The Riddle of the Exodus

Rating:
Summary: RIDDLE OF THE EXODUS
Review: I watched the video of this material last week and just finished reading the book. While I am Jewish and have always personally believed the story of the Exodus, I find that my faith has been increased many-fold by the extraordinary documentation in Riddle of the Exodus. I cannot imagine subject matter that could be any more relevant to concretizing the religious beliefs of both Jews and Christians - and my guess would be that a very large percentage of both of these groups currently believe that the story of the Exodus is mythical.

A year ago, a Rabbi in Los Angeles told his congregation (during Passover) that there was not a shred of evidence to prove the historical reality of the Exodus - which is the cornerstone for Judaism. Jim Long has found more than enough evidence from both Egyptian and Jewish sources - and their comparative data, to satisfy hard-core skeptics! While there is no lack of Jewish
Scholarship in the world and while one would imagine that proving the historicity of the Exodus would be a high piority for the academic community - it is interesting to me that this extraordinary documentation has been done by a non-Jew and a self-taught archeologist! The book is simply written, but the material is powerful enough to start a spiritual revolution.

Rating:
Summary: RIDDLE OF THE EXODUS
Review: I watched the video of this material last week and just finished reading the book. While I am Jewish and have always personally believed the story of the Exodus, I find that my faith has been increased many-fold by the extraordinary documentation in Riddle of the Exodus. I cannot imagine subject matter that could be any more relevant to concretizing the religious beliefs of both Jews and Christians - and my guess would be that a very large percentage of both of these groups currently believe that the story of the Exodus is mythical.

A year ago, a Rabbi in Los Angeles told his congregation (during Passover) that there was not a shred of evidence to prove the historical reality of the Exodus - which is the cornerstone for Judaism. Jim Long has found more than enough evidence from both Egyptian and Jewish sources - and their comparative data, to satisfy hard-core skeptics! While there is no lack of Jewish
Scholarship in the world and while one would imagine that proving the historicity of the Exodus would be a high piority for the academic community - it is interesting to me that this extraordinary documentation has been done by a non-Jew and a self-taught archeologist! The book is simply written, but the material is powerful enough to start a spiritual revolution.

Rating:
Summary: A thought provoking, original book that is fun to read
Review: In The Riddle of the Exodus, the author explores the biblical story of the Exodus, and successfully argues the truth of the story by examining all available sources of Hebrew and Egyptian history--including hieroglyphics, archaeological finds, biblical passages and commentaries, historians, and geographical research.

With this subject, it would be easy to become burdened with details, but the author does an amazing job pulling his original information together in a way that is easy to understand and fun to read. I couldn't put this book down!

The author's personal knowledge and interest in this subject is impressive. To his credit, the author doesn't force his opinions on the reader--he leaves it up to the reader to draw his or her own conclusions from the material presented. The author appears to tie together and factually confirm the stories of the plagues, the parting of the sea of reeds, and the almost instantaneous fall of Egypt as a world power by comparing the ancient writings of the Hebrews and Egyptians in a way that is most convincing. The research on the timelines of the Egyptian pharohs is fascinating.

This book is of major historical importance, and should not be overlooked by anyone interested in the story of the Exodus.

The author's site can be found at:
[URL]

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting, provocative, chockfull of surprises
Review: Is the current theophobic version of Egyptian history built on quicksand? Has a bigoted view of the Biblical record hamstrung this important field lo these many years?

The author's thesis seems to be on quite solid ground ... you will feel chills down your spine when you compare the written records of the "wrong" Dynasty alongside the Exodus account. Unless there is some serious mistranslation going on, the parallels are eerie and unmistakable. "The King is carried off by poor men ... the river is blood ..." (or something quite like it) and so on. Seems a good theory to account for the sudden collapse of this great Dynasty - something orthodox Egyptology cannot provide.

Rating:
Summary: Challenging the Conventional Thinking
Review: Since the advent of German rationalism, it has been fashionable in the academic world to poo-poo the biblical account of the Exodus (and most of the rest of the Bible as well) as not having really happened, or a sort of fantasy version of the mundane beginnings of the people of Israel. The plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the great miracles associated with them were merely literary embellishments conjured up by the religious figures of ancient Israel to agrandize their existence and to allow them to exercise control over the people, we are told. The premise that there is no evidence in Egyptian history of the existence of Israel in Egypt is mostly due to the fact that the scholars are looking for evidence in the wrong time period - in the so-called New Kingdom Period, rather than when it actually occurred.

But this will all be a thing of the past if author James D. Long has his way. The Riddle of The Exodus systematically debunks the house of cards that has long been the foundation of such intellectual amblyopia. Jim challenges the established mind set that pervades archeology and theology to show that there is indeed ample evidence to be seen in Egyptian history, if we look at the right time period - the Old Kingdom period.

This book is a refreshing breath of air for those who are looking for real answers.