Brit-Am Historical Reports (20 January, 2013. 9 Shevet, 5773)
Contents:
1. Kofi Bonsu: Lost Tribes and Ashanti of West Africa?
2. Top Ten 'Biblical Archaeology' finds for 2012.
3. Cherie Koch: Article by John D. Keyser, The Sea of Yousef and other interesting facts
1. Kofi Bonsu: Lost Tribes and Ashanti of West Africa?
Subject: Lost tribes
In terms of Hebrew roots, you should take a serious look at the Ashanti of west Africa(ghana).... thier clan system, thier inheritance structure, the garments breastplate and horn of thier traditional priests, thier name for God, thier uncleanliness laws...and circumscision and naming on the 8th day
2. Top Ten 'Biblical Archaeology' finds for 2012:
http://continentalnews.net/2013/01/07/top-ten-discoveries-in-biblical-archaeology-in-2012-14378.html
3. Cherie Koch: Article by John D. Keyser, The Sea of Yousef and other interesting facts
The Sea of Yousef in Egypt! This is a wonderful piece about Egyptian history and the Hebrews! Seems to be well-sourced also�
Joseph and the Engineering Wonders of Egypt
by John D. Keyser
Brief Extracts:
... the WEB OF CANALS drawn from the BAHR YOUSEF. This elaborate network of waterways has converted more desolate desert into rich, arable farmland than does the Aswan Dam.... -- The Eighth Day: The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilization. Jason Aronson, Inc. Northvale, N.J. 1994, p. 90.
....until the Bahr Yousef was constructed, Middle and Upper Egypt was almost entirely a desert with civilization centered mainly in the Delta region of the Nile.
....Whitehouse astonished his employers by reporting that he had verified the existence of a huge artificial lake created during the time of Pharaoh Moeris (Mery-Ku-Re of the 10th Dynasty), and that the most practical method of irrigating the arid Egyptian desert was to RECONSTRUCT the system of irrigation that had been so skillfully put in place 3,500 years previously!
According to author Samuel Kurinsky:
The lake supported a fair-sized community, which was economically far better off than most of the rest of Egypt owing to the productivity of the rich agricultural lands still being served by the lake. Around the lake's perimeter, as well as at a considerable distance from its shores, Whitehouse came across the ruins of ancient DAMS, DITCHES, AQUEDUCTS, and a variety of structures that mutely testified to the existence of a VAST AND SOPHISTICATED IRRIGATION SYSTEM....
The Phoenician historian Sanchoniathon spoke of him in his works which have been preserved by Eusebius in Preparation of the Gospel, book i, chapter x. Sanchoniathon states: "Chronus, whom the Phoenicians name ISRAEL [JACOB] and who was, after his death, consecrated into the star SATURN, when HE WAS KING OF THE COUNTRY, and had by a nymph of that country, named Anobret, an only begotten son, whom, on that account, they called JEUD, (the Phoenicians to this day calling an only begotten son by that name), he in the dread of very great dangers that lay upon the country from war, ADORNED HIS SON WITH ROYAL APPAREL, and built an altar, and offered him in sacrifice."
While this passage of Sanchoniathon probably mixes several traditions, it shows that JACOB WAS REGARDED AS A KING IN CANAAN!
An ancient scarab (a seal shaped like a beetle) was unearthed by archaeologists from a Middle Bronze Age IIB tomb at Tell Shiqmona, near Haifa in Israel -- 1.3 kilometers southwest of the Carmel Cape. On the flat side of the scarab can be seen the Egyptian transliteration of the Semitic name YAQUB (JACOB) spelled out in the center of the seal as Y'QB-HR. A second such scarab, bearing a virtually identical inscription FRAMED IN A CARTOUCHE, was also uncovered. With the same name Y'QB-HR on it, it identifies the owner as A CANAANITE CHIEF OR KING! These seals were dated to before 1730 B.C., thus placing them close to the time of the biblical JACOB!
Around the peripheral of the scarabs are SPIRAL MOTIFS, which are a CHARACTERISTIC OF ISRAELITE ART and can be found on pottery and other art forms of the Minoans, the Mycenaeans, the Etruscans, and most of the Celtic tribes. Today, in Ireland, these spiral motifs can be found on the lintels of ancient tombs and carved on rocks scattered around the countryside.
Herman L. Hoeh of Ambassador College notes: "From Crete Caphtor in Hebrew -- came the Philistines (Jer. 47:4 and Amos 9:7). The Philistines descended from MIZRAIM, father of the Egyptians (Gen. 10:13-14). RULING OVER THE EGYPTIANS AND PHILISTINES IN CRETE AND THE EASTERN NILE DELTA WAS A LITTLE-KNOWN DYNASTY OF EGYPTIAN KINGS. They are mentioned in the Book of Sothis by Syncellus. Manetho does not include them among true Egyptian dynasties because THEIR SEAT OF GOVERNMENT WAS ON CRETE. The Cretan king of this dynasty, WHO WAS SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE GREAT PHARAOH IN EGYPT [Wah-ku-Re Achtoy IV], was Rameses" (Compendium of World History. Ambassador College, 1963. Vol. II, pp. 46-47).
The links between Egypt and Crete become obvious when one understands that Crete was a part of the land of Goshen.
A characteristic of this style of pottery [in Egypt and Crete] is the SPIRAL MOTIF (found delicately incorporated into the design) which, as mentioned earlier, is a NOTABLE FEATURE of pottery from Mycenae, Etruria, and other sites that were inhabited by the Celtic tribes.
The Icelandic LANGFEDGATAL, which traces the ancestry of Odin, shows that he was descended from KING SATURNUS OF KRIT. Who was this Saturnus of Krit?
Herman L. Hoeh reveals the answer:
In modern English the name would be SATURN OF CRETE. There were many Saturns in antiquity, often confused with one another. Usually the name was applied to a man who FLEES or who HIDES himself. Saturn is a Latin word derived from a root meaning TO FLEE INTO HIDING. The Greek term was KRONOS. This particular SATURN OF CRETE was so famous that the Phoenician historian Sanchoniathon spoke of him. Fragments of his works have been preserved by Eusebius in Preparation of the Gospel, book i, ch. x. Here are his words: "For Kronos or (Saturn), whom the Phoenicians call ISRAEL...." (Corey's Ancient Fragments of the Phoenician, Carthaginian, Babylonian, Egyptian and other Authors, by E. Richmond Hodges, page 21.)
The memory of the rule of Jacob and his 12 sons over the land of Goshen was incorporated into Egyptian folklore, with Jacob becoming known as HEPHAESTUS (the god who limps) and Judah becoming known as the Egyptian and Cretan ZEUS. According to Greek mythology Hephaestus became lame because of a quarrel with Zeus about Heracles. "Zeus threw him down from Olympus. Hephaestus' fall lasted for A WHOLE DAY: towards the evening, he hit the ground in the island of Lemnos, was rescued by the Sintians and restored to life, BUT HE REMAINED LAME" (The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology, London. 1991, p. 180).
This myth parallels the story of Jacob in Genesis 32, where he wrestled with an angel for THE BEST PART OF A NIGHT and, as a consequence, became LAME...
Not least among the many marvelous materials to which the Egyptians were made acquainted during the time the Israelites were in the land was a diversity of metals. Silver, more precious than gold in Egypt, was smelted from argentiferous Asian ores imported from the Ararat mountains of the Hurrian land of Mitanni and from the Zagros mountains of the Hittite land of Anatolia. As well as being mined in the Sinai, copper was imported into Egypt from the island of Cyprus where it tended to be more abundant and cheaper than that from Sinai.