Advances in archaeology and carbon-dating contribute to our understanding of the biblical text’s
historical context, of daily life in ancient Israel, and of the provenance of inscriptions. All of this
information (seemingly) makes us better readers of the text with greater understanding of the text’s
context, but does it? Have we become complacent in our reading because we rely on these modes
of empirical, scientific evidence so much that we lose our connection to the text?