Q 1. Question for clarification from "Who Was Joseph?" In the sentence, "As Joseph the Patriarch was given a chariot by the king on his appointment, this indicates that he was responsible for the chariots," (paragraph #5) does this indicate that no one possessed a chariot other than the selected individuals responsible for them?                M. Rogers

A 1. This was a military chariot given only to military personnel. Yuya was the first person to be appointed as commander of the chariots. Before that, the chariots were part of the army and did not form a separate entity.

 

Q 2. A confusion: in "The Transfiguration on Mt. Sinai" you mention Bishop Makarios of Jerusalem in AD 325. The name sounds Greek (Cypriot). Was he of AD 325, or modern day? "The situation changed only in AD 325 when the Emperor Constantine, who had recently converted to Christianity, gave Bishop Makarios of Jerusalem permission to dig up the tomb of Christ, believed to be underneath the Temple of Aphrodite." Could you clarify?

A 2. Most bishops of the eastern churches have Greek names, even until the present time. This Makarios was the Bishop of Jerusalem in AD 325.

 

Q 3. "The Mystery of Akhenaten's Empty Tomb." In the sentence, " . . . there were found parts of Akhenaten's magnificent alabaster canopic chest, . . . with pieces of the lids capped with the king's head. The head gives evidence of never having been used . . . " What was the king's head, exactly? . . . A literal or sculptural head, a receptacle for parts of the actual head? Was it attached to the chest? Fascinating!

A 3. These were small sculpted heads of the king. They were used to cover the 4 canopic jars, which contained the inner organs of the dead king.

 

Q 4. Much in your articles is in conflict with Christian teachings and indicates that the leadership of our churches deliberately misinformed us or were misinformed in their teachings. This would be horrible even though new information is important. How is the truth to be found by the lay person and what does it mean if my children are being lied to?

A 4. Although there are some differences between my articles and the Church teachings, this is mainly due to the fact that I am talking about the history of early Christianity, while they speak about theology. I do not think anybody is deliberately misleading the people, however, the historical facts give a different account regarding the Jesus of history.

 

Q 5. When did the name Jesus first appear and in what context?

A 5. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua. Joshua's name appeared for the first time in the Book of Exodus. He was the successor of Moses as the leader of the Israelites while they were in Sinai. When the 5 books of the Tora were translated into Greek in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC, the name of Joshua was first translated into Jesus. The New Testament identifies Jesus as the prophet who succeeded Moses.

 

Q 6. Question of curiosity from "Who Was Joseph?" In the sentence, "One need only to look at the mummy of Yuya, now in the Cairo Museum, to be convinced that this is the mummy of Joseph," (last paragraph), assuming you are speaking of physical characteristics, could you please elaborate?

A 6. They claim that Yuya came from the city of Akhmim in Upper Egypt. His mummy, however, shows clearly that he was a Semite.

 

Q 7. You may have already written about this, but why this distortion of facts in time and place — even to the writing of the Gospels — if Jesus had actually lived centuries earlier and only appeared to the Apostles after his death?

A 7. If you read the letters of St. Paul, which were the earliest written part of the New Testament, written before his death around AD 64, you find no distortion. Paul doesn't mention that he himself, or any other disciple, saw the historical Jesus. They all encountered the Glory of Christ, which means the eternal spirit of the Messiah. Paul also gives no account of Jesus coming from Nazareth, being born in Bethlehem, or crucified by Pontius Pilate. This is the same situation with all the Coptic gospels found in Nag Hammadi.

 

Q 8. Why isn't there more information on the new discoveries in the mass media? Is there a web site where updated information on the Dead Sea scrolls and the Nag Hamadi scrolls are discussed?          Mary McCormick

A 8. The mass media is controlled by the those who do not want to change the status quo. Even when they deal with these topics, it is mainly to distort information and confuse the public. Although we have more freedom on the net, many moderators do not allow the truth to be revealed on their sites.

 

Q 9. You infer that the Dark Ages are the result of the destruction of the Serapeum and the Alexandrian library by the Roman Church. I've never heard this spin before and have understood the Dark Ages to be - in fact - a prolonged time of battle between evolving European cultures; each seeking military dominance. In retrospect did the Dark Ages ever end, and if so is there a date for this?

A 9. This part of history is kept away from the general public, although all the information can be found in the libraries. The Dark Ages ended in the 15th century when the Medici family in Florence, Italy decided to translate the ancient books of Plotinus and Hermes Trismegistus, as well as Plato's works, into Latin. This ushered in the Age of the Renaissance and ended the Dark Ages.

 

Q 10. If you believe that there is a link between Tutankhamun and Jesus, and this proves to be correct, what do you see as the effect on the centuries-old doctrine of Christianity when it is proven to be false?              Adnan

A 10. The doctrine of Christianity is not false. It is a matter of evolution. Do you think that Darwin's theories of evolution can really destroy the Christian message? It only takes a different, more modern understanding. The new knowledge will revive the Christian message of salvation and will offer real spiritual satisfaction for all people of our modern age.

 

Q 11. This is stupid. Our pastor would not tell us things that are not factual and why are you suggesting a change of the image of Jesus, which we love and adore, to an Egyptian? In any case it's not possible for so many people to believe in this nonsense.

A 11. I forgive you for your "stupid" remark. Your pastor is not a historian or a scientist, he is a man of belief and theology. Truth, for him, does not have to be factual. What is the image of Jesus that you love and adore? Christ has many images made by different people over the last 15 centuries. Christ of faith will always be the same, but if Jesus of history was found to have a different image than what we have known, why do you think this would be "nonsense"?

 

Q 12. Interesting stuff. Never heard of Sarapis! Why isn't this material distributed more widely and how do I get more of it. The bottom line is what happens if folks find out they've been lied to and believed in something that is untrue? It's like an upheaval of a lifetime belief on a deep emotional level - almost a psychic holocaust!               Manuel Goldstein

A.12. Serapis was the last form of the Isis-Osiris cult, established by the Ptolemies in Alexandria in the 4th century BC. Gnostic Christianity started in the temple of Serapis. You can read more about this material in my four books: Stranger in the Valley of the Kings, Moses Pharaoh of Egypt, The House of the Messiah, and Out of Egypt. It is not about believing in something that's untrue, it is about growing up. Man, and woman, have come to a different stage of their evolution on both physical and mental terms. Now is the time for us to know more. This is not going to contradict, it is going to develop and confirm.

 

Q 13. Some of your articles make good sense and others little sense at all. I want to know more about Joseph/Yuya. What are the facts scientifically to connect the mummy with the real person. Have you DNA tests to close the link or other data? How do I get into a chat room about this?

A 13. The Egyptian authorities refused my demand for DNA tests on Yuya's mummy. You can get all my arguments regarding the identification of Yuya as Joseph the Patriarch from my first book Stranger in the Valley of the Kings.

 

Q 14. In your introductory article you suggest that the name Tutankhamun, Osiris, Hermes and Serapis are all the same person and that Jesus is simply another - later - name for that person. Please elaborate in terms of historical/cultural time lines.     Ruth

A 14. Tut-ankh-amun, who was born as Tut-ankh-aten, i.e. The Living Image of Aton (Adonai - The Lord), was the historical Messiah. He was the anointed king. As he was buried in the Egyptian mummification method, he was recognized as being Osiris who rose from the dead. Serapis was the latest form of Osiris, who later came to be identified by some as the Christ. The writings of Hermes Trismegistus is an earlier form of Egyptian wisdom, which talks about salvation, knowing God through the knowledge of the self.

 

Q 15. As a scholar and historian what evidence is there to identify Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus in December of year 1 and his crucifixion during the reign of Pontius Pilate? I would think that Roman records exist to clarify this occurrence.

A 15. There is no evidence at all to identify Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. While the Gospel of Matthew makes Jesus' birth sometime before year 4 BC, Luke's Gospel indicates he was born in AD 6. The crucifixion is assumed by the Church to have taken place sometime between AD 34 and AD 36. There is no single contemporary Roman record about these events.

 

Q 16. How has the author's work and discoveries been acknowledged, or refuted, by his Egyptology and Religious colleagues? It seems that this segment offers an opportunity for us neophytes to sit in on some really important dialog here without numbing our minds with replays of old stories! How come he's not published widely?

A 16. Of course my conclusions have not been embraced, although some of my arguments have been accepted by some Egyptologists. For instance, in my third book The House of the Messiah (published in 1993), I suggested that Tutankhamun was killed. Five years later, Bob Brier of Long Island University wrote a whole book about this point, while not even mentioning where the idea originated. Many of these scholars, such as Donald Redford, however, have not attempted to argue my evidence, instead they have decided to deny that Joseph and Moses were real historical characters.

 

Q 17. Dear Mr. Osman. In article seven you draw a very big conclusion regarding the wall painting in the burial chamber. While your works are very compelling do you not think that a subject of such far reaching importance requires more scientific documentation than your interpretation of a picture?

A 17. I have suggested the conclusion, and would certainly like to see a more scientific documentation done by a team of specialized people.

 

Q 18. The Israelites and Egyptians, Jews and Arabs, fighting each other . . . this is nothing but an enormous century old family squabble! Don't you think that the only difference between other warring tribes on earth is that they've a better PR person to sell their story to the masses?                                        Imani

A 18. How else can you explain this hatred which doesn't seem to have any logical sense behind it? How can you explain that at the focal point of the dispute is the fact that two monotheistic peoples are not able to worship together at the same holy ground?

 

Q 19. Granted the churches/religions have been the most horrid perpetuators of barbarism on the planet - and the wealthiest tax sheltered entities. Just how do you think they'll respond if the masses reject their doctrine as false and manipulative? Isn't a cornered beast dangerous? What's a solution that leads to conciliation?                   Jason Dorfman

A 19. Like everything in life, our religious understanding is changing. You might even get the change from within the temples themselves. But first we have to be able to identify our needs before a change can take place.

 

Q 20. Is there a possibility that the most important power broker of the eighteenth dynasty, as well as the protagonist of the monotheism credited to Akhenaten/Moses, was Aye - he and Tiye being the thread that kept the others in pawn play? Is there historical evidence/documentation of the age relationship between Akhenaten and Aye? What is known of Tiye's death?

A 20. No doubt that the man himself, Moses/Akenaten, was able to see the vision of a universal spiritual power on his own. However, Yuya his grandfather, as well as Tiye his mother, must have helped him to establish his individual thinking. Aye came only later when Akhenaten had already established his ideas. Aye, however, was Akhenaten's protector who also stood by Tutankhamun.

 

Q 21. Mr. Osman, I found your article, "Who is Joseph?" very informative. However, at the end, using the Book of Genesis as a reference, you assert: In the Book of Genesis, the last part of the Joseph story states that when Joseph died "they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." One need only to look at the mummy of Yuya, now in the Cairo Museum, to be convinced that this is the mummy of Joseph. The verse you quoted is Genesis 50.26. However, verse 25 tells us that Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place." And in Exodus 13.19 we're told that Moses did just that. "Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath . . ." And then, in Joshua 24.32, Joseph's body finds a final resting place. "And Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem." Given this further Biblical evidence, how could Joseph's mummy be in the Cairo Museum?    Janet Colter

A 21. Dear Janet, You are right about these biblical verses which talk about the removal of Joseph's bones from Egypt to Canaan. However, I believe all these verses were written at a later date and were not part of the original account. Joseph went to Canaan to bury his father Jacob and if he wished to be buried there as well, he would have instructed his people to do so. As you must know the books of the Torah come from two main sources, one of them uses the name of the deity as Yahweh while the other uses the name Elohim. If you look at chapter 13 of Exodus you find that the name of Yahweh is used. However, only in the two verses that mention the removal of Joseph's bones is Elohim used. This indicates that these two verses were not part of the original account, but were added later. The Book of Joshua is now regarded by most biblical scholars as a fiction, and was not part of the original account. Here you find the mention of the burying of Joseph's bones comes even after Joshua himself is said to have died. There is also a story in the Talmud which says that Moses was not able to find Joseph's tomb at the time of the Exodus, so he went out without him.

 

Q 22. I can see how you came to conclusion as far as the pictorial representation of the father, son, and spirit, but how does King Tut's re-establishment of polytheism correspond with Jesus' teachings?     Shane Henderson

A 22. Dear Shane, Both Akhenaten and Moses spoke of God the creator, who gives life. Neither of them spoke about death or life after death. The God of both Akhenaten and Moses, was separated away above ordinary human beings. By restoring the Osiris underword into the cult of Aten, Tutankhamun turned Aten into the God of both life and death, light and darkness. By connecting Father, Son, and Spirit, in one union, he related ordinary man to God in heaven. It is the Ka of everyone of us, which is part of the heavenly spirit. These were the teacing of both Tutankhamun and Jesus Christ.

 

Q 23. What about similarities Yuya and (Huy/Huya) Amonhotep son of Hapu? Isn't it one and the same person? Is the viceroy of Nubia (Amonhotep Huy) under Tutanchamun not the same person as Ay (sun of YuYa I firmely believe)? Is Aper-El in fact Ay who's remains have never been found. Questions I will answer in further notes (in preparation).     Benno

A 23. Answer from Biblical Scholar: Charles Pope . http://www.domainofman.com       I think Ahmed would agree that there is sufficient archeaological information to identify all of these persons as unique. In Part II of my book, I will show that Amenhotep son of Hapu was one of Aye's biggest critics and was in turn persecuted by Aye. Also, I will be able to identify Aper-el as a son of Aanen. They were both prominent figures at the city of Akhet-aten, however names such as Aper-el and Aanen were not "kosher" there. Aper-el contains the god El and Aanen is a varient of Amen. Therefore, they both were required to use psuedonyms at Akhet-aten. Aanen was called Mery-re ("beloved of Re") and Aper-el (as an extension of his father) was also called Mery-re (II).

 

Q 24.  There is a phrase in a Bible (the Old Testament) about the era in Egypt when a black sticky liquid has come down from the sky. Another old record on the papyrus paper, called Papyrus IPUWA, describes it like a swelling on the skin of people or an animal. What substance does this phrase indicate. According to Dr. Velikovsky (Russian scientist), the substance was naphtha. I think it might be a pitch or radium. An archaeologist claimed that he found an ancient tomb covered with the dust of radioactivity in a pyramid of Sakkara. Azumi Takeda, Tokyo

A 24. Answer from Biblical Scholar: Charles Pope . http://www.domainofman.com   Egyptologist Hans Goedicke proposed that the plague of boils in the Exodus account was caused as follows: "Infestation of flies and mosquitoes, which bred in the rotting carcasses and swamps, infected both humans and livestock with diseases that caused skin eruptions (boils)." Quoted from Ronald Schiller, "Distant Secrets," p 130.  Goedicke also proposed that the Exodus was a human reaction to the fallout of the volcanic eruption of Thera in the Mediterranean. In this theory, all regions downwind of the eruption would have been covered with caustic black soot, including Lower Egypt. In my model, Noah's Flood is associated with the eruption of Thera. See Chart 5 for the chronology. See Chapter 4 of my book for Noah's Flood. The Exodus is discussed in Chapters 8 & 16. Also, I have heard that the floor of Tut's tomb was covered with a rare metal called Antimony.

 

Q 25. I've read your book, The House of the Messiah and I ask myself if the Hebrew people were an integrated part of the Egyptian empire territory with a different culture and language. Is the worship to Jeovah for the Egyptians older than the Aton worship? Now I am reading Sinuhe the Egyptian by Mika Waltary. It is this history based on an old translated egiptian text? Up to what point is faithful to said translation?        Quini Quintero, Espana

A 25. Dear Quini, At the time of the 18 Dynasty, during the 15th century BC, the Hebrew tribes were semi-nomadic groups moving in Canaan and Egypt. Although they were part of the population under Egyptian control, they had no separate political entity. The Israelites are only one of the many Hebrew tribes. Their historical importance came as a result of their association with the Pharaonic royal palace of Egypt, first through Joseph, then through Moses. Jehova was an older god than Aten of Amarna, who was worshipped in Canaan and Sinai. The Mika Waltary story is a fiction, although it relied on different historical details.

 

Q 26. Dear Mr. Osman, I have created a news group dedicted solely to examining similarities between the wall scenes at Luxor in the Birth Room and the infancy narratives in the Christian Bible. I'm assuming that you've seen the scenes at Luxor and was wondering if you could comment in general on the parallels?       Joseph Wallack

A 26. Dear Joseph, the Luxor scenes, which are also found in the temple of Hatshebsut, represent the holy birth of an Egyptian pharaoh. It is very much similar to the Christian idea of the immaculate conception of Christ. However, while the Egyptian had a human father as well as a deity to beget the child, the Christian theology dismissed the human father regarding Mary as a virgin.

 

Q 27. You also state: "Ernest Sellin, a German biblical scholar, had found textual evidence to suggest that an Israelite leader was murdered in Sinai". What textual evidence do you refer to?

A 27. The Book of Numbers 25:6-8.

 

Q 29. What evidence do you have to support Tut being murdered?

A 29. The medical report by Professor R. G. Harrison and Professor A.B. Abdalla in 1968 shows that the head and neck of Tut's mummy were separated from the rest of the body and that the limbs were broken in many places as well as detached from the body. The right and left arms had been broken at the elbow and the left leg broken at the knee. The heads of the right humerus and both femora had been broken off the remains of the bone. The head and neck had been distracted from the torso between the seventh cervical and first thoracic vertebrae. It was evident from his remains that Tutankhamun must have been exposed to severe physical torture, then hanged.

 

Q 30. There is evidence that Akhenaten is the Pharaoh who died when 'Dahamunzu' wrote her famous letter to the Hittites. If you read the Deeds of Suppiluliuma and the Amarna archives (esp. EA 170), it becomes obvious that Tut's widow Ankhesenamun can't be 'Dahamunzu' - meaning Akhenaten is most likely the Pharaoh who died while the Hittites were attacking Amqa. Therefore- it is unlikely that Akhenaten was ever in exile.       Barbara Bajus.

A 30. Dear Barbara, The majority of scholars believe that Dahamunzu is Tut's wife.