The Eric Metaxas Show - Douglas Petrovich

Episode Date: May 24, 2022

Douglas Petrovich has uncovered fascinating archeological connections between Joseph in the Old Testament and the pharaohs and people of Egypt, including bridges between hieroglyphics and the Hebrew alphabet. 

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m.investments.com. Taxis show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Hey there, folks. Every now and again, we have a subject that is so fascinating to me. I really don't know where to begin.

It's almost like I, let me, let me start here. here. Most of us don't think about things like what was the world's first alphabet and how is an alphabet different from written language, hieroglyphics, Egyptian hieroglyphics, that's not an alphabet. The way the Chinese write with characters, that's not an alphabet. When was the first alphabet invented with letters and sounds? And it opens up a whole fascinating world. And recently, it came to my attention again because I realized that there's a man, Dr. Douglas Petrovich in Texas, who teaches biblical studies in ancient Near Eastern History and archaeology at the Bible seminary in Katie, Texas. And he's written a couple of books that purport to have proven to discovered that have discovered that,

The first alphabet in the history of the world is Hebrew. This is, the more you learn about this, the more fascinating and strange and amazing it is. He has a new book out, Dr. Petrovich, called Origins of the Hebrews, New Evidence of Israelites in Egypt from Joseph to the Exodus. A previous book is called the world's oldest alphabet. Douglas Petrovich, welcome to the program. Thank you, Eric. It's great to be with you today. I am really so fascinated by this. How do we start? I mean, if somebody knows nothing about this, and most people really don't think about this kind of thing, if somebody had asked the question 10 or 20 years ago of some scholar,

hey, what's the first alphabet? What would they have said? Well, they would have said it's clearly a Semitic language that's, that's, behind it. And so all scholars agree with that. And it's clearly a script that evolved or derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics. So there's clearly a physical, visual basis or foundation in hieroglyphics. Everybody would agree on that. The question would just be, which is the Semitic language behind the world's... All right. So see, I've just learned something already. So you're telling me that we know and everybody would agree. that whatever the first alphabet was, the first written language that uses alphabetics,

was derived, we know, from Egyptian hieroglyphics. Now, is that because of, is it the letter A that looks like a bull or an upside-down bull? how do we know that Egyptian hieroglyphics lead to the first alphabet? Well, we know for several reasons, one of which is that in its earliest form, and by the way, the earliest inscriptions were found at several sites in Egypt and several sites in Sinai, southwestern Sinai. So from those early inscriptions, we know that at that stage, at that phase, the alphabetic script was extremely what we call pictographic, which means it's as if you were drawing something and

anyone looking at the drawing could clearly tell what you were drawing because of the picture. So that is what was borrowed very clearly, and again, agreed on by all scholars, that was drawn from hieroglyphics. And as time went along, Eric, in the second millennium BC, and by the way, that's the 19th century BC is when it started. Our earliest attested alphabetical letter is 1842 BC and the oldest inscription is 1840 BC. So as then time went along, the script evolved, if you don't mind the term, in such a way that it became less and less pictographic. And if you think about it, that's really logical because you wouldn't want people to spend so much time writing every single letter drawing a well, you know, with good curvature,

all of the forms of a picture. But if you could make it more abstract, if he could write it faster, then it would speed up the entire writing enterprise. Now, the headline here, and I should have started with this, is that, I mean, this is so fascinating. It's always, the more fascinating something is, the more difficult it is to sum up. But this has tremendous implications with regard to the historicity of the scriptures, the stories of Joseph, again, going way back to. talking to the 19th century BC. It's amazing. The 19th century BC so far back the time when Joseph would have lived. But we didn't really know this until fairly recently, and you've been at the forefront

of showing this. There are a lot of directions to go in. But I think, isn't that the most controversial aspect of what you're putting out there? That there are people that just don't want to believe that some of what the Bible says is true, that it's history. And by discovering this language, this alphabet, I should say, so far back, long before we thought there was an alphabet, you make it difficult for those who don't like to believe that the Bible is history. Absolutely, Eric. And you would not believe the amount of flak that I have received in life.

of all of this because it is giving credence to the historicity of the Bible. And if you think about it, and I don't know your academic background, but in most colleges and universities, both across the United States and around the world, professors have been using their platform to kind of mock the historicity of the Bible. And one of the greatest mockeries that's used is, hey, the Bible says the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years. why do we have no proof of that? And for all of this period of modern history with archaeology and with the study of ancient inscriptions, epigraphy, we have no examples that show us that the Israelites were there.

And that then becomes a springboard to creating disbelief within our kids and our grandkids. Okay. So what you're saying, though, is that we do have proof specifically the evolution of written language, from Egyptian hieroglyphics into what becomes Hebrew. Exactly, yes. Okay, so this is a huge deal. When did this become manifest? Was it when you came out with your book in 2017,

the world's oldest alphabet? When does this bomb explode, so to speak? Great question. First of all, I will go back to the 1920. there was a German scholar named Hubert Grimert. And Grimert was very much before his time. And he suggested first that the oldest alphabet, again, in these inscriptions in Egypt and Sinai, this oldest alphabet is actually Hebrew.

And he was ostracized. He was kicked out of the academy. He was humiliated. And the reality is that he didn't get everything right. He identified some letters correctly. he didn't identify some letters correctly. And some of his translations were definitely suspect. So basically the baby was thrown out with the bathwater, though,

because not only is he wrong about certain translations, but since he's wrong, then we can conclude that the thesis is wrong, that Hebrew isn't that oldest script. So really, he was my predecessor in that, so I'm not the first ever to do this, But now, since his time, from then until now, the more studies that have been done on the oldest alphabet have demonstrated that we can identify more carefully, more accurately, a certain number of those letters, those pictographic letters that we weren't really sure what was the sound behind it. Is it a g? Is it a r? Is it a t? So my work was to kind of solidify the questionable, the debating. values, you know, the consonantal values.

So my work really is groundbreaking in that sense in being able to identify with confidence those letters. Okay. We're going to go to a break. Folks, I'm talking to Douglas Petrovich, the world's oldest alphabet. This is huge stuff. Stick around. Tell me, Eric, why is relief factors so successful at lowering or eliminating pain?

I'm often asked that question. The owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right, designed to heal. And I agree with them. So the doctors who formulated Relief Factor for them selected the four best ingredients, yes, 100% drug-free ingredients, each helps your body deal with inflammation. Each of the four ingredients deals with inflammation from a different metabolic pathway. And that right there, approaching from four different angles, may be why so many people find

such wonderful relief. So if you've got back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee, or foot pain from exercise, are just getting older, you should order the three-week quick start discounted to only 1995 to see if it will work for you. It works for me. It has for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more. Go to relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. The fight for the unborn is raging in our country. An unprecedented leak from the Supreme Court indicates that Roe v. Wade is on the brink of being overturned. During this critical time, a new movie is about to be released. The award-winning film, The Matter of

Life, cuts through the rhetoric and hatred and exposes the real issues surrounding the plight of the Unborn. The Matter of Life will be in theaters nationwide for two nights only, May 16th and 17th. If you care about protecting the Unborn, this is a movie you'll not want to miss. Go to fathomevents.com now to reserve your tickets for a theater near you for May 16th or May 17th and have your own life transformed as you watch The Matter of Life. That's Fathom, F-A-T-H-O-M-E-E-V-E-E-V-E-V-E-V-C-C-C-C-T-C. There is a battle, folks. It's taking place in America, whether you're pro-choice or pro-life.

You need to see this film. The Matter of Life is the film May 16th and May 17th. Go to fathom-Events.com right now, fathomevents.com. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Dr. Douglas Petrovich, who is putting forward a thesis. with a lot of evidence that, in fact, the world's oldest alphabet is Hebrew, or what eventually became the Hebrew alphabet, going back so far that it's almost incomprehensible to the 19th century BC.

If you know anything about the evolution of language and alphabet, and we're going to get into that, it's gigantic news, and it proves the link between Egypt, and the Hebrew people. So a lot of what you've discovered, Dr. Petrovich, and by the way, thank you for being with us today. The reason it's so controversial is because it supports the Bible as history, and there are a lot of people deeply invested in that not being right.

So you become their enemy and what you're putting out there. They want to debunk it. when did you, in the course of your studies, begin to see that you had something here, that you could make this case? It goes back to 2012 and 2013. It all started when I was studying for my comprehensive exams for my PhD at the University of Toronto, which, by the way, the major of my program was Seropal-Palestinian archaeology, and the first minor was Egyptian language, ancient Egyptian-Hurbanian. hieroglyphic language, and then the second minor's ancient or eastern religions. But it all goes back to 2012 when all of a sudden out of nowhere I fell into evidence for Israelites in Egypt at the time of the Exodus. I already knew the right time frame for this, that it's the middle of

the 15th century BC that the Exodus happened in 1446 BC. And I knew the right place, which is the site of Avaris. And what was discovered there, where animal remains consisting of four different animals that you read about in Exodus 11 and 12, the time of the first Passover, the 10th plague on Egypt, dogs, cattle, sheep and goats. And most of them were sheep and goats. And almost all of the sheep and goats died in their first year of age, which is exactly what the Hebrew Bible says was a requirement for the sacrificial animals. So in studying this, and falling into this, you know, I consider it,

kind of like a gold mine that I fell into, this just led to more and more study research questions. Well, if this is evidence of Israelites in Egypt and they were there for 430 years, shouldn't there be some more evidence about them that can be verified and can confirm the story? So again, just from my audience, so literally until 10 minutes ago, 2012, 13, we didn't have this kind of evidence. In other words, we know what the Bible says. We're trying to puzzle it out. But you're saying suddenly we find evidence, obviously animal remains, that corroborates the idea that there were Hebrews there, because this is what they did with their animals.

It's anomalous. You don't expect to find this. So when you find it, you go, well, this is weird. Why did all these animals die in around the first? first year, and you're saying, aha, it's because this is what the Hebrews would do. Exactly. And I already knew who was the Exodus Pharaoh. In 2006, I published an article that's to date, as far as I know, the most detailed study ever done on identifying the Exodus Pharaoh. And that is Amin Hotef II. He's the only one who fits all of the measurable biographical

requirements that are found in the Bible. So I do the right time frame. And it just has to be happens, Eric, that with these burials, the very little pottery that was connected with them is pottery that can be dated to the reigns of Thumost the Third, the father of Ammanhotep II, and Amunhotep II himself. So it's tied in chronologically, perfectly. So I knew that, you know, this is the right connection. Well, okay, so there's a lot here, and I want my audience to be tracking with this, because we're talking about so many different disciplines. It makes it complicated, obviously. But so liberal scholars who say the Bible is nonsense, they say, look, there is no evidence of the Hebrew, of the Israelites being in Egypt. So you're saying you find

evidence from the animals first. Now, again, if we said 30 years ago, 50 years ago, to some scholars who believe in the Bible, what is the evidence? Did they have any evidence at that point? How much of this evidence is really new? A lot of it is fairly new, but a lot of it is not. And really, it comes back to this. Biblical scholars, and you use the term, that it requires a lot of disciplines.

I'm interdisciplinaryian, right? I have three master's degrees and a PhD, which makes me educated beyond my intelligence. But the point is, I've studied in the applicable fields in the areas of specialization that would allow me to have the right training in all of these areas. And somebody couldn't have stumbled into all of this, Eric, unless you get the chronology of Israel right, you get the chronology of Egypt right, you synchronize the two correctly, and you have the ability to work with the textual evidence, and you know, the writings, and with the archaeological evidence that comes out of the ground. So you have to have all of these disciplines behind you in order to stumble into this. And the problem was there really weren't people trained in enough and trained carefully enough in all of the right disciplines.

That's the issue. I mean, we see this actually happen again and again. I was interviewing recently a New Testament scholar, Eugenia Constandino, who's in San Diego, who's written a book called The Crucifixion. of the king of glory. And because she has several master's degrees, and she can look at things, she has a law degree, she looks at Roman law from the first century. And in a funny way, only if you have these different pieces,

can you pull things out? Other people wouldn't see it. So you have a number of master's degrees in these fields, and so you're able to see things that we've never seen before. But it must, you know, It must be daunting in a sense to realize that you are seeing things that no one has seen for centuries, that people have debated or scoffed at, and that now you're bringing the evidence to light.

Yeah, and Eric, I can tell you this. This wasn't just an academic experience for me. For me, it was very emotional, very spiritual, and there were times where, you know, with one discovery after another, finding Jacob in the... ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, finding Joseph in ancient hieroglyphics, finding Joseph's two sons in ancient hieroglyphics. And all of this is in my new book, Origins of the Hebrews. But with one discovery after the next, here I am alone in Toronto at my house, and I would just stop what I was doing and weep because I couldn't believe that God would take the chief of sinners, the least of all the saints,

and use him to be the vehicle through which God would reveal this to the world for the first time in over 3,450 years. Why me? That's the best question. And I think that's what qualifies you is the sense of your own unworthiness. God can work with people like that. And so here you are now.

You know, it's kind of an amazing thing for any of us to be alive at a time when these things are coming to light. This is a big deal. So I want to walk with you through all of this stuff. You just mentioned in the new book, Origins of the Hebrew, that you found in Egyptian hieroglyphics, I think you just said, evidence of Joseph.

I mean, this is astonishing. Tell us about that because it's, I mean, I really, that is astonishing. Please tell us about that. Yeah, let me give you a couple of kernels here. First of all, every Egyptian pharaoh had at least five names. This is called the royal titulary, the royal set of titles, if you will. And so they had five official names. So having lots of names is not a problem.

And of course, Abraham had two names. Jacob had two names. Sarah had two names. And we know in the Bible that Joseph had two names. Well, he had other names that I discovered, other Egyptian names. And it's very complicated. It would take me a lot of time to go through it. But here's kind of the best part of it.

one of the names that he was given is Horus is at the forefront. Horace is the name of the Falcon God in the Egyptian pantheon. And at this time, now that Cyrus, again, according to Egyptian mythology, now that Cyrus the king of the gods had died, his son Horace took over. So Horace was now the king of the gods. And so that association for Egyptians is really important because the king of the gods, I mean, he's the big deal. He's the big cheese.

So Joseph is given a name, which is the king of the gods is at the forefront. What's the significance of that? Think about this. When Joseph was about to interpret the two dreams for the king of Egypt, right? He was brought out of the dungeon. He was in jail. His hair was long. He had probably had a long beard.

He was stinking. They cleaned him up. They shaved him and they put him in front of the king. And before he even heard the dreams from the king, do you know what he said? He said this, it is beyond. me. God will give to Pharaoh a favorable answer. That's amazing. Now hang on. We're going to go to a break. This is called a cliffhanger and show business. We'll be right back. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have

skyrocketed. And when oil prices go up, the cost of transportation and shipping spikes, leading the prices of goods to rise. and when we're already seeing record inflation, that's the last thing we need. Our economy is in trouble and you need to take steps to protect yourself. If all your money is tied up in stocks, bonds, and traditional markets, you are vulnerable. Gold is one of the best ways to protect your retirement. No matter what happens, you own your gold. It is real, it is physical, it's always been valuable since the dawn of time. Legacy precious metals is the company I trust for investing in gold.

They can help you roll your retirement account. into a gold-backed IRA where you still own the physical gold. They can also ship gold and precious metals safely and securely to your house. Call Legacy at 866-528-1903 or visit them online at Legacypminvestments.com. Hey there, folks, Eric Mataxis here. I know you know how much I love Mike Lindell and my pillow. Well, Mike Lindell and my pillow right now are offering a Bogo extravaganza. Bogo. Buy one, get one.

Bogo extravaganza on multiple MyPillow products. Now is the time to join the millions of Americans who've changed the quality of their sleep with MyPillow. Right now you get the buy one, get one free special. My Pillo bed sheets, geese elegance, My Pills, the six-piece towel sets and the roll and go anywhere My Pills. Just go to the radio listener specials page at Mypillow.com. Use the promo code Eric.

That's the radio listener specials page at MyPillow.com. Use the code, Eric, or call 1-800-3057-1057, 1-8-3057. 1-8-30-5-7. Don't miss this incredible opportunity to buy one, get one free on select product. You'll also receive Mike's book absolutely free. You won't believe it. It's amazing. 800-978-3057 or Mypillow.com.

Use the code, Eric. Tell me, Eric, why is Relief Factor so successful at lowering or eliminating pain? I'm often asked that question. The owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right, designed to heal. And I agree with them. So the doctors who formulated relief factor for them selected the four best ingredients, yes, 100% drug-free ingredients, each helps your body deal with inflammation.

Each of the four ingredients deals with inflammation from a different metabolic pathway. And that right there, approaching from four different angles, may be why so many people find such wonderful relief. So if you've got back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee, or foot pain from exercise or just getting older, you should order the three-week quick start discounted to only 1995 to six. see if it will work for you. It works for me. It has for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more. Go to Relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Folks, I'm talking to Dr. Douglas Petrovich. This is an astonishing

subject. I hope you've been listening. Dr. Petrovich, you were just telling us that you found evidence. And again, this is just, this is so big. We got to unpack it. We need the time. but you find evidence from Egyptian hieroglyphics of Joseph from the Bible. And you were just telling us about one of his names, which is not found in Scripture. It's found, according to you, in the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Yeah, and that's the name. Horace is at the forefront. And Horace is the king of the gods.

So the king of the gods is at the forefront. And as I was mentioning before the break, Joseph was about to give the interpretation of the dream. He hadn't heard the dreams yet, the two dreams that the king provided him, was about to provide him with. He hadn't heard them yet. And before he does, and he knows, what does he do? He's a dream interpreter. He knows full well he's going to interpret these dreams for the king. But before he hears the dream, the two dreams, he says this.

He says to the king, it is not in me. In other words, there's no way I can answer the interpretation of this dream, but God will give to the king to Pharaoh a favorable answer. So what he does is he gives the credit for the soon-to-be interpretation to God rather than himself. So what does he do? He puts God at the forefront rather than Joseph at the forefront.

Okay, now obviously some people would say, well, God, it's not God, it's Horace. when we say Horace, the eye of Horace is that kind of floating eye above the pyramid that we have on the back of our dollar bills, the eye of Horace. But you're saying that Joseph, when he says this, he means God. He doesn't mean, or, I mean, it's an interesting thing because we're talking about Joseph. So we kind of assume that he's being theologically orthodox, being after all the patriarch Joseph. But it's interesting that he would put Horace in that position. Yeah, but here's the thing, right? Back in this time period and in the ancient Near East, you weren't, you know, you didn't receive your name at birth. You received a name when something distinguished you as being worthy of that name or being connected to something.

Kind of like Man Who Kills Two Bears. Exactly. Native Americans. I mean, that's how they made names. Right. So it's other people who are assigning his name. And when they look at him and they hear him, they're seeing what he does. they're hearing what he says and they say to themselves and they say to each other, wow, this guy's

different. You know what he does? He puts the king of the gods at the forefront. And that's their terminology. So they're coming up with the name, not Joseph. Amazing. So this is something, when did you discover this? When did you read this in Egyptian hieroglyphics?

This would have been toward the end of 2012 or early 2013. And where are these hieroglyphics? In other words, we know that they're ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, 4,000 years old. But when did you see them? Where do they exist? They're from different sites in Egypt mainly. Some inscriptions are at, very few, but some are at Avaris, the site where the Israelites settled. Others are at, for example, Doshua, which is where Joseph was first buried. He wasn't buried with his family at Avaras.

He was buried as a vizier would be, a second in command in Egypt would be. he was buried in a massive, we would connect it with a mausoleum, it's called a mastaba, that's next to the pyramid of the king that he served. And who is the pharaoh that he served? That would be, well, Sissostris II of the 12th dynasty would have been the pharaoh of the abundance period, the seven years of plenty. So I call him affectionately the abundance pharaoh. And then Sissotrists, the third, takes the throne literally in that transitional year, oddly enough,

between the seven years of abundance and the seven years of famine. And so that's Sosius the third. Okay, so scripture tells us that Joseph was the number two man to the Pharaoh. It's an amazing thing. But as far as I know, we simply do not have extra biblical evidence of any of this. We're talking about something that happened in the midst of prehistory. For most people, they just say it's just legendary. It's stories in the Bible.

So are you the first one to discover extra biblical evidence for Joseph? Yes, there is nobody else who's done this before, Eric. This is a first. This is monumental stuff. It's why I wanted to have you on the program. It's kind of amazing to me. There hasn't been more news about this. This is major, folks.

This is so huge. I'm trying to unpack it myself right now as we're having the conversation. So in what kind of, context, were you reading these hieroglyphics and that this leapt out at you? Were you, you know, at your home in Toronto with these texts in front of you? How did this come about? Yeah, I was basically at home in Toronto. And of course, I was a student at the University of Toronto, which has a phenomenal library in ancient or Eastern history and Egyptology. So I was able to get any of the resources that I needed. And so it was just following a trail because it all started with a research question. If we have evidence of Israel, Israelites in Egypt at the time of the Exodus, is there anything to show us that they would have been there for any other time period? And I just literally followed a trail. I mean, I was Hansel and Greta on the trail, finding one piece of breadcrumb after another, and it just grew and grew and grew and

grew and it's all interconnected. Which is what makes it a little bit difficult to explain. We're going to go to another break here. Folks, I'm talking to Douglas Petrovich, who, who has written at least two books. The new one is called Origins of the Hebrews, new evidence of Israelites in Egypt, from Joseph to the Exodus. And then a few years ago, the book is the world's oldest alphabet.

Hebrew as the language of the proto-consonantal script. We'll be right back with Dr. Douglas Petrovich. Hey there, folks. We're getting into educational. seminar. I'm talking to Dr. Douglas Petrovich. This is so fascinating. It's unbelievably fascinating. Dr. Petrovich, you are telling us the story of how God allowed you to be the person to discover extra-biblical evidence. I mean, this is astonishing, linking Joseph and these early figures in the Hebrew Bible to

extra-biblical evidence, to evidence outside the Bible, evidence in Egyptian hieroglyphics. And so at what point does the light bulb go off above your head? In other words, you, like me and like many scholars, you believe the Bible is history, but at some point you think, well, who knows what we will find? Maybe we won't find anything. Maybe some things I have to take on faith. I just know that the Bible is real. I would be foolish to discount it. But every now and again, something far outside the Bible corroborates what's in the Bible. It's an astonishing thing. I've spoken quite a bit to Dr. Stephen Collins, who finds biblical Sodom. When you can find in archaeology evidence outside the Bible that

points back to the historicity of the Bible, it's rather a big deal, obviously. It is. And I'm convinced that God is the one who initiated all of this, right? It wasn't as if I was out looking for this, Eric. I didn't intend to be the person who finds evidence for Israelites in Egypt. I mean, that wasn't on my list of goals. I just wanted to study Egyptian hieroglyphics, study it well, learn it well, and be able to work with texts and see what's there and kind of just go on to a path of discovery. and it's God who ordained that I would stumble into all of this amazing evidence and I just, I'm still in awe that I was chosen. Well, this is, it's funny because I wrote a book this last year called Is Atheism Dead?

And there's so much information in that book that I would find this information that had been discovered by people like you and I would be amazed at it, but then I would be further amazed that I hadn't heard about it before, that it takes time for this information to be brought to light.

What we're talking about here is headline news, but it's not in most headlines. The New York Times has not said, you know, scholar purports to discover blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it's earth-shattering. It goes against the consensus. It goes against theologically liberal consensus. And so it is controversial. There's so many pieces to this. What was the first piece for you?

Because I want to talk about your discovery of. Hebrew as the first alphabet. I want to talk about that. But we're talking about other stuff right now. What was, what, where did it begin for you? Was it when you were reading these hieroglyphics and you start noticing things that sound to you like it's Joseph and, and others from the patriarchal period? Yeah.

And it kind of goes back to, there's a series or a set of inscriptions. that tie together with one another, to identify Joseph, to identify Ephraim, the son who has given the birthright from Jacob, and Manasseh and the Archaeological Record. And one of Manassas's obscure sons that you only read about in Joshua chapter 17, verse 2. There's a list of his six sons, and there in that list is this little boy who shows up visually even in the form of a picture on an inscription from a site called Sierbikil-Hadim in Siam. And so it's the combination of these connecting inscriptions and the identifications on them that really becomes powerful. And there's one inscription that I'll mention since you ask about, you know, where did a major lightball come on. There's one inscription that acts kind of as a conduit between the discovery of evidence for Israelites at Egypt and identifying Hebrew as the oldest alphabetic script. So there is an inscription.

It's on a stella called Sinai 115 from Ceribit, and it's about nine feet tall. It looks like a tombstone, an oversized tombstone, and it has an inscription going all the way from top to bottom, describing what happened during that year when this team went down to Serabit to extract turquoise, because it was all about a lucrative industry to make money by... Okay. And this is, is this like the 19th century? BC? What time is this? Yes. This is the middle of the

19th century BC. Okay, so this is a steel or a stele, however it's pronounced. Yeah, this is a stella. A stella recounting in Egyptian hieroglyphics something from 4,000 years ago with regard

to mining turquoise, which was a big deal for millennia ago. Mm-hmm. And one of the major players in this expedition was a man named Hebeded. That's a fascinating name. Because in Egyptian, Hebeded.

Ghezinhite, what? Hebeded. Hebeded. Okay. Chebeded. Mm-hmm. It starts with a guttural letter. And Hebeded, that name, Eric, is never used before or never used after this in any Egyptian

records. Never, never, never. And the inscriptions that he wrote there make it clear that he's a lot of, um, make it clear that he's an asiatic. Well, his name means, again, passive participle, it means he who was disfavored. And I identify Hebeded with Manasseh. What happened to Manasseh. When Joseph's two sons were standing before Jacob, when Jacob was almost ready to die, and Jacob decides, I'm going to give the birthright to the secondborn son, not the firstborn son. What happens to the firstborn son? He is dishonored. He's dishonored.

And that's the name of this guy named Hebeded. And he has a son, and it's written on one of the other inscriptions that he composes named Shechem. Well, Shechem is the Egyptian equivalent of the Hebrew name Shechem, which you find in Joshua 17, 2. Again, one of the six sons of Manasseh that's named there. So he becomes essentially kind of like the foundational stone in this entire structure. the identification of this obscure son of Manasseh. So one of the inscriptions, the base of one of the inscriptions on these steely, that Manasa as Hebidid composes,

he writes something in hieroglyphics as a caption to a picture that depicts him on top of a donkey, his son to our right as we're looking at it, and on the left it's an Egyptian attendant. And over the top of the heads of all of these people, he writes this caption. The caption reads, and I'll just give you the translation, six Levantes, meaning six people from the Levant.

The Levant is ancient Canaan, ancient Phoenicia, and ancient Syria. Six Levantines, Hebrews of Bethel, the Beloved. Holy cow, we go to another cliffhanger. We'll be right back to hear the rest of that. Hey there, folks, we are listening to the most amazing interview with Douglas Petrovich. Albin, are you listening to this guy? This guy is unbelievable. I can't believe it.

Well, before I say more about Douglas Petrovich, a couple things. I am, I got stranded in Colorado. So I'm at the airport hotel in Denver right now. I just want people to know the adventures of my life. I spoke the last few days I've been in Colorado Springs with Pastor Steve Holt of the Road Church. and I don't know how to say this, but in New York, where you are, where my family is, it's been like 90 degrees. Yeah, yeah, all weekend.

Here in Denver, well, not in Denver. I'm in Denver now, but in Colorado Springs where I was, it was a blizzard. It was the weirdest thing. It was Pastor Steve Holtz said we got 18 inches of snow in his back. This is north of Colorado Springs. It was so surreal being in the middle of snow and seeing snow everywhere. And then talking to Suzanne, who's like, yeah, it's 92 degrees here in New York. I said, this is just, it's kind of amazing.

Well, that's the Rockies for you, as they say here. It's just totally different. Okay, I want to update people. I spoke at Sean Foyt, did a hold the line conference. with again, Pastor Steve Holt of the road. Lauren Boer spoke. Bobert. I've never heard Lauren Bobert speak at all.

I really know nothing about her. I was so impressed. I was astonished, actually. She's about 35 and tiny. And she spoke, it was like the most fiery sermon speech I've ever heard. This woman is a profound Christian, profound. You can't fake that stuff. And I was just really impressed.

And we're going to have her on this program. She's facing a bitter primary because when you're that good, the other side really hates you a lot. And so we're going to get her on this program. But I was just really thrilled, actually, really thrilled to hear her and to find out like, hey, this woman is the real deal. Whatever they're saying about her. I've heard her speak and I'm just thrilled. So anyway, I want to mention that.

I want to mention that this is our last week for CSI. Now, folks, you know and I know that we're blessed to be a blessing. So whatever it is that you have, we're supposed to share it as we're able. The question is with whom? Well, we vet organizations for you. CSI is they're the best of the best. Right now they're helping refugees in Ukraine. They need help.

You know the story. It's horrifying, having to leave your home. And so we're asking you to go to our website, metaxis talk. Metaxistalk.com. And click on the banner and give what you can. If there's anybody out there who's able to give $10,000, I'd just throw this out there. I'd be delighted to have dinner with you, spend the evening together with you. with you, but we need everybody to give something. $140 is the amount they're asking,

but whatever fraction of that you can give, whatever multiple of that you can give. The phone number is 888-253-3522. 8-8-8-8-8-253-3522. I also got to say, Albin, a lot of people are not signed up from my newsletter. They're getting the Salem newsletter, the Metaxus talk newsletter, and they're getting this like every day. And I said, no, no, no, no, no. I'm talking about my newsletter, Ericmetaxis.com. I'm not talking about the Salem newsletter, which I think people are getting some video update every day. I'm talking about my newsletter. Folks, if you're not signed up for my newsletter, you got to go to Ericmetaxis.com.

Eric, not Metaxistock.com. That's the radio website. Metaxistalk.com is a radio website. If you want to go to CSI, that's where you go. But my website is Ericmataxis.com. Sign up for my newsletter. I'll be back with more. Stick around.

I'm gonna