Holy Moses! PBS documentary suggests Exodus not real

Orlando Sentinel ^ | July 21, 2008 | Hal Boedeker

[stuartcr]

I agree. I was para-phrasing a lot of what I’ve seen here on FR over the years.

[enduserindy]

“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.”

Yes there is. I think I’ll stick with Simca the Naked Archaeologist.

[enduserindy]

“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.”

Yes there is. I think I’ll stick with Simca the Naked Archaeologist.

[dmz]

And why are we surprised by this? Under an Obama reguime, the Bible will be banned, any Christians placed in concentration reeducation camps, the Koran made the official religious word of the Soviet States of Amerika.
_________

Good that you are able to maintain your perspective on this.

Anyone else remember the dire warnings of what would happen if the Clintons got not one but two terms in the 90’s? Sorry, your hysteria is no different from what we heard 16 years ago.

[naturalized]

I thought Muslims believed Abraham was their father, too. Where is the outraged Muslim guy?

Nova series producer Paula Apsell says she found it "extremely shocking" to learn that monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years.

Not nearly as shocking as finding out that the process of being burnt up in an unquencheable fire may take eternity.

[stuartcr]

Yeah, I remember it, same ole stuff, it was the end of the world, commies taking over, blah, blah...oops, we’re still here and not a single concentration camp.

[kittymyrib]

Hmmm...believe PBS, the tax-payer-subsidized Leftist mouthpiece, or the Bible, which has been around for thousands of years and defended to the death by millions of martyrs. The answer is a no-brainer.

[sauropod]

.

[RightWingTeen]

The headlines should be: ‘PBS fiction suggests Exodus not real!’ PBS is a SOCIALIST ORGANIZATION who hate religion!! I’ll be sure to NOT watch that CRAP!!

[uncbob]

I remember a History Channel show that showed how Exodus did / could happen using historical evidence —It was absolutely riveting and I am an agnostic ( show did not state that the causes were caused by god but said the viewers could decide that )

Me thinks PBS sucks

[Brouhaha]

A mainstream media outlet is trying to discredit and deny the contents of the bible. Color me shocked... or not.

[Richbee]

How do you tell the difference between a Canaanite and an Israelite?

William Dever in his work has confessed that it isn’t easy.

[Alex Murphy]

"For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
"But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"
John 5:46-47

[Joe 6-pack]

Obama is the 12th Imam.

[RetiredArmy]

You did not have a Marxist’s congress 16 years ago as you put it. We have it now. You have your opinion and I have mine. I’ll stay with mine, you can keep yours.

[lastchance]

Of course the fact that there is very serious Biblical scholarship that challenges these views will not be mentioned or given an equal voice. All in all I say

HO HUM.

[dmz]

You did not have a Marxist’s congress 16 years ago as you put it. We have it now. You have your opinion and I have mine. I’ll stay with mine, you can keep yours.
_________

Let’s do the math, shall we? 2008-16=1992 = pretty sizeable DEMOCRATIC lead in both the Senate and the House.

You would do well to look at the 103rd Congress, sir. The makeup was OVERWHELMINGLY Democratic.

Opinions are much better when they are based on factual information.

[TheDon]

Book Description

Is the Bible true? For the last hundred and fifty years a war has been waged over the historical reliability of the Hebrew scriptures. Recent dramatic discoveries of biblical archaeology have cast serious doubt on the familiar account of ancient Israel and the origins of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Though the Bible credits Abraham as the first human to realize there is only one God, we now know that there is no evidence for monotheism for many centuries after the reported time of Abraham. Nor is there any archaeological evidence for the Exodus, for Joshua's conquest of Canaan, or for the vast "united monarchy" of David and Solomon.

In The Bible Unearthed two leading scholars, an archaeologist and a historian, combine an exhilarating tour of the field of biblical archaeology with a fascinating explanation of how and why the Bible's historical saga differs so dramatically from the archaeological finds. They explain what the Bible says about ancient Israel and show how it diverges sharply from archaeological reality. They then offer a dramatic new version of the history of ancient Israel, bringing archaeological evidence to bear on the question of when, where, and why the Bible was first written.

What do we know about the time of the ancient patriarchs? When did monotheism first arise? When and where did the first Israelites appear? How did the people of Israel first come to occupy the Promised Land? How extensive was David and Solomon's kingdom? When and why did Jerusalem become the capital of ancient Israel? All of these questions have new answers.

As to why the answers are so new, Finkelstein and Silberman draw on evidence from decades of archaeological work and dozens of digs in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria, to explain that the key early books of the Bible were first codified in the seventh century BCE, hundreds of years after the core events of the lives of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, and the conquest of Canaan were said to have taken place.

Yet the ultimate message of The Bible Unearthed is not just a correction of the record. Instead, it is a unique and fascinating explanation of the origins of the Bible. The Bible's newly identified authors, threatened with political crisis and the intimidation of nearby empires, crafted a brilliant document, a set of stories and teachings that would eventually appeal to the faithful beyond the boundaries of any particular kingdom.

The Bible Unearthed will forever change how you think about the world's greatest book. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author
Israel Finkelstein is director of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University.

[RetiredArmy]

And yours is right and others wrong. Nope. Sorry liberal, not gonna fall for it.

[Gamecock]

It’s a safe guess that the producers will trot out the usual suspects from to “make” their case.