Biography

Ralph Ellis

British independent historian and author

Born 7 December 1956 · Cheshire, England

Independent of seminary and faculty.

Ralph Ellis is a British independent historical researcher and author based in Cheshire, England. For more than four decades, he has investigated possible connections between biblical narratives and the secular historical records of ancient Egypt, Rome, and the Near East.

The founder of Edfu Books in 1997 and author of fourteen volumes, Ellis is known for his unconventional interpretations of biblical chronology, the Exodus, the historical identity of Jesus, and the origins of Arthurian legend.

Drawing on ancient historical texts, inscriptions, archaeological evidence, and comparative chronology, Ellis challenges established interpretations and invites readers to examine the historical sources behind his arguments. Those readings are his own. They are not presented here as academic consensus.

The beginnings of a lifelong investigation

When he was seven, his mother told him that Father Christmas did not exist. He knew at once that Church teachings would be the same, and set about finding out.

By twelve he was reading the gospels to find the errors, and he became an atheist. When people asked why, he read further so that he could answer them. The reading took him past the lessons set in class, including those of the Religious Education teacher.

His mother and father were both in the book trade, so the house held a great many ancient Bibles, which he still thinks are the best. There was a Cromwell pocket Bible, only 15 by 10 centimetres, on the finest tissue paper and in the smallest print imaginable, and a Victorian Bible prefaced by a complete history of the Near East. Between them they were a trove of historical information.

He has been writing since he was fourteen, on a question that has not changed. If the inherited date is wrong, famous biblical people who are missing from the record become visible.

Education and professional background

He studied computer science at Sheffield Polytechnic, now Sheffield Hallam University, and later surveying and geology at the City of London Polytechnic, now London Metropolitan University. He worked briefly as a software engineer, then in mineral surveying, and then in aviation as a commercial pilot and airline captain. Later he worked in palaeoclimatology.

Although they were in seemingly unrelated fields, his qualifications equipped him with specialised knowledge and skills, aiding him in his pursuit of critical inquiry.

Independent research and Edfu Books

The books fall into two main sequences, and both are his reading of the evidence. The Egyptian Testament treats the Old Testament as displaced Egyptian court history. Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs opens that sequence. The King Jesus books treat the gospel king as a king of Edessa, great-grandson of Cleopatra. Cleopatra to Christ opens the King Jesus Trilogy. He reads that same king as later remembered in Britain as Arthur, the case set out in The Grail Cypher. The argument is made from Josephus, the Egyptian record, and the texts he sets beside them. It is not the scholarly consensus.

In 1997 he founded Edfu Books, named for the Egyptian city and its temple, so the work could be published without a university press or a church house deciding what was fit to print. The argument that the biblical patriarchs were Egyptian pharaohs, and that Jesus was a rebel king of Egyptian heritage, was not one those houses would carry. Edfu Books is still the imprint. Print and digital editions are still issued, including the King Jesus books and the Egyptian Testament. In 2003 and 2004, four of the books were also issued in simplified Chinese by 紫图图书 (ZITO) and printed by 陕西师范大学出版社.

Working independently of religious and academic institutions, Ralph has pursued historical questions and interpretations outside conventional research frameworks. His conclusions reflect his own examination of ancient sources, chronology, and historical records, which readers are invited to evaluate for themselves. How the argument is made.

Edfu Books Ltd, the formal UK company, was dissolved in 2013. The name continues as his own publishing brand.

Publications, lectures, and milestones

1. Early 1980s

   Full-time independent research begins. More than four decades of work have followed, much of it in the Mediterranean, where he looked for secular parallels between history and theology.

2. 1997

   Edfu Books is established, and Thoth, Architect of the Universe is published.

3. 2003–2004

   Four of the books appear in simplified Chinese.

4. Lectures

   He gave public lectures in Liverpool, Bristol, Glastonbury, Germany, Egypt, Turkey, and Illinois, for esoteric organisations, among them Adventures Unlimited. The lecture in Germany was organised by Erich von Däniken at the Archaeology, Astronautics and SETI Research Association (A.A.S.), and it was well received, as were his appearances on Coast to Coast, which has a large audience.

5. 2016

   With Michael Palmer, he published a paper on the ice ages in Geoscience Frontiers. It presents the authors’ hypothesis. It is not a settled scientific conclusion. The paper is set out below.

6. The catalogue

   Fourteen volumes are in the catalogue on this site. Readers new to Ralph’s research can begin with Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs or Cleopatra to Christ, depending on their historical interests.

The YouTube lecture series is the public library of the books; Patreon holds the uncut films.