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Showing posts from July, 2020

Abram and Egypt

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by Damien F. Mackey The Patriarchs  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses,  span the entire period of Egyptian history from the very first king of the First Dynasty of the Old Kingdom to, in the case of Moses, the last (woman) ruler king of the so-called Middle Kingdom. Egyptologists have created too many Egyptian kingdoms and dynasties. Likewise, regarding the early history of the earth, we are presented with a vast succession of Geological Ages reaching back, say, 4 billion years ago, give or take. Palaeontology takes us back through the supposedly successive Stone Ages a far more modest 2-3 million years. Archaeological Ages then follow these earlier ages, all nicely set out in linear, or “Indian file”, fashion. This system, however, is quite artificial, not according with reality. Hence, the already challenging task of trying to marry, particularly the Archaeological Ages, with the historical kingdoms and their dynasties, might seem to h

Hadrian a reincarnation of Augustus

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by Damien F. Mackey When reading through Anthony Everitt’s 392-page book,  Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome  (Random House, NY, 2009), I was struck by the constant flow of similarities between Hadrian and Augustus - which the author himself does nothing to hide. Here are some of them: Pp. 190-191: Ten years into his reign, Hadrian announced to the world that, speaking symbolically, he was a reincarnation of Augustus. P. x: … Augustus, whom Hadrian greatly admired and emulated. P. 145: Flatterers said that [Hadrian’s] eyes were languishing, bright, piercing and full of light”. …. One may suspect that this was exactly what Hadrian liked to hear (just as his revered Augustus prided himself on  his  clear, bright eyes). P. 190: … the true hero among his predecessors was Augustus. For the image on Hadrian’s signet ring to have been that of the first  princeps  was an elegantly simple way of acknowledging indebtedness …. Later, he asked the Senate for permission to hang