In Memory of Hershel Shanks
Honoring the Founder, Longtime Editor, and Editor Emeritus of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Bas Staff
February 06, 2021
5 Comments
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This week, the Biblical Archaeology Society remembers the life and achievements of Biblical Archaeology Review’s founder and Editor Emeritus, Hershel Shanks, who passed away February 5, 2021 at the age of 90.
In 1974, Hershel envisioned BAR, creating a modest publication that reflected his deep personal interest in the biblical past. Over the following four decades, until his retirement in 2017, he transformed BAR into the world’s best-selling and most widely read biblical archaeology magazine, enjoyed by millions. He was firmly committed to making the latest archaeological discoveries—and scholarly controversies—accessible to the broader public, through well-written, beautifully presented, and engaging content that brought the biblical world to life. BAS is honored to carry on the tremendous legacy left to us by our friend, colleague, and mentor, Hershel Shanks.
Hershel Shanks: March 8, 1930—Feb 5, 2021
We have collected reflections on Hershel’s legacy from some of his colleagues and dear friends. Many of these originally appeared in Festschrift: A Celebration of Hershel Shanks, the special double issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, published in 2018. Please enjoy these memories and celebrate Hershel’s contributions to the fields of biblical archaeology and biblical studies.
“A Man for the People”
Christopher Rollston
The George Washington University
“Born in Our Living Room”
Eric and Carol Meyers
Duke University, Professors Emeriti
“Larger than Life”
Eric H. Cline
The George Washington University
“The Archaeological Evangelist”
Amy-Jill Levine
Vanderbilt University
“The Face of BAR”
André Lemaire
École Pratique des Hautes Études at the Sorbonne University, Paris
“Scaling Ivory Towers”
Alan Millard
University of Liverpool, Professor Emeritus
“Unwavering and Obstreperous”
William G. Dever
University of Arizona, Professor Emeritus
The full festschrift is available and open to read, in the BAS Library.
Some of Hershel Shanks’s major campaigns and archaeological explorations are highlighted on the cover of BAR, March/April May/June 2018.
Hershel Shanks founded the Biblical Archaeology Society in 1974 and published the first issue of Biblical Archaeology Review in 1975. He served as the editor of BAR until his retirement in 2017. In the very first issue, Hershel wrote, “The aim of The Biblical Archaeology Review is to make available in understandable language the current insights of professional archaeology as they relate to the Bible.” In his 43 years as editor, he did not deviate from this mission.
Hershel’s family requests that donations in honor of Hershel be made to the Biblical Archaeology Society
Please share your memories of Hershel in the comments section below.
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Rest In peace, Hershel. It was an honor working with you, and continuing your legacy with BAR for the past three years. Thank you for bringing biblical archaeology to the masses. May your memory be for a blessing. -bc
So many of us grew up loving dinosaurs, wooly mammoths, and then Egyptian tombs. Life, love, and paying bills scared most of us from pursuing archeology as a living, but in the back of our minds we heard the call again on some National Geographic special. We watched, we sighed, we paid more bills. Then I found Biblical Archeology Review: colorful, readable, aimed at adults. Hershel Shanks let me live out my archeology fantasy, challenged my thinking, and made me laugh. There is a hole in my academic soul and a prayer from my Christian heart hearing of his passing. May the joy he brought so many on earth be multiplied by the God we both profess in heaven. Thank you for making the youthful passion of so many so accessible through your work.
What a guy. Fired my love for history at a very early age. May his memory be blessed.
I’ve enjoyed BAR since I started reading in 2006. I am so sorry to hear of his passing, as he seemed to be a real genuine guy who loved archaeology, the Bible, and educating people of both. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and those he impacted. May we continue by building on his legacy to educate.
Around January 1992, as a grad student, I became fascinated by an article (IEJ, 1974) on an ancient seal impression in clay that seemed to name a king in the Bible: Hezekiah, ca. 700 BCE! Soon after that, however, I learned of Biblical minimalism and its claim that the Hebrew Bible contains almost no history. Challenged, I began to look for other inscriptional evidences of people in the Bible, and was excited to find quite a few. My methodology and limited initial results appeared in my revised dissertation, published as a book in 2004, plus several conference papers and journal articles, especially a lengthy “Corrections and Updates” article in 2009.
Eventually I realized that no one was going to wade through my hundreds of pages just to glean some scattered results! So in 2012 I gathered the best results into a single book chapter. Calmly terrified of attempting to cover the whole Bible, I had set careful time limits, covering only a few parts of the Bible and only inscriptions in a few ancient languages.
In January 2013, “out of the blue,” Hershel Shanks phoned me about my “best results” chapter. He said he saw “an article” in it. When I sought refuge in the narrow limits I had set, with stunning boldness he asked: “Why don’t you just cover the whole Bible?”
At first, my response was shocked silence. As we talked, however, I began to see how it could be done. Thus far, the “article” has become four, with a possible fifth under review. It was Hershel who gave me much of my research agenda for years to come. I will always be grateful to God for him, for his pivotal challenge, and for his warm encouragement.