Media Massively Bungle Bible Story—and Are Forced to Issue Corrections

Billy Hallowell : Aug 2, 2017
Faithwire.com

After realizing that there were some major errors in their reporting, some journalists issued retractions. 'The Telegraph' was among those that published an honest assessment of the previously incorrect information in the outlet's initial report...

[Faithwire.com] In recent days, countless media outlets have carried bold headlines alleging that a new study calls into question key details presented in the Bible. But there's a big problem with that narrative: It simply isn't true. (Photo: via Pixabay)

It all started with a newly released study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics that claimed to find some intriguing information about the Canaanites, an Old Testament people group that inhabited Palestine before the Hebrews conquered them and claimed the Biblical "Promised Land."

Titled, "Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History from Ancient Canaanite and Present-Day Lebanese Genome Sequences," the report purports to show that "present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population." On the surface, that's pretty interesting stuff.

But here's why the study's claim of finding Canaanite ancestors really made such a splash:

Deuteronomy 20:17 discusses God's call to utterly destroy the Canaanites, leading some reporters to make some inaccurate claims about what really happened.

The verse reads, "Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you." And Joshua 10 does proclaim that there were 'no survivors' during the conquests," but there are a number of theories involving the language used that could help explain that proclamation.

Either way, many in the media simply stopped there, purporting that any modern day evidence of Canaanite DNA must mean that the Bible is incorrect.

Rather than media outlets digging deeper into the truth about what's in the Biblical texts...

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