Jossef Salman: Frequently Asked Questions

Jossef Salman is the author of Echoes of History: Ancient Wisdom, Sacred Scripture, and the One God Behind Them All (Second Edition, 2026). He writes about ancient history, comparative religion and the origins of the idea of God, moving between archaeology, Egyptology, Mesopotamian history, scripture and cosmology. More on the About page.

It is a 431-page investigation into the oldest evidence of religion. It begins at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, where people who had not yet learned to farm raised carved pillars around 9500 BCE, and follows the question of God through ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’an. See the book page or the press kit.

The book’s view (the author’s interpretation): humanity did not invent the idea of a Creator but received it, and much of ancient religion is the record of that knowledge being carried, divided, altered and partly forgotten. The pattern of a supreme god above working gods, such as Atum in Egypt and Anu in Sumer, is read as a remainder of that memory.

This is the author’s argument, not an established fact. The mainstream scholarly view is that religions developed from many social, cognitive and cultural causes. The guide Did humans invent God? sets out both positions.

Neither label fits exactly. It is written by a believer, but it separates what has been measured, what is a scholarly model and what is the author’s belief, cites counter-evidence, and asks readers to check the sources. Each topic page on this site uses the same four labels: Established, Mainstream theory, Alternative or debated theory, and The book’s view.

Jossef Salman is a Muslim, and the book says so at the start. He reads Jewish and Christian sources as historical evidence of great value and tries to read them as carefully as his own scripture.

Readers curious about ancient civilizations, archaeology and the origins of religion; believers of any faith who want to see how scripture meets the archaeological record; and sceptical readers who want the argument for a Creator laid out with its evidence and its weak points marked.

The 2026 Second Edition revises passages from the 2022 first edition, including how Egyptian hieroglyphs work and the date range for the Sphinx’s weathering, and it strengthens the separation between evidence, scholarly models and the author’s own conclusions.

Yes. You can read a sample online without signing up.

Yes. The Oldest Thing in You and Pain in Teenage Love are free to download with no email required. See Free Books.

It is available as a Kindle ebook and a paperback on Amazon (paperback ISBN 9798325834240).

Jossef S. is the pen name Jossef Salman uses for sapphic and general romance fiction. Those books are listed on Sapphic Romance Books by Jossef S.

Start with one of the three topic guides: Ancient Egypt, Ancient History and Archaeology, or God and Religion. Each one links to focused pages with sources and reading lists that include views the author does not share.

Use the contact page. Media facts, bios and images are in the press kit.