James Riley Strange, Excavating the Land of Jesus: How Archaeologists Study the People of the Gospels (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2023), 14.
People often have the impression that the chief aim of archaeologists is proving a written account to be true. They think that historical veracity of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles is under attack, and they turn to archaeologists to shore up the reliability of scripture. Thus, archaeology becomes the servant of apologetics. I have already talked about this use of archaeology briefly. Now I can add that neither proof nor apologetics fits our definition of archaeology. To prove that a claim of the evangelists is true does not require systematic recovery and interpretation, nor does it help to understand ancient human institutions and values. Furthermore, “prove” and “proof” do not appear in scientific literature very often these days. The use of those terms is almost limited to mathematicians. For their part, scientists tend to talk about producing sound arguments supported by evidence and avoiding nonfalsifiable hypotheses.
The Amateur Exegete 
ARCHAEOLOGISTS: The material evidence corroborates the biblical narrative in places, neither confirms nor disconfirms in others, and conflicts with the narrative in others.
APOLOGISTS: Did you hear that? ARCHAEOLOGISTS SAY THE MATERIAL EVIDENCE CORROBORATES THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT. Checkmate, atheists!
ARCHAEOLOGISTS: Wait, that’s not–
APOLOGISTS: Shut up, nerds. About to film the next episode for our YouTube channel, Archaeology Again Confirms the Bible, As Always.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS: [Sigh]
* * *
As St. Paul and St. Art tell us, a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.
–LL
LikeLiked by 1 person