The History Channel’s Bible Secrets Revealed
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman taping Bible Secrets Revealed
Read the whole story — including air times, links to more information, and video trailers from the series — in my latest e-newsletter.
UPDATE (December 19, 2013): It turns out I had a prominent role in the 5th episode, as well: “Mysterious Prophecies.” You may be able to watch the whole thing on-line via the “Bible Secrets Revealed” Video page.
UPDATE (December 1, 2013): Learn more about “The Life of Adam and Eve,” which I describe in the third episode, from the sneak-peak look at “The Unabridged Bible.”
UPDATE (November 26, 2013): The third episode — “The Forbidden Scriptures” — airs tomorrow (Wednesday) night. This could be the most enlightening of the episodes, because it addresses something most people don’t know much about.
I remember talking about this in depth on camera, and I’m told that some of my explanations made it into the final show.
Here’s the official description, from the History Channel:
The books, gospels and epistles found in the Holy Bible are writings considered to be divinely inspired. But are there chapters of the Bible that are missing? Have stories been censored and characters deleted? And if so, just who decides what is included—and what is forbidden?
UPDATE (November 20, 2013): The second episode airs tonight: “The Promised Land.” When I was interviewed, I declined to comment publicly about the connection between the Bible and Modern Israel’s borders, so I’m not in this one, but I’m curious to hear what other people say. Here’s the History Channel’s description:
It is considered the most sacred place on Earth. But it has also been carved up, sub-divided and fought over for thousands of years. Was the area known as “The Promised Land” really given by God to a “chosen people?” For the Jewish people, it is the land where David was King, where Solomon built a great temple and where Abraham and his descendants could live in peace and prosperity. Christians believe they have a right to this area because, according to the New Testament, Jesus will first appear here when he returns for the Day of Judgment. Since the Crusades, Temple Mount in Jerusalem has remained under Muslim control and is the site of one of the most sacred mosques in all of Islam. Perhaps God’s real promise was not to Abraham, but to all of humanity, and that a “promised land” was to be earned—not simply given. Could this land of religious tension and endless warfare actually become a Promised Land of peace as foretold in the Bible?
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About
God Didn’t Say That (@GodDidntSayThat) is an online forum for discussing the Bible and its translations, mistranslations, interpretations, and misinterpretations.
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman is the chief translator for the ten-volume series My People’s Prayer Book, author of And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning, and editor of The Unabridged Bible. Writing under “J.M. Hoffman,” he is author of the thriller series The Warwick Files. He holds a PhD in theoretical linguistics and has taught at Brandeis University and HUC-JIR in New York City. He presents widely to churches, synagogues, and other groups. more…
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My thriller series: The Warwick Files.
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I am looking forward to the series, knowing that you and Dr. Ehrman will both be appearing in it.
And not just us. I’m told that dozens of scholars are involved in the 6 episodes.
It’s odd (and a little nerve-racking) to have been interviewed for the show but to have no idea what the final product will look like.
Congrats! I’m sure you did amazing. If I had tv, I would stay up late to watch it.
Having now seen the first episode, what is your opinion of the final product? Do you believe your views were represented completely and fairly? Do you think the overall project was fair to the Christian viewpoint?
All in all, I thought it was well done.
More than anything else, my views were represented briefly — I suspect because the focus of the first episode shifted from translation to the Bible more broadly. (I’m told that I’ll have more a role in the 3rd episode.)
As for fairness to the “Christian viewpoint,” I think the program was generally accurate and fair, and (unlike some other programs) I don’t think it was hostile to religion. But I don’t think there’s a single Christian viewpoint to which to be fair.
What do you mean by your last sentence exactly? Can you expound upon what you mean?
George: What I mean is this. I think there are lots of “Christian viewpoints,” and they do not entirely agree with each other. So it’s hard to answer a question like “was the program fair to the Christian viewpoint?”
For example, I’ve traveled around the country lecturing to Christians and Jews about the Bible. Most of my audiences, even including a Southern Baptist Church in Alabama, appreciate what I’m able to contribute to the understanding of Scripture. Yet a certain segment of the Southern Baptists were so appalled at a Huffington Post piece of mine that they preached against me one Sunday morning. These are both “Christian viewpoints,” but they obviously disagree vehemently.
More generally, I don’t think there is a single Christian viewpoint.
By the way, Eric Jobe has a critique of the show. Even though I don’t agree with all of his analyses, I think his overall position is very well thought out.
Two of his points jump out at me:
First, he write:
Without this acknowledgement, I believe, people of faith will have trouble benefiting from the hugely exciting advances in science that the past 100 years have seen.
Secondly:
I believe that without this acknowledgement (namely, that the Bible has value beyond its original historical accuracy), people of science will have trouble benefiting from the hugely significant contributions of religion.
Read the whole thing here.
I thought you were fine. The show was a rehash of other videos like it. What I want to see is a discussion on how the entire consensus view on Judas in the gnostic gospels can be so far off, in light of the fact that he isn’t mentioned by Paul, or anyone else before Mark. I think Judas is pure fiction. In the Gospel of Judas, Judas is the sacrifice at the climax not Jesus, when read in its proper mystic context. This opens up the possibility that James, from the preceding text in the Codex Tchacos, “James”, can be seen as ‘Judas’ since that text has him disappear as well and lead fellow disciples to spiritual liberation, as Judas does in gJudas. I found plenty of evidence to support the view that Judas is a cover character for James in canonical ‘Betrayal’, and in Clement (thanks to Dr. Eisenman) and Gospel According to the Hebrews. judaswasjames.com
Dr. Hoffman:
Ok, I see what you mean. I guess a more specific question should be asked then. What do you think the consensus of the views expressed in the episode were concerning the view of Jesus as a historical person?
I’ve seen the episode and I wasn’t very impressed. Not much was said in detail and the scope was far too broad. They jump from topic to topic only covering surface information. One example of this is the phrase “son of man.” They take one instance of its use in Mark about the Sabbath but don’t mention its other uses, especially how it is used in the Gospel of Matthew and how it relates to its usage in Daniel and the Enoch scroll, they just say that the phrase means “a man,” or “a dude” as one commentator said. Another one is the word “adam.” My overall impression of the show is that it serves to stir controversy more than it intends to reveal anything about the Bible. The episode was basically a collection of controversial statements said with little force to back anything up. Considering how this episode was on translation in the Bible though, I thought you would have had more of a voice. Hopefully this serves as an introduction to the series and not the standard of how each episode would pan out. The one thing I despised about it was the dramatic style almost all documentaries have nowadays–it’s so annoying.
As to my view on the question I posed you: I think what most (not all) of the scholars hope to achieve here is to establish that the “Gospels” are purely fictional and, therefore, Jesus is also fictional. It comes across quite clear in their tone and the curtness of their statements. Concerning the virgin birth, no one mentions anything about the concept of proof-texting and what the author hoped to achieve, or what he wanted to convey, by using a proof-text, because clearly the context of Isaiah 7:14 isn’t about a messiah at all, so there must be something else that is intended other than a literal interpretation. But it’s not their intention to give a religious interpretation because they are not religious. The purpose is fault-finding.
Considering how this episode was on translation in the Bible though, I thought you would have had more of a voice.
Thanks. In spite of the title, the episode turned out not to have much to do with translation at all.
I think what most (not all) of the scholars hope to achieve here is to establish that the “Gospels” are purely fictional and, therefore, Jesus is also fictional.
I’d be careful assigning too much blame to the scholars. I know I spent a few hours in front of the camera, mostly talking about matters in which I am an established expert. But my one comment that the producers included in the show was an off-hand remark I made about Bible apps, based on something someone showed me a couple of years ago. I imagine there’s a media scholar somewhere who actually knows something about the process by which texts are re-interpreted through changing media, and he or she is probably frustrated that I didn’t mention any of the key points. Similarly, we don’t know the full context in which the scholars intended their words to be interpreted, any more than they got to choose the texts and images that would appear as they spoke.
And I don’t have a problem with making a topic interesting by referring to real controversy. I learned a long time ago that it’s hard to learn if you’re not having fun, and controversy can be fun. But as a scholar who writes for a popular audience, I start with trying to understand the facts, and then try to make my writing interesting.
I know that some of my colleagues do things the other way around. They start with controversy and then pick and choose their facts to support it, in the end misrepresenting things.
I don’t think that Bible Secrets Revealed fell into this tempting trap. I think what they said was as accurate as you can expect in mainstream media.
On the other hand, I do think that the show missed perhaps the most important aspect of the Bible. As you point out — and as Eric Jobe explained so eloquently — the Bible’s religious value has little to do with most of the topics the show addressed. In this sense, it was one-sided. I suppose (though I could be wrong because I don’t know anything about aviation) that it would be like doing a show on mechanical problems with airplanes and forgetting to mention that they fly pretty well and are exceedingly safe.
Well, thanks for that. That was quite informative.
Another observation/critique by Fred Clark dubs the series, based on the first episode, “Bible Secrets Referenced.” His point is that the episode mentioned a lot of interesting material but didn’t really explore it.
I was mostly watching the show to see how the entertainment giant Prometheus created 40 minutes of television. (Among other reasons, I was curious what they would do with the text, because I created my own informational text-based “Exploring the Bible” videos.) I think they did a great job.
But I do wonder what it was like to watch the show if you didn’t already know the content. Anyone care to weigh in? Did you learn anything new from the show?
[…] The Life of Adam and Eve (which I mentioned on the History Channel’s Bible Secrets Revealed: The Forbidden Scriptures). […]
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Joel, in Episode 5, at a point where the subject is the book of Daniel, you say, “Daniel is a book about what happens at the end of time,” and then you say, “Rome was taking over; Herod was ruling Jerusalem.” Care to explain what was going on there? It sounded like two separate comments from you about two different things got spliced together.
I don’t remember exactly, but I think I was talking about two things:
1. The last few centuries of the millennium, and how they produced apocalyptic literature, such as Daniel, Revelation, the War Scroll (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls), and others; and
2. The final century before Rome sacked Jerusalem, when such apocalyptic literature seemed to speak directly to what Jerusalemites were experiencing.
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