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Historicity of the Bible

The historicity of the Bible is the question of the Bible's relationship to history—covering not just the Bible's acceptability as history but also the ability to understand the literary forms of biblical narrative. One can extend biblical historicity to the evaluation of whether or not the Christian New Testament is an accurate record of the historical Jesus and of the Apostolic Age. This tends to vary depending upon the opinion of the scholar.

When studying the books of the Bible, scholars examine the historical context of passages, the importance ascribed to events by the authors, and the contrast between the descriptions of these events and other historical evidence. Being a collaborative work composed and redacted over the course of several centuries, the historicity of the Bible is not consistent throughout the entirety of its contents.

According to theologian Thomas L. Thompson, a representative of the Copenhagen School, also known as "biblical minimalism", the archaeological record lends sparse and indirect evidence for the Old Testament's narratives as history. Others, like archaeologist William G. Dever, felt that biblical archaeology has both confirmed and challenged the Old Testament stories. While Dever has criticized the Copenhagen School for its more radical approach, he is far from being a biblical literalist, and thinks that the purpose of biblical archaeology is not to simply support or discredit the biblical narrative, but to be a field of study in its own right.

Some scholars argue that the Bible is national history, with an "imaginative entertainment factor that proceeds from artistic expression" or a "midrash" on history.

Manuscripts and canons
The Bible exists in multiple manuscripts, none of them an autograph, and multiple biblical canons, which do not completely agree on which books have sufficient authority to be included or their order. The early discussions about the exclusion or integration of various apocrypha involve an early idea about the historicity of the core. The Ionian Enlightenment influenced early patrons like Justin Martyr and Tertullian—both saw the biblical texts as being different from (and having more historicity than) the myths of other religions. Augustine was aware of the difference between science and scripture and defended the historicity of the biblical texts, e.g., against claims of Faustus of Mileve.

Historians hold that the Bible should not be treated differently from other historical (or literary) sources from the ancient world. One may compare doubts about the historicity of, for example, Herodotus; the consequence of these discussions is not that historians shall have to stop using ancient sources for historical reconstruction, but need to be aware of the problems involved when doing so.

Very few texts survive directly from antiquity: most have been copied—some, many times. To determine the accuracy of a copied manuscript, textual critics examine the way the transcripts have passed through history to their extant forms. The higher the consistency of the earliest texts, the greater their textual reliability, and the less chance that the content has been changed over the years. Multiple copies may also be grouped into text types, with some types judged closer to the hypothetical original than others.

Writing and reading history
The meaning of the term "history" is itself dependent on social and historical context. Paula McNutt, for instance, notes that the Old Testament narratives, "'Do not record 'history' in the sense that history is understood in the twentieth century. ...The past, for biblical writers as well as for twentieth-century readers of the Bible, has meaning only when it is considered in light of the present, and perhaps an idealized future.'"

Even from the earliest times, students of religious texts had an awareness that parts of the scriptures could not be interpreted as a strictly consistent sequence of events. The Talmud cites a dictum ascribed to the third-century teacher Abba Arika that "there is no chronological order in the Torah". Examples were often presented and discussed in later Jewish exegesis with, according to Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972), an ongoing discourse between those who would follow the views of Rabbi Ishmael (born 90 CE) that "the Torah speaks in human language", compared to the more mystical approach of Rabbi Akiva (c. 50–135) that any such deviations should signpost some deeper order or purpose, to be divined.

During the modern era, the focus of biblical history has also diversified. The project of biblical archaeology associated with W.F. Albright (1891–1971), which sought to validate the historicity of the events narrated in the Bible through the ancient texts and material remains of the Near East, has a more specific focus compared to the more expansive view of history described by archaeologist William Dever (b. 1933). In discussing the role of his discipline in interpreting the biblical record, Dever has pointed to multiple histories within the Bible, including the history of theology (the relationship between God and believers), political history (usually the account of "Great Men"), narrative history (the chronology of events), intellectual history (treating ideas and their development, context and evolution), socio-cultural history (institutions, including their social underpinnings in family, clan, tribe and social class and the state), cultural history (overall cultural evolution, demography, socio-economic and political structure and ethnicity), technological history (the techniques by which humans adapt to, exploit and make use of the resources of their environment), natural history (how humans discover and adapt to the ecological facts of their natural environment), and material history (artifacts as correlates of changes in human behaviour).

Sharply differing perspectives on the relationship between narrative history and theological meaning present a special challenge for assessing the historicity of the Bible. Supporters of biblical literalism "deny that Biblical infallibility and inerrancy are limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes, exclusive of assertions in the fields of history and science. We further deny that scientific hypotheses about earth history may properly be used to overturn the teaching of Scripture on creation and the flood." "History", or specifically biblical history, in this context appears to mean a definitive and finalized framework of events and actions—comfortingly familiar shared facts—like an omniscient medieval chronicle, shorn of alternative accounts, psychological interpretations, or literary pretensions. But prominent scholars have expressed diametrically opposing views: [T]he stories about the promise given to the patriarchs in Genesis are not historical, nor do they intend to be historical; they are rather historically determined expressions about Israel and Israel's relationship to its God, given in forms legitimate to their time, and their truth lies not in their facticity, nor in the historicity, but their ability to express the reality that Israel experienced. Modern professional historians, familiar with the phenomenon of on-going historical revisionism, allow new findings and ideas into their interpretations of "what happened", and scholars versed in the study of texts (however sacred) see all narrators as potentially unreliable and all accounts—especially edited accounts—as potentially historically incomplete, biased by times and circumstances.

Authorship
A central pillar of the Bible's historical authority was the tradition that it had been composed by the principal actors or eyewitnesses to the events described—the Pentateuch was the work of Moses, the Book of Joshua was by Joshua, and so on. As early as the Middle Ages, scholars such as Abraham ibn Ezra noted internal contradictions that suggested the Pentateuch was not authored by Moses. For example, Moses could not have written an account of his own death in Deuteronomy 34.

These ideas became more common during the Protestant Reformation. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his major work Leviathan (1651) argued that the biblical texts themselves provide significant evidence for when they were written. Readers, he notes, should be guided by what the text itself says rather than relying on later tradition: "The light therefore that must guide us in this question, must be that which is held out unto us from the books themselves: and this light, though it shew us not the author of every book, yet it is not unuseful to give us knowledge of the time wherein they were written." Using such textual clues, Hobbes found it was impossible for Moses to have authored the Pentateuch. He also believed Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles were written long after the events they describe.

The Jewish philosopher and pantheist Baruch Spinoza echoed Hobbes's doubts about the provenance of the historical books in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (published in 1670), and elaborated on the suggestion that the final redaction of these texts was post-exilic under the auspices of Ezra (Chapter IX). He had earlier been effectively excommunicated by the rabbinical council of Amsterdam for his perceived heresies. The French priest Richard Simon brought these critical perspectives to the Catholic tradition in 1678, observing "the most part of the Holy Scriptures that are come to us, are but Abridgments and as Summaries of ancient Acts which were kept in the Registries of the Hebrews," in what was probably the first work of biblical textual criticism in the modern sense.

In response Jean Astruc, applying to the Pentateuch source criticism methods common in the analysis of classical secular texts, believed he could detect four different manuscript traditions, which he claimed Moses himself had redacted (p. 62–64). His 1753 book initiated the school known as higher criticism that culminated in Julius Wellhausen formalising the documentary hypothesis in the 1870s, which identifies these narratives as the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source. While versions of the documentary hypothesis vary in the order in which they were composed, the circumstances of their composition, and the date of their redaction(s), their shared terminology continues to provide the framework for modern theories on the composite nature and origins of the Torah.

By the end of the 19th century the scholarly consensus was that the Pentateuch was the work of many authors writing from 1000 BCE (the time of David) to 500 BCE (the time of Ezra) and redacted c. 450, and as a consequence whatever history it contained was more often polemical than strictly factual—a conclusion reinforced by the then fresh scientific refutations of what were at the time widely classed as biblical mythologies.

Genesis creation narrative

There is a Christian tradition of criticism of the creation narratives in Genesis dating back to at least St Augustine of Hippo (354–430), and Jewish tradition has also maintained a critical thread in its approach to biblical primeval history. The influential medieval philosopher Maimonides maintained a skeptical ambiguity toward creation ex nihilo and considered the stories about Adam more as "philosophical anthropology, rather than as historical stories whose protagonist is the 'first man'." Greek philosophers Aristotle, Critolaus and Proclus held that the world was eternal. Such interpretations are inconsistent with what was after the Protestant Reformation to be "commonly perceived in evangelicalism as traditional views of Genesis".

The publication of James Hutton's Theory of the Earth in 1788 was an important development in the scientific revolution that would dethrone Genesis as the ultimate authority on primeval earth and prehistory. The first casualty was the Creation story itself, and by the early 19th century "no responsible scientist contended for the literal credibility of the Mosaic account of creation." The battle between uniformitarianism and catastrophism kept the flood alive in the emerging discipline, until Adam Sedgwick, the president of the Geological Society, publicly recanted his previous support in his 1831 presidential address: "We ought indeed to have paused before we first adopted the diluvian theory, and referred all our old superficial gravel to the action of the Mosaic Flood. For of man, and the works of his hands, we have not yet found a single trace among the remnants of the former world entombed in those deposits."

All of which left the "first man" and his putative descendants in the awkward position of being stripped of all historical context, until Charles Darwin naturalized the Garden of Eden with the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859. Public acceptance of this scientific revolution was, at the time, uneven, but has since grown significantly. The mainstream scholarly community soon arrived at a consensus, which holds today, that Genesis 1–11 is a highly schematic literary work representing theology/symbolic mythology rather than actual history or science.

The Patriarchs
In the following decades Hermann Gunkel drew attention to the mythic aspects of the Pentateuch, and Albrecht Alt, Martin Noth and the tradition history school argued that although its core traditions had genuinely ancient roots, the narratives were fictional framing devices and were not intended as history in the modern sense. Though doubts have been cast on the historiographic reconstructions of this school (particularly the notion of oral traditions as a primary ancient source), much of its critique of biblical historicity found wide acceptance. Gunkel's position is that

"if, however, we consider figures like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be actual persons with no original mythic foundations, that does not at all mean that they are historical figures. ...For even if, as may well be assumed, there was once a man call 'Abraham,' everyone who knows the history of legends is sure that the legend is in no position at the distance of so many centuries to preserve a picture of the personal piety of Abraham. The 'religion of Abraham' is, in reality, the religion of the legend narrators which they attribute to Abraham." This has in various forms become a commonplace of contemporary criticism. :"BIBLICAL HISTORY AND ISRAEL'S PAST The Changing Views of Scholars in Their Own WordsThe dramatic shifts in the study of the patriarchs and matriarchs that occurred during and after the 1970s can be illustrated by quotations from two works on the history of Israel separated by several decades. In a history originally written in the 1950s, John Bright asserted, 'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were clan chiefs who actually lived in the second millennium B.C.... The Bible's narrative accurately reflects the times to which it refers. But to what it tells of the lives of the patriarchs we can add nothing.'1 Assessing the situation in scholarship four decades later, William Dever in 2001 concluded, 'After a century of exhaustive investigation, all respectable archaeologists have given up hope of recovering any context that would make Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob credible 'historical figures.''2 1. John Bright, A History of Israel, 4th ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000), p. 93. 2. William G. Dever, What Did the Biblical Writers Know, and When Did They Know It? What Archaeology Can Tell Us about the Reality of Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), p. 98. ... historical figures but as literary creations of this later period. Though the evidentiary underpinnings of this thesis were new, the thesis itself was quite similar to the views held by Alt and Noth. Thompson, Van Seters, and others had shown that the earlier scholarly consensus of a second-millennium date for the traditions depended upon coincidences and harmonization of evidence that could not be sustained. Thompson provided one of the most representative statements of this change in the study of Israel's past: '[N]ot only has 'archaeology' not proven a single event of the patriarchal traditions to be historical, it has not shown any of the traditions to be likely. On the basis of what we know of Palestinian history of the Second Millennium B.C., and of what we understand about the formation of the literary traditions of Genesis, it must be concluded that any such historicity as is commonly spoken of in both scholarly and popular works about the patriarchs of Genesis is hardly possible and totally improbable'."

In the United States the biblical archaeology movement, under the influence of Albright, counterattacked, arguing that the broad outline within the framing narratives was also true, so that while scholars could not realistically expect to prove or disprove individual episodes from the life of Abraham and the other patriarchs, these were real individuals who could be placed in a context proven from the archaeological record. But as more discoveries were made, and anticipated finds failed to materialise, it became apparent that archaeology did not in fact support the claims made by Albright and his followers.

Following Albright's death, his interpretation of the patriarchal age came under increasing criticism: such dissatisfaction marked its culmination with the publication of The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives by Thomas L. Thompson and Abraham in History and Tradition by John Van Seters. Thompson, a literary scholar, argued on the lack of compelling evidence that the patriarchs lived in the 2nd millennium BCE, and noted how certain biblical texts reflected first millennium conditions and concerns, while Van Seters examined the patriarchal stories and argued that their names, social milieu, and messages strongly suggested that they were Iron Age creations. Van Seter and Thompson's works were a paradigm shift in biblical scholarship and archaeology, which gradually led scholars to no longer consider the patriarchal narratives as historical. Some conservative scholars attempted to defend the patriarchal narratives in the following years, but this position has not found acceptance among scholars.

Today, although there continues to be some debate on the historical background of the narratives, many scholars (possibly most) reject the existence of the Patriarchal age. William Dever stated in 1993 that

"[Albright's] central theses have all been overturned, partly by further advances in biblical criticism, but mostly by the continuing archaeological research of younger Americans and Israelis to whom he himself gave encouragement and momentum. ...The irony is that, in the long run, it will have been the newer 'secular' archaeology that contributed the most to Biblical studies, not 'Biblical archaeology'."

The Exodus
Most mainstream scholars do not accept the biblical Exodus account as history for a number of reasons. It is generally agreed that the Exodus stories reached the current form centuries after the apparent setting of the stories. The Book of Exodus itself attempts to ground the event firmly in history, dating the exodus to the 2666th year after creation (Exodus 12:40–41), the construction of the tabernacle to year 2667 (Exodus 40:1–2, 17), stating that the Israelites dwelled in Egypt for 430 years (Exodus 12:40–41), and including place names such as Goshen (Gen. 46:28), Pithom and Ramesses (Exod. 1:11), as well as stating that 600,000 Israelite men were involved (Exodus 12:37). The Book of Numbers further states that the number of Israelites in the desert during the wandering were 603,550, including 22,273 first-borns, which modern estimates put at 2.5–3 million total Israelites, a clearly fanciful number that could never have been supported by the Sinai Desert. The geography is vague with regions such as Goshen unidentified, and there are internal problems with dating in the Pentateuch. No modern attempt to identify a historical Egyptian prototype for Moses has found wide acceptance, and no period in Egyptian history matches the biblical accounts of the Exodus. Some elements of the story are miraculous and defy rational explanation, such as the Plagues of Egypt and the Crossing of the Red Sea. The Bible also fails to mention the names of any of the pharaohs involved in the Exodus narrative.

While ancient Egyptian texts from the New Kingdom mention "Asiatics" living in Egypt as slaves and workers, these people cannot be securely connected to the Israelites, and no contemporary Egyptian text mentions a large-scale exodus of slaves like that described in the Bible. The earliest surviving historical mention of the Israelites, the Egyptian Merneptah Stele (c. 1207 BCE), appears to place them in or around Canaan and gives no indication of any exodus.

Despite the absence of any archaeological evidence, a majority of scholars agree that the Exodus probably has some historical basis, with Kenton Sparks referring to it as "mythologized history." Scholars posit that small groups of people of Egyptian origin may have joined the early Israelites, and then contributed their own Egyptian Exodus story to all of Israel. William G. Dever cautiously identifies this group with the Tribe of Joseph, while Richard Elliott Friedman identifies it with the Tribe of Levi. Most scholars who accept a historical core of the exodus date this possible exodus group to the thirteenth century BCE at the time of Ramses II, with some instead dating it to the twelfth century BCE at the time of Ramses III. Evidence in favor of historical traditions forming a background to the Exodus narrative include the documented movements of small groups of Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples into and out of Egypt during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, some elements of Egyptian folklore and culture in the Exodus narrative, and the names Moses, Aaron and Phinehas, which seem to have an Egyptian origin. Scholarly estimates for how many people could have been involved in such an exodus range from a few hundred to a few thousand people.

Deuteronomistic history
Many scholars believe that the Deuteronomistic history preserved elements of ancient texts and oral tradition, including geo-political and socio-economic realities and certain information about historical figures and events. However, large portions of it are legendary and it contains many anachronisms.

The "conquest narrative" in Joshua and Judges
A major issue in the historicity debate was the narrative of the Israelite conquest of Canaan, described in Joshua and Judges. The American Albright school asserted that the biblical narrative of conquest would be affirmed by archaeological record; and indeed for much of the 20th century archaeology appeared to support the biblical narrative, including excavations at Beitin (identified as Bethel), Tel ed-Duweir, (identified as Lachish), Hazor, and Jericho.

However, flaws in the conquest narrative appeared. The most high-profile example was the "fall of Jericho", excavated by John Garstang in the 1930s. Garstang originally announced that he had found fallen walls dating to the time of the biblical Battle of Jericho, but later revised the destruction to a much earlier period. Kathleen Kenyon dated the destruction of the walled city to the middle of the 16th century (c. 1550 BCE), too early to match the usual dating of the Exodus to Pharaoh Ramses, on the basis of her excavations in the early 1950s. The same conclusion, based on an analysis of all the excavation findings, was reached by Piotr Bienkowski. By the 1960s it had become clear that the archaeological record did not, in fact, support the account of the conquest given in Joshua: the cities which the Bible records as having been destroyed by the Israelites were either uninhabited at the time, or, if destroyed, were destroyed at widely different times, not in one brief period.

The consensus for the conquest narrative was eventually abandoned in the late 20th century.

Peake's Commentary on the Bible argues that the Book of Joshua conflates several independent battles between disparate groups over the centuries, and artificially attributes them to a single leader, Joshua. However, there are a few cases where the biblical record is not contradicted by the archaeological record. For example, stratum in Tel Hazor, found in a destruction layer from around 1200 BCE, shows signs of catastrophic fire, and cuneiform tablets found at the site refer to monarchs named Ibni Addi, where Ibni may be the etymological origin of Yavin (Jabin), the Canaanite leader referred to in the Hebrew Bible. The city also shows signs of having been a magnificent Canaanite city prior to its destruction, with great temples and opulent palaces, split into an upper acropolis and lower city; the town evidently had been a major Canaanite city. Israel Finkelstein theorized that the destruction of Hazor was the result of civil strife, attacks by the Sea Peoples or a result of the general collapse of civilization across the whole eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age, rather than being caused by the Israelites.

Amnon Ben-Tor (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) believes that recently unearthed evidence of violent destruction by burning verifies the biblical account. In 2012, a team led by Ben-Tor and Sharon Zuckerman discovered a scorched palace from the 13th century BC in whose storerooms they found 3,400-year-old ewers holding burned crops; however, Sharon Zuckerman did not agree with Ben-Tor's theory, and claimed that the burning was the result of the city's numerous factions opposing each other with excessive force. Biblical scholar Richard Elliot Friedman (University of Georgia) argues that the Israelites did destroy Hazor, but that such destruction fits better with the account of the Book of Judges, in which the prophetess Deborah defeats the king of Hazor.

Books of Samuel
The Books of Samuel are considered to be based on both historical and legendary sources, primarily serving to fill the gap in Israelite history after the events described in Deuteronomy. According to Donald Redford, the Books of Samuel exhibit too many anachronisms to have been compiled in the 11th century BCE. For example, there is mention of later armor, use of camels , and cavalry (as distinct from chariotry; , ), iron picks and axes (as though they were common; ), and sophisticated siege techniques. There is a gargantuan troop called up, a battle with 20,000 casualties , and a reference to Kushite paramilitary and servants, clearly giving evidence of a date in which Kushites were common, after the 26th Dynasty of Egypt, the period of the last quarter of the 8th century BCE. Alan Millard argues that those elements of the Biblical narrative are not anachronistic.

United Monarchy
Much of the focus of modern criticism has been the historicity of the United Monarchy of Israel, which according to the Hebrew Bible ruled over both Judea and Samaria around the 10th century BCE.

The minimalist Thomas L. Thompson has written:

"There is no evidence of a United Monarchy, no evidence of a capital in Jerusalem or of any coherent, unified political force that dominated western Palestine, let alone an empire of the size the legends describe. We do not have evidence for the existence of kings named Saul, David or Solomon; nor do we have evidence for any temple at Jerusalem in this early period. What we do know of Israel and Judah of the tenth century does not allow us to interpret this lack of evidence as a gap in our knowledge and information about the past, a result merely of the accidental nature of archeology. There is neither room nor context, no artifact or archive that points to such historical realities in Palestine's tenth century. One cannot speak historically of a state without a population. Nor can one speak of a capital without a town. Stories are not enough."

In Iron Age IIa (corresponding to the Monarchal period) Judah seems to have been limited to small, mostly rural and unfortified settlements in the Judean hills. This contrasts to the upper Samaria which was becoming urbanized. This archaeological evidence as well as textual criticism has led many modern historians to treat Israel as arising separately from Judah and as distinct albeit related entities centered at Shechem and Jerusalem, respectively, and not as a united kingdom with a capital in Jerusalem.

Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, an Iron Age site located in Judah, support the biblical account of a United Monarchy. The Israel Antiquities Authority stated: "The excavations at Khirbat Qeiyafa clearly reveal an urban society that existed in Judah already in the late eleventh century BCE. It can no longer be argued that the Kingdom of Judah developed only in the late eighth century BCE or at some other later date."

The status of Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE is a major subject of debate. The oldest part of Jerusalem and its original urban core is the City of David, which does show evidence of significant Judean residential activity around the 10th century. Some unique administrative structures such as the Stepped Stone Structure and the Large Stone Structure, which originally formed one structure, contain material culture dated to Iron I. On account of the alleged lack of settlement activity in the 10th century BCE, Israel Finkelstein argues that Jerusalem in the century was a small country village in the Judean hills, not a national capital, and Ussishkin argues that the city was entirely uninhabited. Amihai Mazar contends that if the Iron I/Iron IIa dating of administrative structures in the City of David are correct (as he believes), "Jerusalem was a rather small town with a mighty citadel, which could have been a center of a substantial regional polity."

It has been argued that recent archaeological discoveries at the City of David and the Ophel seem to indicate that Jerusalem was sufficiently developed as a city to be the capital of the United Monarchy in the 10th century BCE.

Since the discovery of the Tel Dan Stele dated to the 9th or 8th century BCE containing bytdwd, interpreted by many as a reference to the "House of David" as a monarchic dynasty in Judah (another possible reference occurs in the Mesha Stele), the majority of scholars accept the existence of a polity ruled by David and Solomon, albeit on a more modest scale than described in the Bible. Most scholars believe that David and Solomon reigned over large sections of Cisjordan and probably parts of Transjordan. William G. Dever argues that David only reigned over the current territories of Israel and West Bank and that he did defeat the invading Philistines, but that the other conquests are fictitious.

Historicity of Jesus
The majority of modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically, and that he was crucified by order of Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. The "quest for the historical Jesus" began as early as the 18th century, and has continued to this day. The most notable recent scholarship came in the 1980s and 1990s, with the work of J. D. Crossan, James D. G. Dunn, John P. Meier, E. P. Sanders and N. T. Wright being the most widely read and discussed. Other works on the matter were published by Dale Allison, Bart D. Ehrman, Richard Bauckham and Maurice Casey.

The earliest New Testament texts which refer to Jesus, the Pauline epistles, are usually dated in the 50s CE. Since Paul records very little of Jesus' life and activities, these are of little help in determining facts about the life of Jesus, although they may contain references to information given to Paul from the eyewitnesses of Jesus.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has shed light into the context of 1st century Judea, noting the diversity of Jewish belief as well as shared expectations and teachings. For example, the expectation of the coming messiah, the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and much else of the early Christian movement are found to have existed within apocalyptic Judaism of the period. This has had the effect of centering Early Christianity much more within its Jewish roots than was previously the case. It is now recognised that Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity are only two of the many strands which survived until the Jewish revolt of 66 to 70 CE.

Most historical critics agree that a historical figure named Jesus taught in the Galilean countryside c. 30 CE, was believed by his followers to have performed supernatural acts, and was sentenced to death by the Romans, possibly for insurrection.

Miracles of Jesus
Scholars are divided on the matter of miracles with no consensus on their historicity; some ruling them out a priori, others defending the possibility, and others defending them. New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman argues that though some historians believe that miracles have happened and others do not, due to the limitations of the sources, it is not possible for historians to affirm or deny them. He states "This is not a problem for only one kind of historian—for atheists or agnostics or Buddhists or Roman Catholics or Baptists or Jews or Muslims; it is a problem for all historians of every stripe. According to Mike Licona, among general historians there are some postmodern views of historiography that are open to the investigation of miracles.

Burial
In the gospel accounts, the resurrection tradition appears in Mark 16, Matthew 28, Luke 24, and John 20 to 21 where the risen Jesus appears to different people after his tomb was found empty by women. A topic of debate among scholars is whether Jesus was ever buried in a tomb, and if such a tomb was indeed found empty. An argument in favor of a decent burial before sunset is the Jewish custom, based on the Torah, that the body of an executed person should not remain on the tree where the corpse was hung for public display, but be buried before sunrise. This is based on, but also attested in the Temple Scroll of the Essenes, and in Josephus' Jewish War 4.5.2§317, describing the burial of crucified Jewish insurgents before sunset.

Scholars such as Bart Ehrman and John Dominic Crossan doubt that Jesus had a decent burial, or that the disciples even knew what had happened to his body. Ehrman argues that crucifixion was meant "to torture and humiliate a person as fully as possible", and the body was normally left on the stake to be eaten by animals. Ehrman further argues that criminals were usually buried in common graves, and Pilate had no concern for Jewish sensitivities, which makes it unlikely that he would have allowed for Jesus to be buried.

In contrast, James Dunn argues that the burial tradition is "one of the oldest pieces of tradition we have", referring to 1 Cor. 15.4; burial was in line with Jewish custom as prescribed by Deut. 21.22-23 and confirmed by Josephus War; cases of burial of crucified persons are known, as attested by the Jehohanan burial; Joseph of Arimathea "is a very plausible historical character"; and "the presence of the women at the cross and their involvement in Jesus' burial can be attributed more plausibly to early oral memory than to creative story-telling". Similarly, Dale Allison, reviewing the arguments of Crossan and Ehrman, considers their assertions strong but "find[s] it likely that a man named Joseph, probably a Sanhedrist, from the obscure Arimathea, sought and obtained permission from the Roman authorities to make arrangements for Jesus’ hurried burial."

According to religion professor John Granger Cook, there are historical texts that mention mass graves, but they contain no indication of those bodies being dug up by animals. There is no mention of an open pit or shallow graves in any Roman text. There are a number of historical texts outside the gospels showing the bodies of the crucified dead were buried by family or friends. Cook writes that "those texts show that the narrative of Joseph of Arimethaea's burial of Jesus would be perfectly comprehensible to a Greco-Roman reader of the gospels and historically credible."

Empty tomb and resurrection appearances
Scholars have tackled the question of establishing what contents of the resurrection tradition are historically probable. For example, it is widely accepted among New Testament scholars that Jesus' followers soon came to believe they had seen him resurrected shortly after his death. Robert Funk writes that "the disciples thought that they had witnessed Jesus’ appearances, which, however they are explained, “is a fact upon which both believer and unbeliever may agree."

Most scholars believe that John wrote independently of Mark and that the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John contain two independent attestations of an empty tomb, which in turn suggests that both used already-existing sources and appealed to a commonly held tradition, though Mark may have added to and adapted that tradition to fit his narrative. Other scholars have argued that the Apostle Paul is aware of an empty tomb in his earlier creed in 1 Cor. 15 and thereby corroborating the gospel accounts.

Scholars have identified legendary or unoriginal details within the resurrection tradition. For example, the story of the guards at the tomb in Matthew 27 is "widely regarded as an apologetic legend" meant to refute Jewish critics. Quoting a published dissertation on the empty tomb tradition in Mark, Mike Licona writes that “not a few, but rather a majority, of contemporary scholars believe that there is some historical kernel in the empty tomb tradition."

According to Geza Vermes, "had the accounts been the products of wholesale manufacturing, it is highly unlikely that they would have provided female witnesses who “had no standing in a male-dominated Jewish society.” Moreover, they would have gotten the number of women in the various narratives correct. In short, had the narratives been the result of complete invention, they would have been more uniform and they would have included credible witnesses. In contrast, Bart D. Ehrman rejects the story of the empty tomb, and argues that "an empty tomb had nothing to do with [belief in the resurrection] [...] an empty tomb would not produce faith". Ehrman argues that the empty tomb was needed to underscore the physical resurrection of Jesus.

As with miracles, there is no single approach by scholars to the question of the resurrection of Jesus and if it really happened or not. "Historical Jesus" scholars in general tend to avoid the topic since many believe the matter to be about faith, or lack thereof. Nevertheless, scholars have sought to make their own cases for and against the historicity of the resurrection. Skeptical scholars generally argue that the resurrection appearances were caused by hallucinations. For example, Gerd Lüdemann argues that Peter had a vision of Jesus, induced by his feelings of guilt for betraying Jesus. The vision elevated this feeling of guilt, and Peter experienced it as a real appearance of Jesus, raised from dead. However, scholars such as N.T. Wright and Dale Allison, among others, argue that hallucinations would not lead or correspond to a belief in resurrection. In contrast to the skeptical view, Christian biblical scholars typically argue for a historical, physical resurrection of Jesus based on biblical evidence. For example, scholars such as Mike Licona argue that the diversity of different witnesses, such as skeptics Paul and James, are of important value to historians and, writing further, that attempts to downplay such value don't work. According to Wright, there is substantial unanimity among the early Christian writers (first and second century) that Jesus had been bodily raised from the dead.

Historicity of the Gospels
Most modern scholars hold that the canonical gospel accounts were written between 70 and 100, four to eight decades after the crucifixion, although based on earlier traditions and texts, such as "Q", Logia or sayings gospels, the passion account or other earlier literature (See List of Gospels). Some scholars argue that these accounts were compiled by witnesses although this view is disputed by other scholars.

Some scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark shows signs of a lack of knowledge of geographical, political and religious matters in Judea in the time of Jesus. Thus, today the most common opinion is that the author is unknown and both geographically and historically at a distance from the narrated events;  however, opinion varies, and scholars such as Craig Blomberg accept the more traditional view. J. A. Lloyd argues that recent archaeological research in the Galilee region shows that Jesus' itinerary as depicted by Mark is historically and geographically plausible. The use of expressions that may be described as awkward and rustic cause the Gospel of Mark to appear somewhat unlettered or even crude. This may be attributed to the influence that Saint Peter, a fisherman, is suggested to have on the writing of Mark. It is commonly thought that the writers of the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke used Mark as a source, with changes and improvement to peculiarities and crudities in Mark.

Historicity of Acts
Archaeological inscriptions and other independent sources show that Acts contains some accurate details of 1st century society with regard to titles of officials, administrative divisions, town assemblies, and rules of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. However, the historicity of the depiction of Paul the Apostle in Acts is contested. Acts describes Paul differently from how Paul describes himself, both factually and theologically. Acts differs from Paul's letters on important issues, such as the Law, Paul's own apostleship, and his relation to the Jerusalem church. Scholars generally prefer Paul's account over that in Acts.

Overview of academic views
According to Spencer Mizen of BBC History Magazine, "The origins of the Bible are still cloaked in mystery. When was it written? Who wrote it? And how reliable is it as an historical record?"

An educated reading of the biblical text requires knowledge of when it was written, by whom, and for what purpose. For example, many academics would agree that the Pentateuch was in existence some time shortly after the 6th century BCE, but they disagree about when it was written. Proposed dates vary from the 15th century BCE to the 6th century BCE. One popular hypothesis points to the reign of Josiah (7th century BCE). In this hypothesis, the events of, for example, Exodus would have happened centuries before they were finally edited.

The documentary hypothesis claims, using the biblical evidence itself, to demonstrate that the current version of the Bible is based on older written sources that are lost. It has been modified heavily over the years, and some scholars accept some form of this hypothesis. There have also been and are a number of scholars who reject it, for example Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen and Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser, Jr., as well as R. N. Whybray, Umberto Cassuto, O. T. Allis, Gleason Archer, John Sailhamer, Bruce Waltke, and Joshua Berman.

Maximalist–minimalist dichotomy
There is great scholarly controversy on the historicity of events recounted in the biblical narratives prior to the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. There is a split between scholars who reject the biblical account of Ancient Israel as fundamentally ahistorical, and those who accept it as a largely reliable source of history—termed biblical minimalists and biblical maximalists, respectively. The major split of biblical scholarship into two opposing schools is strongly disapproved by non-fundamentalist biblical scholars, as being an attempt by conservative Christians to portray the field as a bipolar argument, of which only one side is correct. The Quest for the Historical Israel by Israel Finkelstein et al attempted to be more balanced.

Biblical minimalism
The viewpoint sometimes called biblical minimalism generally holds that the Bible is principally a theological and apologetic work. The early stories are held to have a historical basis that was reconstructed centuries later, which are supported by archaeological discoveries. In this view, the stories about the biblical patriarchs are believed to be fictional. Furthermore, biblical minimalists hold that the twelve tribes of Israel were a later construction, the stories of King David and King Saul were modeled upon later Irano-Hellenistic examples, believing that the united Kingdom of Israel—where the Bible says that David and Solomon ruled over an empire from the Euphrates to Eilath— never existed.

It is hard to pinpoint when the movement started but 1968 seems to be a reasonable date. During this year, two prize-winning essays were written in Copenhagen; one by Niels Peter Lemche, the other by Heike Friis, which advocated a complete rethinking of the way we approach the Bible and attempt to draw historical conclusions from it.

In published books, one of the early advocates of the current school of thought known as biblical minimalism is Giovanni Garbini, Storia e ideologia nell'Israele antico (1986), translated into English as History and Ideology in Ancient Israel (1988). In his footsteps followed Thomas L. Thompson with his lengthy Early History of the Israelite People: From the Written & Archaeological Sources (1992) and, building explicitly on Thompson's book, P. R. Davies' shorter work, In Search of 'Ancient Israel' (1992). In the latter, Davies finds historical Israel only in archaeological remains, biblical Israel only in scripture, and recent reconstructions of "ancient Israel" to be an unacceptable amalgam of the two. Thompson and Davies see the entire Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as the imaginative creation of a small community of Jews at Jerusalem during the period which the Bible assigns to after the return from the Babylonian exile, from 539 BCE onward. Niels Peter Lemche, Thompson's fellow faculty member at the University of Copenhagen, also followed with several titles that show Thompson's influence, including The Israelites in history and tradition (1998). The presence of both Thompson and Lemche at the same institution has led to the use of the term "Copenhagen school". The effect of biblical minimalism from 1992 onward was debate with more than two points of view.

Biblical maximalism
There is great scholarly controversy on the historicity particularly of those events recounted in the biblical narratives prior to the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. Regarding the debate over the historicity of ancient Israel, the maximalist position holds that the accounts of the United Monarchy and the early kings of Israel, David and Saul, are to be taken as largely historical.

Decreasing conflict
In 2001, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman published The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts which advocated a view midway toward biblical minimalism and caused an uproar among many conservatives. In the 25th anniversary issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (March/April 2001 edition), editor Hershel Shanks quoted several biblical scholars who insisted that minimalism was dying, although leading minimalists deny this and a claim has been made "We are all minimalists now" (an allusion to "We are all Keynesians now").

"Apart from the well-funded (and fundamentalist) 'biblical archaeologists,' we are in fact nearly all 'minimalists' now."

"The fact is that we are all minimalists—at least, when it comes to the patriarchal period and the settlement. When I began my PhD studies more than three decades ago in the USA, the 'substantial historicity' of the patriarchs was widely accepted as was the unified conquest of the land. These days it is quite difficult to find anyone who takes this view.

In fact, until recently I could find no 'maximalist' history of Israel since Wellhausen. ...In fact, though, 'maximalist' has been widely defined as someone who accepts the biblical text unless it can be proven wrong. If so, very few are willing to operate like this, not even John Bright (1980) whose history is not a maximalist one according to the definition just given."

However, other more mainstream scholars have rejected these claims:

"The skeptical approaches peaked in the 1990s, with the emergence of the minimalist school which attempted to deny the Bible any relevance for the study of the Iron Age, but this extreme approach was rejected by mainstream scholarship."

In 2003, Kenneth Kitchen, a scholar who adopts a more maximalist point of view, authored the book On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Kitchen advocated the reliability of many (although not all) parts of the Torah and in no uncertain terms criticizes the work of Finkelstein and Silberman.

Jennifer Wallace describes archaeologist Israel Finkelstein's view in her article "Shifting Ground in the Holy Land", appearing in Smithsonian Magazine, May 2006:

"He (Israel Finkelstein) cites the fact—now accepted by most archaeologists—that many of the cities Joshua is supposed to have sacked in the late 13th century B.C. had ceased to exist by that time. Hazor was destroyed in the middle of that century, Ai was abandoned before 2000 B.C. Even Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), where Joshua is said to have brought the walls tumbling down by circling the city seven times with blaring trumpets, was destroyed in 1500 B.C. Now controlled by the Palestinian Authority, the Jericho site consists of crumbling pits and trenches that testify to a century of fruitless digging."

However, despite problems with the archaeological record, some maximalists place Joshua in the mid-second millennium, at about the time the Egyptian Empire came to rule over Canaan, and not the 13th century as Finkelstein or Kitchen claim, and view the destruction layers of the period as corroboration of the biblical account. The destruction of Hazor in the mid-13th century is seen as corroboration of the biblical account of the later destruction carried out by Deborah and Barak as recorded in the Book of Judges. The location that Finkelstein refers to as "Ai" is generally dismissed as the location of the biblical Ai, since it was destroyed and buried in the 3rd millennium. The prominent site has been known by that name since at least Hellenistic times, if not before. Minimalists all hold that dating these events as contemporary are etiological explanations written centuries after the events they claim to report.

Both Finkelstein and Silberman do accept that David and Solomon were really existing persons (not kings but bandit leaders or hill country chieftains) from Judah about the 10th century BCE, but they do not assume that there was such a thing as United Monarchy with a capital in Jerusalem.

"The Bible reports that Jehoshaphat, a contemporary of Ahab, offered manpower and horses for the northern kingdom's wars against the Arameans. He strengthened his relationship with the northern kingdom by arranging a diplomatic marriage: the Israelite princess Athaliah, sister or daughter of King Ahab, married Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 8:18). The house of David in Jerusalem was now directly linked to (and apparently dominated by) the Israelite royalty of Samaria. In fact, we might suggest that this represented the north's takeover by marriage of Judah. Thus in the ninth century BCE—nearly a century after the presumed time of David—we can finally point to the historical existence of a great united monarchy of Israel, stretching from Dan in the north to Beer-sheba in the south, with significant conquered territories in Syria and Transjordan. But this united monarchy—a real united monarchy—was ruled by the Omrides, not the Davidides, and its capital was Samaria, not Jerusalem."

Others, such as David Ussishkin, argue that those who follow the biblical depiction of a United Monarchy do so on the basis of limited evidence while hoping to uncover real archaeological proof in the future. Gunnar Lehmann suggests that there is still a possibility that David and Solomon were able to become local chieftains of some importance and claims that Jerusalem at the time was at best a small town in a sparsely populated area in which alliances of tribal kinship groups formed the basis of society. He goes on further to claim that it was at best a small regional centre, one of three to four in the territory of Judah and neither David nor Solomon had the manpower or the requisite social/political/administrative structure to rule the kind of empire described in the Bible.

These views are strongly criticized by William G. Dever, Helga Weippert, Amihai Mazar and Amnon Ben-Tor. Dever stated that in the 10th century BCE Judah was an "early inchoate state" "one that will not be fully consolidated until the 9th century BCE", and Israel had a separate development in the 9th century BCE.

André Lemaire states in Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple that the principal points of the biblical tradition with Solomon are generally trustworthy. Kenneth Kitchen shares this view, arguing that Solomon ruled over a comparatively wealthy "mini-empire", rather than a small city-state.

Recently, Finkelstein has joined with the more conservative Amihai Mazar to explore the areas of agreement and disagreement and there are signs the intensity of the debate between the so-called minimalist and maximalist scholars is diminishing. This view is also taken by Richard S. Hess, which shows there is in fact a plurality of views between maximalists and minimalists. Jack Cargill has shown that popular textbooks not only fail to give readers up-to-date archaeological evidence, but that they also fail to correctly represent the diversity of views present on the subject. Megan Bishop Moore and Brad E. Kelle provide an overview of the respective evolving approaches and attendant controversies, especially during the period from the mid-1980s through 2011, in their book Biblical History and Israel's Past.

title: Historicity of the Bible


text:
The Ink Spots

The Ink Spots were an American vocal pop group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style predated the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely accepted in both the white and black communities, largely due to the ballad style introduced to the group by lead singer Bill Kenny.

In 1989, the Ink Spots (Bill Kenny, Charlie Fuqua, Deek Watson, Jerry Daniels, and Orville Jones) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1999 they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Since the Ink Spots disbanded in 1954, there have been well over a hundred vocal groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots", with and without any original members of the group. It has often been the case that these groups claimed to be "second generation" or "third generation" Ink Spots.

Early background of founding members
Daniels and Fuqua formed a vocal duo called "Jerry and Charlie", and performed in the Indianapolis area around 1931. About the same time, Jones and Watson were part of a quartet, "The Four Riff Brothers", who appeared regularly on radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1933, that group disbanded, and Watson, Daniels and Fuqua got together to form a new vocal, instrumental and comedy group, initially called "King, Jack, and Jester". They continued to appear regularly on radio in Ohio, and became a quartet when Jones joined the following year.

In July 1934, they accepted a booking at the Apollo Theater, New York, supporting jazz bandleader Tiny Bradshaw. At this point they had changed their name to "The 4 Ink Spots". Later that year, the Ink Spots achieved international success touring the UK with Jack Hylton's Orchestra, one review in the Melody Maker stating: The sensation of the programme is the coloured quartette, the Four Ink Spots. They sing in a style something between the Mills Brothers and the Three Keys, and accompany themselves on three tenor guitars and a cello — which is not bowed, but picked and slapped like a double bass. Their natural instinct for hot rhythm is exemplified in their terrific single-string solo work and their beautifully balanced and exquisitely phrased vocalisms. They exploit all kinds of rhythmic vocalisms — straight solos, concerted, scat, and instrumental imitations. They even throw in a bit of dancing to conclude their act, and the leading guitarist simultaneously plays and juggles with his instrument.

They first recorded for Victor Records in 1935. Their early recordings included such songs as "Swingin' On The Strings", "Your Feet's Too Big", "Don't 'Low No Swingin' In Here" and "Swing, Gate, Swing". Despite their rising popularity as performers, their early records were not commercially successful.

Bill Kenny joins
In 1936, Daniels was replaced by a 21-year-old singer from Baltimore, Bill Kenny, who signed on with the Ink Spots after winning first place in an amateur contest at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Three years later, Kenny was credited for bringing the group to global success with his unusual high tenor ballad singing.

In 1938, after being in the group for two years, Kenny started to introduce the group to a new format that he called "Top & Bottom". This format was used primarily for ballads rather than the uptempo "jive" songs the group was used to performing. This format called for the tenor (Kenny or Watson) to sing the lead for one chorus followed by a chorus performed by bass singer Jones reciting the lyrics rather than singing them. After a chorus of the "talking bass" the lead tenor sang the rest of the song until the end. The earliest example of their "Top & Bottom" format is from a radio broadcast from 1938. The song, titled "Tune In on My Heart", features Kenny taking the lead and Jones performing the talking bass.

Also in 1938, Kenny took his first feature solo in Decca studios. His feature was on a song titled "I Wish You the Best of Everything". Although not in the "Top & Bottom" format, it was a ballad and used the signature Ink Spots guitar intro. Even though it got a good response, it was not very successful in terms of record sales and did not reach the pop chart.

"If I Didn't Care" and the late 1930s
On January 12, 1939, the Ink Spots entered Decca studios to record a ballad written by a young songwriter named Jack Lawrence. This ballad, "If I Didn't Care", was to be one of their biggest hits, selling over 19 million copies and becoming the 8th-best-selling single of all time. This is the first studio recorded example of the Ink Spots "Top & Bottom" format with Kenny singing lead and Jones performing the "talking bass". For this recording, each member was paid $37.50; after the record sold 200,000 copies, however, Decca destroyed the original contract and the group was paid an additional $3,750. This was the recording that brought the group to global fame and established the "Top & Bottom" format as the Ink Spots "trademark". From 1939 until the group's disbanding in 1954, many of their songs employed this format. The year 1939 also saw the Ink Spots enjoy commercial success with five other recordings that featured Kenny in the "Top & Bottom" format. Their most successful hit of 1939 was the Lombardo, Marks & Hill ballad, "Address Unknown". Other successful hits from 1939 and early 1940 included "My Prayer", "Bless You", "Memories of You", and "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You".

Recordings
Between the years 1940 and 1949 the Ink Spots landed well over 30 hits on the US Pop Charts with 18 of them on the top 10. The group’s first Billboard #1 hit came in 1944, when they teamed up with Ella Fitzgerald to record "I'm Making Believe". This recording featured Bill Kenny. In 1946, the Ink Spots earned another #1 spot on the US Pop Charts with "To Each His Own". The Billy Reid composition "The Gypsy" was the Ink Spots' biggest chart success, staying at the #1 position on the Billboard Best Sellers chart for 10 straight weeks in 1946.

Other hits for the Ink Spots in the 1940s included "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano", "Maybe", "We Three", "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "I'm Beginning to See the Light".

Films
In 1941, the Ink Spots were featured in The Great American Broadcast starring John Payne and Alice Faye. In the film, the Ink Spots play Pullman porters who sing during their breaks and ultimately "make it big time" and sing live on the radio during a national broadcast. The group sings a short segment of "If I Didn't Care", "Alabamy Bound", and "I've Got a Bone to Pick with You". They also provide background vocals to Faye and Payne on a ballad entitled "Where You Are".

The following year, the Ink Spots were featured in an Abbott and Costello film, Pardon My Sarong. In this film, the Ink Spots play singing waiters in a nightclub. They sing the ballad "Do I Worry?" and the swing song "Shout Brother Shout".

Line-up changes
In 1943, Ink Spots baritone singer and guitarist Fuqua was drafted into the US Army. He chose his friend Bernie Mackey to be his temporary replacement until he returned to the group. After being with the group for two years, Mackey was replaced by Huey Long in March 1945. Long completed the role as a "fill in" until Fuqua finally returned in October 1945.

Jones died in October 1944, after collapsing on stage at the Cafe Zanzibar in New York City, near the height of the Ink Spots' popularity. He had been having cerebral hemorrhages for a year, and had fallen ill from the condition in June 1944. Jones was temporarily replaced by Cliff Givens, who filled in from October 1944 to March 1945, before a permanent replacement was found in Bill Kenny's brother (and fraternal twin) Herb Kenny. Herb Kenny sang with the group from 1945 to 1951, when he began a career as a solo artist. The last bass singer in the Ink Spots was Adriel McDonald, who was with the group from 1951 to 1954. McDonald was previously the Ink Spots' personal valet, a job given to him by Herb Kenny, with whom he had sung in a group called "The Cabineers" in the early 1940s.

Due to personality clashes between Bill Kenny and Watson after Jones' death, Kenny decided he would rather carry on as the leader of the group and bought Watson's share of the group for $10,000, which gave him the power to kick Watson out of the group. Watson went on to form a group similar in style to the Ink Spots called the Brown Dots (which later became the Four Tunes), and his place was filled by Billy "Butterball" Bowen, who sang with the Ink Spots from 1944 to 1952.

Final years
In 1952, Fuqua left the group to form his own vocal group using the name "Ink Spots". At this time, Kenny and Fuqua each owned 50% of the Ink Spots, and it was decided by court ruling that Kenny's group was to continue on as the original "Ink Spots", while Fuqua's group was to use the name "Charlie Fuqua's New Ink Spots". Defying the court ruling, Fuqua instead called his group the "Original" Ink Spots.

Fuqua was replaced in the Ink Spots by popular jazz and R&B guitarist Everett Barksdale, so the group now consisted of Bill Kenny (lead tenor), Teddy Williams (second tenor), who had replaced Bowen, Everett Barksdale (baritone and guitar), and McDonald (bass). After being with the group for only a few months, Williams was replaced by Ernie Brown. Barksdale stayed with the group for about a year before being replaced by baritone vocalist and guitar player named Jimmy Cannady. This line-up of Kenny (lead tenor), Brown (second tenor), Cannady (baritone and guitar), and McDonald (bass) lasted until 1954, when the final change of lineup was made.

In April 1954, Brown was replaced by Henry Braswell, who sang with the Ink Spots for their final three months. Kenny officially disbanded the Ink Spots in July 1954, after an appearance at the Bolero Bar in Wildwood, New Jersey.

Members
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
 * 1) Hoppy Jones (born as Orville Jones, February 17, 1905, Chicago, Illinois – d. October 18, 1944, New York City) sang bass. He played cello in the manner of a stand up bass.
 * 2) Deek Watson (born as Ivory Jones, July 18, 1909 (some sources say 1913), Mounds, Illinois – d. November 4, 1969, Washington, D.C.) sang tenor and played tenor guitar.
 * 3) Jerry Daniels (b. December 14, 1915 – d. November 7, 1995, Indianapolis, Indiana) sang tenor and played guitar and ukulele.
 * 4) Charlie Fuqua (b. October 20, 1910 – d. c. 1970, New Haven, Connecticut) had a baritone voice and played guitar and tenor guitar.
 * 5) Billy Kenny (b. June 12, 1914, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. – d. March 23, 1978, New Westminster, Canada) sang lead tenor.

Additional members

 * William Bowen (1912–1982), member from 1944 to 1947
 * George Bledsoe (1920–1982), bass player

Non-original Ink Spots groups
Disputes over the rights to use the Ink Spots name began in the late 1940s, resulting in many court cases. Starting in 1954, groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots" sprang up all around the United States. Some groups contained original members Fuqua, McDonald, Bowen, or Watson, but most had no ties to the original group whatsoever. Many groups claimed to have the rights to the name, but no one did. Still, lawsuits were filed between various groups and there was great confusion as to who owned the naming rights. Some groups avoided lawsuits by naming themselves "The Fabulous Ink Spots", "The Famous Ink Spots", "The Amazing Ink Spots", "The Sensational Ink Spots", "The Dynamic Ink Spots", and more.

According to writer Marv Goldberg: "The original group was a partnership, not a corporation, and that influenced Judge Isidore Wasservogel to say, in 1955, that when Hoppy Jones died in 1944, it effectively served to terminate the partnership and that no one could truthfully use the name after that." From 1954 to the present, more than 100 groups have used the name "The Ink Spots". In 1967 US federal judge Emmet C. Choate ruled that since so many groups had been using the name "Ink Spots" it had become "public domain" and was free for anyone to use.

Charlie Fuqua's Ink Spots
In 1952, Fuqua left the original Ink Spots led by Kenny to form his own Ink Spots group. Fuqua recorded dozens of singles with his group for King Records as well as releasing two LP (long play) albums for Verve Records. In 1963 Fuqua's group also recorded one 45 RPM record for Ford Records. Fuqua led and was a member of various vocal groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots" until his death in 1971.

Deek Watson's Ink Spots
Watson, who had been forced out of the original Ink Spots in 1944 and briefly sang with Charlie Fuqua's Ink Spots in 1952–1953, started his own vocal group using the name "The Ink Spots" in 1954. Watson made numerous recordings with his "Ink Spots" groups in the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the recordings Watson made with his groups were released and re-released on various low budget labels. Watson led various groups until his death in 1969.

Legitimate members of the Ink Spots
Legitimate members of the Ink Spots included Bill Kenny, Jerry Daniels, Deek Watson, Charlie Fuqua, Hoppy Jones, Bernie Mackey, Huey Long, Cliff Givens, Billy Bowen, Herb Kenny, Adriel McDonald, Jimmy Cannady, Ernie Brown, Henry Braswell, Teddy Williams and Everett Barksdale. Pianists and arrangers included Bob Benson, Asa "Ace" Harris, Ken Bryan, Mort Howard (arranger), Bill Doggett, Ray Tunia, Harold Francis and Fletcher Smith. Some singers have tenuous ties to Deek Watson's or Charlie Fuqua's offshoot groups; many, with no credentials whatsoever, claim to be original members.

Legacy and honors

 * 1946 Cashbox award for making "The Gypsy" the biggest money making song of the year.
 * 1948 awarded a plaque from the Negro Actors Guild for their efforts in "breaking down the walls of racial prejudice".
 * 1989, the Ink Spots were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as "early influences" by Bobby McFerrin; the members were listed as Bill Kenny, Charlie Fuqua, Deek Watson, Jerry Daniels, and Orville Jones.
 * 1989, the Ink Spots' 1939 recording of "If I Didn't Care" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
 * 1999, the Ink Spots were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Television appearances
The Ink Spots are television pioneers when, in 1936 they were the first musical group to perform live on televsion, and in 1948, they were the first black performers to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Ink Spots made guest appearances on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater on three separate occasions in 1949, on The Ed Sullivan Show three times (1948, 1950, and 1952), on Steve Allen's Songs For Sale twice in 1952, and on Star of the Family once in 1952.

Music videos and live footage
In 1946, a short documentary about nightlife in New York City called "March of Time" featured a clip of the Ink Spots singing "I'd Climb The Highest Mountain" live at the Cafe Zanzibar; the clip and outtakes can be found for viewing on various websites. In 1947, cameras captured segments of the Ink Spots in live performance at the Daily Express Film Ball in London England; this footage can be obtained by British Pathe.

In 1951, Snader Telescriptions produced five "soundies" (also known as music videos) of the Ink Spots. These clips feature the group lip-syncing to the songs "If I Didn't Care", "You May Be the Sweetheart of Somebody Else", "The Gypsy", "I'm Heading Back to Paradise", and "It Is No Secret". Bill Kenny's wife Audrey portrays "the gypsy" in the video for "The Gypsy" and can also be seen serving food to the Ink Spots in "You May Be the Sweetheart of Somebody Else". Billy Bowen's wife Ruth Bowen is seen walking through the set carrying a dog (Bill Kenny's actual pet) and serving drinks in "You May Be the Sweetheart of Somebody Else".

Ink Spots music used in television and film
The Ink Spots' music has been used in the films Get Low, Radio Days, Raging Bull, Revolutionary Road, The Shawshank Redemption, The Aviator, Iris, Sphere, Tree's Lounge, Malcolm X, Maria's Lovers, How to Make an American Quilt, Men Don't Leave, Three D (film), Joe Versus the Volcano, Spontaneous Combustion, Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business, Australia, Mr. Nobody, Hyde Park on Hudson, The Rover, Twenty Bucks, Manchester by the Sea, Logorama, and Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives.

The Ink Spots' music has been used in such TV shows as The Walking Dead, The Simpsons, The Visitor, The Tourist, The Singing Detective, Sanford, The Blacklist, Defiance, Arrested Development, Better Call Saul, White Collar, Watchmen, Once Upon a Time,  Fallout, and Heroes.

The Ink Spots in video games
Recordings by the Ink Spots have been featured in the popular Fallout video game franchise. Their recording of "Maybe" was used as the opening theme of Fallout (1997), as well as in the epilogue. It was also played on the in-game radio station Galaxy News Radio in Fallout 3 (2008), alongside their recordings of "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall". "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" also features in both the game's trailer and its opening cinematic. The song "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie" (Bill Kenny's solo, not original recording from 1941) is played on the in-game radio station Radio New Vegas in the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas. In 2015, the group was once again featured in the Fallout franchise, when their recording of the Russ Morgan and Seger Ellis ballad "It's All Over but the Crying" was used in the trailer for Fallout 4; that song is also played on the in-game radio station Diamond City Radio, alongside "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire", "Maybe", and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall". The former two songs appear once more in Fallout 76, alongside "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)".

BioShock and BioShock 2 have also made use of the group's recordings: "If I Didn't Care" and "The Best Things in Life Are Free" in the former, and "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)", "I'm Making Believe", and "Memories of You" in the latter. Still others were included in Mafia II and on the in-game radio stations in L.A. Noire.

Miscellaneous

 * The song "Jukebox Saturday Night", made famous by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, references the Ink Spots, imitating the iconic Ink Spots guitar intro and the group's style of singing during much of the second half of the recording.
 * The Ink Spots appeared as a guest quartet on the April 4, 1948, episode of The Jack Benny Program, singing a version of "If I Didn't Care" as the advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes.
 * In Tex Avery's 1952 cartoon Magical Maestro, Poochini gets sprayed in the face with black ink and then sings a couple of bars of "Everything I Have Is Yours", imitating Kenny and then Jones.
 * In 1960, The Quarry Men (composed of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Stuart Sutcliffe, later to form The Beatles) recorded "You'll Be Mine", an Ink Spots parody.
 * Ian Fleming mentioned the group twice in his 1962 James Bond novel The Spy Who Loved Me, when the leading female, Vivienne Michel, recalls a love affair from her past. She recalls hearing "Someone's Rocking My Dreamboat", and mistakenly credits the group with singing "Only a Paper Doll to Call My Own" (an apparent reference to The Mills Brothers' song "Paper Doll"). Bond himself overhears the group singing "Java Jive" aboard the US Manta submarine in Thunderball.
 * The Ink Spots were mentioned in several episodes of the 1970s NBC sitcom Sanford and Son, as one of Fred Sanford's favorite groups, with series star Redd Foxx crooning their song, "If I Didn't Care". Reportedly, Foxx had royalties for singing their music taken out of his salary out of love for the group and because NBC would not pay for the rights.
 * In the 1980s, a commercial for Chanel No. 5 included a version of "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" sung solo by Bill Kenny, the former lead tenor of the group, with an unknown studio vocal group for a 1977 CBS Records LP entitled The Ink Spots – If I Didn't Care. The recording was used in the ad without permission from Kenny's executrix and widow Audrey Kenny. In 1982, Mrs. Kenny took legal action and, according to Bill Kenny's former pianist Bev Gore-Langton, was successful. The commercial depicted the Transamerica Pyramid building in San Francisco with the shadow of a plane flying overhead.
 * In the 1980s, "Java Jive" was used in commercials for Sanka coffee, prominently featuring the likes of Lena Horne and Gregory Hines.
 * "Someone's Rocking my Dreamboat" was sung by Bugs Bunny in the Looney Tunes short The Big Snooze.
 * The original 1982 theatrical trailer for the movie Blade Runner prominently featured a short clip of "If I Didn't Care", and the song is used in the early "workprint" version of the film, but it was replaced in the theatrical and all subsequent releases with "One More Kiss, Dear", an original composition in a similar vocal and melodic style.
 * Heavy metal group Megadeth used "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire" on their 1988 album So Far, So Good... So What! as an introduction to the song "Set the World Afire".
 * The Ink Spots were the subject of a 1998 book by Marv Goldberg, More Than Words Can Say: The Ink Spots and Their Music.
 * Several of the Ink Spots' original recordings are used in the off-Broadway production Sleep No More, which first opened in 2011.
 * The recording "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" has been featured in multiple television shows and short films, being played at the end of the 2009 short film Logorama, as well as at the end of a special seasonal episode, "Treehouse of Horror XVII", on The Simpsons.
 * The Ink Spots' version of "I'm Beginning to See the Light" with Ella Fitzgerald is featured in the 2016 film Manchester by the Sea.
 * The Ink Spots' song "Address Unknown" plays during the opening of the first episode of Better Call Saul. Additionally, the group's rendition of "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" plays over the opening scene of the episode "Smoke".
 * The Ink Spots songs feature throughout Fallout Season 1; "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" closes episode 8.
 * The Ink Spots are the subject in one of the comic letters that form the Going’ Places chapter in the book Letters From A Nut by Ted L. Nancy In that letter, the author ask information for the “The Ink Spots Day” fictional festival that, according to L. Nancy, will be take place in West Hollywood. The mayor of West Hollywood answers the petition saying that event won’t be in his city but: “The Ink Spots” are a favorite of mine.”

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: The Ink Spots


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User talk:Rolken

Wikiwikiwikiwoo! Welcome to Wikipedia! Annie

sup
Hey Rolk your ex is weird amirite. --CosmicFalcon 15:00, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

CF has a point :(. --Fastnaturedude 23:58, 23 September 2006 (EST)

IRC
Thank you for your constructive criticism on #wikipedia about diplomacy. --Uncle Ed 18:20, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

"Metallics (Pokémon)" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Metallics (Pokémon). Since you had some involvement with the Metallics (Pokémon) redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Steel1943 (talk) 15:11, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

title: User talk:Rolken


text:
Compressibility

In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, the compressibility (also known as the coefficient of compressibility or, if the temperature is held constant, the isothermal compressibility ) is a measure of the instantaneous relative volume change of a fluid or solid as a response to a pressure (or mean stress) change. In its simple form, the compressibility $$\kappa$$ (denoted $β$ in some fields) may be expressed as

 * $$\beta =-\frac{1}{V}\frac{\partial V}{\partial p}$$,

where $V$ is volume and $p$ is pressure. The choice to define compressibility as the negative of the fraction makes compressibility positive in the (usual) case that an increase in pressure induces a reduction in volume. The reciprocal of compressibility at fixed temperature is called the isothermal bulk modulus.

Definition
The specification above is incomplete, because for any object or system the magnitude of the compressibility depends strongly on whether the process is isentropic or isothermal. Accordingly, isothermal compressibility is defined:

 * $$\beta_T=-\frac{1}{V}\left(\frac{\partial V}{\partial p}\right)_T,$$

where the subscript $T$ indicates that the partial differential is to be taken at constant temperature.

Isentropic compressibility is defined:

 * $$\beta_S=-\frac{1}{V}\left(\frac{\partial V}{\partial p}\right)_S,$$

where $S$ is entropy. For a solid, the distinction between the two is usually negligible.

Since the density $ρ$ of a material is inversely proportional to its volume, it can be shown that in both cases
 * $$\beta=\frac{1}{\rho}\left(\frac{\partial \rho}{\partial p}\right).$$

Relation to speed of sound
The speed of sound is defined in classical mechanics as:

 * $$c^2=\left(\frac{\partial p}{\partial\rho}\right)_S$$

It follows, by replacing partial derivatives, that the isentropic compressibility can be expressed as:

 * $$\beta_S=\frac{1}{\rho c^2}$$

Relation to bulk modulus
The inverse of the compressibility is called the bulk modulus, often denoted $K$ (sometimes $B$ or $$\beta$$).). The compressibility equation relates the isothermal compressibility (and indirectly the pressure) to the structure of the liquid.

Thermodynamics
The isothermal compressibility is generally related to the isentropic (or adiabatic) compressibility by a few relations:

 * $$\frac{\beta_T}{\beta_S} = \frac{c_p}{c_v} = \gamma,$$
 * $$\beta_S = \beta_T - \frac{\alpha^2 T}{\rho c_p}, $$
 * $$\frac{1}{\beta_S} = \frac{1}{\beta_T} + \frac{\Lambda^2 T}{\rho c_v} ,$$

where $γ$ is the heat capacity ratio, $α$ is the volumetric coefficient of thermal expansion, $ρ = N/V$ is the particle density, and $$\Lambda = (\partial P/\partial T)_{V}$$ is the thermal pressure coefficient.

In an extensive thermodynamic system, the application of statistical mechanics shows that the isothermal compressibility is also related to the relative size of fluctuations in particle density:
 * $$\beta_T = \frac{(\partial \rho / \partial \mu)_{V,T}}{\rho^2} = \frac{\langle(\Delta N)^2\rangle/V}{k_{\rm B} T \rho^2},$$

where $μ$ is the chemical potential.

The term "compressibility" is also used in thermodynamics to describe deviations of the thermodynamic properties of a real gas from those expected from an ideal gas.

The compressibility factor is defined as

 * $$Z=\frac{p V_m}{R T} $$

where $p$ is the pressure of the gas, $T$ is its temperature, and $$V_m$$ is its molar volume, all measured independently of one another. In the case of an ideal gas, the compressibility factor $Z$ is equal to unity, and the familiar ideal gas law is recovered:

 * $$p = \frac{RT}{V_m}$$

$Z$ can, in general, be either greater or less than unity for a real gas.

The deviation from ideal gas behavior tends to become particularly significant (or, equivalently, the compressibility factor strays far from unity) near the critical point, or in the case of high pressure or low temperature. In these cases, a generalized compressibility chart or an alternative equation of state better suited to the problem must be utilized to produce accurate results.

Earth science
The Earth sciences use compressibility to quantify the ability of a soil or rock to reduce in volume under applied pressure. This concept is important for specific storage, when estimating groundwater reserves in confined aquifers. Geologic materials are made up of two portions: solids and voids (or same as porosity). The void space can be full of liquid or gas. Geologic materials reduce in volume only when the void spaces are reduced, which expel the liquid or gas from the voids. This can happen over a period of time, resulting in settlement.

It is an important concept in geotechnical engineering in the design of certain structural foundations. For example, the construction of high-rise structures over underlying layers of highly compressible bay mud poses a considerable design constraint, and often leads to use of driven piles or other innovative techniques.

Fluid dynamics
The degree of compressibility of a fluid has strong implications for its dynamics. Most notably, the propagation of sound is dependent on the compressibility of the medium.

Aerodynamics
Compressibility is an important factor in aerodynamics. At low speeds, the compressibility of air is not significant in relation to aircraft design, but as the airflow nears and exceeds the speed of sound, a host of new aerodynamic effects become important in the design of aircraft. These effects, often several of them at a time, made it very difficult for World War II era aircraft to reach speeds much beyond 800 km/h.

Many effects are often mentioned in conjunction with the term "compressibility", but regularly have little to do with the compressible nature of air. From a strictly aerodynamic point of view, the term should refer only to those side-effects arising as a result of the changes in airflow from an incompressible fluid (similar in effect to water) to a compressible fluid (acting as a gas) as the speed of sound is approached. There are two effects in particular, wave drag and critical mach.

One complication occurs in hypersonic aerodynamics, where dissociation causes an increase in the "notional" molar volume because a mole of oxygen, as O2, becomes 2 moles of monatomic oxygen and N2 similarly dissociates to 2 N. Since this occurs dynamically as air flows over the aerospace object, it is convenient to alter the compressibility factor $0$, defined for an initial 30 gram moles of air, rather than track the varying mean molecular weight, millisecond by millisecond. This pressure dependent transition occurs for atmospheric oxygen in the 2,500–4,000 K temperature range, and in the 5,000–10,000 K range for nitrogen.

In transition regions, where this pressure dependent dissociation is incomplete, both beta (the volume/pressure differential ratio) and the differential, constant pressure heat capacity greatly increases. For moderate pressures, above 10,000 K the gas further dissociates into free electrons and ions. $0$ for the resulting plasma can similarly be computed for a mole of initial air, producing values between 2 and 4 for partially or singly ionized gas. Each dissociation absorbs a great deal of energy in a reversible process and this greatly reduces the thermodynamic temperature of hypersonic gas decelerated near the aerospace object. Ions or free radicals transported to the object surface by diffusion may release this extra (nonthermal) energy if the surface catalyzes the slower recombination process.

Negative compressibility
For ordinary materials, the bulk compressibility (sum of the linear compressibilities on the three axes) is positive, that is, an increase in pressure squeezes the material to a smaller volume. This condition is required for mechanical stability. However, under very specific conditions, materials can exhibit a compressibility that can be negative.

title: Compressibility