Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
ISBN: 1989852777
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 27
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Thoth the Nobleman was a herald of Queen Hatshepsut and her young son Thutmose III, who seems to have died while she was still ruling Egypt, as his autobiography refers to her as the King of Egypt. After she died, Thutmose III tried to remove all records of her being king, although she was still mentioned in newly written biographies as the 'divine wife' and 'chief royal wife' of Pharaoh Thutmose II. Thoth the Nobleman reports that he was trusted by Queen Hatshepsut more than anyone else, as he kept quiet about what was happening in the palace. This statement may not be entirely true as the architect Senenmut is generally considered to have been her lover. Another theory is that Senenmut may have been a homosexual friend of hers, which would then open the possibility that Thoth the Nobleman was her lover. Graffiti depicting a female or hermaphrodite pharaoh having sex with a man was discovered in an incomplete temple near the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, which is generally assumed to have been a representation of Senenmut, however, only the image survives without any writing that identifies the man, who could have been any Egyptian man, including Thoth the Nobleman, or simply intended as a representative figure of a generic male intended to insult the 'king' by depicting 'him' as a female. As this graffiti is depicted close to the massive and iconic Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, it is clear that at least some of the men in Egypt did not view her as a 'king' even late in her reign, which supports the rebellion of the 'Wicked-Evil Kushite' in the Syrian Rivers province for the first eight years of her reign in the Septuagint's Book of Judges. Thoth the Nobleman described working on many major projects throughout the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, including her Mortuary Temple, the Temples at Karnak, and the mysterious Hahut, a great sanctuary of Amen on his horizon in the west, which may have been an early reference to the Oracle Temple of Amen in the Siwa Oasis. Thoth the Nobleman also reported working on the ceremonial boat of Amen called 'Amen's Mighty of Prow.' Three centuries later, when the High Priest of Amen Her-Heru attempted to replicate this deed, it led to the problematic Voyage of Wenamen.
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
ISBN: 1989852122
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 44
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In the early centuries of the Christian era, several texts called the Apocalypse of Ezra were in circulation among Jews, Christians, Gnostics, and related religious groups. The original is believed to have been written in Judahite or Aramaic and is commonly known as the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra, as Ezra is believed to have been an ancient Judahite. This translation is referred to as the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra, as the book has nothing to do with modern Judaism. This version of the Apocalypse was translated into Greek sometime before 200 AD and circulated widely within the early Christian churches. This prophet Ezra is not the scribe Ezra from the books of Ezra, but a prophet named Shealtiel who lived a couple of centuries earlier. In the apocalypse, he is called Ezra by the angel Uriel, which translates a ‘helper’ or ‘assistant.’ In the book, it is claimed that the prophet Ezra wrote 904 books, and its popularity seems to have inspired a number of Christian-era Apocalypses of Ezra, presumably beginning with the ‘Latin’ Apocalypse of Ezra which claimed to be the ‘second book of the prophet Ezra.’ The ‘second apocalypse’ was strangely attributed to Ezra the Scribe, and not the earlier exilarch Shealtiel, suggesting the author of the second apocalypse was not entirely familiar with the first apocalypse. The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra is a third Apocalypse of Ezra, which has only survived in two copies, both dating to before the 9th century. It is a separate text from the Judahite or Latin Apocalypses of Ezra and appears to be a Christian-era composite of various Ezra and Shadrach related materials. There is no consensus of when the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra was written, however, it is a Christian era Apocalypse, which refers to several Christian Apostles in heaven along with the Israelite Patriarchs. This Apocalypse uses a very inconsistent writing style and switches constantly between first-person and third-person as if it is a composite of material that originated in various earlier Ezra material. Some of the content repeats content found in the Judahite Apocalypse of Ezra, however, the bulk of the material is unique, describing Ezra’s journey through the sky (Heaven) and the underworld (Tartarus).
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
ISBN: 1989604994
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 235
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Book Description
The Psalms are a complex collection of hymns and prayers likely composed over many centuries, and by various authors. The earliest psalms are attributed to King David or are written for King David, including the first 40, which are likely the original group of psalms. Many other psalms are attributed to, or written for Asaph, Solomon, Ethan, Moses, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zachariah, the sons of Korah, or the sons of Jehonadab. Some of the psalms have internal historical references that indicate the likely time-frame they were written in. King David is generally believed to have lived around 1000 BC by those who accept him as a historical figure, and Asaph, Solomon, and Ethan all lived around the same time, so those who accept the psalms as having been written by authors that they are attributed to, would generally place the origin of most of the texts to around 1000 BC. The life of Moses has been dated to anywhere between the 16ᵗʰ and 13ᵗʰ centuries BC, and the original sons of Korah lived at the same time, however, the sons of Korah were also the priests in Solomon's Temple before they were replaced by the Levites. Jehonadab lived during the reign of the Israelite King Jehu, who lived circa 800 BC, while Jeremiah's life is dated to circa 600 BC, and the lives of Haggai and Zachariah are dated to circa 500 BC. The earliest references to the Septuagint's Lord in the Psalms, treat the Lord as the Sun or refer to the Lord as living in the Sun. In the later psalms, the sun was a completely separate object from the Lord, which is consistent with the changing religion of the region recorded in both the Israelite and Judahite books of the Kingdoms and the archaeological record. 4ᵗʰ Kingdoms (Masoretic Kings) describes King Josiah's reforms in circa 625 BC. Shemesh was the Canaanite god of the sun, who was essentially the same as the Greek Helios before Josiah's reforms. Like Helios, Shemesh rode on a chariot pulled by four flying horses. The four horses are a reference to what are commonly called sundogs today, the refracted light that appears 22° to the left and right of the Sun, and in rare cases again at 44° when there are ice crystals in the atmosphere. The Psalms include many references to the Lord shining down from the sky, and the name of the Lord enduring as long as the sun. Psalms 18 claims that the Lord lives in the sun, suggesting he was something other than the sun, even in the early Psalms.
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
ISBN: 1989604382
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 85
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Book Description
1ˢᵗ Maccabees tells the story of the Maccabean Revolt against the rule of the Seleucid Empire in the 2ⁿᵈ century BC. The content of 1ˢᵗ Maccabees appears to be a Sadducee text, as it gives all credit to the self-declared high priests that led the rebellion against the Greeks, occasionally mentioning the sky-god Shamayim or the earth-goddess Eretz. It also omits the names of the other gods that 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees and 3ʳᵈ Maccabees mention the Judeans worshiping, such as Dionysus, which supports its authorship in the Hasmonean Dynasty, when the other gods were no longer tolerated. Four books of Maccabees were ultimately added to the Septuagint, three in the 1ˢᵗ century BC, and the 4ᵗʰ as an appendix in the 1ˢᵗ century AD. No trace of these books has been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they are generally thought to have been written in Greek. 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees do include several Aramaic loanwords that support an Aramaic source text. The Syriac Bibles also include a 5ᵗʰ Maccabees, which is a translation of book 6 of Josephus’ The Judean War. The Judean War is considered extended canon in the Ethiopic Bibles, however, the Ethiopic Bibles also include three books of Maccabees, which are not based on the Greek books, or Josephus. An Arabic book of Maccabees also exists, which is often mislabeled as 5ᵗʰ Maccabees in English language literature, because it was initially misidentified as being the same book as Syriac 5ᵗʰ Maccabees. The Arabic book is a translation of a Palestinian Aramaic book from circa 525 AD, which itself appears to be based on the Hebrew book of Maccabees, which surfaced much later. The Hebrew version of Maccabees was collected with other Hebrew language manuscripts from various eras in a Yiddish compilation in the 1300s. The Hebrew translation of Maccabees was likely composed in Iberia earlier than 500 AD and was probably based on an Aramaic text, along with an Iberian tale about Hannibal. The Aramaic text that was used is closely related to the text found in the Josippon, which is believed to have been composed in southern Italy in the 900s. The Josippon claims to be a copy of the book of Joseph ben Gurion, one of the leaders of the Judean Revolt of 66 AD. Joseph died in 68 AD, and Josephus, who survived the war, did not report that Joseph was a writer, however, it stands to reason his faction must have had some form of propaganda, likely based on the Maccabean Revolt. These Josippon-related versions of Maccabees are of very little historic value, as they are replete with historical errors. Their original function appears to have been to serve as inspiration rather than to educate.
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
ISBN: 199828879X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 65
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Book Description
The Shapira scrolls, also known as the Shapira manuscript or Moabite Deuteronomy, are a collection of leather strips supposedly discovered in the Arnon Valley of modern Jordan in the 1860s. While they were initially accepted as authentic by the Jewish antiquities dealer Moses Shapira, they were later discredited as forgeries by German and British biblical scholars. Since the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in the 1940s, there have been several scholars who have called into question the claims that the leather strips were a forgery, however, their whereabouts is unknown, and therefore no modern analysis of the leather strips is possible. Several reasons were given for the initial claims that the strips were a forgery, including the script, language, and content. The script is a form of Phoenician, similar to the Moabite script of the 800s BC, however, the language includes Imperial Aramaic terms not used until the Persian era, several centuries later. The content is not a match for any surviving translation of Deuteronomy, however, it does include many parallel statements. Some of the statements are somewhat heretical, however, they do seem similar to the beliefs of the Hasidian and Tobian sects reported to have been living in the region under Greek rule between 330 and 240 BC. Moses Shapira had previously been involved in the discovery and authentication of both authentic and fraudulent artifacts for the museums and universities of Europe, including five scrolls inscribed on leather sold in 1870, that were later assumed to be forgeries in 1884 and have subsequently disappeared. His biggest ‘swindle’ was thousands of fake Moabite artifacts labeled as Moabitica, which were apparently dug up at a site in the Arnon Valley of modern Jordan. These artifacts included stone heads, and clay vessels inscribed with Moabite text, and were dug up by both Shapira’s workers and German scholars, who later assumed Shapira’s people hid the artifacts there for them to find. The Altes Museum in Berlin bought the largest collection of these artifacts, at 1700, however, there were additional sales to other institutions and individuals across Europe, and the total number of artifacts is unknown.
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
ISBN: 1989852599
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 130
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Book Description
The Book of Judges is very old, and the Song of Deborah may be the oldest surviving piece of Israelite literature. It uses some of the most archaic forms of Hebrew, and was likely composed in Canaanite before Hebrew became a defined dialect as this issue of dialect was part of the division between the Israelites during the battle between the Gileadites, east of the Jordan, and the Ephraimites from west of the Jordan. There is evidence that the book was either assembled or redacted in the Kingdom of Samaria. The region of the book also generally corresponds with the territory of the northern kingdom, both the region that had once been under Egyptian authority west of the Jordan, and the region east of the Jordan which had generally been independent of Egypt. The synchronizations between the Book of Judges and the records of Egypt are far too many to be overlooked or ignored. As almost all denominations of Christians and Jews agree that King Saul established his kingdom in 1037 BC, and the Septuagint's version of Judges includes 460 years of the land being ruled by Judges, or foreign kings, followed by an era of chaos when there was no king, the latest possible date the Exodus could have taken place was the 1500s BC, which supports the idea that the 10 plagues of Egypt were descriptions of the fallout and effects of the Minoan eruption which Egyptologists date to 1550 BC. According to Judges, 42 years later the Israelites invaded Samaria, (northern modern Israel and the Palestinian West Bank) under the leadership of Joshua, which would have been 1508 BC. The plan was already laid out in the Book of Joshua to occupy the entire land of Canaan, yet just three years later, when Joshua was 85 years old, the Israelites stopped their campaign, after having only occupied the cities in Samaria, this would have been in 1505 BC. The reason they stopped their invasion is not given, however, Egyptian records do explain it, as in the same year, 1505 BC, Pharaoh Thutmose I marched his army through Canaan to reconquer it for the Egyptian Empire. It had previously been under the control of the Hyksos Dynasty whose empire collapsed in the aftermath of the Minoan eruption. In 1550 BC, the Hyksos capital fell to the rival southern dynasty of Pharaoh Ahmose I, and the Hyksos retreated to their fortress of Sharuhen, near modern Gaza in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. This suggests the Hyksos maintained control over Canaan until Sharuhen fell to Ahmose I in 1540 BC. Ahmose I led an invasion of southern Canaan a few years later in an attempt to root out any remaining Hyksos. Egyptologists are not sure when this campaign was, placing it sometime between 1537 and 1527 BC. This campaign is not believed to have reached farther north than Byblos, in modern Lebanon, and did not result in any long-term political control over Canaan. Ahmose I's main goal seems to have been to destroy any remaining Hyksos in the region to ensure they did not try to recapture Egypt.
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Digital Ink Products
ISBN: 198960451X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 128
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Book Description
The four books of the Kingdoms are believed to have been translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint around 200 BC when a large number of refugees fled from the war in Judea and settled in Egypt. The four books of the Kingdoms would later become two books in the Masoretic Texts, the books of Samuel and Kings. Subsequent Latin and English translations of the Masoretic Texts labeled these books as 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Samuel, and 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Kings. The Septuagint's 1ˢᵗ Kingdoms is the book called 1ˢᵗ Samuel in most Catholic and Protestant Bibles, and 1ˢᵗ Kingdoms in Orthodox and Coptic Bibles. This version differs slightly from the later Masoretic book of Samuel, although all three are generally similar. Unlike the Masoretic version, Saul does not repeatedly meet David for the first time, meaning that either the Greeks simplified the Aramaic texts they translated, or the Masoretic version is based on a different version of 1ˢᵗ Kingdoms. While a Greek simplification of the text is the simplest explanation for the less-confusing narrative, it cannot explain why the Masoretic version has Saul meeting David for the first time in three unique stories, or, why the Greek translation has transliterated Hebrew words that are no longer in the Masoretic version. The origin of 1ˢᵗ Kingdoms, along with the other five books of Kingdoms and Paralipomena, is a matter of great debate among scholars. The Bava Basra tractate of the Talmud, reports that the first 25 chapters of Masoretic Samuel, and therefore the first 25 chapters of 1ˢᵗ Kingdoms, was written by the prophet Samuel, and the rest of Masoretic Samuel, which would be chapter 26 through 31 of 1ˢᵗ Kingdoms and the entire book of 2ⁿᵈ Kingdoms was written by the prophets Gad and Nathan. Samuel, Gad, and Nathan are all mentioned in 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Kingdoms, however, most biblical scholars have rejected the idea that they had anything to do with the authorship of these books for the past few hundred years. Almost all scholars in every era have agreed with the idea that the six books were based on the older, now lost, books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Samaria and Judea mentioned in the later books of Kingdoms. These six later books are generally accepted as having been written in the Babylonian or Persian era and then redacted in the Greek era or Hasmonean dynasty, however, the origin of the earlier works is a matter of debate. The language of 1ˢᵗ Kingdoms is archaic, and early sections dealing with Eli and Samuel read like a continuation of Judges, implying the original book of Judges continued until Saul seized power in 1037 BC.
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
ISBN: 1990289215
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 39
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Book Description
The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor is the earliest known surviving story of a shipwrecked sailor, and as such is the forerunner of many stories of nautical adventure encountering strange magical creatures, from Homer's Odyssey to Sinbad the Sailor. In a broader sense, it is generally considered the oldest piece of Egyptian fiction to survive to the present. Only one copy has been found to date, a single papyrus manuscript that resides at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is designated pHermitage 1115. The exact origin of the papyrus was not properly documented at the time, which was common for early Egyptologists, however, it was most likely recovered in Vladimir Golenishchev's 1884-85 expedition to the Wadi Hammamat, which was the major trade route between the Nile in southern Egypt and the port of El Qoseir on the Red Sea. The papyrus does appear to be complete, however, the story is not. It begins abruptly and ends abruptly, and suggests that it was excised from an older text. The story begins as a ship's captain is returning home from Nubia, on a failed mission of some kind, and then segues to the narrator telling the disinterested captain of a time when was shipwrecked on an island near Punt. It ends as abruptly as it begins, but the scribe confirms that this is the end of the story. Based on the content, it appears that the point of the papyrus was to copy the section of text dealing with the island and the 'Lord of Punt,' which was copied from a longer text in which the captain returned from his failed mission in Nubia, and told the king a story his crewman had told him to make up for the fact that he had nothing to report, but also downplayed the fantastic story by making it clear that it was his boring crewman's story, and not his. The reason for the extraction of the story, was probably because at the time, in the early Middle Kingdom era, the Egyptians were re-exploring their world, and trying to find the lands their ancestors had been trading with. This short work of probable fiction was, nevertheless, about the fabled land of Punt, which the Middle Kingdom reopened trade with during the 11ᵗʰ dynasty. Under the 11ᵗʰ dynasty's Mentuhotep III, an officer named Hannu reopened trade with Punt, however, it is unknown if he personally sailed there or simply organized the expedition. The most probable time for Imenyas pen-Imeny to have excised the story was before that first mission of Hannu, when the Egyptians were scouring their records for information on Punt. The fact that it was abandoned in the Wadi Hammamat, the route taken from the capital at Thebes to the Red Sea port of El Qoseir, seems to be a pretty strong indicator that the navigator did not see any value in the text, and did not even bother carrying it all the way to the harbor.
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
ISBN: 1990289282
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 54
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Book Description
The Tale of Sinuhe, also called the Story of Sanhat, is one of the most popular stories that has survived to the present from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. Dozens of fragments of copies have been found, which is unusual and speaks volumes of how popular it was in the Middle Kingdom. Egyptologists are divided on how much of it is fictional, with some claiming it is a historical text, while others claim it is entirely fictional. The copies that have been found are not identical, with sections of text that were either added to the original, or dropped from the original, and therefore it was altered over time. As a result, the general view within Egyptology is that it likely started as a historical text that was embellished by later scribes. Unfortunately, the original author either did not see a reason to explain what had happened before Sinuhe’s flight from Egypt, or it was removed from the copies that have survived to the present. Sinuhe makes a point of claiming that he was not deserting the army in Libya, but later the king states that he knows that Sinuhe was not plotting against him when he fled Egypt. This suggests that someone had conspired against Senusret I at the beginning of his reign, however, the events of this plot have not survived to the present. It isn’t clear if the details were removed out of respect for the king, or if the author simply expected everyone to know what had happened. The identity of Sinuhe is also somewhat unclear from the surviving texts, however, he appears to be a relative of the Queen, who had grown up with the future king Senusret I. He may have been the army commander sent to conquer the Libyans at the end of Amenemhat I’s reign, as he begins his story there, however, he could have simply been a lieutenant. As a member of the nobility, he was unlikely to be a common soldier. Later, in Syria, he claimed to be a great hero, defeating many enemies on behalf of the local king, suggesting he was well-trained in combat.
Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
ISBN: 1989604234
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 111
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Book Description
In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. The creation of the Septuagint resulted from this order. It is generally accepted that there were several versions of the ancient Hebrew and Samaritan scriptures before the translation of the Septuagint. The two books of the Paralipomena were translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint around 180 BC after a large number of refugees fled from the war in Judea and settled in Egypt. The two books of the Paralipomena were one book in the Masoretic Texts: the book of Divrei-hayyamim. Subsequent Latin translations were renamed 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Chronikon by Jerome in the 5ᵗʰ century AD. Subsequent English translations of the Old Testament labeled these books as 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Chronicles. The term Paralipomena, which means ‘things left out,’ is similar to the Hebrew name Divrei-hayyamim, which means ‘things in the days.’ The books are a collection of texts from various eras of Israelite history, spanning the era of the old Israelite Kingdoms, circa 1000 BC, through the Persian conquest, of circa 539 BC. Scholars have debated the origin of the books throughout their history, and there is no consensus within Rabbinical literature, Christian literature, or modern scholarship. The general Rabbinical view is that the two books of Paralipomena were written by one author, as Divrei-hayyamim, and then translated into Greek. The dominant early Christian view was that the books were written by Ezra the Scribe, circa 350 BC, however, this view was generally abandoned in Western Europe during the Protestant Reformation. Modern scholarly analysis has no consensus, however, the books do themselves indicate the eras they were compiled, nevertheless, the authors remain unknown. Based on the references within 1ˢᵗ Paralipomenon, the book was compiled sometime after 732 BC, when Tiglath-Pileser III deported the Reubenites, Gadites, and the people of Manasseh to other regions of the Assyrian Empire. The surviving Hebrew text of Divrei-hayyamim does, however, contain a reference to the Temple in Jerusalem as the ‘Temple of the Gods’, which means the original text of the book has to predate King Josiah’s reforms of circa 625 BC, and likely predates King Hezekiah’s similar reforms decades earlier. Both Hezekiah and Josiah are recorded as removing the idols of the gods from the temple, which had by all accounts been in the temple since it was built by King Solomon. The books of Paralipomena differ slightly from the later Masoretic book of Divrei-hayyamim, although the three are generally similar. In 200 BC the Greek Kingdom of Syria under the Seleucid Dynasty took Judea from Egypt and began an effort to Hellenize the Judeans, which included erecting a statue of Zeus in the Second Temple in Jerusalem and effectively banning traditional Judaism. This Hellenizing activity was partially successful, creating the Sadducee faction of Judaism, however, it also led the Maccabean Revolt in 165 BC, which itself created the independent Kingdom of Judea. This Kingdom had a tenuous alliance with the Roman Republic until General Pompey conquered Syria into the Roman Republic in 69 BC. Pomey’s goal was to liberate Greek-speaking communities in the Middle East that had fallen under the rule of non-Greeks when the Seleucids Syrian Empire had collapsed, and he carved up Judea, and Edom to the east, placing Greek-speaking cities under the protection of the Roman province of Syria. He also liberated several smaller communities that had been occupied by Judea, granting them self-government, including Ashdod, Yavne, Jaffa, Dora, Marissa, and Samaria.
