4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
LOL!, September 7, 2009
This review is from: The Bible Betrayed: Have scholars misplaced ancient Egypt on the map and thus obscured the Holy Land? (Paperback)
LOL! What a silly book! Wow, ....wow. This book is so un historical it isn't even funny. I want my money back!
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1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AMAZING ABSOLUTELY ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!, May 11, 2009
This review is from: The Bible Betrayed: Have scholars misplaced ancient Egypt on the map and thus obscured the Holy Land? (Paperback)
I GIVE THIS GUY THE 4As!! The scope of this book is immense. The author, James Rappai has managed to do what a hundred nay a thousand scholars before him tried and failed to accomplish!
Okay, histrionics aside, what Mr. Rappai has done is single-handedly resolve the Bible anomaly of missing archaeological evidence. In the process, he blithely dismantles the 'sacred' Egypt reconstruction and ships it lock-stock and barrel to the Near Eastern arena.
Is one allowed to do this? Do I find it believable? Frankly, I am a little bewildered, but if you ask me, does it make sense, I have to say... sure. Why the hell not.
The Egypt reconstruction is not all robust as it seems. True, there are the ruins, but the story that goes with it, is not all 'kosher.' The fit is a sham. There is a lot that has been quietly swept under the carpet. It is entirely possible that we have clothed one set of ruins with the garment of another, as Rappai suggests.
The inexplicable presence of Egypt in Syria has always vexed Egyptologists. Indeed, to accommodate this powerful magnetic pull, this region has been considered an annexe of Egypt.
A must read for every student of Egyptology and biblical studies. A must read for all the armchair explorers out there who want to sink their teeth into a real live-wire history mystery, one that take on a hundred thousands scholars head-on.
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1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Facinating hypothesis, May 2, 2009
This review is from: The Bible Betrayed: Have scholars misplaced ancient Egypt on the map and thus obscured the Holy Land? (Paperback)
The Bible Betrayed attempts to resolve the enigma of missing archaeological evidence for the Bible. It suggestions that the reconstructed map of the Levant (including the Holy Land), suffers from an error and is indeed the root cause for the Bible's archaeological no-show. While this is indeed the standard position of the biblical maximalists, the author suggests that the map suffers from a fundamental or fatal error reconstruction error.
What is this fatal error?
Ancient Egypt was misidentified and misplaced. Ancient Egyptians were poor builders, and textual sources reveal them to have been a sophisticate populace much along the lines of ancient Greece. What we have now is exactly the opposite and clearly a case of mistaken identity.
The Egypt error skews the whole map. It caused Ethiopia of the Greek scholars and Canaan of the Bible to be separately reconstructed when in reality they are merely two different perspectives of the same city-state. This fact is elaborately established by tallying similarities between the two. History, topographical and political similarities are painstakingly tallied. The author cleverly uses corroborating ancient world textual sources such as Strabo, Josephus and Herodotus, to establish it in an irrefutable and transparent manner.
Incidentally, tracing the root cause of the Ethiopia-Canaan duplication is what that leads to Egypt error. Once again, using the corroborative approach, the author establishes that ancient Egypt too is erroneous.
Real Egypt was located in the Middle East where Syria is situated. With incredible easy the author eases Egypt into an altogether different landscape. The Nile and its delta are identified, and indeed, the whole reconstruction is expertly put into place in the most believable manner. The fit too is hand-in glove and everything makes much more sense. Frankly, the entire presentation is very unnerving.
As if this weren't enough, the new map is tested; it is used to locate Jerusalem. Here, a key extract from Strabo comes in handy. Jerusalem which was located in the mountains, was visible from the coast, it states. Using this clue, a fort-temple ruin set on a mountain ridge is triangulated. Closer examination reveals it to be a perfect match. The acropolis is exactly as described by Josephus and Strabo. One look at the photograph (use `customer image' link beneath the title image to reach) is enough to trigger cardiac arrhythmia amongst seasoned bible archaeologist. The resemblance is so uncanny!
The book is well written and written for the lay audience. All the arguments are structured well and the complex unraveling of this Gordian knot is indeed expertly done.
The whole ideology is new from end to end. Thus, petty scholars, especially short-order Wikipedia scholars empowered with stars and bottle-cap medallions to save the world, will undoubtedly bay for blood, and try their utmost to berate this discovery-hypothesis, make a mockery of the presentation. Senior scholars are however well advised to take a close look.
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