Credits
This author freely admits that the Displaced Dynasties revised chronology was motivated by a single, intangible characteristic of the human spirit, possessed, albeit in small measure, by the current author – FAITH. The faith we speak of here not only includes a belief in the existence of the one true God, who spoke in olden times to the patriarchs of the nation of Israel - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – but also a belief in the historical accuracy of the documents that describe the history of God’s workings with that nation. The author’s faith, accompanied by a good dose of common sense, and some training in the necessary disciplines, convinced him that when the Hebrew Bible described, in seven chapters of the prophetic writings of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, an invasion and desecration of the land of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon around the year 565 B.C., then that incident took place as described. And when 20th and 21st century “scholars” claim that the Hebrew Bible was seriously mistaken, they need to be corrected. This opinion resulted in 10 years of research, which produced the four volumes published online, those which re-write almost the entirety of the history of dynastic Egypt (not to speak of the Empire Hittites).
In this re-writing of history the author utilized a unique research tool, apparently not relied upon by generations of specialists in the disciplines related to biblical research – PRAYER. If God is real, and if prayer does in fact provide access to the mind of this powerful Being, then only a fool would avoid its use. Who else to consult when rewriting history, than the God who was there, who knows the smallest details of what took place, and in fact, participated in events as they transpired, and is willing and able to defend the history of the times as recorded in His Word, the Hebrew Bible. Countless times in the ten years of research the author encountered what seemed to be insurmountable obstacles to his revised chronology. Countless times he prayed earnestly and from nowhere there emerged an “obvious” solution to the problem. This “Displaced Dynasties” chronology would not exist, but for the FAITH that inspired it, and the PRAYER that sustained it. All the credit belongs to God.
Thanks be to God.
Jim Reilly
About the Author
My name is Jim Reilly. I am married to my beautiful wife Sandra and we have three children (Mark, Andrew, and Christa). I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1941 and I now live in Wallaceburg, Ontario, a small town about 200 miles west of Toronto, near the border between Ontario and Michigan.
I trained originally in mathematics and physics (B.Sc. 1964 - University of British Columbia), then in the faculty of education at the same university and on to a teaching career. I left teaching in 1974 to pursue theological training in the United States, spending four years at Dallas Theological Seminary in the Semitics and Old Testament Studies Department (Th.M. 1979). There, besides theology and biblical studies, I studied Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and Akkadian and first became intrigued with the subject of this book. In a Th.M. thesis entitled "The Historicity of Nebuchadnezzar's Invasion of Egypt" I presented an argument in defense of the substantial accuracy of the Hebrew Bible in its references to a devastating invasion and destruction of the whole of Egypt led by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the event occurring around the year 565 B.C. Needless to say this apologetic was made necessary by the insistence of secular historians and Egyptologists, without exception, that this calamitous event did not take place as described, if at all. The Egyptian 26th (Saite) dynasty occupied the time frame when the supposed invasion took place, and the Saite dynasty prospered throughout its duration.
In the years from 1979 through 1989 I pastored churches in both Western and Eastern Canada, almost exclusively on a part-time basis, combined with continued studies at the University of Calgary and McMaster University (M.A. 1985), all in Hebrew Bible but with supplementary course work in Ancient Near Eastern history and middle Egyptian. I resumed teaching in 1989 and retired in January 2006.
In the spring of 1997 I began to re-investigate the theme of Nebuchadnezzar and Egypt with a view to modifying and publishing my Th.M. thesis. Almost immediately I chanced upon an alternative and far more likely solution to the problem. An innocuous comment in a footnote in Immanuel Velikovsky's Ramses II & His Times struck me as significant. A few days of reflection and investigation confirmed my original insight and the essence of the present revision was born. I had recognized that the Saite dynasty was wrongly positioned and needed to be moved. I also knew where it belonged. It took several months to confirm the fact that the 25th Ethiopian dynasty was inextricably linked to the 26th Saite dynasty and would also have to move, and longer still to be convinced that the 22nd through 24th dynasties were part of the misplaced historical sequence. Thus my initial insight that the Saite dynasty was positioned 121 years too early in history and that its dates needed to be lowered by that amount, expanded to include a lowering of dates for almost three hundred years of Egyptian history. Only as research progressed did it become evident that all of Egyptian dynastic history prior to the 26th dynasty would be affected by the initial historical displacement, the size of the error increasing to as much as seven hundred years as the revision moved backward in time. What began as a single book with a very narrow focus expanded to four books revising Egyptian history almost in its entirety. The revision of the completed work is ongoing as we speak, and its expansion to include Babylonian history began in the fall of 2015. To date over eighteen years have been consumed on this "displaced dynasties" project.
As with many "discoveries" in mathematics and the physical sciences, the necessary alterations to Egyptian history involved the reinterpretation of existing data, not the discovery of new facts. It was largely an armchair exercise. Specialist knowledge in history or linguistics or archaeology was not a necessity, though it did come in handy. The required arguments had already been formulated by experts in the multitude of journals and monographs and historical treatises concerned with Egypt, and more recently with Babylonia. Neither is specialist knowledge necessary for the reader to evaluate the arguments which support this historical revision. What is needed is some generalist knowledge of Egyptian dynastic history, the ability to digest and appreciate the significance of a multitude of facts, and a good dose of common sense. Repeatedly the reader is asked to evaluate complicated arguments for himself/herself, rather than leave the issue to specialists who are heavily biased toward maintaining the status quo. Multiple times the refrain will be heard, urging thoughtful and critical evaluation of the argument. "Let the data speak for itself, and LET THE READER DECIDE."
Jim Reilly, March 2016
I trained originally in mathematics and physics (B.Sc. 1964 - University of British Columbia), then in the faculty of education at the same university and on to a teaching career. I left teaching in 1974 to pursue theological training in the United States, spending four years at Dallas Theological Seminary in the Semitics and Old Testament Studies Department (Th.M. 1979). There, besides theology and biblical studies, I studied Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and Akkadian and first became intrigued with the subject of this book. In a Th.M. thesis entitled "The Historicity of Nebuchadnezzar's Invasion of Egypt" I presented an argument in defense of the substantial accuracy of the Hebrew Bible in its references to a devastating invasion and destruction of the whole of Egypt led by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the event occurring around the year 565 B.C. Needless to say this apologetic was made necessary by the insistence of secular historians and Egyptologists, without exception, that this calamitous event did not take place as described, if at all. The Egyptian 26th (Saite) dynasty occupied the time frame when the supposed invasion took place, and the Saite dynasty prospered throughout its duration.
In the years from 1979 through 1989 I pastored churches in both Western and Eastern Canada, almost exclusively on a part-time basis, combined with continued studies at the University of Calgary and McMaster University (M.A. 1985), all in Hebrew Bible but with supplementary course work in Ancient Near Eastern history and middle Egyptian. I resumed teaching in 1989 and retired in January 2006.
In the spring of 1997 I began to re-investigate the theme of Nebuchadnezzar and Egypt with a view to modifying and publishing my Th.M. thesis. Almost immediately I chanced upon an alternative and far more likely solution to the problem. An innocuous comment in a footnote in Immanuel Velikovsky's Ramses II & His Times struck me as significant. A few days of reflection and investigation confirmed my original insight and the essence of the present revision was born. I had recognized that the Saite dynasty was wrongly positioned and needed to be moved. I also knew where it belonged. It took several months to confirm the fact that the 25th Ethiopian dynasty was inextricably linked to the 26th Saite dynasty and would also have to move, and longer still to be convinced that the 22nd through 24th dynasties were part of the misplaced historical sequence. Thus my initial insight that the Saite dynasty was positioned 121 years too early in history and that its dates needed to be lowered by that amount, expanded to include a lowering of dates for almost three hundred years of Egyptian history. Only as research progressed did it become evident that all of Egyptian dynastic history prior to the 26th dynasty would be affected by the initial historical displacement, the size of the error increasing to as much as seven hundred years as the revision moved backward in time. What began as a single book with a very narrow focus expanded to four books revising Egyptian history almost in its entirety. The revision of the completed work is ongoing as we speak, and its expansion to include Babylonian history began in the fall of 2015. To date over eighteen years have been consumed on this "displaced dynasties" project.
As with many "discoveries" in mathematics and the physical sciences, the necessary alterations to Egyptian history involved the reinterpretation of existing data, not the discovery of new facts. It was largely an armchair exercise. Specialist knowledge in history or linguistics or archaeology was not a necessity, though it did come in handy. The required arguments had already been formulated by experts in the multitude of journals and monographs and historical treatises concerned with Egypt, and more recently with Babylonia. Neither is specialist knowledge necessary for the reader to evaluate the arguments which support this historical revision. What is needed is some generalist knowledge of Egyptian dynastic history, the ability to digest and appreciate the significance of a multitude of facts, and a good dose of common sense. Repeatedly the reader is asked to evaluate complicated arguments for himself/herself, rather than leave the issue to specialists who are heavily biased toward maintaining the status quo. Multiple times the refrain will be heard, urging thoughtful and critical evaluation of the argument. "Let the data speak for itself, and LET THE READER DECIDE."
Jim Reilly, March 2016
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