Ancient Voices Tell Their Version

Knowing the historical backdrop of Torah can support and enhance religious or secular understanding of this great work. With modern discoveries and critical thinking, it is increasingly urgent to reconcile Bible with history. The author, Stephen Lee Crane, invites the reader to accompany him on an adventurous detective trip to see what’s historically verified in those first five books of the Bible and how to resolve the question of whether history is compatible with the patriarchal story or at odds with it.


We travel down the Bahr Yussef or Canal of Joseph to see first-hand how Joseph changed the prospects for agriculture in Egypt; then look for the Sea of Reeds where pharaoh’s army drowned and come to Lake El Ballah, the lake “Where “God devoured,” part of a shallow saltwater system that Hebrews traversed and observe that wind and tide can expose land before rapidly reversing course.

Through this detective work, we reveal history. Then we seek a reconciliation of actual chronology and scripture – nothing less than a translation of an ancient writing style into something that enhances our understanding of history and inspires our very souls. To do this, we look to what molded the Hebrew soul and why applying that experience to Torah so changed the world. Hence we travel back four millennia to a band of outcasts that made a living on the peripheries of monarchy, accepted escaped slaves, and disdained royal edicts. They figured out how to trade with tyrants and in doing so discovered that morality and moral laws work. They deduced that hundreds of gods do not add up to God. They developed stiff resistance to blather about idols and the natural rights of the powerful. And they chose Divine leadership in it all.