What's buzzzin Hive?
As an addendum to my last post, I thought I would observe a more scientifically oriented set of information. Perhaps not in books but in the form of related documentaries. Most of us wonder or want to discredit many ancient texts and scriptures based on it sounds a little too magical to be real, rewards and punishments to society by some invisible consciousness, the hand of God getting upset at society. What if the science of the time, knowledge about geography and natural sciences like behavior of pest all the way to improper storage of food was a contributor to some of the tales yet their scientific advancements were primitive compared to ours to understanding their circumstances that surround these mysteries.
All throughout history, many things have been attributed to God's wrath yet have a perfectly explainable sequence of events. We have come a long way scientifically, it is possible to go back into ancient stories, analyze the information and perhaps turn the magical into logical. Carbon dating, core sampling along with other sciences has allowed us to travel back in the past and debunk the myths, given we can find the locations or hidden ruins of where some of these biblical stories may have taken place and someone determined to look for answers. Perhaps mistranslation of text, a missing letter change the whole perception as to where some of these events could have taken place?
Writing wasn't quite as prevalent as it is today, most of the surviving text that may provide the clues to solving these great biblical mysteries and lead us the age old debates being answered are carved into stones that have been fragmented with age or war. Museums can withhold artifacts from the general public and access to these artifacts may be difficult. these texts are also not as clear cut being written in long lost languages that need translation and require rare experts that can decode such texts, susceptible to being mistranslated. some of the potential carved evidence are also contained into hard to interpret series of enigmatic images, to decipher it's meaning can be daunting.
Tracking the path of travel from biblical times pose challenging obstacles of it's own. Much of the land is trapped in land disputes, creating barriers for archeologist to get access to the land being heavy guarded with military presence and unsafe conditions. Military occupations and local governments do not want any information dug up that could solidify any claims to the land being disputed since the beginning of times. Access and permitting issues to conduct these digs can be difficult to obtain.
Rivers naturally re-routed and other natural changes in the landscape, names of cities and mountains have also been changed over time as society continues to evolve. Time, nature along with countless desert storms has covered much of these ruins with clay and sand over the millennia's, to be later covered in farm lands hiding any trace of the ancients. Facing the ethical challenges between the uncovering of man's history vs private land owners and farmers to use their lands to earn a living and grow their crops. Simcha Jacobovici (The Naked Archeologist) has spent the last decade dedicated to solve many of the biblical mysteries or locations and find perfectly logical explanations for some these age old debates plaguing the minds of society. Did these things happen or is it all myth?
THE EXODUS
In this first documentary Simcha Jacobovici along with James Cameron partner up to give us a possible explanation exploring the story of Moses and the Exodus. Diving deep into theories to decode the 10 plagues of Egypt one by one. Surmounting the various challenges of first locating the ancient city of Avaris, the real Mount Sinai and timeline evidence of which Pharaoh was responsible for the exodus, what other natural disasters may have been occurring that wasn't fully understood by the ancients to bring it all together into one cohesive event. Perhaps natural events in a land that once was unknown to the local people of the time responsible for the seemingly supernatural events or was it really God's wrath? The parting of the Red Sea has been another topic of controversy. Did Moses indeed have magical powers to be able to part the sea in some miracle or could there be another possible explanation?
Find out in this James Cameron production with the help of Simcha and his team. Make yourself a snack, get your favorite drink and get comfortable, it's a long but interesting watch.
Disclaimer: Snack responsibly. Just kidding! 😂
THE RESURECTION
In this next documentary, equally long I might add, Simcha goes on a quest to find the possible resting place of Jesus. In the bible, he is in a tomb for 3 days after his death and upon opening of the tomb to tend to his body and anoint with oil by Mariamne of Magdala as per tradition only to find the tomb empty to everyone's surprise. After his death, Mariamne was suspected of having traveled to France where she remained the rest of her days. What really happened to his body? Was it a tale of unexplained resurrection and walked out on his own? Was it stolen to prevent proper burial? Was his deceased body secretly moved to a new location by either his family or disciples by night to give him a proper burial? Is there any potential evidence left behind? Is it even possible to solve this 2000 year old mystery? Did Mariamne indeed travel to France?
Follow Simcha and his team on what seems like an impossible quest facing a new set of challenges including a modern city build on top of the suspected resting place. It was common to have family plots and ossuaries with all relatives in the same burial. Finding evidence during the ground work for the city placed in the backroom of museums lost to history with well decorated ossuaries inscribed with ancient names. After 26 years in storage, the the names were transcribed to be potential siblings of Jesus sparking a hunt for further evidence. Can the location of the tomb be accessed now that it's resting under a modern city? Can modern DNA prove or disprove the claims? What other age old mystery may they potentially find or attempt to solve? Has there been evidence hidden in plain sight all along? Will anyone ever see the inside of his tomb? Watch and find out!
THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL
What happened to the Israelites after they were sent in exile? Who has claims to the "Israelite inheritance"? Where might their descendants be found? In this documentary Simcha investigates the lost tribes of Israel trying to retrace their footsteps in an attempt to discover the history, observing mysterious ancient Hebrew traditions perpetuated by unsuspecting isolated communities from Ethiopia all the way to China simply practicing traditions passed down from generation to generation by their ancestors. Could they unknowingly be part of the lost tribes? This documentary offers a glimpse into war torn countries and the tensions over the claims discovering old artifacts passed down as family heirlooms that may prove certain claims and disputes. Have some tribes been repatriated? What challenges do they face in their new found genealogy? Is it possible to pin point what tribe they may belong to?
I found and watched these documentaries years ago when they first aired and forgot about them for a while. I didn't remember the name of the archeologist or the movies only his face. It was a daunting task to do my own archeological dig in the lost youtube archives to dig these up. The post I wrote yesterday reminded me of them and thought the exodus doc was a nice addition to yesterday's post to share with you. It was nice to re-watch them too.
Although the information is Jewish in nature in all 3 documentaries, he does offer a good perspective on many aspects of religion using archeology, modern technology, oral tradition, symbolism in culture and artifacts, leaving no stone unturned on his journey to attempt to solve many of the age old mysteries many have argued about since the birth of religion. Is he on the right or wrong track? Only time will tell.
I do enjoy his work and dedication to get us the answers and the way he captures different traditions observed around the topic. I hope you enjoy the learning experience. It certainly doesn't solve all the mysteries surrounding the interpretation of the bible's miracles but it does touch on some of the controversy to at least get us started. Does it prove or disprove God's wrath? Probably not but it does offer some scientific explanations to certain events proving that at least some of the biblical stories could have indeed been real and not merely just fables to squabble about.
Adios! xox