G. Frink's

Fundamentalists beware of Public Television's The Bible's Buried Secrets. Or seek it out as I did, because it was created in good faith and explicitly to enlighten -- not to harm.

It offers archeological evidence and scholarly analysis if perhaps not the hill of inerrancy dramatically cited at the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina meeting in Greensboro.

Consider, for example, how the Bible was written in an item-by-item, paragraph-by-paragraph and internal-contradiction-by-internal-contradiction way.

Michael Coogan is a Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College and Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. He says:

YHWH ("Yahweh")

Think of an analogy: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, which covers over a thousand years, from Beowulf into the 20th century. The Bible covers a similar span. The earliest texts in the Bible likely date to before 1000 B.C., and the latest texts go at least to the 2nd century B.C., and for Christians, into the 2nd century A.D. So it is an anthology of the literature of ancient Israel and early Judaism, and for Christians, of earliest Christianity, as well.

Like any anthology, it's selective. There were many other texts that the ancient Israelites and early Christians produced that we no longer have. We have reference in the Book of Numbers, for instance, to the Book of the Wars of Yahweh. Yahweh was the name of the God of Israel. And it must have been a wonderful book, but all we have is a kind of learned footnote.

Or the foundation of Judiasm. A close, scholarly look raises the for some heretical question of whether founding father Abraham was himself a Jew. Shaye Cohen, the Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University. explains:

Abraham, the forefather of Judaism

In modern terms, the Jewishness of Abraham fundamentally consists of belief. He communicates with God, and God communicates with him. Now, the rabbis of old imagined that Abraham observed the whole Torah, that Abraham observed all the commandments: He observed the Sabbath, he observed the festivals, he observed the laws of culture and food. He observed everything, not just circumcision, which is attributed to him explicitly in Genesis, but everything else as well. Because how can you imagine our forefather Abraham, the founder of Judaism, not observing the Jewish rules, not observing the Jewish laws? This is a wonderful anachronism, a charming conceit. But historically speaking, how could it be?

Divinity school professor and blogger Tony Cartledge says of the program:

Most viewers will find something about the program with which to disagree -- but also many things that will provoke productive thought. Viewers will come away with about as good a critical introduction to the emergence of the Bible and of Israel as is possible in a two-hour span.

If you cannot actually tune in for Nova's "archeological detective story," The Bible's Buried Secrets, PBS says the entire show will be available online on and after Nov. 19.

Update

The program is online in 13 chapters, each available in both Quicktime and Windows Media Player format/