Pharaohs and Kings

Rohl takes us on a fascinating journey through the worlds of biblical and egyptian archeology and chronology. As good as the entire book is, it does not compare to the clarity of evidence demonstrated in the middle sections on Saul, David and Solomon. This book is for everyone. But for anyone that knows their Bible pretty well you will be shocked at the absolutely undeniable existence of numerous (about a dozen) Saul and David stories recounted in letters between egyptian and Cananite Kings including Saul himself. We can read extra-Biblical accounts in Saul's own words! If you know your Sunday school stories of that period you can read these diplomatic letters quoted in the book and identify the well known Saul/David events yourself. Even Rohl gets excited in these sections and I agree when he states: "It is remarkable that this has not been noticed before - but then I suppose that any comparison was quite out of the question before the New Chronology came along". (end of Ch 10)

To say the very least, this book is an enlightening read. The author attempts to design a new chronology of Egypt based on a number of archaeological observations he made which pointed to certain anomolies in the standard chronology of the Third Intermediate Period of Egyptian history. The TIP is one of those points in history where information is scanty and there is much room for error in interpreting existing archaeological evidence. Rohl posits that the 21st and 22nd pharaonic dynasties were at least partly contemprary in a period of balkanization of Egypt, contrary to the conventional chronology's view that they were successive. He therefore shifts the entire preceding dynastic histories downward from 200 to 300 years. That is, what we previously though to occur at 1250 BC actually happened at 1000 BC according to Rohl. In so doing Rohl has done much to synchronize Egyptian chronology with the chronology of the bible.Rohl claims that the Amarna letters were not to be compared to Joshua's conquest of Canaan, a period where they clearly do not fit, but rather tell the tale of Saul's and David's claiming of Israel from Phillistine Egyptian vassals. He synchonizes Ramesses II's conquests of Asia Minor with the biblical invasion of Shishak. Also, he identifies the Egyptian 'Hyksos' with the Amalekites of the book of Exodus. There are many other enlightening points of connection with the bible that Rohl makes, but my point here is not to explain them all.The true value of this book for any egyptologist, student of biblical history, or any student of the ancient world at all, is this book's popular presentation of the field of archaeology and ancient history. So rare are books that actually connect a lay reader with the methodologies and evidence upon which researchers base their works. In order to show a need for a revision of Egyptian chronology, Rohl shows how the entirety of Egyptian chronology depends on all but of a handful of archaeological finds, many of them of dubious reliability. Even if Rohl's opponents find more pieces of evidence supporting the standard chronology, the number will still be very small and they will quite likely be as subject to interpretation, as are the ones that Rohl has pointed out. Rohl goes to great lengths to show the history of the observations that scholarship has made, thereby showing us where they may have gone wrong. (As a popular book, I must confess that parts of Rohl's historical narratives depict events in which one expects to find Indiana Jones) Next, when building his own chronology, Rohl puts us close to the texts and archaeological evidence upon which he bases his theories. Rohl's conclusions are in many cases impressive, but in some cases I had to shake my head and come to the conclusion that he was grasping at straws. For instance, I believe that his work in astronomical retrocalulations to find the dates of eclipses recorded in ancient texts is pretty shaky. I even doubt that the text that he is ta

David M. Rohl would have us believe that several hundred years have been mistakenly added to the conventional chronology of our established history. He claims this mistake has prevented archaeology from finding any clues as to the existance of Old Testament characters. I have had this book three years, and have re-read it five (I think) times. Such is the wealth of data contained in this book that I defy anyone (save those who make this subject their career) to read it once, and come to a reasonable conclusion. Rohl presents arguments backed by data that, in the absence of alternate theories - many of which he provides - are hard to refute. Classical Egyptology has poured scorn on this work. I urge readers to tackle traditionalist treatments of the same data (e.g by the respected English scholar Kenneth Kitchen), and then draw their own conclusions. For myself, I feel David Rohl has made an argument at least as convincing for his thesis, as those made by mainstream Egyptologists.

David Rohl's "Pharaohs and Kings" (released in some countries it would seem as "A Test of Time") has to be one of the most interesting and readable archaeology/history books around. Stunningly illustrated with excellent diagrams, colour photographs and maps, this book catalogues the chronological problems Egyptgologists have created by sticking to three somewhat tenuous biblical synchronisms made with Egypt during the last century. Rohl disects the currently accepted chronology, demonstrates its flaws and then reconstructs an alternative using only the physical archaeological record. The results are startling. Far from breaking the synchronisms between the Bible and Ancient Egypt, Rohl finishes up confirming that many of the Biblcial stories are based on real events. These are backed up with physical objects excavated from sites such as Tell el-Amarna and Tanis. Rohl's own position, an essentially atheistic one, makes his discoveries all the more exicting as there is no religious angle to his work - just clear conclusions drawn from well presented evidence. Seemingly, he has received widespread support from the younger members of the accademic community for his work while the 'old brigade', who have been teaching the flawed conventional chronology for years, can't bring themselves to re-examine the facts. Rohl's style is unusual for a serious accademic - the book is written with humour and humanity, and easily readable. The whole layout, text, notations and illustrations make this a very attractive book. By the end of the book, you are amazed at how much you have understood and how obvious the conclusions are. A five star read - NOT TO BE MISSED - and a fabulous Christmas present.

Originally published as "A Test of Time" and subsequently made into a two-tape video called "Pharoah and Kings", now the title of the book due for release in July 1997. [This review is based on "A Test of Time"] This scholarly work is extremely interesting and absorbing to anyone with and interest in Egyptology or the history embodied in the Old Testament in the Bible. The book is well laid out with numerous notations and references in the margins. It is copiously illustrated with monochrome and colour photographs. Tables of chronology abound, and my only cavil is there is a somewhat erratic definition of their chronological era. A final table showing the complete concurrent chronology of Egyptian and Biblical history in the "New Chronolgy" would not be amiss. The books is a detective thriller, with a multitude of clues, each of which is carefully teased out (often under a microscope) and a conclusion drawn. David Rohl's conclusions are not dogmatic and are usually stated as a balance of probability. There are many other Egyptologists who support his thesis: that the Old Testament is an historical document, backed up by archaeological finds. David Rohl puts forward a thesis in his book that far from being "non-existant", there are independantly datable archaeological remains which support the events described in the Old Testament. He carefully explains how re-interpretations of Biblical names and archaeological finds of Israel and Egypt cast new light on their true historical identities and chronology. Archaeological finds examined in a new light, such as letters written in Akkadian cuneiform to Akenhaten, and found at Tell el Amarna, mention the Hebrew leader David. Some of the other startling facts that emerge are the find and identification of the residence of Joseph, vizier of Egypt and son of Jacob, at Avaris on the Nile Delta. Pharoah Dudimose caused the Israelite to flee Egypt after 215 years in the land of Goshen. Tutankamen was a contemporary of King David. Solomon succeeded David and married the daughter of Pharoah Harembeb. Solomon's Temple was built with all the skills available to him from Phoenicia in the time of the late bronze age. Finally Ramesses II sacks the temple of Jerusalem in about 925BC. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am now reading it for the second time! Robin Scott, Somerset West, South Africa, the Rainbow Nation