In the first episode of our series on Ancient Israel and also Judah we are joined by Dr. Aren Maeir who guides us into the controversial and heavily debated origin or origins of the Ancient Israelites.

He discusses the scholarship on the subject such as:

Did the Israelites develop out of the Canaanite populations?

Did they migrate in over time? If so, then from where?

Or is the answer both? Did natives and migrants eventually come together to form a distinctly different group?

We also talk archaeology, ancient DNA, dietary laws, primary sources for the earliest evidence of the Israelites outside of the Bible and so very much more.

We also discuss thought provoking topics such as:

Is the term Israel derived from a pagan Canaanite deity?

How should we view the Old Testament when studying history?

Can we use both the term Israelite and Hebrew interchangeably?

But as we leave off Dr. Maeir reminds us to be cautious of how we use results from ancient DNA studies while reminding us how often the results get misconstrued.

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