The flowering if Biblical study in the last twenty-five years is a phenomenon so striking and so widespread that it can only be regarded as a mark of the Holy Spirit's guidance of the Church. Aided by the painstaking efforts of archaeologists, specialists in ancient languages, historians, and many other scientific works, the Biblical exegese today has at hand a wealth of factual knowledge about the ancient Near East and a knowledge of Semitic literary modes and ways of thought, which were never available before.