| The Bible's Buried Secrets | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Providence Pictures |
| Narrated by | Liev Schreiber |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 112 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | PBS |
| Release | November 18, 2008 |
"The Bible's Buried Secrets" is a Nova program that first aired on PBS, on November 18, 2008. [1] According to the program's official website: "The film presents the latest archaeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. This archaeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies: Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one God—the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—emerge?"
The producers surveyed the evidence and take positions that are mainstream among archaeologists and historians, although they continue to raise objections among both Christians who believe in the bible as either literal or historical truth and minimalists who assert that the Bible has no historical validation.
The program airs archaeologists' assertions that: [2]
The Biblical Archaeology Review wrote: "The producers have done a magnificent job summarizing over a century of biblical archaeology and biblical scholarship in two hours. The film strikes a balance between the old-fashioned biblical archaeology approach, which tried to prove the Bible's historicity, and the extreme skepticism of some minimalists, for whom the Bible contains little factual history." [3]
According to Rabbi Wesley Gardenswartz: "Conservative Judaism is fully accepting of the type of scholarship featured in this documentary." [4]
Catholic theologian Kenneth R. Himes says: "For some, the ideas presented may seem novel or surprising, but this is material that is being discussed in the theology courses found at many Catholic universities." [5]
The conservative American Family Association has issued an online petition urging the United States Congress to cut off federal funding for PBS. [6] "PBS is knowingly choosing to insult and attack Christianity by airing a program that declares the Bible 'isn't true and a bunch of stories that never happened,'" signers of the petition are encouraged to declare to members of Congress. [7]
Apologetics Press, a publishing organization affiliated with the Churches of Christ, has written a response to this program that is summarized with the concluding paragraph: "... if Christians are to change their minds about the historicity of the events recorded in the Hebrew Bible, a better case, supported by adequate evidence, would have to be made than the one presented in The Bible's Buried Secrets." [8]
The inerrantist Bible and Spade magazine dismissed the program as "anti-Bible propaganda". [9]