The Bible's Buried Secrets
Encyclopedia
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- The BBC has also produced a short series of same name covering similar themes presented by Francesca StavrakopoulouFrancesca StavrakopoulouFrancesca Stavrakopoulou is an atheist Bible scholar and senior lecturer in the University of Exeter's department of Theology and Religion. The main focus of her research is Israelite and Judahite history and religion...
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- The BBC has also produced a short series of same name covering similar themes presented by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
"The Bible's Buried Secrets" is the title of a NOVA
NOVA (TV series)
Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...
program that stirred controversy even before its first airing on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, on November 18, 2008. According to the program's official website: "The film presents the latest archeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. This archeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies
Biblical studies
Biblical studies is the academic study of the Judeo-Christian Bible and related texts. For Christianity, the Bible traditionally comprises the New Testament and Old Testament, which together are sometimes called the "Scriptures." Judaism recognizes as scripture only the Hebrew Bible, also known as...
: Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one God—the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—emerge?"
Contents
The producers surveyed the evidence and take positions that are mainstream among archaeologists and historians, although they continue to raise objections among both Christians who believe in the literal truth of the Bible and minimalists who assert that the Bible has no historical validation.The program airs archaeologists' assertions that:
On the Origins of Israel
- There is no archaeological evidence to corroborate the stories of Adam and EveAdam and EveAdam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
, Noah's floodNoah's ArkNoah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
and AbrahamAbrahamAbraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
. - There is no evidence to support the mass exodus of the Israelites from EgyptThe ExodusThe Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
, although some now believe that a small group did escape from Egypt; however, they were not Israelites but, rather, Canaanite slaves. On their journey back to Canaan they pass through Midian, where they are inspired by stories of the ShasuShasuShasu is an Egyptian word for pastoral nomads who appeared in the Levant and Arabia from the fifteenth century BCE all the way to the Third Intermediate Period. The name evolved from a transliteration of the Egyptian word š3sw, meaning "those who move on foot", into the term for Bedouin-type...
's god, Yhw. - The Land of CanaanLand of CanaanLand of Canaan is a Mystery-thriller film and is directed by Reginald LaFrance, it stars Christina Applegate, Robert Englund, Juliet Landau and Neve Campbell.-Plot:...
(called the Promised LandPromised landThe Promised Land is a term used to describe the land promised or given by God, according to the Hebrew Bible, to the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. The promise is firstly made to Abraham and then renewed to his son Isaac, and to Isaac's son Jacob , Abraham's grandson...
in the Hebrew Bible) was not taken over by conquest as described in the Book of JoshuaBook of JoshuaThe Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
- rather, the Israelites actually might have been Canaanites who migrated into the highlands and created a new identity for themselves. Of the 31 sites the Bible says that Joshua conquered, few showed any signs of war. "Joshua really didn't fight the Battle of JerichoBattle of JerichoThe Battle of Jericho is an incident in Bible's Book of Joshua, the first battle of the Israelites during their conquest of Canaan. According to the narrative, the walls of Jericho fell after Joshua's Israelite army marched around the city blowing their trumpets.- Spying on Jericho:Before crossing...
," William G. DeverWilliam G. DeverWilliam G. Dever is an American archaeologist, specialising in the history of Israel and the Near East in Biblical times. He was Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson from 1975 to 2002...
said. - Some events of the Israelite kingdomUnited MonarchyAccording to Biblical tradition, the united Kingdom of Israel was a kingdom that existed in the Land of Israel, a period referred to by scholars as the United Monarchy. Biblical historians date the kingdom from c. 1020 BCE to c...
given in the Book of Kings are more or less accurate as history.
On the development of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
- The BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
's first books have been traced back to multiple authors writing over a span of centuries. (See Documentary hypothesisDocumentary hypothesisThe documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
.) - The early books of the BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Samuel and Kings, reached almost their present form during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BCE.
On the development of monotheism in Israel
- The Israelite religion was not exclusively monotheistic from the beginning as suggested in the Hebrew Bible, rather, the archaeological evidence indicates that, before the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE, the early Israelites were polytheistic and worshipped the local god YahwehYahwehYahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
alongside his "wife," a fertility goddessFertility goddessA fertility deity is a god or goddess in mythology associated with fertility, pregnancy, and birth. In some cases these deities are directly associated with sex, and in others they simply embody related attributes...
named AsherahAsherahAsherah , in Semitic mythology, is a Semitic mother goddess, who appears in a number of ancient sources including Akkadian writings by the name of Ashratum/Ashratu and in Hittite as Asherdu or Ashertu or Aserdu or Asertu...
. - The emergence of monotheismMonotheismMonotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
and the belief in the universality of YahwehCreator deityA creator deity is a deity responsible for the creation of the world . In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator deity, while polytheistic traditions may or may not have creator deities...
was a response to the tragic experience of the Babylonian exile of the Israelites in the 6th century BCE. According to Dever, "It's out of this that comes the reflection that polytheism was our [the Israelites'] downfall."
Featured archaeologists and historians
- Gabriel BarkayGabriel BarkayGabriel Barkay is an Israeli archaeologist. Born in 1944 in Hungary, he immigrated to Israel in 1950. He received his PhD in Archaeology from Tel Aviv University in 1985. His dissertation was about LMLK seal impressions on jar handles. He participated in the Lachish excavations with David Ussishkin...
, Amnon Ben-Tor, Manfred BietakManfred BietakManfred Bietak is an Austrian archaeologist. He is Professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Vienna and Director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo 1973-2009...
, Elisabetta Boaretto, Joan Branham, Thomas CahillThomas CahillThomas Cahill is an American scholar and writer. He is best known for The Hinges of History series, a prospective seven-volume series in which the author recounts formative moments in Western civilization.-Biography:...
, Shaye Cohen, Michael CooganMichael CooganMichael D. Coogan is a Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College, a private Roman Catholic institution located in Easton, Massachusetts. He is also Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. Coogan has taught at Stonehill College since 1985...
, William G. DeverWilliam G. DeverWilliam G. Dever is an American archaeologist, specialising in the history of Israel and the Near East in Biblical times. He was Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson from 1975 to 2002...
, Hani Nur El-Din, Avraham Faust, Israel FinkelsteinIsrael FinkelsteinIsrael Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is currently the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University and is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel...
, David Ilan, Lee LevineLee LevineLee Levine may refer to:* Lena Levine , known as Lee Levine, American psychiatrist and gynecologist* Lee I. Levine, Talmud scholar, professor of Jewish history and archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem...
, Peter Machinist, Jodi MagnessJodi MagnessJodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She previously taught at Tufts University. She received her B.A. in Archaeology and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , and her Ph.D. in...
, Amihai MazarAmihai MazarAmihai "Ami" Mazar is an Israeli archaeologist. Born in Haifa, Israel , he is currently Professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, holding the Eleazer Sukenik Chair in the Archaeology of Israel.Mazar has directed archaeological excavations at a number of...
, Eilat MazarEilat MazarEilat Mazar is a third-generation Israeli archaeologist, specializing in Jerusalem and Phoenician archeology. A senior fellow at the Shalem Center, she has worked on the Temple Mount excavations, as well as excavations at Achzib. In addition to heading the Shalem Center's Institute of Archeology,...
, Kyle McCarter, Carol Meyers, Eric Meyers, Donald Redford, Lawrence StagerLawrence StagerLawrence E. "Larry" Stager is Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and is Director of the Harvard Semitic Museum...
, Ephraim SternEphraim SternEphraim Stern is a leading Israeli archeologist and a recognized expert, specializing in the research of the Late First Temple period , the Babylonian period and the Persian period Persian Empire, . In addition, he has extensively studied and written about the Phoenicians. Prof...
, Ron Tappy, Andrew Vaughn, Sharon Zuckerman
Reviews and reception
The Biblical Archaeology ReviewBiblical Archaeology Review
Biblical Archaeology Review is a publication that seeks to connect the academic study of archaeology to a broad general audience seeking to understand the world of the Bible and the Near and Middle East . Covering both the Old and New Testaments, BAR presents the latest discoveries and...
wrote: "The producers have done a magnificent job summarizing over a century of biblical archaeology and biblical scholarship in two hours. The film strikes a balance between the old-fashioned biblical archaeology approach, which tried to prove the Bible’s historicity, and the extreme skepticism of some minimalists, for whom the Bible contains little factual history."
According to Rabbi Wesley Gardenswartz: "Conservative Judaism is fully accepting of the type of scholarship featured in this documentary."
Reverend Kenneth Himes says: "For some, the ideas presented may seem novel or surprising, but this is material that is being discussed in the theology courses found at many Catholic universities."
The conservative American Family Association
American Family Association
The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...
has issued an online petition urging Congress to cut off federal funding for PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. "PBS is knowingly choosing to insult and attack Christianity by airing a program that declares the Bible ‘isn't true and a bunch of stories that never happened,’" signers of the petition are encouraged to declare to members of Congress.
Apologetics Press has written a response to this program that is summarised with the concluding paragraph: "... if Christians are to change their minds about the historicity of the events recorded in the Hebrew Bible, a better case, supported by adequate evidence, would have to be made than the one presented in The Bible’s Buried Secrets."
See also
- BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
- Biblical archaeologyBiblical archaeologyFor the movement associated with William F. Albright and also known as biblical archaeology, see Biblical archaeology school. For the interpretation of biblical archaeology in relation to biblical historicity, see The Bible and history....
- Biblical CriticismBiblical criticismBiblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
- Higher Criticism
- The Bible and historyThe Bible and historyThe Bible from a historical perspective, includes numerous fields of study, ranging from archeology and astronomy to linguistics and methods of comparative literature. The Bible may provide insight into pursuits, including but not limited to; our understanding of ancient and modern culture,...
- Biblical archaeology schoolBiblical archaeology schoolBiblical archaeology, also known as Palestinology is the school of archaeology which concerns itself with the biblical world.-18th Century:...
- Biblical maximalism
- Biblical minimalism
- Religions of the Ancient Near EastReligions of the Ancient Near EastThe religions of the ancient Near East were mostly polytheistic, with some early examples of primitive monolatry , Ashurism and Monism...
- Ancient Semitic religion
- Canaanite religionCanaanite religionCanaanite religion is the name for the group of Ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries of the Common Era....
- Assyro-Babylonian religion
- Origins of JudaismOrigins of JudaismThe ancient roots of Judaism lie in the Bronze Age polytheistic Ancient Semitic religions, specifically Canaanite religion, and of the worship of Yahweh reflected in the early prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible...
- Merneptah SteleMerneptah SteleThe Merneptah Stele — also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah — is an inscription by the Ancient Egyptian king Merneptah , which appears on the reverse side of a granite stele erected by the king Amenhotep III...
- Tel Hazor (Hatzor)
- Yahu