Category: F3 – Human History

by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #068 posted November 26, 2018, edited March 10, 2021.

CREATION

The Bible indicates the following:

• • • God created Universe, the earth, and mankind roughly 6,000 years ago.
    • Adam and Eve were perfectly formed physically, mentally, and spiritually to the point that God deemed his creatures “very good.” They began communicating with God and one another from the moment of their creations. Moreover, Adam was sufficiently proficient linguistically that God had Adam undertake a scientific study of all the earth’s fauna by naming them, which undoubtedly included categorizing them.
    • When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, however, God cursed his entire creation, which since then has been subject to disorder, decay, destruction, disease, and death (all symptoms of the devolution which scientists call entropy).
    • Despite the ravages of entropy, Adam and Eve’s immediate descendants set about developing industries: agriculture,[1] ranching,[2] musical instrument-making,[3] metallurgy,[4] ship-building,[5] and undoubtedly others.
    • Thus, today’s mankind and the global civilization which he has created represent the nadir of human history and achievement, and he can look forward to further deterioration in the future.

EVOLUTION

Adam and Eve’s disobedience has had many consequences, one of which is instilling in their descendants a spirit of rebellion. The latter refuse to accept God’s revelation of how and when he created Universe, how Adam and Eve were created, how evil entered the world, how they and we are supposed to behave toward God and one another, etc. Thus, they have concocted an alternative account of mankind’s past which omits any reference to God.

Macro-evolutionists maintain the following:

• • • Universe came into existence roughly 15 billion years ago (no one has come up with an explanation of how that happened which makes any sense).
    • The earth was formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago.
    • Mankind emerged between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago, when he made the evolutionary transition from his hominid predecessors to homo sapiens (the first modern humans).
    • Early mankind was primitive – i.e. significantly less developed physically, mentally, and spiritually than today’s mankind. For example, he didn’t develop the abilities (a) to make and use tools until 2.3 million years ago, (b) to control fire until 1.0 million years ago, and (c) to communicate linguistically until 50,000 years ago.
    • Thus, today’s mankind and the global civilization which he has created supposedly represent the pinnacle of human evolution and achievement, and he can look forward to further evolutionary advancement in the future.

You will see immediately that these two accounts of mankind’s past are polar-opposites. The evolutionary account has stood mankind on his head: mankind is not deteriorating; he is getting smarter and smarter, and maybe he will control Universe someday.

You will also see that the godless account requires a primitive period in which primitive mankind spent tens of thousands of years learning (a) to talk, (b) to cook, (c) to design, fabricate, and use tools, (d) to build homes and furniture, (e) to make and put on clothes, etc. During this period, mankind supposedly (a) lived in caves, tents, and finally huts, (b) harvested edible plants, (c) captured creeping things and small animals, (d) protected themselves by throwing stones and pointed sticks, etc.

A QUICK OBSERVATION

Pause for a moment. In addition to their failure (a) to produce any evidence that intermediate or transitional forms between species ever existed^[6] or (b) to explain how irreducibly complex forms came into existence,[7] evolutionists believe that mankind took 150,000 to 250,000 years to learn to talk to one another. What rubbish! I regard the fact that hundreds of thousands of scientists promote macro-evolution and hundreds of millions of people accept macro-evolution as prima facie evidence that mankind’s ability to think has drastically devolved in the last 150 years. At this rapid rate of decline, it will not be long before we are as dumb as posts.

CATASTROPHES & THEIR CONSEQUENCES

The bible refers to at least fifteen catastrophes that occurred during the first 3,312 years (3977-665 BC) of mankind’s existence on earth. In addition to the tearing apart of the single land mass in 2221 BC, which created the continents that we see today – a one-time event that must have been terrifying – these catastrophes were responsible for the following woes on a somewhat regular basis:

• • • Tectonic upheavals that created rocky mountains over five miles high,
    • Tectonic subsidences that created watery chasms almost seven miles deep,
    • Titanic earthquakes that shook the terrestrial crust, toppling all human structures,
    • Tornadoes and hurricane winds that tore up and flattened all plants and trees in their path,
    • Thunderbolts (electrical discharges between celestial bodies) and raining naphtha that set fire to forests and prairies,
    • Thunderbolts and meteorites that blew open large craters in the land,
    • Tsunamis that swept ashore, destroying everything in their wake, including coastlines,
    • Torrential rains that turned the soil to muck and flooded the land, uprooting plants and trees and carving deep riverbeds and canyons in the landscape, and
    • Tremendous volcanism that clothed the earth in dense clouds of ash and soot, which prevented insolation for decades.

Needless to say, the foregoing woes killed people and animals by the tens of millions with, not only deadly damage, but dementia, deprivation, desolation, despair, despondency, and disease as well.

Also, needless to say, the survivors of these catastrophes had to cope with primitive conditions. Some remained in place and defended their homeland from invaders and some left their homeland and invaded lands inhabited by others. In either case, they found themselves in mortal combat. Wherever they found themselves, they lived in caves and building ruins. They ate whatever they could scrounge from the muck and mire that surrounded them. They replanted fields with whatever seeds they could find, although the lack of insolation inhibited their germination. They reassembled herds of cattle and sheep, but these remained small due to their inability to spare the animals much food.

OUTLINE OF HISTORY

As I have described elsewhere at length, these catastrophes divided the history of the world into two main periods – (1) the Prehistoric Period, which divides readily into three eras, and (2) the Historic Period, which also divides readily into three eras. The eras divide readily into ages and minor periods.

1 – THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD (3977-665 BC)

1A – THE EARLY PREHISTORIC ERA (3977-2321 BC) It divides readily into Creation Week and two ages:

1A-0 – Creation Week in 3977 BC.

1A-1 – The Ancients’ Primordial Age (= the Bible’s Edenic Age) – It lasted less than a year (3977 BC). It was terminated by the ADAM DISTURBANCE, which introduced entropy into Universe.

1A-2 – The Ancients’ Golden Age (= the Bible’s Antediluvian Age) – It lasted just under 1646 years (3977-2321 BC). It was terminated by the NOAH DISTURBANCE (a global flood), which completely destroyed the pre-flood earth. The passengers on the Ark were its only survivors.

1B – THE MIDDLE PREHISTORIC ERA (=the Bibles Postdiluvian Era) – It lasted 857 years (2321-1464 BC). It divides readily into two ages:

1B-1 – The Ancients’ Silver Age (=the Bible’s Early Postdiluvian Age) lasted 451 years (2321-1870 BC). It was divided into three minor periods:

1B-1A – The Ancients’ 1^st Silver Period (= the Initial Settlement & Migration) – It lasted 100 years (2321-2221 BC). It was terminated by the Peleg Disturbance, which divided earth’s land mass (a single continent) into several continents.

1B-1B – The Ancients’ 2^nd Silver Period (=the Rise of the Akkadian Empire) – It lasted 151 years (2221-2070 BC). It was terminated by the Babel Disturbance,[8] which destroyed the Tower of Babel and confounded mankind’s ability to communicate in a common language.

1B-1C – The Ancients’ 3^rd Silver Period (=the Rise of Civilizations) – It lasted 200 years (2070-1870 BC). It was terminated by the ABRAHAM DISTURBANCE, which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, eliminated the Vale of Siddim, and created the Great African Rift or its greater expansion.

1B-2 – The Ancients’ Bronze Age (=the Bible’s Late Postdiluvian World and the archaeologists’ Early Bronze Age) – It lasted 406 years (1870-1464 BC). It was divided into two minor periods:

The Ancients’ 1^st Bronze Period (=the Bibles Pre-Job Period) lasted 203 years (1870-1667 BC) and was terminated by the Job Disturbance, which killed Job’s children.

The Ancients’ 2^nd Bronze Period (=the Bibles Post-Job Period) lasted 203 years (1667-1464 BC) and was terminated by the MOSES DISTURBANCE, which caused the ten plagues of Egypt, precipitated the Hebrews’ Exodus from Egypt, thereby ending their Sojourn there, and drowned Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, thereby ending Egypt’s Middle Kingdom.

1C – THE LATE PREHISTORIC ERA (= what I call the Turbulent Era = the Bible’s Post-Exodus Age = roughly the geologists’ Pleistocene Epoch) – It lasted 799 years (1464-665 BC). It divides readily into three ages:

1C-1 – The Ancients’ Missing Age (=what I call the Reign of Venus, the archaeologists’ Middle Bronze Age, and the Early Pleistocene Age) – It lasted 456 years (1464-1008 BC). It was divided into four minor periods:

1C-1A – The Ancients 1^st Missing Period = Ice Age 1 (=the geologists’ 1^st Nebraska=Gunz Ice Advance followed by the 1^st Aftonian Ice Retreat) – It lasted roughly 51 years (1464-1413 BC). It was terminated by the Joshua Disturbance, which caused the sun to stand still in the sky during the Battle of Beth Horon.

1C-1B – The Ancients’ 2^nd Missing Period = Ice Age 2 (=the geologists’ 2^nd Nebraskan=Gunn Ice Advance followed by the 2^nd Aftonian Ice Retreat) – It lasted 152 years (1413-1261 BC). It was terminated by the Deborah Disturbance, which destroyed Sisera’s army.

1C-1C – The Ancients’ 3^rd Missing Period = Ice Age 3 (=the geologists’ Kansan=Mindel Ice Advance followed by the Yarmouth Ice Retreat) – It lasted 203 years (1261-1058 BC). It was terminated by the Samuel Disturbance, which destroyed the Philistine army.

1C-1D – The Ancients’ 4^th Missing Period = Ice Age 4 (=the geologists’ Illinoisian=Riss Ice Advance followed by the Sangamon Ice Retreat) It lasted 50 years (1058-1008 BC). It was terminated by the DAVID DISTURBANCE, which almost destroyed Jerusalem.

1C-2 – The Ancients’ Heroic Age (=what I call War in the Sky, the Mycenaean Age, the archaeologists’ Late Bronze Age, and roughly the Middle Pleistocene Age) – It lasted 254 years (1008-754 BC). It divides readlily into three minor periods:

1C-2A – The Ancients’ 1^st Heroic Period (=the geologists’ Iowan Ice Advance followed by the Post-Iowan Ice Retreat) – It lasted 51 years (1008-957 BC). It was terminated by Homer’s 1^st Cosmic Battle (=the Solomon Disturbance), which appeared to be a battle in the sky between Venus and Mars.

1C-2B – The Ancients’ 2^nd Heroic Period (=the geologists’ Post-Iowan Ice Retreat continued) – It lasted 102 years (957-855 BC). It was terminated by Homer’s 2^nd Cosmic Battle (=the Jehoram Disturbance), which appeared to be a battle in the sky between Venus and Mars. It was predicted by Elijah, and it caused the Egyptian priests during the reign of Akhnaton (=Oedipus Rex) to believe that the gods were angry over a royal case of patricide and incest.

1C-2C – The Ancients’ 3^rd Heroic Period (=the geologists’ Post-Iowan Ice Retreat continued) – It lasted 101 years (855-754 BC). It was terminated by Homer’s 3^rd Cosmic Battle (=the Azariah Disturbance or the Commotion in the Days of Uzziah), which appeared to be a battle in the sky between Venus and Mars. It was predicted by Amos, Joel, Jonah, and Nahum. It caused a titanic earthquake that affected the entire Middle East and caused the submergence of the northern coast of Africa south of Italy, taking with it Lake Triton.^[9] It also destroyed the Etruscan city of Volsinium (now Bolsena) and created the basin now occupied by Lake Bolsena with a thunderbolt, thereby weakened the surrounding Etruscan cities, including Rome. The resulting devastation created the perfect conditions for an invasion from Alba Longa, led by Romulus and Remus.

 1C-3 – The Ancients’ Iron Age (=what I call the Reign of Mars, the historians’ Early Archaic Period, and roughly the Lat Pleistocene Age) – It lasted 89 years (754-665 BC). It was divided into the following three minor periods:

1C-3A – The Ancients’ 1^st Iron Period – Ice Age 5 (=the geologists’ Post-Iowan Ice Retreat continued) – It lasted 59 years (754-695 BC). It was terminated by the Ahaz Disturbance, which was predicted by Isaiah and Micah and caused the sun’s shadow on the sundial to move forward by 10 degrees.

1C-3B – The Ancients’ 2^nd Iron Period – Ice Age 6 (=the geologists’ Tazewell Ice Advance followed by the Post-Tazewell Ice Retreat) – It lasted 15 years (695-680 BC). It was terminated by the 1^st Hezekiah Disturbance, which was predicted by Isaiah and Micah and caused the sun’s shadow on the sundial to move backward by 10 degrees.

1C-3C – The Ancients’ 3^rd Iron Period – Ice Age 7 (=the geologists’ Carey Ice Advance followed by the Post-Carey Ice Retreat) – It lasted 15 years (680-665 BC). It was terminated by the 2^nd HEZEKIAH DISTURBANCE, which was predicted by Isaiah and Micah, destroyed Sennacherib’s army, was recorded by Habakkuk, and terminated the Ancients’ Iron Age, the Ancients’ Turbulent Era, and the entire Prehistoric Period.

2 – THE HISTORIC PERIOD (665 BC-PRESENT)

2A – THE EARLY HISTORIC ERA lasted 663 years (665-2 BC). I have divided it into five non-temporal parts:

2A-1 – The Occident in the Early Historic Era.

2A-2 – The Middle East in the Early Historic Era. I have divided it into four phases:

2A-2A – The Neo-Babylonian Supremacy – It lasted 178 years (665-487 BC).

2A-2B – The Medo-Persian Supremacy – It lasted 157 years (487-330 BC).

2A-2C – The Macedonian Supremacy – It lasted 184 years (330-146 BC).

2A-2D – The Roman Supremacy BC – It lasted 144 years (146-2 BC).

2A-3 – The Orient in the Early Historic Era.

2A-4 – The Scared in the Early Historic Era. I have divided it into three phases:

2A-4A – The Final Years of the Kingdom of Judah – It lasted 110 years (665-555 BC).

2A-4B – The Exile in Babylon – It lasted 70 years (555-485 BC).

2A-4C – Daniel’s 69 Weeks of Years – It lasted 483 years (485-2 BC).

2A-5 – Geology in the Early Historic Era. It divides readily into two phases:

2A-5A – The Late Pleistocene Age’s Ice Age 8 (= the geologists’ Manketo Ice Advance followed by the Post-Manketo (Boreal) Ice Retreat) – It lasted roughly 40 years (665-c.625 BC).

2A-5B – The Holocene Epoch’s Atlantic Age  – It continued for 623 years (c.625-2 BC).

2B – THE MIDDLE HISTORIC ERA lasted over 2,000 years (2 BC-1453 AD). I have divided it into five non-temporal parts.

2B-1 – The Occident in the Middle Historic Era. I have divided it into two phases:

2B-1A – The Roman Age AD – It lasted 477 years (2BC-476 AD).

2B-1B – The Byzantine Age – It lasted 977 years (476-1453 AD).

2B-2 – The Middle East in the Middle Historic Era.

2B-3 – The Orient in the Middle Historic Era.

2B-4 – The Sacred in the Middle Historic Era. I have divided it into three phases:

2B-4A – The Life of Messiah – It lasted 33.5 years (2BC-33 AD).

2B-4B – The Childhood of Messiah’s Bride – It lasted 37 years (33-70 AD).

2B-4C – The Betrothal of Messiah’s Bride – It extended for 1,383 years (70-1453 AD).

2B-5 – Geology in the Middle Historic Era. It consists of the Holocene Epoch’s Atlantic Age continued (2 BC-1453 AD).

2C – THE LATE HISTORIC ERAhas lasted over 568 years (1453 AD-Present). I have divided it into five non-temporal parts.

2C-1 – The Occident in the Late Historic Era. I have divided it into three phases:

2C-1A – The Exploratory Age – It lasted roughly 297 years (1453-c.1750 AD).

2C-1B – The Revolutionary Age – It lasted roughly 168 years (c.1750-1918 BC).

2C-1C – The Globalist Age – It has extended for over 103 years (1918-Present).

2C-2 – The Middle East in the Late Historic Era.

2C-3 – The Orient in the Late Historic Era.

2C-4 – The Sacred in the Late Historic Era. It consists of one phase: the Betrothal of Messiah’s Bride continued – It has continued for over 568 years (1453 AD-Unknown date).

2C-5 – Geology in the Late Historic Era. It consists of the Holocene Epoch’s Atlantic Age continued – It has continued for over 568 years (1453 AD-Present).

CONCLUSION

Now the important point that I want to make here is that the aftermath of the catastrophes or disturbances that I have described above all look the same. When an archaeologist today examines a cave in which a group of people lived for decades thousands of years ago, he sees the residue of life under primitive conditions. He finds primitive tools and primitive drawings on the wall – all of which the survivors of a catastrophe should be expected to produce. Moreover, the archaeologist would have a difficult time determining if the occupants were survivors of the Noah Disturbance in 2321 BC, the Abraham Disturbance in 1870 BC, one of the ice age disturbances between the Moses Disturbance in 1464 BC and the 2^nd Hezekiah Disturbance in 665 BC, or even a violent decade due to a tribal war. Indeed, a single cave might even have housed the survivors of several disruptions, separated by centuries. The archaeologist cannot always tell, because he is looking at the home of normal people who were coping with abnormal conditions, not the home of sub-normal people who were coping with normal conditions. Mankind was never primitive!

© 2018 John Holbrook Jr.
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[1] Genesis 4:2,3.

[2] Genesis 4:2,4.

[3] Genesis 4:21.

[4] Genesis 4:22.

[5] Genesis 6:14

[6] By this, I mean factual evidence. That evolution lacks evidence has been admitted by many scientists. For example: Darwin himself wrote, “Why is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain; and this is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory” (C. Darwin, Origin of Species, 6th ed., London, 1872, p. 413 – reprinted by John Murray, 1902). The celebrated paleontologist and Harvard professor Stephen J. Gould revealed, “The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology” (S.J. Gould, “Evolution’s Erratic Pace,” Natural History, 86(5):14, 1977).  National Geographic admitted, “Illuminating but spotty, the fossil record is like a film of evolution from which 999 out of 1,000 frames have been lost” (“Was Darwin Wrong? No!,” National Geographic, Nov. 2004, Page 25). Richard Dawkins also admitted, “Evolution has been observed. It’s just that it hasn’t been observed while it’s happening” (Transcript @ pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript349_full.html#dawkins, Dec, 3, 2004) – an admission that was regarded by many as “letting the cat out of the bag.”

[7] Irreducible complexity is a term used to describe a characteristic of certain complex systems whereby they need all their individual component parts in place in order to function. In other words, it is impossible to reduce the complexity of (or to simplify) an irreducibly complex system by removing any of its component parts and still maintain its functionality. The idea was well known to Darwin, who stated in The Origin of Species, “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” It has.

[8] Originally, I assigned the Babel Disturbance to 2070 BC. I forget all my reasons for doing so, but one was certainly the fact that Kenkenes (E03-01) had broken the Akkadian Dynasty’s hold on Egypt, which would have probably occurred early in his reign. In recent years, I have leaned toward 2020 BC, because there was a severe break at the end of Sharguni (AK-10)’s reign, which would have left the Akkadian Dynasty in a weakened state and thereby created an opportunity for Kenkenes to throw off the Mesopotamian yoke. Changing all my documents, however, is beyond my abilities at this point in my life

[9] Velikovsky connects the disappearance of Lake Triton with the appearance of the comet Venus in the mid-fifteenth century BC (Worlds in Collision, pp. 168-169). I disagree. Lake Triton was extant when the Argonauts undertook their great tour of the ancient world in the mid-ninth century BC. Moreover, the ancients connected Lake Triton with the birth of Venus, not her death. I surmise that Lake Triton was associated with Venus because an interplanetary thunderbolt from Venus created its basin; I believe Venus emerged from Jupiter during one of the cataclysms in the Postdiluvian Era and entered a cometary orbit around the sun which took it close to the earth every 50-52 years until 754 BC, when it moved to its current, planetary orbit. The closest and most damaging near-contact occurred in 1464 BC, which would have been a logical occasion for the birth of Lake Triton.

 

by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #020 posted November 28, 2016, edited March 9, 2021.

Most versions of ancient chronology put the Mycenaean Age c.1600-1100 BC, the Greek Dark Ages c.1100-900 BC, and the Greek Archaic Period c.900-500 BC.  My chronology, however, which takes the Bible as its point of departure, but which also owes much to Immanuel Velikovsky, amends this sequence. First, the Mycenaean Age existed c.1008-754 BC and constituted what the Ancients called the Greek Heroic Age. Second, the Greek Dark Ages never existed. Third, the Greek Archaic Period existed c.754-487 BC.

In the Aeneid, Virgil relates that, after the sack of Troy by the Greeks, the Trojan prince Aeneas sailed southwest across the Mediterranean Sea to Carthage, where he dallied with its Queen Dido, and then sailed northward to Italy, where he settled on a site that is now called Rome. In Roman records, their authors related that the twins Romulus and Remus founded Rome, for which the traditional date is 754 BC. Because of the muddled state of the chronology of the ancient world, there is a discrepancy of several centuries here, and both accounts are regularly dismissed as myths and legends.

According to my chronology, the Trojan War occurred from 812 to 802 BC. According to Virgil, Aeneas’s trip from Troy to Carthage took 7-10 years and his trip from Carthage to Rome took roughly three years. Thus he and his cohorts must have arrived in Rome, at the southern edge of Tuscany, sometime between 792 BC and 789 BC.

At the time, Tuscany was inhabited by the Etruscans. Because no dramatic, historical, philosophical, poetic, or religious texts have been found among their remains, very little is known about them.  I believe that they were central Europeans who descended into Tuscany in the tenth century BC to escape the glacial conditions in their native land and probably the predations of the Gauls. During the next couple of centuries, they developed from a primitive culture to an extensive agricultural community (a) bordered roughly by the Arnus River in the north, the Tiber River to the east and south, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west and (b) studded with towns such as Arretiuum, Caisra, Curtun, Clevsin, Felathri, Fufluna, Perusia, Tarchna, Veii, Velch, Velzna, Vetluna, and Volsinium. They reached the pinnacle of their vitality and prosperity circa 754 BC, when they suffered a blow from which they never recovered.

I believe that the blow was caused by a celestial thunderbolt discharged by Mars during its close passage to the earth circa 754 BC. In a later close approach of the planet Mars circa 665 BC, a celestial thunderbolt destroyed the Army of Sennacherib in Palestine. Such a  thunderbolt circa 754 BC probably created the basin in which Lake Bolsena now exists, and which lies about 50 miles northwest of Rome. According to Velikovsky:

A vivid picture of an interplanetary discharge is given by Pliny: ‘Heavenly fire is spit forth by the planet as crackling charcoal flies from a burning log.’ If such a discharge falls on the earth, ‘it is accompanied by a very great disturbance of air,’ produced ‘by the birth-pangs, so to speak, of the planet in travail’ (Pliny, Natural History, ii. 18).

Pliny says also that a bolt from Mars fell on Bolsena, ‘the richest town in Tuscanny,’ and that the city was entirely burned up by this bolt (Pliny, Natural History, ii. 53). He refers to Tuscan writings as the source of his information. By Tuscan writings are meant Etruscan books.

Bolsena, or the ancient Volsinium, was one of the chief cities of the Etruscans, the people whose civilization preceded that of the Latin Romans on the Apennine Peninsula. The Etruscan states occupied the area of what was later known as Tuscany, between the Tiber and the Arno. Near Bolsena, or Volsinium, is a lake of the same name. This lake fills a basin nine miles long, seven miles wide, and 285 feet deep. For a long time this basin was regarded as the water-filled crater of a volcano. However, its area of 117 square miles exceeds by far that of the largest known craters on the earth – those in the Andes in South America and those in the Hawaian (Sandwich) Islands in the Pacific. Hence, the idea that the lake is the crater of an extinct volcano has recently been questioned. Moreover, although the bottom of the lake is of lava, and the ground around the lake abounds with ashes and lava and columns of basalt, the talus of a volcano is lacking. Taking what Pliny said of an interplanetary discharge together with what has actually been found at Volsinium, one may wonder whether the cinders and the lava and the columns of basalt could possibly be the remains of the contact Pliny mentions.[1]

This thunderbolt would have devastated, not just Volsinium, but the entire area, thereby severely weakening other Etruscan cities in Tuscany and its southern neighbor Rome. Such conditions would have been an open invitation to invasion and occupation by a new force.

The origin of the Roman Monarchy is shrouded in mystery and myth, which may be due to the conditions created by the cataclysm of 754 BC.

The Roman stories concerning the foundation of Rome contain a number of common elements, some of which defy acceptance. One element is the identification of Alba Longa, a city 12 miles southeast of Rome, as the source of the founders of Rome. A second element is the upheaval in the royal family of Alba Longa, in which Amulius (a) seizes the throne from his brother, King Numitor, (b) kills his brother’s male heirs, and (c) forces his brother’s daughter Rhea Silvia to become a Vestal Virgin, which requires chastity. A third element is the identification of Rhea Silvia as the mother of twin boys – Romulus and Remus. A fourth element is the identification of either the god Mars or the demi-god Herakles as the father of the twins.[2] A fifth element is the abandonment of the boys in the Tiber river by order of Amulius. A sixth element is the miraculous preservation of the boys by animals. A seventh element is the raising of the two boys by a shepherd and his wife. An eighth element is the discovery by the youths of their identity as princes of Alba Longa. A ninth element is the youth’s successful venture to kill Amulius and restore the throne of Alba Longa to their father Numitor. A tenth element is their decision to found a new city together. An eleventh element is a quarrel between the two brothers concerning the exact site of the new city – either the Palentine Hill or the Aventine Hill – which resulted in the death of Remus. A twelfth element is the foundation of the new city by Romulus alone, who named it after himself.

Certain Roman historians reckoned that the birth of Romulus and Remus occurred in 771 BC, which means that Romulus would have been 17 years old at the time he founded Rome in 754 BC. That seems young. He might have been that or he might have been older. The important consideration here, however, is that there was no catastrophe involving Mars circa 771 BC, whereas there was such a catastrophe in 754 BC. I surmise that Mars was given credit (a) for the conception of the boys circa 771 BC rather than (b) for the creation of the opportunity for the boys to take over the site of Rome in 754 BC because doing so both preserved the role of Mars in the city’s founding and conferred semi-divinity on the city’s founder. Excepting for the seventh element above, the rest of the story is believable.

So who founded Rome: Aeneas circa 790 BC or Romulus in 754 BC? Take your pick.

© 2016 John Holbrook Jr.

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[1] Immanuel Velikovsky in Worlds in Collision, pp. 272-273.

[2] Attributing conception to a god is an easy way for a young woman to avoid charges of fornication and was ubiquitous in the ancient world.

by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #019 posted November 21, 2016, edited March 9, 2021.

Most versions of ancient chronology put the Mycenaean Age c.1600-1100 BC, the Greek Dark Ages c.1100-900 BC, and the Greek Archaic Period c.900-500 BC.  My chronology, however, which takes the Bible as its point of departure, but which also owes much to Immanuel Velikovsky, amends this sequence. First, the Mycenaean Age existed c.1008-754 BC and constituted what the Ancients called the Greek Heroic Age. Second, the Greek Dark Ages never existed. Third, the Greek Archaic Period existed c.754-487 BC. 

According to the testimony of the Greek and Roman historians, the Greek Heroic Age saw the following heroic exploits:

The Labors of Herakles probably occurred about five years before the slaying of the Minotaur because Herakles and Theseus were contemporaries and probably sailed together on the Argo.

The Slaying of the Minotaur by Theseus probably occurred just a few years before the Voyage of the Argo;

The Voyage of the Argo probably occurred just a few years prior to the 1^st Theban War.

The 1^st Theban War is memorialized in Greek and Roman literature as the “Seven Against Thebes.” It probably occurred sometime after the Voyage of the Argo.

The 2^nd Theban War is memorialized in Greek and Roman literature as the War of the Epigoni, who were the sons of the Greek heroes of the 1^st Theban War. It probably occurred about a decade after the 1^st Theban War.

The Trojan War commenced when the Greeks invaded Asia Minor and besieged Troy for ten years. According to one Greek historian,[1] it started exactly 20 years after the 1^st Theban War began.

The Voyage of Odysseus from Troy to his home in Ithaca started soon after the fall of Troy and lasted ten years.

The 1^st Olympic Games probably occurred in 777 BC. Historians identify 776 BC as year 1 of the 1^st Olympiad, which would have started in 777 BC. No one knows what prompted the event.

Unfortunately, most historians dismiss most of these exploits as myth – either gross exaggerations of actual events or outright fabrications. I don’t.

First these exploits provide a framework for organizing the participants into generations. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer, who, according to my chronology, lived about 100 years after the Trojan War, provided a great deal of information about the Greek and Trojan heroes of the war, as well as information about their progenitors and current relatives. This genealogical information was supplemented by later Greek historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides and Greek playwrights such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes. Taken together, this body of literature contains extensive genealogical information concerning the Greek and other (e.g. Trojan) royal families. Harold Newman and Jon O. Newman present this genealogical information in their exhaustive  A Genealogical Chart of Greek Mythology. What is missing from their study, however, is the separation of this information into generations so that a comprehensive picture of the Mycenaean Age can emerge. See my attempt to provide this comprehensive picture in my table, A Synchronization of Greek Generations.

Second, the testimony of the archaeologists divides the Mycenaean or Late Helladic III era into three periods that are connected to Egyptian history as follows:

Its early period (Late Helladic IIIa) coincided with the reigns of Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose II, and his sister Hatshepsut.

Its middle period (Late Helladic IIIb) coincided with the reigns of Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Amerhotep III, Tiy, and Amenhotep IV (=Akhnaton).

Its late period (Late Helladic IIIc) coincided with the reigns of Smenkhare, Tutankhamen, Ay, Armais, and Ramesse.

According to my chronology, the Mycenaean or Late Helladic III era lasted roughly 254 years (c. 1008-754 BC). Concerning its three periods,

Late Helladic IIIa lasted roughly 51 years (c.1008-957 BC). It coincided, not only with the reigns of Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose II, and his sister Hatshepsut of the 18^th Dynasty in Egypt, but also with the reigns of David and Solomon of the United Kingdom of Israel in Palestine.

Late Helladic IIIb lasted roughly 102 years (c.957-855 BC). It coincided, not only with the reigns of Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Amerhotep III, Tiy, and Amenhotep IV (=Akhnaton) of the 18^th Dynasty in Egypt, but also with the reigns of Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athalia of the Kingdom of Judah in Palestine.

Late Helladic IIIc lasted roughly 101 years (c.855-754 BC). It coincided, not only with the reigns of Smenkhare, Tutankhamen, Ay, Armais, and Ramesse of the 18^th Dynasty, but also with the reigns of Sheshonk I, Osorkon I, Takelot I, Osorkon II, and Sheshonk II of the Libyan Dynasties (22-24) in Egypt and the reigns of Jehoash, Amaziah, and Azariah (=Uzziah) of the Kingdom of Judah in Palestine. As will become clear, most of the heroic exploits about which the Greek and Roman historians wrote fell in last period.

Given the above genealogies and time periods, I treat the heroic exploits as historical events and order them as follows:

C. 855 BC – The Labors of Herakles. Although the tales of these labors certainly contain many fanciful elements, I have no doubt that these tales are based on some actual occurrences in which Herakles demonstrated great valor. As a result, Herakles became a legend in his own time. He set a standard of physical stature and prowess to which the men of the Heroic Age could aspire. Moreover he whet their appetites for adventurous exploits that might earn them a place in Greece’s pantheon of heroes.

C. 850 BC – The Slaying of the Minotaur. C.865 BC, Androgeus, son of King Minos of Crete, competed in the quadrennial Pan-Athenian games. He did so well that some jealous Athenians killed him. Upon receiving the news, Minos sailed to Athens and demanded that King Aegeus of Athens relinquish the assassins to him. The identity of the assassins was not known, however, and so Androgeus turned over the entire city to Minos. Minos then demanded a septennial tribute of seven youths and seven maidens, who would be given to the Minotaur, a deformed and undoubtedly demented son of Minos, to devour. When the third tribute was due (c.850 BC), King Aegeus’s son Theseus volunteered to be one of the seven youths. He traveled to Crete, slew the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, a princess of Crete, thereby putting an end to the tribute, and then returned to Athens with Ariadne and her sister Phaedra.

C. 845 BC – The Voyage of the Argo. Jason[2] and his crew on the Argo undertook a voyage from Iolcus on the eastern shore of Thessaly to Colchus on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, in order to obtain the Golden Fleece, which had been hung in a sacred grove dedicated to Ares by Phrixos. This voyage resulted in one of the greatest exploratory expeditions in human history. In my opinion, the expedition took the band of mostly young adventurers (a) southeastward across the Aegean Sea to the Hellespont (=Dardenelles), (b) northeastward across the Propontis (=Sea of Marmara), and through the Bosporus to the Euxine (Black Sea), (c) eastward across the north coast of Asia Minor to Colchus, then (d) westward back across the Euxine to the mouth of the Danube, (e) northwestward up the Danube and one of its tributaries to their common headwaters (just north of modern Zagreb), (f) overland to the headwaters of the Arsia River, (g) southwestward downriver to the Adriatic Sea, (h) southward along the Dalmatian coast almost to Sicily, (i) northward along the eastern coast of Italy to the mouth of the Po River, (j) westward upriver to its headwaters south of Pavia, (k) overland to the headwaters of the Scrivia River, (l) southward downriver to Genoa on the Ligurnian Sea, (m) southeastward along the Italian coast and through the Strait of Messina, (n) southward across the Mediterranean Sea into the sandbanks of the Gulf of Syrtis (off the west coast of Libya),  (o) eastward overland to Lake Triton (no longer extant), (p) northeastward across the lake, (q) northward down a river (no longer extant) to the south shore of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, (r) northeastward to Crete, (s) northward from Crete to the Peloponnesus and finally back to Iolcus. This adventure provided the young Greeks with both maritime expertise and a wealth of demographic, geographic, and navigational information – to say nothing of a fund of stories to tell.

832-831 BC – The 1^st Theban War. A Greek army invaded Egypt and besieged Thebes with the intent of restoring the Egyptian throne to Smenkhare, whom the Greeks knew as Polyneices. The army was under the command of King Adrastus of Sicyon and his six captains: (a) his brother-in-law Amphiaraus (an Argonaut) of Argos, (b) his nephew Capaneus of Corinth, (c) his brother Hippomedon of Mycenae, (d) his friend Parthenopaeus of Tegea, (e) his son-in-law Polyneices (=Smenkhare) of Egyptian Thebes, and (f) his son-in-law Tydeus of Calydon. Together they were known in Greek literature as the “Seven Against Thebes.” They were accompanied by Adrastus’s friend Eteoclus of Argos and his brother Mecisteus of Sicyon. The siege of Thebes was unsuccessful, and Amphiarus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Polyneices, Tydeus, Eteoclus, and Mecisteus were killed. Only Adrastus returned to Greece with the remnant of the Greek army.

821-820 BC – The 2^nd Theban War. After the debacle of the 1^st Theban War, in which so many prominent Greek heroes were killed, the sons of the dead, who were known as “the Epigoni,” decided to seek revenge. They were (a) Aegialus, son of Adrastus, (b) Alcmaeon, son of Amphiarus, (c) Amphilocus, also son of Amphiarus, (d) Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, (e) Medon, son of Eteoclus, (f) Polydorus, son of Hippomedon, (g) Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus, (h) Sthenelus, son of Capaneus, and (i) Thersander, son of Polyneices. Under the leadership of possibly Adrastus (questionable: Adrastus may have died prior to the 2^nd Theban War since his son Aegialus is numbered among the “sons of the dead”) and certainly his nephew Alcmaeon, the Epigoni raised a second army from among the cities of the Argolid that were ruled by the relatives.of Adrastus and launched a second invasion of Egypt and a second siege of Thebes. This time the Greeks enjoyed a measure of success. Some historians claim that they invested the city, razed it to the ground, and installed Thersander on the Theban throne.  I agree with them. According to my chronology, Ay was followed by Armaeus or Armais, who, I believe, was Thersander. He ruled for seven years (820-813 BC) and was succeeded by his son Ramesse, who ruled for one year (813-812 BC). Then Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Libyans.

812-802 BC – The Trojan War. Eight years after the 2^nd Theban War ended, the Greeks began flexing their muscles again. For years they had been irked by the control which the Trojans exercised over the Dardanelles and the maritime trade between (a) the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the west and south and (b) the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea to the north and east. On the pretext of being outraged over the supposed abduction of Helen, the beautiful wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, by the Trojan prince Paris, King Agamemnon of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, led an armada of over a thousand ships filled with Greek warriors to besiege Troy and liberate Helen. The siege lasted ten years and ended with a Greek victory. It was undoubtedly the most dramatic event of Greece’s Heroic Age.

800-790 BC – The Voyage of Odysseus. In the Odyssey, Homer relates that, after the fall of Troy, the Greek hero Odysseus commenced a voyage from Troy to his home in Ithaca that lasted ten years.

778-777 BC – The 25^th Anniversary of the Greek Victory at Troy, which occurred in the year 803-802 BC, would have fallen in this year. In the following year (777-776 BC), the 1st Olympiad and the Olympiad Dating System began. I speculate that the Olympic Games were held to celebrate and commemorate the most important event in Mycenaean Greek history. Its lateness by one year could have been due to one of many reasons (see my response to LG below).

As the above people and events are put in their proper times and places, they lose the vagueness of myth and take on the definition of history, which answers my original question, “Is the Heroic Age of Greece myth or history?” It looks like history to me.

© 2016, 2019 John Holbrook Jr.

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[1] I cannot remember where I saw this piece of information, which is unfortunate because it plays an important role in my chronology of this period. Velikovsky referred to it on page 26 of his book Oedipus and Akhnaton.

[2] The Argonauts regarded Herakles as the natural commander in chief among them, but he declined the position and suggested that Jason be their leader.

 

by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #018 posted November 14, 2016, edited March 9, 2021.

Most versions of ancient chronology put the 18^th Dynasty of Egypt in the 2^nd millennium BC – specifically c.1550-1320 BC. My chronology, however, which takes the Bible as its point of departure, but which also owes much to Immanuel Velikovsky, puts it almost entirely in the 1^st millennium BC – specifically c.1041-812 BC [1] – a period roughly coincident with the Mycenaean or Heroic Age in Greece (c.1008-754 BC).

Despite its fame, the last portion of the 18^th Dynasty, which began with the death of Amenhotep III, is shrouded in mystery. When he was killed, his wife Queen Tiy assumed the throne and ruled for eight years. During this time her chief advisor was her brother Ay. Suddenly Akhnaton succeeded to the throne.

In Oedipus and Akhnaton, [2] a brilliant piece of detective work, Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky established to my – and many others’ – satisfaction that the events at the end of Egypt’s 18^th Dynasty had provided the basis and inspiration for the Greek tales concerning Oedipus and his family. Velikovsky made the following identifications: Akhnaton was known to the Greeks as Oedipus;[3] his mother Queen Tiy, as Jocasta; her brother Ay, as Creon; Akhnaton’s son Smenkhare, as Polyneices; his son Tutankhamen, as Eteocles; and his daughters Meritaten and Beketaten, Antigone (the two sisters were conflated in the Greek tales). Thus, Velikovsky argued, the Greek tales can provide details in the drama that occurred in the court of ancient Egypt.

The trouble started with Akhnaton. He was a strange figure, and he played the central role in this drama.

Akhnaton was born with some unusual deformities – a thin torso and markedly swollen legs. Velikovsky surmised that these deformities were probably due to progressive lipodystrophy, a rare affliction that causes the elimination of subcutaneous fat in the upper body and the accumulation of adipose tissue in the lower body.

Egyptian history is silent concerning Akhnaton’s origins. Fortunately, the Greek tales are not. They indicate that, probably due to his deformity, he was abandoned in the wilderness as a baby, but was saved by a shepherd, who conveyed him to Mitanni, where he was raised in the royal household.

After the death of his father in 861 BC, Akhnaton appeared out of nowhere and married Queen Tiy, apparently unaware that she was his mother. The Greek tales supply a mechanism for this stunning elevation to the throne of Thebes: he solved the riddle of the Sphinx.

During his reign, Akhnaton demonstrated intense hostility toward both the priests in Thebes and the memory of his father. He destroyed the Theban Oracle, defaced statues of his father, and assumed his father’s name, Amenophis, which was the cultural equivalent of patricide.

Akhnaton maintained an aberrant household. His first wife appears to have been Nefertete, who was the daughter of Ay and Ty, whom he probably married before becoming pharaoh, and with whom he sired Tutankhamen, Ankhesenpaaten (eventually the wife of Tutankhamen), Meketaten, Meritaten (eventually the wife of Smenkhare), and three other daughters. His second wife was Queen Tiy, whom he married as he became pharaoh and with whom he sired Smenkhare and Beketaten (his favorite). A few years later, Tiy supplanted Nefertete as his chief wife, but then disappeared from the royal annals in his regnal year 13 (848 BC). She does not appear to have been buried in the tomb which was built for her. The Greek tales indicate that she committed suicide and was denied a proper burial. His third wife was Tadukhipa, who was the daughter of the King of Mitanni. She was sent by her father to be a wife to Amenhotep III, but arrived after he died, during the reign of Queen Tiy. She lived in the royal harem and became available to Akhnaton when he ascended to the throne.

In his year 4 (857 BC), much to the horror of the priests in Thebes, with whom Ay sided, Akhnaton formally rejected the gods of Egypt, and established the monotheistic cult of Aten.[4]

Akhnaton then built a new city at El Amarna, which he named Akhet-Aton. It was dedicated to the worship of Aten. In his year 5 (856 BC), he moved the royal court from Thebes to Akhet-Aton

In his year 6 (855 BC) Egypt was inflicted by a plague or some other affliction, which caused the oracles to maintain that an unacknowledged and un-atoned for patricide existed in the land. The oracles regular insistence on this interpretation of the disturbance caused Akhnaton to commence searching for the criminal in question, and his investigation eventually led to himself.

Meanwhile, Akhnaton flaunted his deformities by appearing nearly nude in public, maintaining that they indicated he was divine and had been divinely elected to rule Egypt. At an unknown point, however, consumed with guilt and opposed by many for his bizarre behavior, he became blind – possibly by his own hand. At that point, his physical condition matched his spiritual condition.

In his year 16 (845 BC), Akhnaton retired from public life and lived as a semi-prisoner in the palace while his son and co-regent ruled the land.

In year 20 of his reign (841 BC), Akhnaton was officially deposed and driven into exile for unknown reasons, accompanied by his devoted daughter Beketaten. Thus, he disappeared from Egyptian history.

Upon Akhnaton’s deposition, a rivalry between his two sons Smenkhare and Tutankhamen immediately surfaced, undoubtedly nurtured by their uncle Ay, who brokered an agreement between them that the two brothers would occupy the throne of Egypt on alternate years.

The elder Smenkhare went first and reigned for one year (841-840 BC). During his reign, Akhet-Aton was abandoned and the government returned to Thebes (archaeologists estimate that Akhet-Aton was inhabited for 15 years, which would place its abandonment in 841 BC, immediately after Akhnaton’s deposal and in Smenkhare’s year 0. At the end of that year, Smenkhare turned the throne over to his brother Tutankhamen in accordance with the agreement between them.

Tutankhamen ruled Egypt for 8 years (840-832 BC). At the end of his first year, he was supposed to return the throne to his brother in accordance with the agreement between them, but he failed to do so. Instead he sought his brother’s death – undoubtedly due to the influence of his great uncle Ay. Smenkhare fled to Greece, where he stayed with King Adrastus of Sicyon and married Adrastus’s daughter Argeia.

In order to reinstate his son-in-law on the Egyptian throne, King Adrastus undertook the 1^st Theban War (832-831 BC) (also known as the Seven Against Thebes). He raised an army from the cities of the Peloponnesus, invaded Egypt, and besieged Thebes. The war was a debacle for the Greeks. Most of the Greek heroes were killed. Both Smenkhare/Polyneices and Tutankhamen/Eteocles were killed; they fell in mortal combat with one another.

On the death of the two legitimate heirs to the throne, Ay, who had harbored designs on the throne for years, seized it and ruled Egypt for 12 years (832-820 BC). He immediately issued two commands: (a) that Tutankhamen/Eteocles be buried in the traditional manner for royal figures (the photograph below shows a sample of the splendid artifacts that were crowded into his tomb) and (b) that Smenkare/Polynices be left to rot on the battlefield.

Disregarding Ay’s decree concerning Smenkhare, his wife Meritaten (Antigone) buried him ritually by sprinkling dust on his body as it lay where it had fallen on the battlefield, for which she was condemned by Ay to spend the rest of her life in a small pit immediately outside Queen Tiy’s tomb, where Smenkhare was laid to rest.

In Ay’s year 11 (821 BC), King Adrastus invaded Egypt and besieged Thebes again in what became known as the 2^nd Theban War (821-820 BC) or the War of the Epigoni, who were the sons of the dead heroes of the 1^st Theban War. The Greeks undertook the war to avenge the dead heroes and install Thersander, the son of Polyneices and Argeia, on the Egyptian throne. This time the Greeks enjoyed a measure of success. Some historians claim that they invested the city, deposed Ay, and installed Thersander on the Theban throne. I agree with them. According to my chronology, Ay was followed by Armaeus or Armais, who, I believe, was Thersander. He ruled for seven years (820-813 BC) and was succeeded by his son Ramesse, who ruled for one year (813-812 BC). Then Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Libyans.

So ended a royal dynasty riddled with betrayal, blasphemy, deceit, incest, idolatry, intrigue, and self-aggrandizement.

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[1] According to my chronology, the pharaohs of Egypt’s 18^th Dynsasty reigned as follows: Ahmose, who assisted Saul in destroying the Hyksos/Amalekite fortress Avaris at El Arish, reigned for 25 years (1041-1016 BC); Amenhotep I reigned for 13 years (1016-1003 BC); Thutmose I reigned for 21 years (1003-982 BC); Queen Hatshepsut, who was known in the Bible as the Queen of Sheba and visited Solomon in Jerusalem, reigned for 35 years (982-947 BC); Thutmose III, who was known in the Bible as Shishak and sacked Jerusalem and its Temple, reigned for 32 years (947-915 BC); Amenhotep II reigned for 15 years (915-890 BC); Amenhotep III reigned for 21 years (890-869 BC): Queen Tiy, who was Amenhotep III’s wife, reigned for 8 years (869-861, Akhnaton, who was the son of Amenhotep III and Tiy, reigned for 20 years (861-841 BC); Smenkhare, who was Akhnaton’s eldest son, reigned for 1 year (841-840 BC); Tutankhamen, who was one of Akhnaton’s younger sons, reigned for 8 years (840-832 BC); Ay who was Queen Tiy’s brother and Akhnaton’s uncle, reigned for 12 years (832-820 BC); Armaeus or Armais, who was Smenkhare’s son, ruled for 7 years (820-813 BC); and Ramesse, who was Armaeus’s son, reigned for 1 year (813-812 BC).

[2] Velikovsky, Immanuel, Oedipus and Akhnaton, Doubleday & Company, Garden City NY, 1961. I highly recommend it. It is a tour de force.

[3] Akhnaton was also known to the Greek historian Herodotus as Anysis.

[4] Some people assert that the cult of Aten was the first monotheistic religion. A little thought will undercut that assertion. The cult of Aten (est. c. 857 BC) was preceded by the Adamic religion (est. 3977 BC), the Noachic religion (est. 2321 BC), the Abrahamic religion (est. 1894 BC), and the Mosaic religion (est. 1464 BC), all of which were monotheistic and focused on the God of the Bible who created the heavens and the earth.

© 2016 John Holbrook Jr.

by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #017 posted November 7, 2016, edited March 9, 2021.

Most versions of ancient chronology put the Egyptian Pharaoh Cheops in the 26^th century BC and the Hebrew patriarch Abraham in the 20^th or 19^th century BC – a difference of six or seven centuries. In my chronology of the ancient world, which takes the Bible as its point of departure, Cheops and Abraham were contemporaries.

According to my chronology, Abraham lived 175 years (1965-1794 BC). In 1894 BC, at the age of 75, Abraham received a communication from God. [1] God gave him (1) a Command to leave his home in Ur-of-the-Chaldees and travel to a land to which God would lead him and (2) a Promise that his descendents would constitute a great nation. When Abraham informed his father Terah of the vision which he had received from God, Terah believed his son and decided to move the entire family from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran, which his older son had apparently founded, and presumably from there into Canaan. When he reached Haran, however, Terah died, leaving the family in the hands of Abraham.

After burying and mourning for his father, Abraham departed from Haran with his household, crossed the Euphrates River, and entered into Canaan. He traveled through Sichem to the Plain of Moreh, where he camped for an unspecified time. There God visited Abraham and issued his first promise of the land of Canaan to Abram and his descendants. Abraham built an altar on the Plain of Morel to commemorate God’s visit. He then traveled to a mountain between Hai on the east and Bethel on the west, where he camped and built another altar.

Circa 1893 BC, the land of Canaan suffered from an extensive famine, and so Abraham led his family south out of Canaan and into Egypt.[2] Because his sister and wife Sarah was a beautiful woman and Abraham was afraid that some Egyptian would kill him in order to take her, he instructed Sarah to identify herself as his sister. As soon as they arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians, as Abraham had anticipated, took an interest in Sarah and brought her to the attention of Pharaoh. When Pharaoh saw Sarah, he desired her and asked Abraham to relinquish her, which Abraham did. After taking Sarah into his harem, the pharaoh treated Abraham well, giving him servants, cattle, and probably other gifts.

Because Pharaoh had taken Sarah into his harem, the Lord visited great plagues upon him and his house. Interestingly, Pharaoh must have learned of the Lord’s displeasure directly from the Lord, because he approached Abraham with the question, “What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, she is my sister? So that I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.” The implication of “I might have taken her to me to wife” is that he discovered the truth about Sarah before he took her into his bed. Thus Abraham’s sojourn in Egypt probably did not last very long. Nonetheless, Abraham and Pharaoh were undoubtedly intelligent, educated and formidable men and undoubtedly spent much time talking while Abraham was Pharaoh’s guest.

Now according to my chronology of the ancient world before 1464 BC, , which relies heavily on the work of Donovan Courville, the ruler of Egypt in 1893 BC was Osirophus, the first pharaoh of the 4^th Dynasty. He ruled Egypt for 23 years (1901-1878 BC). He was also known as Cheops, Khufu, and Sufi I. Abraham’s visit would have fallen in his year 9.

 

Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza – weepingredorger.wordpress.com

Osirophus is credited with building the largest of the pyramids at Giza, which has earned it the title “the Great Pyramid.” It is one of the wonders of the ancient world, and it has engendered much speculation concerning its purpose, the manner of its construction, and whether or not the form and dimensions of its structure carry information concerning the past and future of mankind. Would not the pyramid have been a prime topic of conversation between Osirophus and Abraham? Would not Osirophus have taken Abraham on a tour of the construction site? My answer to both questions is, “Yes, without a doubt!”

Does the Great Pyramid provide any evidence of being influenced by Abraham. In response to the question, I would point to some curious aspects of the structure. First, its capstone is missing, and second, the sarcophagus in the king’s chamber is empty. Archaeologists assume (a) that the capstone has been the victim of either erosion or theft, along with much of the pyramid’s exterior sheathing, and (b) that the sarcophagus was emptied by thieves. Both are possible and reasonable explanations. On the other hand, the capstone may have been omitted and the sarcophagus may have been empty since its installation for reasons that did not occur to the archaeologists. The phrase ‘the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner’ appears five times in the Scriptures (Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, and 1 Peter 2:7) and there are many references in Scriptures to the sepulcher in which Jesus was laid as being empty on the Sunday morning following the Friday on which he was laid to rest. Is it possible that, while he was a guest of Osirophus, Abraham shared with the pharaoh some details of the vision of the future which God had entrusted to him?

© 2016 John Holbrook Jr.

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[1] See Genesis 12:1-3.

[2] See Genesis 12:10- 20 for the record of Abraham’s visit to Egypt.