{"id":65313,"date":"2021-02-08T20:40:56","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T01:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/?page_id=65313"},"modified":"2021-02-19T13:40:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T18:40:50","slug":"the-archaeological-evangelist","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/obituary\/the-archaeological-evangelist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Archaeological Evangelist"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Amy-Jill Levine<\/p>\n

It is difficult to say no to Hershel Shanks. Much like Jesus, he has the capacity to say to otherwise busy people, \u201cCome, follow me. I will publish your article after editing it, and your good news will receive wide distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

His potential disciples sometimes demur, \u201cI don\u2019t do archaeology: the heat, the dust, the waking up early, I might break a nail \u2026 .\u201d<\/p>\n

And Hershel responds, \u201cTake up your laptop and follow me.\u201d And we do.<\/p>\n

What makes Hershel\u2019s evangelism compelling is that he does not settle for the obvious. Nor does he seek to be provocative simply for the sake of provocation, despite what some \u201cLetters to the Editor\u201d suggest. He promotes the good news of critical biblical scholarship that speaks not only to what ancient texts meant, but also to what they might mean today for people who look to the Bible for guidance.<\/p>\n

In 2002, when he was editing Moment<\/em> magazine, Hershel asked me to do a piece on Jesus in his Jewish context. He\u2014not I\u2014titled the article \u201cJesus Who?\u201d Helped both by the provocative title and by Hershel\u2019s judicious editing, the piece was selected for inclusion in Arthur Kurzweil\u2019s Best Jewish Writing 2003. That one essay convinced me that I could write for the general public, and it made the topic of Jesus kosher for Jews.<\/p>\n

To keep the hechsher<\/em> (kosher \u201cseal of approval\u201d) for putting \u201cJews\u201d and \u201cJesus\u201d in the same sentence in place, in 2012 Hershel invited me to contribute a piece titled \u201cWhat Jews (and Christians Too) Should Know About the New Testament<\/a>\u201d for BAR<\/strong>. Also that same year, he published my column \u201cThe Many Faces of the Good Samaritan\u2014Most Wrong<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hershel Shanks has introduced the New Testament to Jews and corrected the numerous, erroneous anti-Jewish teachings that come from uninformed biblical study. He has done more than entertain and educate; he has provided the opportunity for Jews and Christians both to recognize our common history and to work against bearing false witness against each other.<\/p>\n

—<\/center>\"\"Amy-Jill Lev<\/strong>ine<\/strong>\u202fis the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2011, she became an affiliated Professor at the Woolf Institute, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations at Cambridge, UK. She co-edited\u202fThe Jewish Annotated New Testament<\/em> (Oxford, 2011) with Professor Marc Brettler of Brandeis University.<\/p>\n

<\/center>
—<\/center>The Biblical Archaeology Society remembers the life and achievements of Biblical Archaeology Review\u2019s founder and Editor Emeritus, Hershel Shanks, who passed away February 5, 2021<\/a> at the age of 90. Across more than four decades, beginning in 1974 until his retirement in 2017, Hershel transformed BAR<\/strong> from a relatively modest publication reflecting his deep personal interest in the biblical past into the world\u2019s best-selling and most widely read biblical archaeology magazine, enjoyed by millions.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We have collected reflections on Hershel\u2019s legacy from some of his colleagues and dear friends. Many of these originally appeared in Festschrift: A Celebration of Hershel Shanks<\/a>, the special double issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, published in 2018. Please enjoy these memories and celebrate Hershel\u2019s contributions to the fields of biblical archaeology and biblical studies.<\/em><\/p>\n

In Memory of Hershel Shanks Main Page<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Amy-Jill Levine It is difficult to say no to Hershel Shanks. 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