Religion: Biblical Detective Story

Christians revere the Bible as a treasury of divine revelation; skeptics regard it as an unreliable collection of fable and folklore. Over the past century a host of scientists-archaeologists, geologists, astronomers, botanists-have added a third perspective. Beneath the barren plains and foothills of the ancient Biblical country, they have made discoveries revealing that, whatever else it may be, the Bible is a remarkably faithful chronicle of history. In The Bible as History (William Morrow & Co.; $5.95), published in the U.S. next week, German Scientific Journalist Werner Keller skillfully sifts and summarizes the recent archaeological and scientific discoveries relating to Biblical times and places. The result is a lively blend of drama and reporting that reads like a detective story grafted on a history book.

Significant Mud. Digging through ancient rubbish at Ur near the Persian Gulf in 1929, British and American archaeologists came upon a 10-ft. layer of mud far beneath the surface. Underneath the layer they discovered artifacts from the Stone Age. Excitedly, the scientists flashed a message to the world: "We have found the Flood." Tests in surrounding areas showed that the layer of clay was the residue of a vast, catastrophic deluge that had in about 4000 B.C. covered the river plains of southern Mesopotamia, the center of the known world of that time.

Such discoveries may disconcert the skeptics, but other findings are bound to upset Biblical fundamentalists, who insist on miracles where science is ready to offer natural explanations. Many scientists are now convinced that the rocks which Moses struck, "and the water came out abundantly," were water-storing limestone, whose hard crust was broken by the blow. The bush that "burned with fire" and yet "was not consumed" could have been either the gas plant fraxinella, whose highly volatile oils sometimes ignite if approached with a naked flame, or certain mistletoe twigs whose crimson blossoms in full bloom resemble flames. As for the manna that nourished the Israelites in the desert, an expedition in 1923 confirmed an old suspicion: the manna was doubtless an edible white secretion of the tamarisk tree. When the tree is attacked by a species of plant louse, the substance oozes out, crystallizes and drops to the ground, where the Isiaelites found it. Without debating the divine intervention that the Bible clearly indicates, Keller points out that this secretion has all the appearances and properties of the manna the Bible describes ("and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey"). The Israeli government, relying on the newly confirmed stature of the Bible as botanical expertise ("and Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba"), recently planted 2,000,000 tamarisk trees there.