Bible Unearthed Notes
Next: Garden of Eden Notes Prev: Jewish
Early History TOC
Introduction
Below are notes on the Video entitled, “The Bible Unearthed”.[i] The video is based on the book by the same name.[ii] My own personal interpretations, opinions or interjections are introduced separately and (signaled with parenthesis.) Endnotes often provide timestamps relative to the beginning of the video in form of HH:MM:SS or HH:MM.
The basic conclusion of this video (and presumably the book), is that the stories of the early Old Testament, the Torah, are unreliable from a historical standpoint and are in fact, written to further the political aims of certain Judahite Kings and Priests. Therefore, care must be taken to interpret passages of the bible based on what is now known about that context.
Migguido Dig Site[iii]
There has been a shift from interpreting archaeological evidence with the bible to interpreting archaeological evidence on its own and using this evidence to better understand the bible. Based on this, new evidence must be considered to understand and interpret the bible in a modern context.
The Abrahamic migration is not observed. The existence of Moses is unavailable. The captivity of the Abrahamic decedents by the Egyptians and their escape and exodus are entirely unsupported by the archaeological evidence.
No evidence has been found supporting the biblical story of a single kingdom consisting of Israel and Judah centered by a rich and powerful Jerusalem with a dynasty founded by Kings David and Solomon.
Canaan was an area populated by wandering sheep herders. Evidence supports a gradual emergence of the Israelite people from the land of Canaan in the central highlands as they were forced into agricultural production of olives due to attacks on the Egyptian controlled lowlands by the sea people.
People of Israel and Judah come from the same “stock”. They share a common language and a common religion between themselves and the Canaanites. However, the religion they share is a polytheistic religion, consisting of the bull, el, mountains, planets, stars, forebears and fertility goddesses as evidence by Canaanite and Israelite figurines found that in no way resemble that which we currently see expressed in the Jewish Torah. However, Israelites of the highlands can be differentiated from Canaanites of the lowlands by virtue of the fact that the former do not eat pork and the latter do.
After Israel is destroyed by the Assyrians, the backwater kingdom of Judah swells with refugees of the vanquished Israelite kingdom to the north. To create a sense of unity in the face of aggression from outside powers such as the Aramaians and the Assyrians, a common history is synthesized. The second Judean city of Lachish is destroyed and an effort is made to cleanse Judah of polytheistic temples and concentrate power and worship in Jerusalem. Evidence provided for this was in the form of standardized water vessels with the King of Hebron and a commemorative inscription documenting the completion of a tunnel that brought water from the springs of Gihone to Jerusalem. There are also destroyed polytheistic temples and an 8th century BC temple that is found. Due to a vision by King Josiah to recapture Israelite lands of the north and create a unified Israelite-Judean kingdom, Judean society coalesces around a monotheistic god. Civil rights are given to individuals based on radical new laws documented in the book of Deuteronomy and given to the people by King Josiah. He is then murdered by Egyptians in Migiddo. Power is transferred to King Zedekiahh.
Later, Jerusalem is attacked by King Nebuchadnezzar’s forces and defeated. A great many of the elite of Judah are taken into captivity in Babylon. Zedekiahh’s sons are all murdered and he is blinded and taken to Babylon in chains.
During captivity, religious ideas are maintained and refined to fit events. After sixty years, Babylon is defeated by the Persians and Judahites are allowed to go home. The royal lineage is now nonexistent. A further purge is made of all remaining vestiges of polytheism. And the first five books of the bible are put together. The Torah is first presented to the Judahites by the Priest Ezra. Later, the unified historical texts are added to form the early Old Testament bible.
So, rather than the story as we see in the bible, the narrative arising out of the archaeological record shows a people struggling to maintain existence and identity. It is through the manipulation of their history that they create and maintain that identity. So, rather than the bible being an accurate historical record of divine will, we see it as a political document that serves the interests of the state of Judah. Therefore, it should be interpreted carefully with the historical context in mind when passages are presented for tactical purposes in discussion of today’s issues.
Detailed Notes
Before, archaeology was fit into the
context of bible. Now, archaeology is the first bit of information. A story is
made that fits the evidence and the bible is evaluated in the light of that
evidence.[iv]
At a time people are using bible for
rhetorical political reasons, we hope to use the information to present a more
complex understanding of what it is and at least make people understand that
there is a lot more than little sound bites to use for very tactical purposes.[v]
The Abrahamic story is discussed as
a migration from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan.[vi] There
is no backing of the idea of migration from the north that you can relate
Abraham to.[vii]
The biblical account differs from
what we know about Nomads. They are often plunderers, and they invade settled
territories.[viii]
There is a reference to camels, but there are no camels in this period. They
come in much later.[ix]
Purported “Tomb of the Patriarchs”
in Hebron, built by King Herod in Roman times, the source of the tradition of
the whereabouts of the patriarch, Abraham. He describes this site as not
“historical”. It is a cemetery of the Canaanite period.[x]
Tomb
of the Patriarchs[xi]
There may have been an Abraham, but
we have no access to material evidence that he existed that could corroborate
the bible.[xii]
He may not have existed. But, we cannot know and “there is no way to know”.[xiii]
We’re at a complete archaeological dead end about Abraham. There’s absolutely
no evidence that he’s a historical figure. However, in the book of Genesis, he
is symbolic of the birth of a nation. This was seen more as the story of a
family, and the founder of a family is of great historical significance.[xiv]
Abraham’s family was supposedly driven to Egypt as slaves in Nile delta during
a famine. This is described in the books of Exodus and Numbers.
The Exodus[xv]
(Greek historian, Donald Kagan, believes “naively” what is in an ancient text unless
there is reason not to.) However, the idea that Moses brought family out of
Egypt cannot be defended. Egypt was extremely strong at the time and would have
intervened militarily. There is no chance people wandering around the desert
would have gone unnoticed and unchallenged.[xvi]
The historicity of Moses is
discussed. It’s a common Egyptian name of the time and there’s no text that
links to any specific person.[xvii]
There is no desire to declare Moses as not historical. However, if he is, this fact “is not recoverable”, or demonstrable
from any evidence that is or is expected to be available.[xviii]
The
narrator of this documentary is rather animated as he describes the story of
the Steele of David. “For once, we can tell” that at least something in the
bible is (apparently) true.[xix]
This ninth century BC artifact tells you it could be that David, the purported
father of Judah, was historical or that the people of the ninth century thought
of him as the founder of the kingdom.[xx]
For the first time in an extra biblical evidence that the King of
David actually existed.[xxi]
The bible says Jerusalem was King
David’s capital city.[xxii]
However, there is no evidence of a powerful Jerusalem at that time.[xxiii]
The professor in charge of
excavating the site of tenth century Jerusalem asks rhetorically,
Is it a huge urban city? It is definitely not.[xxiv]
Stepped
Structure not Basis for Huge Davidic Fortification[xxv]
In ancient Jerusalem, there is a
stepped structure. For a time, people thought it was part of a huge
fortification. However, such a fortification has not been found in King David’s
time. There was a political vacuum that David took advantage. There was no
Egyptian or other power to interfere and the Canaanites were very poor.[xxvi]
Finkelstein asks, “Where is the
empire?”[xxvii]
Prof. Reich,
takes Prof. Finkelstein deep down into his dig site. He discusses the large
stones he should find from the tenth century and discusses the pottery they
should find everywhere that is not found at the levels that would indicate
large empire of David or Solomon.
The negative results, again and again and again, simply prove
the point.[xxviii]
Afterwards,
The idea of a great Davidic or Solomonic empire in tenth
century BC, is absolutely ridiculous! Because an empire needs a capital. There’s almost nothing in
Jerusalem, except a very small village. An empire needs manpower. There’s
nothing in Judah… a few small villages. An empire needs administration. There’s
no scribal activity. Where is the empire?[xxix]
The famous six chamber gate of Hazor
appears to Professor Tor to be a Solomonic structure built in the 10th
the century during the time the Bible claims Solomon reigned. He believes this
despite the fact he has no inscriptions. To the doubters, he says it is up to
them to show why it was not built by Solomon. However, Tor concedes he is not
sure.[xxx]
Hazor,
Gate believed to be Solomonic[xxxi]
Previous archaeologists said that
all three gates of Hazor, Megiddo, Ashdod were
Solomonic because of their similarity.
It doesn’t fit because there are gates like that also in other
sites which are not Solomonic in any way. Ashdod is a Philistine city. Terpatash… it’s on the border between Philistine and
Israel. There’s a later gate in Lachish. So, it’s like… let’s say, ‘it’s more
like the fashion of the Iron Age gates than something that single[s] out
Solomonic building’.[xxxii]
The Megiddo palace had been an
elaborate palace complex. It also had a six chambered gate. Therefore, it had
been assumed to be Solomonic, dated to the 10th century BC. Results
of radio carbon dating point strongly, however, to a date one century later.
The video producer sees these results as inconclusive and states that unnamed
sources have dating results that conflict. However, no evidence to that effect
is provided.[xxxiii]
Look, it was a wonderful theory. It got people excited and
really interested in the Bible. But we just can’t accept the story of Solomon’s
gates anymore.[xxxiv]
Archaeological effects on the ground
date the palace to the late eighth century. In addition, we know there are
similar gates that appear in that same time period and in the seventh century
as well as beyond the borders of tenth century Israel.[xxxv]
In Thiebes, the
great temple of Carnac records Egyptian dynasties, including the exploits of Shishaq the first. One inscription details how he turned inland
and attacked toward the highlands. To one researcher, it’s unclear why he would
have attacked if nobody was there. He believes it had to have been the unified
monarchy that was perceived as a threat by the Egyptians.[xxxvi]
The evidence, archaeological and textual, provides a contradictory picture of
10th century Canaan.
Egyptian
relief, temple of Carnac, Thiebes[xxxvii]
It’s confusing. The Highlands of the
south are sparely settled. There’s no manpower for conquests. In Jerusalem,
there’s a small village, nothing monumental, despite the biblical description,
no evidence for a great capital or for a rich state. The buildings of Megiddo
that were supposed to have demonstrated Solomonic greatness don’t date from the
10th century.
There is a complete negative
picture, coast to coast for a Solomonic empire. There may have been somebody in
the region, but it couldn’t have been the elaborate empire portrayed in the
bible. The situation has to be completely re-evaluated.[xxxviii]
Some of the Old Testament stories
may contain a glimmer of truth. It’s unlikely the stories were made up. The
number of names used and places referred to are too high, and there are too
many details provided for it to be completely fabricated.[xxxix]
To understand this, one has to
consider a few things. The oldest part of the bible is 1000 years older than
the youngest part. One has got to know the origins of the bible to understand
how it represents history. For example, different dialects of the Hebrew
language are used throughout the bible. This is just as with English. The
English spoken in 1015 was incomprehensible to most contemporary English
speakers. And, there have been over a hundred and fifty authors involved in all
the books of the bible. So, when you think you’ve understood an author, you
find another and see that you don’t understand.
Why is it so great? How did we get
this book?[xl]
They invented the idea of a single
God. (This is not exactly true. The Egyptian Pharoh,
Akhenaten also experimented with monotheism and may have inspired the ancient
Israelites. In any case, it did not hold. The old polytheism was restored.[xli])
They invented written history
(Egyptians created a written history. So, I disagree with this. Homer also independently
created a written history. But this was written later than the earliest
biblical texts. Much can be learned about more recent Greek history because of
how the deeply ancient Greek history is presented. In this manner, study of
Homer is similar to study of the bible. The writers write about the older
history through the lens of their contemporary era.[xlii]
Egyptian written history appears to be most accurate of the three. This may be
because writings on clay tablets and on walls are not subject to revision as is
that written on papyri. This is more of a suspicion on my part than an opinion,
however.)
They came up with the idea of the
individual, with rights and responsibilities that are at the heart of Western
civilization. (Greeks also had this idea.[xliii]
However, they may have arrived at this later than the Judahites.
Later on, the Romans also developed personal rights, responsibilities and a
highly developed system of laws prior to exposure to Christianity.[xliv])
The population increase in Canaan is
all from “local stock”. So, there is no migration out of the north that can be
related to the patriarch, Abraham.[xlv]
Israel appears to have emerged over
a long period of time out of local populations. The land of Canaan was
populated by a number of Canaanite city states. Though Egypt ruled the whole
area, each enjoyed a large amount of autonomy.[xlvi]
The term, “City States”, refers to
organization during the Canaanite period. There were approximately 30 city
states in the region, sized approximately 1000 square kilometers. In each,
there was a small king, with a palace and courtiers. This organization was very
common around Palestine and Syria.[xlvii]
An attack by a sea bearing
civilization called the sea people is recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphics. This
created tremendous instability and a slow but steady destruction of the
Canaanite city states. Maritime trade routes were cut. Ports were taken or
destroyed. Then, one city could take another. Nomads from the highlands could
attack and try to gain some advantage from a city no longer protected by the
Egyptian military.[xlviii]
Canaanite grain producers were in
crisis, and they no longer sufficiently produced enough surplus grain to sell
to the highlanders. This forced the poor backward pastoral nomads, who had been
previously trading sheep products for grain, to settle and start farming
despite their unpromising terrain. They would eventually establish kingdoms,
scripture and a single God. This people became the Israelites.[xlix]
Hundreds of villages appear that
were not settled in the (earlier) late bronze-age. Large animal pens are found
in archaeological digs from the period. There were no fortifications or huge
walls but small stone fences. There appears to be an emergence of something new
that can be equated to the early Israelites. These are the earliest Israelite
settlements.[l]
Earliest
Canaanite Settlements[li]
Maps discussed that give the final
results of surveys performed since the 6 Day War ended in 1967. It shows progression
of historical settlements and villages throughout Israeli territory.[lii]
Survey
Results, Mapping Israelite Settlements[liii]
As discussed earlier, when economies
were disturbed due to attacks from the sea people, grain producers were no
longer able to produce sufficient amounts of food that the herders in the
highlands could trade for. So, they were forced to settle down and farm their
lands. Olive oil was the crop that transformed their society from a nomadic one
to that of cities, learning, state power, a written language, unified
monarchies, a unified religion and centralized worship around the temple of
Jerusalem. Because of the conditions, olive oil would have been the only region
to go to the region.[liv]
Tor showed evidence of Olive oil
production and explained methods the early Israelites would have used.[lv]
Ancient
Israelite Olive Press With Original Press Stones[lvi]
With the more recent events written
in the Torah, we are finding more material facts on the ground because the
writing is closer to the time of the events recorded in book. They are also
finding more corroborating evidence from diplomatic records in Assyria,
hieroglyphs in Egypt and reliefs from Babylon. In general, the narrative more
accurately tracks archaeology. Importantly, former Canaanite cities are rebuilt
as Israelite centers.[lvii]
The highlands are described in the
tenth century as a godforsaken area. There’s almost nothing there. It is much
less promising to support society and agriculture than in the lowlands.[lviii]
Central
Highlands, Desolate Area Supports Little Other than Olive Trees[lix]
Israelites and Judeans were cut from
the same cloth.
They sprang from the same origins from the same period[lx]
The two kingdoms had a relationship,
and the bible says the early Israelites were monotheistic. However, from text
and archaeology, traditional Israelite religion venerated the ancestors (that
is, the gods of the underworld and such.) Based on iconography that we find in
the ground, we also know they venerate the planets and the stars. The religion
they shared was not monotheism.
We know that the traditional Israelite religion was
polytheistic[lxi].
The Bible says Israel was always
monotheistic. Israel and Canaan shared religion, but not monotheistic.[lxii]
The bull stood for the man god of
Canaan and El, the chief god of Canaan.[lxiii]
(Note, that according to Prof. Stavrakopoulou, the
name of this god accounts for the “el” in “Israel”.) See photos of bronze bull
in Jewish
Early History.[lxiv]
This god El is related to the Israelite gods and the golden calves.[lxv]
They are the main symbols of the Israelite gods. In the Canaanite and Israelite
traditions, mountains were very important, and the gods were related to the
mountains.[lxvi]
There was Baal, the Baal Kamal, the Baal Thermion, the Baal Saffron and others.
Baal the bull was the main god of Canaan. There was lots of continuity between
Canaanite and Israelite religion.[lxvii]
Israelite
Calf[lxviii]
Pigs were a large differentiator
between Israelites who didn’t eat pork and the Canaanites and Philistines who
did.[lxix]
In the lowlands, they eat a lot of pork. There was no problem raising pigs in
the highlands. Earlier, in the bronze age, pigs had
been maintained. It may have been a matter of “we” and “they”: a conscious way
of making a distinction from the Canaanites by the Israelites.[lxx]
Seal of King of Hebron on
standardized pottery shows a consolidation of power in the Judah.[lxxi]
Seal
of the King of Hebron[lxxii]
Pressure came from the Aramaians and Assyrians in the North at the end of the 8th
century BC. 732 is the beginning of the end of the kingdom of Israel. At that
time, they took the Calinate.[lxxiii]
This pressure forced mass migration
of refugees from Israel in the north to Judah. This is understood due to the
massive growth of Jerusalem in manner that can’t be explained any other way.
This resulted in the transformation of a “sleepy”, backwater kingdom of Judah
to the most powerful kingdom in the levante. This is
the first time we see a real “full blown state in Judah.[lxxiv]
Lachish, was raised to the ground by King
Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians during the time of King Hezzakaiah.
It had massive fortifications and was the second most important city of Judah.[lxxv]
The attack on Lachish, Judah’s second city, is well
documented in a stone Syrian relief. It shows use of a special rampart to go
over the wall.
Syrian
relief showing attack on Lachish[lxxvi]
The actual rampart still in place is
shown.[lxxvii]
Remnant
of rampart used to breech the wall of Lachish[lxxviii]
The refugees
leaving put more pressure on Jerusalem. King Hezekiah cut tunnel to bring springs of Gihon to the city.[lxxix]
This is important evidence of the rise of Jerusalem. The achievement of
literacy by this time is demonstrated by their documentation of this event in
stone.[lxxx]
Inscription
of stone commemorates tunnel bringing water from the springs of Gihone to
Jerusalem.[lxxxi]
King Hezekiah created a unified
history to bring the northern and southern kingdoms together to respond to
outside pressures from external powers. These texts later became part of the
Old Testament. Judah was under siege from the Assyrians. There was a purge of
temples as Hezekiah replaced the polytheistic society with a monotheistic one.[lxxxii]
Hezekiah’s situation would explain why it was so important to show that David
and Solomon presided over a unified empire based in Jerusalem.[lxxxiii]
The Jerusalem temple was constructed
at beginning of 8th century BC.
8th
Century Temple of Judah[lxxxiv]
With the destruction of outside temples,
centralization of worship was established in Jerusalem in late 8th
century as a way to rally people behind one king. It performed this function
until it was destroyed at the end of the century by the Babylonian king’s
general and his army.[lxxxv]
The entrance of Yahweh at this time is signaled by an inscription in stone
found in the Sinai desert. This is considered an extremely important find.[lxxxvi]
The first appearance of Yahweh is
with his Ashera, just like the main god of the
Canaanites.[lxxxvii]
Goddess
Figurines[lxxxviii]
Flirtations with polytheism
continued to exist long after Hezekiah’s purge. To end the purge, Jerusalem
sued for peace and then enjoyed a healthy economy.[lxxxix]
By late 7th century, Assyria withdrew from Judah.
The pan Israel idea came into being
in the seventh century, BC. A lost text was said to have been found. This is
strongly believed to have been the Book of Deuteronomy. After its introduction,
King Josiah imposed strict codes that banned worship of all gods other than
Yahweh. As part of this, King Josiah attempted to centralize power in a manner
similar to Hezekiah. Further, he even attempted to co-opt, centralize and
monopolize the ability to reach the divine in his temple.
At this time, some unknown individual
sat down and wrote the core of the unified Israelite-Judahite
story. It serves the interests of Judah by placing it at the center of the
universe (and co-opting the prestige of the former (then) kingdom of Israel.[xc]
For the first time, and as a response
to the earlier attacks on Judah (and Israel and the continuing pressures from
Assyria and Babylon), the individual is singled out as the focus of moral
responsibilities and duties. After this, the Judean royal family disappears
from the landscape with the 701 BC exile of rural population of Judah by king
of Assyria, Xanagra. At this time, individual houses
replace compounds. Collective tombs, large cooking pots and ovens disappear.
The nuclear family replaces the extended family in what appears to be the first
development of individuality.[xci]
As part of this, radical new laws in
Deuteronomy were introduced. These included new ideas about how to protect
women, children, slaves, people who lose their land. Civil rights were given
for the first time in order to garner support for destruction of temples in
outlying areas, banishment of all gods except for Yahweh and consolidation of
power in Jerusalem[xcii].
Physical evidence for this is
provided in the form of a petition by a soldier regarding his commander, etched
onto a broken piece of pottery. Biblical morality was born in fields of ancient
Judah in at end of 7th century BC.[xciii]
Petition
by Laborer Against Local Commander[xciv]
What you have is the rejection
of tradition. That is the mindset upon which monotheism, science and western
civilization has been founded.[xcv]
Josiah was killed by Egyptians at
Megiddo in 609 BC.
It seemed terminal disaster for the Israelites. And this
catastrophe has been immortalized in the biblical name for Megiddo, Armageddon.
But Armageddon was not the end. The Israelites’ greatest achievement was yet to
come.[xcvi]
(I wonder if this was carried out
due to the apparent invention of the Exodus story.)
Things continued to get worse due to
a resurgence of Egyptian power in the south. In the east, Babylon becomes a
great power and they exert their power over Judah. King Josiah’s son and then
his grandson Zedekiah becomes king. King Nebuchadnezzar becomes king over
Babylon. His army surrounds Jerusalem, lays siege to it then defeats the city.[xcvii]
They march out Zedekiah’s sons, kill them one by one. They gouge out his eyes
and he is taken back to Babylon in chains. [xcviii]
While in Babylon, the Judahites maintained their tradition and their identity
with the old stories.[xcix]
By the rivers of Babylon, yeah we wept when we remembered,
Zion.
However, within sixty years, the
first Judahites were allowed back to Jerusalem.[c]
The Babylonians were defeated by the
Persians.[ci]
At this point in the 5th
century BC, there is no king, dynasty, sovereignty. The Judahites,
now known as the Jews, are under the Persian Empire.[cii]
Ezra, from memory then puts together
the stories into a text, the Torah. He’s a priest and he has the power to say,
“This is the Torah.” He had a big ceremony and had someone stand up and read
the book. That is the Torah that everybody has read for 2500 years, the five
books of Moses.[ciii]
Later on, further texts were written
to supplement the Torah.
The bible is the greatest creation
ever by the Isaraelites and is the best sold book
even today.[civ]
Professor Finkelstein and Neil Silberman have shown that every story or word of the Old
Testament stories cannot be historically true and as history, it has to be
carefully interpreted.[cv]
We wish to make a distinction
between tradition and results of scientific research. Tradition is important.
Archaeology cannot trash tradition. Tradition has a life of its own.[cvi]
We’re not saying one is correct and one
is incorrect, anymore than we’re saying the poetry of
Genesis is incorrect now that we know something about human evolution. Now, we
are continuing a scholarly struggle that has been going on for a hundred years.
The boundary now happens to be in the story of the Israelites and the Israelite
kingdom. It’s moving forward slowly to separate out religious literature and
spirituality from what we call history.[cvii]
Modern scholarship is showing then, that the bible is a human
and highly partisan construct. This does not, however, take away its power or
enduring moral force. Indeed, it makes the achievement of those who wrote the
Old Testament, all the more remarkable.[cviii]
There was a source that pictured God as very heavenly and
universal, and there was a source that pictured him as an earthly father, close
and personal. To me, that’s a great thing. We had a hundred and fifty authors
of the bible, so it’s hard to see how it worked and flowed to tell a story so
well. I hate to use the word, but it seems like a miracle. (paraphrase)[cix]
Additional Notes:
The Exodus from the power of the
Pharaoh played itself out time and time again.[cx] (paraphrase) My personal observation is that story of the
Exodus from Egypt also echoes the exodus from the Babylon Empire after the release
by the Persians.
Additional material:
The
Forbidden Hebrew Bible's Buried Secrets Revealed Biblical Archaeology
Next: Garden of Eden Notes Prev: Jewish Early History TOC