Bible QuestDavid Plotz takes readers' questions on archaeology in the Holy Land.

Slate deputy editor David Plotz was online at Washingtonpost.com on Thursday, Jan. 17, to discuss his recent travels to Israel to search for archaeological evidence of the Bible's stories, an extension of his "Blogging the Bible" project. An unedited transcript of the chat follows.

David Plotz: Hi, this is David Plotz. Let's talk about the Bible, archeology, and belief.

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Bethesda, Md.: What was the most impressive site that you saw while over there?

David Plotz: It's funny, because the whole country is so extraordinary. From a sheerly aesthetic perspective, Masada and Herodion can't be beat. They are so incredibly beautiful, and so amazingly situated, and their histories are so compelling that you can hardly breathe while you are there. For archeological fun, I loved the Maresha excavation where, with Dig for a Day, you can play at archeology.

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Brooklyn, N.Y.: Mr. Plotz's article concerning the archaeological site known as the City of David contains several factual errors. The most blatant is that Mazar claims to have found the remains of David's palace. She makes no such claim. In her article that appeared in Biblical Archaeology Review—which is linked to in Mr. Plotz's article—Mazar makes no such assertion. She merely posed a rhetorical question: "Have I found King David's palace?" It was not a statement of fact but a well-thought-out question that will generate funding for the excavation. It is a technique often used by archaeologists.

washingtonpost.com: The Palace of King David (Or Not) (Slate, Jan. 15)

David Plotz: It's complicated. Mazar is usually careful to qualify what she says about the Palace of David. However, her rhetorical questions and the way she marshals the evidence point readers strongly in the direction of: This IS the palace of David. What's more, Elad, the organization that oversees the City of David excavation and that is connected with her funding, makes no such qualifications. I listened to the official tour guides at the City of David, and they say: This IS the Palace of David.

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Washington: Aside from a greater understanding of the Bible, what were you (secretly?) hoping to find by taking this trip to Israel? Did you have any underlying religious motivation not mentioned in the article?

David Plotz: I didn't have an unmentioned religious motivation. I did have an unmentioned book motivation, which is that I was also gathering material for a chapter in a book that will be based on my "Blogging the Bible" series for Slate. Actually, it's not fair to say I had no religious motivation: I have been struggling with the questions of: How much of the Bible is true, and if it's not true, should it affect what I believe. To that end, my trip helped me realize how much of the later Hebrew Bible is documented, and how little of the early, fun parts are. And I just loved being around so many interesting fellow Jews, grappling with deep questions of belief and identity.

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Savannah, Ga.: Yes, the Essenes were weird, but so were all the sects and cults of Second Temple Judaism: The Pharisees would become the rabbis who transformed Judaism into a picayune concern with minutiae; the Jewish Christians were the forerunners of the Crazy Christians, who believed in a resurrected criminal as God in the flesh. Why focus only on the Essenes?

David Plotz: I focus on the Essenes because the Essenes are the ones who wrote and saved the Dead Sea Scrolls. They present us, as their intellectual heirs, with an interesting problem: They're truly weird, and their beliefs are sometimes disturbing, yet they helped save our civilization. They tell us who we are. I wanted to focus on this puzzle: How can we revere these people who were actually kind of appalling? Also, I focus on the Essenes because Qumran is such an amazing spot, truly the end of the earth.

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Cambridge, Mass.: In what way has this experience changed how you read the Bible?

David Plotz: Good question! I was never a Biblical literalist, so it's not as though going to Israel and seeing that there is scant evidence for say, Samson, disillusioned me. It brought much of the later Bible to life for me: Seeing Hezekiah's tunnel in Jerusalem, for example, allowed me to see the war with the Assyrians in a new light, realize how it might have been fought. And seeing Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, made me suddenly realize how my ancestors had given up everything in order to save their books. It has made me cherish the Bible much more as the glue of Judaism, made me recognize that it is the book itself—and the saving of it—that preserved Jews as a civilization.

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Washington: I guess my problem with all of this is that it leads to the concept of "sacred or holy soil," and I can't think of a more destructive concept in history, unless it's that of a superior race. Is there any chance that any amount of archaeology might falsify any of the Bible's stories, and if so, that it might disabuse people of the idea that their particular piece of soil is holy and therefore worth dying (or killing others)?

David Plotz: Great great point! I hope you will read my final entry on Friday, where I finish with just the same question. I find the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest spot, a confounding place! It's wonderful to gather with all the world's Jews, but there's something almost idolatrous in the way that place has been made sacred. If there is a God, sure. he is everywhere at all times. Saying this particular place is more holy than others troubles me. It also, as you say, can be a source of terrible conflict. On the other hand, it is that notion that Israel is holy land that has helped Israel grow into the great nation that it is. The theological foundation is essential to the secular state. So it's complicated!

As for your other question, has archeology falsified Bible stories? The answer is yes, lots of them. As you can read in Kugel's fabulous book, How To Read the Bible, archeology has falsified essentially the entire Torah. There is no evidence of any patriarchs, no evidence of a flood. More disturbingly, there is no evidence that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, or had an exodus from there, no evidence that the Israelites ever conquered Canaan. In fact, almost all archeologists now agree that Israelites ARE Canaanites. But does that archeological evidence "destroy" Judaism or Christianity? Only if you are a literalist. The laws, traditions, lessons remain.

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