"Archaeology and the Bible" Israel Finkelstein

Israel Finkelstein, Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv Universitya and co-author of "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts," describes current developments in the archaeology of ancient Israel. For more information on this Colloquium, visit iishj.org/colloquium-05.html.

[@anthonymervin4499]

I have read "The Bible Unearthed" multiple times, which, for me, was necessary to grasp the material. I appreciate your work immensely Professor.

[@DiSaValCrescerTranscender]

I am reading his book and its very clarifying and helpful for believers and not believers, but just people that love history and real facts. Thank you, Professor!

[@billielachatte4841]

I wish Mr. Israel Finkelstein good health and hope his findings be spread all over the world. From Indonesia.

[@ammaryohanan9584]

thank you from iraq Professor finkelstein for your efforts to clarify the truth

[@Joe__Smith]

Very interesting stuff - thank you for uploading! By the way, in case anyone was wondering, this colloquium was held in 2005.

[@noaheinstein2369]

Joe Smith, thanks for that. I’ve followed about 15 of these lectures and panels and they’re great. But could not figure out when or why it was given. Do you know the name of the conference or what it’s purpose is? I mean, is it a scholarly conf or for lay people or why is the audience interested in ancient Jewish history? Just trying to get the context fixed in my mind because this guy is really spot on, and plenty courageous.

[@vgrof2315]

Bravo!!! I certainly believe this man's approach to the issues more than I believe anything written more than 2000 years ago in the Middle-East or more recently written by religious nuts with healthy doses of contrivance.

[@InshushaGroupie]

Required reading for anyone who would like to engage on this subject.

[@charliesmith3777]

Dear Israel, Thank you for publishing your findings. First of all, Megiddo was destroyed for 40 years before Omri came along to build Samaria. So stones from a destroyed Megiddo were available for secondary use. That's why you have stones with identical markings at Samaria and Megiddo. Also, Shishack's invasion occurred in year 39 of Solomon during a six-year co-rulership between Solomon and Rehoboam. Shishack destroyed ALL the fortified cities of Israel to prevent Judah from warring with Israel. Why was Samaria left standing? Second, the jubilee covenant dates David from 950-910 BCE and Solomon from 910-870 BCE. Those are the BIBLICAL DATES for David and Solomon based on 1947 beginning the 70th and final jubilee of the covenant of 70 jubilees from 1435 BCE to 1996 AD. Per the Bible, the Exodus occurred in 1386 BCE at the beginning of the reign of Akhenaten who became a monotheist after the ten plagues. This means the fall of Jericho happened in 1346 BCE. Here is a quote from Kathleen Kenyon regarding the fall of Jericho by the Israelites: Kathleen Kenyon: Digging Up Jericho, Jericho and the Coming of the Israelites, page 262: "As concerns the date of the destruction of Jericho by the Israelites, all that can be said is that the latest Bronze Age occupation should, in my view, be dated to the third quarter of the fourteenth century B.C. This is a date which suits neither the school of scholars which would date the entry of the Israelites into Palestine to c. 1400 B.C. nor the school which prefers a date of c. 1260 B.C." So you see, Kenyon agrees with low chronology. What is wrong with your assessments is that you don't want to lower the Assyrian period for some reason. The Assyrian period is automatically lowered when you assign the correct eclipse to July 17, 709 BCE rather than June 15, 763 BCE. This lowers Shishack 54 years from 925 BCE to 871 BCE, which is also where radiocarbon dates destructive level of City IV of Rehov. But the real problem is the revisions made by the Persians which added 82 fake years to the timeline. This pushed the return from Babylon from 455 BCE back to 537 BCE. So here's what you have to deal with. Darius began building at Persepolis in his fourth year. Persepolis was completed in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. The compound of a few buildings took only six years to build. Darius only finished one building, his palace, which is two-year project. This confirms Ezra 6:14,15 that says the temple at Jerusalem was completed by Artaxerxes in the sixth year of Darius. That means Darius died in his sixth year and that Xerxes took up the name Artaxerxes. So Xerxes and Artaxerxes I were actually the same king! That means Persepolis was completed in just six years. But once the Persian timeline was expanded, Persepolis is now under construction for sixty years! If Darius really ruled for 36 years, why did he just barely finish his palace? Thirty fake years were added to the reign of Darius and 21 years added to the separate rule of Xerxes. But Xerxes and Artaxerxes were actually the same king. So you have to fix the Persian period in order to fix Iron I and Iron II. The revisions distort the dating of David and Solomon and the Exodus a half century. The return from Babylon per the Bible is 19 jubilees after the Exodus.1386 - 931= 455. So per the Bible, the return from Babylon in the 1st of Cyrus must occur in 455 BCE. Thanks, again, for strongly establishing low chronology, which completely agrees with the Bible's own internal timeline. Regards, Charlie Smith

[@lassusprophetam8209]

Better than his usual talks not so biased.

[@vgrof2315]

Professor Finkelstein is a very smart man who has obviously seriously devoted his life to his scholarship. Bravo! But, I contend that there should be no need for archeology regarding the Bible unless "God" simply doesn't exist. Any "God" worth his salt, who wants all people to believe in Him and His stories, would make things obvious and make it totally unnecessary for archeologists to spend their lives on their hands and knees digging for bits of evidence and then arguing about all of it. Doesn't that make sense?

[@annascott3542]

True, so true.

[@Doriesep6622]

@MrFF39 I think his comment makes perfect sense and I think you are afraid of hell.

[@charliesmith3777]

FIRST: Use the 709 BCE eclipse to date the entire timeline from Assyrian Period to the Exodus rather than 763 BCE. SECOND: Recognize that Ahab died in the sixth year of Jehoram!! There was a six-year co-rulership!! This is completely confirmed by the Mesha stele. THIRD: Realize that Shishak's invasion occurs in the 39th year of Solomon in 871 BCE, the 5th of Rehoboam. The Bible and archaeology are much more in agreement than is represented by Silberman and Finkelstein.

[@falasteny1]

So the guy who did dig and searched the whole region and couldnt find a single evidence of bible stories like the kingdom of israel and judea is wrong and fictions mentioned in a non resourced book is right? this is called religious extremism!

[@clintonmorgan5627]

@@falasteny1 exactly. Smfh!!!

[@clintonmorgan5627]

@@falasteny1 I think some people have a deep seated need to “BELIEVE” they so desperately want their religious myths to be true so they become very crafty at convincing others that the lack of evidence that somewhat debunks their religious claims shouldn’t be given any credence. Religious belief is a strange phenomena!! How smart people can ignore facts, logic and reason and replace it with “faith” scary stuff. This is why I consider religions as cults. Popular cults.

[@clintonmorgan5627]

Wouldn’t it be nice if this God actually revealed himself and explained himself??? Instead of people having to spent their entire lives digging to find evidence to support religious texts??? Read anthropology!! Every single culture in human history has created exaggerated stories! And just because “some dates” line up with allege figures that are in the Bible does NOT mean the entire story is true. The movie Spider-Man was shot in NYC and it explains real people, does that mean spider man is real??? You get my point? There is a great deal of exaggerations which has been proven by archeological, anthropology, DNA, and other scientific methods etc etc.

[@annascott3542]

@@clintonmorgan5627 and oh so convenient when faith is privileged by the teachings that one’s own personal status with the religion, community, and even afterlife completely depend on it, it becomes a non-negotiable.