As late as the 19th century the Bible was almost the sole source of our knowledge of the ancient Near East. The records of secular historians preserved in medieval Latin manuscripts were scarcely able to add anything to the historical picture of the period prior to the 1st millennium B.C. provided by the ОТ. This position was radically altered by archaeological excavations.

In accordance with the aims set before the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 1909 by Pius X, the Jesuit Fathers, under the leadership of A. Ma…