Because it’s the Bible

Peter James, et. al., ( Centuries of Darkness: A Challenge to the Chronology of Old World Archaeology ) are no fans of the “devout breed of archaeologist happy to dig with a trowel in one hand and a Bible in the other.” At the same time, they are critical of the knee-jerk skepticism about biblical dates that “can be as blind as faith itself.”

They note that since Darwin “biblical texts have been subjected to the most painstaking scrutiny and dissection using the tools of literary criticism. The dates the Old Testament gives, even those for historical periods which are potentially useful to archaeology, have been altered, mangled, or rejected in an arbitrary fashion.”

Why? They have a theory: “It seems that the Bible has suffered from this kind of hypercritical treatment simply because it is the Bible.”