۱۳۹۰ آذر ۱۲, شنبه

پشت پرده انقلاب اسلامی


دانیال جعفری

اعترافات حسین بروجردی به صورت نسخه اینترنتی منتشر شده است. این کتاب مجموعه مصاحبه هایی ست با حسین بروجردی، یکی از فعالین مسلمان علیه رژیم شاهنشاهی و از نزدیک ترین افراد به حلقه های قدرت در روزهای ابتدایی انقلاب بهمن بود.
ویراستار و مصاحبه کننده ظاهرا با نام مستعار بهرام چوبینه، تلاش داشته تا حرف های بروجردی را برای ثبت مستند کند. در نگاه اول، ضعف کتاب در شفاهی بودن بیش از حد ش است. پیگیری سیر نوشته ها مرتبا به دلیل جلو و عقب رفتن در حافظه تاریخی دشوار می شود و ظاهرا اصرار ویراستار حفظ ساختار پرسش و پاسخی مصاحبه بوده است. سئوالات در اوقاتی چالشی می شوند ولی در دیگر مواقع پرسش ها باز هستند تا گوینده واقعه ای که ظاهرا پیشتر شرح داده را بازگو کند. کتاب برای فرمت الکترونیکی قابل قبول است و دارای پیوست های قابل توجه به صورت عکس ها و لیست ها و اسناد تایپ شده از روی متن هستن.
بروجردی جوانی بوده با سابقه خدمت در ارتش که به دلیل وضع مساعد مالی و روحیه ماجراجویی، توسط یکی از افراد هیات موتلفه با نام مستعار شهاب جذب می شود. به گفته نویسنده در ابتدا تنها گشت و گذار بوده و در میانه این ایران گردی ها، فلاکت مردمان را به بروجردی نشان می داده و می گفته در مملکت اسلامی نباید چنین باشد. بعد از جذب بروجردی و دو نفر دیگر، یک گروه «توحیدی» تشکیل می دهند که در حقیقت یک سلول تروریستی بوده با اهداف شناسایی، خرابکاری و آدم کشی. طیف کسانی که توسط این گروه به قتل می رسند به قدری وسیع است که تنها به یک کمپین وحشت افکنی می ماند. بعدها وقتی پس از انقلاب صحبت از صدور انقلاب می شود، منظور آوردن و آموزش دادن قاتلین و تبه کاران کشورهای مفلوک دیگر به هدف بازتولید همین گروه های ترور و خراب کاری در دیگر جاهاست. بروجردی در مقطعی آموزش این خارجی ها که اکثریت شان عرب زبان بوده اند را در پادگان امام حسین به عهده می گیرد. از جمله هولناک ترین ماجراهای پیش از انقلاب، آتش سوزی سینما رکس است، که توضیحات مختصر کتاب خمینی در فرانسه، با گفته های بروجردی در این باره منطبق است. گروه بروجردی، مقادیر زیادی ماده آتش زا را از آقای خامنه ای در تهران تحویل می گیرند و به موسوی تبریزی در آبادان تحویل می دهند. وقتی چند روز بعد خبر حادثه منتشر می شود، اعضای گروه به شهاب اعتراض می کنند که اینها زن و بچه مردم اند و این شکل از آدم کشی از دید آنها مجاز نیست! تنها شاهد پشیمان حادثه، بعدا توسط موسوی تبریزی در تهران محاکمه و به اعدام محکوم می شود! از رشیدیان، یکی از اصلاح طلبان به عنوان دیگر این جنایت حرف زده می شود. در موردی دیگر، آخوندهای مخالف خمینی را می ربودند و در کاروانسرای متروکه برایشان دادگاه اسلامی برگزار می کردند و به قتل می رساندند و چال می کردند. تصویری که هوشنگ نهاوندی از فعالیت های گروه های اسلام گرا به مرکزیت موتلفه/فداییان اسلام به دست می دهد، یک عملیات گسترده خرابکارانه، با استفاده از مهره های تبه کار و فاسد، در این خاطرات تایید می شود. فزون بر این، بروجردی مدعی ست کسانی در سال های ۵۶ و ۵۷ از داخل دستگاه حاکمه به انقلابیون کمک می رسانده اند تا خرابکاری هایشان را ادامه بدهند، و گروه مجاهدین، با نادانی تمام، آدم کشی ها و انفجار ها را به عهده می گرفت و باعث می شد توجه از روی سلول های تروریستی توحیدی منحرف بشود. شبکه ای تامین کننده، به صورت شبکه ای از عراق و معاودین (رانده شدگان عراقی در سال های به قدرت رسیدن حزب بعث) که سلاح به داخل ایران قاچاق می کردند، تا دپو های اسلحه در محلات مختلف تهران و شهرهای دیگر و همین طور همکاری ابراهیم یزدی و صادق قطب زاده و مصطفی چمران در انتقال آموزش دیده های هوانیروز ارتش که توسط هیات موتلفه جذب شده و با رشوه به تیمسار برنجیان، برایشان مرخصی های یک ماهه حین خدمت گرفته می شد و به ظاهر به فرانسه یا آلمان می رفتند ولی از همان جا به سوریه یا لیبی یا لبنان برای آموزش فرستاده می شدند. منابع مالی این کمپین اما ترسناک تر است، بازاریانی که داوطلبانه وجوهات نمی داده اند خود هدف قرار می گرفته اند. بعدتر وقتی افرادی برای دیدار خمینی به پاریس یا بعدا به مدرسه رفاه می رفتند، بازاریان چک های سفید امضا به حاج آقا اشراقی می دادند تا بار بیابند. پولی که از سرقت از بانک به دست گروه افتاده بود، خرج پول دادن به مرغ فروشان می شد تا مرغ را ارزان به مردم ارایه کنند، و تبلیغ می شد که آقا که بیاید، همیشه اینطور خواهد بود.
اما همه آنچه نقل می شود در مقایسه با آنچه پس از انقلاب رخ داد از قساوت و جنایتکاری رنگ می بازد. بروجردی به دلیل آموزش های نظامی، شخصا در سرکوب سقز حضور داشته و جنایات خلخالی را شاهد بوده. وقتی کار غارت و چپو در کمیته ها بالا می گیرد،‌خمینی تلاش می کند اوضاع را کنترل کند، اما امثال شاه آبادی و خسروشاهی که ارتباطی با خمینی داشته اند به کار خود ادامه می دهند. کمیته ها از یک سو گروگان می گرفتند و غارت می کردند، مردم از سوی دیگر برای دادخواهی به دیوار سید احمد بر می خوردند که پیش از اجازه دیدن پدر، درخواست پول واریزی به حساب شماره ۱۰۰ امام خمینی می کرد. این حساب توسط بسیاری برای توجیه رشوه گیری مورد استفاده قرار گرفت و مثلا برای آزاد کردن بازاری ها، یک مبلغ به حساب ۱۰۰ و مبلغی هم مستقیم به آخوند مسئول کمیته داده می شد. این کمیته ها بلافاصله تبدیل به میلیشیای شخصی آخوند ها شدند و تلاش های بهشتی برای نظم دادن به امور با ترور اش ناکام ماند. بروجردی معتقد است که باندهای متعدد تشکیل شده از خود اسلام گراها، از نوفل لوشاتو در حال شکل گیری بود و مثلا محمد خاتمی، پسر آیت اله صدوقی و صادق طباطبایی را در یک گروه می داند که در همان نوفل لوشاتو در حال توطئه علیه بقیه بودند.
از نکات جالب در کتاب، اشاره نسبت نواده شیخ فضل اله نوری بودن نورالدین کیانوری رهبر حزب توده است، اینکه او نسبتی با خمینی هم داشته. یا این موضوع که دلیل حاشیه نشینی هادی غفاری، پرونده سازی علیه احمد خمینی بوده. یا رفتار متکبرانه عباس امیرانتظام در زندان جمهوری اسلامی با بروجردی. یا این موضوع که اساسنامه سپاه پاسداران که بروجردی در تشکیل اش حضور داشته، و در این راه از کیانوری کمک فراوان گرفته است. اینکه چمران و گروه امل ش، در تل عتزر دست به کشتار فلسطینیانی می زنند که قصد عقب نشینی داشتند و اینکه او به شهادت پزشکی قانونی ایران، با شلیک سه گلوله از پشت به قتل رسیده و آن هم نه در خط مقدم. اینکه خامنه ای علاقه ای وافر به تهذیب دارد و مجموعه ای نفیس متعلق به رییس انتشارات اطلاعات را از محسن رفیقدوست که متخصص عتیقه جات غارتی بوده، دست خوش می گیرد. اینکه با جمع کردن شهر نو و اعدام پری بلنده، فاحشه های جوان تر و خوش برو رو، صیغه سپاهی ها و ملاها شدند و آنها که خریدار نداشتند به کار زندان بانی و خواهر زینب شدن و گشت کمیته گمارده شدند. همین طور در رابطه با شبکه گسترده قاچاقی که جمهوری اسلامی اداره می کند، نام خانواده ریگی ها به عنوان کسانی که در مرز بلوچستان دستان شان باز گذاشته شده، این حرف ها بسیار پیشتر از شکل گیری جندالله زده شده است. بروجردی معتقد است که فرقان، گروه دست پرورده هاشمی رفسنجانی بود و دلیل می آورد که وقتی در ترور نافرجام اش توسط این گروه، در خانه اش مشغول خوردن چای بوده اند، نمی توانسته اند با هاشمی ناآشنا باشند.
بروجردی به دنبال استنکاف از ادامه فعالیت، و همکاری با کودتای نوژه، تحت تعقیب قرار می گیرد، اما چون خانواده اش را به گروگان گرفته بودند، خودش را تحویل می دهد. بعد از شکنجه های فراوان و دادن حکم، بعد از مدتی آزاد می شود و دوباره تلاش می کند که با گروه های برانداز تماس بگیرد و چند بار با کمک عناصری از داخل وزارت اطلاعات و سپاه، به خارج از ایران با کمک پاسپورت قلابی سفر می کند و نهایتا وقتی همین افراد به او خبر می دهند که این بار بخششی در کار نیست، برای همیشه به اروپا می گریزد. این کتاب در سال ۲۰۰۲ منتشر شده است ولی حتی تا به امروز هم کسی تلاشی در جهت حقیقت یابی یا تکمیل اظهارات او انجام نداده است. مثلا می شود از ابراهیم یزدی پرسید که واقعا در صدور حکم برای ارتشیانی که محاکمه کرد نقشی نداشته؟ یا می شود از کسانی که ایران را ترک کرده اند درباره این کتاب پرماجرا پرسش کرد. به گمان من، تا وقتی روایت های بیشتری چون این در قضاوت عمومی قرار نگیرد، برداشت ایرانیان از انقلاب بهمن مخدوش و همراه با جانب داری ست. همین قدر توجه کافی ست که اکثر چهره های مطرح انقلاب بهمن، یا ترور شده یا اعدام شده و یا به کل از زندگی اجتماعی دست شسته اند.

کتاب را می توانید با دنبال کردن پیوند زیردانلود کنید و خواندن اش را به همه توصیه می کنم.

۱۳۹۰ آذر ۱۱, جمعه

پیامبرانِ افسانه ای [1]



خشایار رُخسانی
چکیده:
پس از 200 سال کَندوکاوی و خاک برداری هایِ بی بازده برای پیدا کردن نشانه ای از دُرُست بودن داستان های تورات در اسرائیل و مصر، باستانشناسان به این بازیافت (نتیجه گیری) رسیده اند که داستان های تورات ارزش تاریخی ندارند. آنچه که بیشتر سبب این بازیافت (نتیجه گیری) شُده است ناکامی آنها در پیدا کردن یک یادگار یا یک کوزه-ی شکسته از فرمانروایی داود و سلیمان است که درباره-ی «شکوه و مِهَستی (عظمت)» پادشاهی آنها در تورات با آب و تاب بازگویی شُده است. و دیگر اینکه آنها  تا به امروز نتوانسته اند در تاریخ مصر باستان که برای 4000 سال روزنگاری شده است، کوچکترین ردی از داستان های تورات درباره-ی «بردگی 2 میلیون یهودی برای 400 سال» در مصر پیدا کنند. با پُشتگرمی به این داده ها (اطلاعات) گذشتهنگاران بر این باورند که داستان های تورات رویدادهای تاریخی نیستند، وآنکه افسانه هایی هَستند که بدست کاهنان یهودی در دوران های گوناگون نگاشته شده اند که تازه ترین این داستان ها بدست کاهنی با نام ازرا (Ezra) پس از آزادی یهودیان از بردگی در بابل و آمدن بخشی از آنها به ایران نگاشته شده است. و هدف ازرا (Ezra) از نگاشتن این داستان ها دادن یک کَتامی (هویت) به یهودیان برای پیشگیری از پراکندگی آنها بوده است.
 وَهاک (اهمیت) این پژوهش ها از اینروست که داستان های قرآن که همه رونوشت برداری شده از تورات هَستند و داوش (ادعای) دین اسلام و محمد برپایه-ی رخن بَری (میراث داری) از دین یهود و خویشاوندی با ابراهیم و همچنین ساخته شدن خانه-ی کعبه بدست ابراهیم زیر پرسش میرود و ارزش تاریخی خودش را از دست میدهد. 






سرآغاز:
پس از گذشت 200 سال کندوکاوی و خاک برداری بدونِ بازده که باستانشناسان  در اسرائیل برای پیدا کردن ردی از «فرمانروایی بزرگ داود و سلیمان» پیگیری کرده اند و هم چنین ناکامی آنها در پیدا کردن ردپایی از موسی و قومش در دربار فرعون مصر، و بیابان سینا، دانشمندان به این برآیند رسیده اند که داستان های تورات ارزش تاریخی ندارند. و این داستان ها افسانه هایی هَستند که بدست کاهنان یهودی همانند ازرا (Ezra) نگاشته شده اند. آنچه که به شگفتی باستانشناسان و ناباوری آنها به افسانه های تورات دامن زده است این راستی است که آنها تاکنون در تاریخ برجای مانده از فرعون های مصر هیچ نشانی از وجود قوم یهود پیدا نکرده اند که در مصر به بردگی گرفتار شده باشد و یا هیچ نشانه ای از شاهزاده ای به نام موسی نیافته اند که در دربار فرعون ها پرورده شده باشد، آنهم با آنکه فرعون های مصر از 2000 سال پیش از زایش مسیح به این سوی رویدادهای کشورشان را روزنگاری میکردند؛ باستانشناسان نه ردی از 10 بلای آسمانی در یاداشت های بجای مانده از مصریان باستان یافته اند که گویا یهوه خدای یهودیان از سر خشم بر آنها  فرود آورده است و نه ردی از شکافته شدن دریای سرخ در تاریخ آنها یافته اند.

 از دیگر پرسش های مهمی که تاکنون باستانشناسان پاسخی برای آن نیافته اند، این است: با  آنکه در تورات از «فرمانروایی بزرگ پادشاهان داود و سلیمان» یاد کرده است که گویا«توانسته بودند چند کشور همسایه را نیز شکست داده، خاک آنها فروگرفته و این کشورها را بخشی از گُستره-ی سرزمین خود سازند»،  ولی راستی این است که باستانشناسان هنوز نتوانستند هتا یک کوزه-ی شکسته پیدا کُنند تا فرنودی (دلیلی) بر وجود فرمانروایی «پُرشکوه و نیرومند» این دو پادشاه یهودی باشد، اگر که نخواهیم از آرامگاه یا کاخ های ساخته شده بدست آنها نامی ببریم که برجای نمانده اند. پرسش مهم دیگر این است که اگر داود و سلیمان چنین فرمانروایی بُزرگی میداشتند، آنها میبایستی در تماس های سیاسی و بازرگانی با کشورهای همسایه شان میبودند، کشورهایی همانند مصر، آشور، سپس بابل و پارس ها که در آن زمان بزرگترین فرمانروایی ها را برپا ساخته بودند؛ و این کشورها از پادشاهی داود و سلیمان در تاریخ خودشان نامی میبردند. در پیوند با افسانه-ی «گریز بردگان یهودی از مصر و آوارگی آنها در بیابان سینا»  که تنها بُنمایه-ی (منبع) گزارشی آن تورات است، با آنکه دانشمندان توانسته اند اینجا و آنجا اسکلتی را در بیابان سینا پیدا کنند که 5000 سال دیرینگی دارند، ولی هنوز نتوانستند چند استخوان از آن «دو میلیون برده-ی یهودی» در بیابان سینا پیدا کنند که گویا 2000 سال پیش از زایش مسیح برای 40 سال در این بیابان سرگردان بوده اند. نیاز به گفتن است که امروز دانش باستان شناسی به اندازه ای پیشرفته است که میتواند به کمک ایزوتپ های (isotope ) کربُن دیرینگی (قدمت) بازمانده های کهن را از استخوان جانوران گرفته تا چوب و پارچه و کوزه ها... موشکافانه روشن کند.  همه-ی این یافته ها باستانشناسان را تنها به یک برآیند رسانده است و آن اینکه داستان های تورات افسانه هایی هَستند که ارزش تاریخی ندارند.


راستی این است که پس از آزادی مردم یهود از بردگی در کشور بابل به کمک کوروش بزرگ و آمدن آنها به ایران، کاهنان یهودی همانند ازرا (Ezra) با ساختن افسانه های قوم یهود همانند افسانه-یِ ابراهیم و موسی، کوشش کردند تا از اینراه با دادن هویتی تازه به مردم یهود از پراکندگی آنها پیشگیری کُنند و ادامه-ی هَستی این قوم را پایندانی (تضمین) بخشند. در ساختن افسانه-ی موسی کاهنان یهودی از دو داستان  بهره بُردند که در میانرودان داستان های آشنا و راستین ولی در یک بازه (فاصله-ی) زمانی به اندازه-ی 1000 سال پیش آمده بودند:
1) داستان پرورش موسی در دربار فرعون: این داستان که بر روی یک سنگ نبشته یافته شده است، نزدیک به 2300 سال دیرینگی (قدمت) دارد و بسیار همانند با داستان موسی است. در شهر ازوپیا (
Azupia) در عراق امروز در کنار رودخانه-ی فرات یک کاهن زن که برپایه-ی باورهای آن زمان میبایست با هیچ مردی همخوابگی نکُند، نوزاد پسری را میزاید. او این نوزاد را در یک سبدی میگذارد که ته آنرا با خاک و زِفت (قیر) پوشانده بود و سپس آن سبد با نوزاد را در رودخانه-ی فرات رها میسازد. این سبد را یک کسی به نام آگی (Aqqi) مییابد که از راه باربریِ و فروش آب رودخانه زندگی میکرد. و او آن بچه را نزد خودش میپرورد. این بچه سپس تر به یک پادشاه بُزرگ فرامیروید. نام این بچه سرگون (Sargon) است که به چم (معنی) پادشاه راستین میباشد. و این سرگون یکی از مِهَندترین (مهمترین) فرمانروایان و کشورگُشایان سومری بود. سرگون 56 سال فرمانروایی کرد (2382-2327 BC) و سرگذشت او در همه-ی آموزشگاه ها و کانون های آموزشی میانرودان (بین النهرین) در میان کودکان داستانی آشنا بود—بیگمان این داستان از نویسندگان تورات ناشنیده نمانده است [2]. برای بُنیانگُزاران رُم باستان رُملوس و رموس (Romulus and Remus) که دوقلو بوده اند نیز چنین داستانی را بیان میکنند که اما افسانه بوده است؛ بدینسان که هر دوی آنها را در کودکی به رودخانه میسپارند. سپس آنها بدست یک چوپان از آب گرفته شده و در نزد او پرورده شدند. همانگونه که میبینید این افسانه ها در دوران باستان افسانه های آشنایی بوده اند.

2) دومین داستانی که کاهنان یهودی برای هویت بخشیدن به مردم یهود از آن بهره بُردند داستان فرمانروایی هیکسوس (Hyksos) است که ارتش آن در سده های میان 17 تا 16 پییش از زایش مسیح، کشور مصر را زیر مهار خود داشت. پس از روی کار امدن آهموس (Ah-mose) در سال 1550 پیش از زایش مسیح که بُنیانگزار هیجدهُمین دودمان فرعون های مصر بود، او توانست  هیکسوس ها (Hyksos) را از مصر براند و مصر را آزاد سازد. مصریان نیروهای هیکسوس (Hyksos) را در بیابان سینا تا زمین کنعان پیگرد کردند. باستانشناسان توانسته اند ردپای این پیگرد و گریز را در بیابان سینا پیدا کنند، رویدادی که 400 سال پیش از افسانه-ی آوارگی یهودیان در بیابان سینا برپایه-ی بازگویی های تورات انجام گرفته است [3].


 این کشف بزرگ باستانشناسان نه تنها آسمانی بودن دین یهود را زیر پرسش برده است، وآنکه دین ترسایان و بویژه اسلام را نیز از تیررس خود در امان نگه نداشته است؛ از آنجا که دین های ترسایی و اسلام نیز خود را نواده-ی ابراهیم و دُنباله-ی دین یهود میدانند، و جهانبینی هر دو دین از تورات سرچشمه میگیرد، آسمانی بودن آنها نیز با این یافته های تازه و مِهَندِ (مهم) باستانشناسان زیر پرسش رفته است.


یاداشت

[1]

[2]

[3]

آدینه، 11 آذر 3749 دین بهی

۱۳۹۰ آذر ۸, سه‌شنبه

The real history of Israel



by Matt Giwer© 2000 [October 13]

You can also put this in the archeology column and perhaps the atheism column. The quick summary is prior to the time of the Book of Ezra archeology has either failed to confirm or flatly contradicted just about every critical issue in the Old Testament.
The itemized version is that there is no evidence of the existence of not only Adam and Eve which most people generally accept but none of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon or any of the other people mentioned. Nor is there any evidence of any of the events or situations described. Not only no evidence of a Solomon or his temple but also no evidence the Jerusalem even existed at the time.
From what has been learned by archaeologists, what few particulars there are about Egypt in Exodus are flat out wrong. The kingdom of Solomon simply did not exist. Despite digging by Israel there is no sign of any Temple of Solomon. Not only that the description of Solomon is nearly identical to that a one of the Pharaohs who is well known, making Solomon the copy.
And the Wailing Wall that is supposed to be a remaining wall of the second temple was identified as the wall of a 17th century cemetery some three seconds before the researcher's archaeological research permit was pulled. That leads to the rather clear conclusion the entire confrontation over East Jerusalem and the so called temple mount by the Jews is no more than a superstition which has ignited the hostilities in the Mideast.
The Tomb of Joseph is the tomb of a 17th century Caliph. There was a mosque there before the recent destruction of the jewish building on the site.
What is known about the countries that form the eastern shore of the Mediterranean is that they were always under the control of some other nation, Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Rome or whichever was the power in the region at the time.
In Egyptian, the word for throne is "Is." Ra was the chief god of Egypt. El was the chief god of the region. The region that was known as the Throne of Ra and El, Israel.
Despite a massive archaeological search of the Sinai Peninsula when Israel controlled it, not one sign of the millions of people and animals which supposedly wandered there for forty years was ever found. Should anyone ever consider the actual distances involved between Egypt and Jerusalem it is noted it is a leisurely five days walk away.
Just the two million Hebrews in the Exodus would form a line three abreast with the ranks five feet apart from the Nile to Jerusalem. That is not counting their slaves and animals, carts of possessions or anything else. They could have moved their possessions simply by passing them from person to person in a bucket brigade fire chain from Egypt to Israel.
With the collapse of the Moses story the entire foundation of Judaism, Christianity and Islam collapses. There simply no basis for them absent Moses. Even Abraham collapses as since there was no leaving Egypt there was no going there in the first place. But that has been obvious to anyone who ever bothered to critically consider the story.
The story goes that seventy-seven of Joseph's relatives went to Egypt from what is now Iraq. In a miracle of procreation they grew to 2 million in a bit over four hundred years. Yet they speak a language native to the region of Palestine rather than Egyptian or the language of ancient Iraq. And that language was never their native language. That is like expecting Blacks in America to speak their native Africa languages.
In addition to not speaking Egyptian there is no evidence of any borrowed words from Egyptian which is truly remarkable. Nor is there any indication of any talent, skill, or knowledge from Egypt. In fact was archaeologists do find in the region is a quite primitive culture with some indication the people were originally nomads, Bedouins, who attacked and defeated the cities and settled down.
Where they came from and where they got their religion we don't know yet. Genetic research has found those who claim to be the priests and those who do not make that claim came from different places as the priests have a distinctive genetic marker that could only have developed in reproductive isolation. The book of Ezra does include importing the religion to the region.
It is also about that time of Ezra that archaeologists find signs of images being defaced which indicates the destruction of the old polytheist religion. And that coincides with the time of the rise of monotheist cults such as Zoroaster and Mithra.
Archaeologists have confirmed the people were polytheists as the Bible says in no uncertain terms. The first commandment says clearly, no other gods and not false gods or any other terms which would indicate he was the only god. The term 'lord god' in the Old Testament is a false translation of 'Yahweh Elohim.' A more correct translation is Yahweh (personal name) of the Gods. Note the Elohim related to israEL.
Sacrificial altars are found all over the region. As inscription referring to Astarte as the consort of Yahweh has been found. Solid evidence that Astarte was worshiped by the women exists in the form of idols of Astarte and her worship continuing at least into the middle of the second century, about 150AD. What we find then is separate cults for men and women. Comparing that to what the Old Testament is constantly ranting about and we see it bears no relationship to the facts.
In other words the religion we know as Judaism was not created until sometime around or after the time of Ezra save the Astarte cult continued well into the second century AD and not in secret but was widespread and many places in Jerusalem. This is known by the idols of Astarte which have been found frequently and commonly "in the shadow of" the Temple Mount.
From carefully comparing what is written in the Old Testament to the facts as they are know suggests they were also written around the time of Ezra which was just after the Babylonian captivity. That explains why Pharaoh's court and priests behave like the Babylonian court and priests instead of like those in Egypt. There is reference in Exodus to a city in Egypt that was not built until hundreds of years after Exodus is supposed to have taken place.
None of this is a secret. In fact it is well known to biblical archaeologists. Unfortunately funding for research is largely raised from people and organizations with an interest in confirming the Bible. Therefore the researchers have one well hedged story for their contributors and another one for professional publications.
For example where a professional paper will open with a paragraph hinting at a biblical connection, perhaps naming a city or landmark. The next paragraph will rather clearly cite the discrepancies which will clearly indicate the first paragraph has no foundation. The rest of the paper will report real archeology. But to contributors the first paragraph gets expanded into an entire talk.
That is to be expected. This year there have been two examples of it. The first was a sonar return of the bottom of the Dead Sea that found two mounds that are shaped something like what buried cities look like on the ground. Nothing more was found. The press hype was that it was Sodom and Gomorrah. There is absolutely no evidence of that or any connection to anything named in the Old Testament.
The other example was confirming that there are remains of buildings at the bottom of the Black Sea. The hype for that was calling it proof of the flood of Noah in Genesis. Even if some day that should be found to be correct, it demonstrates there is no truth in the story in Genesis.
But it is the kind of hype people want to hear and it is the kind of hype which raises public funding. And even more, the researchers do not have to exaggerate or deceive as with all the hype they need only say "thought to be" or "as heard in the news" and believers will fill in the rest. Most people are like agent Moulder of The X-Files, they want to believe.
Reactions to the above are quite interesting. The first reaction of many people is to accuse the teller, to attack the messenger. Atheist, anti-Christian, anti-semitic are not uncommon usually laced with dire warnings of hell in the afterlife. I presume if there were more Muslims around it would also be called anti-Islamic.
Yet all I have pointed out including recent hype this year can be easily read by anyone who cares to do so. Anyone who simply remembers the two articles in the news would note there was no support for the claims in the headline and lead paragraph. But they will carry with them a memory of the hype not of the facts.
The supposed location of Solomon's Temple has been repeated so many times and has been featured in context of the current fighting in the illegally occupied territories that it is quite reasonable for people to believe it is true. It is so ingrained the reporters don't even bother saying it is the believed or supposed location.
And as to the Wailing Wall being the remains of the second temple that flies in the face of another commonly held belief, that the Romans leveled the temple when the rebuilt the city. Ridiculously inefficient to have left part of one of the walls standing. Roman completely rebuilt the city and brought it things like running water and sanitation. Under what conceivable circumstances would they leave just one wall?
In another article I point out that the entire Diaspora consists solely of the Romans prohibiting the Judeans (not all Jews just Judeans) from living inside the rebuilt city. Yet the common belief, which is solely pious legend, is that they were forced to leave all of Israel. That flat out never happened.
So Israel got started on a myth that Jews were forced to leave and had wandered the earth without a home. Fact, they left voluntarily. And now the current round of fighting over the mythical temple of the mythical Solomon.
The issue can not be the second temple as by their own beliefs there was never anything sacred in it. The Ark, judgment seat and the rest of sacred paraphernalia had long vanished. And in light of the above, that Moses is a total myth, so also the Exodus and the idea the sacred paraphernalia ever existed.




MOSES - Fact or Fiction


According to Exodus the Egyptian pharaoh decided that all the newborn Hebrew sons should be tossed in the Nile. When Moses was born his mother beat pharaoh to it and placed the toddler in a basket of papyrus made tight with dirt and pitch and tossed the basket in the Nile herself. He was then found and adopted by the pharaoh’s daughter (Ex 1-10).


An identical story
On a clay tablet a thousand years older, dated ca 2300 BC, there is an identical story telling how the high priestess in the city of Azupia by the Euphrates gave birth to a son in secret since she as high priestess was supposed to live in chastity. She put her newborn son in a basket made tight with dirt and pitch, and placed it into the river (Euphrates). The child was found by Aqqi, the water bearer, and grew up to be a great king. The name of this child wasSargon (the true king) and he was one of the most important and influential Sumerian rulers and conquerors. His reign lasted for 56 years (2382-2327 BC) and the myth of his birth and childhood was read in the schools of Mesopotamia and was widely known, - obviously also for the authors of the Bible.

Origin myths
Such origin myths were central to ensure the position and legitimacy of important persons, both real and fictional. The legend of the founders of Rome, the twins Romulus and Remus, has a similar theme. The twins were born in secrecy by a fallen princess, put in a wicker basket and send bobbing down the river Tiber. They were found and raised by a wolf and finally found by a shepherd (Faustulus). The Egyptian god Osiris was also send floating down the river Nile in a basket as a child. This kind of mythical origin is a central factor which indicate that here we have a hero or possibly a godly person. Sargon was a real king, and we have historical evidence for this. If there once was a real person behind the many myths of Moses, there is not a shred of real evidence to support this. Anyway, the myth of his origin the Hebrews borrowed from the Sumerians.

Historical Moses??
There are no other written sources or existing evidence than the Bible to support a historic Moses, and we know the Moses stories in the Bible were first written in the last centuries BC. Moses is aformidable figure in the Bible, he is the leader of the Hebrews and led his people out of Egypt against the will of the mighty Pharaoh. He is a man of quite some authority, an authority he strangely enough still possessed after have been dragging the entire Jewish people around in the frigging desert for 40! years (Ex 16,35), until he finally entered the Promised Land. The distance from Egypt through the Sinai desert is approximately 400 km, and shouldn’t be more than a twelve to fifteen weeks on foot if we suppose an average distance of a modest 5 km pr day. 


And another curious thing: Moses personally received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai by the Lord Almighty himself. This was stone tablets with Gods own handiwork, where God himself had chiselled away with his divine sausage fingers the Ten Commandments. It is very surprising that Moses then, in a sudden fit of fury over the people’s dancing around the golden calf, actually could smash these unique stone tablets! Moses had obviously not much respect for Gods handiwork.

There is absolutely no historical evidence for this greatest Jewish leader of all times. No inscriptions on whether stone, bone, bronze, clay tablets, papyri or any mentions in place names or in traditional legends in the area, other than in the Bible. Even though Moses is far younger than well documented Egyptian, Assyrian and Sumerian rulers who have left us monuments, statues, pictures/hieroglyphs and an abundance of inscriptions.
Most real scientists agree that the exodus, the plagues of Egypt and the Moses stories are all mythical. There is simply not any shred of evidence that this ever happened. One should think that plagues like the ones the Bible describes happened, that this would at least be mentioned in the rich and advanced literate Egyptian culture, at least if huge part of pharaoh’s army drowned too. The Egyptians otherwise had a habit of recording almost everything of political, economical, military or religious nature. 



The terrible plagues the Jewish God send over the Egyptians and the Pharaoh, should not be blamed solely on Pharaoh unwillingness to let the Hebrews go. According to the Bible it was the Lord who hardened the Pharaoh’s will, and thus got him to deny the Jews to leave, against his will. This way the Lord could unleash even more plagues on the Egyptians (Ex 4,21; 7,3-4; 9,12; 10,1. 20. 27; 11, 9-10). I suppose God wanted to show his whole repertoire of dirty tricks when it was clear that the Pharaoh’s wizards knew some nifty tricks too (Ex 7, 11. 22; 8, 7).

The Exodus happened between 1491 and 1451 BC according to biblical chronology. Today we know that this exodus never actually happened, it’s a myth. There is however evidence of Semitic influence in the Nile delta from the fourth millennium BC, but according to the Bible this is approximately 2500 years earlier than the Hebrews came to Egypt. It is also evidence of Semitic presence in Egypt long after the Biblical exodus. 

Furthermore, there is no evidence of any new Semitic immigration to the Holy Land around 1400 BC. And there are finally no written sources or archaeological evidence that a total population of 600.000 (according to the Bible) Hebrews were held as slaves in Egypt.

There is also no linguistic evidence for the presence of the Jews as slaves in Egypt. Words and phrases are quickly assimilated between cultures, when races live and work together for even a short length of time. If the Jews had been in Egypt for more than a few weeks, there would definitely be Egyptian words in the Hebrew language, and Hebrew words in the Egyptian language. As it happens, there is not one common word between those two languages!
Also, despite considerable efforts (mainly by Christian archaeologists!) there has been not one scrap of evidence found anywhere in the desert for the presence of the Hebrew race, as they supposedly meandered around for 40 years.

(C) R.L. Børsheim 2005
Thanks to Geoff Mather for the last two paragraphs.

Sources: Karlheinz Deschner, Israel Finkelstein, Der Spiegel, Cappelen World history a.o.



DID THE EXODUS HAPPEN? ANSWERING THE SCEPTICS



By
Dr. David Lewis

A new wave of scholars is now dogmatically declaring that the Exodus never took place. They insist it’s just a myth concocted centuries later in the time of Josiah to justify the existence of a Jewish state. Some of these new sceptics, such as Zeev Hertzog and Israel I Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University, are Jewish themselves!

The implications of their teaching are profound. They insist that, historically, there really is no such thing as a Jewish or Israelite people descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There never was an Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. Moses was a myth, and never wrote the first five books of the Bible. The so-called Israelites are just Canaanites that emerged in Palestine, were joined by a few nomads, andconcocted a new religion.

If these new theories are true, then:

The Jewish people have no historical claim to either the land of Canaan, being a nation, or maintaining the State of Israel today. According to the new historians, Israelites aren’t Israelites, just Palestinians.

Christians can’t rely on the authority of the Bible if the very events that foreshadow the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ are myth. The Passover in Exodus 12 points to His death and He observed as a memorial as did Paul’s converts in I Corinthians who recognized vital spiritual lessons in the Hebrew Exodus.

The new archaeological theories present a fundamental attack on the very foundations of both Judaism and Christianity.

Denial of the Exodus and the reality of the Biblical account is nothing new. Neither are these arguments. The sceptics have been around for over 200 years, and much of their teaching has been the accepted wisdom in universities for a long time. The theories are now being recycled because of a lot of new archaeological evidence that Professor Finkelstein and others have uncovered. This evidence, it is claimed, provides no evidence for the Exodus or the Bible.

Are the sceptics right? They are looking at the right evidence, but at the wrong time. Dating in the history of Egypt and Palestine is based on a couple of assumptions that professors have handed down over the decades. First, they assume the Exodus took place, not when the Bible says it did, around 1450-1447 BC but around 1300 BC. The Bible says the Hebrews built the city of Ramesses and that existed around the time of Ramses II who is dated around 1290. There is no evidence of Hebrews or an Exodus at that time.
What if, however, the Hebrews built the city of Avaris, which existed before the city of Ramesses? Also, what if the Egyptian chronology itself has been wrongly focused? At the very time the historical establishment was more and more rejecting the Biblical record, a handful of archaeologists were questioning the accepted wisdom. In 1991 a group led by Peter James published a book called Centuries of Darkness. Four years later British archaeologist David Rohl published A Test of Time, marketed in America as Pharaohs and Kings. Both of these books argue, convincingly in my opinion, that the traditional dating of much of ancient history before 1000 BC in most history books isflawed.

Both James and Rohl did not start out with an agenda of trying to prove the Bible. They just went to the Egyptian tombs and monuments and concluded that several of the later dynasties ruled side by side. This meant that earlier dynasties were placed anywhere from one hundred to three hundred years further back than they should have been. The three hundred year ‘Dark Age’ which historians describe in Greece, Phoenicia, and other places, shrinks and even disappears.

The Pharaoh Shishak who invaded Jerusalem has been identified with Soshenk. But Soshenk never attacked Jerusalem but northern Israel! Another Pharaoh did attack Jerusalem. ..the famous Rameses II. In Egyptian he is Ra Me Shi Sha, the Shishak being a Hebrew nickname for ‘The Destroyer’. Rohl concluded that Shishak was Rameses, that the splendid late Canaanite period was the time of Solomon, that the period of the El Amarna letters was the time of Saul and David.

Rohl’s biggest discovery, though, was in finding the evidence for the Exodus in the Thirteenth Dynasty. His findings are summarized by John Fulton, a supporter of David Rohl:

‘Before Moses, the Bible records that the Israelites were enslaved by their Egyptian hosts (Exodus 1:8-14). In the Brooklyn Museum (p.276, fig. 310) resides a papyrus scroll numbered Brooklyn 35:1446 which was acquired in the late 19th century by Charles Wilbour. This dates to the reign of Sobekhotep III, the predecessor of Neferhotep I and so the pharaoh who reigned one generation before Moses. This papyrus is a decree by the pharaoh for a transfer of slaves. Of the 95 names of slaves mentioned in the letter, 50% are Semitic in origin. What is more, it lists the names of these slaves in the original Semitic language and then adds the Egyptian name each had been assigned, which is something the Bible records the Egyptians as doing, cf. Joseph’s name given to him by pharaoh (Genesis 41:45). Some of the Semitic names are biblical and include:- Menahem, Issachar, Asher, and Shiprah (cf. Exodus 1:15-21).

That 50% of the names are Israelite means that there must have been avery large group of them in the Egyptian Delta at that time, corroborating the testimony of Exodus 1:7 which alludes to how numerous the Israelites became. The sceptics look for Israel in the Egypt of the Nineteenth Dynasty and remain sceptics, because the proof is in the Egypt of the Thirteenth Dynasty. The site of Avaris has been uncovered by the Austrian archaeologist Manfred Bietak in the land of Goshen underneath that of
the city of Ramesses. It provides plenty of proof, says Fulton, for Israel’s presence and sufferings in Egypt:

‘The people who lived in Avaris were not Egyptian but Asiatic Palestinian or Syrian. The finds there included numerous pottery fragments of Palestinian origin. Several factors about the graves were particularly fascinating:- 65% of the burials were of children under 18 months of age, the normal for this period being 20-30%. Could this be due to the killing of the male Israelite children by the Egyptians, recorded in Exodus 1:22? A disproportionately high number of adult women as opposed to adult men are buried here, again pointing to the slaughter of male Israelite babies. There are large numbers of long-haired Asiatic sheep buried which indicate these people to be shepherds. Large numbers of weapons found in the male graves indicate the warlike nature of the people.’

According to the Bible, Moses was bom around 1527 BC, in the reign of Neferhotep I. A few fragments of ancient records from a Jewish historian called Artapanus were preserved by the Catholic historian Eusebius. They say that the Pharaoh’s daughter at the time Moses was born was called Merris. She married the Pharaoh Khenephres, also called Sobekhotep IV.

Moses or Mousos, meanwhile became a great general who invaded Nubia and Ethiopia. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 2.10.1-2 tells the story. The Ethiopians had invaded Egypt and had practically overrun the country:

‘The Egyptians, under this sad oppression, betook themselves to their oracles and prophecies; and when God had given them this counsel, to make use of Moses the Hebrew, and take his assistance, the king commanded his daughter to produce him, that he might be the general of their army ... So Moses ... cheerfully undertook the business’ and defeated the African invaders by marching through a snake-infested region and taking them by surprise: ‘When he had therefore proceeded thus on his journey, he came upon the Ethiopians before they expected him; and, joining battle with them, he beat them, and deprived them of the hopes they had of success against the Egyptians, and went on in overthrowing their cities, and indeed made a great slaughter of these Ethiopians.’

Josephus was right. A monument in the British Museum tells of Khanferre or Khenephres invading Sudan and Ethiopia, the only Thirteenth Dynasty ruler to do so. Remains of an Egyptian government building with the Pharaoh’s statue has been found hundreds of miles south of known Egyptian territoy

Sobekhotep IV/Khenephres was the Pharaoh of the Oppression from whom Moses fled, about 1487 BC. The forty years Moses spent in Midian were likely to have been 1487-1447 BC. The Pharaoh of the Exodus was Dudimose. Fulton records that the Austrians found evidence both of God’s slaying of the firstborn and the sudden departure of Israel from Goshen:

‘The Tenth Plague to be sent on Egypt just before the Exodus was the plague on the first-born, recorded in Exodus 12:29,30. At the end of stratum G/l at Tell ed-Daba or the ancient city of Avaris (p.293), archaeologists found shallow burial pits into which the victims of some terrible disaster had been thrown. These death pits were not carefully organized internments; the bodies were simply thrown in on top of one another. Could these be the burial pits of the first-born Egyptians? What is more, immediately after this disaster, the remaining population left Avaris en masse; this fits perfectly with the Exodus of the Israelites following the final terrible plague.’

Manetho, the Egyptian historian wrote how Egypt collapsed in the reign of Dudimose:

‘Tutimaos: In his reign, for what cause I know not, a blast of God smote us; and unexpectedly, from the regions of the East, invaders of obscure race marched in confidence of victory against our land (Egypt). By main force they easily seized it without striking a blow and having overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of the gods and treated all our natives with cruel hostility, massacring some and leading into slavery the wives and children of others.’
The invaders were the Amalekites Israel encountered after leaving Egypt. They found Egypt, devastated by Divine judgment an easy prey.
‘The continuing archaeological discoveries’ says Fulton, ‘here in the ancient city of Avaris mirror exactly the early Israelites revealed in the Old Testament. For two centuries no evidence was found for the Israelites when looking in the strata of the 19th Dynasty. Now that the chronologies have begun to be amended and the sojourn in Egypt placed in the 12th and 13th Dynasties, we have a wealth of archaeological evidence corroborating the Biblical account.’

[ECCLESIASTES 11:4] "HE THAT OBSERVETH THE WIND SHALL NOT SOW; AND HE THAT REGARDETH THE CLOUDS SHALL NOT REAP."

[ECCLESIASTES 11:6] "IN THE MORNING SOW THY SEED, AND IN THE EVENING WITHHOLD NOT THINE HAND: FOR THOU KNOWEST NOT WHETHER SHALL PROSPER' EITHER THIS OR THAT, OR WHETHER THEY BOTH SHALL BE ALIKE GOOD."