JourneyOnline
Reviewed by Wayne McHugh, minister with Proserpine-Whitsunday Uniting Church
John McRay has, in my opinion, produced a very useful series.
These books belong to his Essential Bible Reference series, each book in the series providing an introductory level presentation of its topic.
He hasn’t gone into too much detail, but provides enough detail to be meaningful.
Mr McRay has taken the Bible as his point of reference and discusses points at which archaeology and the Bible meet.
His brief introduction is not interested in archaeology of the time apart from Bible.
After a brief introduction to archaeology and the type of contribution it makes to biblical understanding, Old Testament Archaeology has a section on most of the major historical periods of the Old Testament.
Because of the brevity of the book and the length and complexity of the periods, it is understandably limited.
For the beginner, though, I think it is a good introduction.
New Testament Archaeology is similarly structured.
The first half of the book is kept to the time and locations relating to Jesus and the second half to places visited by Paul on his missionary journeys.
The books are heavily illustrated with photographs (mainly) and are written in uncomplicated English, making them quite accessible.
I expect the rest of his series would be similarly useful.
I recommend these books to those looking for a first-up introduction to the subject of biblically related archaeology.
