Noah's ark program on BBC

[schoolkid1]

here is an interesting program in the UK this week on Noah's ark-

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3524676.stm

Noah's Ark will be broadcast in the UK on BBC One on Sunday 21 March at 1900 GMT.

 

[lucaspa]

here is an interesting program in the UK this week on Noah's ark-

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3524676.stm

Noah's Ark will be broadcast in the UK on BBC One on Sunday 21 March at 1900 GMT.

This seems to be the current hypothesis. In America the Discovery Channel had a very similar (perhaps the identical) show a couple of months ago. As I recall the story of Unt-napushtim -- the Babylonian story in the Epic of Gilgamesh -- the flood came from the south, not the north. However, the current hypothesis is plausible and at least possible, which a literal reading of Genesis 6-8 is not.

 

[lucaspa]

From the website:
"Could this story have provided the inspiration for the Jewish priests who wrote the Book of Genesis 2,000 years later? When they first heard the story, how could they fail to recognise its moral power, that if humankind falls short of God's laws, there's a dreadful price to pay. Behind that moral message lies one of the world's greatest stories. "

There's another aspect I think should be mentioned. By reworking the story, the Jewish priests took a major story from their primary rival -- Babylonia -- and made it serve their purposes.

 

[Markh]

well- all this is based on some old clay tablets. The babylonians could have stolen their myth involving gilgamesh from another myth invented by another group. Just like the romans stole the greek myths.

alternatively a flood like that is gonna have a few myths based around it from each culture

I mean- almost all anchient cultures had some myth to do with the sun. We wouldn't say that the Chinese myths about the sun were copied by the aztechs or whatever.

 

[lucaspa]

well- all this is based on some old clay tablets. The babylonians could have stolen their myth involving gilgamesh from another myth invented by another group. Just like the romans stole the greek myths.

alternatively a flood like that is gonna have a few myths based around it from each culture

I mean- almost all anchient cultures had some myth to do with the sun. We wouldn't say that the Chinese myths about the sun were copied by the aztechs or whatever.

Read the Epic of Gilgamesh for yourself. It must be in your public library if not online. There are simply too many details that are the same. The Jews plagiarized the Babylonians. Whether the Babylonians plagiarized the Sumerians or someone else is a separate issue.

Remember, the Bible was put together after the Jews spent their Babylonian Exile.

 

[Markh]

yes, it was put together after the exile. However, I still think there is a slight chance that the babylonians plagerised the jews or had their own equivalent myth for the same situation.

After all we only have a few tablets. We don't have enough material to make a conclusion.

 

[Bushido216]

I wonder if a few thousand years from now some civilization will find a textbook somewhere with out-dated science and wonder how we could follow that wierd-o religion.

/idle speculation.

 

[Curt]

I can't believe some of what I am reading here. People claiming They believe in God, and posting supposed information that says He is so dependent on mans superior knowledge that He couldn't communicate with His children whom He loves so much He died for them in their own language in spite of the fact that He says all Scriptures are inspired by Him. What a demonstration of satans ability to imitate, and deceive.

 

[Bushido216]

I don't recall anyone saying that...?

 

[KleinerApfel]

I can't believe some of what I am reading here. People claiming They believe in God, and posting supposed information that says He is so dependent on mans superior knowledge that He couldn't communicate with His children whom He loves so much He died for them in their own language in spite of the fact that He says all Scriptures are inspired by Him. What a demonstration of satans ability to imitate, and deceive.

Well said Curt. Did you see the programme? It was appalling. The makers/presenters seem to have no fear of God at all.
Blessings, Susana.

 

[artybloke]

I thought it was a great programme, in many ways; though it was noticeable that he'd taken all the supernatural elements of the story out. As for any writer of myth, that would be to miss the point, we didn't really get a good idea of what the point of the myths were. All we got in the end was a rather blankly down-to-earth story of some people getting lost in the Persian gulf.

The Biblical writers were not just plagiarists, by the way; if they took the story from the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic, they were doing so with a purpose, just as they were doing with the creation myths. The creation myths were deliberately meant to echo other creation myths of the time, but to impose a Jewish religious meaning on them. Thus, the writers of the Noah myth were taking an ancient story that had probably been retold time after time, and "sanctifying" by giving it the "right" interpretation. In a way, they were doing the same as many early Christian missionaries did in Britain: they "baptised" the old gods and made them saints. This meant they no longer had the power over people and things that they previously had (that power was reserved for God) but they still had importance as symbols.

It's also what you get in such Christianised epics as Beowulf, for instance: based on old Pagan stories, but given a Christian meaning. It was part of a propaganda war, an argument with paganism. None of it was ever intended to give any historical or scientific information. It was part of Judaism's "Our God is bigger than yours" campaign.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

I thought it was a horribly one-sided coverage written by secular humanists.

 

[Captain_Jack_Sparrow]

I thought it was a horribly one-sided coverage written by secular humanists.

You mean realistic!

I call horribly one sided the rubbish in the Bible about antediluvians and global floods and Noah and his kids fathering us all. Now that's one sided nonsense.

 

[KleinerApfel]

You mean realistic!

I call horribly one sided the rubbish in the Bible about antediluvians and global floods and Noah and his kids fathering us all. Now that's one sided nonsense.

For a moment there I thought you said the Bible contains one-sided rubbish and nonsense. Are you sure you really meant to say that?!!

 

[Captain_Jack_Sparrow]

No you read it correctly. When it comes to the Old Testament Jewish Mythology I believe from a factual standpoint that it is rubbish. It's on the same level as Greek Mythology except the Greek stuff is better written and far more interesting.

 

[Bushido216]

Well said Curt. Did you see the programme? It was appalling. The makers/presenters seem to have no fear of God at all.
Blessings, Susana.

Because they didn't agree with how you see the Bible?

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

No you read it correctly. When it comes to the Old Testament Jewish Mythology I believe from a factual standpoint that it is rubbish. It's on the same level as Greek Mythology except the Greek stuff is better written and far more interesting.

 

[lucaspa]

I can't believe some of what I am reading here. People claiming They believe in God, and posting supposed information that says He is so dependent on mans superior knowledge that He couldn't communicate with His children whom He loves so much He died for them in their own language in spite of the fact that He says all Scriptures are inspired by Him. What a demonstration of satans ability to imitate, and deceive.

Where was this said? You don't think God could communicate with the Hebrews to re-work a Babylonian story for the glory of God?

 

[lucaspa]

The Biblical writers were not just plagiarists, by the way; if they took the story from the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic, they were doing so with a purpose, just as they were doing with the creation myths. The creation myths were deliberately meant to echo other creation myths of the time, but to impose a Jewish religious meaning on them. Thus, the writers of the Noah myth were taking an ancient story that had probably been retold time after time, and "sanctifying" by giving it the "right" interpretation. In a way, they were doing the same as many early Christian missionaries did in Britain: they "baptised" the old gods and made them saints. This meant they no longer had the power over people and things that they previously had (that power was reserved for God) but they still had importance as symbols.

It's also what you get in such Christianised epics as Beowulf, for instance: based on old Pagan stories, but given a Christian meaning. It was part of a propaganda war, an argument with paganism. None of it was ever intended to give any historical or scientific information. It was part of Judaism's "Our God is bigger than yours" campaign.

Nicely said!

 

[Markh]

I didn't watch it- I saw previous things including one on Mary- which claimed a thousand things which were against the bible and the Church teachings including "Mary was raped", "Mary was not sinless", "Mary had other kids", "Mary was ashamed and confused by Jesus", "Mary wasn't assumed into heaven" and worst of all that, the fact that these things were "true" mad Mary a better figure than compared to the reality of them being false.

Since that program was so disgraceful I chose not to watch this one- why don't the BBC try something anti-Islamic? 'Cus broadcasting house will get blown to pieces. Catholics are easy to pick on.