NOVA Foundations of Israel

[seayakin]

I watched this program last night (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/cohen.html) and found it very interesting. It appears some of the latest archaelogical theories surrounding the Biblical stories indicate that the ancient Israelites were a oppressed class of Canaanites and over a long history that monotheism did not develop until the Babylonian captivity as a means and progression of maintaining their cultural identity. This is different than previous things I've read that the concept of monotheism grew out of Akhenaten's dismissal of the other Egyptian gods in favor of Aten the sun god. The NOVA program did not address Akhenaten at all but seemed to indicate that Judaism grew out of a separate lineage Middle Eastern practices and beliefs surrounding the Midian god Yahweh and his wife (forget her name but was also a fertility god I believe).

 

[X]

Asherah

I assume this program can be downloaded from the Nova website, like many of their other programs?

 

[boloboffin]

Personally I've always felt that the Hebrew scriptures show a marked preference for Babylonian religious and cultural concepts than Egyptian ones. Being the main route between two empires, there's bound to be influence from others, but the scriptures always seems to hate on Egypt a lot more than Babylon. For a brief example, Cyrus was appointed by God to punish the Israelites for their sins. Egypt always seems to be a broken reed, something to come out of.