Posted on 07/21/2008 10:01:21 PM PDT by kellynla
Abraham didn't exist? The Exodus didn't happen?
The Bible's Buried Secrets, a new PBS documentary, is likely to cause a furor.
"It challenges the Bible's stories if you want to read them literally, and that will disturb many people," says archaeologist William Dever, who specializes in Israel's history. "But it explains how and why these stories ever came to be told in the first place, and how and why they were written down."
The Nova program will premiere Nov. 18. PBS presented a clip and a panel discussion at the summer tour of the Television Critics Association.
The program says the Bible was written in the sixth century BC and that hundreds of authors contributed.
"At least the first five books of the Bible come together during the Babylonian exile," says producer Gary Glassman.
The program challenges long-held beliefs. Abraham, Sarah and their offspring probably didn't exist, says Carol Meyers, a religion professor at Duke University.
"These stories are unlikely to represent real historical events, but rather there's some kernel of ancient experience in there which has survived and which helps give identity to the people at the time the Bible finally took shape centuries and centuries later," Meyers says.
There's no archaeological evidence of the Exodus, either, she says, but "it doesn't mean that there's no kernel of truth to it."
Nova series producer Paula Apsell says she found it "extremely shocking" to learn that monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years.
"I was always brought up to believe that the minute Abraham and the patriarchs came on the scene, the Israelites accepted one God and there was just always one God and that was it," Apsell says. "I think people are going to really be stunned by that."
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
ping
Who cares... they are worthless in their opinion
As long as they have still have a “The Fireplace Channel,” I’ll never waste my time watching the garbage spewed out by PBS.
Bible Bashing by PBS? No way!
But Carol Meyers and Gary Glassman? They're the ones who figured it ALL out. Yessir. "The film shows that they were Canaanites," Apsell says.
Well then, toss those bibles in the trash and begin the church burnings. WHAT were we thinkin'? After all, scientists have NEVER in all of history on this flat planet ever been wrong.\sarc
Think think Obama will have been elected by the time this airs.
They had better watch it. Muslims believe in Abraham....To tell Muslims, Abraham was a myth, is really bad and racist.....and dangerous.
The long time held beliefs will outlast these LOSERS sent from the pit of hell!
These people are so afraid that there will be a Judgement Day that it makes them feel a little better when they throw sticks at the Bible.
The truth is the truth whether or not anyone believes it. So, are you that certain that there is no God that you will bet your eternity on it? “Do you feel lucky...”
History Channel, PBS, Discovery, etc. They all like to question Scriptures...
You would think the producers would be worried of the reaction by Jews & Christians. You know, rioting, beheading, car bombs, etc. These producers are brave souls to show this documentary in George Bush’s Amerkkka!!!
(nudge nudge wink wink) :-)
Where is the “ah geez, not this sh*t again!” dude?? It would apply here.
They’re idiots. Evidence was found that shows where the route was. They found Egyptian chariot wheels on both sides of the Red Sea.
Here’s one of many sites that reported it:
http://bibleprobe.com/exodus.htm
Friggin’ God-hating liberal public television elites.
Stunned by what? Their worthless opinion or their attempt to rewrite history? I'm not even surprised let alone stunned by anything PBS might attempt.
Aspell has obviously never read the Old Testament. If she had she would not be surprised That there would be evidence of worship of false gods. It was a constant struggle for the prophets to keep the Israelites from worshiping the Lord.
In addition she would not be surprised that there is a close relationship between the Canaanites and the Israelites. All one would have to do is read from Genesis through Joshua to know that. Not all decedents of Abraham went to Egypt. Moses himself married outside of Israel.
Gosh. Who am I going to believe?
Some academics who got a grant to do a documentary on PBS?
Or the Bible?
Some professors?
Or the foundation of all faith and morality?
My tax money goes to pay for this, since PBS is Public Broadcasting.
But PBS won’t present the other side of this (or many other) question.
So I not only have to hear about this program, but I have to pay for it, too.
Whatever happened to separation of church and state?
In communist Russia they claimed to have “freedom of religion” and “freedom of the state to educate the people against religion”.
I guess we have that here now, too.
Wow. PBS is on a real tear lately, even by their standards, after this and that recent WW2 mocumentary that was claiming the US military were all war criminals for the tactics it used to end the war.
This is just more of the effort to destroy religion as we know it.
The left makes no pretense of what their goals are anymore.
The old Soviet Union wouldn’t allow organized religion. And now the left in the United States has decided that model suits their purposes also.
Can’t have organized religion calling abortion and homosexuality on it’s moral grounds. Can have a competing source of information and ultimate truth.
The leftist media is supposed to fill that bill.
Get with it Christians.
This person evidently never read the Exodus and the rest of the bible. It clearly describes the falling away of the people from monotheism.
I am kinda stunned, but rather by this person's complete ignorance of Old Testament history. Israel constantly turned aside to the idols of the nations around them. Starting with the creation of a golden calf at the foot of Sinai, and continuing throughout the period of the judges, and into the kingdom years, culminating in the judgment of the Babylonian captivity. In Elijah's day, he was able to say:
The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your alters, and put Your prophets to death by the sword. I am the only one left ....
Doesn't sound like the actions of a nation that accepted the truth of the one God, Jehovah. A few years later, Amos was dispelling whatever notions that Judah has about its past:
Did you bring unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
I would find it unusual that someone who presents themselves as an expert on these matters can't grasp the basics; although in reality I'm not surprised at all.
Thank you for the link. Read part of it, save for later reading. Thanks again!
Still waiting for Ramadangdingdong to come around this year so that PBS can finally address the myth of Mohammed riding into heaven on the back of a horse.
We may finally see the end of taxpayer funded PBS at that point.
Since we cannot put a privately paid for monument to the 10 Commandments on public ground, it should also follow that we cannot use taxpayer money to put a cross in a jar of urine or air anti-theist diatribes on PBS/NPR.
Funny how that separation on the support AND denigration of religion claus works. Except that the Left calls it a “chill wind” to protest their religious (atheist) speech. The Communists were good at establishing Atheism as the official religion as well.
As a Christian, I view this as typical antichristian nonsense, which The Living God will judge.
But the premise means: Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael also did not exist, upon which the Koran and its claims rest. Then not only Judaism and Christianity but also Islam are all to be viewed as fakes. Islam has not recently shown a tolerance for such slanders, as it would imply that the Koran and its alleged prophet were also fakes
This makes cartoons of the prophet appear inoffensive. It also indicates the level of ignorance at PBS, which is total.
This sure makes me proud of how my tax dollars are so wisely used by the RATs who love this nation so much.
This isn't exactly new. I've been under the impression that scholars believed this for a long time.
Meaning the Jews are Palestinians? Hmmmmm ....
This is the stupidest thing I’ve read in hours!
That producer who thought one day Abraham created monotheism would be absolutely hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. A PBS producer about a show on biblical history doesn’t know that the Romans were polytheists who conquered the monotheistic Israelites some 600 years prior to the date they think the Israelites’ bible was written?
I guess its all just bogus man. King Herod was made up. Caesar didn’t exist and Caesarious isn’t a city it’s a procedure. The temple was really just a teepee and the incense they burned was the devils lettuce!
and no TEN COMANDMENTS.
Not hard to see what is going on here. No Comandments, no rules. Which would suit the liberals just fine.
This does not fit with the archaeological evidence, though, and denying Abraham would be denying the father of Ishmael as well as the father of Isaac. Wonder if that would upset the imams as much as a cartoon?
PBS if now changing God word. This won’t set well with God.
hundreds? They used to say 4 or 5?
well, with an unlimited number of variables you can explain anything.
Elijah thought that the worship of the true God in Israel had totally died out. In 1 Kings 19 God had to show the prophet that there was still 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. If a man like Elijah could not see monotheism in Israel, it’s not surprising that PBS cannot. The worldly never see evidence of the 7,000, because they don’t want to find them and have made up their mind beforehand that they will not.
Presume you mean "It was a constant struggle for the prophets to keep the Israelites from worshiping the Lord other gods."
Or alternatively
"It was a constant struggle for the prophets to keep the Israelites from worshiping only the Lord."
Same difference.
You are correct, the Israelites of the Old Testament were badly compromised when it came to taking after other gods. Some would say this arose partly from the split of the nation prior to entering Egypt. Others would say it arose from Joshua's failure to utterly destroy the inhabitants of the land during its conquest.
In fact, one may have led to another. The conquering Israelites, having been forged into a single religio-ethnic group by 400 years in Egypt and 40 more years in the Sinai, would have encountered the descendants of the Israelites who had remained behind in Canaan. However, the situation would have been complicated by generation upon generation of intermarriage between various tribes and peoples in the region. Sorting out who could be legitimately attacked and eliminated was very difficult if not impossible.
As for the program, I'll wait and see it before deciding whether or not it is anything more than just another left wing academic attempt to delegitimize Israel by attacking Judaism and Christianity.
Then why are there chariots at the bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba?
How can I render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar if he didn’t really exist? < /s >
The only reason it's "shocking" is because most people aren't aware of this thesis.
But when you consider some simple markers within the text, you can discern a kind of "watermark" within it that tends to cast doubt on the notion that it was written by a variety of independent sources. For example, if you start with the first letter TAV in Genesis, then skip 49 (7x7) letters, you'll find VAV. Repeat this twice more and you'll find RESH and HAY - spelling out the word "TORAH."
This pattern is repeated in Exodus, but then in Leviticus, you find "YHVH" - the sacred name - spelled out with a separation of seven letters.
And in the final two books, Numbers and Deuteronomy, "TORAH" is encoded as well, but this time backwards starting with the last TAV, not the first. The contextual aspects of some other equidistant letter sequences is also notable. Obviously, this is not a random phenomenon.
It's easy to get distracted by mystical future-prediction codes, or War and Peace analysis of the "Rabbis test," the fact is that the skeptics simply gloss over the significance of the connection between significant numbers of intervening letters and significant phrases within significant contexts, because they can't calculate such significance:
"The problem with putting a number on the remarkableness of this detail is, of course, that it is ad hoc." - Maya Bar-Hillel, Dror Bar-Natan, and Brendan McKay, The Torah Codes: Puzzle and Solution
CxxxxxAxxxxxNxxxxxYxxxxxOxxxxxUxxxxxRxxxxxExxxxxAxxxxxDxxxxxTxxxxxHxxxxxIxxxxxSxxxxx?
The "Moby Dick" analysis would be more persuasive if they'd found, say, "Bildad" encoded on page 74 or thereabouts with a 60-letter separation ("...the goodly age of sixty...") or the like.
“The program contradicts the biblical view that the Israelites came from somewhere else into the land of Canaan. “The film shows that they were Canaanites,”
Patently ridiculous! The Canaanites would be the last people on Earth to accept one God and the Torah.
To subjugate people and their country, liberals and their Communist brethren known that the path is through undermining religious faith, and undermining the great history of a nation such as America.
Should someone whisper in the ear of some imams that PBS is going to claim that Abraham never existed? ;)
bump for later
Thank you, you are correct the second was my intended statement. Darn these old eyes!! They see what I intended to type, not what I did type <]:)
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