Customer Reviews

The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt: The Secret Lineage of the Patriarch Joseph

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Drawing on the Bible, the Koran and various ancient Egyptian sources, the author places the events of Exodus in the time of Ramses I. This new interpretation of history may be compared with the work of Velikovsky although their conclusions are not the same; Velikovsky identifies Ramses I with Necho I of the end of the 7th century B.C.

I don't know who is correct, but Osman certainly provides a great read in this book as he identifies the biblical Joseph with Yuya, grand vizier of the 18th dynasty pharaoh Tuthmose IV. From this follows the introduction of monotheism by queen Tiye and her son Akhenaten. This explains the animosity shown towards Akhenaten and his religion by the later pharaoh Horemheb, whom Osman identifies as the oppressor king of the book of Exodus.

This book consists of two parts: A Father To Pharaoh which details the aforementioned history, and Notes And Sources, which contains the evidence and an interesting chapter on the name of Joseph/Yuya. This fascinating work concludes with a bibliography and index.

I also recommend The House Of The Messiah by this author plus the books of Immanuel Velikovsky, like Ages In Chaos, Oedipus And Akhnaten an Ramses II And His Time.

While the theories of his other books of this genre (namely that Jesus and Moses were Pharoahs) are far-fetched in my opinion, this theory of Joseph and Yuya being the same person appears spot-on. The details fit together almost as perfectly as one could expect considering the language and culture barrier between Hebrew and Egyptian. I am convinced.

My only complaint about this book is that the author makes a few unwarranted assumptions, most notably about the nature of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, which seem designed to promote the entirety of his theories about the origins of Israel and Judaism.

If read as a stand-alone theory concerning Joseph, this book is very convincing.

The Hebrew Pharaohs Of Egypt: The Secret Lineage Of Patriarch Joseph by Ahmed Osman explores the possibility that Biblical Joseph (who was sold into slavery by his kin), was one and the same with Yuya, a vizier of the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV. Shedding light on the sudden rise of monotheism in Egypt as spread by Queen Tiye and her son Akhenaten, The Hebrew Pharaohs Of Egypt is an intriguing, iconoclastic, and highly recommended study which draws upon Biblical and scientific findings to offer a unique interpretation of this specific aspect of the Biblical record.

Ahmed Osman crafted a magnificent scholarly work of interest to both theologians and people in the pew. His book, The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt: The Secret Lineage of Patriarch Joseph, provides a tremendous amount of detailed background for lay readers, which otherwise can be dense and convoluted. Still, the text teems with footnotes and relies heavily on other preeminent authors, professors, museum artifacts, and Biblical quotations. In short it has all the trappings of an academic paper. Osman's work has relevance and consequences for Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Followers of faith who read this book and want to appreciate the depth the Osman's hypothesis must be willing to open their mind to think beyond traditional words heard in synagogue, mosques, temples and churches.

Early on Ahmed Osman clearly states his position as a person of faith and his cultural context and scholarly bias. Then he plunges into the Joseph narrative, literally word by word according to the Koran and the Hebrew Bible. I read the majority of the book while traveling in Egypt, which of course brought rich meaning and life to the pages. Not everyone can do that, but the book is still worth the read. Furthermore, in today's information virtual world, much of the artifacts used to build Osman's case are visible on the Internet from museum and university web sites.

Osman traces the lineage of a royal birthright from Abraham and Sarah's brief stay in Egypt. He follows it as Esau surrenders the birthright to Jacob for a meal, and eventually links it to Joseph and the rise of monotheism in the 17th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Along this largely unheralded tale Osman makes many nice and very neat ties that have possibility. Some theologians, including myself, recognize the probability of Osman's theory. Pick up The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt, let go of preconceived notions and enjoy.

I read the 2003 edition of the 1987 book aka "Stranger in the Valley of the Kings". It contains only 160 text pages (including maps) and 32 picture pages.

It is about the identification of the Biblical Joseph with the Egyptian vizier Yuya, whose tomb with mummy was found in 1905. The reasoning of Ahmed Osman is strong, however not set in stone. He strongly rejects the idea of the Hyksos having anything to do with the Biblical Exodus. In the meanwhile, Ralph Ellis has offered a stronger reasoning for precisely the opposite (in Jesus: Last of the Pharoahs and Tempest & Exodus). Overall, Osman seems to be more trustworthy by comparison, e.g. in the identification of Moses (in Moses and Akhenaten: The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the Exodus), however not in this specific contest of revelations. Ellis also puts forward the idea that Joseph/Yuya was an inherited title, not an individual's name, hence leading to a varying identification of Joseph. Which I am not that convinced about, but by all means, every reader may find her and his personal opinion on that.

In some minor aspects, Osman's book is starting to accumulate dust. For example, using the n-word and falling for the legend that it was the Romans and later the Muslims who burned the library of Alexandria. In reality, it was the Romans and the Christians. There was nothing left, when the Muslims entered the scene.

This book is a stepping stone on the way to the real early and tempered with history - nothing more, but definitely nothing less.

It's total nonsense. The author first assumes that the various religious scriptures to be true and then engages into wild speculations. I'm giving it one star only because Amazon doesn't allow for a lower rating.

Osman has fashioned a fascinating look at who biblical Joseph was: A historical figure in Egyptian history. The fuzzy dates of Egyptian history and the misunderstood chronologies in the Bible make this difficult, but Osman makes some reasonable conclusions on when these events occurred.

He does make some errors or oversights: 1. p.16: Genesis does not have two creation stories, the "second version," after summarizing creation it focuses on the details of man's creation. These accounts are complementary, not contradictory (See "The Genesis Question" by Hugh Ross).

2. p. 17: While it's true that the Pentateuch author(s) used multiple sources, Osman overuses the JEDP hypothesis and doesn't pay much attention to the criticisms that have arisen about JEDP (see Walter Kaiser's "The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable & Relevant?").

3. p. 19: The Bible does not place the creation of the world at a time when we know people were already here if it's properly translated (see "A Matter of Days" by Hugh Ross).

4. p. 19: There aren't errors in biblical chronologies when one realizes that not all people are included in biblical genealogies. Osman does mention valid disagreements over how to translate some passages such as the time the Hebrews spent in Egypt (see also Colin Humphreys' "The Miracles of Exodus" and the Ross books).

These oversights don't detract from the value of this book. I hope future editions will add additional sources and refinements. This book may very well be the history of Joseph.

I have no idea whether Osman's basic premise -- that the story of Joseph etc happened a couple hundred years later than currently thought, thus cutting the time spent by the Hebrews in Egypt down by a few centuries -- is worth analysis or not. What I do see, from reading this book, is that Osman is a terrible scholar.

His politics is always obvious, and always showing. For example, he'll stop and slip in a chapter about what the Koran might possibly illuminate regarding the story of Joseph -- well frankly, that's pretty bad. The Koran was written a good 15+ centuries after the Joseph story, and it's about as absurd to imagine that the Koran might give us some new "true" details about Joseph in ancient Egypt, than Reverend Sung Moon might. Don't get me wrong --- if you believe any Bible literally, that's well and good, but if you're writing a book to analyze things from an archaeologists perspective, and you're highly critical of the Old Testament's origins, it's absolutely wrong to simply plop in a chapter describing what the Koran says as though the 7th century Koran more valuable as a source than the Old Test. (In discussing the Old Testament, the author discusses current ideas about its origins, possible multiple sources of documents, etc., but with the Koran, simply seems to accept it as true without even mentioning it was written 1500 years later and clearly was based on the Old Testament and no other sources!)

Okay, enough said about that one chapter, but the author does nasty tricks like this throughout. For example, he implies that Abraham's son Isaac was not actually begot by him (Abraham), but by an Egyptian prince, and thus only Ishmael is the true descendant of Abraham. Evidence? He seems to have inserted a nonexistent timeline of less than 9 months into the Bible, where there is no such evidence. Then he quotes some Talmud sources that seem to question this very issue, and says see, even the Jews don't believe Abraham was father of Isaac -- and wait, does he cite the Talmud sources? No! He cites another author, not a Jewish scholar, and fails to even indicate where in the Talmud this might be (and the Talmud is incredibly easy to reference... it's more standardized than lexis-nexis.) So he makes it sound as though Jews themselves don't believe Isaac was Abraham's son. Sounds like his personal religion is affecting his scholarship, indeed.

I don't want to belabor the issue. I certainly would like some well-respected Egyptologist to investigate whether his premise is correct, and then do the proper research job that this author didn't. I'm not saying his basic premise doesn't deserve research. I'm just saying, that this is not the guy to do the research properly. Meanwhile, I would not suggest people read this book; it is too easy to lose track of just how precise and careful archaeologists ought to be, and come to accept some of the things he writes, when no self-respecting archaeologist would do so.

The Hebrew Pharaohs Of Egypt: The Secret Lineage Of Patriarch Joseph by Ahmed Osman explores the possibility that Biblical Joseph (who was sold into slavery by his kin), was one and the same with Yuya, a vizier of the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV. Shedding light on the sudden rise of monotheism in Egypt as spread by Queen Tiye and her son Akhenaten, The Hebrew Pharaohs Of Egypt is an intriguing, iconoclastic, and highly recommended study which draws upon Biblical and scientific findings to offer a unique interpretation of this specific aspect of the Biblical record.

This is by far Osman's best book in his alternative history of early Christianity. If you're only going to read one of his books then this would certainly be the one I would recommend. In it, Osman lays out a clear and convincing argument that early Christianity evolved as a product of ancient Egyptian beliefs. This book also contains a good dose of early Christian history. So for those that are interested in early Christian history, this is certainly going to make for an interesting read.