★★★★★ 5
From Eden to Exile: The Five Thousand Year History of The People of The Bible
Format: Paperback
Well written book about a very interesting subject. Author is basically restructuring the traditionally accepted royal dynasty time periods of the Egyptian Pharaohs. I do accept that the traditional ancient time spans are mostly not accurate. This inaccuracy causes problems when trying to date other cultures of the same periods. The prime example is the biblical history of the Hebrews. When adjusting the Egyptian historical writings to around 200 years later you then do see references to accounts of a people who might have been the ancient Hebrews. It is interesting that we accept Egyptian history, as written in stone, but not the Hebrew written history. This author, and others, are disputing this accepted dating of Egyptian royal dynastic rule. The author tells a purely historical biblical history leaving religious commentary out of it. I don't agree with all his story but a great part of it is very possible. The bible is a religious and historical writing but it is possible to separate the two. The possibility of this new time frame being correct would change present day archaeology dramatically and would likely confirm much of secular biblical history.
Ancient history of a particular culture must be correct in order to say if another culture existed at the same time. Right now Egyptian dating is being used to judge as to whether the biblical history is true. This of course is a very dubious yard stick. Who says ancient Egyptian writings are 100% true? Many have been found to be for political & religious purposes and not necessarily true. This book is an eye opener and puts a big ? mark about current historical dating and what is true and false about ancient Israel !
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Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2010
