The Book of Judges ANCIENT Israel History | MythVision Documentary

Thanks for letting me collaborate with you on this video, Derek. The influence of Greek culture and historiography might be an under-appreciated aspect of the Bible stories we all grew up with, and it’s probably an area that will get a lot more academic attention going forward. Seeing the parallels between the feats of Samson and the labors of Hercules, or the 300 warriors of Gideon and the 300 warriors of Leonidas at Thermopylae, can give both believers and non-believers a new appreciation for these stories and the ancient history we're exploring. I hope your viewers will bookmark and share this video and even check out some of the scholarly sources listed in the description. Your church might not be telling you about the most interesting stuff in the Bible, but that research and information is more accessible than ever thanks to online resources and channels like this one.

This is your most listenable video. The rhythm and naturalness of your speech are great. It's not overly dramatic and more importantly, it sounds like you. It assumes that your audience is intelligent enough to take in the information at this pace without adding on unnecessary distractions. Also, the music is at the proper level. Very nice.

Finally. A MythVision video short enough I can actually watch.

Derek, Previously, I poopooed your video about Greek influences in the Torah. But with this one, you've overcome my doubts. The most convincing part for me was that the end of Joshua was "doctored" in the Septuagint to make an easier transition to Judges. Wow! I've never paid attention to Greek mythology before, but certainly you've pointed out similarities between Judges and Greek myths that are too plentiful to ignore. Thanks!

Judges also is seven different renditions of roughly the same story, sometimes even the names being the same or really similar. Reminds me of how Greek mythology names were different in every city state, though the stories were often very similar.

Fable fabulous! It really, very much look like Isrealite culture compiled reworked stories to create its own heritage. I can't unsee what you have presented here so well.

This is really fascinated about how storytelling evolves across cultures and im here for it.

Plenty of theologians have said that Greeks were part of the "mixed multitude" that came out of Egypt during the exodus (what and or how ever that occured or is an echo of -including the Spartans being a part of the them and the tribe of Dan being the Danoi who apart from being connected to the Celtic tribe of ancient Britain, were said to have come from the East following a cart containing a box) so, is it really any surprise that Greek literature was an inspiration for Israelite literature, visa versa or contemporary to eachother?

I'm really enjoying your mini documentaries lately 😊thank-you

You are getting better at this Derek, keep grinding, full support. X

In 2016 a mummified human body was found in a tree in Poland that had bees, wasps and even a squirrel nesting in it. I'm not saying this proves bees actually did build hives in lion or other animal carcasses. I just thought it shows sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. Samson's identification with the sun suggests that the slain lion represents summer's ending while the bee's later found nesting in it represents the return of the warmer season.

The Septuagint is the original Bible based on various sources found in the Library of Alexandria.

I never heard about this investigations before. It explains a lot. Thanks for sharing this knowledge

I didn’t even catch the Anat thing with Shamgar when I read it that’s super interesting

So well done. You're absolutely killing it with Content Derek

In other words the Israelites were just copying already existing stories for their own narrative and then passed them on as their own

The connections of Anat has sparked another direction to fork through the spaghetti of Mediterranean mythologies! That being said, it is all so fascinating.

This is amazing! I'd love to see a collab with Klaas Spronk as well!

@inquisitiveBible : Thanks for writing the script. I'll check out your channel.

The quotes from Maccabees are interesting, in that Maccabees is still part of the Catholic canon and were originally part of the first canon. Hmm?