Only Death Will Divide


Book Description

Peace in the elegant market town of Adley is shattered by a series of gruesome attacks on police officers and Detective Inspector Donald Crossfield and his team are called into action once again to try to stop the trail of bloodshed. When the girfriend of a member of the team becomes the prime suspect the investigation uncovers dark secrets which lead Crossfield and his team into yet more danger and towards horrific revelation of the truth.







Octateuch: The Original Orit


Book Description

In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. The original version, published circa 250 BC, only included the Torah, or in Greek terms, the Pentateuch. The Torah is the five books traditionally credited to Moses, circa 1500 BC: Cosmic Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The first edition was followed by the second, around 225 BC which added the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, which was later known as the Octateuch. This version of the Septuagint was later carried south into the Kingdom of Kush by the Jews fleeing Egypt in 200 BC when Judea was in revolt and the Ptolemys attempted to exterminate the Jews in Egypt. The Octateuch later became the Torah of the Beta Israel community in Sudan and Ethiopia known as the Orit. A number of stories exist to explain the origin of the Beta Israel community, the 'Ethiopian Jews' indigenous to Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. The recorded story of the origin of the Ethiopian Jews was reported by Eldad ha-Dani in the late 800s AD. Eldad ha-Dani was a dark-skinned Jew from a country south of Kush, modern northern Sudan, who was captured by pagan Ethiopians, and ultimately sold on the coast of what might be modern Kenya or Tanzania, to a Jew from the Parthian Empire, who took him back to modern Iran. He later traveled through the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea. He claimed that he was from a country of Jews, south of Kush, who were the descendants of the tribes of Dan, Gad, Naphtali, and Asher, who had left Israel during the civil war that split the Kingdom into Judea and Samaria. Modern secular scholars doubt there was a united kingdom of Israel, however, if the civil war did happen, it would have happened in 922 BC when Jeroboam I and Rehoboam split the kingdom of Solomon. If true, this would make the Ethiopian Jews neither Jews, nor Samaritans, but a third branch of the Judeo-Samaritan religions, and arguably, older than the others. The Christian text Kebra Nagast claims that Judaism entered into Ethiopia slightly earlier when the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba traveled to Israel and was impregnated by King Solomon. Her son Menelik I led a group of Jews to Ethiopia when he stole the Ark of the Covenant. Other than the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, few consider the Kebra Nagast historically valid. Some members of the Beta Israel community claim the Ethiopian Jews were originally members of the Jewish tribes led by Moses that chose not to enter into Canaan with Joshua, and instead traveled south and settled in the land of Moses' Ethiopian wife, mentioned in Numbers chapter 12. A third story of the origin of the Ethiopian Jews, took place shortly after the Greeks had taken control over Egypt and Judea, when King Ptolemy I resettled Judeans in southern Nubia. This would have taken place between 305 and 282 BC, and later the Jews migrated south for various reasons. However they ended up in Ethiopia, they have traditionally used a variation of the Octateuch, which they call the Orit. The Octateuch is documented as being the version of the Septuagint that was published around 225 BC. Like the Ethiopian Christian Bible, the Orit appears to have had sections 'updated' from Hebrew and Arabic sources over the past two thousand years. Octateuch: The Original Orit is a 21st-century translation aimed at restoring the original Orit.




The Quest for the Crown of Thorns


Book Description

AD 454. Three years after the Roman victory over Attila the Hun at Catalaunum, Arria Felix and Garic the Frank are married and enjoying life on Garic’s farm in northern Gaul (France). Their happy life is interrupted when a cryptic message arrives from Arria’s father, the esteemed Senator Felix, calling them to Rome. At Arria’s insistence, but against Garic’s better judgment, they leave at once. On their arrival at Villa Solis, they are confronted with a brutal murder and a dangerous mission. The fate of a profound and sacred object—Christ’s Crown of Thorns—rests in their hands. They must carry the holy relic to the safety of Constantinople, away from a corrupt emperor and old enemies determined to steal it for their own gain. But a greater force arises against them—a secret cult who will commit any atrocity to capture the Crown. All the while, the gruesome murder and the conspiracy behind it haunt Arria’s thoughts. Arria and Garic’s marital bonds are tested but forged as they partner together to fulfill one of history’s most challenging missions, The Quest for the Crown of Thorns.




Septuagint: Judges and Ruth


Book Description

The Book of Judges is very old, and the Song of Deborah may be the oldest surviving piece of Israelite literature. It uses some of the most archaic forms of Hebrew, and was likely composed in Canaanite before Hebrew became a defined dialect as this issue of dialect was part of the division between the Israelites during the battle between the Gileadites, east of the Jordan, and the Ephraimites from west of the Jordan. There is evidence that the book was either assembled or redacted in the Kingdom of Samaria. The region of the book also generally corresponds with the territory of the northern kingdom, both the region that had once been under Egyptian authority west of the Jordan, and the region east of the Jordan which had generally been independent of Egypt. The synchronizations between the Book of Judges and the records of Egypt are far too many to be overlooked or ignored. As almost all denominations of Christians and Jews agree that King Saul established his kingdom in 1037 BC, and the Septuagint's version of Judges includes 460 years of the land being ruled by Judges, or foreign kings, followed by an era of chaos when there was no king, the latest possible date the Exodus could have taken place was the 1500s BC, which supports the idea that the 10 plagues of Egypt were descriptions of the fallout and effects of the Minoan eruption which Egyptologists date to 1550 BC. According to Judges, 42 years later the Israelites invaded Samaria, (northern modern Israel and the Palestinian West Bank) under the leadership of Joshua, which would have been 1508 BC. The plan was already laid out in the Book of Joshua to occupy the entire land of Canaan, yet just three years later, when Joshua was 85 years old, the Israelites stopped their campaign, after having only occupied the cities in Samaria, this would have been in 1505 BC. The reason they stopped their invasion is not given, however, Egyptian records do explain it, as in the same year, 1505 BC, Pharaoh Thutmose I marched his army through Canaan to reconquer it for the Egyptian Empire. It had previously been under the control of the Hyksos Dynasty whose empire collapsed in the aftermath of the Minoan eruption. In 1550 BC, the Hyksos capital fell to the rival southern dynasty of Pharaoh Ahmose I, and the Hyksos retreated to their fortress of Sharuhen, near modern Gaza in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. This suggests the Hyksos maintained control over Canaan until Sharuhen fell to Ahmose I in 1540 BC. Ahmose I led an invasion of southern Canaan a few years later in an attempt to root out any remaining Hyksos. Egyptologists are not sure when this campaign was, placing it sometime between 1537 and 1527 BC. This campaign is not believed to have reached farther north than Byblos, in modern Lebanon, and did not result in any long-term political control over Canaan. Ahmose I's main goal seems to have been to destroy any remaining Hyksos in the region to ensure they did not try to recapture Egypt.




Septuagint: Ruth


Book Description

The book of Ruth appears to be part of a Samaritan story designed to splice the Moabites into the royal genealogy. The Book of Deuteronomy, which was likely written in Samaria, uses Moabite names of locations instead of Judahite names, indicating that a Moabite priesthood was active in Samaria before the kingdom fell to the Assyrians. The Book of Judges refers to King Abimelech as the bastard son of Gideon by a prostitute, which speaks volumes about his memory, however, he was an Ephrathite, as was the Abimelech in the Book of Ruth, indicating that he could not have been viewed that badly a century after his death, when Ruth’s father in law would have been born. Ruth, the step-daughter of Abimelech in the Book of Ruth, ultimately became an ancestor of King David, meaning it is possible that some Israelites were connecting the two Abimelechs in the Second Temple era, claiming that David was a descendant of King Abimelech. The setting of the Ruth is the lands of Judah and Moab in the early-1000s BC, when the Book of Judges claimed there was no king. The last judge under the Pelesets in the books of Judges was Samson's father Manoah, who ruled until 1090 BC when the Peleset Kingdom apparently collapsed. This was just over a decade before the collapse of the Egyptian New Kingdom in 1077 BC, which began the Third Intermediate Period, when Egyptian records became sparse. This collapse of civilization in Canaan and Egypt was mirrored by collapses across the Mediterranean, sparking what the Greeks would later call the Dark Age. This Dark Age is not in doubt, however, is poorly understood due to the sparse records from the era. The story would have taken place around the same era as the Benjaminite genocide in the Book of Judges, which is likely the reason the book of Ruth was placed directly behind the book of Judges in the Septuagint. It is not clear when the Book of Ruth was written, however, it is not generally considered to date back to the era it is set in. Based on the connection between the Book of Ruth and King David, it seems likely that the book was written no earlier than the era of King David, however, the book is generally dated to the time of Ezra the Scribe circa 350 BC. It is generally interpreted as an attempt to bridge the older books of Joshua and Judges with the newer books of the Kingdoms (Masoretic Samuel and Kings), which are generally accepted as having been compiled during the time of Ezra the scribe.




The Dark-Hunters, Books 13-15


Book Description

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon has entertained millions of readers with her extraordinary Dark-Hunter series. With over 40 million copies of her books in print, Kenyon was dubbed "the reigning queen of the wildly successful paranormal scene" by Publishers Weekly. Here together for the first time in a fabulous eBook bundle are her popular Dark-Hunter novels: Dream Chaser Simone isn't as human as she appears and Xypher has been granted one chance to live again. It was bad enough when just the dead relied in her. Now Xypher needs Simone to open a portal to hell. And you thought you had bad days... Acheron Great heroes aren't born... they are forged. For centuries, Acheron has guarded the secrets of his birth that could destroy the world. Now a human woman threatens to expose him and will stop at nothing to do so. One Silent Night The deadliest Daimon, Stryker, has finally met his match. Only this isn't a Dark-Hunter who stands in his way. It's a woman so evil, she makes Stryker look nice.




One Silent Night


Book Description

In this Dark-Hunter series installment, Stryker prepares to annihilate the Dark-Hunters but things go awry when his ex-wife Zephyra returns.




Septuagint: History, Volume 1


Book Description

In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Israelite scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. This translation later became known as the Septuagint, based on the description of the translation by seventy translators in the Letter of Aristeas. The History section of the Septuagint contained the books that told the history of the Israelite and Judahites from Joshua's conquest of Canaan circa 1500 BC, until the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty in Judea, in 140 BC. Septuagint: History, Volume 1, is composed of modern, non-theological translations of the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and the four books of the Kingdoms, which spanned 1504 BC to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Most of the era is not well documented in the historic records of Canaan, however, some limited correlations are found in the Amarna Letters, which are cuneiform correspondences between the Egyptian government and various officials in Canaan and Mesopotamia. By the final book, 4th Kingdoms, the historic records of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Babylonians confirm the general history recorded in the book, although the theological interpretation is unique to the Judahites of the era. The Septuagint's translation differs significantly from the later Masoretic version of the books, as it uses a different dating for the events, such as Joshua's invasion of Canaan just before 1500 BC, as opposed to the 1200s or 1300s BC, depending on interpretations of the Masoretic texts and the Talmud. The Septuagint's dating correlates significantly with the dating of major Egyptian events according to Egyptologists. It is unclear if the Septuagint's dating was altered by the translators in Alexandria to correlate with Egyptian history, however, that seems unlikely as the Greek historians 2200 years ago do not seem to have had any records of the era of Akhenaten, when Aten became the dominant god of Egypt, yet, the prophetess Deborah sang a song to Aten during the same era, in the book of Judges. As the Septuagint was based on the once common Aramaic version of the books, and not the priestly Judahite version, it is likely that the dating in the Septuagint is a more accurate reflection of the histories, as both Judahite version of the books appear to have been edited by astrologers at some point, which is generally acknowledged by historians to have ruined any historical value to the texts. The consensus is that the astrological edits must have happened fairly late, likely in the Hasmonean Dynasty, which also produced the first official 'Hebrew' translation of the older Judahite version of the texts. One of the complaints the Romans had regarding the Judeans of the Hasmonean dynasty is that they were astrology to confuse the weak minded, which supports the concept that they made the astrological edits when they created the 'Hebrew' language translations. This altered timeline continued into the Talmud, and is known as "Rabbinical History," however, it not taken seriously by historians.




Septuagint: History


Book Description

In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Israelite scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. This translation later became known as the Septuagint, based on the description of the translation by seventy translators in the Letter of Aristeas. By 132 BC, the Septuagint included all the books later adopted by the Byzantine Orthodox church as the Old Testament section of the Christian Bible. Some of these books were rejected by the Hebrew translators during the Hasmonean Dynasty of Judea, and never formed part of the Masoretic text. The Septuagint of 132 BC, included four sections: the Torah, History, Wisdom, and Prophets sections. The History section includes the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kingdoms, Paralipomena, Ezra, Tobit, Judith, Esther, and Maccabees. One of the problems with academic translations of the Septuagint, is the use of unfamiliar names or terms, as the Septuagint was written in Greek, and therefore many names are unrecognizable to modern readers who are used to Hebrew-derived names. This project uses the more commonly understood Hebrew-derived names instead of their Greek translations, such as Canaan instead of Chanaan, and Melchizedek instead of Melchisedec. Common modern names are also used instead of either Greek or Hebrew terms when geographical locations are known, such as the archaeological name Uruk instead of the Greek Orech, or the Hebrew Erech, and the archaeological term Sumer instead of Shinar or Senar. While this could be argued as not being a correct academic procedure, it does fulfill the goal of making the translation easy to read and understand.