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William Foxwell Albright: A Twentieth-Century Genius
In this biographical account of the acknowledged dean of biblical archaeology, Running and Freedman attempt to draw an objective picture of Albright and let the man speak for himself. The most famous Biblical archaeologist in the world at the time of his death, William Foxwell Albright's name is known and his work respected by everyone in his field. For many years chairman of the Oriental Seminary at Johns Hopkins University, Albright sent a whole generation of Biblical scholars out all over the world, and a large number of the leading figures in the field today are former students of this remarkable man.
447 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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March 25, 2025
A MASTERFUL AND VERY REVEALING BIOGRAPHY OF THE ‘BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY’ LEADER
Coauthor Leona Glidden Running wrote in the Preface to this 1975 book, “It was the author’s privilege to be a graduate student of, and in the latter six years of his life to work closely as editorial assistant with one of the greatest minds and personalities of the 20th century---Professor Albright, world-recognized Dean of Biblical archaeologists. This biography is a labor of love undertaken in grateful homage by a devoted disciple to a revered teacher---yet at the same time a genuine attempt to present objectively the man as he really was, letting him speak for himself. His life, character, personality and career deserve to be understood far beyond the wide circle of his scholarly colleagues and his students, now recognized scholars in their own right.
“William Albright’s later life and especially his career are quite well known, but only the barest facts have been known about his childhood and family life in his earliest years. Those still available family members and friends, mostly now in their seventies and eighties, who were closest to him, have recorded their recollections, and the story will be unfolded often in their own words to supply the missing foundational period… However, since Albright published non-technical condensed reports of his work for a wider audience than his professional colleagues, and since his work and his life cannot be separated, he can be allowed to tell the story in his own (published) words, to a great extent. It is impossible to relate Albright’s life story without mention of his colleagues and other facets of Biblical archaeology in Albright’s career span, though space forbids its full narration. What is resented is a representative sampling of the vast output of this amazingly productive scholar, chosen to reveal his thinking and ideas, as well as the main events and activities of his life.”
She wrote in Chapter 1, “Who was William Albright? He was one of the last of the ‘universals,’ men gifted and competent in many fields who left a permanent impress on their own and following generations. And he was an outstanding example of a person who, in attempting to compensate for great physical handicaps, overcompensates and becomes a genius… The result was the formation of a precocious historian and linguist who nevertheless had a deepseated inferiority complex and frequently despaired of ever accomplishing anything worthwhile (at the same time he was producing phenomenal accomplishments)… he was a leader in a group of archaeologists … who were bringing to the fore a new discipline, Biblical Archaeology… with the result that the higher critical and artificial views of Julius Wellhausen and his school, were in retreat. William Albright literally turned biblical studies around and gave them a new direction.” (Pg. 1-2)
She notes, “Albright’s reports of tours and archaeological digs in his years in Palestine were written for the general reader in not too technical a style, in order to appeal to many people and increase the influence and support of the American School of Oriental Research.” (Pg. 112)
She reports, “The Albrights had not informed either his family or hers of her conversion to Catholicism in late 1922, but waited until they could all be together. The news of this development caused the beginning of a rift that widened as time went on, not only between her and his family, but also between her and his own parents, two brothers, and sister. The family members of both sides, however, greatly enjoyed having their rather famous relatives home for a visit, and were delighted with little Paul [their first child].” (Pg. 138-139)
Albright’s student John Bright recounts, “It must be said that as a pedagogue he was not at his best. Of educational method he knew nothing and, I suspect, cared less. His lectures were a catena of brilliant divagations upon which it was impossible to take coherent notes…. In seminars his mind would range over the frontiers of scholarship, driving the student .. both faster and farther than he was able to go. It is small wonder that many first-year students became deeply discouraged and were tempted to quit. Yet, from another point of view, Albright was the greatest teacher I ever had. The student who stuck it out knew that he had served his apprenticeship under a master craftsman.” (Pg . 199)
Archaeologist G. Ernest Wright said of Albright, “But the insecurity of Albright came out in the later years, during the 1960s, most visibly, in that he became more and more dogmatic. He was always difficult to get a point over to, at best.” (Pg. 312)
After Albright was awarded an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins, “The day after the event, the ‘Sun’ headlined, “Albright Scores ‘Perversion’ of Science to Spur Racism.’ … [He said] ‘Science in the service of racism is one of our most sinister modern perversions of learning.’ … He had given a fiery speech.” (Pg. 331)
She recounts, “Beginning in March 1956, much of the correspondence between Prof. Albright and Noel Freedman… concerned discussions, exchange of opinions and information on the progress of plans developing with Doubleday for what came to be known as the Anchor Bible project. The two of them would be co-editors of the famous series of volumes until Albright’s death. The project began with Albright and Jason Epstein at the very beginning of 1956, when Albright drew Noel into the picture…” (Pg. 341)
She notes that “a feature article came out in the Baltimore Sun… This was one of the first articles giving publicity to the project on which the joint editors had been working hard for many months; it would turn out to be a monumental undertaking going far beyond its projected completion date in 1966 and even beyond the lifetime of its senior editor." (Pg. 341-343)
Another newspaper article quoted Albright as saying, “‘This is the first time that Catholic, Protestant and Jewish scholars have all collaborated in a series of commentaries on a religious book.’ Dr. Albright maintains that ‘not all the authors are believers in the divine revelation of the Bible, and some are complete agnostics.’ He says that sometimes nonbelievers are ‘more objective than those who have a profound interest in theology.’ … Dr. Albright does not believe that ‘every word was written by the hand of God. The Bible was written by human beings, and is the Word of God through man.’” (Pg. 344-345)
While in Jerusalem, Albright was asked about the veracity of the Bible, and he replied, “Considering everything, the Hebrew Bible is the most extraordinarily accurate record because of the empirical latitude of the Israelites, from Moses on, to matters of fact. It’s an extraordinary record of human experience.” (Pg. 376)
Stephen Mann told Ms. Running, “…Albright was still worshipping regularly in the Methodist Church… I think that the alliance of political conservatism plus the strongly Puritan upbringing of his youth cause him to begin to look with very grave doubts, and in the end extreme disfavor, upon what was happening to American Methodism in the last ten years of his life. He found statements from the Methodist headquarters quite deeply disturbing. To him there were far too many obvious inputs of a biblical and historical liberalism from which he always deeply revolted. To find this at the very core of the confession in which he had been raised in the end caused him to talk quite seriously to me on several occasions about transferring his allegiance from Methodism elsewhere.” (Pg. 425-426)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously interested in Albright.
Coauthor Leona Glidden Running wrote in the Preface to this 1975 book, “It was the author’s privilege to be a graduate student of, and in the latter six years of his life to work closely as editorial assistant with one of the greatest minds and personalities of the 20th century---Professor Albright, world-recognized Dean of Biblical archaeologists. This biography is a labor of love undertaken in grateful homage by a devoted disciple to a revered teacher---yet at the same time a genuine attempt to present objectively the man as he really was, letting him speak for himself. His life, character, personality and career deserve to be understood far beyond the wide circle of his scholarly colleagues and his students, now recognized scholars in their own right.
“William Albright’s later life and especially his career are quite well known, but only the barest facts have been known about his childhood and family life in his earliest years. Those still available family members and friends, mostly now in their seventies and eighties, who were closest to him, have recorded their recollections, and the story will be unfolded often in their own words to supply the missing foundational period… However, since Albright published non-technical condensed reports of his work for a wider audience than his professional colleagues, and since his work and his life cannot be separated, he can be allowed to tell the story in his own (published) words, to a great extent. It is impossible to relate Albright’s life story without mention of his colleagues and other facets of Biblical archaeology in Albright’s career span, though space forbids its full narration. What is resented is a representative sampling of the vast output of this amazingly productive scholar, chosen to reveal his thinking and ideas, as well as the main events and activities of his life.”
She wrote in Chapter 1, “Who was William Albright? He was one of the last of the ‘universals,’ men gifted and competent in many fields who left a permanent impress on their own and following generations. And he was an outstanding example of a person who, in attempting to compensate for great physical handicaps, overcompensates and becomes a genius… The result was the formation of a precocious historian and linguist who nevertheless had a deepseated inferiority complex and frequently despaired of ever accomplishing anything worthwhile (at the same time he was producing phenomenal accomplishments)… he was a leader in a group of archaeologists … who were bringing to the fore a new discipline, Biblical Archaeology… with the result that the higher critical and artificial views of Julius Wellhausen and his school, were in retreat. William Albright literally turned biblical studies around and gave them a new direction.” (Pg. 1-2)
She notes, “Albright’s reports of tours and archaeological digs in his years in Palestine were written for the general reader in not too technical a style, in order to appeal to many people and increase the influence and support of the American School of Oriental Research.” (Pg. 112)
She reports, “The Albrights had not informed either his family or hers of her conversion to Catholicism in late 1922, but waited until they could all be together. The news of this development caused the beginning of a rift that widened as time went on, not only between her and his family, but also between her and his own parents, two brothers, and sister. The family members of both sides, however, greatly enjoyed having their rather famous relatives home for a visit, and were delighted with little Paul [their first child].” (Pg. 138-139)
Albright’s student John Bright recounts, “It must be said that as a pedagogue he was not at his best. Of educational method he knew nothing and, I suspect, cared less. His lectures were a catena of brilliant divagations upon which it was impossible to take coherent notes…. In seminars his mind would range over the frontiers of scholarship, driving the student .. both faster and farther than he was able to go. It is small wonder that many first-year students became deeply discouraged and were tempted to quit. Yet, from another point of view, Albright was the greatest teacher I ever had. The student who stuck it out knew that he had served his apprenticeship under a master craftsman.” (Pg . 199)
Archaeologist G. Ernest Wright said of Albright, “But the insecurity of Albright came out in the later years, during the 1960s, most visibly, in that he became more and more dogmatic. He was always difficult to get a point over to, at best.” (Pg. 312)
After Albright was awarded an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins, “The day after the event, the ‘Sun’ headlined, “Albright Scores ‘Perversion’ of Science to Spur Racism.’ … [He said] ‘Science in the service of racism is one of our most sinister modern perversions of learning.’ … He had given a fiery speech.” (Pg. 331)
She recounts, “Beginning in March 1956, much of the correspondence between Prof. Albright and Noel Freedman… concerned discussions, exchange of opinions and information on the progress of plans developing with Doubleday for what came to be known as the Anchor Bible project. The two of them would be co-editors of the famous series of volumes until Albright’s death. The project began with Albright and Jason Epstein at the very beginning of 1956, when Albright drew Noel into the picture…” (Pg. 341)
She notes that “a feature article came out in the Baltimore Sun… This was one of the first articles giving publicity to the project on which the joint editors had been working hard for many months; it would turn out to be a monumental undertaking going far beyond its projected completion date in 1966 and even beyond the lifetime of its senior editor." (Pg. 341-343)
Another newspaper article quoted Albright as saying, “‘This is the first time that Catholic, Protestant and Jewish scholars have all collaborated in a series of commentaries on a religious book.’ Dr. Albright maintains that ‘not all the authors are believers in the divine revelation of the Bible, and some are complete agnostics.’ He says that sometimes nonbelievers are ‘more objective than those who have a profound interest in theology.’ … Dr. Albright does not believe that ‘every word was written by the hand of God. The Bible was written by human beings, and is the Word of God through man.’” (Pg. 344-345)
While in Jerusalem, Albright was asked about the veracity of the Bible, and he replied, “Considering everything, the Hebrew Bible is the most extraordinarily accurate record because of the empirical latitude of the Israelites, from Moses on, to matters of fact. It’s an extraordinary record of human experience.” (Pg. 376)
Stephen Mann told Ms. Running, “…Albright was still worshipping regularly in the Methodist Church… I think that the alliance of political conservatism plus the strongly Puritan upbringing of his youth cause him to begin to look with very grave doubts, and in the end extreme disfavor, upon what was happening to American Methodism in the last ten years of his life. He found statements from the Methodist headquarters quite deeply disturbing. To him there were far too many obvious inputs of a biblical and historical liberalism from which he always deeply revolted. To find this at the very core of the confession in which he had been raised in the end caused him to talk quite seriously to me on several occasions about transferring his allegiance from Methodism elsewhere.” (Pg. 425-426)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone seriously interested in Albright.
June 29, 2010
bio of an archaeologist who mastered Sumerian, Accadian, Ancient and Modern Hebrew and Arabic, Egyptian, Ethiopic, and Ugaritic as well as Ceramics and led much of the movement towards respect for biblical texts as authentic historic documents at a time when many influential scholars were dismissing them as late fabrications of myths and legends.This is so thick with arcane information that it presents some difficulties. Albright obviously deserves a multivolume treatment which dramatises the revolution he brought about in the appreciation of the Bible as an historical document as well as his many contributions to the decipherment of the languages of the ancient Near East , ancient chronology and the recognition of the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other archaeological discoveries.
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