As a reminder, for the next week, I am reducing my blog output as I work on reviewing Graham Hancock’s America Before. Last week, The Daily Star, ran a piece (picked up within hours by Sputnik) about ancient Egypt alleging that a lost book contains all of the secrets of the pyramids. The claim comes from Matt Sibson, the blogger and YouTuber whom we met last year when he alleged that the hoax Zeno map was actually an antediluvian chart of Atlantis. In his latest brain dropping, he misunderstood his sources and mangled yet another effort to understand ancient history, this time the Great Pyramid of Giza: After building the structures, Khufu was said to go on to “write a sacred book” which later came into the possession of Manetho – an Egyptian priest and scholar. […] Manetho also said that Suphis wrote a Sacred Book, which Manetho then came to be in possession of. But, as Matt revealed, there is "no mention" of this book in any later works "and it seems to have disappeared from history". The reference in question is not actually from Manetho, at least not directly. Instead, it is found in George Syncellus’s ninth century discussion of Sextus Julius Africanus’s third century summary of Manetho’s account of Egyptian history. Syncellus quotes Africanus as follows: Suphis [I], for 63 years. He reared the Great Pyramid, which Herodotus says was built by Cheops. Suphis conceived a contempt for the gods: he also composed the Sacred Book, which I acquired in my visit to Egypt because of its high renown. (trans. W. G. Waddell) A second version of the passage exists, recorded by Eusebius in the section of his fourth-century Chronicle that survives only in Armenian. Syncellus preserved this passage in Eusebius’ original Greek: Of these the third was Suphis, the builder of the Great Pyramid, which Herodotus says was built by Cheops. Suphis conceived a contempt for the gods, but repenting of this, he composed the Sacred Book, which the Egyptians hold in high esteem. (trans. Waddell) Sibson is obviously relying on the second version, but while Eusebius lived four centuries before Syncellus, it was Syncellus who quoted Africanus more accurately. Eusebius, working from different copies, minimized Africanus’s personal details, but we know—ironically from Eusebius himself (Church History 6.31.2) that Africanus did indeed travel to Egypt to study with the Bishop of Alexandria. (Wikipedia similarly misreads Africanus to claim Manetho bought the book, though an Egyptian priest obviously did not need to visit Egypt.) While Eusebius ran the two thoughts together and tried to connect them with a Christian-style repentance narrative, there is no indication in the more accurate version that Manetho attributed a sacred book to Khufu. A plain reading is that Africanus described his own experience in Egypt on his own authority.
Africanus tells us that he purchased a book written by Suphis, Manetho’s name for Khufu, which the Egyptians of the third century held in high esteem. What Sibson fails to note is that books like this are not suppressed, forgotten, or otherwise hidden to protect pyramid secrets. By the Late Period of Egypt, Khufu was seen as a magical figure, whose name served a talismanic function. In the wisdom-literature of the Hellenistic and Late Antique periods, Khufu’s name was attached to magical texts much the way alchemical books bore the fictitious ascription to Hermes Trismegistus. Africanus almost certainly described picking up one of these books passing under Khufu’s name, which he likely mistook for a genuinely ancient Egyptian text, just as his contemporaries mistook Hermetic books for antediluvian lore.
26 Comments
MrAchilles
3/30/2019 11:01:58 am
Let's take a look at the sarcophagus of Khufu, where traces of drills have been found, with a diameter of 11 cm
Reply
Kent
3/30/2019 11:12:17 am
It's not clear what point you are trying to make.
Reply
Doc Rock
3/30/2019 11:43:26 am
Preemptive strike.
Kent
3/30/2019 01:40:59 pm
It's not clear what point you are trying to make.
Doc Rock
3/30/2019 01:58:02 pm
Many times when a reference is made to the pyramid there ensues a flurry of conversation about its age and the technology involved in its construction. I would assume that this is an instance of someone getting their shot in early.
Kent
3/30/2019 03:24:57 pm
Ah. Thanks.
MrAchilles
3/31/2019 05:38:36 am
I had a dispute with someone who claimed that Egyptians couldn't possibly make granite sarcophagi, so I made this, posted it here and sent him the link. Although you are right, perhaps I should have clarify this since the beginning.
Kent
3/31/2019 07:49:58 am
Surely that's going the long way around?
Hugh's Poo
3/30/2019 11:52:51 am
Best post ever. Incredible information. Just unreal how good this is.
Reply
Otis Broth
3/30/2019 03:10:01 pm
Hugh is probably the person who can explain the three missing pages from the book. Put to good use during one of his daring globe-trotting excretory missions no doubt?
Reply
prospero45
3/30/2019 12:12:39 pm
The operative words here may be 'Daily' and 'Star'. This is not a good newspaper. In fact, here in the UK it is seen as a joke.If you are not interested in reality tv shows and soaps, horoscopes or bare breasted beauties it has little to offer. Its impossible to imagine this piece being run under any reputable editor.
Reply
Accumulated Wisdom
3/30/2019 03:19:02 pm
"Suphis"...Does this have anything to do with "Sophia"... AKA...Wisdom??? Many Fringe writers like to play word similarity games.
Reply
Poodleshooter
3/30/2019 03:31:42 pm
Like Newgrange, the Newport Tower, the Hooked X....
Reply
Accumulated Wisdom
3/30/2019 08:59:24 pm
There are at least two Trademarked symbols carved into the white quartz of NewGrange. I didn't do it!
Matt
3/31/2019 02:54:48 am
How can 100 Billion people over hundreds of thousands of years possibly ever arrange three lines in the same pattern! WHY? WHY!
Doc Rock
3/31/2019 12:35:09 pm
Once in a while I would get a student in class whose first or last name started with O who would turn the O into a smiley face when submitting written work. Would imagine that this happens anywhere where people use a letter O. I can't help but think that two thousand years from now, someone will come across examples of this and then start expounding on the ancient secret global smiley face cult and then get upset when people suggest that it is JUST A FRIGGIN SMILEY FACE!!
The Black Hood
3/31/2019 01:20:09 pm
Smiley...face
Accumulated Wisdom
3/31/2019 03:55:04 pm
Doc Roc,
Kent
3/31/2019 04:17:22 pm
"structures designed to capture the light of both the Sun, and Venus on this particular day"
Doc Rock
3/31/2019 04:18:11 pm
An important first step in getting into WHY a pattern exists is to establish that one actually exists. Call me close-minded but I'm not really interested in self-published research by non-specialists that plays the "this here kinda looks like that over there so they are clearly connected" game. Or, "if you squat down and squint your eyes at dusk you can see briefly see something that kind of looks like an X at this spot." Sorry.
Kent
3/31/2019 04:29:43 pm
I have pointed out repeatedly that Mr. Wisdom sees things that other people do not see. I apply the same ruler to his claim to have read 2 to 5 books a day every day for 42 years because he so rarely remembers any of them.
Accumulated Wisdom
3/31/2019 09:26:26 pm
"Uriel's Machine" Knight, Lomas
Kent
4/1/2019 07:27:51 am
EXACTLY!!! If you think people take your posts here seriously that's another example of your pareideolia.
Accumulated Wisdom
4/1/2019 09:56:21 pm
"danKENT
Kent
4/2/2019 06:49:33 am
""EXACTLY!!! If you think people take your posts here seriously that's another example of your pareideolia."
Accumulated Wisdom
4/3/2019 11:16:46 am
Second place in the spelling bee. Well that sucks. You should have read "Dictionary" by Webster. The illustrated version is really cool. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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