The Bible Unearthed: Challenging the Historical Accuracy of Biblical Narratives, Papers of Ancient history

Download The Bible Unearthed: Challenging the Historical Accuracy of Biblical Narratives and more Papers Ancient history in PDF only on Docsity! HIST1 1O Section 0110 The Bible Unearthed Term Paper Topic #3 i*f \{- lsrael Finkelstein and NeilAsher Silberman's book The Bible Uneafthed raises many questions on the accuracy of The Bible's history. They state that there is no real evidence of the existence of ancient lsrael until the seventh century BCE during the rule of King Josiah. The authors believe that since no archaeological evidence exists regarding the Exodus, Abraham, Moses or the Patriarchs that the stories in the Old Testimony should not be seen as facts. Instead they are myths that were assembled by the elite of the southem kingdom of Judah for political reasons. ln fact the collection of myths was most likely used to unite the land of Canaan which consisted of two very diverse states. According Finkelstein and Silberman, The Bible was the book that held a collection of Hebrew myths and folktales that claimed the two very different societies were once a single country thus helping Josiah in accomplishing his goals. The authors also offer archaeological facts to support their thesis. The Exodus is a perfect example of an assembled myth used to unite two societies. The story goes that in the thirteenth century BCE the lsraelites needed to escape the oppression of the Egyptian pharaoh. They did this by fleeing Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Moses demanded to the pharaoh that his people be allowed to leave Egypt, but the pharaoh did not listen to his demands. Because of this, the lsraeli god brings to Egypt nine deadly plagues, the last being the worst. The ninth plague brought about the death of all of Egypt's first born sons, which finally allows the release of over 600,000 the lsraelites. Even though the lsraelites are permitted to leave Egypt, they are followed by the Egyptian. Eventually the lsraelite people are saved when their god gives Moses h