Baruch Halpern is the Covenant Foundation Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia.
[2] As an undergraduate at Harvard in 1972, he wrote a political analysis of the Bible, which subsequently influenced research into its authorship.
[3] He is noted for his use of archaeological information to interpret the meaning of Biblical texts (for example, the explanation of Ehud's murder of King Eglon and escape without detection from the "upper room," see Judges 3:12–30, in Halpern's book The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History, pp. 55–59).
This is no different in terms of reconstructing thought than needing to know the central and related languages involved.
Halpern has strongly criticized biblical minimalists, particularly Israel Finkelstein's "Low Chronology" theory: in his 1995 essay Erasing History: The Minimalist Assault on Ancient Israel he defends the historicity of the United Monarchy and of kings Saul, David and Solomon.