October 18, 2000

9:09 PM

Deconstructing the walls of Jericho Old article, but an interesting one. Archaeologist Ze'ev Herzog of Tel Aviv University has said that "Following 70 years of intensive excavations in the Land of Israel, archaeologists have found out: The patriarchs' acts are legendary, the Israelites did not sojourn in Egypt or make an exodus, they did not conquer the land. Neither is there any mention of the empire of David and Solomon, nor of the source of belief in the God of Israel. These facts have been known for years, but Israel is a stubborn people and nobody wants to hear about it." Also the BBC Article.
posted by lagado (4 comments total)

And here is a rebuttal of Herzog's thesis by Hershel Shanks.
posted by lagado at 9:23 PM on October 18, 2000

Well, i had a religous upbringing, father taught religion actually, spent some time when i was younger as a missionary.

Me, personally, i think all religions are bunk, and so all i can really do is shrug when people attempting to prove or disprove religion thru scientific means hit stumbling blocks. Whether christian or jew or muslim or mormon or whatever...scientific proof is always sought after and discarded if it doesn't match.

with that said....
if i WAS religous, i might have a problem with these articles being biased, based on where they are found.

i did find a great heiroglyphics translator though.

to each his own.



posted by th3ph17 at 9:30 PM on October 18, 2000

weirder still....checking out other directories those docs are from....The ralph index in the rebuttal link wants you to go here.
posted by th3ph17 at 9:39 PM on October 18, 2000

Yes, ralph is pretty scary.

I found the Herzog article on a number of places and in the process found this rebuttal. These things tend to get copied around. I don't think it undermines the rebuttal, perhaps I should have looked harder for a better source.

Ah Google! This happens to me all the time, like one time when I was tracking down the Epic of Gilgamesh, I found it on a various seriously religious sites as well as sites dedicated to UFOs.

posted by lagado at 10:47 PM on October 18, 2000