Holy Moses! PBS documentary suggests Exodus not real

OrlandoSentinel.com ^ | July 21, 2008 | Hal Boedeker

[SunkenCiv]

Deniers of Ancient Israelite History Exposed
American Chronicle | July 11, 2008 | Rachel Neuwirth
Posted on 07/19/2008 12:38:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2047921/posts

Archaeology and the Book of Exodus: Exit From Egypt
Good News Magazine | Spring 1998 | Mario Seigle
Posted on 07/19/2008 4:45:07 PM PDT by DouglasKC
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2048189/posts

[liberallarry]

I think you misunderstood me. I said I was the amateur and could never be anything else. I said nothing about Rohl.

[Berosus]

Why is this news? Theories claiming there’s nothing to the Bible have been floating around for decades, if not for centuries. More unique are the theories/TV specials that claim to prove the Bible right, as David Rohl has done.

[chesley]

God? Liberal secularists?

Great! Which one should I believe?

[Unam Sanctam]

Kitchen’s book “The Reliability of the Old Testament” is good at presenting solid evidence of the accuracy of the general historical outline of the Old Testament, including evidence for the Exodus and even the Patriarchal era.

[mtg]

Sorry I can't give you more info on this. The best I can suggest is to contact the History Channel and see if you can order a copy of the Naked Archaeologist program that explained the findings.

[Dustbunny]

We never watch any documentary that is even remotely Biblical on any TV station, with the exception of Christian stations.

They always have an agenda that is not in keeping with the Bible.

[Hoffer Rand]

Right, because if your godlike pharoah got his a$$ kicked by an upstart Israelite slave, you’d certainly put THAT in a prominant place in the records... Don’t think so.

[Lurking Libertarian]

“The program says the Bible was written in the sixth century BC and that hundreds of authors contributed.”

I guess all those original texts from the first century which exist escaped the producers pot fogged mind.

First of all, they are talking about the Old testament, not the New, and the 6th Century BC is 600 years before the "first century." So I'm not sure what your point is.

[driftdiver]

Not sure what your point is either, read my post.

[Lurking Libertarian]

You said there are a lot of New Testament manuscripts from the 1st Century AD. No one claims otherwise. The article is discussing a claim that the first five books of the Old testament were written in the 6th century BC, not the 10th century BC as traditionally claimed. There are no Old Testament manuscripts old enough to cast any light on this issue.

[Blogger]

I didn’t mean that his motives were bad. Just that he has a blind spot.

[driftdiver]

“You said there are a lot of New Testament manuscripts from the 1st Century AD. No one claims otherwise.”

Oh I see, when you said I was wrong I thought you were saying that.

“The article is discussing a claim that the first five books of the Old testament were written in the 6th century BC, not the 10th century BC as traditionally claimed. There are no Old Testament manuscripts old enough to cast any light on this issue.”

For years people have been attacking the authenticity of the NT. Now they are attacking the OT and PBS is one of the most active.

I’m not a biblical historian but I do know that thousands of bible scholars are/were involved with the Bible translations. Whom shall I trust? Someone who professes to love the same God I do, or PBS? The same PBS that says the God I love is dead. Thats when they aren’t saying God doesn’t even exist.

Parts of the Old Testament were written by Moses. The OT can be traced back to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Masoretic Text. Other sources are the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta, Targums, and the Juxta Hebraica of Jerome.

The bible is the most documented text of all time and far more trust worthy than Obama’s birth certificate.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Parts of the Old Testament were written by Moses. The OT can be traced back to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Masoretic Text. Other sources are the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta, Targums, and the Juxta Hebraica of Jerome.

I am familiar with the history of the Hebrew Bible (OT to Christians), having had an extensive Jewish education in my youth. The Dead Sea scrolls, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta, Targums, and the Juxta Hebraica of Jerome are all at least 1000 years later than Moses. The controversy is whether the Pentateuch was actually written by Moses himself, or written in the days of Kings David and Solomon and edited in the days of Ezra. Ezra was still 500 years or so before the earliest manuscripts existing, so even the earliest manuscripts can't answer the question.

For a good discussion of the controversy, written from a Jewish perspective, you could check out this book.

[driftdiver]

OK thanks for the link. Do you trust PBS’s take on this subject? Or for that matter any subject.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Not PBS, no, but others have written on this topic. It’s one that interests me— I am a Jew, I read the Hebrew Bible in the original Hebrew, and I do not think it makes me an “enemy of the Bible” to speculate as to whether it was written 3000 years ago or “only” 2400 years ago.

[driftdiver]

“I do not think it makes me an “enemy of the Bible” to speculate as to whether it was written 3000 years ago or “only” 2400 years ago.”

I wasn’t saying that. I’m saying PBS (the people that work there) is the enemy of God.

[gleeaikin]

“Pyramids were built as public works projects employing Egyptian volunteers building up spiritual credit...”

Also the pyramids were probably built well before the times suggested for the Exedous. Furthermore, this may have been a way to employ farmers during the flood period when their farmland would have been inundated by the annual rise of the Nile River.