Kosh

Caught a show last night on THC called "Biblical Disasters". Don't remember having seen this one
before, but it stood out for a couple reasons:

- unlike other shows I've seen like this, they didn't
try to come up with naturalistic reasons for the
biblical stories happening exactly as
portrayed. Past shows have ignored myth making
and exageration, this one did not.

- For the first time I've seen on TV, they discussed
the Epic of Gilgamesh and how it was incorporated
by the OT to become the Noachian Flood.

- The plague of Israel was explained as nothing
more than King David having to come up with a
reason for the illness (in abscence of modern
medical understanding) and using God as a scapegoat
and his punishment as a way of quelling fears so
that the people wouldn't leave the area.

There is hope....

kookiejar

The History Channel is very good at promoting biblical issues in a fair and unbiased light. I saw one on Jesus's life that explained how he may not have actually died on the cross, but rather was slipped a strong sedative in the vinegar that was fed to him. That just makes so much sense to me.

Marduk

That was this week, last weeks "Biblical Disasters" was more kow towing to the theists. Their shows are often inconsistent, depends on the producer of the show they bought. If you catch one called "Looking for Noah's Flood" or something to that effect, watch it. It is the best one of all, they even have a guy reading from the Epic of Gilgamesh in Sumerian. It really goes into detail comparing the timeline from the Bible to the Epic of G. to the archaeological digs around the Black Sea.
They compare pottery from the Black Sea Coast to that found in the pre Sumerian villages, seems like these people brought their flood stories with them.
They also did a good job on the show "In Search of Eden" I think it was called, they found a very likely candidate in Northwestern Iran, using the Sumerian poem "Enmakar and the Gods of Erratta" and Genesis as a guide, Eden means 'pastoral land' in Sumerian. Also a good show. BTW a fairly large village is still there. I guess these people didn't know they were kicked out.




[ May 22, 2002: Message edited by: marduck ]</p>