NONFICTION - April 7, 1991

JOSHUA’S ALTAR: The Dig at Mount Ebal by Milt Machlin (William Morrow: $22.95; 256 pp., illustrated) . The Bible reads, “Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal.” Was that a literal fact? When Machlin, longtime editor of Argosy magazine and a man passionate about archeology, was told by a friend that the “most important biblical archeological site ever discovered” was being investigated, he went to Israel to learn the engrossing story of the dig on Mount Ebal. This is a book crammed of necessity with Biblical history, but it is also the story of contemporary political infighting between scholars--all arguing over a site which, if in fact Joshua’s altar, would confirm the story of the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt, and give credence to the claim that the people of Israel had settled on the West Bank of the Jordan River almost 3,200 years ago.