Back in 1998 journalist Howard Blum authored a book entitled, The Gold of Exodus. It was sensationalist archaeo-babble at its best. Here’s how one Amazon.com reviewer summarized the book:
When a millionaire adventurer goes in search of the true Mount Sinai, he gets more than he bargained for. Spies, missiles, and secret military installations are just some of the obstacles that Larry Williams and his sidekick Bob Cornuke must confront in their unprecedented journey to find the lost treasures of Moses. In The Gold of Exodus, award-winning journalist Howard Blum records a page-turning story of an adventure that makes history. While risking their necks by sneaking into the xenophobic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, amateur archaeologists Williams and Cornuke become pawns in a game of international espionage that eventually leads them to the top of the most sacred mountain in the world, and into the hands of shotgun-wielding Bedouins.
You get the picture. The Gold of Exodus actually drew the attention of some real archaeologists. Eventually, archaeology writer Neil Asher Silberman penned a review for Archaeology magazine with one of the best review titles of all time: Yahoos in Arabia.
Well, one of those Yahoos, Bob Cornuke, is back. This time he’s discovered *the* boat that Paul was on when it shipwrecked, described in Acts 27. You can get an idea of his basic arguments from this brief, but telling, critique.
What is your take on this Mike? i found the Mountain of Fire documentary quite convincing?
John – Scotland 🙂
It has a number of non-sequiturs and either-or fallacies in it. “Here is this data item, it *must* correspond to this over here in the biblical narrative.” Really? It also has items that “were there until the government took them away.” It ignores carbon 14 and paleographic dating of certain sites and objects as well.
Were there any lead codices on the boat?
one can only hope.
That was one of the most hilarious blurbs I’ve ever read – it sounds like the ultimate cheesy thriller.