I've read the recent scholarship says there is no evidence to support this. But I've also read about Macalister coming to the opposite conclusion when excavating Tel Gezer and finding the remains of many children. So which is it?

I am interested in reading it, but I can't find it online and I don't feel like buying it rn.

The Book of Judith:

"These people are descended from the Chaldeans. 7 In the past they lived as strangers in Mesopotamia because they weren’t willing to follow the gods of their ancestors in the land of Chaldea. 8 They broke with the customs of their parents and worshipped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew. So their ancestors sent them away from the presence of their gods, and they fled to Mesopotamia, where they lived as strangers for a long time. 9 Then their God commanded them to leave there and go to the land of Canaan. They settled there and became very rich in gold, silver, and cattle. 10 But when a famine spread through the land of Canaan, they went down to live as strangers in Egypt, where there was food. While they were there, their numbers increased so that they couldn’t be counted. 11 Then the king of Egypt turned against them and took advantage of them, enslaving them and forcing them to make bricks. 12 They cried out to their God, and he sent incurable plagues upon the entire land of Egypt, so that the Egyptians drove them out of their sight. 13 God dried up the Red Sea[a] before the Israelites, 14 and led them by way of Sinai and Kadesh-barnea. They drove out all of the inhabitants of the desert. 15 They lived in the land of the Amorites and destroyed all the Heshbonites with their strength. Once they had crossed the Jordan, they took possession of all the highlands. 16 They drove out the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Shechemites, and all the Gergesites, and they lived there for a long time."

The Book was surely written by someone that was Judean and very pro Judea so the fact that they say the Judeans are descended from the Chaldeans, is that not a big deal? 😅 The origin doesn't begin with Egypt and Moses, and no mention of Abraham, but the Judeans/ Israelites abandoned the Gods of their fathers and went away to form their own society and worship another God. Or are we supposed to believe that in the story from the Book of Judith the person telling the information about Israel/ Judea's origin is getting it partially wrong?

I find remarkable little info online about this considering it seems to tell a narrative of the Judeans history that goes beyond simply Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Joseph, Egypt, Moses etc... It seems a more historical description.

ca 1994, a couple of Jewish colleagues told me they had just learned the Dead Sea Scrolls prove the disciples stole Jesus’ body while the guards were sleeping, and I got all excited and showed them Matthew 28:11-15, but they were obviously not impressed.

Cut to, I was retelling this story to another colleague recently, and he gave me a side eye, and I realized just how fantastic my story sounds, but here’s the deal:

My buddies weren’t the most sophisticated theologians ever (I had to explain to them why they were taking off for the Feast of Purim), so I don’t see them playing a prank on me, and if they had been, they would have brought it up later. It was a different time, and being considerate of your friend’s feelings did not carry much value. We were all brutal to each other - and we liked it!

I’ve been trying to prove the account either is or is not in the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It doesn’t put any theological dispute to rest, but it certainly is fascinating that a specific detail that was alluded to in one text is then repeated in another text from an opposing viewpoint. That feels like something historians should be excited about, right? So far, I’ve gone down as many Dead Sea Scrolls wormholes as Google can offer me, but there’s just not as much out there as I would like.

Who might have an idea where I can begin my search? Who Do You Know Who might know a lot about the Dead Sea Scrolls?

I didn't think that there was more to learn from or discover at Masada: https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/roman-siege-masada-timeline-0021376

News broke today:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/extremely-rare-beautiful-first-temple-era-genie-seal-discovered-in-jerusalem/

This upcoming "fest" (just seems like a conference too me) may be of interest to folks here:

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/travel-study/27th-annual-fall-bible-and-archaeology-fest/

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/the-tel-dan-inscription-the-first-historical-evidence-of-the-king-david-bible-story/

Few modern Biblical archaeology discoveries have caused as much excitement as the Tel Dan inscription—writing on a ninth-century B.C. stone slab (or stela) that furnished the first historical evidence of King David from the Bible.

The Tel Dan inscription, or “House of David” inscription, was discovered in 1993 at the site of Tel Dan in northern Israel in an excavation directed by Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran.

The broken and fragmentary inscription commemorates the victory of an Aramean king over his two southern neighbors: the “king of Israel” and the “king of the House of David.” In the carefully incised text written in neat Aramaic characters, the Aramean king boasts that he, under the divine guidance of the god Hadad, vanquished several thousand Israelite and Judahite horsemen and charioteers before personally dispatching both of his royal opponents. Unfortunately, the recovered fragments of the “House of David” inscription do not preserve the names of the specific kings involved in this brutal encounter, but most scholars believe the stela recounts a campaign of Hazael of Damascus in which he defeated both Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah.

The Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology puts out a free bi-monthly magazine.

https://armstronginstitute.org/magazine