“WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF MONOTHEISM?”
Alert to “The Bible’s Buried Secrets” on PBS, Nov 18, 2008 on NOVA
Avi Bass, Northern Illinois University JFR: Jewish Faculty Roundtable, November 13, 2008.
College campuses may become a battleground for reinterpreting the Hebrew Bible next Tuesday,Nov. 18, 2008, when a PBS science program tackles “The Bible’s Buried Secrets.”
Our colleagues may watch and try to put us on the spot defending relatively new attitudes toward the origins of monotheism and the story of the ancient Israelites. Who were they and where they came from?
Our students may watch NOVA on Tuesday, Nov. 18. OK, they may watch if they are assigned to watch. And, if they do, they may have questions. They might ask you.
Where did the ancient Israelites get their beliefs? Was it in exile in Babylonia after the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BCE? Who wrote the Hebrew Bible? When? And why?
NOVA, on PBS, two hours, Tuesday evening, Nov. 18. Watch it online starting Nov. 19.
“An archeological detective story traces the origins of the Hebrew Bible, shedding light on including who they were and where they came from.”
NOVA has all sorts of background information online.
– How a pagan practice became a religion devoted to one God,
– A new and surprising view of the iconic exodus from Egypt.
– How the rise of literacy made Holy Scripture possible.
– NOVA’s approach to covering biblical archeology.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/
