Source: The History and Archaeology of the Bible | Kanopy
Opinion:
After watching episodes 1-4 and most of episode 16, this National Geographic | Great Courses video proves to be a worthwhile journey into the world of the Bible.
For those who think we should take the Bible literally or assume it is historically accurate, I think it’s time these folks opened their eyes to learn what bits of knowledge God has given us. Most of what we discover when looking at the Bible from a historical and archaeological perspective is a lot of uncertainty and competing theories about what really happened – and what probably did not happen.
In episode 4 the presenter talks about the story of Joseph in Egypt. According to Genesis, Joseph the Jew rose to become Vizier, the second-most powerful person in Egypt next to Pharoah himself.
Was this possible? We have no historical records of Joseph assuming such an exalted position but we do have a historical context where invading oppressors and/or immigrant settlers gradually stole power from the ruling Egyptians.
This was the Hyksos period and interestingly, the Hyksos did not grab all power in Egypt but coexisted with the Pharaos of the 16th and 17th dynasties who were now in Thebes.
History does repeat
This caught my attention because it resembles a situation in Canada that I talk about every now and then.
Basically, the Pharaos were powerless to stop the arrival of the Hyksos, the latter gradually taking over most of the fertile land and becoming rich and powerful. Watching this I couldn’t help but think of our hapless Trudeau, who makes grand overtures against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine but seems to do virtually nothing to quell central and eastern European organized crime in Canada.
Trudeau may be incompetent but he’s not totally clued out. His father was Prime Minister for many years and his mother hung out with Mick Jagger. I imagine the young Justin learned a few things about the full spectrum of humanity while talking at the dinner table. My speculative guess is his dad in speaking about the underworld said something any shrewd politician would say—that is, “Get them on your side because you can’t stop it.”
Sometimes I wonder if that kind of compromise approach is the smartest. After all, there isn’t too much one can do if say, an immigrant criminal professor weasels there way into the system, maybe even marries a naive local person to bolster their cover.
A professor might be so clever and canny that they gradually alter policies to better suit them and hire damaged, dopey underlings who kiss their asses and dare not say anything for the sake of job security.
And so the disease spreads while honest, hard-working PhDs with genuine merit go nowhere and end up driving for Uber.
This seems to be the situation in some sectors of not just academia but anything even remotely involving government funding in Canada. In short, we have dull mediocrity instead of true innovation and vitality. Not always, but most of the time. If you don’t believe me, just watch CBC news… Gaaad. How horrible is that?
In short, people who say history does not repeat don’t know what they are talking about. Sure, the details differ. But the general trend of brute force and psychopathic intelligence taking what it can almost seems to be a human constant.
As I’ve said before, what can we do about it?
Germany appears to be on the right track but Canada? My God, Trudeau seems so limp on this issue we’d do better to try to fight violent corruption with a roll of toilet paper.
Earthpages.org 