|
by
Doug Ward |
My wife Sherry and I saw a number of amazing archaeological sites on a recent
trip to Israel. Even the hotel where we stayed in Magdala was built next to
such a site, the remains of a synagogue from the first century AD. Did Jesus
speak in this synagogue? Did Mary Magdalene first encounter him there? There is
no way to know, but it is fun to contemplate the possibilities.
Americans
have long been fascinated by the archaeology of the Holy Land. Locally, Xenia
Theological Seminary appointed a lecturer in biblical archaeology way back in
1908. According to the man who held that position, Melvin Grove Kyle, Xenia was
the first American seminary to feature archaeology as a major area of study.
Kyle
was born in eastern Ohio, near Cadiz, in 1858. After undergraduate work at
Muskingum College and seminary study at Xenia and Allegheny seminaries, he
became the pastor of Seventh United Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in
1886.
In
Philadelphia Kyle met Max Müller, an Egyptologist at the University of
Pennsylvania. Müller, who knew that Kyle took mission trips to Egypt,
asked Kyle to research something for him on one of these trips. Kyle soon
became fascinated with archaeology. He sought out prominent Egyptologists like
Sir Flinders Petrie and became involved in excavations in Egypt.
Kyle
began lecturing at Xenia Seminary in 1908, then was promoted to full professor
in 1915 and taught there until his death in 1933. During that period the
seminary moved to St. Louis in 1920, then moved again to Pittsburgh in 1930
when Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary was formed. Kyle's archaeological work, along
with that of his student James Kelso, formed the foundation for the collection
that became the Kelso Museum of Near Eastern Archaeology in Pittsburgh.
In
the 1920s Kyle became friends with prominent archaeologist W. F. Albright. Kyle
assisted Albright on a survey of the Dead Sea region in 1924. Then during
1926-1932, Kyle worked with Albright in excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim, which they believed might be the biblical Debir (Joshua 15). The Tell Beit Mirsim
excavations were important for the information they yielded on the dating of
ancient pottery.
Kyle
was passionate about archaeology's potential to support the historical
reliability of the Bible, and he frequently spoke and wrote on
this theme in both scholarly and popular venues. For example, he pointed to the
number of Hebrew words in the ancient Egyptian language and the number of
Egyptian words in the book of Exodus as evidence that the children of Israel
had indeed come out of Egypt. He was encouraged that archaeologists had already
discovered so many of the places named in the Bible. I have a feeling that he
would be excited to learn about the great progress made in archaeology during
the years since 1933.
Kyle
was a staunch biblical conservative but was not argumentative about his views.
Albright admitted that he became more open to the value of the Bible in
archaeological research through Kyle's winsome influence. Kyle's positive
impact upon his colleagues and students may have been his greatest legacy.
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On 26 Jun 2023, 12:05.
