Reddit reviews The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts
We found 12 Reddit comments about The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Mark S. Smith The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel and The Origins of Biblical Monotheism.
Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts
Thomas L. Thompson The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology And The Myth Of Israel
u/SwordOfRighteousness touched on this already, but just to drive the point home...There are layers to what you do or do not believe. The top layer is JW doctrine. The second layer is the Bible. The third, foundation layer, is the belief in Jehovah God (or theism, at the very least). You can remove your belief in the top layer, the JW doctrines, and still have belief in the Bible and Jehovah. But if you remove your belief in the Bible itself then you can not retain belief in JW doctrine. So I would suggest starting there. Prove to yourself what the Bible is. How would you do this?
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To start, I can not recommend highly enough the free online Yale Bible course: Yale Bible Course
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This is a level of critical Bible study most witnesses are completely unaware even exists. It's not anti-Bible, setting out to disparage it. It simply deconstructs what we know, and what we don't know, about the origins of the Bible itself. Start with the OT course, it's fantastic. And then, read. Read like your life depends on it because, in a way, it does. At least, what kind of life you have depends on it. Books that really helped me:
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Who Wrote the Bible
The Bible Unearthed
Jesus, Interrupted
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These aren't some flat-earth type nut jobs spewing non-sense. They are well respected Biblical scholars who have devoted their lives to the Bible. Personally, they destroyed my second layer of belief, and made my views on the top layer almost irrelevant.
I've been exactly where you are. I went through years of struggle, questioning, hiding from my doubts, and questioning some more. Finally, I decided to face the possibility that perhaps everything I knew wasn't true. I started out by reading through the Bible with a truly open mind after praying, "God, I'm not sure if you're real. I'm going to read through your word one more time here. Please help me understand it the way you intended for it to be understood."
By the time I got through Judges, I realized I was no longer religious in any way. I could no longer believe something so unbelievable.
I then spent months reading, researching, and learning things I didn't even know were possible. My favorite was learning about the origins of the Bible: Check out The Bible Unearthed and Who Wrote the Bible if you're interested. And the science of evolution - something I'd never allowed myself to learn about in the past, for fear of weakening my already weak faith - is mindblowing!
The struggle you're going through is terrifying, but you will get through it - on one side or the other. For me, the result was the realization that everything I'd been taught from childhood was not true. It stunned me to see how truly ignorant I had been of the truth, history, science, morality, etc.
Good luck to you!
No, there is no record whatsoever of the Jewish people being enslaved in Egypt an no archaeological evidence of 2 million+ people wandering in the deserts of the Sinai peninsula for 40 years. Which isn't to say it didn't happen, only that we have no evidence for such events.
The ancient Israelites didn't settle in Canaan from elsewhere, there is nothing in the historical/archaeological record to suggest they were anything but Canaanites themselves. One theory is that they were tribal-hill country folk who thrived after the collapse of the economy surrounding the ancient city states.
source: Bible Unearthed, Biblical History and Israel's Past
The most apt description I've seen for how to understand the bible is to read it as political propaganda. A huge component of their religion was to separate themselves from other cultures, so it makes sense that their foundation myths would include coming from elsewhere. And having God himself promise you the land doesn't hurt your claims, either.
It was a long series for me. I thank Christian apologists and theologians for teaching me the value of evidence, reason and logic. Seriously.
With the Biblical account of history and Creation revealed to be a complete fabrication, there was no good reason to believe the rest of it. I've been an Atheist for a few months now.
> Things like archaeological findings or new scientific research or historical books that talk about Paul or the early church.
Part of the problem there is that there is extremely little archaeological evidence of Christianity from that period. Nothing connected to Paul, nothing related to Christianity from the first century, and almost nothing from the second. Christianity simply wasn't significant enough to leave much trace during the first century or two.
If you're simply interested in the archaeology of Palestine, there's mountains of stuff. Most of it is quite technical. The standard go-to book for lay readers if you want to get a taste of current issues in biblical archaeology would be The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein (Tel Aviv University).
If you stick to online sources, you're probably going to run into tons of poorly researched material and apologetics websites which, however well-intentioned, are not going to accurately represent the state of academic historical and archaeological research.
If you have specific questions, they're always welcome at /r/AcademicBiblical/.
I definitely recommend that you start reading /r/exmormon/ if you aren't already. And here is the recommended reading list for that sub.
I also recommend the following:
Should be plenty to get you started. :)
Two Jewish archaeologists who didn't even give a shit about "The New Testament". Reads like a spy novel. Fantastic book. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBJG86/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
There are arguments on both sides for basically everything pre-Exile. Kitchen is on the extreme of one side of the maximalists and is far from the only view out there.
Until there is someday, somehow, actual agreement I withhold judgement.
The Bible Unearthed provides a strong showing for the minimalist view, and gives much time to the maximalist as well, and is also worth a read.
So am I. What a coincidence!
What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?: What Archeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G0O3DI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_5F-UBbG236X4E
Daily Life in Biblical Times (Archaeology and Biblical Studies) (Archaeology & Biblical Studies) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589830423/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_4v-UBb7HWYXCB
Etched in Stone: Archeological Discoveries That Prove the Bible https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944229795/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_dy-UBbYB3WT5E
Next is Prof. Finkelstein, a representative of the “minimalist” approach. He has many followers as do his academic opponents:
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBJG86/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_8I-UBbY6KVZ34
Edit: in my (subjective) opinion, much of the religious beliefs and worship followed the ruling empires of the day. Israelites drew much from Mesopotamian cultures (Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Sumerian). Next, they modified those beliefs and practices until it became “their” tribal religion.... Today we lump up Israel’s rich history as “ancient”, but it went trough very distinct phases.
The book The Bible Unearthed is a good source for what is the likely reality behind the Old Testament.
Bart Ehrman's books are good for understanding the reality behind the New Testament. He's a nonbeliever Bible scholar and historian who studies that time and place.
"The Bible Unearthed" talks about the gates - they're pretty much disproven and discussed at some length if I remember correctly. No trace of his giant stables and houses etc and he isn't mentioned by other cultures living and trading nearby.
http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Unearthed-Archaeologys-Vision-Ancient-ebook/dp/B000FBJG86/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416876532&sr=1-1&keywords=the+bible+unearthed