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Rabbi Daniel Rowe - Archaeology and Torah - Episode 3/9: Secrets of an Ancient Biblical Mine Revealed

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Author: Rabbi Daniel Rowe
Categories: History Religion
Tags: history, religion
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-15 19:02 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Do not conclude that the Bible is unreliable just because archaeologists have not yet found evidence for something, since "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." The speaker argues that recent excavations of Edom's copper mines in the Timna Valley show a powerful Edomite kingdom existed several centuries earlier than critics claim, which supports the Torah's account of Edom and Esau. The episode responds to a book's argument that Edom could not have been a state before the 8th century BCE.

Key Points

  • The speaker, Rabbi Daniel Rowe, responds to a book that claims the Torah's Edom and Esau stories reflect 7th-century perceptions; the book argues Edom was not a distinct political entity until the late 8th century BCE, a claim Rowe then disputes.
  • He attributes the phrase "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" to Kenneth Kitchen and uses it to challenge arguments based only on missing finds.
  • He cites the earlier King David example: critics said there was no reference to David until a 1993 discovery changed that view.
  • Erez Ben-Yosef's excavations of Timna Valley copper mines, near the Jordan border in southern Israel, are presented as evidence of a major state in Edom's area by the 11th century BCE.
  • The speaker argues that the scale of mining implies a large labor force, agricultural surplus, bureaucracy, and enforcement power, which points to a kingdom or even an empire.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions:
    • To check the sources yourself, search for "Erez Ben-Yosef," "biblical Edom," or "Edomite copper mines."
    • Look for Ben-Yosef's academic articles and his articles in general media, which the speaker says are more accessible.
    • When evaluating archaeological claims, separate "we have not found evidence" from "evidence shows something did not exist," as the speaker recommends.
  • The speaker says Timna Valley contains thousands of mine shafts, with as many as 10,000 dug within a century.
  • He argues that Edom was likely an enormous kingdom, if not an empire, by at least the 11th century BCE, about four or five hundred years earlier than Israel Finkelstein thought.
  • He presents this as a case where dating assumptions based on Assyrian references or 7th-century fortifications can be revised by new excavation.
  • He says the next episode will address the documentary's dismissal of evidence for the Torah's ancestral narratives, including Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

Bottom Line

The speaker's main point is that an argument from missing evidence can be overturned by later excavation, so Edom's early statehood should be judged by the Timna mining evidence rather than by the absence of earlier references.