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for their religious beliefs, that they follow only one God, and are led by two leaders, both men of prominence and are taken east to a new land, but first must travel a vast wilderness. Sound familiar, If you change the names then Moses and Aaron and their people can be seen heading for their promised land.

The Sabbahs do put up a persuading argument to their theories, but they are only theories, in this field of study, where evidence is spares and can be twisted to support a whole range of possibilities there is room for a number of convincing arguments. But I must say this one does appeal to me. The problem with history is that names change and chronology gets distorted especially when you are dealing with such ancient subjects. But this theory doesn't have to bring too much new evidence to the table, it just needs to convince you that the names of the characters need only to be changed. The story as written by the exiled Egyptians who would settle and form the ancestors of the Hebrew people will obviously be different to that written by those that stayed in control of Egypt itself, a case of history being written by the winners. Both versions of the story however contain enough parallels to be more that a coincidence.

As new theories go this is one of the most exciting ones that I have read about in this field for a long time, and one that requires no great leap of faith to take on board, all you need to accept is that the Hebrews are the descendants of exiled Egyptians and you are half way there. On the basis that Akhenatens religious ideas resulted in the ancient middle east's first Monotheistic religion, that is one with one god, and you can see the basis of the Hebrew faith coming together.

All in all a compelling book, with a fascinating argument, much more in depth that the scant outline I have laid out in this review, and well supported with evidence from a range of disciplines, religious, historical, linguistic to name a few, at every stage. For those how revel in this sort of thing, the appendices contain break downs of evidence found in Hebrew text and Hieroglyphics, this makes interesting if somewhat heavy reading, but is not essential to the overall value of the book. A wealth of diagrams and photographs of tomb drawings, maps and people help colour the books arguments as well. For anyone interested in revolutionary new ideas in Biblical studies then this book is a must.

Learn more about this author, Dave Franklin.
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