Hey welcome to Bible and archaeology live I’m Jordan Jones I’m Bob Carill and we just want to welcome you back to Friday freefor all Friday freefor all so today today we’re doing things a little bit differently for everybody that’s joining in today we have no real set topic this is about questions that
You have that you want answered so we’ve got a couple questions that have been submitted in advance we’re going to do some news but a lot of the time is just going to be be spent answering questions that are there in the chat so if you have questions about things as they go
Along if you have questions that are completely off topic put them in the chat and as we go through we’ll be paying attention there and coming around to your questions but Bob how are you feeling about a free forall today I’m excited about this I have been wanting
To do this you know we do this a lot when we when people send in questions but to dedicate an entire hour to just people’s questions that have come in either via email to me directly to you directly uh we get a lot of questions on
Our YouTube comments and then we get a lot of questions on previous uh Bible and archaeology live um we also get people that are joining our patreon again please uh feel free to sign up uh support us via patreon that’s patreon.com excavator XK v8r and that
Link is in description too yes that link is in the description and you can go over to of course our Bible and Arch chology website U iowa.edu Bam Bam uh and you can uh you can uh support us read about the things that we’re talking about here on YouTube over there and of
Course always feel free to support uh the work that we’re doing here so let’s start with some news give people some time to drift in any questions you already have go ahead and drop them in the chat but two news stories from the recent weeks that we want to touch Bas
On and these are maybe news for discussion um these are less specific news finds but more how do we feel about these kinds of news stories so the first one uh has to do with Greece uh reanalysis of the tombs that are associated with the family of Alexander the Great so
These tombs they’re 4th Century BCE they’re identified as Royal tombs they’re found in Vina not Virginia they haven’t been found at the University of Virginia but in Vina they reanalyzed a study for the Journal of archa archaeological science reanalyzed the bones using macrophotography radiographs and anatomic dissection and what they were
Trying to do is using these bones can we present any arguments for identification here historically these bones have been connected with the bodies of Philip of Macedon the father of Alexander the Great and some of Alexander’s family but this is not typically considered to be the tomb of Alexander the Great himself
The results of the study say yes we do believe as has been the tradition that this is the tomb connected with the family of Alexander but they do present some different arguments they want to identify the Bones from tomb one with Philip of Macedon this contradicts the historical view that’s identified the
Bones in Tomb 2 their basis for this is a wound on the skeleton found in Tomb 1 that they say is consistent with the injuries that we have reported for Philipa Macedon and that the bones in Tomb to um match more closely with the stories that we have for king aridus um
Partially because of cremation that they say we have this report of cremation and these bones are cremated so continuing the connection here but maybe reshuffling who is in what tomb Bob what are what are your thoughts does this make much of a change for you or is this
Just kind of a scholarly quibbling here about identifications it it’s something that’s been reported earlier I’ve I’ve actually I don’t know if they yet but I’ve actually done some uh documentary interviews about this question not about you know about first of all where is Alexander the Great Tom this is one of
Those great questions that that people are always you know people ask what are some of the big questions that are always out there Arc of the Covenant and that stuff always comes up but you know where’s Alexander the Great tomb that’s one of the the fun Mysteries um but
Phillip his his father’s tomb that one they’ve always kind of said well we think it might be here and based upon this evidence that is they’ve got the a place that’s likely to be it and then they look at the remains and he he said
To have a limp right he had a hip injury and So based upon some circumstantial evidence and some direct evidence they say this this is it and so now they’re saying how can we correct this a little better it’s certainly something to look at I I think it’s a legitimate uh piece
Of research and and we ought to continue to pay attention to it the big question is of course you know is this Philip edon’s um tomb that’s that would be a a wonderful Discovery is this Alex’s family and if so was Alexander the Great brought back to this family tomb and
Buried there that’s one of the big that’s one of the theories of yeah with this disappearing body or how many times was he buried and moved around they’re not making any claims in this to say that we found Alexander they’re they’re very much dealing with that within who has been historically associated with
This place but just shuffling the cards a little bit of we think someone is here who is there and a part of this I think is interesting of how are we using those new tools to reanalyze those historical claims and fines because this is something that’s still happening with
Dig reports all the time of redating stratigraphy and and continuing to use the new methods that we have to reassess some of the claims that have been made so I think interesting I’m sure there will be some rebuttal claims from those who disagree with the ARG so we’ll keep
You up to date there the second story for this week comes from Egypt and you may have seen some news about this having to do with the Giza Pyramids mhm there is a plan now in place that has already begun to reclad the smaller of the three so the Pyramid of of menur
It’s the smallest of the three pyramids in the Giza complex with its Granite blocks now originally they believe it had 16 levels of granite blocks along the bottom of the Pyramid of which currently approximately seven layers survive depending on the area the plan is to take the granite blocks from around the
Pyramid and put them back onto the pyramid Mustafa wazari of Egypt’s Supreme Antiquities council is calling this the project of the century um they’re interested in returning the pyramid to what they’re saying as some of its former viewing Glory of what this might have looked like but obviously
There is a little bit of uh what should we say push back on some of this plan so we’ve got a photo here of from a live stream that they had done when they announced this plan and you can see some of these Granite blocks there on the
Bottom that they’re going to put up and a little graphic of how they’re saying they’re going to do this now a problem with this is not everyone thinks these blocks necessarily come from this pyramid there are questions of did these fall off the claim here is that these
Fell off over time naturally with earthquakes but others say these could come from many different projects these could have been moved here at a later date these could have been unrelated to this pyramid totally and we might be trying to force these things back on so it’ll be interesting to see how this
Goes about going forward but continued developments here as the days go on will be reported to you ongoing keep up with us for future updates but but Bob you have some experience with reconstructions we could call them digital reconstructions right thoughts here with physical literal reconstructions right so some people
Know that I I did my a back in 2007 on Virtual reconstructions of archaeological sites and trying to introduce this and demonstrating that this uh technology virtual reality can not only be used to show off you know what sites look like for teaching purposes but can potentially be used in
Research for testing different theories basically uh if there are different uh theoretical reconstructions of a contestant site you can use different virtual reality reconstructions to basically say okay here’s what would look like according to this Theory here’s what would look like according to this Theory and then of course in that
Discussion there is a a a subset of of discussions about how should one represent theoretical reconstructions right so in this argument some people say well uh in a virtual reconstruction you should make anything that we’re sure about solid you know make it look like it really looks or how it would have looked
Based on the the textures that we have in the stones and the materials that we have and then anything that’s conjectured anything that’s a theory theoretical reconstru that should be transparent so you should be at 50% transparency or that should be lime green something to Market off yeah
Something that you know in Israel when you go to Israel you look at these archaeological sites there’s the black line anybody watching who’s been uh on a tour of an archaeological site or worked on an excavation will go to a site that has now become a a tourist
Site where you can go and look around and you’ll see that the wall has been built up to a particular point and then there’s that black line and that black line indicates everything above that black line was put back in place the theory is that we think based upon the
Way those stones fell probably to the foot of that area those stones probably belong to that wall look like the stones they’re they were discovered right next to it but to truth be told and that’s what the archaeologist trying to be responsible everything above this black line was
Reconstructed but if you don’t know that it just looks like oh look at this big old wall but everything above that line was put back there so how do you represent essentially that black line in virtual reality and one of the arguments that I made is that we’re still thinking
In an analog way you know when you’re when you’re doing virtual reconstruction one thing that we know for sure is that ancient pyramid or that ancient wall or whatever wasn’t lime green or it wasn’t transparent so using virtual reality or what we have now with augmented reality we can actually demonstrate what one
Scholar thinks it would have looked like and then click a Switch and Go to what another theory and at any time we can click another switch and look at the skeleton look at the wireframe of what actually sits under there and what’s construction so we can turn on
Reconstruction on top of wireframe or we can turn on wireframe on top of reconstruction it doesn’t have to be this this old method of you know black line and and green so I say all that and I argued that in my dissertation that was part of the argument for how to
Represent uh remains in Virtual Reality by actually representing them as they would have looked and yet using a different method in in in time you know in in using the the virtu the technologies that are available to us using virtual reality instead of having to do it in a
In a two-dimensional way in an analog way of okay we’re only going to do wireframe or we’re only going to make it lime green I say all that so I can say this it cost a lot of money to do physical reconstructions on an archaological site
Whether it’s a little site in Israel a wall or a palace or whatever or huge a pyram pyramid so and there’s an argument to be made that people have been a become accustomed to the way that the pyramids look that this has become a part of the experiences
These are the the ancient pyramids to go back now and try to reconstruct them would not only take a lot of time and a ton of money and who knows maybe they just want to raise a ton of money so that they can do this and it’s a you
Know it’s a big project but that takes a lot of time and a lot of money and it alterers the way it looks permanently they’re going to redo the bottom half of this whereas you could go to this brand new Museum that they’re building they’re the gym the grand Egyptian Museum and you
Could out of out a window looking out at the pyramids right you can put next to it a virtual or an augmented reality screen and give people some goggles or have people look at the screen and you can Dem demonstrate what that reconstruction would have looked like
You’re looking at the pyramid now you’re looking at what it would have looked like and that will cost you a lot less physical labor you can do it much quicker there are there are graduate students and paid professionals out there who can do this now uh because you
Know we were doing it we were working it out even before 2007 when I was when I was doing this and you can have this experience without actually going out and messing with the actual ual remains so if the state of Egypt wants to do this I mean they’re they’re going to do
It right they’re going to raise the money and they’re going to they are actively doing it yes yes yeah and they’re going to physically alter permanently the Reconstruction or or you can within this Grand Museum that they’ve got use ver augmented reality could you imagine how many tickets you
Could sell you know a value ad tickets mhm come here and at the Pyramids by the way put these goggles on and in vment reality just click through and you can see what we think they would have looked like you know yeah it it’s definitely it’s definitely got some attention
Immediately not just from archaeologists but from the public in general so we’ll keep you up to date on how this proceeds going forward let’s jump first into a question from the live chat and then let’s go to a pres submitted question uh the first one we have here is
Regarding the destruction of Solomon’s Temple why why is that date 586 why is the scholarly consensus here that Solomon’s Temple was destroyed in 586 when that date can be connected to some on Providence tablets is the question yeah so first of all the date if if you ever
Look at the date of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem you’ll often see it written at 587 586 BC and this is because a couple of different prominent Scholars have argued based on tying this date to uh biblical Kings and uh zedekiah and some of the
The folks that were there at the time of the of the multiple remember there’s multiple Exiles but of this Exile um when their Reigns took place and some of them put them at 587 and some of them put at 586 so you’ll often see it written 5875 586 I get asked that in
Class all the time I I read 587 I said 586 and I was like well I won’t put both of them on the exam right it’s so it’s about this time but the question then becomes how do we know it’s that and you get this question from two sets of folks
One why should we rely on the Bible’s chronology when the Bible’s chronology can be at times problematic in other places and a lot of people tie this to a um to a Chronicle a Babylonian Chronicle um the was it the it’s not the stale of ab natis it’s the the it’s a
Clay tablet that talks about this particular Siege and the question is it’s unprovenanced yeah so Bob you are a huge uh advocate of not relying on unprovided objects again these ones that were discovered before 73 when making the they were still forgeries way back then
To be sure but you know how why should we rely on a for a potentially forged or at least an unproven document for this date and the answer would be because the date 587 586 not only aligns with this document which ha this this Chronicle this tablet that happens to be unproven
Okay so we can’t necessarily rely on that but it also relies on the Babylonian timeline of Kings from when the Neo Babylonians uh rebelled against the Neo Assyrians and took over there and the Reigns of um is it NAB neopar was it was it uh no Nebuchadnezzar II’s father I have to
Forgot his name real quick yeah nabopolassar uh and his son Nebuchadnezzar and then all the way down to nabonidus right so that Reign according to the Babylonian timeline and the Assyrian timeline and the Persian timeline happens to align with what we have in the biblical Quran up into that 587
586 so we’re using two separate one outside of the Bible one inside of the Bible now did some guy come along and Forge a document that happens to fit that we don’t know it’s un Providence but that seems to be a pretty good date there there is a religious group that
Does not accept 587 uh 586 as the date of the destruction of the temple but I would argue that that group does so for apologetic reasons because they’re trying to argue something else about the destruction of the temple but 587 586 is pretty pretty uh agreed upon date by Scholars
For the destruction of the temple and it’s not just because it’s relying on an unproven tablet it’s kind of a cross referencing date that we’re we’re reaching across a couple pools here the the safest way to go about things yeah it it it when you look at what the
Persians say about the Persian Chronicles about come you know rebelling and and taking over the Babylonians and what the Babylonians say about taking over the Assyrians the the biblical chronology fits pretty tight in there plus you’ve got this this these other Chronicles It’s seems to be a pretty
Safe date now you can also look at the archaeological destructions at other sites around let’s say Jerusalem or right right uh these other sites there was a campaign that came in we we read about this in the Bible this you know this rebellion and this those other archaeological sites
Seem to line up in a relative uh dating to this destruction in Jerusalem it seems to those all line up pretty well as well so 587 586 again that’s that’s the the there’s a very small margin of people who argue between that that short date um that’s a
Pretty reliable date I think that’s that’s a helpful starting answer here we’ve got a Super Chat question from Joseph aroyo Joseph thank you this is a two-part question Bob so I’ll give you part one here and then part two the first is thoughts on the documentary
Hypothesis now I’m going to have to make sure I tap the breaks on you so you don’t don’t go too long here but a couple minutes what what is first can you give us a definition what is the documentary hypothesis and then kind of thoughts on the modern state of or
Feeling about the documentary hypothesis sure um let’s start at the very top the documentary hypothesis is RIT large the idea that the not only the Torah not only the the first five books of the Bible but beyond that the the the biblical text but it’s particularly the
The pentat or sometimes we talk about the hexat had multiple authors or let’s put it this way that Moses wasn’t the sole author of the Torah okay and the Torah being Genesis Exodus Numbers Deuteronomy perfect thank you and please please if I say I I try to be very good
About defining terms that I use you know when I explain it but if if I forget to do that please jump in um when I was growing up and even when I went down to Pepperdine to start my you know the Seminary training my MD when I first learned this I had a
Problem with it and I and I I see here that Joseph says he’s currently part of the Church of Christ for those who don’t know I was raised in this tradition uh I had a problem with this because the you know the Books of Moses there’s these Traditions that Moses
Wrote it right but the more that you study this the more you know a Moses doesn’t write his own death and B why are the Ten Commandments given three times why are there two creation accounts and why doesn’t Genesis 1 match up with Genesis 2 and why are there
Basically two flood accounts in Genesis 6-9 that are kind of zipped together and why does Isaiah 36-39 match with uh 2 Kings 18-20 now that’s later on but you know they there’s some internal struggles in the text that’s attributed to the single author both within the penet and the
Heuk yeah you know who conquered Jerusalem right is was it was it David or was it the Israelites when they came in and yes we did no we didn’t yes we did we’ve done a separate video uh on Bible and archaeology about this um so people began to ask this
Question it’s been around for thousands of years and uh so the the documentary hypothesis was established as this ver is this idea that there was this uh yahwist text you know using the Divine name of of the deity because these text used the divine name to describe God and
Then there was this e text this elohist text because they only used the name Elohim to describe God and then there was this uh Priestly text this P text and it was only concerned with things that deal with priest and then of course there was Deuteronomy which became the
Deuteronomist text now oftenly referred to like you’ll hear it JP if you’re doing some reading you’ll hear those abbreviated like that yeah and that was the dominant uh that was the dominant Theory uh I want to say it was hous back back in the day this isn’t this isn’t my
Uh this isn’t what I study the most um the guy who’s written a book on this recently is Joel bayen it’s a great book WR wrote a book about this um he seems to be the one who’s who you know has focused on this a lot he he does a lot
On whatever the heck they’re calling Twitter these days but he he talks about these issues a lot and that’s the book that I would refer you to today about these issues by by the way the arguments changed right was there an e text is it
A is it a j text but what I would say just writ large to to answer this question quickly um the documentary hypothesis however it were it’s it’s a real thing that is Moses didn’t write these books the Torah that we have today was written by multiple hands uh then it
Was redacted even later there’s probably a couple of redactions and then after it was kind of fixed it continued to be edited well into probably the first century probably even CE but and I talk about that in my melkisedek book a little bit but one of the things I had to learn to
Do when I was at Seminary is to accept that the documentary hypothesis was and again you can we can quibble about what text belong to what and you know are these different combinations of text but there were multiple strands multiple authors that were were collected and then merged together into the text and
That Moses didn’t necessarily write these and as you become a more skilled scholar a more skilled student of the text you become comfortable with this and once you become comfortable with just accepting that Moses didn’t write the Torah um things begin to make more sense you have less difficulty
Accepting the Bible as a document that records some history it makes a lot of theological claims and it’s up to you whether or not you want to accept those but it actually records a lot of history some of it archaeology you know uh disputes rebut you know there there’s
But some of it seems to be pretty reliable but if you accept if you don’t accept the documentary hypothesis you you are I think forced to attempt to accept a lot of a lot of or or reject a lot of things that science has demonstrated and U so I would say I
Encourage you go read uh Bay’s book yeah it’s called the composition of the petuk reviewing the documentary hypothesis it’s a yeah I would definitely say if you’re if you’re interested in a starting point he does a good job of introducing the topics and then also giving a couple examples of stories
Associated with these and how can you see these coming together so if you’re looking for a good starting point with this I definitely recommend it too right it’s not on my shelf here it’s on my shelf in my other office but um and but but don’t don’t be afraid even if you’re
A confessional person if you’re a person of Faith don’t fear uh accepting the documentary hypothesis just understand that the Hebrew Bible was written over a period of time from different viewpoints and that the Jewish tradition valued that and preserved that and that that was a good thing jumping off of the back
Of that valuing preserving and asking some questions part two of Joseph’s question is is there any evidence of The Exodus so an archaeological Focus here maybe if we limit ourselves to yeah we’ve we talk text let’s talk archaeology on this one right do we have archaeological evidence for the Exodus
Well this is the greatest hits of things that you can yell at Bob about huh I got asked this one once at a uh Retreat for people who were very interested in biblical archaeology and I said we have lots of evidence for the context of The Exodus we don’t really have evidence for
The Exodus itself now uh a a wagon wheel a chariot wheel at the bottom of a body of water isn’t evidence of an exodus right that’s evidence that there was a lot of uh Maritime trade on bodies of water which we know there were um some people will say well a
Nomadic people going across a desert won’t leave a lot of it that’s fair um but you’re arguing again from a negative right you’re you’re saying well we don’t have any evidence but we shouldn’t expect it so we have nothing but but that should confirm that we had a
Nomadic group because we have nothing correct absence of evidences and evidence of absence etc etc the the fact that we have little or to or no evidence of an exodus isn’t where I like to argue this from I I like to point out we don’t have that what I
Like to point out is within the Hebrew Bible we’ve got conflicting dates for when this Exodus would have happened based upon um the dates that we have you know coming out uh of you know they they call these cities rames and Pitto and and they versus when they say the
Establishment of the temple was and when they’re describing that going back you this is why among confessional people who believe there was an exodus you have the early Exodus people and the late Exodus people I think I’ve talked about this in a previous video if I have I’ll
Put the link in the description below if not we need to make that video discussed it in class after this is a on it every every semester yeah this is going to be aive in and of itself in the future as well is is the question of archology and
Evidence this our our short answer here is no no nobody yeah I would say there’s no evidence of it most Scholars most critical Scholars will reject this despite the claims of some people to have found the route of the Exodus you know and no um the the accepted evidence
I would argue now is that the people who call themsel the Israelites today or you know in in the Bible the people who call themselves the Israelites in the Bible that makes me very old today the people who come to be known as the Israelites in the Bible were Canaanites they were
Always there right so when you have this list of Canaanites when you have the mpta steel right it talks about you know manpa is going up and bragging about all these people he whooped around and he he knocked out the gate the walled peoples right gazer and and these these people
And these people who were kind of just kind of out in the countryside he talks about defeating Israel and puts him as a people marker not as a not as a a landed people or a city marker so we know that Israel was there in the 13th the 13th century BC
Because MP is bragging about you know wiping out Israel it seat is no more or something he’s bragging about them Emperors tend to dictators tend to brag about things that they’ve done whether they’ve done them or not um so we we’ve got that evidence of these Israelites being these Canaanite people now people
Will say well yeah but that was the period of the judges and that was after they conquered the land we can go back all the way back to Kathleen kenyon’s uh research at Jericho when you know the walls were destroyed but they were destroyed a couple hundred years before
Any Israelites would have come in there they probably saw the destroyed walls and they made that part of their Foundation myth um to other sites um that were claimed to have been uh destroyed we don’t really see the pottery break uh we have evidence that they would have
Flowed into cities and out of cities into the land but that the people that became the Israelites were always there they were Canaanites there were one of these groups from the Phoenicians to all of these other Canaanite groups that were always there in the land that was
Their land and that the story of them going down to Egypt and then coming out to Egypt is part of the foundation myth and we have these right we have these for the Romans right uh ramulus and Remis by the way ramulus and Remis placed in a basket placed in a river uh
We have Foundation myths for the Assyrian people right what happens to uh is it Sargon what happens to Sargon he’s placed in a basket and placed in a river and you know that’s how he’s protected as so it’s just extremely normal thing babies happens every day for a young
Ruler who’s going to become the founder of a great people yes to be placed in a basket in a river and float it down so it appears that The Exodus story uh is part of a now it’s a wonderful story and it’s it’s a it’s a it’s the underlying
Story behind Passover and it’s it’s a beautiful tradition and and I I love this story and I love to tell the story and it’s it’s so powerful but it appears to be part of a of a of a foundation myth the other thing is when we look archaeologically it looks like Judah in
The South and Egypt were allies I mean we have this in in Hezekiah when the r Shaka comes in and says what are you going to rely on that broken Reed you’re going to rely on Egypt again look at all of the scarabs look at all of the archaeological evidence going way back
Judah and Egypt were allies they they weren’t you know sworn enemies um they were allies for most of their early existence and uh you have this Proto Proto cytic Tech you know it’s there was there’s connection there’s lot’s a lot of more congruency that you have with
Egypt than you have we have in the Exodus and so that’s the long way of saying no uh The Exodus is likely a foundation myth uh people don’t like it when I use that let’s call it a foundation story um but the archaeological evidence says that the people who became the
Israelites who were the the ancestors of the people who became the the Judah ites who became the Jews uh were always there that’s their indigenous Homeland a pres submitted question here coming from a supporter so thank you again patreon is there should you so wish to join up you can send
Questions in in advance that we’ll get to in lives does the Bible say anything about dinosaurs and if so are there any examples of dinosaurs in the Bible um I would have to say no the there are people who like to point at Leviathan yeah and bimo right
Um who you know is is possible could that be a an alligator and a hippo and are those you know ancestors to dinos um we have a mention of a unicorn right in the King James so why can’t there be D dinosaurs well and fun this is why Scotland fun sidebar why Scotland’s
Symbol is the Unicorn because the lion can’t slay it so the English Lion can’t slay the Unicorn you’re you’re your King James sidebar for the day but back to dinosaurs is is that a true story yeah yeah really I yeah so there’s there are these great tapestries about like the
Capturing of the unicorn and unicorn becomes it’s a part of right this this scottage Scottish imagery um but because it in the King James version there’s the unicorn and it can’t be slayed by the lion and England’s symbol right is that lion so it’s one of those Scottish we’re
Going to get one up on you here um but King James has a influenced many things so unsurprised yeah yeah no it has uh yeah no with the dinosaurs look there’s a lot of people today who don’t accept them and then there’s another group of people who put people writing on the
Back of them because they have to do this Six-Day creation 6,000 year the Earth has been around for a very very very very long time uh this is what the scientific scientific evidence tells us um there are dinosaurs there were dinosaurs but the bible really doesn’t
Speak to that because it it it really can’t um so just because the Bible doesn’t speak to to something doesn’t mean it didn’t exist uh and I say this right after talking about the Exodus right but but just because it doesn’t speak to something doesn’t mean it
Doesn’t exist and just because it does talk about something doesn’t mean that it did uh but we really don’t have any um evidence for the dam can I ask a leviathan and the Behemoth reference might be talking about deities yeah might be talking about uh mythological
Beasts like we you know with the cherubs that we we always read about cherubs in the Bible and it might be talking about actual animals like a hippo or an alligator or something that they can’t explain so they so they mention them can I ask a follow-up question here that usually
Gets connected with this idea of dinosaurs in the Bible sure having to do with the flood right a common argument of why why what’s going on why do the dinosaurs get wiped out the flood but also this idea of are there then dinosaurs if there have to be dinosaurs
Are there dinosaurs on the ark or not are these these creatures on the earth can you can you speak a little bit here to the this is connecting to our documentary hypothesis question with the kinds and two and seven how does that idea get connected with the flood
Here uh I want to recommend a video of a friend of mine uh who goes by the name of non- stamp collector and we won’t go into why his name is non- stamp collector but he does a great two-part video on the flood you can go on YouTube
Right now non stamp collector all one word and he does a he does a classic video treatment of the problems with the flood and he does it from a comical standpoint but it’s a it’s a it’s a he always makes fun of his own animation I
Love his animation uh but he talks about not only the problems of bringing all of these animals in how how on Earth would Noah get you know and they’ve changed all the names since I learned him growing up but a brontosaurus you know a T-Rex but then also how do you feed
These things remember you’re supposed to take enough food for these animals for the 90 days what however long it was no no it it no you you don’t and okay but he he gave them a soothing and put them to sleep and you know some of these things eat the other animals and
There’s only two and you know how do you and is a dinosaur clean or unclean animal I can’t remember I mean it’s gonna I would think it’s connected with the lizards and the reptiles so it’s going to be coming in as unclean and yeah I I so lots of there’s more
Problems dinos on the ark no dinos not that kind question is usually how this goes right like according to their kind so maybe a dinosaur sneaks on there it’s a baby and it’s a different thing but we can we can come back to that topic on
This whole thing that you know they it was only the the the ER kind you know the the primordial kind because Evolution didn’t take place before the flood but once you bring the kind you know the be kind and then once they get off then Evolution can takes can take
Place after they get off the boat and you get all the different kinds of bears from that principle no Evolution takes place or it doesn’t take place it doesn’t start taking taking place you know in in the few thousand years since the flood I mean it no there’s a lot of
I call this mental gymnastics right there’s a lot of people who do these mental back flips to try to make this possible scientifically it’s not it’s a story it’s a story like Gilgamesh it’s a story like these these their flood traditions and no it doesn’t it doesn’t match these are these are classic
Beautiful literature stories that have been compiled because that was the best knowledge that they had at the time they collected these stories they didn’t know they they were about the times before they lived so they put them at the beginning of their book The Creation stories go at the beginning the they
Have this flood story they put that there how did we get all the how do we speak all these different languages okay let’s tell the story about that why is there a rainbow in the sky okay let’s tell a story about that why are there these big tall salt pillars on the Dead
Sea let’s tell a story about that these are called ideological stories uh uh explanations for otherwise naturally occurring phenomena um phenomena so that’s what a lot of these early stories are uh and they’re beautiful they’re wonderful stories and you know and within these stories the Israelites the
The the the the Jewish peoples the Hebrew tradition couched in them morals ethics uh things that would tell their people about who they were where they came from what they believed and that’s why we tell stories right I I have five kids and I tell these guys uh instead of just
Telling them stop doing that I I will sometimes craft a story let me tell you a story and I’ll craft the story in such a way so that they want to be like the kid who does the right thing oh I I guess I better choose this that’s a way
That we’ve done this since they’ve been humans right Jesus told Parables do you think those Parables really happened do you think Jesus was a Peeping Tom looking in the window of a woman who lost one of her 10 coins and no he he made that story up but he made the story
Up to we tell stories we make stories up but it’s in order to convey some kind of tradition some kind of Ethics some kind of morals that’s what these are got a question from the live here and I’m going to I’m going to limit you on this one could you give me
Three they’re looking for introductory in introductory books to biblical archaeology could you give a top three for somebody looking to get their feet wet here where would you say is a good place to start yeah and and let me I see here I got a a shout out
From Joseph so Joseph Ro Royo you bet thank you also shout out to Tammy uh for joining patreon thank you very much Tammy has been a longtime fan so shout out to Tammy uh for joining up the book that I recommend the book that I’ve assigned in class before for people who
Come and say hey where do I start with Biblical Archaeology is my colleague Eric Klein’s a very short intro to biblical archaeology it’s a it’s a short I think it’s an Oxford little Oxford these these short introductions go grab that go grab Eric Klein Eric Klein’s
Been doing this um since way before I was born I won’t make him that old but Eric kle has been doing this for a long time he knows how to write for the public and so if you pick up this book and I I got to look on Amazon here to
See how much this is I don’t think it it’s a it’s a big um it’s a big I don’t think it’s an expensive book I think it’s under 20 bucks and you can pick this up and he will walk you through kind of the history and the basic principles of biblical
Archaeology that would be one that I’d start with there is a uh zandan makes a uh Handbook of biblical archaeology it’s it’s a little older and one of the issues with these is um it oftentimes brings into uh its discussion theories that not all critical Scholars accept but there
Is the zandan handbook of biblical archaeology um jod Magnus has a book that came out I’m trying to think I’m I’m looking forward here in the top I I’ve assigned it as a textbook in my class before um and I’m trying to let me just type in her name
Here trying of get I want to get the exact name uh the archaeology of the holy land from destruction of Solomon’s Temple to the Muslim Conquest this is this a thick uh book uh but it’s called the archaeology the Holy Land from the destruction of the Solomon now this is not necessarily
An introduction it’s a very thorough reading but I would cover yeah it’s gonna get everything and uh I always like to assign I always like to at least recommend uh cities of the Bible this now this it’s a little different approach y but it’s it’s about how we
Got the Bible that we have today by just looking at some of the main cities uh that uh that are in the region and some of the archaeology that comes out of that so if you’re interested in how the Bible came to be I would recommend that book or Bill schins how
The Bible became a book bill schin is a a very good scholar out of UCLA uh and he wrote a book called How the Bible became a book so I would recommend those but start with Eric Klein’s very short introduction and I’ll tag one more onto our our list of three
Here a great book edited by Cynthia Schaefer Elliott the 5minute archaeologist this is it’s not so much you know every site but if you’re looking for questions about why archaeologists do what they do how they do what they do it’s a series of short pieces meant to be read in five minutes
Um from all kinds of different Scholars so that’s a great if you have questions about what do archaeologist do and why the five minute archaeologist is definitely a good pickup as well and I know I’m going to get a flood of emails from my colleagues who are going to say
Hey what what what about my book so we need to put together a list archaeology website where we have here’s our recommended books for introduction to the Bible and archa to biblical archaeology uh so you and I need to work on that afterwards but that would be a
Good resource that we can put either on YouTube or on the website but uh thanks for the question yeah it’s it’s a but you know good vetted list of hear the books that have responsible Scholars talking about Good archaeology by the way anything by ODed lipshits uh again a bit more technical
But very thorough uh AR archaeology anything by uh Professor lipshitz uh and yval gdau is writing a lot of and doing a lot of this archaeology uh coming out of there lots of sites so anything by them uh I would absolutely recommend another pres submitted question here similar to dinosaurs but not quite
Another another is there evidence is there evidence for are there examples of aliens in Ezekiel or other books of the Bible this person’s been told that there are examples of aliens in Ezekiel where does this come from they’re not totally sure what this is going on so could you
Get some they’re looking for some background here some insight sure and I apparently I’m the guy to ask about aliens right yeah I hear I hear that you’re the guy to ask about aliens so we’ll we’ll tell the story of how I ended up on Ancient Aliens some
Other time but yeah um so I as the debunker on Ancient Aliens as the guy who went on that show to say uh-uh it’s not aliens I’m also the first one to concede a there might be life out there and it’s most likely doing the same things we are
It’s it’s at a place where they can’t possibly get to us and they’re going I wonder if there’s anybody else out there a and b what I’ve done on that show before is say I can understand how people in Antiquity and how people today uh could believe in people from
Outer space or let’s say other worldly beings a people today believe in otherw worldly beings not just aliens but in deities right people today believe that there are beings or entities that are not human that exist that control or have an impact on the world call them
Demons Spirits Gods uh whatever you want to call them mhm so the belief in those things makes it very difficult to to debunk or disprove the belief in Aliens because the same arguments that are used to debunk aliens are often used to debunk or disprove deities and and
Angels and things like that it’s the same it’s it’s basically the same line of argumentation so this is why a lot of confessional people who don’t necessarily believe in aliens don’t make it a point to go out and argue against aliens because they believe in the gods
Or the or or a God and angels and things like that so that’s that’s why this alien thing persists among people of faith that said you can understand how somebody reading a text in Ezekiel today about uh um America V right or some kind kind of uh being the the scene of vision
Especially Ezekiel where you’ve got these apocalyptic Visions um how you could see you could imagine uh Genesis 6 1-4 these these Nephilim right how you could imagine uh that a being that is not human that the Bible says is a Son of God so it’s not human it’s a it’s a it’s
A deity it’s a deity that exists other than God right it’s it’s it’s a Son of God so it’s not human but it’s exists separate from God that God created it if it were a Greek tradition we would just call it a God right because they’re multiple gods but since it’s a
Monotheist tradition we call it something else and that in the text it says that they came down and had sex with human women and created these Giants that started to to scri up the Earth talking about the Nephilim here in Genesis these are the Nephilim and the
Giants and these these you know these fallen angels and that we have an entire enochic tradition these a tradition about these Giants you havean right right the Watchers the eim right you have all these guys that you could see how a group back then and how a group
Today would look at that and say oh that wasn’t their belief in angels those were aliens right that that they saw something right because you you accept that they saw something and were accurately reporting about it and it must have been real but you reject that it was a Son of God right
Maybe because you only believe there’s one son of God Jesus right so it must have been something else so it must have been an alien and they just misrepresented it so I can understand how people can get there I just don’t think that that it’s aliens I don’t
Think that I I I think that these are Traditions traditions of giants tra just like the flood tradition that God incorporated in in the Bible I think that Ezekiel had visions and just because he had a vision doesn’t necessarily mean that the thing that he
Saw was real I have dreams right but I wake up and I don’t think oh this is a real thing I okay I had a dream right and that’s a dream doesn’t make it real but if I write the dream down maybe someone will one day think oh he saw a
Real thing with eyes in its armpits and look in every direction and four faces right and and it’s you know it’s got wings and cut little green creatures on UFOs isil is not describing but some kind of nonhuman life form and let me and let me State once again for the
Record since I’ve stated this before I have a big problem with the belief that um and let me just come out and say it that um essentially everything that all these structures that were built in countries that the skin color of the of the peoples are a little bit darker you know
Pyramids Mau picu you know all the the nascal lines all this Stu that those had to be produced by aliens but a lot of the things that have been produced by by cultures that have lighter colored skin well that was produced by by the humans that’s you
Know that’s the you can see how and I don’t want to use the word racism but you can see how fair this okay the that creeps into this that oh that can’t possibly uh have been done by by the people they were they were primitive peoples they they didn’t know how to do
So but the counterargument to the racist argument and I get it I I have a problem that because I don’t believe that aliens made any of this stuff but the counterargument is that that was in every cultures literature right from from you know how did humans learn the
Ability to uh to smelt Metals right to uh learn how to make fire makeup and and St well in the Hebrew tradition in Enoch right they learned that from these deities that fell out of the sky so even in the Hebrew tradition you have these texts that saying oh no we didn’t get
That from learning and through Evolution and and cultural you know adaptation of prior knowledge we got it from the gods right we learned how to make fire because they weren’t supposed to divulge that you have that in every tradition that the knowledge was coming from above and it was Forbidden Knowledge and we
Weren’t supposed to know that so we can we on the one hand we we see these things we’re like yeah let’s not attribute it to aliens because that doesn’t give credit to humanity Humanity that should receive Credit in every culture around the world for the things that they did in their history their
Cultural heritage let’s not deny that but let’s also acknowledge that each of these cultures has stories that looked to the heavens and said yeah we got this we got this from up there but it wasn’t aliens it was just their their their part of their cultural heritage that
They got this from the gods and this this argument has recently taken well not new I mean Graham Hancock has been doing this for a while but gotten some new legs and gr Hancock’s Netflix series with this like er human idea that travels around so this this unfortunately this claim isn’t really
Going anywhere anytime soon uh but yeah there’s problems there’s problems abounding here yeah the same argument that’s used to deny the aliens that same line of reasoning is used to deny deities and a lot of people have are uncomfortable arguing against God so they just let the aliens once
Slip I just want to warn people that it looks very bad when you try to argue that aliens produce the pyramids in the nas skines but you know here in America or in Europe with the exception of of um Stonehenge right that that’s clearly a that was aliens right but no but you
Know that that the the European stuff that was product of hard hard work but all of these other things with the product of aliens be careful when you argue that because it’s not a good look speaking in I guess a question here to end us off dealing still with that
Heavenly realm coming from the chat what is your take on why there would be allowed a zodiac sign in a Jewish synagogue um in Israel so this is it what is it it’s uh they’re asking about hamat dearia so that that synagogue with with the full zodiac it’s a great place
To visit if if you have the chance there’s a good little animation that goes through and kind of shows some of these different things but why is there zodiac symbols why is there a full zodiac inside the synagogue allowed not allowed why you actually have this in a
Lot of synagog dogs at the time uh and I mean the simplest answer would be it is a product of it demonstrates the extent of heniz of Judaism at the time now did uh the the Jewish tradition did archaeology were they already looking to the stars were they already
Incorporating um an understanding of I mean maybe they got it from the Babylonians who knows but they already understood the divisions of times right they’re writing jubilees and they’re they’re they’re already working out this division of time but by the time that they’ve got this hellenized um Judaism what we call
Heniz this is fully Incorporated whether it’s the the what’s it the Mona Lisa of sephus right this beautiful panel uh Mosaic that actually shows the drinking contest between uh Heracles and bakus the strongest guy the biggest frat guy on versus the the god of wine uh and I like the last panel
Where it just shows Heracles throwing up and it just says meth right drunk right or you know uh whether it’s a zodiac in a synagogue and it’s got the the all of the different uh the what are they called the the constellations symbols yeah all the constellations are
Represented yeah it’s got all the constellations and then it’s got Helios in the middle right pulling the Chariot pulling the sun across the center in one of these and it’s in the in the center of the synagogue and it the its presence there people say well this is paganism run a muck you
Know and it shows how liberal no it I think it just demonstrates how accepted how how just normal just like today right I see a I see a horoscope in the paper and I don’t throw the paper and cancel my this this is just a thing that
Goes on and it was just an accepted part of it it was just a decoration it was something that was just accepted part of helenistic Judaism um I don’t think they necessarily worshiped it I don’t I don’t I don’t think I’m sure that there are some people who who argue this there are
Some people that that uh that study kumran that think that there was some sun worship Sun activity going on there but I I just think that this is one of those things in helenistic Judaism that just became a normalized uh part of the culture is is there are are divisions
Among the year and these divisions are represented by these constellations you can see them it doesn’t mean that they’re deities it doesn’t mean that they’re worshiping them but this is this is how it’s represented in our larger culture so this is how we represent it here by the way we’re still going to
Read that Torah up at the front of the at the front of the synagogue that’s what we’re here to worship but these are our decorations I think that’s a great place to leave off our question Friday thank you everyone one for tuning in and submitting your questions this is
Something we’re looking to do each month so if you have questions in advance that you’re wanting to send in if you’re not able to join live go ahead and do that you can always leave questions in the comments from previous videos we look through those but we look forward to
Seeing you next week for another live uh a topic that’ll be announced this coming week but thank you for joining us today Bob anything you want to say to wrap us up no I I noticed that we’re both wearing Hawkeye gear gow so uh yeah go
Hawks and uh for all the rest of you thank you for joining us thank you Jordan uh for leading Us in the discussion and for all of you thank you for being a part of this and everything the best
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