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The Jerusalem Chronology of the Israelite Monarchies
In the late 1980s, I worked with my cousin on a chronology of the kings of
Judah and Israel. There's more chronological information in the biblical
account of this period than in all the rest of the book put together.
Generally, the physical remains of a region are dated according to local writings,
if such exist. In the case of these kingdoms, such writings do indeed exist. The
purpose of the JCIM is to show what the chronological information in the
books of Kings and Chronicles (primarily) means, and to provide a chronological
framework for this period.
The JCIM was put out in a limited edition by my cousin, self published
using photocopies. It was not a stand-alone book, but one which used Edwin
Thiele's The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings as a jumping off
point.
Thiele's book is widely used due to the fact that he argues strongly for respecting
the integrity and acumen of the scribes who wrote these biblical books. But his
work is flawed, not least in his willingness to discard his arguments in favor of
the historicity of these narratives when his results appeared to contradict the
consensus among Assyriologists.
For chronological charts which will be explained in the JCIM, you can go
here
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The Iron Age Revisited
It has been the accepted wisdom for more than a century that the Iron Age in
Israel was the "Israelite Age". That the entry of the Israelites into Canaan
occurred near the beginning of this period, and that the Iron Age saw the entire
history of the Israelites in their land.
Archaeologists, historians and theologians have wrestled with the fact that the
evidence of the Iron Age does not match the biblical depiction of this period. No
Iron Age evidence exists of a great invasion of Canaan as described in the book
of Joshua. No Iron Age evidence exists of a great empire, ranging from the Nile
to the Euphrates, as described in the book of Kings. Scholars from all walks have
been faced with a choice: Distort the biblical accounts to match the physical evidence,
or simply say that the biblical accounts are wrong.
In this book, I show that the Iron Age in Israel did not begin until almost 500
years after it is conventionally thought. Far from being the "Israelite Age", it was
in fact the "Samaritan Age". It was the age of the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions
of the land, in the twilight of the monarchy in Israel.
It will be seen that the archaeology of the Iron Age fits this period in biblical
history precisely, and to such an extent as to be intellectually compelling.
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The Bronze Age Revisited
A sequel to The Iron Age Revisited. In the Iron Age Revisited, two options were
presented: to leave the end of the Bronze Age in the 1200s BCE, thus creating a
Dark Age in Israel to match the one in Greece, Asia Minor, Anatolia and North Syria,
or to allow the end of the Bronze Age to come down--naturally--to meet the
beginning of the Iron Age. It is this possibility that The Bronze Age Revisited
pursues.
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In The Days of Ahasuerus...
For centuries, it has been known among Jewish scholars that a major conflict exists
between traditional Jewish history and conventional history when it comes to the period
of the Persian Empire.
According to the history books, which base themselves primarily upon Greek accounts
of the period, the Persian Empire lasted for 208 years, and was ruled over by no fewer
than 10 kings. Jewish history gives only 52 years to the Medes and Persians between
the fall of the Babylonian Empire and the rise of the Alexandrian Greek Empire.
Such a difference of a century and a half cannot be ignored. Until not long ago,
however, only three possibilities were recognized for resolving this problem:
- Ignore the Jewish account altogether (the choice adopted in most history
books)
- Ignore the Greek account altogether (the choice adopted in some extremely
religious Orthodox Jewish books)
- Find a way to fit the Jewish account into the general framework of the
Greek chronology (the choice adopted by a few Jewish scholars)
In the early 1980s, Dr. Chaim S. Heifetz of Jerusalem had another idea: Find a way
to fit the Greek stories and narratives into the chronological framework claimed
for the Persian period in Jewish sources. His initial work has been added to and
refined until the thesis has reached a publishable state.
This book makes the case for Dr. Heifetz's thesis. It includes a section which is
essentially a history of the ancient near east during the Median and Persian periods.
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36 Years
There exists a period in the history of the ancient near east when the entire region
was in ferment, such as it never was again. In this 36 year period, the following
events took place:
- The founding of Carthage
- The assassination of the kings of Israel and Judah at the same time, and the
usurpation of the throne of Solomon by Athaliah, who murdered all her grandsons
but one, who was hidden away, and would eventually replace her
- The Amarna Age in Egypt, including the reigns of the heretic king Akhnaton and the
boy king Tutankhamen, as well as the famous El-Amarna letters
- The rise of the Hittite Empire under Suppiluliumas I
- The founding the kingdom of Urartu
- The beginning of the rise of the Assyrian Empire
- The beginning of the decline of the kingdom of Mitanni
- The historical events which were the basis of the Oedipus Cycle
- The reigns of Ahab and Jezebel, and their nemesis, the Prophet Elijah
- The rise of the 19th Dynasty in Egypt: the dynasty of Ramesses the Great
In this book, I will take you, year by year, through the 36 year period in which the
entire world was reordered.
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Bright Angel's Redemption
I haven't decided yet whether this is going to be a novella or a novel. It begins with
a shy high school student being asked by another student to help her keep the future
world from which she has escaped from coming into being.
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The Eye of the Beholder (with Toby Britton)
My friend Toby read my story The Last Minute, and
really liked it. So she told me the plot of a story she'd thought of for years, but
didn't think she could write. If I ever get this written, it goes out with her in
the byline, because it's her story. Suffice it to say that it's a cautionary tale,
and that the ending will chill you.
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The Kings Trilogy
This is a trilogy of historical novels, which take place over the course of the
Babylonian, Median and Persian imperial periods, culminating in the conquests of
Alexander the Great.
The history in these books is according to the revision of Persian history proposed
by Dr. Chaim S. Heifetz, and as described in depth in "In The Days of Ahasuerus...",
which is described above.
The three books in this trilogy are:
- Nabonidus
Covers the period of the Babylonian Empire and the life of its last king, Nabonidus.
Characters in this book include the prophet Jeremiah, the young Daniel and Ezra, and
other biblical characters.
- Ahasuerus
Covers the lives of the kings Cyrus the Great and Xerxes; describes the events
which appear in the biblical Book of Esther, as they really happened.
- Darius
Covers the rise and fall of Darius the Great, king of Persia. The rise of Alexander
the Great and the governorship of Nehemiah in Judah are also depicted.
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Pieces of You
This novel is the story of a young girl, searching for the father she hasn't seen since
she was 3 years old.
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True Fire
This novel is the story of a young Jewish girl in ancient times, who is taken in and
raised by pagans after her village is destroyed in a pogrom. It is a fantasy full
of wonder and truth.
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Amenophis Rex
Immanuel Velikovsky wrote a book called "Oedipus and Akhnaten", in which he argued
that the heretic Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhnaten, was the historical
figure on whom Oedipus was based.
Although many of Velikovsky's works were poo-pooed by scholars, the scholar Cyrus
Gordon wrote an article lauding Velikovsky's work in this area and agreeing with his
placement of the historical Oedipus cycle in the Amarna period.
I know of only one historical novel that has been written about Akhnaten and the Amarna
period: the diptych A God Against The Gods and Return To Thebes, by Alan
Drury. And as enjoyable as these books are, the identification of Oedipus and Akhnaten
has always hovered in the back of my mind, getting in the way of my enjoyment.
Amenophis Rex (Amenophis is the Greek rendering of Amenhotep) is a novel of the real
Akhnaten/Oedipus and his times.
