Dr. Francesca Stavrakopoulou presented three BBC TV programmes (March 15, 22 & 29) with energetic excitement.
Senior Lecturer in the Hebrew Bible at Exeter University, she presented herself as ‘an atheist with a huge respect for religion ... a biblical scholar’ who thinks that an academic should ‘leave faith at the door’. Her message, she asserted repeatedly, is that the Old Testament is fictitious religious literature which conceals ancient realities.
David and Solomon
The first programme was about David and Solomon. In the 1950s, the Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin excavated a town gate at Hazor in the north of Israel which he dated to the tenth century BC, the time of Solomon. He noted gates of similar design had been uncovered at Gezer and Megiddo and deduced that they were Solomon’s work, in the light of 1 Kings 9.15. Many competent archaeologists accepted that.
