Preface

“I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old…”

Psalm 78:2

“The Bible is like water, the Mishna like wine: he that has learned the scripture, and not the
Mishna, is a blockhead.”1

Rabbinical saying from the Gemara2

“The learned may penetrate into the significance of all oriental mysteries, but the vulgar can
only see the exterior symbol. It is allowed by all who have any knowledge of the scriptures
that everything is conveyed enigmatically.”3

Church father Origen, Contra Celsus (1.12)

“We must not understand or take in a literal sense, what is written in the book on the
creation [Genesis], nor form of it the same ideas, which are participated by the generality of
mankind, otherwise our ancient sages would not have so much recommended to us, to hide
the real meaning of it, and not to lift the allegorical veil, which covers the truth contained
therein. When taken in its literal sense, that work gives the most absurd and most
extravagant ideas of the Deity. Whosoever should divine its true meaning, ought to take
great care in not divulging it.”4

Rabbi Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed (2.29)

THE BIBLE has fascinated an enormous segment of humanity during the past many centuries to
millennia. As esteemed American mythologist Joseph Campbell artfully implied, the Bible has been
perceived widely as a sacrosanct subject that alone among the world’s religious literature and
traditions must be treated as if it has no mythology in it.5 In accepting various implausible if not
impossible biblical tales as “history,” we are asked likewise to agree that the ancient Hebrews,
Israelites and Jews had no mythology whatsoever, whereas practically all other ancient cultures on
Earth assuredly have possessed mythology to one degree or another.

In reality, ancient Jewish priests, intellectuals, scribes and bards most certainly did engage in
mythmaking, and, as it turns out and as one might have supposed logically, the biblical stories about
the Israelite lawgiver Moses rate as chief among these allegorical efforts. Because of this fact and the
popularity of the biblical stories, there exists a great need to peer clearly and without blinkers at these
tales, in order to analyze their origin and meaning; hence, the purpose for this present work.

The Book of Enoch and Talmud

To discover whether or not ancient Jews were engaged in mythmaking, we need only look at various
non-biblical Jewish texts, such as 1 and 2 Enoch (c. 300 BCE–1st cent. AD/CE), with their bizarre,
supernatural and otherworldly tales.6 Very few scholars of today or yesteryear would argue that the
adventures of the Old Testament patriarch Enoch (Gen 5:18) in these texts or other Enochian writings
record “history” or “biography.” The Enochian revelations represent obvious mythmaking, as do
several other apocryphal and intertestamental texts.

This same fiction-writing can be found in the prominent Jewish text called the Talmud (c. 200–500
AD/CE):

...The Talmud informs us that “a young unicorn one day old is as large as Mount Tabor.”
Consequently Noah had great difficulty in saving an old one alive. He could not get it into
the ark, so he bound it by its horn to the side of the ark. At the same time Og, King of
Bashan (being one of the antediluvians), was saved by riding on its back. We are further
informed that he was one of the giants who came from the intermarriage of angels with the
daughters of men. His footsteps were forty miles long, and one of his teeth served to make a
couch for Abraham. When the Israelites came against him under the command of Moses, he
inquired the size of their camp, and hearing that it was three miles in extent he tore up a
mountain of that size to hurl it upon them. Grasshoppers were, however, sent to bore holes
in it, so that it fell over his head on to his neck. His teeth also grew and were entangled in
the rocks, as the Psalmist says, “Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly” (Ps. [3:7]). He is
also said to be identical with Eliezer the servant of Abraham, and to have been, like Enoch,
translated to Paradise.7

This tale is farfetched to say the least, and, as the Talmudic text called the Gemara suggests, we would
be “blockheads” to understand it literally. As it turns out, the same can be said of the supernatural and
miraculous story of Moses and the Exodus, neither of which entities finds its place in the historical
record but exists only in the Bible.

In this regard, famed Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) “looked with a cold eye on the
myths of the Hebrews but accepted them as ‘extremely necessary…for the masses whose wits are not
potent enough to perceive things clearly and distinctly.’”8

In addition, a favorite Roman adage was Vulgus vult decipi; ergo, decipiatur: “The common people
want to be deceived; therefore, let them be deceived.”9

Comparative Religion Suppressed

As we examine the facts in this book, we may be tempted to ask why this important information is not
known better in the world at large. Why are not the tales of the Akkadian king Sargon, the
Mesopotamian demigod Gilgamesh and the Greek god Dionysus, for example, which resemble those
of Moses, taught from the pulpit and in seminaries, Bible colleges and universities, alongside with the
biblical stories?

By revealing the myths behind biblical stories, particularly that of Moses, we are not simply tearing
down supposed “history” but also restoring the lost, hidden or suppressed mythology and religious
ideas and traditions of other cultures. We are a lopsided world religiously, as a significant part of the
globe is under the domination of intolerant monotheism that has swallowed up much local color. This
destruction of indigenous communities and their cultural traditions is unfortunate and should be
rectified, particularly for the sake of the harmony with our natural surroundings, the source of much
of the world’s great religious traditions.

Meaningful Mythology
In this regard, few of the facts casting doubt upon the historicity of various biblical figures are known
to the populace, who do not benefit from reading ancient texts in their original languages, context and
milieu. Nevertheless, one need not throw out the baby with the bathwater and simply dismiss these
traditions because they are myth, as myth is not meaningless. Quite the opposite is true, because myth
is pregnant with meaning, more so than is understood, despite the extraordinary efforts of such
thinkers as Joseph Campbell and so many others.

Fig. 1. Map of the Levant and surrounding areas (after MapMaster)

Here I will discuss not only the lack of historicity to these biblical tales—that analysis is merely the
beginning—but also the lost, hidden or suppressed meanings behind the myths, wherever possible.
The path is not always clear, because of the massive destruction of past cultures, including and
especially by the megalomaniacal and fanatical monotheism out of the Levant10 that spread
throughout Europe and beyond, destroying and devouring much in its path. We certainly can make the
effort not only to enlighten ourselves as to the connotation of the ancient religion and mythology but
also to provide some justice for the attempted annihilation of non-monotheistic cultures globally.

Primary Sources and Translations

The present work provides a few excerpts from several of my other books but mostly new material,
including quotes from both primary sources and the works of credentialed scholars in relevant fields.
In my citations and bibliography appear numerous ancient sources such as the Bible, Anacreon,
Apollodorus, Aristides, Aristophanes, Arrian, Cicero, Clement of Alexandria, Diodorus, Euripides,
Eusebius, Herodotus, Hesiod, Homer, Josephus, Justin Martyr, Megasthenes, Origen, Ovid, Pausanias,
Pindar, Plato, Plutarch, Porphyry, Seneca, Strabo, Varro, Virgil and others, often in the original
languages, mostly Greek, Hebrew and Latin. There is a reason these ancient texts are called
“classics,” as they retain their worth despite their great age. Hence, it is not the age of a text or lack
thereof alone that determines its value.

I also discuss texts and words in Akkadian, Arabic, Assyrian, Babylonian, Canaanite, Phoenician,
Ugaritic and other Semitic languages, along with Egyptian, Sumerian, Vedic and Sanskrit. As
concerns my original translations herein, breaking with the past tradition of flowery, poetic language
designed to reproduce the “feel” of a composition, and in line with more current methodology, I have
rendered texts so that the lay reader will be able to see the correspondent words and learn the
language in question for him or herself. Note also in this regard that I have chosen to include Hebrew
consonants only, without vowel points, in order to simplify the text for the reader, who is reminded
that Hebrew is written from right to left.

Pioneering Scholarship
In this process, I have employed the most modern works from experts in relevant fields by the best
publishers in English, such as E.J. Brill, de Gruyter, Routledge and major universities and colleges. In
several instances, quotes from an earlier era of scholars and researchers are juxtaposed with the
words of more modern scholars, to demonstrate how reliable were these older writers.

Indeed, many of the earlier scholars’ perceptions remain remarkably accurate and insightful,
confirmed and validated numerous times by discoveries in the historical and archaeological record
since their time. This prior generation is thus validated in numerous of its perspectives and should not
be dismissed automatically as “outdated,” a specious generalization that deprecates both the older
authorities and individuals capable of distinguishing between illogical, unscientific or incorrect
contentions and those that are accurate, truthful and factual.11

In this same regard, the quotes at the top of each chapter are cited not as proofs but as premises,
demonstrated by the rest of the chapter or book.

In the end, we can see from the contents of the current work that the previous generation of scholars
often was intelligent and precise, with or without more modern discoveries and knowledge, in this
case correctly surmising that Moses and the Exodus can be sustained as mythical tales, not as history.

Modern Discoveries
In general, when it comes to ancient and enduring mythology, major scientific breakthroughs do not
happen very often, and much of what we know now we have understood since antiquity through the
literary record and other artifacts. Of course, our knowledge is added to on a regular basis, with
striking archaeological discoveries over the centuries, such as the Rosetta Stone, which opened up
Egypt to the world as never before, or the Sumerian civilization, both of which finds have led to a
tremendous amount of profound comparative-religion material.
Fig. 2. Rosetta Stone with Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek, c. 196 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris

Those discoveries occurred 150 to nearly 200 years ago, and our knowledge now, although still
lacking because of the tremendous loss of culture over the millennia, is relatively solid as concerns
numerous important aspects of ancient religion and mythology. The great volume of archaeological
finds since the late 17th century until today has also led to a large amount of speculation, some of
which indeed has been slightly or entirely inaccurate.12

To reiterate, we also have seen verified significant insights from the pioneers and discoverers.
Indeed, scholars have built entire paradigms upon these pioneers’ work, and dismissing these
respectable earlier authorities out of hand, therefore, is not advisable. Ignoring a massive body of
literature that reflects the history of a particular subject, dating back thousands of years, does not
make of one an expert in the field. On the contrary, such condescension merely makes one ignorant
of the subject.

Space Consideration
The sources here are cited and annotated in over 1800 footnotes, with a bibliography of some 700
resources, drawing from eras of scholarship beginning thousands of years ago to today. Because this
subject is so extensive, however, with a great deal of relevant literature composed over the past 2,500
years or so, this treatise could not be exhaustive on every issue but seeks to present the most scientific
analyses in sum for the most part.

For example, entire monographs can be and have been written on the biblical “manna from heaven”
or “Song of the Sea.” Hopefully, I will be excused for any oversights within this vast body of
scholarship.