Category Archives: Ancient Egypt

Power vacuums, nation building, and early Israel

Posted on January 14, 2019 by

There is very little for historians to go on when seeking to write a story of exactly what happened when the Bible coincides with historical events. The biblical stories, epics or sagas were written with a very different purpose than … Continue reading →

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Philistines and Biblical Calneh

Posted on January 9, 2019 by

Recent archeological digs and new readings of the reliefs and records of Ramses III may give us better insight into the rise of the Philistines in Gaza. The Philistines, of course, are major players in the Bible stories of Samson, … Continue reading →

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Alternatives to Wikipedia

Posted on January 7, 2019 by

A new book project will wait until at least mid-February. I am two weeks away from my annual winter vacation. Besides, my next book project will relate to the New Testament.  My mind is presently still stuck on Iron Age and … Continue reading →

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Israel Knohl-Jacob-el and a pretty wild theory

Posted on January 4, 2019 by

Israel Knohl has a new theory about Israel’s origin that is poles apart from whatever consensus there is. It is only fully published in a Hebrew book, How the Bible was Born (summary here). There is a review by someone … Continue reading →

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Israelites with Egyptian names

Posted on January 2, 2019 by

At this juncture of 2018/19 I think back over the books I have been reading. I think that three books I have read recently converge on the reality that several names of Levites in the Bible appear to be Egyptian. … Continue reading →

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Soulen-Egypt and all nations

Posted on November 5, 2018 by

R. Kendall Soulen in The God of Israel and Christian Theology gives us some biblical interpretation worth pondering. To restate something I have already covered, he says that the theme of creation is blessing. God created us to spread his … Continue reading →

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Were Rachel and Leah married to the same man?

Posted on October 4, 2018 by

Rachel means ewe and Leah means cow. There have been jokes about how Leah’s name reflected on her attractiveness. There might be something there. In the story Jacob is much more attracted to Rachel. But the story is the product … Continue reading →

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