PREPARING FOR YOUR LOGOS BIBLE STUDY EGYPT TOUR
You’re about to begin a remarkable journey, a pilgrimage to Egypt where we will walk “in the footsteps of Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the Pharaohs.” I love Egypt, and we’ll be traveling with my close friend and colleague, the renowned Egyptologist, Professor Emad Faltas. For many of you, this will be the trip of a lifetime. It will also be a whole lot of fun!
Many of you are my current or former Logos Bible Study students; many are my listeners on Audible.com; and some are new to Logos Bible Study. What we all have in common, though, is a love of scripture; an intimate, personal relationship with Christ; and a desire to know him and serve him better. Our Logos Bible Study teaching tours to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain add color, tone and texture to scripture, allowing us to bring to life the Bible and the stories and people who populate it. Of all the places we have traveled over the past thirty years, Egypt is my favorite destination. Steeped in history that stretches back to the 3rd millennium B.C., there is no other place like it on earth. Imagine, when Abraham and Sarah went to Egypt in Genesis 12, the pyramids they saw were already ancient!
This is going to be a fabulous tour!
Several of you have asked me what you might read or study to be better prepared for our adventure together. The more you learn before our tour, the deeper and more profound will be your experience. Here are a few suggestions:
First, become a subscriber to my website, logosbiblestudy.com. You will then have unlimited access to my Logos “Course Catalogue,” which includes 22 university-level courses (450 video lessons and tons of written material) covering the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation, including the Deuterocanonical books (or “Apocrypha”). Work through the Genesis course that sees Abraham in Egypt and takes Jacob and his family to the land of the Pharaohs, where Joseph is Grand Vizier. Here the Israelites live for 400 years!
Second, purchase and watch Professor Bob Brier’s History of Ancient Egypt, available on The Great Courses, Plus: https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/history-of-ancient-egypt. It consists of 48 superb (and entertaining) lessons. I watched it myself many years ago and it got me hooked on all things Egyptian!
Finally, expand your knowledge with additional reading. I’ve asked Professor Faltas for his recommendations, and here they are:
Kara Cooney. The Woman Who Would Be King. New York: Crown Publishers, 2014.
Rosalie David. Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt, rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Salima Ikram. Ancient Egypt, An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Mark Lehner. The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
Geraldine Pinch. Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses and Traditions of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Gay Robins. Women in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
David Rohl. Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 1996.
Ian Shaw. The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, 2nd ed. London: British Museum, 2002.
David Silverman, et al. Akhenaton & Tut-Ankh-Amun, Revolution & Restoration. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006.
William Kelly Simpson, ed. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies and Poetry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
That will give you a good start. As we get closer to our departure date, I’ll send you more information on our flights, on what to bring and so on. We’ll also have a group orientation, either live or on Zoom, where we’ll go over all the details together and you can ask questions of me, Professor Faltas and our team at Devotion Travel.
Thank you so much for traveling with us. With COVID-19 restrictions lifting, I can’t wait to ‘hit the road” with you! Rest assured that we will move heaven and earth to make our Egypt tour safe, secure and efficient, not to mention a profound educational and spiritual experience . . . and a whole lot of fun!