Joshua Francis

Review of Bible Secrets Revealed, Episode 2:

The Promised Land
In the second episode of Bible Secrets Revealed, scholars attempted to explore the issue
of The Promised Land and whether God really promised that particular area to the descendants
of Abraham. As the narrator put it, Was the area known as the Promised Land really given by
God to a chosen people, and if so, is the proof really found in the pages of the Old Testament?
The videos production was fragmented. It jumps around with hints and allusions, making
it difficult to follow the scholars reasoning. Thus it was necessary to work out an outline that
more or less captures the general movement of the video.
Overview

Three religions lay claim to the land (Jews, Muslims, and

Christians), and that land has continually been wracked by
violence.
First topic
Israels claim to the land and the violent nature of their takeover.
Second topic Christianitys claim to the land and their violent history there.
Third topic
Islams claim to the land through Ishmael and Mohammed.
Conclusion . . .
The trouble with the production is that at no point is anything very strongly affirmed.
Instead, it is filled with allusion, hints, and suggestions. The vast majority of the video is spent
discussing the violence of Israels history in the land and the violence of Gods commands and
judgments. The episode never really seems to tie it all together. It seemed though, that the
implication was that God was unjustly violent toward the former inhabitants of the land, the
Israelites, and Moses.
One of the biggest hang-ups for the scholars in the video seemed to be the surprising
means by which Israel was to come into the land as commanded by God. As Reza Aslan put it,
[God told them] not just to conquer . . . but to slaughter every last inhabitant of the land . . .
[down to] every blade of grass . . . as an offering to God, before the land can be purified and
given to the Jews as their promised inheritance (6:28). Just before this, the narrator and Bart
Ehrman speak of the situation as if God had promised the land to the Israelites, but there was the
inconvenience of a people already in the land. Thus they were to take the land by any means
necessary. For a group of scholars seeking out secrets in the Bible, they set an unhealthy trend
of ignoring what the Bible actually says.
For instance, the scriptures do not offer a picture of the Canaanites simply getting in the
way of his promise, but instead, they were a pivotal reason for His promise. Do not think to
yourself after the LORD your God has driven them out before you, Because of my own
righteousness the LORD has brought me here to possess this land. It is because of the wickedness
of these nations that the LORD is driving them out ahead of you (Deut 9.4, see also vv. 56).
Again, in Genesis 15:16, In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin
of the Amorites1 has not yet reached its limit. The nations that populated the land of Canaan
1

For a discussion on Amorites as representative of the general population of the land of Canaan, see Kenneth
A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26, in The New American Commentary, vol. 1b (Nashville, TN: Broadman &
Holman, 2005), 175.

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were apparently particularly wicked nations that God had given at least four hundred years of
opportunity to repent and come out of their wicked ways.2 While archaeology has not confirmed
it all, the Bible speaks of the wickedness of the Canaanites, ranging form numerous forms of
incest to adultery, bestiality, homosexuality and child sacrifice (Lev. 18:628). Archaeology has
confirmed that at least by the time those cultures moved west (to Carthage), they did practice
child sacrifice3 as attested by Scripture and other extra-biblical sources.4 On top of their
wickedness as a nation, when God brought Israel up to the land, the Canaanites responded with
violence and hardened hearts (Joshua 11:1920).
The scholars behind Bible Secrets Revealed tell just enough of the story to cause the
modern viewer to be uncomfortable and to disparage God. They read and interpret just enough of
the Bible to make it sound morally questionable, stopping short where it would offer its
justifications. Throughout the video, God is portrayed as the overbearing judge and humankind
as the unfortunate recipient of His fickle wrath. Not once do they speak of humanity as being in
sinful rebellion against their rightful ruler and creator. In a story in which humankind is the
protagonist, of course God is going to come across as too judgmental. When we approach the
scriptures remembering that humanity has become the sinful cancer polluting the land (Lev
18:25), then we can view the surgeon in a truer light as he amputates a leg or bombards his
patient with multiple treatments of chemotherapy. In the grand scheme of things, humanitys
sinful condition is enough to justify Gods complete destruction of the world, whether he might
choose to do so with fire and brimstone or an army from the Middle East. The most amazing
thing about that is that this is the story in which that surgeon instead stepped in and took that
cancer upon himself, thus sparing his patient altogether.
Another claim the video makes that needs to be addressed is that Ishmael, as the firstborn
son, was the rightful heir of the promise (35:30). This particular section is rife with
misinformation. They quote Jewish law, saying that the firstborn son was the only legal heir.
Jewish law however did not exist yet. One of the laws that we do know of surprisingly speaks
directly to the situation. According to Lipit Ishtar (c. 1900 B.C.), a slave wifes children would
share inheritance rights with the other children of their father. Immediately after that clause
though, it is stated that if the father grants his slave wife and her children freedom, then her sons
forfeit any inheritance rights.5 Abraham was likely not under this law, but it is an appropriate
example at the least of what the laws of the day were. This is just another example of the
scholars behind the Bible Secrets Revealed series sharing selective information to draw
inaccurate conclusions for their audience.
In the end, the episode does not even answer its own question: Was this particular area
really given by God to a chosen people? In lieu of a solution, after the BSR producers take their
audience on a whirlwind tour of the violence in the Bible as they see it, they turn from the
historical question and look instead to the future. They conclude that surely it was never intended
to be geographical location, so much as an ideal, a goal, or even a test, After all, if these
three warring religious factions could only learn to get along in this tempestuous land, then the

A similar situation can be seen in the study of Nineveh. God sent Jonah to preach repentance, which the city
responded to and they were spared. Over a hundred years later, the city had returned to its squalor, Nahum was sent
to prophecy, the city did not respond, and God responded with judgment.
3
Sabatino Moscati, The World of the Phoenicians (London, WI: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968), 141-144.
4
Diodorus Siculus, XX, 14, 4-6.
5
Lipit Ishtar 24, 25.

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whole world could learn to exist in peace with one another. Bible Secrets Revealed ends up
veiling truth far more than revealing secrets.