Speaking at a dinner given for him last night at the Harmonie Club before his departure for Palestine, Dr. Nelson Glueck stated that the Bible, in the light of recent archaeological discoveries made in Palestine, should be reinterpreted as a book of history. The dinner was given under the auspices of the American Friends of the Hebtew University. Edward M. M. Warburg, a director of the Museum of Modern Art, presided. Henry Morgenthau was honorary chairman. One hundred and fifty archaelogists and laymen attended.
The Bible is not only a book of history as we understand that term today, Dr. Glueck further declared, but also a theological document presenting a specifc religious point of view. Records found recently in western Palestine give historians popportunity to fill gaps in important periods of Hebrew history, he said.
His address was illustrated by slides showing pottery and other objects excavated at Rujm el abd, Dhibam and Balauah in Transjordan, which he stated had given the world three of the most important inscribed monuments and reliefs which have thus far been discovered in Palestine. Included in the picutures shown were ancient synagogues excavated at Hamme and Beth Alpha by the Hebrew University. He announced that the expedition he would lead under the ausices of the American School of Oriental Research Bagdag, and Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati would set out in March to try to verity the existence of a trade route through the teritory of Edom as far as the Gulf of Aqaba. The discovery of part of this highway the previous years had substantiated the historical validity of the background of the Biblical marrative in the 14th Chapter of Genesis. Shards or remains of pottery from cities of this period were shown by Dr. Glueck.
Dr. Glueck, who leaves for Palestine this morning to contiue an archaeological survey of Transjordan, said that the joint expedition of the Hebrew University-Harvard University last year uncovered large portions of the ancient Biblical city, Samaria, which Omri built. Photographs of the inscrptions, ivories and buildings found there which have greatly augmeted our knowledge of the history of the Kingdom of Israel, were shown, together with lifesize colored tracings of mosaics found at Beth Alpha by a Hebtew University expedition.
Dr. William Foxewll Albright of Johns Hopkins University, permanent Dircetor of the American School of Oriental Research at Jerusalem, also spoke. He stated that the latest discoveries made by Dr. E. L. Sukenik, archaeologist of the Hewbrew University, were not made in an excavators’ camp, but through findings he has just made of ancient Jewish coins discovered in Jerusalem, whose inscriptions prove that a Jewish autonomous state existed in the Persian period two centuries after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exisle. Dr. Albright pointed out that we know for the first time through the discoveries made by Dr. Sukenik, the politiecal nature of this autonomous Jewish state.
The hope was expressed by Dr. Albright that in the archaeological expedition to be led by Dr. Glueck into ancient Edom, he would succeed in finding facts to bear out the existence of an ancient trade route to the Red Sea, as well as further information concerning the mysterious Biblical people, the Horites, who are said to play an important histroical role in the history of the Hebtew nation
Dr. E. A. Speiser, Advisor to the University of Pennsylvania Museum on Mesopotamian archaeology, also spoke at the dinner. He said that Mesopotamian finds have already shed a great deal of light on the Hyksos, as weel as the Hebtews. Discoveries made there have also brought to light the remains of a forgotten people of the ancient world, the Hurrians, (called Horites in the Bible) who he said had contributed to the ethnic compostion, laws and customs and the social, make-up of the Hebrews.
He also stated that further researches in the Hurrian reions of Mesopotamia awaited only funds for excavations. He exprssed the hope that further word might be done by Hebrew University to uncover the sites in this sections of the world, for the results to be expected would furnish indispensable links in the ancient history of the world.
“Because of its location in a land which for untold ages has been a trade route for ancient civilization,” said Mr. Warburg, “The Hebrew University acts as a funnel; it receives at one end the latest reports from scholars, representing all creeds and nationalities, whom it helps through its magnificent oriental library and through its research laboratories, and purs out through the other end of the funnel this accumulation of knowledge to peoples all over the world. The country of Palestine for our time, as well as for past ages, it the birthplace of ideas and ideals which no one can well afford to overlook, This country has become the University for the world a test tube from which are extracted principles of civilization and culture, both past and present.”
Among the guests of honor at the meeting were: Dr. Julian Morgenstern President of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati; Dr. Cyurs Adler, President of Dropsie College; Dr. Elihu Grant, of Haverford College, Haverford, Pa.; Dr. Lewis C. Moon, Executive Secretary of the American School of Oriental Research, Dr. Loulow S. Bull, of the Metropolitan Munseuem; Prefessor Richard Gottheil, formerly Director of the Oriental School of Research at Jerusalem; the Palestine Exploration Sociaety; Dr. Ismar J. Peritz; Dr. David de Sola Pool, former President of Herman Bernstein; Hiram J. Halle; Sol M. Stroock; Samuel J. Bloomingdale; Charles J. Lane; Solomon Lamport and Jacoh Landau.
Included among the sponsors of the meeting were: Governor Lehman, Thomas W. Lamont, Samuel Fels of Philadelphia, Mrs. Felix Fuld, Harry F. Guggenheim, Sam A. Lewishn, Judge Julian W. Mack, Janes Marshall, Judge Irwin Untermyer, Maurice Wertheim, Louis Wiley, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Dr. Harry A. Wolfson Frofessor Kirsopp Lake, Robert P. Blake and Dr. of Columbia University; Professor James H. Breasted of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; Professor Carl H. Kraeling of Yale University; Dr. Hetty Goldman, specialist in Greek archaeology; Dr. John H. Finley and Dr. Herbert W. Winlock of the Met. ropolitan Museum.
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