In six 30-minute programmes scheduled for transmission in autumn 2001 John McCarthy travels through the Holy Land to examine the validity or otherwise of stories from the Old Testament. Bringing in history, archaeology and new research, his intriguing journey is the subject of this thought-provoking tie-in which looks at: the truth behind Jericho's 'tumbling' walls; the mystery of the Promised Land; who was Solomon; when did the Jews become monotheists; what was Zion; and when was the text of the Old Testament actually written? The book offers fresh, sometimes unsettling, perspectives on the Bible and its history.
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Matthew Sturgis is a renowned writer with special interest in historical subjects. He contributes frequently to the Daily Telegraph and also writes for Harpers & Queen, Interiors, ES and The Times Literary Supplement.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An extremely important book that has been ignored,
By A Customer
This review is from: It Ain't Necessarily So: Investigating the Truth of the Biblical Past (Charnwood Library) (Hardcover)
It's a disgrace to "intellectuals" of the world, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, that they have ignored this book. It should be in every city public library, university library, and it should be a best seller of a major publisher. It was favorably reviewed by The Times (of London) Literary Supplement (Jan.11, 2002, page 27), but never by the N.Y. Times (although the ideas were summarized on page B7 of the March 9, 2002 N.Y. Times). This easy-to-read (though somewhat wordy) book collects the evidence that there are no archeological remains of the great cities and temples of the Bible (or else a few remains at very wrong places and with very wrong carbon-14 dating). Excellent records were kept by Egyptians, Romans, Assyrians, etc., but none show anything about biblical people or events before King Josiah, hundreds of years after Moses, David, Solomon, etc. Therefore Josiah probably commissioned Hebrew scribes (who were truly writers of genius!) to make up ALL(!) the great stories. The book is fascinating and important, although millions of people are trying hard to ignore it.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A balanced and informative book,
By Dejvid (Europe) - See all my reviews
This review is from: It Ain't Necessarily So: Investigating the Truth of the Biblical Past (Charnwood Library) (Hardcover)
This a detailed survey of the current debate which avoids jumping to conclusions. It gives space to different interpretations of the accumulating evidence both from biblical literalists to outright rejectionists. He does however favor a middle view. As the tittle says it all "it ain't necessarily so" with an implied "ain't ncessarily not so". Archeology suggests that the Israelites were not invaders but groups of Canaanites who broke free of the old cities to bring under cultivation the till then lowly inhabited hill country. It is hard to see how the account in Joshua of an external invasion fits with this but the description of the Israelites in Judges fits the archeology quite well. He makes it quite clear, however, the extent that the evidence is too sketchy for anyone make dramatic claims about having found the "truth".
2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The lowest form of the Higher Criticism,
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This review is from: It Aint Necessarily So TV Tie (Hardcover)
The idea of a simple, introductory look at archaeology in light of the Bible narrative is a good one, and "It Ain't Necessarily So" would have been a worthy effort, except for one thing. But it is a very big thing, which I will get to later.
That the Bible cannot be accurate history is evident from its own contradictions. That parts of it might not be wholly imaginary is possible. That evidence of specific events might still lie in the ground is intriguing. Television narrator Matthew Sturgis starts with the story of the assault on Jericho. If the archaeology is right, the walls did not come tumbling down at the blast of Hebrew trumpets. The city probably was unoccupied at the time the Israelites supposedly arrived. Or perhaps the time of arrival is wrong. Anyhow, the biblical reconstruction is no more reliable than we know certain other ancient documents to be -- as, for example, when Egyptian pharaohs and Mesopotamian kings both take credit for defeating each other in the same battle. Sturgis carries through with a review of archaeological matches or failure to match with the historical books of the Old Testament, the ones that tell of the establishment of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and the Temple. For the Jew or Christian of simple faith and conventional religious education, this could have been a gentle introduction to physical facts that should shake, if not their faith, then their confidence in the reliability of at least parts of the Bible. It is popular, sketchy, shallow and fast-paced -- just what you would expect from a text that accompanied a television series (which I have not seen). It is also, as you would expect when you learn the TV series was produced in Britain, anti-Jewish. The English are always receptive to an invitation to genteelly despise Jews, and Sturgis delivers in the politest, despicable manner. There is also an even more anti-Jewish introduction by journalist John McCarthy, who is suffering from a bad case of Stockholm syndrome. Besides misstating, in the blandest possible style, the history of recent events (not only ancient documents are unreliable), it takes as a premise that the accuracy of the Bible is a necessary support for Zionism. So it has been used, but there is more to Zionism than that. The constant theme of the book -- the 21st century Jews have no justification to be in Palestine, because they weren't there in the way and at the (implied) time the Bible says they were 3,100 years ago -- besides being dishonest is not even supported by the text of "It Ain't Necessarily So" itself. If archaeology finds that cities once attributed to David or Solomon really came later, to be attributed to Ahab, does that not prove the existence of a Jewish kingdom? Besides, if holy books are taken to be real estate deeds (which they never should be), then the claim of Islam to the Temple Mount is even less strong than that of Jews to Palestine. There really were Jews in ancient Palestine. No one not a Muslim thinks the story that justifies having a mosque at Aqsa has any historical validity. Much of the digging that has brought the naïve view of the narrative of the Bible into question has been done by Israeli archaeologists. Sturgis quotes one, Tomy Lapid, who says, "they are supplying arguments to those who want to delegitimize the Israelis." Whether he's right about the archaeologists or not, that is certainly the intention of Sturgis and ITV. "It Ain't Necessarily So" is an evil little book.
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