Dr James Tabor, a high profile scholar at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has released an expanded version of his book Restoring Abrahamic Faith. He describes this third edition as a personal manifesto. Tabor's earlier bestseller, The Jesus Dynasty, proved controversial in 2006.Restoring has a narrower marketing focus. The 170 page quality paperback has been published under Dr Tabor's imprint Genesis 2000. A fairly substantial review is planned for January.
Some readers will be surprised that Tabor, who once taught at Ambassador College, expresses continuing regard for historical reconstructions that mesh with British-Israelism:
... history shows that the bulk of these tribes migrated northwest into Europe, and did finally fulfill the promises that were made to the two sons of Joseph - Ephraim and Manasseh, about unprecedented national greatness (Genesis 48:4-20.)
This is, however, only a small part of the book's argument, which includes a call to refocus biblical faith on "core" passages in the Hebrew Bible, and embrace a thoroughly human understanding of Jesus. This seems to be, essentially, a Noahide perspective, a movement Dr Tabor has identified with. More detail will be available in the review, but for those who don't want to wait, information about Restoring Abrahamic Faith, including how to order a copy, is available at the Genesis 2000 website.
12 comments:
tabor, !!!! ????,
aside, I love the above site and its depth research.
lnrd.
"... history shows that the bulk of these tribes migrated northwest into Europe" (Tabor)
History shows no such thing!
Ned
Ned? Flanders? Of Simpsons fame?
Ned --
It's in Hoeh's Improbable History...
I always liked James in the wayback and certainly now. Everyone is entitled to the conclusions they draw in the topics that interest them. They can always change with new information.
James, in his books, always expresses a certain wonder at being in the locations where this or that "happened." It is a strong pull on the mind. Working for any time in Israel can do that to any historian, archaeologist or student along for the ride. It certainly gets the funadamentalists in a twitter as they march down the "very streets" where Jesus walked (now 30 feet below them).
Sitting with history, real or imagined is a very powerful thing to me. Touching what significant others have touched or you think they touched in times past is a real rush. Somehow it can ground a person in the fact that we're just a part of history.
Standing at the top of a pyramid in the Yucatan would probably overwhelm me.
Whenever I find a flint point, scraper or celt in the dirt along a river or in a plowed field, it's magic. I found a nice artifact in the river just down from Mainstreet in Greenville while thousands of people milled around. What a rip.
I first spot it, then say "hello there." I usually sit down in the dirt next to it. Look at it and then finally pick it up knowing I'm probably the first person to do so since the last person dropped it thousands of years ago. It's a connection from difficult times to distant times.
While I have my archaeological and historical doubts, thinking this is the very tomb of Jesus, or his ossuary or the very cave where John the Baptist did this or that, is a rip.
There is nothing like finding a piece of history in the ground that knows it's past and dares you to figure it out.
Any piece of "jewelry" I wear is thousands of years old and already spent a lifetime in someone elses possession. Very grounding and settling experience.
James Tabor I understand. I wish he had dragged me by the nose out of those freshmen bible classes to follow him in his career.
Still flogging British Israelism ? That brings him down to the Dankenbring level . What a Neanderthal.
It would appear that this British Israelism is so systemic and so pervasive that one never knows when it is going to be popping up, or who might be espousing it.
Can James Tabor furnish some information which I've never been able to find elsewhere? The actual pre-European history of the Germanic tribes, solidly documented?
Can he also explain the dilution factor? What percentage of pure Anglo Saxon blood, as an example, would one require in order to be considered a Manassehite, or Ephraimite Israelite today? Or, are we talking about "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" here? Why is British Royalty related to German Royalty? Does Dr. Tabor also consider the Germans to be Assyrians?
The Noahide element makes better sense than the Judaizing brand of Christianity preached by the pick and choose legalists, but not as much sense as the transformed circumcised heart taught by traditional Christianity.
BB
"History shows no such thing!"
Well, if you consider Worldly History and their insistence on such worldly concepts as "evidence," then yes, Worldly History shows no such thing. But we are not to be a part of this world, including it's history and science. God wants us to use Godly History and Godly Science, and so He gave us the Bible. According to the Bible's record of Godly History, it is a fact that the tribes migrated into Europe, just as according to Godly Science, it is a fact that God created the universe in a week.
If you go seeking for Satan-inspired "evidence," you may get more than you bargained for, you may be surprised to learn!
Paul Ray
The tribes migrated northwest into Europe.Humph!!
Europe has no traditions of the ten tribes migrating into its territory.
The COGs continually puff and blow on this theme as though it were an actuality.When challenged to back-up their claims by DNA they crawl back into their caves for a while.
British history relates that Japheth inhabited the isles,not the Ten Tribes.The Jews have continously inhabited Palestine since the time of Joshua, and the Levantine DNA profile is miles away from that of the British Isles.Yet,the COGs just KNOW that Britain is Ephraim.I am waiting for the COGs to quote the Bible verse that shows Ephraim was going to become the British peoples.This nonsense about Berith-Ish is simply not admissible.There are many other interpretations of the word,
We invite COGS to come forward with proof that Israel populated Western Europe.
People,we are looking for a decent Middle Eastern signature in the British DNA but it just ain't there.
In the Male(Y-DNA) we are looking for meaningful J and E haplotype input but they don't appear in the UK average.
Johannes
Ned, the history cited is Hoeh's Improbable History, as told by Peabody and Herman.
history shows that the bulk of these tribes migrated northwest into Europe
Not any history I ever read shows that.
Has anyone considered the possibility that the blessing/prophecy of Ephraim and Manasseh is just plain old ordinary failed Jewish prophecy?
It is by far not the only failed prophecy of the OT.
That all the nations of the world would be blessed by Abraham's seed doesn't seem to fare very well either. whether one thinks this meant Israel or Jesus, it's a failed prophecy.
The BI theory should be called the BS theory. As Johannes points out, the genetic verdict is in and the BI theory failed.
Was Herman Hoeh Peabody's boy?
In the magic mirror, I see Rocky, Bullwinkle, Natasha, and Boris, too.
I feel like I've traveled in the WABAC machine.
"HELP, MISTER WIZARD!"
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