In this third volume on Moses, the author has reached the time of the exodus from Egypt (1455 BC) and the exile. By a coup Moses had been prevented from ascending throne of Egypt, but from his exile he was, for a long time, able to intrigue politically to regain his lost throne.

          Brilliantly he exploited the huge Middle East field of tensions and with the Hebrew immigrant workers he eventually launched a rebellion. When it failed the Hebrews/Israelites searched new country. Although the presentation is very detailed, it is an exciting demonstration which is worthy of respect.

          The author is documenting his trace through the material often using much non-traditionally methods. Archaeology and rare astronomical phenomena go hand in hand with precise chronological dating, and are in some cases also to be recognized from the Bible. Key findings seem to be able to prove indications of the exile in the desert where the people after the exodus remained in almost 40 years before arriving the promised land.

          This third volume is keeping the quality level of the first two and presents an exciting ancient history from the Middle East, but also a character profile of a great religion founder.

H.M.

Spaeth, Ove von: "The Vanished Successor: Rediscovering the Hidden War Leading to Exodus" - C.A. Reitzel. - 255 pages. - (Assassinating Moses, 3). - Library classification 91.21. 

Concerning recent news coverage in the media regarding some current discoveries of comets and strange phenomena and their possible historic re-arrival from the past, it may be of interest to provide information on relevant historical features.
          Also in the same context: an impressive solution to an ancient historical puzzle which I got insight into using a new book on historical discoveries. Here, I find it most appropriate to report on a certain piece of information among the book's diverse contents. It is also strongly related with the oldest known prehistoric personality which the author describes as "the historical Moses".
          A special detection process has produced surprising insights that are leading to the discovery of a historical pivot. It seems to give the hitherto most precise dating of the obscure ancient biblical times. It belongs to a context where the contemporary cultures were heavily occupied by stars and other phenomena in the sky.
          And here it is even practical that astronomy today may help researchers to the most accurate historical dating. In the mentioned new book appears a string of incredibly exciting, even revolutionary circumstances. Including interesting insights into perceptions of astronomy before and now. It is the researcher Ove von Spaeth's book "The Varnished Successor"  (C.A. Reitzel Publishers, 2001). - The book's surveyance of one of history's most rare astronomical phenomena are worth looking at. Let's take a view - however by an abbreviated summary - on this episode:

          Shortly after the termination of Moses and the Israelites' exodus from Egypt - mentioned in the Bible's "Book of Joshua" (10:12-13) - some peculiar astronomical circumstances were called attention to during a battle at Gibeon by the end of the day of the event: "Sun, stand thoug still upon Gibeon; and though, the Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. ..." - "...And the Sun stood still, and the Moon stayed ... So the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. ..."
          Based on the biblical text's interesting data the book explains how this unusual celestial phenomenon apparently can be astronomically determined meticulously as a total lunar eclipse - of a special kind.


'And There was No Day Like That Before It or After It'

The atmospheric layer is most dense when closest to Planet Earth and can here be functioning as a bend wiring of light or a prism. Astronomers call this effect, "refraction". The result of this bending of light is that the visible sight of the moon and the sun is by almost half a degree of arc lifted above the horizon (a half degree in the sky is equal to the diameter of the disk of the full moon).
          Therefore, under these circumstances, the rising moon can be seen before having risen above the horizon. Correspondingly, the sight of the sun remains in the sky for some time after it has set.
          In addition, the level of height and the refraction can in this way increase the apparent height of the sun and the moon above the horizon by more than one degree of arc. These conditions both advances and extends the time of the immediately visible presence of these celestial bodies in the sky. Geographically, the battlefield of Joshua is situated 600 metres above sea level.
          According to the biblical text the event took place a few months after Easter. Astronomical
computing shows that a special lunar eclipse at Gibeon appeared at sunset on 25th June (as expressed by present calendar style), 1415 BC.
 
          Optimum effort is required to compute exactly the eclipse at sunset. Many acknowledged methods of forms exist; they present slightly different results as to the precision of minutes. But irrespective of the method, an eclipse was seen on the day in question. Superstition was connected to the phenomenon - based on biblical information (location and time) the situation shows that the eclipse in question appeared in the enemies' visual field and had startling results.
          The exceptional circumstances concerning this celestial phenomenon of the "Book of Joshua" is that both the sun as well as the lunar eclipse were visible simultaneously - one at the western horizon and the other at the eastern horizon - despite the fact that their positions were exactly opposite each other at either side of Planet Earth - perceived as "the sun did not set".
          It was an astronomical situation which normally would result in a position making it only possible to see one celestial body at a time. However, this type of lunar eclipse allowing visibility of both the sun and the moon simultaneously is such an extremely rare phenomenon, thus the text of the "Book of Joshua" (10:14) specifies, "... And there was no day like that before it or after it ...".


The Cleomedes Phenomenon

However, 1,600 years after the Joshua event in question, the Greek astronomer Cleomedes (within 100-200 AD) mentioned exactly the same rare phenomenon. It was observed at the Caspian Sea. He computed its probability and its extreme rarity. Always, the "Cleomedes Phenomenon" can be only seen within a limited geographical area. This means that an immense span of time may pass before this phenomenon will reappear in the same area.
          The "Cleomedes Phenomenon" is known to have been noted only twice in present time - observed in Paris on 16th December, 1880, at sunset late in the afternoon - and a century later at Hawaii at sunset on 16th July, 1981.
          The latter eclipse  (however not total) was mentioned in the "Sky and Telescope" journal(December, 1081) by William Sinton, an American astronomer on Hawaii. He achieved the necessary extra refraction effect by watching the unusual celestial sight from the 4.2 km high peak of Mount Mauna Kea - after having waited for years for an opportunity to witness the phenomenon from a suitable site on Planet Earth.
          This is only one example of the interesting astronomical phenomenon which occupied our ancestors among a lot of exciting material in the present work, i.e. "The Vanished Successor" which is volume 3 of Ove von Spaeth's book-series, "Assassinating Moses".
          In order to be able to depict the strange event, when this rare phenomenon possibly could a bit difficult to understand, I have referred directly and literally from the text of von Spaeth's book.
          And as suggested, the book also includes an overwhelming number of interesting observations and absorbing discoveries, new important archaeological and religio-historical results with revolutionary findings within the fascinating Middle East history. It should not be necessary to mention that this is truly exciting and inspiring reading.

O.H.

The book:  Ove von Spaeth: "The Vanished Successor, - Rediscovering the Hidden War Leading to Exodus". Copenhagen 2001. - C.A. Reitzel, Publisher and Bookseller, pages 255, illustr., DKK 248.

(With permission for OvS. to reproduce the above article)