The Bible Unearthed - An Excellent Series For Those Still Struggling

[Overcame Faith]

For those who are still struggling with just how historical the Bible is, the series called "The Bible Unearthed" is excellent.  They take various topics and do great archeological work to determine just what the truth is.  The first of the series, which I have attached, is entitled, "The Patriarchs."  You can search Youtube for the other episodes.  I highly recommend it for your viewing.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t440bxhn1qA

[Overcame Faith]

This is episode 2, "The Exodus."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDDs8HgOZ4o

[Overcame Faith]

Episode 3, "The Kings"

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm45sZEu25w

[Overcame Faith]

Episode 4, "The Book"

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tdKptBL5dc

[Roz]

OF, thanks!

 

I will begin watching this tonight with some Sierra Nevada and popcorn.  

[Overcame Faith]

OF, thanks!

 

I will begin watching this tonight with some Sierra Nevada and popcorn.  

Enjoy. I, too, eat popcorn every time I watch these videos.

[Blood]

John Van Seters sighting at 30:30 in video #1. He's a genius. He called bullshit on the whole Abraham "tradition" against OVERWHELMING pressure to conform to the consensus/fantasy world that hundreds of scholars before him had built up. And the consensus collapsed, as houses built on sand tend to do. You just have to get up the courage to make the first blow. 

 

This film appears to be a version dumbed down for the American market. There's probably a more substantial version of it out there in other languages. 

[Overcame Faith]

John Van Seters sighting at 30:30 in video #1. He's a genius. He called bullshit on the whole Abraham "tradition" against OVERWHELMING pressure to conform to the consensus/fantasy world that hundreds of scholars before him had built up. And the consensus collapsed, as houses built on sand tend to do. You just have to get up the courage to make the first blow. 

 

This film appears to be a version dumbed down for the American market. There's probably a more substantial version of it out there in other languages.

 

I think that this video was first made for a French speaking audience. Still, it may have been "dumbed down" but it does still address the issues in a way that the average person can understand it.

[RipVanWinkle]

Overcame Faith: Thanks for posting the bible series.I look forward to watching them. bill

[Overcame Faith]

Bill, I hope you like the series. I have watched them several times and enjoy them each time I watch them.

[Margee]

These are excellent OF for all the newcomers. I'd like to see these 'pinned' (I just pinned them)  because I think this type of information should be readily available for the questioning new-comers that show up at EX-c. I think they would be a very good help. I personally want to watch this whole series in the next few days. Thanks so much for posting these!!

 

hug

[Blood]

I forgot that the dumbed-down American version was called "The Bible's Buried Secrets." It was only two hours. 

[M4rio]

I started to watch this too. I admit I never knew anything about the lack of evidence regarding exodus. I'm sure Christians would howl and scowl on this? What about modern Jews? Do they "interpret" the exodus as metaphor not rooted in historical events?

 

If exodus is untrue...wow...that's a pretty big blow to Christianity, right?

[Guest]

I started to watch this too. I admit I never knew anything about the lack of evidence regarding exodus. I'm sure Christians would howl and scowl on this? What about modern Jews? Do they "interpret" the exodus as metaphor not rooted in historical events?

 

If exodus is untrue...wow...that's a pretty big blow to Christianity, right?

 

It is my understanding most Jews view the bible as allegory and don't take much, if anything, literally.  I worked for some Israeli Jews around 10 years ago and when I expressed intellectual interest in a messianic branch we did a gig at, they started telling me about how religion only wants your money and I shouldn't take anything in the bible literally (I didn't tell them I was Atheist, but they did know I wasn't a christian).  They were all cultural Jews even though they believed in god and prayed and did all the trappings of religion, they knew the establishment was bullshit.

 

I enjoyed working for that family.  I learned a lot about their society and the instruments they played I had never seen or heard of before.  I remember discussing jesus with them, and they (idk if this is all/most Jews or just them) told me the common belief is that Mary was knocked up by a Roman soldier named Pantera.  The heavy metal band became instantly cooler to me upon hearing this.  Lol

[Blood]

I started to watch this too. I admit I never knew anything about the lack of evidence regarding exodus. I'm sure Christians would howl and scowl on this? What about modern Jews? Do they "interpret" the exodus as metaphor not rooted in historical events?

 

If exodus is untrue...wow...that's a pretty big blow to Christianity, right?

 

These days, it's mostly just fundamentalists in the USA who insist on everything in the Bible being literally true. 

 

Unlike fundies, Jews are not typically anti-science, so if the archaeology doesn't support an Exodus, they accept the evidence. 

[M4rio]

Ok, thank you. Do you have any specific references I could read?

 

I mean, I think it would be fascinating to read scholars of Judaism whose own research cuts right at the heart of not just their own stories but of Christianity and Islam as well.

 

 

I started to watch this too. I admit I never knew anything about the lack of evidence regarding exodus. I'm sure Christians would howl and scowl on this? What about modern Jews? Do they "interpret" the exodus as metaphor not rooted in historical events?

If exodus is untrue...wow...that's a pretty big blow to Christianity, right?

 

These days, it's mostly just fundamentalists in the USA who insist on everything in the Bible being literally true. 

 

Unlike fundies, Jews are not typically anti-science, so if the archaeology doesn't support an Exodus, they accept the evidence. 

 

[Blood]

Well, you could read Finkelstein's book that the documentary was based on. It goes into a lot more detail than the film. 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_Unearthed

[FreeThinkerNZ]

 

I started to watch this too. I admit I never knew anything about the lack of evidence regarding exodus. I'm sure Christians would howl and scowl on this? What about modern Jews? Do they "interpret" the exodus as metaphor not rooted in historical events?

 

If exodus is untrue...wow...that's a pretty big blow to Christianity, right?

 

These days, it's mostly just fundamentalists in the USA who insist on everything in the Bible being literally true. 

 

Unlike fundies, Jews are not typically anti-science, so if the archaeology doesn't support an Exodus, they accept the evidence. 

 

Literalism goes beyond the US, but I agree with you it is the current heartland of literalism.  Fundies in other countries get their contemporary doctrine and teaching straight from the US.  That's part of why I care about what goes on there.

[Blood]

The University of California at San Diego had a two day conference last year exclusively about the Exodus. It appears most of the big names in Israeli archaeology and Exodus experts were there. 

 

UCSD EXODUS CONFERENCE 
"Out of Egypt: Israel's Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination"
May 31 -- June 1, 2013

 

Here's William Propp, who wrote the exhaustive 2-volume Anchor Bible Commentary on the Book of Exodus.