This book is one paradigm-shifting title. Douglas Petrovich is a diligent scholar who is considered an expert in “epigraphy, palaeography, lexicography, and comparative linguistics and literature”. The scholarly world has been in an ongoing debate for many years over what language has the world’s first alphabetic script. Mr. Petrovich has worked through the ancient specimens that we have with their proto-consonantal script and has proven conclusively that it is Hebrew. He has even translated these previously untranslated specimens. That the highly-respected scholar Eugene Merrill has studied his work and given it the highest recommendation proves its trustworthiness.
The beautiful thing about this new book is the boon this it is to those of us who believe in the complete veracity of the Bible. I don’t mean it’s a substitute for faith, but that it is another help to doubters. A quick Google search will show you that several major news organizations have already carried stories on Mr. Petrovich’s work. While many of us so appreciate this book, it will probably be something like a bomb going off in the scholarly world where so many do not believe the Bible they study. Going forward, all doubters should be sent to this book.
Though this book has all the necessary minute data to prove its thesis, non-specialists like me can still follow the argument. He well presents the history of what has been thought over the years and carefully outlines what he went through to reach his conclusions. He is not just pulling his conclusions out of the sky. No, he put an incredible amount of work into solving this long-standing puzzle.
The book itself is attractive and has the design of other fine Carta Jerusalem titles. The maps and illustrations are outstanding and really help you to follow what Mr. Petrovich is saying. This book will be discussed for many years and will likely reach the status of one of the most important volumes ever in its field. I highly recommend it.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
The Reagan Review 
1. None of the actual experts in “epigraphy, palaeography, lexicography, and comparative linguistics and literature” consider Petrovich to be an expert in any of those fields.
2. The scholarly world has *not* been in a debate over the language of these inscriptions. The language is Canaanite, the predecessor for Hebrew, Phoenician, and Aramaic (among other various Canaanite languages).
3. These inscriptions have already been translated to the best of our ability by more than a handful of scholars. Petrovich has shown that he relies almost exclusively on reconstructions within inscriptions–this is a methodologically fatal flaw in his approach in several of his publications.
4. “That the highly-respected scholar Eugene Merrill has studied his work and given it the highest recommendation proves its trustworthiness.” –> This is *argumentum ad authoritatum* and is a logical fallacy. Regardless, Merrill teaches at Dallas Theological Seminary, a school known for their apologetics bias.
5. Those of us who actually know the languages, the data, and proper epigraphic methodology and are also already familiar with Petrovich’s claims have been in the process of dispensing with his claims in rapid fashion. His work is not a “bomb.”
Please feel free to see my response to many of Petrovich’s claims, which are fatal to his thesis and which is is apparently incapable of addressing at the following link:
https://negreene.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/sinai-115-and-historical-canaanite-phonology/
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