The next session was opened by Professor Barrett with a verbal sketch of the millennia-long and rich history of ancient Egypt, with its wealth of historical data encompassing both the periods before and after the sojourn and exodus of the biblical Hebrews.
He emphasized the tremendous amount of Egyptian artifacts, records and sarcophagi, which made, he said, the main problem being the sorting out of the 300 dynastic Pharaohic rulers.
"Avi," he said, "will explain the recent progress made in that regard, but I want to introduce a somewhat shameful and delicate subject among historians.
" The professor paused, all eyes were on him, a puzzled look on many faces.
"Sometimes," the professor continued, "as we go about unraveling past centuries of ancient lands, objectivity can be lost due to either over-desire or hostility - and we have an unfortunate story to tell, which actually involves both elements.
" He looked at Avi, who nodded affirmatively.
The professor continued, "Archaeologists of the last century, religious Victorian-Christians, were apparently over-anxious to establish an Archaeology-to-Bible link - so they proclaimed the Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenk to be Pharaoh Shishak of the Bible.
That was the first error, caused by over-zealousness and religious fervor.
The second error came when this placed Kings David and Solomon, his temple, and the walled-city of Jericho, into the period of Iron Age 11A - known to be devoid of the cultural richness and sophistication as described in the Bible for the building of the Temple.
The second error - still very much believed by anti-Semites today - came from so-called 'minimalists' of the present-day Scandinavian School of Archaeology, who extrapolated that error - their scholarly objectivity probably blinded by hatred - to then proclaim that this was proof that the Bible is historically incorrect, and, at best only an exaggeration.
" The professor then gestured to Avi, inviting him to take over, he then settled himself into an armchair.
Avi strode to the lectern and projector with a sheaf of papers.
"OK," he said, "fortunately, during this past decade, we've had the doctoral thesis of David Rohl, a British Egyptologist, whose 'A Test of Time', and his subsequent book 'Pharaohs and Kings', corrected that first error; thus the second also, and eliminated many kinks in the previously accepted sequence and dating of Egyptian Pharaohs.
I'll get into how he did this in a minute, but to dispel the previous errors, Rohl proved that Ramesses II was Shishak, the Conqueror of Jerusalem, which placed Kings David and Solomon in the Bronze age, with its rich cultural and cosmopolitan character - completely compatible with the Bible.
This revised dating - what Rohl calls his 'New Chronology' - revises the entire chronology of Egypt's Third Intermediate Period.
" 175 Avi selected a paper and projected it on the screen.
"What Rohl did, was not only to correct erroneous information about Hebrews and Egypt - which had been the conventional view for over a century - but he also established a solid basis for present-day archaeological-historians.
The discoveries and analyses by Rohl and his colleagues were based on numerous dating methods, disentangling incompatibilities and sequences, and correcting errors of up to three centuries in the conventional chronologies of over 300 Pharaohs:"

• "Celestial event dating - using retro-calculations of recorded events such as solar eclipses and sightings of Venus, noted as occurring during the lives or at the deaths of certain Pharaohs - which provided independent and precise dating of known rulers:"
• "Burial vault excavations, especially the notations on, and the locations of, heavy sarcophagi, relative to each other in crowded tombs;"
• "Sacred Aphis bull burial data";
• "Records of the Royal Architects";
• "Amarna letters";
• "Stelae.
  "

"It's really amazing," said Avi, "how such wealth of data from so many disparate sources now dovetails with biblical narrative - like a jigsaw puzzle coming together.
For example, Amarna letters, which 'flesh out' the biblical stories of King Saul; and young David, when he was leader of a mercenary army of 600 men under the aegis of King Achish of Gath - outlawed by Saul; and even adding input about the deaths of Saul's sons.
" Avi shifted to another page, projecting it on the screen.
"I'm going into the story of Joseph now -" he said, "- truly a remarkable figure in Jewish history.
Joseph is the beginning of the Passover story - and surprisingly, is also extremely important in Egyptian history.
" Several of the group shifted their positions for greater comfort, got themselves a drink, then settled back.
Avi continued.
"A morality issue can be found in every episode of Joseph's life: a cocky teen-ager, he is sold into slavery by jealous brothers; imprisoned due to false charges by the wife of his master; overcomes imprisonment to eventually rise to great personal power and authority; saves Egypt and neighboring countries from starvation, including his own people, the Israelites.
The story of Joseph in the Bible is easily justifiable as morality fiction.
However, as Rohl notes in his thesis, the finding of much extra-biblical evidence, even an actual statue - which I'll go into in a minute - at Avaris of a white-faced, non-Egyptian Vizier, who, by Egyptian records, saved Egypt from a terrible famine - fits perfectly with the Bible.
" Avi took a sip from a glass of coke, then continued.
"In the Bible, after Joseph becomes Pharaoh's Vizier, he is followed to Egypt by his brothers and their families.
That sets the stage, centuries later, for the well-known Passover-Exodus stories: Hebrews are enslaved; Moses, at birth, is saved from the drowning fate of male babies; Moses, as an adult, is forced to flee to Midian; he returns forty years later; and finally, we have the Exodus story, with plagues and miracles and mass deaths of Egyptians -", he smiled at Bethe, then looked at each of the others, "- and all aspects of the story now have much extra-biblical corroboration.
"

• "There is an attempted seduction of a young man by a high official's wife, his rejection of her, her false charges and his subsequent imprisonment and release - told in an Egyptian papyrus dated 1225 BC.
  - identical to the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife.
  " ;
• "Then there is Joseph, the Vizier and Savior of Egypt: Archaeological digs along the Nile, provide a clear and remarkable corroboration of the biblical Joseph.
  The unusual life-sized statue - of Imhotep, a non-Egyptian, found at varis by Rohl, honors the legendary Vizier, who - by Egyptian - as well as biblical legend, as Joseph - saved Egypt and neighboring peoples from a terrible famine.
  The statue depicts a white, clean-shaven Asiatic man with unusually-shaped and red hair.
  " Avi added, "And since legend is frequently based on fact, on adjacent Egyptian wall murals can be seen drawings of Asian caravans of the time with similar-featured, non-Egyptian men wearing multi-colored coats! "

The subject for the following session was selected as, "Was Biblical Joseph the Egyptian Imhotep - the Achiever of Egypt's Wealth?" When Stewart announced that as a medical student, he had become a member of the Imhotep Society, he was the obvious choice of researcher-Presenter.