Beyond Belief: Archaeology and Religion

I have always enjoyed listening to Beyond Belief on Radio 4, especially since they started releasing it as a podcast.  Back in the day I used to guest on the programme myself, but these days one of the plusses is that I often know (or know of) other contributors to the programme.   This week's episode featured renowned Hebrew Bible scholar Francesca Stravrakopoulou in a thoroughly enjoyable discussion of "Religion and Archaeology".  Listen here:

Beyond Belief: Archaeology and Religion

Or do what I do and download the podcast version here:

Podcasts and Downloads: Beyond Belief

A couple of highlights: some discussion of a "Christian Zionist" viewpoint at the mid-point of the episode, and a reference towards the end to Dr Stavrakopoulou's hate mail.

Before posting this, I thought to myself, "I bet Jim West has already posted on this," so I took a look and I was not wrong!

Bible Secrets Revealed, History Channel

Candida Moss in Bible Secrets Revealed

Over on his XKV8R blog, Robert Cargill announces a new six part documentary to air soon on History Channel.  He writes:

I’m pleased to announce that a new documentary series will begin airing on History beginning Monday, November 11, 2013 at 10:00pm / 9:00 Central. 

The series is entitled, Bible Secrets Revealed, and is produced by Prometheus Entertainment for the History channel. 

The titles of the six episodes and their schedule of appearance are as follows: 

“Lost in Translation” – November 11, 2013
“The Promised Land” – November 18, 2013
“The Forbidden Scriptures” – November 25, 2013
“The Real Jesus” – December 2, 2013
“Mysterious Prophecies” – December 16, 2013
“Sex and the Bible” – December 23, 2013 

The documentary features dozens of the world’s top biblical scholars, religious studies scholars, archaeologists, and historians, who offer different points of view while addressing some of the more difficult readings in the biblical and extra-biblical texts. 

It is also worth note that portions of the documentary were filmed on site during the 2013 season of archaeological excavation at Tel Azekah.

There is a 30 second trailer available here:

Bible Secrets Revealed: Sneak Peak

The picture above is a screen grab; here are two more faces you may recognize:

Bart Ehrman in Bible Secrets Revealed

Francesca Stravrakopoulou

I have not yet seen this myself, though I was interviewed for the programme last summer here in North Carolina.  It looks like we will also see James McGrath and Robert Cargill (who was also a consultant) among many others.

Update (4.29pm): Robert Cargill provides a list of some of the scholars who will be appearing in the series.