1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mysterious figures and events of the Bible., August 2, 2000
This review is from: Mysteries of The Bible (Paperback)
Authors, Lionel and Patrician Fanthorpe, are researchers who can never be accused of non objectivity. They apply their inexhaustible mental and physical energy into digging and delving and extracting every last atom of evidence pertaining to anything they investigate with a view to writing about it. Their attentions to the Bible have not proved to be exceptions to the rule.
No matter what 'reading' may be applied to the Bible, whether by a believer in its literal sense as the Word of God, or by a curious seeker of the content of ancient writings, the Book contains a liberal serving of mystery and puzzlement.
Most of us once owned a tiny toy boat with a lid on: to and from which we patiently offloaded and onloaded dinky animals; usually in pairs -- or at least they were until some of them inevitably disappeared under the settee. Anyone, believer or unbeliever, who has read the story of Noah's Ark knows of how the hero, Noah, built a vessel upon the command of, and according to the specifications of, God, in order to protect his family and all animal species from the wrath of the Flood. Most of us tend not to consider the fate of the Ark thereafter. Not so the Fanthorpes. They have identified at least two possible locations for its final 'docking', as well as witnesses who have attested to its petrified or frozen remains still existing -- and with dimensions eerily close to those stated in the Biblical account of its construction.
Moses, the leader of the Israelites: was his encounter with the burning bush a confrontation with a manipulative, devious god intent on proving that the Pharaoh could be cruelly outsmarted, or with a beneficent being who conversed with him about the wisdom of avoiding ensuing tragedies?
What were those incredible stones, the Urim and Thummim, entrusted to the mysterious Hermes Trismegistus: he who became identified by the ancient Egyptians as the scribe, Thoth?
Did the progeny of the passionate affair between Solomon and Sheba remove the Ark of the Covenant from his father's keeping? What was the source of its ancient power; and where is it now?
These and many other puzzles posed between the pages of the Bible are examined in depth, with neither complacency nor bias, by the tireless Fanthorpes. Their book is a treasure which makes one very inclined indeed to get that battered old Bible out and read it again in the light of their elucidating deductions. Their excellent work is never easy to put down, but if you can do so just long enough to locate your bible, reading the two, one alongside the other, in cross reference, is recommended.
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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A look at some fascinating and exceptional individuals, August 2, 2000
This review is from: Mysteries of The Bible (Paperback)
Described as being "among the best researchers in the business" by Colin Wilson, author and world authority on unexplained phenomena, the writers of this intriguing book on people with exceptional and, sometimes, seemingly supernatural abilities certainly live up to his claim.
Each arcane, unusual or enigmatic being who is featured in their book, together with his or her life and deeds, is examined with a refreshing openness and spirit of unbiased zeal. Herein lie the legendary exploits of King Arthur and his mystical mentor Merlin and the fate of the old Hebridean seer who lives on in the fulfilment of his prophecies, together with the incredible lifestyles, ideas and abilities of more contemporary and documented mystics and uncanny individuals such as Rasputin - the sex crazed but charismatic healer and favourite of the fated Russian royals - a man who was almost impossible to kill. Aleister Crowley, self-styled magician and witch, is examined in the light of his singular manipulation of arcane 'law'; while the extensive works and travels of Madame Helena Blavatsky, forerunner of modern spiritualism and theosophy, leave us wondering whether she was indeed a gifted magician and medium, a charlatan, or, at the very least, imaginative if deluded.
Is the ubiquitous Count of Sainte-Germaine still living after two and a half centuries? Who was the Man In The Iron Mask? Did he 'know too much' for King Louis X1V to either kill or free? Who or what was the depraved leaping creature known as Spring-heeled Jack who terrorised the streets of Victorian London? Where and how did the French priest Berenger Sauniere suddenly acquire his untold wealth at Rennes-le-Chateau? Was this through being in league with demons or via old manuscripts or maps which 'marked the spot'? Could the cross-fertilisation between the genes of humans and those of an alien race account for the spontaneous type of brilliance that seems to occur in some exceptional human beings? Sustenance for the enquiring mind indeed!
All these questions and many more are wholeheartedly embraced and investigated by the Fanthorpes. Travelling extensively and researching rigorously, they have (quite literally) left no stone unturned in their quest for information and answers to the world's most tantalising and perplexing mysteries. Always prepared to offer a possible logical explanation when one is feasible, their minds are, nevertheless, never closed to the possibilities that deeper, older or more arcane treasures of truth might lie at the end of each investigative path. The questions that become generated from within the depths of their enquiries and investigations into enigmas old and new become yet another source of energy, providing the reader, and, I am certain, the writers too, with a rapacious need for yet more answers.
The World's Most Mysterious people is an inspiring read for anyone who is not content with trivial or superficial answers to the challenging questions posed by the wonderful, sometimes weird and mysterious world we inhabit.
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