fact-based correlations right through from circa 2000 BC (with earlier roots) down to 400 BC. In terms of general reliability … the Old Testament comes out remarkably well, so long as the writings are treated fairly and evenhandedly, in line with independent data, open to all.1 Kitchen’s closing remarks make a bridge to our second factor: one must recognize that the biblical authors, who lived in the world of the ancient Near East and, though superintended by God, did not approach history (or chronology)