BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW is the subject of what is evidently a series of critical essays being posted on the Bible and Interpretation website. The most recent is:

The Ages of BAR

The publication of unprovenanced objects from private collections simultaneously accomplished several things. It situated BAR as a source of primary data, presented by scholars without any of the usual controls on the authenticity of materials and quality of analysis, such as peer review, presentation at scholarly conferences (whose sponsoring organizations are usually bound to reject such objects), and dialogues in scholarly journals.


By Alexander H. Joffe
Archaeologist and Historian.
September 2005

An earlier essay was published by Jim West and received a reply from the magazine's editor, Hershel Shanks.