This is richly interesting scholarship conveyed by a writer, Richard A. Gabriel, in full command of reader-friendly expository techniques. Those who tacitly see history as a cultural weapon, archaeological and otherwise, to promote politically correct or pacifist ideas will find little succor in Gabriel's smash-through-to-the-truth style. Not that Gabriel doesn't speculate to help us sort through possible interpretive hypotheses.



Gabriel's approach argues for a more comprehensive reading of the Old Testament than is often allowed. As if invoking the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Gabriel argues that our interpretive filter either allows us to see or not see a particular focus: "To regard the Bible as a religious text makes it difficult to regard it as a military text, for if one accepts the text as describing miraculous events, one will likely be blinded to the text as military history." Is light a wave or a particle? Both, we answer, but not necessarily at the same time.



While Gabriel respects the Bible as primarily a religious text, he lets the reader know that his purpose is to reveal the military background, including "logistics, tactics, manpower, fortifications, command and control, weapons and weapons manufacture, troop leadership, and military strategy." Readers will never feel that Gabriel is doing anything more than illuminating what the writers of the Old Testament have already put there. To respect their intentions, the sacred and divine should best be read in the context of war and military defense.



It "has been customary to regard Israelite military history as beginning with Joshua and the conquest of Canaan," Gabriel argues, but "when the text is read only as military history, it turns out that Exodus contains a wealth of information heretofore not addressed by military historians that sheds considerable light on the military capabilities of the Israelites before the assault on Canaan."



The reader never feels that Gabriel's research is in the service of any strings-attached ideological master. Only the gullible few will accept government-sponsored "scholarship" in any field as being the vanguard, tenure-seeking academics excused for obvious reasons.



Yes, I respect Gabriel's battlefield savvy obtained from persevering biblical research--and his combat experience during the war in Vietnam. The value of this book can also be glimpsed while watching his well-done "Bible Battles" program on the History Channel, available through Amazon.