The Moses Mystery: The Egyptian Origins of the Jewish People

If you are interested in studying the origins of the Israelites (and the origins of the Hebrew Bible) then this should be one of the books that should be on your reading list. The Israelite history and religion have a lot of connections to ancient Egypt. This isn't a perfect bridge between ancient Egypt and the Israelites but, it builds a good foundation for the research. It's a `must' read for those involved in biblical scholarship.

Library Journal review said: Despite the misleading subtitle??? I guess the Library Journal isn't breaking any laws for lying to the people. There is nothing misleading about the title of this book. It's called the The African Origins of the Jewish People for one reason. It happens to be the truth and this book as well as The African Origin of Modern Judaism, by Jose V. Malcioln and many many others makes it very clear. Don't let them fool you!

Who was the historical Moses? Using writings from the second century BCE Egyptian priest of Thoth Manetho and some deductive reasoning, Gary Greenberg thinks he's found him. Best known for his fascinating book 101 Bible Myths, Greenberg an attorney and amateur biblical scholar is always good reading and can always be counted on for providing interesting speculation in answering bible mysteries. His strength is bringing solid legal reasoning to biblical speculation and his weakness is bringing solid legal reasoning to biblical speculation. This book is an excellent case in point for showing the limits of using legal reasoning to comprehend bible mysteries. Greenberg builds his case that there really was an Exodus and that it really did take place in Egypt by showing similarities between ritual practices in Judaism and those in Egyptian religion (for example, circumcision and not eating with foreigners). However circumcision was practiced far and wide in antiguity including the fijians and samoans of Polynesia, some peoples in Australia, and even among the ancient Assyrians and Phoenicians. Likewise, variant dietary practices are known and have been known not only in the west but the east as well. Next, Greenberg looks to Manetho a second century BCE priest of Thoth assigned by Ptolemy II to write a history of Egypt from its inception to the time of Alexander the Great. In writing his history, Manetho recounted an Egyptian version of the Exodus wherein he called Moses by the name of Osarseph and placed him around the time of Ahknaten, the renegade Pharoah who suppressed all but his religion of Atenism or sun worship. According to Greenberg Moses was himself a holdover priest of Thoth who was forcibly expelled from Egypt with his followers following the downfall of Ahknaten and the discrediting of Atenism. Again, though the theory no doubt has an ostensible plausibility it flies in the face of the way ancient historians plied their task. They didn't deny the fanstastic allegations of other writers, but merely rephrased them in way to strip their opponents claim of merit. A case in point is the second/third century debate between Celsus an anti christian and Origen a Christian proponent. For his part Celsus explained Jesus' lack of a father by naming a Roman solider Pantera as being his true but historically suppressed father. This process of rephrasing a minimization was common in ancient times and was in play when Manetho recounted his version of the Exodus. What's more, Greenberg eschewed actual biblical archeological evidence in drawing his conclusions. Specifically, he failed to acurately weigh the lack of physical evidence in appraising the fact or existence of the Exodus. This would had a big effect on his work too because there is and has been a strong concensus in the biblical archeological community respecting the lack of factual evidence for the historical occurence of the Exodus. Despite these failings, Greenberg has st

There really IS a lot of mystery about the biblical Moses. For example,...Why did Moses even GO into the desert for 40 years????? It never made sense to me. Mr. Greenberg postulates a reasonable answer to my question. He postulates that Moses was the High Priest of Pharoah Akhnaten's new monotheistic religion,...Aten worship. Historians know that the old Amun worship was persecuted by Pharoah Akhnaten,...and when Akhnaten died the Amun priests returned to power once more and persecuted the Aten worshippers,...probably enslaving them.According to Greenberg,..(in MY words) Moses went into the desert for the same reason that Ayatollah Khomeini went to France for 15 years,....Both had religio-politico reasons for being a persona non grata in his homeland. And BOTH, after their periods of exile, RETURNED to their homelands,...but here is where their experiences diverge. Whereas the Ayatollah succeeded in re-establishing himself at home and became prominent once more,...the opposite happened to Moses. Moses returned to Egypt, where he used to be High Priest of the Aten Monotheitic religion, but faced hostility and failure,...to the extent that he once more had to leave Egypt,...this time taking his people with him saying "Let my people go." Greenberg goes quite deeply into Egyptian history showing how the biblical Moses existed at the very same time that Akhnaten. He also mentions the lack of archelogical evidence to support the biblical story of a "Hebrew" people from Palestine having been enslaved in Egypt. This is a very interesting book with lots of historical back-up. Unfortunately a Peter Temes of the NW Times gave the book the kind of review one would expect from someone who is not able to let go of bible stories he has known from childhood. He just summarily pooh-poohs the whole idea,...a not very intelligent approach. I would certainly recommend buying and studying this book. It will keep you busy for quite a few nights,....that is,...if you are sufficiently open minded. :-)

The Bible Myth is a compelling theory and Mr. Greenberg's research was quite thought provoking. I am a student of history and probably have a better than average knowledge of Egyptian history, yet I found myself quite lost on several occasions. It would be to the reader's advatage to have a general knowledge of Egyptian history especially between the Pharoahs of Akahanaten and Ramases II. If Bible or Egyptian studies interest you this is a truly fascinating book!