inscriptions. Compare settlement patterns. Reconstruct economies. Examine evidence of warfare, migration, religion, trade, and everyday life. Then scholars debate how that evidence should be understood. BAS allows those debates to happen. Its contributors don't have to reach the same theological conclusions. A Christian scholar may interpret evidence one way. A Jewish scholar may approach the same subject differently. Another archaeologist may be skeptical of a biblical connection altogether. Readers get to encounter the arguments rather than being protected from disagreement. ## Let Scholars Disagree in Public That willingness to host controversy became one of *Biblical Archaeology Review's* defining characteristics. Archaeology rarely produces a perfectly neat answer. A newly discovered inscription may be damaged. A structure may have several plausible dates. Scholars can disagree about whether an ancient site corresponds to a biblical location. Even the meaning of a few ancient letters scratched into stone can generate years of debate. BAR brings those disagreements into public view. Readers can encounter competing interpretations from specialists who actually work with the evidence. That makes the publication different from material designed primarily to defend a predetermined conclusion. BAS describes itself as nonsectarian. Its audience includes Christians and Jews, believers and skeptics, clergy and academics, students and ordinary readers who are simply fascinated by the ancient world. The common ground is curiosity. ## Open an Archaeological Library From Your Computer Over decades of publishing, BAS accumulated an enormous archive. That material now forms the BAS Library. Instead of searching through stacks of old magazines, readers can digitally explore the complete archives of *Biblical Archaeology Review*, *Bible Review*, and *Archaeology Odyssey*. That means decades of scholarship sit beside one another. A reader studying the Dead Sea Scrolls can trace how scholarly discussions changed over time. Someone interested in ancient Jerusalem can move between excavation reports, historical interpretations, maps, photographs, and later reassessments. The library also includes books, videos, curated collections, and other research material. What began as a small magazine has gradually become a substantial digital doorway into biblical archaeology. ## Don't Just Read About a Dig Eventually, some readers want to get dirt under their fingernails. BAS helps with that too. Its Find a Dig resources connect interested volunteers with archaeological excavations. That's an unusual opportunity. Archaeology isn't exclusively performed by professors standing over trenches while everyone else watches. Many excavations depend upon teams of students and volunteers working alongside professional archaeologists. Someone who has spent years reading about the ancient world can potentially join a project and experience the process firsthand. Excavation quickly teaches an important lesson. Discoveries don't usually emerge looking like museum exhibits. History comes out of the ground dirty, fragmented, and without labels. Understanding it requires careful documentation and interpretation. ## Give People Access to the Scholars BAS also moves beyond publishing through lectures, seminars, symposia, tours, and educational programs. These create opportunities for the public to hear directly from archaeologists and biblical scholars. A name someone has repeatedly encountered underneath magazine articles becomes a person explaining decades of research. Questions can be asked. Arguments can be challenged. New discoveries can be discussed before they make their way into textbooks. That relationship between scholar and public is really what Hershel Shanks was trying to create from the beginning. The format keeps changing. Magazine. Website. Digital library. Video. Online seminar. The bridge remains. ## Keep Digging, Even When the Answer Gets Complicated Perhaps the greatest value of biblical archaeology is that it makes the ancient world harder to simplify. A tiny inscription can reshape a historical debate. A newly excavated building can overturn an older theory. A manuscript discovered in a cave can illuminate how ancient Jews read Scripture. A first-century fishing village can help modern readers understand the environment surrounding Jesus' ministry. None of those discoveries replaces the Bible. And archaeology cannot answer every theological or historical question someone might bring to Scripture. What it can do is recover pieces of the world in which biblical history unfolded. Piece by piece, those fragments give us a richer picture. The Biblical Archaeology Society has spent more than half a century helping ordinary people look at those pieces alongside the scholars studying them. At the heart of the Biblical Archaeology Society is a remarkably simple idea: discoveries about the world of the Bible shouldn't remain locked inside universities, excavation reports, and academic journals. By bringing archaeologists and biblical scholars into conversation with the public through Biblical Archaeology Review, its digital library, educational resources, lectures, seminars, and archaeological opportunities, BAS helps readers move beyond simply picturing the biblical world in their imagination and begin encountering the physical evidence that world left behind. [ ](https://www.facebook.com/BibArch/ "Facebook") [ ](https://www.instagram.com/biblicalarchaeology?ref=ministryy.com "Instagram") [ ](https://x.com/bibarch?ref=ministryy.com "X")