It is believed that modern Jews are direct descendants of the biblical “wanderers” who founded the state of Israel in Palestine after forty years of wandering in the Sinai Desert. The book refutes this established view. Jews are far from the only ones who carry the “genes of their forefathers” and can lay claim to the spiritual heritage of ancient Israel. The author comes to a paradoxical and at the same time completely natural conclusion within the framework of the available data: the real ancient Israel is not the one in question in the Bible, and not even chronologically related to biblical times. And of course, there is no talk of any wanderings of the “chosen” people, as traditional history tells us. In fact, the history of Israel’s wanderings is the history of its metamorphoses. Georgy Katyuk’s new book will not leave Semites, anti-Semites, or simply lovers of ancient history indifferent.