FREE: Donovan Courville’s Defense of the Biblical Dating of the Exodus

Free PDF: Donovan A. Courville, The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications, 2 Vols. (1971)

Gary North – September 24, 2020

 

Donovan Courville was a professor of chemistry. In his spare time, he wrote the most important revisionist book on the dating of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. He defended the Bible’s dating: 15th century, B.C.

He self-published his two-volume book in 1971. It is difficult to locate a copy.

The book was ignored by Egyptologists. This was predictable. Courville promoted a chronological reconstruction along the lines of the one offered by Immanuel Velikovsky in Ages in Chaos. Velikovsky is a pariah for ancient historians. Not for Courville.

. . . . Velikovsky should be credited with the first serious attempt to point out that there is no genuine possibility of arriving at any credible harmony between Old Testament history and current views, and that the solution lies in the direction of a complete reconstruction of the chronology of the ancient world (Vol. 1, p. 128).

Courville went far beyond Velikovsky’s revision. He was a revisionist’s revisionist.

In 1974, I gave a lesson to R. J. Rushdoony’s Sunday morning Bible study, held in Westwood, California. I mentioned the 13th-century dating of exodus. After the meeting, Rushdoony told me to read Courville’s book. I ordered a copy. I read it. I then recorded a revised presentation, which Rushdoony’s tape producer sent to subscribers.

I found his narrative difficult to follow. He was not a well-organized writer. So, I wrote to him. I asked him to write a summary article on Old Testament biblical chronology for The Journal of Christian Reconstruction, which I edited.

He was retired from Loma Linda University. He asked me to drive to Loma Linda for a talk. He was interviewing me. I met with him. In our discussion, he mentioned that he had published the book under the name “Challenge Books.” He said that he was then contacted by a publishing company with that title. He was asked not to use that name. He agreed. He changed his company’s name to Crest Challenge Books. But it was too late. The book never went into a second edition. He never used the new publisher’s name.

He agreed to write the article. I published it in the Summer 1975 issue. It is here.

This week, I paid to have the book scanned and made searchable. I also appended the 1975 article. It is a large file. It may take two minutes to download. Download it here:

The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications

From Gary North, here.

Religious Zealots Have Upon Whom to Rely… RABBI A.Y. KOOK!

Excerpted story:
Rav Kook related the following story one holiday evening in his sukkah. The incident took place in Jaffa, where Rav Kook served as chief rabbi from 1904 to 1914. One Shabbat day, a secular photographer came and disturbed the Sabbath peace in a religious neighborhood. In total disregard for the local religious sensibilities, he set up his tripod and camera in the middle of the street and began taking pictures.
This public desecration of the Sabbath deeply angered the local residents. One man who was particularly incensed by the photographer’s insensitivity took a pail of water and thoroughly soaked the Sabbath-desecrater. Naturally, the photographer was indignant. He was so confident in the justice of his cause that he registered a complaint against the water-douser — at the beit din (religious court) of the rabbi of Jaffa, Rav Kook.
Rav Kook told the photographer, “I see that you fail to understand the severity of desecrating the Sabbath in public, but you should realize that your action was a serious affront to the community. You entered a neighborhood of Sabbath-observers and offended them deeply.
“Of course, the correct course of action for the residents would have been to rebuke you verbally. Perhaps you would have understood the seriousness of your actions and stopped. Had that man consulted with me first, I would have advised him not to throw water on you.
“However, he didn’t ask, but reacted spontaneously. You should know that on occasion, such impulsive reactions are justified. When people disregard societal norms and cross accepted boundaries, regardless of the implications for others, it is often the spontaneous reaction that most effectively prevents future abuse.
“Such an occasion took place when the Israelites were in the desert and Pinchas responded, not accordingly to the normative Halachah, but as a zealot: “Kena’im pogim bo” (‘Zealots punish them’ — Num. 25:6-8; Sanhedrin 82a). If Pinchas had asked beforehand, he would have been instructed not to kill Zimri. But since his act was done sincerely and served to prevent future violations, his zealous deed was approved after the fact.”
Of course, the context is important; see the whole within!

This Is SATIRE. Israeli Pols Would Never Be This Explicit

Cabinet Decides Masks, Distancing Only Apply To ‘Little People’

“Everyone should have grasped long ago that there is a special elite to whom the rules do not apply. It’s actually a little shameful to me that we had to make this explicit after all this time.”

Jerusalem, September 24 – Months of tension and recriminations over persistent accusations that prominent political figures flout the measures that the Ministry of Health has mandated to curtail the spread of COVID-19 have led to an official resolution today, in which the government formalized the distinction between hoi polloi and policymakers: the former must adhere to all restrictions, whereas the latter may dispense with measures that only the unworthy masses must maintain.

The cabinet voted unanimously Thursday morning to draw formal social and legal lines between the political aristocracy and the plebeians, in a move aimed at silencing months of criticism concerning senior political figures seen socializing, meeting, and conducting business without social distancing and without masks, even as police and Ministry of Health personnel imposed fines on citizens failing to adhere to the same public health guidelines.

“Officials at the level of government minister or deputy minister, Member of Knesset, ministry director-general, police commissioner, senior military officers, and direct family relation to any of the above are exempt from Ministry of Health distancing measures,” the cabinet’s post-meeting statement read. “We have decided unanimously that we as public officials cannot perform our official duties of exploiting our positions for special treatment and personal gain if we face the restrictions that the Ministry of Health has imposed on the unwashed masses, and have therefore enshrined that exemption into official policy.”

Cabinet members expressed hope that the formalization of the different statuses will settle the issue once and for all. “It’s really ridiculous that it had to come to this,” lamented Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz. “In our society, everyone should have grasped long ago that there is a special elite to whom the rules do not apply. It’s actually a little shameful to me that we had to make this explicit after all this time.”

Opposition figures voiced cautious praise for the move. “My main criticism is this should have happened way back in March, so we could spare ourselves a lot of useless rhetoric in the meantime,” stated Opposition leader Yair Lapid. “But at least now we can get back to the main reason we’re all here instead of fielding complaints from every little serf out there who saw Joe MK at a wedding without a mask and wants to know why he gets fined if he does the same thing. Well, it’s because you’re a nobody, that’s why. Let’s move on, please.”

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From PreOccupied Territory, here.

How To Easily Alienate Your Chocolate-Loving Readers…

What added value do people find in chocolate bars full of… chocolate M&Ms (“עדשים”)?!

Beitza 16a:

ודייסא נמי לא מלפתא, דאמר רבי זירא הני בבלאי טפשאי דאכלי נהמא בנהמא.

Soncino’s translation:

“And pearl-barley broth too is not used as a relish for R. Zera said: These Babylonians are fools for they eat bread with bread.