RT Article T1 Syro-Palestinian/biblical archaeology JF Old Testament essays VO 7 IS 4 SP 132 OP 138 A1 Pienaar, D. N. LA English YR 1994 UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1929705913 AB Special Edition: Understanding the Old Testament in South Africa. To a large extent Biblical Archaeology is ignored in the curricula of the theological faculties of the Afrikaans-speaking universities of South Africa. It is clear that it can be of great assistance to promote an understanding of the strangeness of the biblical text and the world in which it was written. The prevailing negative attitude deprives theologians of an important reservoir of information because the available reports on archaeological activities are not accessible to them. This attitude towards Biblical Archaeology should be changed. Recent developments and discoveries are of paramount importance to exegetes and biblical historians because they make a major contribution towards understanding the context in which the events descriptionbed in the Bible took place and they also provide many non-biblical texts and information on obscure and enigmatic elements in the biblical text. K1 Ancient Near East K1 Detrimental to theological training K1 Lack of biblical archaeology studies K1 Surviving evidence of human activity K1 Syro-Palestinian/biblical archaeology K1 Total Palestine history