Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Not being a ancient history specialist or any kind of expert on the Near East, ancient Israel, Canaan, or Egypt, I cannot offer sound advice to would-be readers of this volume as to its innate worth. However, if you would like to learn something, if you would like to read a history book with some interesting views presented in a orderly,competent, but humorous fashion, then by all means acquire this book. Ancient Hebrews who attended "King's College, Jerusalem" might have learned from much older Egyptian texts to "play it by ear and to play it cool." I loved it. Heaton's basic idea is simple, and not funny at all. When a new state appears adjacent to an old, very established civilization, the new state is not going to be culturally independent from the old one. That is to say, when Solomon established the much-enlarged Kingdom of Israel, he needed a bureaucracy, he needed offical buildings, he needed art to emphasize his royal power, and he needed texts and stories to educate his new phalanx of officials. Where did he get all these ? Did they all arise, like Aphrodite, full-blown from the sea or rather, from Israel itself ? Not likely. They were taken from Egypt. If you don't like this idea, if it rubs you the wrong way, maybe you should read this book. I liked it a lot.
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