"Origins of Ancient Israel" - Carol Meyers

Carol Meyers, Professor of Religion at Duke University, explains the true historical beginnings of the Jewish people as they emerged from Canaanite culture. For more information on this Colloquium, visit www.iishj.org/colloquium-97.html.

[@Cristaynful]

Carol Meyers is provoking me to pursue my love in history! But I’m in the middle 40s already lol

[@markconley5730]

late, very lat 70's here. go for it and enjoy all the best, mark

[@richardsherman9963]

​@@markconley5730Only the early 70s here so you're giving me hope!

[@theobolt250]

Finally! This learned lady confirms what I suspected for quite some time, namely that the people of Israel was a almagam of different tribes and ethnic (though related) groups.

[@TheOldKid]

Instead of researching and doing work you would take one woman's opinion as truth? A seemingly bitter woman

[@philippeplouchart8156]

What a very fine exposition. This makes me think that the troubles in that part of the world are predominantly about territory and real estate, not so much about religion(s).

[@LordJagd]

This seems to be especially the case. Especially for ancient people, resources seemed to be much more “do or die” compared to religious matters.

[@KingofPeriodicTable]

OT is all about land and people.

[@DevorahC]

Desire for regaining caliphate power and status. The land is secondary

[@joestar6194]

I love it when people embrace their real humanity instead of false religions.

[@hatemelsele7015]

I'm afraid you don't show respect to someone of your brothers and sisters in humanity but have faith in their religion.

[@raydawson2767]

Excellent speech by carol, may I also add that recently an Canadian Jewish historian and archaeologist,discovered a text in valley of the kings that stated that the hyksos people were expelled from egypt around 150 years prior to what the bible claims as exodus,this also aligns with the eruptions of the volcano on the Greek island of santorini which accounts for the biblical claims of plagues and famine and disasters that Moses would reign down on egypt,and the parting of the Red Sea,this was due to tectonic plate movement,also there was also an Egyptian pharaoh ahmose of the 18th dynasty,whom Moses was supposed to be named after,which you could conclude that’s were the bible has acquired this information from but the writers of the bible and Torah have exaggerated and twisted that fact to fit their own agenda,the Egyptians didn’t differentiate between Israelis and Hyksos.

[@fluxcapacitor8861]

This is consistent with what Ralph Ellis talks about.

[@redveinborneo4673]

one problem ...the Hyksos RULED Egypt. They weren't slaves. They were conquerors. And the oldest known mention of Israel was from an Egyptian source...and they don't call them Hyksos. It would be strange to forget the name of the people that ruled the land for quite a long time. As for the rest of what you're putting together, these things happened centuries apart from each other (even by your own admission) nd I'm not going to even try to explain how a volcano eruption can't cause the firstborn sons of an entire nation die 2-3 centuries later - or even on the same night had it happened at the right time.

[@SPQR748]

The historian Josephus Flavius said that the Isrealites were the Hyksos. That could mean that some Hebrew patriarchy were Hyksos Pharaohs. This would explain why there’s little or no evidence of the grandeur and splendor of the rule of David and Solomon as is described in the Bible. Instead of looking in Isreal for evidence of their reigns, maybe they should be looking in Lower Egypt 🇪🇬

[@deonspence7036]

Nothing has been found in Egypt as of yet of a Hebrew on the Throne of Egyptian dynasties

[@manowar2816]

Amen

[@donnab.333]

@@deonspence7036 Not of a Hebrew, but a Shemite Pharaoh was the one on the throne when Joseph appeared (per teachings of Yale University Old Testament course)

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

@@donnab.333 actually it wasn't a shemite pharaoh but the famous Cushite pharaohs of thr 25 dynasty ancient Egyptian, who came from thr kingdom of kush, like King Kashta who freed the israelites who were in chains and bandage, as servants and prisoners, for centuries in Egypt

[@dewittcoppin9460]

@@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505 wont that be incorrect as per the time historically?

[@morehyeshiahtorahlessons5545]

will watch

[@nuggetoftruth-ericking7489]

This was very interesting. Thanks

[@zedwms]

Is there a transcript or outline available, of Ms Meyers' presentation?

[@Mrch33ky]

Great content. Subscribed.

[@mjb14722]

Fascinating.

[@legalvampire8136]

I find this very interesting and wish to know more. Can anyone recommend any books accessible to a reader who has not studied this academically?

[@randytaylor5986]

Have you ever watched the videos by Dr. Richard Carrier on youtube? You might find those interesting.

[@andybeans5790]

John J Collins

[@charlesandrews2360]

Christine Hayes Yale course on The Old Testament is awesome. I've watched the entire series 3 times on you tube.

[@fluxcapacitor8861]

Check out what Ralph Ellis has to say about the early Israelites. Through his studies and research, he has been lead to believe that they were never captives in Egypt, but they were actually from Egypt and they had their own Pharaohs. He believes that that they were actually expelled out of Egypt.

[@heatherclark8668]

Do you know why they were expelled from Egypt? Was it because they had different religious beliefs?

[@johnmann8659]

@fluxcapacitor8861 The Israelites were Arameans from Mesopotamia (Deuteronomy 26:5, Genesis 25:20, Genesis 15:7).

[@jameswolfe9156]

Awesome address!

[@librulcunspirisy]

Thanks

[@DMariaLR]

Very good information thank you for sharing.

[@Reporterreporter770]

Yes

[@hannahtabayoyong4801]

how can the title be 'ORIGINS of ANCIENT Israel when she don't mean the ANCESTORS? ancient origins will always involve ancestry

[@CHX_37]

The Hebrew Bible has the same connection to history as the Bhagavad Gita.

[@maximilianschwab9668]

A large part of the OT is just a copy of the original texts from Sumeria, as Abram was from there. A large part of the population was abducted by the Assyrians, Babylonians etc. Israel had got the religion from there and is not as old as the Indian culture ...

[@user-uc4ot3jv5g]

😂

[@goodday2760]

What's the difference between this comment and an Indian saying to another Indian, "the Bhagavad Gita has the same connection to history as the Hebrew Bible"? Other than that your statement is more presumptuous as you've addressed the global online audience as though we all shared your Biblical background, rather than an Indian one?

[@felicededuyo7999]

Crisp. Succinct. Brilliant. Mabuhay Dr. Mayer s.

[@gary_stavropoulos]

Exodus chapters 21-23 shows concern for the disenfranchised. I don't know how anyone can say that with a straight face.

[@johnholemanjr3738]

Thank you for your studies and for posting. I left comments but some one keeps stealing them.

[@xrismdumaran]

Israel’s Exodus might be an exodus from Canaan which was under Egypt’s sphere of influence. The exodus was a kind of epic legend of Israel’s new consciousness to detach itself from oppressive Canaanites. There was no actual exodus but a rebellion from disintegration of tyrant regimes.

[@cariboux2]

Interesting hypothesis. Fuses the two poles of the debate quite nicely.

[@mutualisme299]

So uhm who are "they" living in Israel what that location is called today? Are there any links with the "Hyksos" and the story from the bible?

[@purpleslog]

The Hyksos are cannanites.

[@celestebredin6213]

Excellent scholarship. These ideas are not new but she put it together. Her delivery is very poor but who cares when content is good

[@fordprefect5304]

Love this video but wonder why she did not mention the Bronze age collapse or the "sea people" invasion of the eastern Mediterranean. The "sea people" are documented in both Hittite and Egyptian writings. Which would explain the migration from the coast to the hill country.

[@NA-oc7eq]

This video maybe was filmed in the late 80's or 90's, idk, so maybe the information that you have now was not known back then.

[@phoenixlegion33]

Foundations of Jericho 1 (first stages) date back to 8,600 Bc. We are missing huge pieces.

[@tammygreen8962]

Say what you want SHE'S BRAVE! 💯

[@Rog5446]

Shakespeare did not write a play about a Roman Emperor named Julius Caesar. He wrote a play about a Roman dictator named Julius Caesar.

[@lokomk9725]

its the same thing. Dictator in the way we use it in the 21 century, was popularized in the 1800's. Before that it was not a negative term

[@brianjacob8728]

Shakespeare was functionally illiterate. He didn't write anything. Francis Bacon and possibly others wrote those works.

[@rursus8354]

Actually a very mainstream opinion today.

[@OTEP1234567891011]

Who said it wasn't?

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

True, but it still needs to be said to confront the contingent of Jews who yell "The Land was given to US by God so everyone else (aka Palestinians) GET THE HELL OUT!" And to confront the recent spate of Christian archaeologists who have a need to "prove" the literal inerrancy of the Old Testament (the biggest perpetrator being Ron Wyatt and his highly biased and faulty archaeology of the literal Exodus)

[@RudisKetabs]

I think we need more non-biblical evidence. What we heard had just had too many ifs and maybes.

[@drafts05]

Thank you so sooo agree

[@tyrbaldur5317]

Such as?

[@dorianmodify]

Well nice presentation.

[@zackjalamani]

"Israel" in the Egyptian inscription DID NOT refer to "ancient Israelites", but to the Canaanite village of Yisra-El [later on named Zer'in] in the Jezreel Valley in northern Palestine, which was on Egyptian's army route to BeitShaan and Deir Alla. It is not a reference to any "ancient Israelites"

[@MBEG89]

Very interesting, there a source for this?

[@hesitatingdissension4682]

@@MBEG89 What are your sources, fundamentalist?

[@Abilliph]

The world Israel in the Egyptian source is followed by the symbol for a people's group, not a city or town like the rest of the names that appear in it. So there's no basis to your statement.

[@Watchdog2023]

Actually this speech taken with “Religion, Can. You Handle the Truth?” and “Caesars Messiah” are enough to give me pause regarding the entire bible and christianity.

[@googleboogle5120]

The geography and history of the current isreal and it surroundings as well as the history and archeology do not support the Christian and the Torah stories. There are many wrongs.

[@karlshaner2453]

Seek the truth.

[@bobaldo2339]

And forget all dogmas.

[@nickprohoroff3720]

P.S. Good presentation by the way. Excellent scholarship.

[@thomaswhite935]

Poor scholarship. She hasn't quoted the Old Testament accurately. It's ok to not believe and it's ok to be skeptical. But make a study of the material. Quote it accurately.

[@gregorybaillie2093]

What relevance has any story about the origin of an ancient "Israel" espesially by people with a conflict of interest.

[@richdelarby9387]

Secular Judaism... that says it all.

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

😆 and what is this "all" that "it" says?!

[@longcastle4863]

Engrossing

[@keiferalford7961]

So she's saying that it's ALL MADE UP...no Joshua, no Moses, no Exodus. The early Israelites were nomadic Canaanites from the outskirts of the cities and not the urban Canaanites. If you go back far enough you'll find that Canaanite writing and so called Israelites writing are identical. The nomadic Canaanites needed a beginning epic tale to differentiate them from their neighbors..so they borrowed tales from other's and made the rest up..it did help to bind them together as a "One people" different and apart from others.

[@zamiel3]

You have a different opinion on the matter? Or, are you in agreement?

[@TalKScribe]

Her Jewish students came up to her after class and asked her "how come I never learned this in Sunday School?" Umm...maybe because Jews don't attend Sunday school?

[@sparks2749]

I don't think anyone disputes that the Israelites were in that region of the world, (their existence),... but I'm assuming the problems come from using the Bible as the sole source of their religious claim to lands in the mid east. Their use of "God said so" is the same as the Islamic and Christian religions,... and they tend to bolster each others claim as much as they dispute the details of "Who" is God, Messiah and Prophet(s) were. What I wanted this talk to address however was the ancient origin of the Semitic race and whether they were a sub-set of the Egyptian people.

[@luxpaxamare]

If by Semitic race you mean a people that descend from Shem, l highly doubt that there is any veracity to that origin story. If you were talking about the earliest people to speak the Semitic language, Ethiopians are amongst the oldest people in the world and they are a so-called Semitic people. No one knows exactly where the proto Semitic language originated or how the language traveled, however, Akkadian is the oldest attested Semitic language.

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

@@luxpaxamare well, linguidtic scholars know that semitic languages are the youngest branch of the afroasiatic language family, forming after cushitic, ancient Egyptians, berber and chadic branches split off from Proto-afroasiatic somewhere in North East Africa, probably thr red sea hills Either way, we know how semitic languages originsted, the region or urhmiat and how old this branch is and itd relation to other afroasiatic languages...one thing is known for sure by linguistic experts, semitic languages and people weren't a sub group of Egyptians because the latter formed their own unique sub branch and their league preceded semitic by thousands of years, evidence shows that semitic are simply a younger branch of afroasiatic which formed thousands of years after Egyptians, Cushites, and Berbers had already formed

[@Thomas_Geist]

THANK YOU!

[@mwhcrafting1951]

Everybody's a critic!

[@dorianmodify]

And seem to think they have PhD's in ancient Near Eastern History.

[@joestar6194]

Not me

[@israelaberra2384]

I think you meant analytical.

[@israelaberra2384]

This is not about criticism, this is about being analytical.

[@bobaldo2339]

Jimmy Durante - "Everybody wants to get into the act!"

[@teresabaptista7016]

... And yet, archeology is not a science... Much like medicine... Is an "interpretation" of symptoms stated within a narrative set by the interpreter - wouldn't it be wiser to let people know of such fragilities in your speech?

[@lloydbrown2713]

Dreamworks, "the new film company." Wait, what? When was this speech?

[@DarthRock]

In 1997

[@vgrof2315]

I think the woman makes a lot of sense.

[@BonileMqokozo]

Why is this woman angry though? THIS IS A GROUP OF ANGRY PEOPLE...

[@cptr]

Inhabit a land promised to their people?

[@sipchronicles]

Look to Africa for the ancient Canaanites and Jews, prior to the new culture. the culture of Kemet was the culture which influenced the entire Levant and as far as Sumeria in the east at its heights, it eventually retreated to the motherland, back to its ancient origin and the origin of man, giving way to emergent dominant cultures.

[@dantehenry5283]

Lloyd Stewart no evidence lol

[@kevinpreston5590]

Why they didnt come from africa

[@23igna]

Tony jews were slaves in egypt. Until Moses took them to the promised land in Palestine/Jerusalem.

[@penzancegunner857]

Lloyd, your name is English. Looks like you also Anglo Saxon? 😂

[@israelaberra2384]

The earliest human population in the world are the Africans. With that they are the first humans populations on every continent including Cannan.

[@Art1966]

It would be somewhat funny if Jericho was abandoned when Joshua came and he made up the whole story. The funny part being the story he told now equates to what we consider war crimes. Butchery murder and conquest don't seem to have the appeal that they used to. Seems like old Joshua doesn't come out too good either way, Liar or butcher ? but for the sake of his soul, I hope its liar.

[@pearltears8039]

Did you know Jericho means FRAGRANT; ITS MONTH (MOON) Arabic the meaning of the name Jericho is: City of the moon. In the bible Jericho was a Canaan city destroyed when its walls fell down.

[@Imheotep]

Joshua didn't write his own history, thats the point. The facts have changed, the stories embellished to fit the narrative needed at the time.

[@garypowell4565]

He was just following orders from the most high, GOD! War crimes are what every society commits when they take over a land, just ask the American Natives about that.

[@dreamdiction]

hahaha Obviously Joshua made it up. The Old Testament is typical of all other deified tribal nationalism.

[@ChaimYosefMariateguiLeviPhD]

Art1966 God said “Thou shall not murder” and not “Thou shall not kill” Idolaters must be wiped out of the face of the earth by reason or force.

[@sirdelrio]

Such mental gymnastics in order to make ancient israelites into american democrats.

[@coleride]

the chair of the women's studies....next

[@felicededuyo7999]

Succinct. Crisp. Yum. Brilliant. Professor Mayers. Mabuhay po kayo.

[@ericspencer8093]

A mostly informative lecture: however while Dr. Meyers warns against injecting historical bias into the facts; she does just that with her theory that the early Iron-age settlers of the Canaan highlands were "possibly" dissidents fleeing form the tyranny of Canaanite city-states along the coast. The very ideals of social and political equality simply did not, and could not exist in the late bronze age, early iron age. These are relatively sophisticated ideals that could only be the product of larger, much more advanced civilizations, which is why there's no trace of such ideals until the advent of Classical Greece, a millennia later. There are solid sociological reasons for this: the bronze age was a very hostile time where your neighbors could attack and slaughter you at any moment, forcing people to rely on their local warlord for protection against a constant threat. More importantly, the ordinary civilian of that time spent all of their energy just acquiring food and shelter; they had no time, nor the reservoir of knowledge necessary to formulate complex philosophical ideals like equality. She also neglects the trend of that precise period taking place all over the Eastern Mediterranean: people abandoning coastal cities and settling in the rugged, inhospitable highlands, in small villages. This happened in Canaan, Greece, Crete and Anatolia all around that same time 1200-1100 BCE.

[@deonspence7036]

The ideals of Social and political equality were not inventions of Greece rather Greece borrowed those ideals from much earlier civilizations.

[@thegreatmechanizedape8262]

this needed to be said but i dont think its going to make to many people happy. im glad its coming from a woman, less likely to be ignored in todays pc world.

[@fcsuper]

The immigrant leg of this theory is not practical and doesn't hold up. Returning refugees would've migrated to the cities, not the barren hills, especially if they came from a region filled with civilization.

[@Luhtes]

they cant migrate south as thats egypt so they have to migrate north

[@1rayw]

YOU JUST KILLED HER CREDENTIALS BY STATING HER RELIGIOUS WORK.

[@Thomas_Geist]

Interpretations of Bronze Age event as recorded by contemporaries that does not take into account the Bronze Age human consciousness lead to nothing less than projection. They were not interested in recording events which only comes into the human consciousness during the Axial period and specifically among the Greeks. Their interpretation of events was dominated by the world view from the perspective of their gods. They were not inaccurate, but to them the mythological subtext WAS the reality. And they may have been more advanced than we are in this respect. To miss this one misses the proper methodology of interpretation. Something quite profound happened after the Late Bronze Age Collapse and ignoring this will hamstring any attempt in understanding their written accounts...or those accounts written down after circa 800BC when civilization revives and begins to question the nature of the gods and human responsibility to chart our destiny. The problem Iron Age Man had to deal with was the fact they had followed the dictates of the gods and yet were destroyed by an incomprehensible caprice. As Homer places in the mouth of Odysseus when his ship was wrecked at sea, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" This was a question unknown to Bronze Age Man and most likely added by those that wrote down Homer's work centuries later. The entire world had changed - from the Near East to China - along with Mans view of their relationship to it. Academics recognize the Axial Period but I've not read one that has a clue as to what it represented.

[@Darthaurelius]

I'm suprised there are no antisemitic postings on this video yet. I'm not a Jew, and all the idiotic comments bashing Jews, here on youtube disgust me.

[@altarush]

It is nice to know there is more of Jewish history than just the Bible account.

[@montyheath801]

Rob Gibson Yes. Nazi scum regularly turn the internet into a cesspit.

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

If there were I'm guessing they were taken down... I'm seeing a lot of replies to commenters in which the original comment is gone...

[@bridiejones7933]

I found her speech very interesting. But I would have liked it to know why do the Jews say the land was promise to them. Why would the creator of the world kill thousands of people women and children as well just to say to the Jews this land is yours. Considering that don't even believe in the Messiah. They are still waiting for him to appear. 200-thousand and 300 years.? I would love to hear speak. A brilliant speaker. And knows what she's talking.

[@colinroach7815]

NOT Eastern Mediterranean, IT IS N.E. Africa.

[@yodhin79]

So basically a bunch of disgruntled Canaanites left the area and headed up the hills and created Judaism, but also borrowed some Canaanite beliefs/practices with them. Got it.

[@johnmann8659]

@yodhin79 The Israelites were Arameans from Mesopotamia (Deuteronomy 26:5, Genesis 25:29) that moved into Canaan (Genesis 15:7) and uprooted the Canaanites (the Lebanese - Obadiah 1:20, Matthew 15:21-22, Judges 3:3).

[@KingofPeriodicTable]

compare Jews to Chinese, the similarities look ridiculous. Confucianism, was called Ru, same pronunciation with Jew actually.

[@zackjalamani]

"Secular Judaism"?! That is an absurd contradiction of words. Judaism is a religious ideology, how can it be a "secular"?!

[@flensdude]

It's not a contradiction. They're using the word Judaism to mean that they culturally identify as Jews and with some of the Jewish traditions, that the stories that their ancestral Jews believed religiously, they (these modern secular Jews) want to keep and cherish because it has cultural value to them. However, they don't actually believe in any of these stories to be factually true like their ancestors. Instead, as far as having an overarching world view with its own ethical codes and moral system goes, they are secular humanist. This is what the term _secular Judaism_ alludes to. This sort of way of thinking is kinda how some Japanese people think about Shintoism and Buddhism. Certain Japanese people can thus be said to be secular buddhists, or secular shintoists, in the way that such people are actually secular, but they still keep and perform some of the traditions from Buddhism and Shintoism.

[@charlesandrews2360]

I identify as Catholic but I don't abstain from eating meat on Friday during Lent and only attend church on Christmas Midnight Mass or Easter when family obligations required it.

[@venantmwakio224]

@@flensdude small wrinkle in your comparison with buddhism, because buddhism it’s the opposite its technically not a religion and it started that way it’s only some later cultures want to sort of introduce deities like boddhisatvas but any phd in Theology or even any person with a honest common sense will tell you it’s not a religion because simply it has no deity to be worshipped. So. There is no need to append ‘secular’ or ‘humanist’ in Buddhism . In fact there are many who practice the meditation believed to be originally taught by the Buddha ,that is Vipassana ( insight meditation) and still continue to go to church , synagogue meaning they identify as Christians and so forth

[@watermelonlalala]

Joshua (English) is the same name as Jesus (Greek), note the Jews don't change it into Yashua or any variation. Neither do they call their city Yerusalem or themselves Yews,

[@skenderkrasniqi823]

Joshua bin Nun is not the same name as Jesus Joshua has lived since the time of Prophet Moses

[@jameson6930]

It is called yerushalem. By Jews who speak Hebrew. Jew comes from Yhudah or Judah as Americans say it.

[@rursus8354]

Like James is exchangeable with Jacob ... not. Yeshua, Yehoshua and Yoshua are different names, and if one name form is given to a certain individual, exactly *that* name form is attached to that individual and no other.

[@denisegarvin182]

18 minutes in…..I don’t know, I’m a religious sceptic, especially since the findings of Globeki Tepi………I would love to learn the truth, but cannot take you seriously. You like me don’t really know anything!

[@rogerwelsh2335]

I left this lecture knowing less than when I started. What a waste of time. She has spent her whole life on this and this is all she knows? What in the world makes her so distinguished as the glorious introduction she was given before her presentation.

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

Jayzuz, whaddaya want in a one hour presentation/lecture? 😆

[@sophiawilson8696]

Canaanities are the Israelites and also the Palestines.

[@yasho8927]

I don‘t understand why are they laughing every time she mentions a name of the patriarchs? What is so funny?

[@gordonbartlett1921]

She is including womens' names as a humorous reference to the oft-neglected women of the Bible. The audience picks up on that.

[@timnray99]

while i agree with her on many points on the actual history she widely misses the point that it is not necessary for Cain and Abel to have lived, it is the moral within, I am my brothers' keeper. the Torah was to influence the Constitution, along with the Age of Reason. The Hittites, Egyptians, Babylonians etc, never taught to love your neighbor as yourself.

[@jboogs49]

The israelites were never taught to love your neighbor as yourself. They never acted in that manner. They were Gods Chosen people to be separate from everyone else.

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

Hmmmm 🤔 God's frequent command to kill everything (sometimes even the cattle) when invading doesn't seem to be very Love Thy Neighbor-ish! 😆

[@nickprohoroff3720]

Why do people sit behind someone giving a lecture. They don't see the face of the speaker and therefore zone out quite fast leaving us to have to put up with their bored faces.

[@gibmattson1217]

She may well be mistaken in assuming that the Exodus is probably fictional imagination and in part real historical memory. From the perspective of a mythicist, the Exodus is a mythical story that explains the "Passover" of the Sun at the time of the Spring Equinox ASA Easter). The Sun passes over from 6 months of longer nights to 6 months of longer days. Joshua/yeshua/Jesus is a solar hero/saviour/god.

[@charlesandrews2360]

Summer Solstice is when the Sun "passes over", not the Vernal Equinox. The earliest Christians celebrated Easter according to the Jewish calendar at whatever time of year that happened to fall on.

[@charlieepershall4345]

The Great Creator of all existence is Science it is Not Religion Only the Honest Will Understand the Truth. The Great Creator, Matter, Knowledge, Energy, Time and Space Has Always Existed. All Without Beginning or end. Beginning and End only reveals an absence. There Are a Great Many Gods, That have been and are being worshiped. Gods are just imaginary Mythical personages of worship, Gods are not Creators. And do realize that Creation is only the rearrangement of Mater. As, Matter does not evolve from nothing. Truth is All That Truly Exists. Other Than Truth there is Just The understood Concept of An Absence. Lies with intent to deceive or not is fantasy. Lies remain in the nonexistent realm. There is hard core evidence That all life was with intelligent design. It starts with the intelligent design of the Universe. First: With the precise accuracy of the Rotation of the Earth and the orbit at the proper distance around the sun for life to be possible on Earth. then the Tilt of the earth for the seasons. and the moon's orbit that controls the tide of the ocean. It would be very difficult to prove that is not Intelligent Design. The Creation of the Universe is all far beyond what is thought to be human intelligence. However Knowledge is not created in the brain of the Human. The brain was only intelligently designed to Understand Knowledge. As for Evolution, there is much evidence and It is very likely that evolution is one of the intelligent possesses of Creation. Evolution was just intelligently guided in the possesses of Creation. Words to the Honest and Wise: Honesty and understanding is the only true belief. Without honesty and understanding we do not know what to believe. To accept other’s opinion of the truth without proving it to yourself; it is being deceived it is not believing. We must understand to believe. Truth will solve all our problems before we create them; and ignore or reject the truth; problems will multiply all by themselves; those problems will need no help. Have a great and a meaningful life if it is at all possible. Just whispers, of the Ghost of Reality.

[@exilfromsanity]

A very poor presentation of some great information.

[@jacobpeters5458]

Yes. If only she could be a little more confident and have less stuttering/rephrasing, it'd be better. On the whole, the lecture's delivery wasn't that bad. But I vastly prefer listening to William Dever, for example (also an Exodus denier).

[@noaheinstein2369]

Jacob Peters, I’d say she’s understandably ‘defensive’ because of the relatively new and controversial material she’s presenting. I think this ground breaking work requires unimaginable audacity and courage. She’s a leading Jewish scholar but, as a woman in her discipline (completely male dominated) and position, she has every right to be nervous in presenting her findings and opinions. Good on her!

[@jackandkerichen]

very biased and poor scholarship stating her opinions as if facts not mentioning the controversies, not to mention WRONG with adonai as a name. The early Israelite did not use adonai as a name, that was a late development. They knew God as EL or YHWH.. Adonai was the term that replaced the name YHWH when that name was removed from the Tanakh though Jews today are taught adonai as a name.. not knowing that is extremely poor scholarship and for an academic to show such biases, that's very poor form.

[@foyp3956]

Very well said

[@dorianmodify]

She assumed you had actually studied something in the field. Her presentation is very mainline.

[@joestar6194]

From what university did you get your PhD in theology?

[@yashayah2115]

Yahweh is Aramaic and El is a Canaanite diety. In Canaan many of these dieties and names were thrown around.

[@antoniotulum4776]

yhwh is most certainly pagan caananite origin . much info on that. besides the real paleo hebrw found in quram translates as ihsh . not yhwh as fabricated fraud done by idumean jews.

[@nomadicrecovery1586]

This woman has big wake up call coming.

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

Oh, I'm sure her hotel gave her a wake up call and she got to her lecture on time! 😆 Dude, this lecture is pretty old, the opinions have become pretty standard in archaeological scholarship... guess she's still waiting for your wake up call!

[@pdlifland]

Great lectures. Meyers, Propp- just terrific, dynamic, entertaining. I do not know why people still try to confuse science (archeology) and religion. One enlightens how; one enlightens why. This is a tenet of Judaism. We do not put people on trial for saying earth revolves around the sun. The universe is 14 billion years old. God created it 5,784 years ago. Of course. Humans evolved over 100’s of thousands of years. Adam and Eve were created by God. Yes. There is no archeological proof of the Exodus. Moses (God) parted the Red Sea. Yes, that’s right. What’s your point? I am a scientist (physician); I am a Jew. One gives me facts. One gives me faith. Both teach me how to live my life. The Exodus is a story not based in fact. OK. I get it. Passover is just around the corner. OK. I cannot wait to celebrate The Passover and Exodus. God willing. So, where is the conflict?

[@happy6valley]

She spoils her presentation with the Feminist emphasis.

[@gloriaswims3478]

I have read some of her work but her delivery of this was awful. And the man coughing should have left.

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

I have to reluctantly agree, her scholarship is impeccable but her vocal delivery reminds me of fingernails on a chalkboard ...

[@ie1961]

Outdated.

[@IISHJvid]

Please note that this Colloquium took place 20 years ago, in 1997.

[@ie1961]

Yes, of course - I am well aware of Prof M's career. But thing is, it's still up on youtube, for antisemites to take notes. In the last 15 years there were major developments that contradict the "fairy tale" version of Exodus/Joshua/Samuel books. The existence of the Davidic dynasty has been proved, the palace in Jerusalem has been found, and artefacts found in a better suburb of the Jericho layer pertaining to the Exodus have accurately dated the destruction of that city to an earlier period, consistent with the Exodus occurring in 1400's BC. The destruction was unusual (something that Garstang and Kenyon also noted), in that grain stores were burned. That would speak in defence of the usual suspects - rival Canaanites, Moabites or Amorites. Egyptians (for instance, Mereneptha) sometimes destroyed entire cities punitively, but an army on the march in a semi-arid area is unlikely to overlook the food stores unless it has specific orders to do so. We seem to have no difficulty in accepting Herodotus or Arrian at face value, merely reducing their figures by a few zeroes - why would a sacred text be a bare-faced lie when it is still an oral tradition, whose basic plots are well-known? Like, how would you invent a siege of Jericho when there were living witnesses who knew otherwise in the audience?

[@MrRicardoddq]

hi. I was reading your response and it got my attention. I am a very interested person in biblical archaeology and related. If it's not too much of a hassle, could you give me some hint on how or where to look for this kind of information? Thanks in advance.

[@steveb2662]

Ie1961..there is no evidence at all of a Davidic dynasty.

[@TTFMjock]

@@ie1961 Because “the vast majority of scholars...except for a few vestigial’arch-conservatives’”...and everything after that is fodder for ironic comedy. The playbook of these people is tiresomely predictable by now. Scoff at your opponents, comment extensively upon your own sophistication, present facile speculation as serious scholarship, get proven wrong within the decade, only to do it all over again without ever admitting the last 20 times you were wrong.

[@lindencamelback2305]

Rather disappointing from a university professor. Largely speculation.

[@janolsen7188]

Excuse me!Joshua did what every leader in that time period did,if he seriously cared for the community he should risk his life for!If you were big enough as a people,you could give the subdued tried a possible way of surviving,blending in into the occupying people!However,if the winners was not in such numbers that the blenders became a minority,then you better terminate all of them!Rule number one:do not the children of the slain soldiers live and come back as revengers!

[@curtisking5138]

Meaning that Joshua was just another bloodthirsty,murderous,maniacal warlord like every leader in that time period. Exactly the way that the Mayflower Pilgrims decimated the Peoples of the North American continent under the Manifest-destiny policy

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

@@curtisking5138 😆 Way to mash hundreds of years of history into one nonsense sentence!! Although I agree that the indigenous Native American populations were (and still are) systematically pushed out (wiped out in cases) as European Immigrants pushed west over time, the term Manifest Destiny didn't come into use until 1845 from newspaper editor John O'Sullivan, not the Mayflower Pilgrims 😆

[@dennisojohnson]

The big lie.

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

No... Trump did not win the 2020 election no matter how many times he says he did! 😆😆😆😆

[@watermelonlalala]

Then Canaanites and the Israelites spoke the same language - hebrew.

[@watermelonlalala]

Correct. I think I typed that when Myers said something about people coming in en masse to Canaan and how would you know an Israelite if you saw one. And I thought she should have mentioned the language right there.

[@jacobpeters5458]

No, but good guess.

[@watermelonlalala]

Hebrew is the same language as Canaanite. The words are the same.

[@jacobpeters5458]

No it doesn't. The Canaanites had separate languages. E.g. Ugaritic.

[@TheWiseWarDogs]

Exactly, now do you see why so-called "black" people know that they're the real so-called "Jews?" Canaanites were the Africans of the Bible, but they were/are not cursed. Canaanite is just the Hebrew word for Phoenician. And the Phoenicians were the Moors/Africans or Ifriquians. Moors go further back than Arabs and contemporary Islam.

[@rizzleriz4457]

Can't believe this was a scholar's work! Sounded as if it was prepared during landing and no rehearsals were done in the hotel room or taxi. SMH. Being scholarly is watered down. It would be nice to visit Syria, Sudan, Egypt and even the Russians to know more about the 'Israelites'. Also, they said there records were destroyed so you could visit their captors to verify. Weak presentation but you touched on some things so take a C-.

[@OneVoiceMore]

This didn't age well. ;)

[@hiawatharickard7977]

So you don't really know the true origins ... but only that the Biblical is false? Can you prove that? And if not, why the desire to not believe the biblical one...?

[@JamesPrestonThomas]

It IS a feminist speech And with numerous far left language!

[@cmk1964]

James Preston Thomas Yes. I also noticed all the feminist language easily detected by words like: and, but, or, who, not, that, small, I, walls, iron, family, taxes, and less obvious words like Israelites, Canaanites, villages, cities and archaeological.

[@TheTravisng]

You did hear all the laughter right...? She was clearly trying to be funny.

[@israelphoenix]

Christopher Kennedy Thank you!

[@enkisonofanu2301]

She is a woman who thinks that Yahweh was a horny macho god, so it's natural to squeeze in some feminism.

[@rursus8354]

Yikes! It's a conspiracy! Probably Illuminati, New World Order and Chemtrails.

[@binnybrand2563]

I feel like I wasted 30 min listening to an atheist who don't BELIEVE in scripture.

[@jonathansmiddy7224]

So the Bible isn't true. Thanks.