After 70 years of painstaking excavation in the Land of Israel, the archaeologists come to a frightening conclusion: there were never things. The deeds of the ancestors are folk legends, we did not go down to Egypt and we did not ascend from there, we did not conquer the land and there is no trace of the empire of David and Solomon.
Prof. Zeev Herzog
Not only the citizens of Israel and the members of the Jewish people, it is likely that many of the inhabitants of the entire world will be shocked to read the facts that have long been known to archaeologists digging in the Land of Israel. In the last twenty years, a real revolution has been taking place in the attitude of Israeli scholars to the Bible as a historical source. Most of those engaged in scientific discussions in the fields of the Bible, archeology and the history of the people of Israel, who until now have searched the field for the evidence of the truth of the stories of the Bible, now agree that the stages of the formation of the people of Israel were completely different from those described in it.
It is difficult to accept this, but it is clear to researchers today that the people of Israel did not stay in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not assign it to the twelve tribes of Israel. Even more difficult to digest is the emerging fact that the united kingdom of David and Solomon, described in the Bible as a regional power, was at most a small tribal kingdom. In addition to this, discomfort is expected for anyone who will have to live with the knowledge that Jehovah, the God of Israel, had a consort, and that the ancient Israeli religion adopted monotheism only at the end of the royal period and not on Mount Sinai.
As a member of the Jewish people and a student of the biblical school, I am aware of the magnitude of the frustration arising from the gap between the expectations for proving the Bible as a historical source, and the facts revealed on the ground. I experience this recognition "firsthand" and I first of all check, criticize and correct my previous interpretations and conclusions, along with criticism and reinterpretation of my colleagues' works.
I intend to briefly present to you the short history of the archeology of the Land of Israel, to emphasize the stages of crisis and revolution that have been taking place in the last decade, and finally I will try to find out why the facts that are emerging do not penetrate the consciousness of the general public.
Archeology is mobilizing
The archeology of the Land of Israel developed as a science at a relatively late stage, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The imperial civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome were the first archaeological destination for researchers looking for impressive evidence from the past, usually in the service of the great museums in London, Paris and Berlin. This phase actually bypassed the small Land of Israel, which was also geographically diverse and fragmented. The land did not have the conditions for the development of an extensive kingdom, and in any case, showpieces such as the Egyptian temples or the Mesopotamian palaces could not be built there.
The main impetus for archaeological research in Israel was religious, and originated in the country's affinity for the Holy Scriptures. The school of biblical criticism, which flourished in Germany beginning in the second half of the 19th century, questioned the historicity of the biblical stories and claimed that the biblical historiography was formulated, and to a large extent also "invented" during the Babylonian exile. Biblical scholars, especially the Germans, argued that the history of the nation of Israel as a sequence of events, starting with the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, through the descent into Egypt, the enslavement, the exodus from Egypt and ending with the conquest of the land and the settlement of the tribes of Israel - are nothing but late reconstructions of the past, whose purpose is theological.
Only archeology could disprove this theory and it set off. The first diggers in Jericho and Nablus were biblical scholars who searched for the remains of the biblical cities at the beginning of the century. The research got a big boost with the arrival of William Foxwell Albright, a researcher of the Land of Israel and the Ancient Near East. Albright, an American, the son of a priest of Chilean origin, began working in the Land of Israel in the early XNUMXs and his stated approach stated that archeology is the main scientific means of refuting the critical claims against the historicity of the biblical stories, mainly of the Walhausen school.
Albright believed that the Bible is a historical document, which, although it has gone through several stages of editing, but basically reflects the ancient reality. He was convinced that if the ancient remains were uncovered in the Land of Israel, they would provide unequivocal proof of the historical truth of the events concerning the people of Israel in their land.
The biblical archeology that developed following Albright and his students, led to extensive excavations at the important biblical sites: Megiddo, Lachish, Gezer, Nablus, Jericho, Jerusalem, Ai, Gibeon, Beit Shean, Beit Shemesh, Hazor, Ta'anach, and more.
Yadin wanders in the lands of the Bible
In the XNUMXs, XNUMXs and XNUMXs archeology flourished in the biblical school, without hesitation and without discussion of theoretical questions. The road was paved and clear: every find that was revealed contributed to building the overall picture. The basic books in archeology have always been linked to the Bible, or to the "Holy Land": Yigal Yedin wrote "The Theory of War in the Lands of the Bible", Yohanan Aharoni the "Atlas Karta for the Biblical Period" and more.
The archeology of the Land of Israel has fulfilled its purpose: creating a harmonious picture of the past, based on matching the literary sources with the archaeological finds in the field. The researchers specialized in selected aspects of the find, such as pottery, weapons, written documents, architecture, art objects, and the like, and presented a typological sequence that is impressive in its detail and reliability. We have often claimed that we are better at distinguishing between the pottery of the 11th century and those of the 11th century BC, much more than we can distinguish between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries AD!
Parallels between archeology and Egyptian history, such as the mention of a journey to Israel in the Bible and Egyptian reliefs, made it possible to establish Israeli chronology. And in short, the puzzle picture was completed.
The archaeologists who enthusiastically embraced the biblical approach revealed the "biblical period", which took on an extensive significance beyond its chronological scope, and the introductory books also included chapters concerning the prehistory of the Land of Israel in periods that preceded the biblical period by hundreds of thousands of years.
And so, we researched and described and taught the period of the patriarchs (and also the "fortifications of the Khaksos"), the structure of the mighty Canaanite cities and their destruction by the Israelites during the conquest of the land, the borders of the estates of the tribes of Israel, the settlements that were characterized by "settlement pits" and "jugs" settlement",
The "Gates of Solomon" in Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer, "Solomon's Stables" (or Ahab), "Solomon's Mines" in Timna, and there are even those who enlarged (and are still enlarging) to do and found Mount Sinai on Mount Karkum in the Negev, or Joshua's Altar on Mount Ebal .
The puzzle picture blurs
Little by little, fissures began to appear in the picture. Paradoxically, a situation arose where the many discoveries began to undermine the historical reliability of the biblical account, instead of strengthening it. The crisis phase has begun. This is the stage where the theories fail to solve a growing number of anomalies, the explanations become cumbersome and inelegant, and the puzzle picture becomes blurred, and it becomes clear that it cannot be completed. I will present some examples of the breakdown of the harmonic image.
The period of the ancestors: the researchers had difficulty agreeing on which archaeological period corresponds to the period of the ancestors. When did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob live? When was the Machpela cave bought and used for the burial of the fathers and mothers? According to biblical chronology, Solomon built the temple 480 years after the exodus from Egypt (1 Kings 430:40). But to this must be added 21 years of stay in Egypt (Exodus XNUMX:XNUMX) and the extreme life expectancy of the ancestors, and a date is obtained In the XNUMXst century BC for Abraham's migration to Canaan.
No evidence was found in the excavations that could confirm such a chronology. In the early 60s, Albright argued for the right to accept the period of Abraham's wanderings as the Intermediate Bronze Age (22nd to 20th centuries BC), however Benjamin Mazar, the father of the Israeli branch of biblical archaeology, proposed to identify the historical background of the period of the patriarchs, a thousand years later , in the 11th century BC, i.e. already during the "settlement period".
Others denied the historicity of the stories and saw them as legends about ancestors told in the Kingdom of Judah. In any case, the consensus began to shake.
The exodus from Egypt, the wanderings in the desert and Mount Sinai: the many Egyptian documents known to us do not mention the Israelites' stay in Egypt, or the event of the exodus. Many documents mention the practice of shepherd-nomads (the so-called Shaso) who entered Egypt during times of drought and famine and settled on the edge of the Nile Delta, but this was not a single event: such events occurred at intervals for thousands of years and were not an unusual phenomenon (Prof. Avraham Malmet , one of the latter who favors the historicity of the biblical description, expanded the biblical text "Shelach at Ami" to "Let my people go and go and go" which means: "Let my people go, and go, and go".
Generations of researchers have tried to locate the location of Mount Sinai and the stations of the tribes of Israel in the desert. Despite the strenuous research, not a single site was discovered that could match the biblical picture.
The strength of the tradition even today motivates researchers to "discover" Mount Sinai in the northern Hijaz, or - as I have already mentioned - Mount Karchum in the Negev. These major events in Israel's history are not confirmed by documents external to the Bible, or in the archaeological findings. Most historians today agree that in the best case, the stay in Egypt and the departure from it were the property of a few families, and their private story was expanded and "nationalized" for the needs of the theological ideology.
The conquest of the land: one of the formative elements of the nation of Israel in biblical historiography is the story of the conquest of the land from the hands of the Canaanites. And here, the most serious difficulties were discovered precisely in the attempts to locate the archaeological evidence for the biblical stories about the conquest of the land by the Israelites.
Repeated excavations carried out by various expeditions in Jericho and Bei - the two cities whose conquest is described in the greatest detail in the book of Joshua - were sorely disappointed. Despite the efforts of the excavators, it became clear that at the end of the 13th century, at the end of the Late Bronze Age, in the period agreed upon as the period of occupation, there were no cities at all in the two mounds and of course there were no walls that could be knocked down.
Biblical scholars already proposed years ago to see these conquest stories as legends and nothing more, however, as the sites that were uncovered increased and it became clear that the settlements were destroyed or abandoned at different periods of time, the conclusion became stronger that there is no factual basis for the biblical story of the conquest of the Land of Israel by the tribes of Israel in a military campaign led by Joshua.
The Canaanite cities: The Bible extols the strength and fortifications of the Canaanite cities that were conquered by the Israelites: "Cities grown and fortified in heaven" (Deuteronomy 1:12). few of the ruler's palace and not a real city. The urban culture in the Land of Israel in the Late Bronze Age disintegrated in a process that lasted for hundreds of years and did not result from military occupation. Moreover, the biblical description does not know the geopolitical reality in the land. The Land of Israel was subject to Egyptian rule until the middle of the XNUMXth century BC. The Egyptians administered their rule from administrative centers established in Gaza, Jaffa and Beit-Shan. Egyptian finds were also discovered in many settlements on both sides of the Jordan. This prominent presence is not mentioned at all in the biblical description, and it is clear that it was not known to the author of the description and its editors.
So who are we?
The archaeological find clearly contradicts the biblical picture: the cities of Canaan were not mighty and were not fortified and their head was not in the sky. The heroism of the conquerors, the few against the many, and the salvation of God fighting for his people are a theological reconstruction without a factual basis.
The origin of the Israelites: the combination of the conclusions from the previous chapters concerning the stages of the formation of the people of Israel sparked the discussion of the fundamental question - the identity of the people of Israel. If there is no evidence of the exodus from Egypt, of a journey in the desert, and if the story of a military occupation of cities in the desert is disproved by archeology, who were those Israelites?
The archaeological find verified an important fact: at the beginning of the Iron Age, in the phase associated with the "settlement period", hundreds of small settlements were founded in the central mountain area of the Land of Israel, where farmers worked the land and raised sheep. If they did not come from Egypt, where did these settlers come from?
It seems to me that today there are no more supporters of the biblical model of the "military occupation" (the last one was Yigal Yedin). Some researchers still hold the opinion that the Israelis were nomads who came from across the Jordan and settled "in a quiet settlement" in the mountain regions of the country (a model developed by the German researchers Albrecht Alt and Martin Noth and adopted by Binyamin Mazar and Yochanan Aharoni).
Two American researchers, George Mendenhall and Norman Gottwald, developed the "sociological theory", according to which the new settlers are Canaanites, residents of the villages in the coastal area, who ended the tyrannical rule of their kings. The peasants rebelled while abandoning the city kingdoms in the valleys and settled in the mountain area, which had not been inhabited before.
Israel Finkelstein proposed to see the settlers as the pastoral shepherds who wandered the mountain area throughout the Late Bronze Age (their cemeteries were found, without settlements). According to his reconstruction, during the Late Bronze Age, shepherds maintained an exchange economy of meat for grain with the inhabitants of the valleys. With the disintegration of the urban and agricultural system in the valleys, the nomads had to produce the grains themselves and hence the incentive for their settlement.
The united kingdom and the status of Jerusalem: archeology also caused a turning point in the reconstruction of reality in the time period known as the "period of the united kingdom" of David and Solomon. This period is described in the Bible as the peak of the political, military and economic independence of the people of Israel in ancient times; Following David's conquests, the empire of David and Solomon stretched from the Euphrates River to Gaza ("For it was destroyed on all sides of the river from Pesach to Gaza, in all the kings beyond the river" Kings 4:30 700). But the archaeological finds in many localities showed that the construction works attributed in the Bible For this period they are poor in strength and scope. The three cities, Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer, which are mentioned among Solomon's construction projects, were extensively excavated in the appropriate layers. Hazor was fortified in only half the area of the upper city, in an area of only XNUMX dunams (out of a total area of XNUMX dunams that were Inhabited during the Bronze Age); Gezer apparently only had a citadel surrounded by a closing wall (a wall built of two walls with a space between them, which was erected instead of a full wall in times of scarcity of resources) in a limited area and it was said that it was not fortified with a wall at all.
Little Jerusalem
The picture gets even more complicated in light of the findings of the excavations in Jerusalem, the capital of the United Kingdom. Large parts of the city have been excavated in the last 150 years. In the excavations, impressive remains from the Middle Bronze Age and the Second Iron Age (the days of the Kingdom of Judah) were discovered. From the time of the United Kingdom (also according to the agreed chronology) no remains of construction were found, and only a handful of pottery was discovered. In light of the preservation of the remains from earlier and later periods, it is clear that Jerusalem in the days of David and Solomon was a small city, it may have had a small king's citadel, but in any case it was not the capital of the empire described in the books of the Bible. The authors of the biblical description knew Jerusalem in the eighth century BC, on its walls and the rich remains that were excavated in the various parts of the city, and cast its later image to the days of the United Kingdom. Jerusalem gained its central position after the destruction of Samaria, its northern rival, in 722 BC.
The archaeological find, therefore, fits well with the conclusions of the critical biblical scholars. David and Solomon were rulers of tribal kingdoms that weakened small areas: the former in Hebron and the latter in Jerusalem. At the same time, a separate kingdom began to be organized in Mount Samaria, which is reflected in the stories about Saul's kingdom. Israel and Judah were from the beginning two separate, independent, and often rival kingdoms. Hence, the Great United Kingdom is an imaginary historiosophical work, composed at the end of the days of the Kingdom of Judah at the earliest. Perhaps the decisive proof of this is the fact that we do not know the name of this kingdom.
Along with the historical and political examinations, doubts also arise regarding the reliability of the data about faith and worship. The theories about the late adoption of monotheism in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were strengthened with the discovery of ancient Hebrew inscriptions that mention a pair of gods: Yahweh and his servant.
In two sites, Kuntilat Ajrod in the south of the Negev Mountains and Bahar al-Kum in the Judean plains, Hebrew inscriptions were discovered mentioning 'Yahweh and Ashrata', 'Yahweh Shemran and Ashratah', 'Yahweh Taman and Ashratah'. The writers recognized a pair of gods: Yahweh and his consort Asherah, and bless in the name of the pair of gods. The inscriptions are from the 8th century BC and confirm the assumption that monotheism, as a state religion, is nothing more than an innovation of the late days of the Kingdom of Judah, after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel.
A threat to our right
At the end of the twentieth century, the archeology of the Land of Israel completes the process of transition to scientific independence. It is ready to confront the findings of biblical research and ancient history as an equivalent discipline. But at the same time there is a fascinating phenomenon of being ignored by Israeli society. Many of the findings mentioned above have been known for decades. The professional literature in the fields of archaeology, the Bible and the history of the people of Israel often discusses them in dozens of books and hundreds of articles. Even if not all researchers accept all the claims presented in the examples I presented, most researchers adopt the gist of it.
And yet, these revolutionary views do not penetrate the public consciousness. About a year ago, my colleague, the historian Prof. Nadav Naaman, published an article in the "Culture and Literature" supplement of "Haaretz" under the title "Remove the Bible from the Jewish bookcase", and the thresholds did not move.
Biblical historiography was one of the cornerstones in building the national identity of Jewish Israeli society. The secular population in Israel, which rejected the halachic foundations of Judaism based on the Talmud, embraced the Bible to its heart. The biblical historiography expressed in the Torah and in the books of Joshua, Judges, Kings and Chronicles, which came together as an ideological theological work, became the basis of culture in secular Israel. The strengthening of the attachment to the land and its landscape was channeled into archaeology, which became a "national hobby" and uncovered the remains of the ancestors and kings of the people of Israel.
The biblical sequence of the chain of generations from Abraham through Moses and Solomon to the destruction of the First Temple is a cornerstone in the study of history and the Bible and is embedded in the study of literature and knowledge of the land in elementary schools. The main Israeli holidays, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, which are celebrated nationally from preschool age, are anchored in the biblical description of the events of the exodus from Egypt, the wanderings in the desert and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. For years, long before the outbreak of the debate about the "complete Land of Israel", the Bible and archeology served as a basis for strengthening the relationship with the land, and a basis for the feeling of ownership over it.
Challenging the reliability of the biblical descriptions is perceived as a challenge to "our historical right to the land" and a deconstruction of the myth of the people renewing the ancient kingdom of Israel. These symbolic foundations are such an important element in the construction of Israeli identity that any attempt to question their truth is met with hostility, or disregard.
It is interesting to note that such a tendency among secular Israeli society goes hand in hand with the mindset among educated Christian groups. In my lectures abroad before communities of Christian Bible enthusiasts I felt a similar hostility: in this case the damage is to the foundations of their religious fundamentalist faith.
It turns out that Israeli society is partly ripe to recognize the injustice done to the Arab inhabitants of the country, is ready to accept the equal rights of women in society, but is not strong enough to embrace the archaeological facts that dispel the biblical myth. In conclusion, "Israel" is mentioned as a tribe (without territory) in a single Egyptian inscription from the days of Marnfath (1208 BC) and then disappeared. The nickname "House of David" appears as the name of the kingdom of Huda from the ninth century in an Aramaic inscription from Dan and a Moabite inscription from Divon. The historical existence of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah can therefore be recognized from the ninth century BC. Relative to other peoples, associated with Western culture, this is a rather ancient period, and perhaps this is a certain consolation for those who need it.
Prof. Zeev Herzog teaches in the Department of Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. Participated in the excavations of Hazor and Megiddo with Yigal Yedin and in the excavations at Tel Arad and Tel Be'er Sheva with Yochanan Aharoni. Directed excavations at Tel Michal and Tel Grisa and recently began excavations at Tel Jaffa.
He published books on the city's gate in the Land of Israel and its neighbors, on Tel Beer Sheva excavations, Tel Michal excavations, and a summary book on the archeology of the city.
Published in "Haaretz" on 29/10/1999
The knowledge website was until the end of 2002 part of the IOL portal from the Haaretz group.
39 תגובות
To discuss - the Nazis actually recognized the Jews as a separate and special race and nation. And so do the rest of the anti-Semites - they are actually the ones who defined the Jews as a race, as a people, as a nation... different from the rest of the people in the world, and not just another religion.
The fact that archaeologists in the previous millennium did not find findings from periods before King David led to the rise of a different theory than the accepted one - in any case, this is an old article, in that period there really were no findings from before the Second Temple, and therefore archaeologists thought that maybe the real story is different from the story told in the Bible, but since then Today, finds have been found especially from the Bronze Age, from the time of King David, and also from earlier periods.
In any case, those who see the Bible as a history book or a science book are expected to have conflicts with scientific and archeological findings because those who wrote the Bible did not intend to write a history book or a science book but a book that educates on religious belief.
It is certainly possible that the actual factual story is different from the story told in the Bible and this does not detract anything from the Bible as an educational religious book. Nor did anyone think that Greek mythology or Gilgamesh stories or the (Indian) Bhadvad Gita were accurate historical accounts and scientific facts and so on.
You understand that they took the theories of the Nazis whose purpose was to justify the extermination of the Jews and turned it into their science!!!!! You can't escape at the end of the day and especially in an imprecise science like archeology people discover what they want to discover and it works out for them with their beliefs.
Adi
It is important to separate the belief from the facts on the ground.
And when the facts on the ground correspond to the prevailing belief, the belief turns from a virtual thing to a more tangible thing.
Today there are many archeological finds that support the text of the Bible. (Apparently this is the reason why the respondent "Anonymous" decided to vomit from her mouth - her ways and the ways of those who walk the wrong way are shortened).
First, I will start by saying that the first and most prominent thing in the article published in Haaretz newspaper; The quarrelsome and agitated, unambiguous and imprecise writing and titles (not corresponding to the content of the article) indicate a lack of professionalism and a sin for the role of the historian/archaeologist/researcher, since it seems that they were written with the aim of attracting attention and attracting readers with expressions that are almost "commercial" and self-interested rather than objective. I am not religious, but I have a great affinity for one of the greatest human assets, which is the Bible. I see no reason to write such emphatic statements, without any reservations, in an article based on a research article, except for an attempt at cheap popularity, and it's a shame, because the content of the article is indeed fascinating and interesting, and if written differently, it might have provoked more listening and less defensiveness and antagonism. In addition to all of these, it is important to remember that dealing with theology must be done with extreme sensitivity for the sake of the thousands of believers who should not be underestimated, and out of respect and trying not to hurt people's feelings, caution and wisdom must be taken in the Mishnah.
Regarding the content of the article, I found fascinating and interesting points, but they obviously do not expand enough on what was said, and therefore it is better to read the original article or the book published on the subject. Contrary to the emphatic title of the article, it seems that the archaeological findings are much more circumspect. It is not XNUMX percent certain that there was no Hebrew people who went down to Egypt, and whether it is a small tribe or several families - this finding can also be considered significant and cannot be underestimated. And whether those Canaanite cities during the time of Joshua were not the large and fortified cities described in the Bible, this does not negate their existence, except for providing additional illumination of that period or a statement about the writer of the biblical things.
However, one of the main things that is not said or attributed in Prof. Herzog's words is the very lack of possible overlap between archeology and history. In this claim, I join biblical scholar Hana Yafet in her response to Herzog. Archeology cannot always find evidence and material findings for human civilizations, certainly not easy to do since it is an earlier time. This does not mean that those communities and cultures did not exist, but rather it indicates the lack of knowledge or the ability to research that period/those communities. On the other hand, there are archaeological finds whose backgrounds and "historical truth" behind them are unknown, and what does that mean? Therefore, it is important to note the limitations of material research and the limitations of historical research in general.
In addition, and no less important, the important question is asked regarding the relevance of historical/archaeological research in matters of ancient myths and stories. Is it relevant to ask about miracle stories if they happened or not? In the roots of theology "truth" is in the eye of the beholder. Faith is stronger than information in my opinion, and therefore it is not certain that the attempt to prove the existence of the written events will succeed in changing in any way the faith and perception of people and the source of their grip on life, their comfort and their repentance - and this should not be underestimated.
In conclusion, archaeological research is of great importance. It is fascinating to see with the eye and find the memories of ancient civilizations, and on the other hand it is interesting not to find or discover things that we expected (and the meanings of this).. However, our knowledge in this field must be taken with a limited guarantee, and precisely because the nature of material things is to be temporary, and evidence of their memory is not always left. . Just as the archaeological research must be presented with caution and criticism, the historical interpretation of the ancient biblical text must be treated in the same way. And along the way we should not forget the question of what comes before why - objective "truth" or faith? Material or perception? In my opinion, there is not and must not necessarily be a contradiction between the study of history (including the study of material culture, which is the field of archeology) and the world of spirit and theology, which are based on stories that cannot always be proven or do not always agree with common sense, since these two worlds complement each other and not come at each other's expense. Faith is a deep and built thing, and does not need physical proof to confirm its importance for the existence of humanity.
Jews are a fake religion and the Bible is a lie.
I am a girl who used to be Jewish and converted to Islam not long ago only because I found all the truth in Islam and in Judaism I found only lies.
Some very simple questions to which I would be happy to receive answers (to which I would be happy to announce in advance that I already know the answers)
1. Based on a case that happened to me not long ago, a religious person (not a knitted cap - but an ultra-Orthodox!) in front of my eyes prayed the Shema prayer in 5 different directions (when I was Jewish I remember one small thing, the Shema prayer is prayed in the direction of the Kotel) and while he was praying He asks for charity from people (who shouldn't talk at all during prayer!!) Is that okay...?
2. If the store is open on Shabbat - the store is not kosher. According to the Jewish religion, it is forbidden to shop in such a store. An ultra-orthodox person buys from the store. Is it okay? (close your eyes and laugh at God)
3. The Jews were exiled from the land as punishment for all the sins they committed in the Land of Israel. God removed them to exile!! By what right do they come and occupy the land and cause people who have lived here for so many years to lose all their homes and all their entitlements?!?! This is not the Jewish state. So fly away from here!! Or convert to Islam and start believing in the right religion!!
4. Yad Lachaim makes girls try and stay away from Westerners (to prevent assimilation) when they explain false things about Islam (beating a woman - this is forbidden at all according to the religion!! In addition, in Islam it is obligatory to circumcise a child - Yad Lachaim released a video in which the woman says that her husband beat her because he did not circumcising a child - a lie!!)
5, Charity will save from death... I came from a financially well-established family. Every year I would donate money so that the religious would buy food and distribute it to the poor for the holidays. One day I was passing by and out of curiosity I wanted to see what the religious were doing with the money I brought... do you know what they are doing? Take buy food, take for yourself the best, and the worst? Throwing the poor like dogs!! (just disgusting)
6. I recently worked in a factory. The rabbi at the factory had to take out some of the apples they received for prayer. Why didn't he give the apples to people who don't have them and prefer to throw them in the trash!!!!!8!!! A kilo of apples?!!?! (This is awesome!! How many people could you feed with these 8 kilos?!?!?)
All the prophecies recorded in your book are false prophecies. The lion is a lie. The Jewish religion is a lie.
I spit on you and hope all the Jews in this world die!!!
For those who don't know who knows what - please turn to YouTube for the lecture workshop of Prof. Oded Lifshitz - Tel Aviv University - and you will get some wisdom from a world-renowned archaeologist and biblical scholar, and then maybe you will change your confused mind a little...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skfeCM3x_Pw&list=PLNiWLB_wsOg56IVOunaES9qw3FAVJrZXA
This just adds more proof that religion is a creation of the people who lived 3000 years ago, inventions and folktales and perhaps hopes for the helpless who once lived and came from the desert, the invention of the temple like the invention of the 12 tribes and Sinai and Egypt and Palestine and destruction and the temple... all nonsense and regret.
Maybe in 2000 years the people of the engraver will wake up!
Maybe …
Without going into the writer's conclusion (which was written without any serious reference to those who disagree with him as a "scientific" article...), how does he allow himself to write the name of God when he knows that this is prohibited according to Halacha and definitely offends a few readers?! And maybe this indicates something about his purpose and his world??
It is time to stop recycling old claims that reflect the agenda of Tel Aviv University. How many proofs is needed to "prove" the historical truth of the Bible? The ruins of Caiaphas will prove. Tel Dan will prove. The tombstone of Misha king of Moab will prove. The altar on Mount Ebal (it was found by the late Prof. Adam Zartal of Kibbutz Hashomer HaTza'ir)
If we go even further, we will take the synchronicity of Emanuel Velikovsky in his book Worlds in Tohoshav, he completely synchronizes the archaeological findings and our knowledge of the Egyptian culture with what is said in the Bible, but how convenient, the academic world rejected Velikovsky's theory probably because it simply threatens their world view.
In general, it is very easy to stick an arrow and then mark the circles and then to our surprise we will discover that the arrow is right in the middle... The Bible is first of all a theological book, the history has to be collected among the rubbish. Those who disbelieve in their Jewish faith come to the "conclusion" that the Bible was not and was not created, and that it is actually a very late book... how convenient... and then they call Tel Aviv University's hash of nonsense "science"! And "history"!
I live in an area where there are many houses built of stone
I have a neighbor. He has a car with a cart in the back
He sells stones for the construction of houses or fences.
Ask where he gets stones from.. Add walking around and looking. Every house that is destroyed.. he immediately appears, collects the stones and sells.. no trace of that house remains.. his friend. He sells all kinds of antiques.. and a friend of theirs whenever he sees a beautiful bed or cabinet or chair or lampshade takes and sells second hand.. In another hundred years there will be no trace or proof of these houses.
And now let's go back a few thousand years. At a time when every carved stone was much more valuable than today.. and every urn.. and every garment. And every throne... imagine what happened after a seventy-year exile when other people settled in the place with Israel... and each one built his house here and that one there. And Shazaz took his donkey with his cart and sold his findings in the market.. of course.
Obviously they won't find it because they don't know how to read the Bible - if a person says that the people of Israel were in Egypt for 430 years and doesn't know Rashi and the creation of the order of generations - they already explain that there is no intention to stay in Egypt for 430 years - with the calculation they make - but this We count from the birth of Isaac - and they stayed in Egypt for only 210 years, of which only 80 years were actual slavery
So this just shows the ignorance of archaeologists... - on the contrary, not long ago they found a layer in the Golan that shows that there was a severe famine in the country - and they calculated the years it should be like here - and came to the conclusion that it does not agree with the Bible - I checked those years according to Jewish tradition - As appears above - and it fits perfectly with those years that the Bible tells about the famine that was in the Egyptians and the sons of Jacob had to collect food from the Egyptians...
The Tanakh is one of the holy books. is an allegorical book. And not a book of history, geography or beautiful literature. Any attempt to find an "outside" reference for it indicates a fundamental lack of understanding. The article only confirms the obvious.
The Tanakh is an allegorical holy book about the interiority of man and the connection between him and the Creator and not a book of history, geography or beautiful literature. Any connection to the yoke
The article misleads the readers.
And every time a new archaeological find is discovered, it turns out that the Bible was right.
The nation of Israel was indeed formed at the foot of Mount Sinai. This is a formative historical memory that we remember to this day.
Indeed there were not 12 brothers of the sons of Jacob, but there were 12 main tribes of the tribal confederation known as Israel. They came from different directions, from Egypt, across the Jordan, from today's Lebanon and Syria, and even from the Land of Israel. But there is no doubt that the gathering at the foot of Mount Sinai is the one that turned tribes, parts of tribes and clans into the people of Israel.
All the biblical stories before the "Exodus from Egypt" events are the historical memories of all those parts of tribes. They are not exact, not chronological, but based on real memories, told over the generations around the fires.
Those who know how to read those memories correctly know exactly what the story of the "Exodus from Egypt" is, where "Mount Sinai" is, and what caused many tribes to gather around it.
Only those who know how to read the Bible correctly know that the stories of the Bible are the truth.
Amish
So you are saying that God really murdered all those children and babies in the story of the flood?
I have a question, do you still continue to spread your stupidity that the Bible does not express a true historical story?
The biblical version is that there will be an exile due to our sin, but on the one hand the people will not go through a process of assimilation that will eliminate them and on the other hand the land will keep faith in its desolation ("And let your enemies who dwell in it be desolate") to the people until they return because even though there will be a lifting of the yoke they will zealously keep the commandment of Mila (for a bibliography search on YouTube "Secret of the Land of Israel" by the Neugerschel Pan. We only have to ask ourselves two questions in the State of Israel in 2013: (1) Is the biblical version correct? (2) Why prefer the chronology of an anti-Semitic priest of Egypt from the 3rd century BC In the name of Menathon (on which the Egyptian chronology is based on 30 lines and in its wake the entire chronology of the Ancient Near East (of which Egyptologists reject part of his words and accept another part according to the needs of their thesis) over the Bible version? Why are Egyptologists allowed to cut 2000 years in Egyptian history without blinking (Menathon's dynasties reach 5000 The years of history and they are cut 2000+) But Daniel Moshe Levy or Yehoshua Etzion (the boycotters hold after Wilikovsky) they have lost science??? Those who want truth should read everything and judge for themselves!
When a person encounters facts that contradict his world view, he is shocked. All the religious commenters who commented on this old article testify to shock. Their worldview was built on mythological stories. The archaeological facts about them are a dust storm that gets into the eyes and nose and under the clothes.
Ahmadinejad wants to kill the physical existence of the Jews while the professor wants the spirit. You decide who is worse, but just know that he is a friend of Professor Eli Ziv who told me that Herzog simply invents things that don't exist and states them as facts and if you interrogate him to the letter he will be embarrassed. my word
Jewish history did not begin 3,300 years ago at Mount Sinai, Abraham and Moses are myths, this is not new, and this is not a bomb, not thunder on a clear day, not shock or astonishment, they have been talking about it loudly for quite some time.
Jewish history began later than tradition attributes to it.
Big deal.
First, maybe you should not label me:
I am not religious, and I do not accept the worldview of the "religious"
I simply think that as a historical document, as a record of the innocent truth of the events of a certain people, the events of the Bible have never been denied by those who really examine the findings, and the canvas is short, so I chose a small number of examples, which the writer deliberately ignored.
I saw someone who commented mention the flood. After all, it is clear that in the eyes of an ancient man, every natural disaster is from the hands of God. Even today, half of humanity thinks this way about natural disasters. I refer to purely historical documentation, as the article intended.
I'm sorry if you were offended, I really thought that the author called himself "the scientist", and it seems absurd to me.
I am interested in the name of science to point out the distortion: we are quick to dismiss the credibility of the Bible but warmly embrace the records of Egyptian and Assyrian dictators, who call themselves gods, and do not lie in any way to prove their "divinity". The Bible does not glorify Adam's name and does not worship him.
This is similar to the victory parades held by Saddam Hussein after his "victory" in 1991. Go out and learn that the author of the article, if he had lived another 1000 years, would have declared that Iraq was an empire that defeated the American power that dominates the world, at the end of the 20th century...
You claim to represent science? And how do my things contradict science?
You must understand, an Israeli in the field "we" are a site of the confused, a product of "the murderer and also the heir" - we work in the name of science which does not recognize any factor except the factor itself..a/dead..:)
First of all, I am the editor of the site, so I am responsible for what is published. Even if I'm not the one who physically wrote this or that article.
You again say in other ways that real researchers are the ones who prove the faith, not the truth, and demand a site that comes to represent science to align with your demands.
Listen, I don't know this site, I came directly to the article from Google when you searched for something about my research
When I wrote "what does he know" I meant the author of the article "The deer has no findings in the field", I noticed that his name is different from yours. If you stand behind the article, I also say to you: you lied to yourself.
Bottom line, you did not receive a substantive response to my comments to the article
Since I wrote on behalf of real researchers who objectively examine the "findings in the field"
And they do not determine in advance that there is no such thing as "the people of Israel" (in the second millennium BC) and then draw the target around a pressure that has already been fired
I mean what you suggest, let's not look for the truth, let's settle for folk tales. What does this have to do with left or right?
The question of origin is really irrelevant today. In Rome they say that the city was built by Romus and Romulus that a she-wolf cleaned them. If a she-wolf is not found nursing human babies, does it follow that there was no Roman people and that the Italians of today are not his descendants?
And so also if we do not find the seat of the gods on Olympus. Does that mean there never was a Greek people?
It is unbelievable that a professor writes such an article.
The truth is, I am already tired of extreme leftists who are so quick to accept the Palestinian and Arab narrative, that they are ready to quote their claim: there was no nation of Israel, the Bible is a lie.
Interestingly, both Islam and Christianity base their teachings on the teachings of Israel. It is interesting that the professor forgets to mention hundreds of findings that support the miraculous accuracy of the biblical historical documentation, such as the tombstone of Misha (Ahab ben Amri), the certificates of Mari (Yavin the king of Hazor) and of course the Temple and Jerusalem, even if they were created "only" 3000 years ago, they did not appear out of nowhere .
The Egyptians always tried to erase the memory of Israel. The extreme leftists prefer to seek confirmation of our historical existence from the Israel haters who are still celebrating their great victory in October 1973, a victory that was destined for defeat, but there is a museum that "proves" its existence. Indeed, it became clear already in the fifties in the USA and even more so in recent decades, that the Egyptians distorted their history in order to prove that they are "the first of all nations". Therefore, you will not find evidence for the Israelites and the Exodus from Egypt in the 15th or 20th dynasty, since they operated hundreds of years after the 15th century BC. The Exodus from Egypt in the 15th century BC took place during the Fourth Dynasty.
The one who elevated Joseph to the rank of Amhatep, the god of wisdom, was Pharaoh Djoser of the third dynasty, although the Egyptians claim that he acted 1000 years earlier.
The question is who do we choose to believe: Israeli and American scholars or Egyptian scholars (actually German and French scholars from the 19th century who of course aligned themselves with the Egyptians)...
I hope that despicable and unprofessional articles like the above will not permeate the minds of the young people of Israel, it's a shame that the most brilliant nation in history, next to the world not to bow down to statues and the like, hates itself so much sometimes to the point of self-denial.
It is interesting to compare this article with Perp's article. Zartal. See for example the website "Deat Emet" - Silence
the scientists. from 2008
Anonidos:
Did you not read my words or did you deliberately ignore the mistakes I mentioned that appear in the Torah itself and the contradictions between the faith and the book of Kings XNUMX - chapter XNUMX?
I'm the first to agree with you that Tzal were actually Tzal, but...well, it's a waste of time to argue with you.
The fact that the 11-year-old article that was destroyed shows you how long the site has been around, more tangibly than the address below, and that it was then part of the IOL portal.
The reason there are no responses is that since that time the site has undergone 3 or 4 technological generations and it was not at all possible then.
The sarcastic response of the anonymous doss brought up an interesting article that contains both true and false things.
I would like to mention some archaeological findings that actually support parts of the biblical historiography.
1. It is worth starting with Prof. Herzog's comment on "Jehovah Samaria and His Holiness", which supports a central testimony of the Tanakh that Jehovah was the most important God in the land.
2. An Egyptian inscription from the end of the thirteenth century BC mentions the name Israel, and confirms this ethnic existence in an ancient period.
3. An inscription of Misha, King of Moab from about 850- mentions the names Omri, King of Israel, Nebo, David ("Kli Doda"), Jehovah, Ish Gad, and other names that appear in the book.
4. The Tel Dan inscription from the time of the Misha inscription mentions the house of David and the king of Israel.
5. The shipping inscription mentions the digging of a tunnel in Jerusalem at the time of Hezekiah.
6. An inscription on a silver foil containing a wording very similar to the wording of the blessing of priests in your house.
7. Herzog's reading of the book is not careful enough. He claims that there were no mighty cities in Israel. Mighty in whose eyes? Bedouins who lived in tents, or archaeologists who dug or read about finds in other countries?
Essentially, it seems that it is possible to confirm a considerable part of the biblical historiography, even the ancient one, alongside the necessity of naming important parts of the Bible as stories of cloth.
It should be noted that there is a dispute between the archaeologists excavating in Jerusalem, regarding findings that have been discovered since that article can be seen in the following link http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%91%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%AA_%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA_%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%9F
What is the connection? Sages admit that they are open to mistakes, they themselves repeat them and say that they were wrong, and in the kings it is not written that they did not know the mitzvot of the Torah, only that the Sefer Torah must be written legibly and in writing, and this they did not remember, but even today the serious rabbis remember the Torah by heart as "Q So, read and write clearly so that they remember that this is not essential and no one is looking to get caught up in religious nonsense, they have their own opinion (if you are really interested in corresponding with a religious person who won't write nonsense, send everything you think the religion is wrong about, for example Rabbi Yehuda Disagrees with the sages and wrote already then that they are not created by sweat and lice even nowadays see their eggs and many rabbis already from the dawn of time wrote that lice must not be killed and the lice that the sages discussed were much smaller
What silly nonsense!
And of course - the rabbit also ruminates, the cow and the Tigris come from a common source, Cain carried a woman who was not born and was not created and Noah built a box the size of Tel Aviv to store all kinds of animals multiplied by two.
Of course, all the Torah and mitzvot were passed down flawlessly from the days of Moses to the present, even though in Kings XNUMX chapter XNUMX it is written that no one knew the mitzvot of the Torah until they found some book in the temple.
Of course, the Sages were right in all their nonsense and lice are indeed created from human sweat and mice from mold.
Of course, the trachea of the cow splits into three parts, one of which reaches the liver.
We don't understand that all of this is true for the truth only because we are also looking at the real world and not just at the nonsense invented by primitives thousands of years ago.
You speak so thinly there are no contradictions if you accept the religious stories in their entirety only if you accept them in part for example the abandonment of almost all the inhabitants of the cities that were conquered by Joshua's conquest by wasps Kmash I am sending the wasps in them little by little they will try before you lest an animal multiply on you The field" and you just do it all the time looking for a verse without reading all the verses that are related to the matter and if you read everything you would see that the findings are simply the most suitable in the world for the stories of the Torah like here where you really see that a lot of residents from those cities simply abandoned their cities or like the findings that Jews gave an idolatrous attitude Both to God and to other things such as Elijah in the book of Kings "How long will you tread on the two sections" If the Lord is God go and worship him and if the husband is God go and worship him and honor him it is written in all the scriptures not his wife and Asherah is mentioned in the prophets as idolatry in many places and most of the time my son Israel in their land, their kings did not see Judaism as their religion, every reader of the Bible knows what they found, that it does not seem to have been the ruling religion, only proves the Bible and it does not concern Moses or Joshua at all, that the non-worshipping Jews were drained to only one place according to Judaism, as well as the religious writings At that time there were few and the oral Torah was forbidden to be written down and the historical evidence is clear that there was a great deal of material of religious science that was not written down and began to be written down as a separate part of what was written so that it would not be forgotten