Gary Greenberg's blog on biblical studies
I was hoping to have my new book, Genesis Chronology and Egyptian King-lists: The Egyptian Origins of Genesis History: Volume I, the Egyptian Dynastic Period, my follow up to The Moses Mystery, out during February. There has been a couple of minor production glitches and a February release is possible, but it might take another week or two. In the meantime, you can now read Chapter One: The Mystery of the Genesis “Begats.”
Here’s some information about my next book, Genesis Chronology and Egyptian King-Lists: The Egyptian Origins of Genesis History, Volume 1: Egypt’s Dynastic Period. Over the next couple of weeks, I will post a Table of Contents and readable access to the first chapter. So far, the release date is still set for no later than mid-February.
Revealed! the hidden links between
Genesis chronology and Egyptian history
The Book of Genesis contains a 2,300-year chronology of Patriarchal births and deaths, from Adam to Joseph. Most biblical scholars believe the lists were fictional creations but Gary Greenberg, the provocative author of The Moses Mystery, says the birth and death dates contain a disguised but accurate chronology of Egypt’s dynastic history.
Based on a deep and thorough examination of the many problems in establishing an accurate Egyptian chronology, Greenberg makes a compelling case that an alignment of the Genesis birth-death chronology with the High Egyptian Chronology favored by many Egyptologists demonstrates a precise one-to-one relationship between most Genesis birth and death dates and the starting years for Egypt’s first eighteen dynasties and many of its most important kings.
Some of the surprising discoveries in Genesis Chronology and Egyptian King-lists
Those of you who read my book The Moses Mystery: The Egyptian Origins of the Jewish People, might recall that a portion of the argument depended on an extensive study of Egyptian Chronology. Unfortunately, since the book was written for the popular market and the full study would have more than doubled the length of the book, the publishers strongly opposed my inclusion of the extra material. After negotiations, the editor agreed that I could provide a significantly abbreviated summary of the material, which I did. In the book, I said I would separately publish the chronological material.
That was about 20 years ago, and life being what it is, I wound up with new book deals and new directions of interest. Earlier this year, I convinced myself to go back to my original research, do a lot of updating, and separately publish my detailed study showing that the author of the Book of Genesis used ancient Egyptian archival material to fashion his chronological history of Genesis, from Creation to the death of Joseph.
This is going to be a massive study dealing with Egyptian chronology, mythology, and history. My initial plan has been to do a three-volume study titled Genesis Chronology and Egyptian King-lists: the Egyptian origins of Genesis history. “Volume I, Egypt’s Dynastic Period” is now completed and going through the process of transformation into a book. I expect it to be published no later than February 2019. The first volume is the one that supplements The Moses Mystery. Over the next few weeks, I will release some information about Volume I of the Genesis study.
The second volume will deal with the mythological chronology present in Egyptian king-lists and its relationship to Genesis. This will result in some substantial revelations about the nature of Egypt’s mythological chronology and the Genesis author’s reliance on that mythological chronology. The third volume will deal with the chronology of Genesis Creation and the patriarchal history from Adam to Joseph. I will show that almost all of Genesis history is highly dependent on Egyptian mythology. These last two volumes can be considered supplements to my 101 Myths of the Bible: How ancient scribes invented biblical history.
My original publishing plan called for me to release Volume 2 either in late 2019 or early 2020, and volume 3 within a year after releasing the second volume. Once again, life has intruded and I have just recently contracted with an academic publisher to produce my lengthy and controversial study on the source origins of the four New Testament gospels. The major draft of that book is complete, and I will have to spend time seeing how much editing and rewriting needs to be done and getting it in final shape for publication. That time frame is uncertain I hope that this won’t cause much delay in producing the next two volumes of Genesis Chronology and Egyptian King-lists: The Egyptian Origins of Genesis History. More details on the Gospels project in a couple of months.
Every year in the week or so before Thanksgiving, The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), The American Academy of Religion (AAR), the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR, which I believe is planning to change its name), and Biblical Archaeology Review’s Bible Fest hold overlapping conferences in the same city. The largest by far is the joint meeting of SBL and AAR, which presents literally hundreds of panels and discussions over three and a half days. That conference also includes a massive book sellers hall, featuring most of the major publishers and many lesser ones who sell books on related subjects. I believe the joint attendance for SBL-AAR approaches 10,000 attendees. While SBL and AAR cover almost everything biblical or religious, ASOR is primarily concerned with archaeology. This year all the organizations gathered in Denver.
I attended the SBL events and enjoyed a number of stimulating sessions. My friend and colleague at BASNY, Peter Feinman, struggles to attend both ASOR and SBL. See his two reports on the handling of 10th century Israel here and here.
I particularly enjoyed the panel “Ideological criticism and the Book of Samuel,” which dealt with the problematic story of Samuel’s rejection of Saul, as Samuel appears to have done nothing wrong. The bible, and implicitly the panel, treats the story as God’s rejection of Samuel. But as I suggested during the Q and A, it is Samuel, not God, who rejects Saul, and it is simply a case of Samuel’s corrupt family being rejected by Israel and Saul being chosen by Israel as Samuel’s replacement.
The story is nothing more than a political conflict between the corrupt Shiloh Priesthood, rich on perks, and the Israelites, lacking justice from the corrupt Shiloh judges. Samuel’s alliance with David was just another Shiloh power grab. I suggested to the panel, that reading the story, one gets the sense that Samuel had been lurking behind the boulder and delaying his appearance so that when Saul could no longer safely wait any longer and had to conduct certain rituals, Samuel could jump out from behind the stone and accuse him of violating God’s law. That got a few smiles.
For a more detailed, down to the nitty-gritty, of the conflicts between Saul, Samuel, and David, you might want to read my King David versus Israel: How a Hebrew tyrant hated by Israel became q biblical hero
I haven’t posted in a while. Sorry. I was traveling all of September, and finishing up my next book before and after. Details on the new book in a few days.
The Criterion of Embarrassment has come in for a lot of hard knocks lately, and with good reason. John Meier describes it as follows: “The point of the criterion is that the early Church would hardly have gone
Prof. James Davila, at PaleoJudaica.com links to my essay on Bible and Interpretation about “Roman Days, Jewish Nights and the Gospel Calendar Problem.” He also comments, “I didn’t think it was possible for me to feel more confused about the chronology of the Gospel Passion narratives. But after reading this I am.” Mission accomplished.
My essay, Roman Days, Jewish Nights, and Gospel Calendar Problems is now online at Bible and Interpretation. You can read it here or go to the Bible and Interpretation site and click a link there.
Most biblical scholars familiar with the biblical accounts of David’s rise to the throne of Israel recognize that the text has been overlaid with an apologia defending David against charges that he murdered his way to the throne by killing off those who stood in his way. The most significant assassination charged to him was that he arranged for King Saul to be murdered.
I recently submitted an article to Bible and Interpretation titled “Roman Days, Jewish NIghts, and the Gospel Calendar Problem.” It should appear in the latter part of July and I’ll post a link when it is published. The article examines some of the chronological issues affecting the gospel narratives that arise from the fact that the authors of the Gospels used a Roman calendar day (sunrise to sunrise) to describe events unfolding according to the Jewish Calendar day (sunset to sunset.) It discusses the impact on such issues as when the Sabbath started and ended, on what days Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread occurred, and the so-called Day of Preparation.
