The origins of the Hebrews remains "fragmentary". [14] Other Semitic people destroyed the Sumerians around 1910's BC, The Semitic Amorites and Elamites occupied the Fertile Crescent reaching their peak with Babylon in the days of Hammurabi (1600s BC).

Another Semitic group, the Hurrians (Horites) came down around 2000 BC from the mountainous regions of northeast Mesopotamia, and distributed themselves throughout every region of western Asia. [14]

A nomadic group of BOTH Semitic and non-Semitic people, known as the Habiru, began to appear in the non-farming shepherding regions. They wandered in self-sufficient tribal groups as shepherds, craftsmen, weavers, smiths, and musicians, even hiring themselves as mercenaries or slaves to the cities. Tribal names -- the "twelve tribes" -- are largely mythic, and reveal mongrel roots: These wanderers did not even share a common tongue, and were a mix of Arabs, Jews, and non-Semitic people. Gradually, the name Habiru or Hebrew ceased to be used, anywhere. The tribal names gave way to the name Israelite, as that nation arose in Canaan. [15]

By 1800 BC Palestine and Syria were occupied by city-states with mixed Semitic (Arab, Phonecian, Hyksos, Hebrew) and non-Semitic (Hittite, Horite) people, with regions between them suited to the nomads. Central Palestine was only sporadically settled -- above the plains of the lower Levant, it was ill-suited for agriculture. Abraham settled in this Hill country about 1700 BC. [16] Many Semites are depicted in Egyptian stories and stones from this period corroborating the scenes of the Patriarchal period described in the Bible.

With origins in the Fertile Crescent, a nation emerged in the Levant which is recorded by its own people and corroborated in some ways by archeology. In Cosmogony, Babylonian and Hebrew versions are almost identical. Lists of "Patriarchs" for Babylon, and even Sumeria, showing lengthy rules and ripe ages (Methuselah 969 years), are stylistically identical.

The Gilgamesh Epic passed from the Sumerians to the Babylonians to the Hebrews, with its account of the Arc "filled with the seed of all living creatures" safe against the Flood with which God destroyed the world for its wickedness. [19]

The author acknowledges the fact that monotheism was not present in Ancient Israel. [21] But we do find the presence of a significant "covenant" or agreement written out between men and gods. [21]

There are huge associations between the Hyksos invaders of Egypt starting in 1720 BC during periods of famine and drought, and the Hebiru/Hebrews. The Bible reveals that the Hebrews settled in Goshen in the Delta, the site of the Hyksos capital Avaris/Tanis. [27] Egyptian historians record that a group of Hyksos later founded Jerusalem. [27]

After the Egyptians overthrew the Hyksos, they suppressed reference to their occupation, and may have enslaved the remnants of the invaders. [28] The period after the war of liberation is now known as the Golden Age of the New Kingdom, 1550-1150 BC. {Reference the dramatic introduction of Hyksos musical instruments and crafts, and the immediate blossoming of culture.}

As for the fact that "Egyptian records make no mention of Moses and the Exodus", the author is not troubled by this. First Egyptians never recorded losses in battle, and the Exodus had no significance to the Egyptian court. The prolonged Hyksos rule is not mentioned/ or was suppressed, until after they were expelled. [30]

The author claims that the 40 year struggle in the Sinai was the forge which created Israel. [31] He gives Moses great credit, but recognizes the fact that the career assigned to Joshua is largely "myth". The archeology disproves the possibility of a conquest of Canaan. Rather, the excavations indicate a series of places destroyed, occupied, sometimes retaken and rebuilt by Canaanites, only to change hands again. [43-44]. Recent evidence indicates the Canaanite civilization was extensive, advanced, and clearly superior to its invaders. [45] Israel adopted the Canaanite alphabet and language -- the Bible calls Hebrew "the tongue of Canaan". Isaiah 19:18. [45]

Significantly, the Canaanite worship of a rain-god, Baal and his sister Anath, the godess of fertility and war, was characterized by sexual rites. [47] Heroes such as Saul and David gave their children names which included the element "Baal". [49]

About 1175 BC Aegean peoples were driven from their homes on Crete and Asia Minor by northern invaders. They gained a foothold on the Palestinian coast. These "sea peoples" as the Egyptians called them, had advanced military and political organizations, although they were few in number. The name "Palestine" derives from them by way of the Latinized Greek word, eventually imposed by the roman conquerors of Judah a thousand years later. [53]

The Philistine drive inland against them was what united the Israelites behind Saul, as the first King to centralize his authority over the Siniatic Semitic covenantors who had maintained independence as a mix of Arabs and Hebrews. [The Yemenite civilization is based on "People of Covenant"].

The author candidly states that "the Israelites never won a major place among the great builders, merchants, or warriors of the ancient Near East". [77]. Their homeland was in a buffer zone between strong and numerous neighbors, with few resources. These conditions "provided the setting for the Israeli genius which came to express itself in the realm of culture and religion". [79]

The birth of universalism arises from these Arab/Hebraic roots. It is recorded (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a) that during the first century BC a heathen converted by Hillel (the great exponent of liberalizing Pharisaism in the days of Herod the Great), asked him for a brief exposition of Judaism. Hillel replied, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. This is the whole Law. The rest is mere commentary." Cf. "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Leviticus 19:18. [144]

This legacy is universal. (We are all the "remnant" of Sumer.) ( )