History in the Bible

1.7 Writing the Pentateuch

Work by scholars from the late 19th century had established that five sources lay behind the Pentateuch. They came to be known by letters: J, E, P, and D. These theories were a mainstay of biblical st...

7 Kesä 201525min

1.6 Canaan of the Patriarchs

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24 Touko 201525min

1.5 The Names of God

The finds at the ancient city of Ugarit in Syria provided us with our knowledge of the religion of Canaan, the land conquered by the Israelites. Some of this religion, such as the god El and the monst...

10 Touko 201517min

1.4 Recovering Ancient Israel

I trace the beginnings of biblical archaeology, from Carsten Niebuhr to John Garstang, the man who thought he found Joshua's city of Jericho.

26 Huhti 201523min

1.3 Canons and Criticism

I conclude my tour of the canons, finishing with the zaniest of them all. I also get into the lesser known textual traditions: those of the Samaritans, and the Aramaic and Syriac translations. With t...

12 Huhti 201524min

1.2 What is the Bible?

The Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and Church of the East all have different versions of the Bible, with dissimilar books, based on different ancient texts. I explain why. For a handy summary...

25 Maalis 201522min