Whose History does the Bible really Describe

 

Now that we have a reliable chronology in our hands it is possible to compare the history and people described by the bible to real people and events and deduce if it is accurate.

  

GENESIS

 

God c.1800 BC

 

Ancient King Lists

 

 

The Gods of the Phoenicians/Canaanites

The Gods of the Egyptians

The Gods of the Assyro-Babylonians

The Gods of the Ancient Greeks

 

The bible refers to God by seven different names, Elohim (the Gods), El (God), Shaddai (the Destroyer), Elyon (the Most High), Adonai (Lord), Yahweh/Yah, Tseboath (Lord of Hosts).

 

These names or their variants appear to be the names of Gods in the Phoenician Pantheon as given by Philo (who is quoted by Eusebius in “Preparation for the Gospel”), and are also recorded in the Ras Sharma Tablets.

 

The Phoenician settlement of Syria-Palestine dates back to at least 2200 BC and according to Philo their first God was the wind and air who produced Mot. After about sixteen generations spanning about 400 years the God Elioun the Most High is born.

 

The biblical God Elyon corresponds to Elioun who was the 18th century BC Phoenician king of Byblos and the father of Epigeius (Uranus/Baal-Shamen). He was made into a god by the Phoenicians after he was killed by wild beasts.

El (Kronos) was the son of Epigeius and the Gods who were allied to El when he fought against Epigeius for the kingship were known as the Elohim.

Shaddai corresponds to Sadidus, the son of El, who El put to death as a suspected traitor.

Adonai corresponds to Adonis, Adis or Attis, a God of the underworld. If he was not borrowed directly from the neighbouring Greeks or the Phrygians he might have originally been the Phoenician king Adodus. Both Adonis and Adodus (Baal-Hadad) were deities who were brought back from the underworld by the intervention of Aphrodite. This suggests that their cults were probably based on the Tammuz/Dumuzi cult imported from Babylon.

Yahweh or Yah corresponds to the Phoenician God Yam (Yaw, Ieuo or Pontus) the son of El who is probably a Hyksos period king of Egypt, ether Yakubher (c.1674) or Yakobaam (c.1650), who was made into the Phoenician Sea God. According to the Ras Sharma Tablets Baal-Hadad kills him in battle. The root of the name is probably the same as the Greek word Gialo meaning Sea.

Tseboath the Lord of Armies is probably Resheph the Canaanite God of plague, war and pestilence. He might be Demarus (Mars?) son of Dagon and father of Melcathrus (Herakles).

Other Gods of the Phoenician Pantheon that are named in the Bible are Mot who may either be the 23rd century BC Phoenician God born out of Aether and Desire or more probably the later 17th century Phoenician God Muth the son of El.

 

Dagon, brother of El was the Phoenician God of agriculture. He was also known as Siton (grain) so may have been identified with Set or Satan an Egyptian import.

 

Astoreth corresponds to both Ashura and Astarte (Aphrodite). The Jews seem to have merged Astarte and Ashura the consort of El who prostituted herself to Yahweh (Yam) into one goddess. Astarte and Ashura were both daughters of Epigeius.

 

Baal or Belus was the son of El. Baal fathers Nereus who fathers Pontus (the second). There were several other Baals including Baal-Hadad and a multitude of historical Phoenician kings going by that name.

 

Leviathan or Lotan may have been another name for Yahweh (Yam) or one of his allies who was defeated by Baal and Anath. He may also be synonymous with Satan and thus Typhon. According to indo-European etymology the name Typhon derives from the root *dhub(h)-n- meaning “deep” and the name Python derives from *b(h)ud(h)-n- meaning “bottom” or “deep” therefore the root of the name (Le)viathan which is referred to as a serpent residing in the sea must also be *b(h)ud(h)-n- which is transformed into El Bathon or God of the Deep.

 

Behemoth may be another name for Maveth or Mot or one of his allies who was defeated by Baal and Anath. In the Baal Epic Maveth goes to war with Baal because of his destruction of the serpent Lotan.

Satan was probably the Egyptian God Set who the Greeks associated with Typhon. He may have been the brother of Yahweh but Philo does not make his parentage clear. In the bible the word Satan is used to refer to the “adversary” or “slanderer”. The term may be related to the name Seth which means “appointed” and might have been originally used to refer to ones opponent in court in a case of slander or the one appointed to speak for him (viz. diabolon, Andocides 2.24).


From the above it is obvious that the God of the bible was created by merging together at least seven Gods of the Phoenician Pantheon who were originally worshipped separately. These Gods according to Eusebius, “Preparation for the Gospel” were originally living kings who ruled over the Phoenicians in Syria-Palestine from approximately 1800 to 1600 BC.

 

Adam

 

Adam was born in about 1800 BC and would have reigned until 1754 or 1720 BC depending on weather we use Chronology A or Chronology B as our guide.

 

Adam’s place of origin is given as Eden in the bible, which is described as being to the west of the Euphrates and Tigress rivers. This suggests that he originated from Adana in Asia-Minor.

 

The beginning of Adams reign coincides with rule of non-Semitic Hurrian Dynasty in Babylon. This Dynasty consisted of at least 11 kings including two called Agum. It is possible that Adam is a corruption of the name of one of these kings, but their precise dates are not known.

 

In the period we are dealing with it is unimaginable that ordinary peasants such as Adam as he is portrayed in the bible and his descendants would have been able to record their families line of decent in the detail given to us in Genesis. Not only were writing materials costly to obtain, but more importantly records were astronomically expensive to preserve.

 

The from of writing in the region of Mesopotamia at this time consisted of marks made by a stylus on wet Clay Tablets or of Inscriptions made in Stone whereas in Egypt, Hieroglyphics are known to have been used. Relatively cheap Paper or Papyrus was not invented until Hellenistic times. Before then stretched animal skins were used, but none of these were available to the biblical Patriarchs who would have written in Cuneiform on Clay using a wooden elongated prism with a triangular cross-section like everyone else in of Mesopotamia and Phoenicia. 

 

To be able to write you had to either be able to afford to send your children to school to learn to be a scribe or sell your children to the temple to become priests. Writing therefore was the exclusive possession of the Priesthood, Royalty and the Very Rich. Only kings had the resources to preserve lists of their ancestors. The clay tablets of Babylon would have weighed tonnes and could not have been easily transported around the rocky desert which we are supposed to believe that Abraham inhabited as a nomad.

 

Not only would you have needed a permanent base such as a Palace or Temple to store your records but you would also have had to hire troops to protect them from raids by bandits. In order for these to have survived for millennia, many copies would have needed to have been made.

 

Therefore not only is it unimaginable but it is completely impossible for the records from Adam through to the so-called unified kingdom of David and Solomon to have survived for very long considering the history of Noah’s Flood, the wanderings of Abraham from Ur to Canaan to Egypt and back to Canaan again, the period of captivity, the Exodus and years in the Wilderness, and the battles from the time Joshua and all the way through the period of the Judges.

 

The only conceivable way that any list of ancestors could have been preserved is if people other than the biblical Patriarchs recorded it. In other words the lists of so-called biblical Patriarchs were either local king lists of Mesopotamia, Babylon and Syria-Palestine or they were made up as some sort of historical fiction so as to tie in with existing history.

 

So if they were real kings whose kings were they?

 

As pointed out earlier the dates of birth and ages of the patriarchs between Adam and Arphaxad are given in Lunar months and the errors or omissions in the figures suggest that these were originally written in Sexagesimal notation. This system belonged exclusively to the Babylonians. Adam reigned at precisely the time the Hurrian Dynasty began and two of its kings were called Agum which is exactly the same name as Adam. Could these be the same person?

 

The conclusion that the Patriarchs of the first part of Genesis could have been based on Hurrian Kings seems inescapable. The authors of the Bible may have plagiarised the king lists of foreign kings in order to create their chronology.

 

Seth

 

Seth the son of Adam is exactly the same name as Saturn or Satur the Minoan king of Knossos in Crete who according to Linear A inscriptions ruled from about 1725 to 1675 BC. According to Chronology B Seth ruled between 1720 and 1703 BC which may indicate that the identity of Seth was plagiarised from the kings of the Minoans. If this is the case then Seth or Saturn is the same person as the Greek God Kronos and possibly the Phoenician God El who Kronos/Saturn is identified with by Philo, unless these were all different people who lived at the same time who shared the same name because of some kind of political alliance. It was in the time of Enos (1703 BC) the son of Seth that the name Jehovah was first called on by man (Genesis 4:26). This would make sense if Seth was Saturn or El since El is the father of Pontus or Jehovah according to Philo. Alternatively Seth may be synonymous with Siton or Dagon the brother of El.

 

Noah

 

Ten generations after Adam we come to Noah, who according to our reconstructed chronology was born in 1662, reined from approximately 1620 and died in 1585. The same chronology gives a date of 1614 for the great flood which occurred in Noha’s 600th and Shem’s 100th lunar month. This allows us to identity the historical event in question as the Thara Erruption in the Aegean, which according to the modern Dendrochronological date occurred in 1628 BC.

 

According to archaeological evidence, including the disturbance of soil strata, this eruption caused a massive tidal wave or Tsunami that was 30 meters high which flooded cities in Crete, and mainland Greece. The volcanic ash which was thrown 30km up into atmosphere also caused a major climate change, or “nuclear” winter which affected the growth of plants world wide, as seen by the virtual disappearance of growth rings in trees from this period, and may have brought continuous rain storms that would have lasted weeks.

 

It was for this reason then that the setting of the Noah story was based around the Thera eruption and its aftermath which was felt world wide. This story was also mixed with the Mesopotamian myth of Gilgamesh and Greek Myth of Deukalion so much so that the Bible includes the decedents of Iapetus the Grandfather of Deucalion as the descendents of Noah.

 

In the Greek account, Iapetus fathered Prometheus, who fathered Deukalion who fathered Hellene, who father Xuthus who fathere Ion (Iounon).

 

In the biblical account Noah fathered Iapheth (Japheth/Iapetus), who fathered, Iouan (Javen/Ion), who fathered Elisa (Elishah/Hellene).

 

At about the same time as the death of Noah in 1585 the Indo-European Mittani Hittites began their rule in Syria-Palestine displacing the Hurrians. This is about the time that the biblical dates stop being given in Lunar months.

 

Mizraim and Caphtorim

 

After Noah his son Ham father Mizraim who Josephus says was the founder of Egypt and who have his name to the land. Mizraim became the father of several sons including Caphtorim who is almost certainly referring to Amenhotop I whose full title was Djeser-ka-re Amenhotep Ka-Waf-Taw Aa-nerw. Kawaftaw plus the Hebrew ending –im makes up the name Caphtorim. This implies that Neb-pehty-re Ahmose the father of Amenhotop was Mizraim.

 

Heth

 

Ham also fathered Canaan who father Heth who according to Josephus was the progenitor of the Hittites. Given that he was three generation after Noah he would have lived in about 1540 BC which would make him identifiable as Huzziya I (1540-1535) the king of the Hittites.

 

Sheba

 

According to Josephus Sheba the son of Cush the son of Ham was a king on India which means that his was most probably Rsabha (c.1450 BC) the son of Sudas king of Bharata.

 

Abram, Abraham and Ishmael

 

Now we shall attempt to Identify Abraham, born in 1443, died in 1357. As shown previously from the identification of the Kings named in Genesis 14, Abram/Abraham’s reign occurred during the El-Armana period of Egyptian history.

 

The intriguing thing here is that Abraham is given two names. First he is named Abram and in the generation of Isaac he is renamed Abraham. So why would this be? It either means that Abraham became a father late in life or that he was in reality two different people. The 1393.25 start date of his reign corresponds to that of Artashumara king of the Mittani. This choice of date is as such if we use an age for Therrah when he died of 275, which is calculated as his age at Abram’s birth, 70, plus his “years” in Charran, 205, (LXX Ge. 11:32). This figure could actually be higher since it is not certain how long he spent in Ur after Abrams birth, but it must have been old enough for him to have married Sara and for Nachor Abram’s younger brother to have marred Malcha the daughter of Arrhan, Abram’s other brother. If this were the case though Therrah would have been close to 100 years old when he died.

 

If instead of the Septuagint we use the Massoretic Text, Therrah’s age at death is given as 205, so dividing the total by 4 to give years rather than seasons, places his death in 1410.75 BC.

 

There is also another possibility that Therrah was only 145 when he died since the Massoretic Text states that Abram was born when Therrah was 70 and left Charran at the age of 75 (MT Ge. 12:4) after Therrah died which would place Abram’s reign in 1425.75 BC.

 

The 205 “years” for Therrah when he died seem the most likely though since it gives just enough time for three generations so it must be assumed that mistakes in the order of events must have entered both the Septuagint and the Massoretic Text.

 

Mittani King List

Approximate Dates

c.1610 Kirta

c.1600 Shutarana I

 

c.1470 Nahrin

c.1460 Baratarna

c.1450 Parshatazar (Baharat Ratna)

c.1420 Shaushtatar (Shushastra)

c.1410 Artatama of Mitanni

c.1400 Shuttarna II

c.1390 Artashumara

1375-50 Tushratta (Dashrath)

c.1370 Artatama II

c.1360 Shuttarna III (Shatrughan)

c.1350 Shattiwaza (Shawardat)

c.1345 Shattuara I

c.1340 Washatta (Vashisht)

c.1335 Shattuara (Satta Vartna)

c.1325 Shuppiluliuma I

 

Going through the Mittani king list it can be seen that Nahrin who Tutmoses III fought against in the 33rd year of his reign is Nahor the father of Tharrah the father of Abram who reigned in 1474 BC.

 

Artatama I who reigned from c. 1410 reigns virtually at the same time as the start of reign of Abram assuming Tharrah lived 205 “years”.

 

Further more from the El-Armana records of correspondence between Egypt and the Mittani Hittites is known that this Artatama sent a Mittani princess to become the wife of Pharoah in-order to cement a political alliance. This Pharaoh soon died and the princess was passed onto his son Akhenaton. These historical events match the biblical story where Abram takes his wife to Egypt to prostitute her to Pharaoh who she infects with a venereal disease which causes her rejection by him. In Assyrian royalty the title for queen is Assura, and in Hittite the title for queen derives form the root Sara, the name of Abraham’s wife.

 

It is apparent that Abram was based on Artatama (c.1410), and that Abraham was based on his successor Artashumana (c.1390).

 

Further scrutiny of the Mittani king list shows that immediately after Artashumana, Tushratta (Dashrath) took the throne from c.1175 to 1150. These dates correspond to the dates of Ishmael who after Abraham’s death reigns from 1357 to 1333 BC.

 

According to the El-Armana letters Tushratta was involved in a dispute with one of his cousins, Artatama, and fled to the Hittite region of Anatolia. Later he came back and retook the kingdom. The bible story of Ishmaels banishment by Abraham reflects this episode in history.

 

Isaac, Jacob, Joseph/Psonthomfanich and Manesses

 

Now we come down to Joseph born 1319, chancellor of Egypt 1304, reigned after father 1291, died 1264.

 

Egyptian King Lists

18th Dynasty

19th Dynasty

1573-1570 Kamose

1570-1546 Ahmose

1551-1524 Amenhotep I

1525-1518 Djehutymes I

1518-1504 Djehutymes II

1503-1450 Djehutymes III

1498-1483 +Hatshepsut

1453-1419 Amenhotep II

1419-1386 Djehutymes IV

1386-1349 Amenhotep III

1350-1334 Amenhotep IV (Nefer-kheferu-re)

1336-1334 Smenkhkare

1334-1325 Tutankhamun

1325-1321 Kheperkheprure Ai

1321-1293 Horemheb [Moeris]

1293-1291 Ramses I

1291-1278 Seti I [Sesostris, Sethosis]

1279-1212 Ramses II

1212-1202 Merneptah

1202-1199 Amenemses

1199-1193 Seti II

1193-1187 Merneptah Siptah

1187-1185 Twosret (fem.)

1185-1182 Setnakhte

1182-1151 Ramses III

 

Joseph was kidnapped by his brothers at the age of 17 equinoxes or 8.5 years and sold to a caravan which took him to Egypt. At the age of 30 equinoxes or 15 years he was made chancellor of Egypt and given the Egyptian name Psonthomfanich.

 

When Joseph became chancellor in 1304 BC he was married to an Egyptian priestess named Asenath (Asenneth) form the city of On also known as Heliopolis.

 

From 1321 Horemheb expanded Egyptian rule into Syria-Palestine. This date matches the date of the death of Isaac who is born in 1395.5, reigns with Ishmael from 1357 and alone from 1333 after the death of Ishmael and dies in 1305.5, and was probably based on Shattiwaza (Shawardat), king of Mittani c.1350.

 

The span of Horemheb’s reign also matches the date Joseph becomes Chancellor because of his forecast of a coming famine. Herodotus documents that a famine did indeed occur in Horemheb’s reign who he calls Moeris and Egyptian records pertaining to Horemheb also document a famine in his reign.

 

“Herodotus [2.13.1] One fact which I learnt of the priests is to me a strong evidence of the origin of the country. They said that when Moeris was king, the Nile overflowed all Egypt below Memphis, as soon as it rose so little as eight cubits. Now Moeris had not been dead 900 years at the time when I heard this of the priests; yet at the present day, unless the river rise sixteen, or, at the very least, fifteen cubits, it does not overflow the lands.” (Herodotus wrote in ~440 BC)

 

Jacob also known as Israel is born in 1364.5, reigns in 1304.5 and dies in 1291 BC. The date of his reign corresponds precisely with the reign of the Assyrian king Adad-Nirari I 1304 to 1273. This king conquered the Mittani entirely and brought their empire to it’s end. The Mittani king he conquered was Shuppiluliuma I c.1325.

 

We now have the source of the Bible story for the so-called period of Egyptian captivity. Jacob was based on Shuppiluliuma, the last Mittani king after which the remaining Mittani either became part of Assyria or fled to Egypt for protection.

 

Joseph begins his reign proper in 1305, after the Mittani are destroyed a he dies in 1264.

 

Joseph had a son by his wife Asenath who he called Manesses born in approximately 1303. His reign would have began immediately after Josephs death in 1264, but the last Mittani king Shuppiluliuma I c.1325 was conquered by the Assyrians. With no Mittani left the people who wrote the bible instead plagiarised the names of the Assyrian kings to base their story on. Manesses corresponds to Shalmaneser I of king Assyria 1273-1244.

 

In summary, at least seven historical figures have clearly had their identities appropriated by the authors of the Bible in order to construct the entire account of Genesis.

 

Who was Who

Pre Exodus

Adam ~1775-~1720 was in reality Agum the Hurrian king of Babylon c.1750

 

Nachor was in reality Naharin the Mittani king of Syria-Palestine c.1470 who fought Tutmoses III

 

Abram 1411.75 was in reality Artatama the Mittani king of Syria-Palestine c.1410

 

Abraham 1394-1358 was in reality Artashumara the Mittani king of Syria-Palestine c.1390

 

Ishmael 1358 to 1334 was in reality Tushratta the Mittani king of Syria-Palestine c.1375-1350

 

Isaac 1358 to 1305.5 was in reality Shattiwaza the Mittani king of Syria-Palestine c.1350

 

Jacob 1305.5-1292 was in reality the Mittani king Shuppiluliuma c.1325-1305

 

Joseph 1305 to 1265.

 

Manesses 1365 was in reality Shalmansesr I the king of Assyria 1273-1244.

 

 

EXODUS

 

Moses

 

As I have shown in previous pages the story of the Exodus 1192-1182 is dated to the period between the end of the reign of Ramses II and the death of Ramses III. Exodus is based around the murder of Seti II by his Syrian butler Bey who made Mermeptah-Siptah Pharoah in 1193 and he himself became Chancellor. Bey proceed to exact massive taxation form the people and insulted all of the Egyptian Gods. Seti’s widow Twosret 1187-1185 soon deposed Mermeptah-Siptah and reigned in his place. It is not known what happened to Bey.

 

At the time Syria-Palestine was a joint vassal of both Assyria and Egypt after an agreement was reached between Ramses II and Shalmaneser I.

 

Far from being a physical movement of people across the Red Sea after the waves were parted, the Exodus was most likely a portion on paper of the lands of Syria-Palestine from Egypt with a line drawn across the Red Sea and its use as a buffer zone against attack by the Sea Peoples.

 

Once again a historical event from Egyptian history was taken by the authors of the bible and a work of fiction was based around it which eventually became mythologized.

 

Joshua

 

After Moses death in 1172, Joshua laid siege to Jericho. At this time in 1173 Ramses III marched into Syria-Palestine against the Sea-Peoples. Joshua took Jericho in 1172 and was doubtlessly assisted in this by Ramses III who now controlled the land. If this was so and Joshua took the city with the backing of Pharaoh the lord and ruler of Syria-Palestine there can be only one obvious conclusion that can be drawn from the bible narrative relating to the commands given to Joshua by the LORD GOD to seize Jericho.

 

Syria-Palestine was under continuous Egyptian influence from the time of Abraham until Joshua and thus the power most cable of giving away parts of Syria-Palestine or Israel as the “promised land” was Pharaoh.

 

Egypt was the regional Super-Power and the Pharaoh styled himself as LORD GOD. The Ten-Commandments were intended to assert the power of Pharaoh over the land through his vassals.

 

The first commandment “Thou shalt not follow any other god but the LORD” was set in place to prevent the vassals of Egypt in Syria-Palestine form forming Political Alliances with the neighbouring kingdoms of Tyre and Assyria

 

The second commandment “Thou shalt not make graven images” was set in place to make it a crime for these vassals to write down treaties with Egypt’s adversaries in stone, clay or metal.

 

Pharaoh was to be regarded as divine and no resistance to his Sabbath or the day of campaign and conquest of either himself or his general the LORD Tsabaoth must be made.

 

The worship of Pharaoh was the basis of the Jewish religion and the evidence for this is the fact that the bible incorporated Egyptian texts praising Pharaoh.

 

One example of this use of these Pharonic texts is Psalm 104 which is based on an Egyptian Hymn to Aton used by both Amenhotep IV (Akenaton) and Kheperkheprure Ai and clearly indicates that Pharaoh was the basis of god of the bible.

 

This Pharonic worship was merged with the worship of seven Phoenician Gods in Syria-Palestine and attributed to the Phoenician sea God Yam. Evidence from Canaanite texts also shows that just as the Psalms copied Photonic texts they also copied Canaanite texts parsing the Phoenician Gods named in the bible.

 

Just like the Pharaohs defaced each others inscriptions in order to claim their praises and deeds for themselves the Jews defaced similar texts pertaining to the Pharaohs and the Phoenician Gods and attributed them to the Phoenician God Yam who if he was originally based on Yakubher or Yakobaam was a Pharaoh of Egypt himself, and ruled from Avaris which is identified with Jerusalem.

 

KINGS

 

Ambri and Ahaab

 

The names of Ambri/Omri (886-874) and his son Ahaab (874-855) king of Israel appear on an inscription made by the Assyrian king Shalmanesser III (858-824). On the inscription Ahaab is named Yahua and is called the son of Khunbri which corresponds to the name Ambri/Omri. Yahua/Ahaab was depicted as one of the kings who paid tribute to Shalmanesser.

 

Ambri/Omri and his son Ahaab are also mentioned on the Moabite Stone or Mesha Stela. Omri is described as an enemy of Mesha the son of Kamosh. After his fathers death Mesha builds a temple to his father because he had saved him from Omri, but the son of Omri succeeded him and decided to oppress Moab after his father in the days of Mesha. Mesha makes war on Israel, defeats the king (Ahaab), sacks the temple of YHWH, and takes the city of Yahaz  He claims Israel has perished forever.

 

Mesha states that Omri and his sons reigned for 40 years in Medeba but according to the bible the combined reign of Omri and Ahab is 34 tears at most and even if you add the 2 years of Ohozias (Ahaziah) the son of Ahab who is probably the namesake of the Yahaz referred to in the inscription, it only comes to 36 years therefore Omri probably ruled at Medeba for several years before he is mentioned in the bible.

 

Azarias

 

Azarias (774-748) the king of Ioudia is mentioned in the Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III (744-727) as Aziriyau a king of Yaudi or Ya’udu.

 

Ahaz and Ezekias

 

The name of Ezekias has been found on a bulla or clay seal which reads “Ihzqyhw 'hz mlk yhdh, "to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz, King of Judah.”

 

As can be seen from above the inscriptions use the ending Yahu on the on the names of Ezikias, Azarias, and Ahaab suggesting that these kings worshiped the Phoenician God Ieuo or Yaw/Yam and were therefore Phoenicians by origin.

 

Ezekias is also mentioned in the Prism inscription of Senacherib (704-681) as being the ruler of Jerusalem.

 

Ioas

 

Ioas/Jehoash (843-803) became king of Ioudia in at the age of 7 after Mattan the priest of Baal was slain (2Ki 11:18) in the temple.  According to Menander the Phoenician king at the time and therefore also priest of Baal-Shamun was also called Matten or Matgenus in Greek and was succeeded by king whose Greek name was Pygmalion (844-797) who was 9 years old when he began his reign. Based on their ages and the length and time of reigns there is a high probability that Pygmalion and Ioas were the same person. Because Pygmalion’s power extended across the whole of Palestine he would have been nominally king of the Ioudai and therefore included in their kings lists by his local name. This assumption is justified because inscriptions found in the land that used to be Ioudia are written in a script and language which is virtually identical to Phoenician which is referred to by some as as Old-Hebrew for solely political reasons.

 

Manasses

 

Manasses (698-643) became king of Ioudia at the age of 12 years old after Ezekias who had freed Ioudia from the Assyrians died. At the same time that he ruled Ioudia a young child by the name of Deioces (700-647) the son of Phraortes was made king over the Medes after they had freed themselves of the Assyrians. Both the name Manasess and Deioces derived from the same Egyptian root, Amoneses. Deioces is the Hellenised version of the name where Amon is replaced with Deios or Zeus. Based on their names, ages and the length and time of reigns there is a high probability that Manasses and Deioces were the same person whose power extended from Medea to Syria-Palestine.

 

 

Section Headings

 

Establishing an Accurate Chronology

The kings of Israil and Ioudia

Whose History does the Bible really Describe

Did the Jews and their Religion really Exist

Who created the Bible, How, Why and When

 

 

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Last Update 11/02/2009