The Old Testament remains at the heart of many contemporary concerns. The heated battles over abortion, homosexuality (now threatening to tear apart the Anglican Church), and the right-to-live (as in the case of Terri Schiavo in the States) all testify to its continuing influence. Millions still believe every word and story in it is literally true.

But can they be true? Prof. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Neil Silberman of the Ename Centre of Public Archaeology in Belgium have brought together the findings of modern science and archaeology in their book 'The Bible Unearthed' to try and cast light on this question. In general, they make the following case:

The scientific position is clear. There is no evidence of any kind for the existence of Abraham (supposedly the Israelites' founding patriarch), Moses, or Solomon. At the time of the Exodus, Canaan -- the Promised Land to which the Israelites were fleeing -- was ruled and firmly controlled by the very Egypt from which they were trying to escape.

The conquest of Canaan by Joshua could not have happened in the way described in the Bible. Most of the towns he is supposed to have conquered either weren't inhabited, didn't exist or were conquered at wildly different times.

Jerusalem, which was supposed to have become the capital of the great unified empire of King David (he of David and Goliath fame), appears to have been tiny and only sparsely inhabited in the relevant period. Many of the great monuments of ancient Israel attributed on the authority of the Old Testament to King Solomon were of a later date.

Excavations of early Israelite settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan since the 1967 Six Day War have suggested strongly that the Israelites were in fact of local Canaanite stock.

They were probably desert nomads who took to hill farming for economic reasons, and developed into two kingdoms -- a northern one called Israel, and a southern called Judah. The Bible reflects the slightly differing traditions of the two kingdoms, and when the north collapsed in the 8th century BC and its people fled south, an attempt was made through written texts to unify and reconcile both peoples. Thus the Old Testament began to take shape.

The Bible says the Israelites first began to worship one God in the time of Moses. But in fact, the Israelites from both north and south were actually polytheistic, and the process of monotheism didn't begin till many centuries after that supposed time.

This followed from the centralisation of cult worship in Jerusalem ordered by the king, as a way of rallying the people, and it became focussed on a local Israelite deity, Yahweh (or as we know him, Jehovah).

After the southern kingdom of Judah was itself destroyed by the Babylonians, the leaders were taken to Babylon, where their religion and historic episodes were kept alive in their memory and later elaborated in further texts on their return to Judah.

These collected texts are what we know as the Old Testament. It thus evolved over many centuries, with many different authors, reflecting many different twists and turns in the political and religious life of the Israelites. All too human - and thus perhaps, inevitably full of inconsistencies.

This makes it unreliable as straightforward history and it needs careful interpretation. Historically at least, it cannot be taken as literally true in every particular.