Empires - The Kingdom of David - The Saga of the Israelites

Starring:Jeremy Irons, Jake Borowski, Benjamin Maccabee, Keith David
Director: Mitch Wilson, Carl Byker
Studio: Pbs Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Description

Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites tells the epic story of the Jews and the creation of the world's first and most profoundly influential monotheistic religion. The stories of the patriarch Abraham, the liberator Moses, the poet-king David and his son Solomon all come to life in the dramatic tale of loss and triumph that shaped humanity's basic moral struggle for more than three millennia.

Customer Reviews:

Kingdom born of ideas.......2007-02-16

This is rather an amazing production, in four hour-long parts, on the early history of the Jewish people, through the 4th century of the Common Era (CE) It demonstrates the historical basis of Jewish longing for freedom---and for undying hope, supported by belief in God and His laws.

With biblical readings by Jeremy Irons and Derek Jacobi, and video reenactments of many of the most important biblical stories, this Public Broadcasting Service series recounts the evolution of the Jewish people, after Abraham's meeting with God, and the Jewish Exodus from Egypt led by Moses.

Following Jewish slavery in Egypt, the series covers numerous conquests of Judea, by the Assyrians (which scattered ten of Israel's 12 tribes), the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks (Hellenists) and the Romans.

One especially moving (and important) part of this saga comes 80 years following the Jewish return to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile. Ezra reads the Five Books of Moses (Torah) to the Judeans (Jewish people), noting that God's teachings are accessible to anyone who chooses to understand--and all based on the Ten Commandments, commanding mankind to honor life, one another, and not to covet others' spouses, or possessions.

PBS consulted an impressive number of religious and archaeological scholars, including Harvard University's James Kugel, Yale's Wayne Meeks, and Rabbis from many of the foremost Jewish institutes of learning.

The tradition of disagreeing with scripture, the series notes, was established by Job, who mourns his loss of everyone held dear; He dares to ask why good people often suffer, while bad people often prosper. The suggestion of a reward in the afterlife, is a Jewish teaching developed further in the Book of Daniel.

During the 2nd Century BCE, Ben Sira (Sirach) established a Jewish educational academy to study the Torah, generating the idea of divine inspiration, and providing devout Jews intellectual power to best their contemporary oppressors, the Greeks. and even to interpret God's words.

In 185 BCE, Antiochus IV ordered Jerusalem's Jewish temple to be dedicated to chief Greek god, Zeus; His outrageous establishment of Greek shrines in all Jewish villages drove Judeans to become the first people in history to declare war for the right to freedom of religion.

When the Greeks slaughtered more than 1,000 pious Judeans, who preferred not to violate the Sabbath by defending themselves, the Jews also became the first people in history willing to die for their religion. Thus the Judeans established Jewish tradition, during defensive wars, not only to fight on the Sabbath, but to be obligated to protect themselves. In 164 BCE, Judah Maccabee miraculously restored the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Antiochus ultimately tracked and killed him. However, Judah's brother Jonathan, by gathering 10,000 men, gained enough strength to negotiate for Judeans' independence, which persisted for the next 100 years. During that time, the self-governed Judeans developed the idea of defending God's law, along with their kingdom of Judea (the Jewish people).

Judea's next conqueror, the Roman empire, crucified tens of thousands of Jews and besieged Jerusalem. But only when the Romans appointed King Herod, a non-Jewish prince, did Jewish rebels counter attack. Herod's men ruthlessly murdered them, followed them into the hills and literally smoked out them and their families from their caves. Even Herod's reconstruction of Jerusalem's Holy Temple did not redeem him for the Jewish rebels.

Following Herod's death in 4 BCE, chaos and civil war reigned in Judea, spawning the Pharisees, and their great Jewish philosopher Hillel. He taught that Judeans needed no priests to reach God--but only to study. Jewish legend says that Hillel, once asked to recite all of Torah while standing on one foot, replied, "What is hateful to you, do not do unto others. All the rest is commentary."

According to Yale Professor Meeks, the post-Herodean age also spawned Jesus, whose lessons were entirely Jewish in nature. In 33 CE, the Romans arrested and crucified Him, like tens of thousands of other Jewish "troublemakers" murdered during that era.

In 67 CE, the Romans sent 60,000 soldiers to Jerusalem, then home to 100,000 Jews, Judeans in the holy city were starving, and factions fought between themselves. One "expert" inexplicably compares the Zealots' rebellion to 21st century jihad. While these Judeans considered revolt against Rome the only way to save the Jewish people, neither the Torah nor Jewish law commanded them to do so. Qur'anic doctrine and Islamic jurists, by contrast, fix military jihad as central to Islamic faith and law.

Furthermore, other experts mistakenly compare the situation of 1st century Jews to that of Jews during the 20th century Holocaust. Wrong again. While the murderous the Romans, in destroying the Temple, also ruined the Jewish political, religious and economic center--they did not plan to murder all Judeans. They only wanted to kill Jewish ideas. Thus, they renamed Judea, Palestine, and exiled Jerusalem's remaining people, all Pharisees.

It was only after the Bar Kochba rebellion, from 132 to 135 CE, that the Romans sent 13 legions, who razed 900 Jewish villages and killed 580,000 men--not to mention the countless others who perished through famine and disease. And even then, the survivors were not murdered--they were exiled.

In which exile, the Judeans (Jewish people) prospered spiritually--by adhering to traditions established more than 500 years earlier in Babylon, namely, teaching and prayer, longing for freedom--and hope, not only for themselves, but for all of mankind.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

A good overview of ancient Israel.......2006-07-26

I found this program to be an interesting and informative overview of the history of Israel from its pre-Israeli origins (in Abraham) through its destruction that resulted from revolts in 70 A.D. and in the early 130's A.D. The program does not claim to cover every page in the Bible regarding the history of Israel, and it stops at the point that Israel ceased to be a nation (that is, until the modern state of Israel was created in the 1940's).

I think previous reviewers have sold this program short due to personal biases. The last reviewer needs to read a Bible and find out that the errors are his and not the program's. The other reviewer makes the contradictory statement that the program tries to cover too much ground and is long and boring, and yet then asks why the program didn't continue on and discuss the history of the Israelites over the past two millenia.

If you want a detailed (though not entirely comprehensive) overview of the history of ancient Israel, this program is quite good. I had never read much past the New Testament times and found the final section on the Bar-Kokhba revolt to be quite educational (I was always led to believe that Israel was finished after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D., but it turns out that the Bar-Kokhba revolt was actually the ancient nation's last gasp). This is an interesting and informative documentary!

highly recommended to watch, but be careful of the mistakes.......2006-04-02

I do not deny that i enjoyed watching this DVD however, there were a lot of mistakes and abbreviations of the pivotal historical events of the Jews. First, the sacrificed son of Abraham is Ishmael, not Isaac as the movie affirmed, since it is well-known that the age difference between Ishmael (the older son of Abraham) and Isaac was about fourteen years! Let us read what the "bible" mentioned about the birth of the kids of Abraham, Ishmael and Issac, " Abram was eighty six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram." (Genesis, 16:16) "Now Abram was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him." (Genesis 21:5). Second, the title of the movie is "the kingdom of David", has to be changed to "the kingdom of Israel" ( Israel is the name of the prophet "Jaccob" PBUH_the documentary film did not tell us about him_ the son of "Isaac" pbuh). Third, this documentary movie showed the prophets of God as immoral people which contradicts with the idea of being a prophet! For example, the documentary film affirmed on that "David" did adultery, Moses killed the Egyptian...etc. I did not find in this movie the original construction of the Solomon Temple and why Solomon(PBUH) had selected Jerusalem(which mean the "city of Peace" which had been built by David and his son Solomon PBUT) as a location to build the temple_ the History of building the Temple of Jerusalem is so important historical event and really deserves much more focus. The movie also did not show us why Jews immigrated to Egypt! Again, the story of Joseph (pbuh),the son of Jacob(Israel), was not mentioned at all!. Besides, the part of the movie that described Jesus era was not accurate (Jesus (PBUH) according to this movie was just a troublemaker punished by the Roman Empire for his claim that he was the messiah (messiah according the film means a King!). Moreover, the movie did not provide CONVINCING REASONS for why God has punished Jews throughout different eras of the history, although the movie affirmed on Jews are the selected people of God! Nevertheless, the movie covered very long period of Jews history and showed/explained a lot of details about their traditions. I do recommend this documentary film, but be careful of the historical mistakes.

Snooze..........2006-01-09

Did they have to try to include the entire history of Judaism from Abraham to the Maccabees. I found myself dozing off by the time they got to David and Bathsheba.

Unfortunately, one of the weaknesses of this DVD, beside its long length, is the fact that we're told shockingly little of Jewish history after about 100 A.D. Therefore, not only does this DVD fail to entertain, it also maintains silences about current Jewish history. No Maimonides and Jewish Spain? No tales of Russian Jews? No Jews in the United States?

I think "Empires" certainly failed with this edition. Definitely one to skip.

Empires - The Kingdom of David - The Saga of the Israelites

Average customer rating:

A good start
Good intro into Jewish History
Fascinating but controversial period
A black sheep in the PBS Empires Series

Empires - The Kingdom of David - The Saga of the Israelites
Starring: Pbs
Manufacturer: Pbs Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000C23CS
Release Date: 2003-11-04

Description

The Saga of the Israelites tells the epic story of the Jews and the creation of the world's first and most profoundly influential monotheistic religion. The stories of the patriarch Abraham, the liberator Moses, the poet-king David and his son Solomon all come to life in the dramatic tale of loss and triumph that shaped humanity's basic moral struggle for more than three millennia.

Customer Reviews:

A good start.......2005-01-03

Either side of the divide can find cause to criticize this program, but what it does is stimulate interest in the archeological evidence for many of the stories with which many Americans are familiar. It helps to promote the idea that the religious must be separated from the historical. If religion stimulates an interest in history, then that is enough reason to undertake a documentary of this nature.

Overall, some of the points in the program are dated by more recent field finds, many of which have only been published in Hebrew. Hopefully, interest in this subject will result in a greater dissemination in America of professional papers currently only available in Hebrew, Arabic or European languages.

Good intro into Jewish History .......2004-09-27

While not perfect, it's one of the best introductions to Jewish History I have seen on DVD. If one is a conservative in terms of religious views, then I can see why one would not like it. However, for the rest of us, it is a well done production mainly because of the interviews from various scholars. I would suggest it to anyone wanting to add to their understanding of Old Testament History and Judaism, as well as to anyone else who has several of the other Empire Series.

Fascinating but controversial period.......2004-03-03

I think its inevitable that THIS particular edition of Empires will get some harsh reviews. Almost anything you say about this period of time will offend one religious follower or another. The episode draws from historical, biblical and archeological sources, and includes interviews from a variety of Jewish and non-Jewish scholars.

It is rare that we get to see any attempt to treat this time period from a real historical viewpoint, because it is such a loaded topic.

A black sheep in the PBS Empires Series.......2004-01-22

PBS is known for their outstanding production, and their Empires series is no exception. However, the "Kingdom of David" installment is a big disappointment. Rather than sticking to historical fact, the bulk of this show simply gives a mouthpiece to a single author's novel idea of "Who wrote the Bible?" The ideas don't even make sense in light of the Bible's content. Rather than stating that the Bible was COMPILED during the Babylonian Exile, he presumes the Bible was WRITTEN at this time, essentially claiming that the myriad of minute historical details interlaced in the Pentateuch is mere fabrication. Completely outrageous! The historical reality, supported by modern archaeological finds, supports the traditional assertion that the Bible's early books were compiled from existing writings. Moses himself almost certainly compiled the Genesis account from existing writings. Archaeology has proven that writing was well-developed even at the time of Abraham, as evidenced by clay tablets from the period that document trade with Ur, the site of Abraham's birth.

The series ignores the fact that the following books all portend to have been written prior to the Bablyonian Exile: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, large portions of the Kings and the Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and others.

The series also makes the absurd claim that the Jewish faith didn't become something they were willing to die for until after the return from Babylon. This assertion denies the Bible's historical claims to the contrary, as found in the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and the Kings and the Chronicles.

Let's stop giving the benefit of doubt to unfounded modern criticism. Let them make their claims, but make sure they back up their claims with evidence before stating their opinions as fact. This program contained only assertions, and no evidence. Just as the theory of evolution is often asserted as fact without a critical examination of the assertions, so this video consists of assertions stated as fact without evidence or answering any objections. The "scholarship" is on par with that of the Jesus Seminar. The video did not interview or present the viewpoing of even a single conservative or even middle-of-the-road scholar.

PBS should be ashamed that they have ignored the preponderance of scholarship on this issue. To buy this DVD was a complete waste of money, and to watch it was a complete waste of time. The show didn't even cover the time of David's kingdom, but rather started after his rule, at the time of the Babylonian exile. As such, why this DVD was titled "The Kingdom of David" is completely baffling. It has nothing to do with the rule of this famous Israeli king of antiquity.

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