New PBS series exposes Old Testament fairy tales

[Whoa_Nelly]

on edit~link added ...oops... :blush:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081117/tv_nm/us_television_bible_1;_ylt=A9j8eOLzTChJxloAFQGspph4


Sun Nov 16, 9:39 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Bill Maher, on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher," frequently refers to the Old Testament of the Bible as the Book of Jewish Fairy Tales. The description might anger the pious and the fundamentalists, but guess what? Maher's close to the truth.

A visually stunning two-hour special edition of "Nova" examines decades of archaeological studies that contradict much of what is in the Bible. The entire Exodus story is debunked, as is the idea that the Israelites were monotheistic following the contract made between God and Abraham. It turns out idol worship was common through the reign of King David and right up to the Babylonian exile.

Is the Bible the word of God? Only if God dictated it to dozens, maybe hundreds, of different writers, each of whom wrote and modified stories using different patterns of language over a period of centuries.

To be sure, writer-producer-director Gary Glassman does not dismiss the Old Testament as a collection of fairy tales. He asserts that the stories, though provably false in many cases, were intended to give identity to the Israelites, a group likely made up of former Canaanites, nomads and runaway slaves. Also, the Bible provided the Israelites with a moral framework.

The special, narrated by Liev Schreiber, is not likely to sit well with those who believe that the Bible, despite its internal inconsistencies, should be interpreted literally. Then again, science and religion have had a long history of conflict until, ultimately, the former prevails.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

hmmmmmm :popcorn:

[Phred42]

1. Link?

[Ikonoklast]

4. See here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/

You can watch it online. I usually watch most PBS programs I miss online.

[Phred42]

5. It's already aired

[Ikonoklast]

14. Yes, I'm aware of that, but you can still watch it online.

Not sure if you wanted the link to the program, or the OP story about the program.

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. oops

Have added :blush:

Thanks! :hi:

[supernova]

2. Saw it this past Tuesday night

here in NC.

It was very worthwhile, showing how archaeological evidence matches up, or doesn't, with biblical stories. It's very much in keeping with other research into biblical times. And I do agree that the OT is a way of the Israelites forming a national identity by mythologizing themselves, i.e. taking a grain of truth and making an epic of it.

[tularetom]

3. I predict PBS will cave to fun-doh-mentalist pressure and pull it

As they've done so often in the past.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

10. It ran last week.

And it was pretty good.

[Phred42]

6. Ok - repeat at 2pm today (Chicago Comcast)

[WCGreen]

8. I think the key to the whole story was to give a people living in

exile a sense of identity.

When they were in Babylon, that is when whole structure of the religion took hold and the idea of a portable god.

It's obvious they still haven't let go of the "sacred" places myths, but the idea that you can worship through rituals and meditation is what sets the monotheistic religions apart. Well, until you get into the India sense of place and their take on spirituality.

[Whoa_Nelly]

11. Like this?

1968
Beatles in India

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqHFS7qPtzA&feature=related

[NJCher]

9. thanks for the reminder

I was originally alerted to this by another DU-er this last week. I was working and didn't have time to watch it then so I ran a search at my TV listing link and I found out that it is showing numerous times. In fact, I'll watch it today from 3:30 to 5:30.

I may very well tape it, too. Sounds like a good source for research papers.

Interestingly enough, when I was a kid I announced to my parents that I was an athiest. They wanted to know why and I told them it was because the nature of human beings is to embellish or twist stories around and therefore the Bible could not be believed. Hah, I think it's funny that all these years later, someone comes out with a documentary based on my childhood observation.

Oh and btw, I am no longer an athiest--but I'm not a member of any organized religion, either.



Cher

[burythehatchet]

12. Can't wait for the part where God starts giving eternal property deeds

[Trajan]

13. I have been following Israel Finklestein's work for some time

The NOVA show integrated the 'Documentary Hypothesis' with the latest archeological findings to provided a comprehensive view of the real development of the Pentateuch.

It was a very good show, but hey: I am atheist ...

[yellowdogintexas]

15. My Old Testament Professor described Genesis as Hebrew Mythology.

This was in 1967 at a United Methodist College.

on edit: and he was an ordained United Methodist Minister with two degrees from Vanderbilt

[Blue_In_AK]

16. It was interesting and informative

and looked great on HD. :)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

17. I believe this has been on before

If not, I've seen series about this before. I believe some DNA mapping, using ancient remains as a baseline, has shown that many Israelis were, in fact, from Canaan. I thought that was the whole reason the ancient prophets were so anti Baal. The real history of how the tradition that became Judaism rose from the Canaanites would be a really interesting thing to discover.

[Trajan]

20. It is new ....

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible /

I highly recommend it .... It provides a rational documentary basis for the development of the Pentateuch based on archeology and the Documentary Hypothesis .... It is a melding of disciplines that promotes a REAL foundation for Judaism based on a national impulse developed over centuries ....

As an Atheist, I respect the idea that Israel is a proud nation with a culture based on well developed theological institutions .... This show attempts to explain how the bible ties into those historical developments ...

It is a new show .... I think you will enjoy it .... It is quite respectful ...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

21. I just watched it

and it was quite good. I see the Bible as an historic document, and found the documentary a very interesting one.

[lovuian]

18. I know that there is a Bigger Egyptian connection there

than they want to admit as well as Christian

[clear eye]

19. Loved the show, and have a different reaction to it

Rather than debunking the Exodus, it actually places it in a surprisingly close time frame--between 1279 BCE when Ramses II took power in Egypt, and ~1250 BCE which was the time of the dissolution of Hazor. It does say that not all of the self-identified "Israelites" were part of that Exodus, but that it remained a powerful defining event as the rest were lower class refugees from other places, especially the rebellion at Hazor.

It also describes the villages they built in the hills up until the time of King David's reign as eschewing class differences or conspicuous consumption. The description in the program, accurate or not, makes the early Israelites sound like the first Socialists--a group that knew of hierarchical societies and could afford at least some showy geegaws, but deliberately rejected such, valuing universal freedom above all.

The documentary also says that archaelogists have uncovered evidence of David's palace, and fortifications built by King Solomon. Most interestingly it describes the path to monotheism as erratic, with observance waxing and waning since its original adoption, and not taking firm hold until the exile in Babylon after the destruction of the first temple.

It even traces the 4 letter representation of the name of God to a specific locality where the Bible places Moses's burning bush. The Shasu people of this section of southern Canaan had a town and a god they called by the first 3 letters of that name.

The one thing the documentary does seem to debunk is the story of a pre-Exodus separate people in Canaan descended from an immigrant named Abraham. At this time the consensus seems to be that the Israelites were pretty much all lower-class Canaanites. But since in antiquity slaves were often people who had been captured or defeated in war, who knows if back in the mists of time, some of those rebellious slaves were not perhaps descended from captured nomads, somehow ethnically different from the ruling Canaanites?

Also the program recounts the latest evidence that early Hebrew was being written by ~600 BCE, much earlier than previously thought, meaning that the tales in the Bible could have gelled at that time.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/evid-flash.html

Perhaps because I've long thought of the Hebrew Bible as being mostly a compilation of metaphors, with, say, King David, standing for an entire tribe, my reaction was that the documentary established much more literal historic truth than I expected to exist. We do have some history from other areas dating back to the Bronze Age, so I probably shouldn't have been so surprised.