Author
Paul McGrane
Book Format
Paperback
Publisher
Singular Books
Published
June 2023
Today's Price
£12.92
Save 14%
Free UK Delivery
Available - Usually dispatched within 3 days
Ancestral Tales
Today's Price £12.92
Life giving resources. Faithfully delivered.
FREE delivery on orders over £10
Serving over 2 million Christians in the UK
with Bibles, Books and Church Supplies
Our Buy-Now-Pay-Later accounts used
by over 4,000 UK Churches & Schools
Author
Paul McGrane
Book Format
Paperback
Publisher
Singular Books
Published
June 2023
£12.92
Save 14%
Free UK Delivery
Available - Usually dispatched within 3 days
Ancestral Tales
Today's Price £12.92
In this provocative, rigorous but highly readable work of scholarship, Dr Paul McGrane provides fresh insights and textual evidence that together forge a new understanding of the roots of Judaism and early Christianity. Adopting an entirely rationalistic approach, a close reading of the texts, not only the Bible but other contemporaneous sources, show how the historical truth has had meaning endlessly imposed on it, clouding the intentions of the original authors who were writing with very different historical criteria and for an audience of their time. There has never been anything like this in scope, in approach, and in its findings. A stunning, often riveting account of the foundations of the religion that preoccupies a third of the world's population, it will leave the reader staggered that so much has been, wilfully or otherwise, misunderstood and misrepresented for generations.
Ancestral Tales is the first volume in a three-book series called A Bonfire of Inanities: The Bible Dismantled
Christianity is based on the texts that make up the New Testament, but it has its roots in the books of the Jewish Old Testament which are also included in Christian Bibles. The stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, Joseph (and his coat of many colours), Moses leading the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt - these are all treasured by Christians, alongside the narratives of Jesus and his disciples.
The five so-called Books of Moses relate these Jewish ancestral tales, and this first volume analyses in detail the various source texts that make up these Books, to discover how much of them are based on real history. It compares them with other ancient texts not found in the Bible, notably those preserved in ancient Egyptian records, to separate truth from myth. It argues that we can identify in this way, the historical figures behind Jacob, Joseph and, most importantly, Moses and the Pharaoh of the Exodus. This then makes possible a firm dating for the Exodus itself, and a resolution of the complex relationships between the ancient Hebrews, Canaanites, Egyptians and most surprisingly, the so-called 'Sea Peoples' who appeared in history out of the chaos surrounding the collapse of civilisation at the end of the Bronze Age.
It may be possible to continue in Jewish or Christian belief in the light of this trilogy, but it would be a very different kind of religious faith from the one normally espoused. Each volume has been written to stand alone, but there is a natural sequence to the arguments developed which is facilitated if they are read in order.
Volume Two, Mistaken Messiahs, traces how Jewish messianic belief finds its way into the New Testament and Christianity and identifies historical figures behind Jesus and the Apostles.
Volume Three, Apocalypse Postponed, focusses on the Christian belief in imminent apocalypse and traces how thoroughgoing misunderstanding of the relevant Old and New Testament texts has led to two centuries of fallacious expectation.
Author
Paul McGrane
Book Format
Paperback
Publisher
Singular Books
Published
June 2023
Weight
414g
Dimensions
153 x 229 x 17 mm
ISBN
9781739392604
ISBN-10
1739392604
Eden Code
6256757
More Information
Author/Creator: Paul McGrane
ISBN: 9781739392604
Publisher: Singular Books
Release Date: June 2023
Weight: 414g
Dimensions: 153 x 229 x 17 mm
Eden Code: 6256757