amazon/Legend-Genesis.../dp/009979991X Egyptologist David Rohl challenged long held beliefs about ancient Egyptian history and its timeline in his first book, A Test of Time (a.k.a. Pharaohs and Kings in its American incarnation). In so doing, he backed into demonstrating that early Hebrew tradition and history correlates with the records of Egypt and other regional nations of the time, from the Patriarch Joseph to the initial Israelite kings. This book continues that re-evaluation of history by adding a fresh look at the earlier Biblical legends to see if he can make historical sense out of them. He mostly succeeds. This book delves into an examination of people and events from Genesis that many exegetes regard as legendary at best. Among those covered include Adam and Eve along with identification of the probable physical location of a real Garden of Eden, and their descendents as the early leaders of what became the Sumerian civilization. He explains the linguistic correlation between Scriptural names and Sumerian ones to make his case. He then adds an intriguing explanation for the long mysterious origin of the Egyptian ruling class of their Dynasties Zero and One to tie together a solid thesis about the origins and migrations of many of the peoples of the Near East, such as the Canaanites and the Phoenicians. His conclusions are not without minor errors, which accounts for a rating of four stars instead of five. He mistranslates Elohim, as do many modern scholars, to mean Lords of the mountain, when it actually means Lord of the mountains. He also backs into an estimation of a date for the occurrence of the Great Flood by using literary sources exclusively, ignoring the physical evidence that places it about 8,000 years earlier. To recognize this would necessitate a further reworking of his timeline but he has already demonstrated thoroughly the openness to follow the evidence to wherever it leads. Unlike the sensationalistic books lately extant from many other irresponsible writers, Dr. Rohls research is sound and responsible scholarship. It is well worth reading.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 05:53:25 +0000
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