In THE RED-HAIRED ARCHAEOLOGIST DIGS ISRAEL, AMANDA HOPE HALEY gives us a wonderful exposé of her time in Israel, first of all when she went on archaeological digs and then when she visited the country with her husband and parents. She has a lovely sense of humour and of course is very knowledgeable about the different civilizations and the old cities we read about in the Bible.
I also "dig" Israel and her people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose God I serve as a committed Christian. I am also privileged to have travelled in Israel in 1982 with my husband and sons, and know that there is something special there that one doesn't experience anywhere else in the world.
I really enjoyed the book.
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Harvest House Publishers. The opinions in this review are completely my own.

This book is a lot about everything Israel and nothing in particular with an ambition to disprove stories from the Bible. Not sure why everything has to be a shock. Did you know Goliath was not a giant?! Because of some unfounded speculations? The height of Goliath is specifically mentioned in the Bible, and it does not mention anything that is not important. We do not know how tall Solomon was or even Jesus, but we do know that Goliath was tall and very strong, he wore a bronze helmet, a bronze coat that weighed 125 lbs, a bronze leg armor, a bronze javelin on his shoulder, the shaft of his spear weighed 15 lbs. The point of the story is that the guy was huge! The Israelites were terrified and deeply shaken but David was brave enough to challenge him, so the traditional interpretation is not wrong. Yes, Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute and everyone who can read the Bible can see it plain and clear. I understand that the author had some difficulties with her faith and understanding of the Bible (My spiritual foundation was first shaken in my late teens. I took religious studies courses at Rhodes College, and for the first time I was learning from people who did not believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God--but who knew more about it than any Sunday School teacher I'd ever met. In my first semester, my eyes were opened to everything that is "wrong" with my beloved Bible, all the contradictions, textual errors, and historical inaccuracies.

For the next several years, I described my faith as schizophrenic. In class I was learning and regurgitating biblical facts that threatened to undermine my biblical faith. Many of my classmates abandoned Christianity as they learned there was no apple in Eden, Moses parted a reed sea, Jericho was destroyed long before Joshua got there, Goliath (probably) wasn't nine feet tall, there is no whale in the Book of Jonah, and Jesus was three years old when the Wise Men showed up. But I still had my quiet time every night in my dorm room. My faith in God never wavered, although my understanding of Him did. the rest of the testimony is here) , but it is not clear from the book what the point of this writing is. Supposedly a Christian author is using B.C.E. as in before common era and C.E. as in common era evidently to be religion neutral, that would be my guess. Perhaps Jesus was not proven enough by these Israel digs either.

Fascinating insight into archaeological digs alongside the history of Israel and the related scripture.