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I'm looking to increase my knowledge of biblical archeology. As an orthodox jew, I'd prefer a book which takes a more traditional view with regards to the historicity of tanach. Any suggestions?

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Note to potential answerers: As always with these types of questions, an answer containing just a title will likely be deleted. Answers should include, besides a title (and similar bibliographic information), an explanation, possibly brief, of how the book in question serves the asker's stated needs. –  msh210 Jun 25 at 0:21
@msh210 I assume that means that I should put more detail/summary in the answer below? –  Matt Jun 25 at 2:08
@Matt yours looks okay to me. But you can see what the community thinks. –  msh210 Jun 25 at 4:56

2 Answers 2

Asimov's Guide to the Bible by Isaac Asimov takes an academic view but includes information about both miraculous and mundane archaeology. He does invoke rabbinical sources and I was surprised that certain things are actually supported. Og's bed, for example, is indeed visible to this day.

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The Riddle of the Exodus by James Long adheres fairly well to Orthodox religious beliefs (it was recommended to me by an Orthodox Rabbi), and discusses much of the relevant archaeology. The book's focus is, like the title, on the Exodus: showing that the decline of the great empire of Egypt corresponds with the time of the Biblical story of its destruction and how the plagues etc. fit with the relevant historical and archaeological evidence. The book isn't really so 'academic' and doesn't really meet scholarly standards, but there you go.

Kenneth Kitchen is a well known historian known to believe in Tanakh as well. His main book on the subject is "On the Reliability of the Old Testament", which is more of a proof-of-Tanakh book than it is meant to be a general overview of the history/archaeology. But he has other books that do that as well. On that book's link on Amazon, this book, "Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition" by James Hoffmeier, is also suggested, and it looks good but I've never read it myself. Similarly, I've heard good things about "A Biblical History of Israel", but that too I haven't read myself.

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