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Genius of the Few: The Story of Those Who Founded the Garden in Eden
The Genius of the Few continues the author's earlier book - The Megalithic Odyssey - and carries the prehistoric research back to 8000 BC, when a group of sages, known to the Sumerians as the 'Annanage', and to the early people of the Middle East as the 'Shining Ones', settled in a fertile basin within the mountains of South Lebanon.
There they established an agricultural and animal breeding centre for their own survival and for teaching Early Man the elements of civilized living.
These sages, who seem to have been exploring for what was them an unknown world, were inevitably deified - in their absence - millenia after the events described. They founded the Hebrew race who carried the tribal memory of their homeland as the Garden in Eden, and of their benefactors as 'angels'. The leader of the group was remembered as Yahweh Elohim, and was later worshipped as 'God'.
Based on extensive research into ancient Middle Eastern languages and little known documents, The Genius of The Few challenges dogmatic interpretations of the biblical Book of Genesis and raises questions and probabilities that have immense implications for the study of prehistoric and modern religion.
There they established an agricultural and animal breeding centre for their own survival and for teaching Early Man the elements of civilized living.
These sages, who seem to have been exploring for what was them an unknown world, were inevitably deified - in their absence - millenia after the events described. They founded the Hebrew race who carried the tribal memory of their homeland as the Garden in Eden, and of their benefactors as 'angels'. The leader of the group was remembered as Yahweh Elohim, and was later worshipped as 'God'.
Based on extensive research into ancient Middle Eastern languages and little known documents, The Genius of The Few challenges dogmatic interpretations of the biblical Book of Genesis and raises questions and probabilities that have immense implications for the study of prehistoric and modern religion.
- GenresNonfiction
376 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 13, 2017
Amazing book! Thanks heavens the Patrick Foundation resurrected the out-of-print version and expanded its fascinating study of a group of advanced beings known as the Shining Ones, or Anannage, who lived in the Near East around 8200 BC. In-depth analysis includes easy-to-read, scholarly evidence drawn from translations and interpretations of Sumerian, Hebraic and Greek texts. Extensive research challenges previous interpretations and "raises questions and probabilities that have immense implications for the study of prehistoric and modern religion." I highly recommend this to readers interested in the bible and prehistory.
March 18, 2026
I think this book should be mandatory reading for everyone. In Genius of the Few O'Brien questions the laws and dogma governing Christianity and Judaism. In considering the nature of Yahweh, O'Brien reveals an entity with alarming mood swings and swift retaliatory punishment when his laws were either questioned or disobeyed.
Whether or not you accept the hinted-at suggestion that the settlement in Eden was an outpost for a far more advanced race of inter-stellar travellers who decided to settle and "educate" the locals or whether you believe Eden was God's first attempt at guiding wayward humanity, the magnificence of this book lies in the idea that somewhere along the way we have lost all sense of the munificent numinous presence in whom we found our genesis and have fallen into the rut of worshiping an anthropomorphic semblance of our worst egoistic characteristics. O'Brien ably and intelligently points out that the Judaeo-Christian God based on the entity who led the Hebrews out of Egypt is a jealous God indeed, a small-minded, sharp-tongued, ego-driven narcissist in desperate need of anger management as opposed to the spectacular stage management he used to control his "chosen" people. Heaven help them! I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Speculative or absolutely on the money this book is a fascinating read.
Whether or not you accept the hinted-at suggestion that the settlement in Eden was an outpost for a far more advanced race of inter-stellar travellers who decided to settle and "educate" the locals or whether you believe Eden was God's first attempt at guiding wayward humanity, the magnificence of this book lies in the idea that somewhere along the way we have lost all sense of the munificent numinous presence in whom we found our genesis and have fallen into the rut of worshiping an anthropomorphic semblance of our worst egoistic characteristics. O'Brien ably and intelligently points out that the Judaeo-Christian God based on the entity who led the Hebrews out of Egypt is a jealous God indeed, a small-minded, sharp-tongued, ego-driven narcissist in desperate need of anger management as opposed to the spectacular stage management he used to control his "chosen" people. Heaven help them! I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Speculative or absolutely on the money this book is a fascinating read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews