Response to a Review of "The First Lords"

Review at Amazon by "The Adawm"

I have been following Dr. Alice C. Linsley's work since 2009. Since that time I casually read some of her articles that she post on her blog. I have found her work to be fascinating, and it will take many in the Judeo-Christian worldview on a journey beyond your typical Sunday school sessions. I do admire her work but some areas are highly speculative, however, she will most likely say that her work is unfamiliar to the less astute.

An example of such speculative story telling is that Adahm (Adam) was a 'Hebrew,' suggesting that there were 'Hebrew' people in existence way before Abraham (?) I wonder how many scholars would agree with her claim? Her work also attempts to link the Hapiru with the Hebrew, her reasoning is that they are one and the same people.

Well, according to Dr. David A. Falk who is an Egyptologist, the word 'Hapiru' has a pretty messy history when you start looking in the 18th century BC text. The word, "Hapiru" isn't an ethnic identifier nor is it a tribal group. It's a class identifier and reflects a social group, so anyone can be labeled a "Hapiru" since a person's class and social status can vary with their ethnicity.

Hapiru has been linked to being an mercenary, refugee, outcast, foreigner, plunder, and raiders. Many Hapiru were Amorites as many Israelites were in fact Amorites. And there is an Amorite, Israelite and Hapiru overlap that does exist, however, not all Israelites are Amorites.

According to the Exodus narrative, a mix-multitude left Egypt (Khemet), which would have included many ethnic groups such as: Nubians, Libyans, Asiatics, Egyptians (Khemetians) and Cushites (Ethiopians).

As Dr. David A. Falk has stated: some Israelites were Amorites, and some Israelites were both Hapiru and Amorites. A Hapiru is not a tribal marker, marking one's ethnicity but it is a marker of a social class. Hapiru persons have been found as East Semitic, West Semitic, Hurrian (Horite) and Amoritic.

There is an etymological association with the word Hapiru and Hebrew. But the link is immaterial since 'Hapiru' represents a class and "Hebrew" (or Hebrew Israelite) represents a blood related ethnicity.
Linsley also claims that there were two divisions of the Hebrew caste, (1) the Horite Hebrew (2) the Sethite Hebrew which she identifies with Egyptian (Khemetian) Cosmology.

For many in the Judeo-Christian sphere this forecasting can be damaging to their theological and doctrinal creeds. My opinion of the matter is just the same as with the Hapiru and Hebrew controversy, that is, there is in fact some overlap that exists.

According to the Exodus narrative there was a mixed multitude that left. The problem with the Exodus story is the fact that there has not been any archaeological evidence that confirms this story outside of the biblical narrative. All current data points to the Ancient Hebrew Israelites as native Canaanites.

Regardless though, I still find her work to be quite fascinating. Thank you Alice C. Linsley for your 40+ years.

My response

It appears that this reviewer did not read the book very carefully. He does not address any of the main points of the book.

He clearly has read some of my blog posts where I have "speculated" (along with others) that the English word Hebrew is related to the word Habiru/Hapiru. However, in "The First Lords of the Earth" I state that the word Hebrew is derived from the ancient Akkadian word for priest which is "abru", and the caste was called "abrutu". Akkadian is the oldest known Semitic language, and it reveals that the Hebrew ruler-priest caste existed before the time of Abraham (c.2000 B.C.). Akkadian was the language of Nimrod's kingdom. Nimrod was a Kushite kingdom builder (Gen.10).

Further, the Horite and Sethite Hebrew are mentioned in the Ancient Pyramid Texts as maintaining shrines along the Nile, and some of these texts date to before the time of Abraham. The Horite and Sethite mounds were well established before Abraham's time. Abraham was NOT the first Hebrew.

My book is about the early Hebrew, long before the time of the Exodus of Jacob's clan called the "Israelites". It involves tracing the Hebrew dispersion out of the Nile Valley into many parts of the Ancient Near East. These were kingdom builders, and their marriage and ascendancy pattern drove their dispersion through the practice of sending away non-ascendant sons.

Analysis of the kinship pattern of the early Hebrew, beginning with the historical Adam and his contemporary Enoch, reveals that they had the same marriage and ascendancy pattern as Abraham and Moses.

I'm not familiar with Dr. Falk. However, reading about his work indicates that his field is Egyptology, not the biblical Hebrew. As far as I can tell, he has no knowledge of the social structure of the biblical Hebrew. Understanding their caste structure with its moieties, and their marriage and ascendancy pattern clarifies many difficult passages of the Old Testament.  

Related reading: The First Lords of the Earth is a Paradigm-Shifting Book; The First Lords of the Earth and Messianic Expectation; The Hebrew Were a Caste