World Famous Comics: 101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History
101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History
By: Gary Greenberg Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc. Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Sourcebooks, Inc. Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 352 Publication Date: September 01, 2002
Product Description: In his startling book, Gary Greenberg exposes the reality behind the greatest story ever told. Learn about the Egyptian myths and ancient folklore that survive in one of history's most sacred texts, and discover how:
-King David's bodyguard, not David, killed Goliath -Noah's Ark did not land on Mount Ararat -Samson did not pull down a Philistine temple -There are at least two versions of the Ten Commandments -The walls of Jericho were destroyed 300 years before Joshua arrived there -Sodom and Gomorrah were mythical cities that never existed -The story of Esther had nothing to do with the Jews of Persia -And much, much more
101 Myths of the Bible provides a new dimension of biblical studies for believers, historians and anyone who has ever wondered about the facts behind the legends. By looking deeper into history, Greenberg shows that the true story makes the Bible more interesting than ever imagined!
The wow of now thinking This book makes assumptions that are so not true. There are today the exact sites af Sodomon and Gamorrah. The flood has been proven to be at the exact time in history as recorded in the Bible. Every year more and more of the Bible places and Kings are substantiated. This author is trying and lying to disprove the Bible using myths that are orally passed down and have no truth at all. How sad that because ir is in print some will take this as truth.
Useful and detailed I found this book to be readable and well-structured, and will quite likely reference it routinely in the future to recall specific points. The book is broken down into the 101 items the title suggests, so each is rather short - usually two to three pages - making it natural to bite it off a myth or two at a time. I have to say, though, that after about 50 points it was becoming hard to recall much of the information; rather than a structured argument one is confronted by a persistent light drizzle of examples which does not promote deep understanding and therefore retention. This is the reason for the missing star.
As I am new to the field, I encountered plenty of new information and would recommend it to any other novice or casual reader in the fields of biblical exegesis or analysis. Having a very thin education in Bible myth, Egyptian and Babylonian mythologies and Jewish history equally, there was plenty to make this book worth reading. The author makes his case strongly for the most part and leaves little doubt as to the origins of the Bible stories in these earlier tellings. In many cases, it is almost a case of the Bible myth being an Egyptian polytheistic myth with the Gods' names slightly altered and their natures changed to those of humanm prophets.
Destroys the Bible as Immutable--Totally Engrossing I've read close to 20 books on religion in relation to politics in the past several years, and two books have consistently fallen behind in my stack: this one, and Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus). Of the two, this one, published in 2000, five years earlier than Misquoting Jesus (but not mentioned at all in the latter) is vastly better organized, more interesting, and more pointed.
I note that the publisher and Amazon do provide the entire table of contents above (101 myths, each listed in the table of contents) and I recommend that the table of contents be considered as helpful to my recommendation that anyone interested in religion and/or virtue buy and read this book.
The author himself captures the highlights in his own preface:
+ Africa and Egypt provided most of the raw material for the Biblical stories, i.e. neighboring cultures, not "God" or even the disciples, provided the original information + The stories were part of a long0running propagandaa war between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel + The author focuses on contradictions, clear and compelling evidence of Bible myths originating in earthly cultures, and stories that simply cannot be true (e.g. cities claimed destroyed that did not exist) + Although explained more ably by "Misquoting Jesus," the book clearly shows how the Bible is NOT original, nor is it even accurate. It consists of stories whose origins are earthly, rewritten over and over again, and imbued with false authority.
For me, the greatest humor and wisdom came from Israel being firmly rooted in Arab (Egyptian) myths, yet being unable to be it's brother's keeper, instead genociding the Palestinians and stealing Arab water thorugh long underground pipes.
Below are other books I recommend, and two DVDs, one on Gandhi and one on Tibet. I have come to the conclusion that organized religion is inherently a sham, illegitimate and corrupt, but that the values that religion seeks to impact are good in so far as they can be adopted by communities. This is not rocket science--the Golden Rule and the Great Law of Peace actually create prosperity and well-being.
The Complete Conversations with God (Boxed Set) Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) Tibet - Cry of the Snow Lion The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right God's Politics LP American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors
Pseudo-Scholarship The author's introduction points to his over-reliance on the tired and much discredited Document Hypothesis of the Pentateuch, and from there, he treats the reader to a somewhat juvenile series of undocumented inferences based on his fascination with Egyptology. How any serious student of bibliology could term this book "scholarly" is beyond imagination, since it includes no footnotes and no attempts to validate the author's claim that Bible stories emanated from Egypt.
The Document Hypothesis, which is the author's stated foundation, has not a single scrap of archeological evidence behind it. Of the thousands of ancient Biblical manuscripts recovered from the ancient world, not one has shown the Pentateuch as anything but an integrated whole. The once vaunted "JEPD" documents do not exist in archaeology and remain the imaginative inference of a 19th century philosopher. Hardly a firm foundation for attempts to mythologize the Bible.
101 Myths is biblical scholarship 101 As a beginning student of biblical criticism and philosophy I really enjoyed not only being able to explore the bible from many perspectives, but to have it broken down in a way that is easy to understand. Unlike Michio Kaku's "Hyperspace" which was quantum mechanics 101, Myths is available to all readers. This book is even accessible to Christians who normally hate their world view being questioned. This however does not question, but rather uncovers the truth of many myths and biblical lore that we have created and held as truth.
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