Evangelicals Surrender Too Much Ground to Darwin

As the battle between Darwinism and the Bible rages, some evangelicals have backed away from maintaining that Adam and Eve were real, historical individuals created in the way Genesis 2 relates:

“… the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. … So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”

In a just-published article from the Westminster Theological Journal, Westminster Theological Seminary professor Vern Poythress brilliantly explains why such a surrender is wrong biblically and scientifically. Poythress, with both a Th.D. and a Harvard Ph.D. in mathematics, is well-positioned to write about both theology and evolutionary theory. He has published 13 books, including Redeeming Science and Redeeming Sociology, and numerous scholarly articles. We post this new one with the author’s and WTJ’s permission.— Marvin Olasky, World Magazine (May, 2013)

Read Vern Poythress's article here.


Related reading: Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; YEC Dogma is NOT Biblical; Facts About Human Origins; DNA Research Confirms Kushite Migration of Genesis 10; Contradicting Evolutionary Theory; Is Genesis Really About Human Origins?

Sudan is Archaeologically Rich

“Sudan is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa that has real archaeology and local teams working,” said Claude Rilly, the director of the French Archaeological Unit in Sudan.

Though its historical importance has long been overshadowed by Egypt, its neighbor to the north, Sudan’s archaeological record is pivotal to understanding the history of Africa itself, experts say, and a wave of new discoveries may be adding crucial new information.

“The history of Sudan can play a role for Africa that Greece played for the history of Europe,” Mr. Rilly said enthusiastically. “People have been living here for 5,000 years” along the Nile, he added. “It is difficult not to find something.”

One overlooked fact is that Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt, in places like Nuri and Bijrawiyah, though they are smaller and not as old. In the town of Sedeinga in northern Sudan, for instance, Mr. Rilly and others excavated 35 small pyramids in the past few years, a discovery that points to what he called an ancient “democratization of pyramids.”

Read it all here.

Important Archaeological Discoveries of Sudan

Alice C. Linsley

We must look to the ancient Nilo-Saharans for antecedents of the Biblical worldview.  At Nekhen in Sudan the following discoveries have been made:

The oldest known Horite shrine. Votive offerings at Nekhen were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose.

The oldest known painted tomb (Tomb 100) with plaster walls. It dates to between 3500 and 3200 BC. Pillared chapels also have been discovered.

The oldest known menagerie that dates to ca. 3500 BC. The royal collection included leopards, hippos, hartebeest, elephants, baboons and crocodiles. As this is Noah's homeland, there appears to be historical basis to the story of his preserving a collection of animals.

The largest flint knives, dating to ca. 3200 BC. These were for ritual use, including circumcision.

Found at Tel Gezer (dated 12th to mid-11th century BC)
The Egyptian word for phallus was khenen (hnn).
It is related to khenty, meaning "before" or "in front."

Both males and females were circumcised, as is still the custom in Sudan.  This reflects the binary framework of Nilo-Saharan thought. Male circumcision was seen as enhancement of maleness by the removal of the flabby foreskin. Female circumcision was seen enhancement of femaleness by the removal of the penis-like clitoris.

The binary view pertains to other living organisms such as trees. In Genesis 12:6 we read that Abraham sought guidance from the “moreh” or prophet when he pitched his tent at the Moreh’s Oak. Male prophets sat under firm upright trees such as oaks. These represent the masculine principle. Female prophets sat under soft trees with more fluid motion such as date nut palms. These trees are called "tamars" and they represent the feminine principle. Judges 4:4-6 says, “Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment."

Genesis 12 places the Moreh’s Oak at the sacred center between Ai and Bethel, on an east-west axis. Deborah's Palm was between Bethel and Ramah, on a north-south axis. Note the reversal of cardinal points and gender associations. This is typical of the binary system of the ancient Nilo-Saharans.

Related reading:  Circumcision and Binary Distinctions; Kushite Gold; The Origin of Circumcision; Water Systems Connected Nile and Central Africa; Kushite Diversity and Unity; Genesis on the Ancient Kingdom Builders; Levi-Strauss and Derrida on Binary Oppositions

Contradicting Evolutionary Theory

The largest number of distinct phonemes is found in Africa. Fewer distinct phonemes are found the farther we move from Africa.

Africa is also where the greatest genetic diversity is found. There is less diversity in populations farther from Africa.

The movement of modern humans out of Africa poses a problem for the evolutionary view that over time there is greater complexity and diversity. How do you resolve this apparent contradiction?


Related readding: The Evolution of Darwinian Evolution; Biblical Anthropologists Discuss Darwin; Is Genesis Really About Human Origins?; Thomas Nagel: Neo-Darwinian Conception is False

Genesis on the Ancient Kingdom Builders

Alice C. Linsley


Nahor the Elder was Abraham's grandfather. Abraham's mother and father had the same father but different mothers, as shown in the diagram below.

Nahor was the royal title of Abraham's older brother. He ruled in the territory of his maternal grandfather and of his father Terah in the region of Aram Na-haraim, between the western Tigris and the Euphrates. This territory was established by Nimrod, one of Nahor's ancestors (Gen. 10:8-12) Na-Haraim means "dedicated to Horus."  This was Horite territory.

The Horite rulers of Edom are listed in Genesis 36. They are described as having a red skin tone.

Nahor the Elder was a descendant of Nimrod, the great Kushite kingdom builder. Erech (Uruk), Accad and Calneh were shrine cities in Nimrod's territory. Accad is Agade, the original name of a river settlement in Odukpani, Nigeria. Accad is a variant of Agades, a city in Niger which is famous for metalwork.

From there Nimrod expanded his territory to include other important cities, including Asshur, Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen. All these cities had a common script - the Akkadian cuneiform.

In Nigerian lore Nimrod is known as Sharru-Kin which means “the righteous King.” Nimrod's Akkadian name was Šarru-kīnu, which is usually translated “the true king.” Nimrod’s territory was called Kish, which is Kush. A seventh century Assyrian text designated Azu-piranu on the Euphrates as a principal city. It was a Horite shrine as evidenced by the word piranu. The Hapiru (Hebrew) devotees of Horus called their temples O-piru, meaning House of the Sun. Azu is an Nilo-Saharan name for God - Asa. Variant spellings include Asha, Ashai and Am-ashai (Nehemiah 11:13). Azu-piranu means “House of God” and is equivalent to the Hebrew Beth-el. 

The language of Nimrod's territory was related to Elamite, Dravidian, Chadic and Nilo-Saharan languages. Nimrod was a son of Kush (Gen. 10:8-12). Abraham's family demonstrates the movement of peoples out of Africa along ancient water ways.

Linguistics and DNA studies have shown that Abraham and his ancestors were Kushites whose cultural context was that of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion which extended from West Africa to India. The region in red shows the area of Kushite expansion. "Kushite" is a general term that includes many peoples and skin tones, including red, brown, reddish brown and black.

The Afro-Asiatic Dominion

(Image from Clyde A. Winters)

This marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Kushite rulers drove expansion out of Africa. Genesis indicates that Kushites moved out of Africa into Mesopotamia and Central Asia. They brought their religious practices and beliefs with them. Kushite rulers, such as Nimrod and his priests spread a common worldview to India, Nepal, Cambodia and beyond. This stone relief at Anghor Wat shows the Ra's solar boat with Horus flying as a falcon at the top of the mast. Anghor is ankh-Hor which means "Long live Horus!"

Nimrod was a younger son of Kush and was a "sent away" son. Sent-away sons are especially famous in the Bible for founding new territories or ascending to prominence in neighboring territories. Cain, Abraham, Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph and Moses are examples. Jesus Christ is God's sent-away son who establishes the eternal kingdom. 

Just as Abraham gave gifts to all his sons and sent them away from his heir Isaac, so Kush gave gifts to his son Nimrod and sent him away from his older brother Ramah whose territory was in Arabia. As with all sent-away sons in the Bible, there was struggle and hardship, but ultimately by God's grace, these sons prospered. Nimrod’s territory was far greater than Ramah's.


Scribes, Warriors and Smiths

Rulers such as Nimrod, Nahor and Terah were supported by the Ar clans, who were royal scribes. Among the Igbo, the scribe clans were called Ar or Aro. The Nsibidi script, said to be the oldest script of Africa, contains may Sumerian and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Likewise the Akkadian reflects the movement of royal scribes from the greater Chad basin along a west-east corridor.

The rulers were highly effective warriors who were served by metal workers who fashioned their weapons and symbols of authority such as iron beads and crooked staffs. These are called the Nes, Neshi or Nehesi. The metal-working Nes of Anatolia are their kin. The Neshi still function as priests in Igboland.  

The Nes were a caste of smiths who venerated the cosmic serpent, the totem of their people. The ancient Egyptian Asa-ar means the Serpent of Asa (Deity). The peoples living in Arvad, Tyre and Sidon employed serpent imagery in their temples and shrines. The serpent was venerated among the Kushite ruler-priests of Israel. Aaron forged a bronze serpent on a rod which Moses raised over the people. All who looked upon it were saved from death.

Nehesi and the Biblical name Nahor share a common NH root. Na-Hor means the Na of Horus, that is to say "One who serves Horus." In Akkadian, Na is a modal prefix indicating service to, affirmation, or affiliation. Nahor was apparently a Horite ruler-priest, as was his father Terah. Terah means priest. It is evident that Terah and Nahor are titles.

Nehesi means "One who serves Hesi."  Hesi was another name for Hathor-Meri, Horus' mother. Throughout the ancient Afro-Asiatic world shrines were dedicated to both Horus and Hathor. These were mound cities with water sources. Tell-Hesi is an example. Other mound shrines included Hazor and Beersheba.

Nehesi also refers to people of the Upper Nile, and often appears as Ta-Nehesi, meaning Land of Nehesi. Ancient Kush was also called Ta-Nuhusi, a variant of Ta-Nehesi. Today this is designated as Nubia.

Ne-Hesi monument found in Nubia

This evidence indicates a back and forth east-west movement of peoples along a well-watered equatorial zone. Given the antiquity of haplogroup L2a1 (c. 100,000) it appears that there was more mixing of peoples in the well-watered Saharan region than generally recognized. Haplogroup L2a1 also was found at Tell Halula in Syria (c. 9600).

It appears that the Akwa neshi dwarfs, the Khwe, and their southern Pygmy neighbors, share a common cradle land in the region of Nigeria-Cameroon where they enjoyed the benefits of the Benue and Niger Troughs that connected to the greater Chad Basin and to various lakes in Sudan and to the Nile. The interconnection of these water systems made travel and commerce possible across vast distances. 

Genetic comparisons of the Khwe and the sub-Saharan Kung San indicate different peoples living in close proximity. The Kung mtDNAs are mainly L1a2, a subset of the sub-Saharan Pygmy. Genetically, the Khwe (Kwa/Akwanshi) are more closely related to western African Bantu-speaking populations than to the Kung San. The Nigerian historian, Dr. Catherine Acholonu, describes the Khwe or Kwa Igbo as the "Diaspora Igbo," indicating movement along those water systems. She calls the Akwanshi the "Igbo First People."

Dr. Acholonu argues that Iboland is the cradle of the dispersed kingdom builders. That view is not supported by a limited study done at the University of Khartoum. The findings are in this report:

The area known today as Sudan may have been the scene of pivotal human evolutionary events, both as a corridor for ancient and modern migrations, as well as the venue of crucial past cultural evolution. Several questions pertaining to the pattern of succession of the different groups in early Sudan have been raised. To shed light on these aspects, ancient DNA (aDNA) and present DNA collection were made and studied using Y-chromosome markers for aDNA, and Y-chromosome and mtDNA markers for present DNA. Bone samples from different skeletal elements of burial sites from Neolithic, Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods in Sudan were collected from Sudan National Museum. aDNA extraction was successful in 35 out of 76 samples, PCR was performed for sex determination using Amelogenin marker. Fourteen samples were females and19 were males. To generate Y-chromosome specific haplogroups A-M13, B-M60, F-M89 and Y Alu Polymorphism(YAP) markers, which define the deep ancestral haplotypes in the phylogenetic tree of Y-chromosome were used. Haplogroups A-M13 was found at high frequencies among Neolithic samples. Haplogroup F-M89 and YAP appeared to be more frequent among Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods. Haplogroup B-M60 was not observed in the sample analyzed.

For extant DNA, Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplogroup variations were studied in 15 Sudanese populations representing the three linguistic families in Sudan by typing the major Y haplogroups in 445 unrelated males, and 404 unrelated individuals were sequenced for the mitochondrial hypervariable region.

Y-chromosome analysis shows Sudanese populations falling into haplogroups A, B, E, F, I, J, K, and R in frequencies of 16.9, 8.1, 34.2, 3.1, 1.3, 22.5, 0.9, and 13% respectively. Haplogroups A, B, and E occur mainly in Nilo-Saharan speaking groups including Nilotics, Fur, Borgu, and Masalit; whereas haplogroups F, I, J, K, and R are more frequent among Afro-Asiatic speaking groups including Arabs, Beja, Copts, and Hausa, and Niger-Congo speakers from the Fulani ethnic group.

Accordingly, though limited on number of aDNA samples, there is enough data to suggest and to tally with the historical evidence of the dominance by Nilotic elements during the early state formation in the Nile Valley, and as the states thrived there was a dominance by other elements particularly Nuba/Nubians."

Related reading: God's African Ancestors; The Origin of Castes; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; The Saharan Origins of the Pharaohs

YEC Dogma is NOT Biblical

Young Earth Creationism has been criticised for lacking a solid scientific basis. It also should be criticised for lacking a solid Biblical basis.


Alice C. Linsley


Young Earth Creationists use Archbishop James Ussher’s chronology to date the age of the earth. They believe that the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 are chronological, and can be used to estimate when God created. They calculate the earth's age at 6000 years on the basis of lifespans assigned to the men named in Genesis 5 and 11. They ignore the line of Cain in Genesis 4 because they assume that his line became extinct in Noah's flood.

Ussher's scheme is terribly flawed. He failed to recognize that the so-called "genealogies" are actually King Lists. These lists are not generational, but regnal, and the reigns of some kings coincided. Tubal-Cain (Gen. 4) and Methuselah (Gen. 5) ruled at the same time. Tubal-Cain's sister, Naamah, married Methuselah. (See diagram below.)

Ussher also missed the fact that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried, and as St. John Chrysostom recognized, the line of Cain received great mercy. Not only 7 fold for Cain, but 77 fold for Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4:24), and 777 in the case of Lamech the Younger (Gen. 5:31).

Further, these men are not the first humans on earth, but rulers of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion. They were kingdom builders, like Nimrod the Kushite (Gen. 10:8). This was a time of  law codes such at the Law of Tehut, warriors, weapons, shrine cities such as Nekhen in Sudan, and numerous technologies associated with the Neolithic Period. These earliest rulers of Genesis lived between 6000 and 3000 B.C., millions of years after the appearance of archaic humans. The evidence of the Bible and the various sciences indicates that they lived in Africa or migrated out of Africa.

This last fact reveals the unbiblical and racist nature of YEC dogma. At the back of YEC books one finds the 12 Affirmations and Denials. Affirmation XII claims that the diversity of languages and skin color came about as a result of divine judgment at the Tower of Babel.

XII. We affirm that all people living and dead are descended from Adam and Eve...and that the various people groups (with their various languages, cultures, and distinctive physical characteristics, including skin color) arose as a result of God's supernatural judgment at the Tower of Babel..."

Africa always has had the greatest genetic and linguistic diversity of any continent. Long before the earliest Genesis rulers there already existed diversity of skin color. Here are images of red, black and brown Nubians.

Red and black Nubians
(Ippolito Rosellini)

Red and brown Nubians
They resemble the warriors of Petra who had long wavy hair and wore feathers.
(Dr. Arthur Brack)

The Habiru marriage and ascendancy pattern

Ussher's errors reflect ignorance of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Abraham's ancestors as it is revealed in Genesis 4, 5 and 11. This same pattern characterizes Moses' family and Samuel's family. It is the distinctive pattern of the ancient Habiru (Hebrew), a caste of ruler-priests.

Ussher did not understand that the rulers listed had two wives so there were two first born sons. The first born son of the half-sister wife was heir to his father's throne. So Isaac was heir to Abraham's territory between Hebron and Beersheba. The first born son of the patrilineal cousin wife was named after his maternal grandfather and served as a prime minister in his grandfather's territory. So Joktan, Abraham's first born son by Keturah, was not Abraham's heir. He would rule in the territory of Joktan the Elder.

Judah likely had two wives. In Genesis 46, we read that Judah went into Egypt with his brothers and presumably settled in the land of Goshen with his wife and children. In Genesis 38, we read that Judah had sons by Shua who lived in the region of Adulla, Mareshah and Chezib in Horite territory.

Some lists provide the names of the first born sons of half-sister brides. Other lines are traced through the cousin bride who named her first born son after her father. This is the case with Methuselah's wife, Naamah, who named their first born son "Lamech" after her father (see bottom of diagram).

Let us examine in greater detail the problems with Ussher's scheme.

Ussher did not recognize that the Genesis genealogies are regnal, not generational. They cannot be used to count generations because they are king lists and some kings ruled simultaneously. Others ruled for short periods, and still others ruled for longer than a generation (40 years).

Usher insisted on reading Genesis as chronology, and therefore missed that some rulers were contemporaries. Lamech the Elder was a contemporary of Enoch, Methuselah's father. Abraham was a contemporary of Job. Nahor's son Tahash was a contemporary of Isaac.

None lived the lifespans assigned to them. These numbers are symbolic, with Kabalistic meanings coming from a later period. (Kabal is derived from the Egyptian words ka and ba which in modern parlance would "body and soul.")

Ussher did not recognize that some of the Biblical lists are telescopic. Telescopic lists leave out some names. Such lists give the names of only the most famous rulers. This means that we cannot use the king lists to date the earth.

Ussher ignored the later king lists, such as the Horite rulers in Genesis 36 and their royal kinsmen in Genesis 22:20-24. Here we find the identical marriage and ascendancy pattern as among the Genesis 4 and 5 rulers.

Ussher did not recognize that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried, as did the lines of Ham and Shem and the lines of Abraham and Nahor.  Each ruler had two wives. The cousin bride named her first born son after her father. Thus we find Esau the elder and Esau the Younger, Joktan the Elder and Joktan the Younger,   Kenan is a variant of Kain, and could be called Cain the Younger. Likewise, Irad is a variant of Jared and could be called Jared the Younger.

In the case of Lamech's daughter, Naamah, the pattern is quite clear. She married her cousin Methuselah and named her first-born son Lamech after her father. This pattern of marriage can be traced from Genesis 4 and 5 to the lines of Joseph and Mary in the New Testament, demonstrating that Jesus is a direct descendant of the people to whom God made the first promise of the Bible that a woman of their ruler-priest lines would bring forth the "Seed" of God (Gen. 3:15).

Jesus' mother's name was Miriam daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther) Priests of Nathan of Beth Lehem. From predynastic times, ntjr designated the ruler among the Kushites. The name Panther or p-ntjr meant "God is King." It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest caste because even those who hated her admit this. Sanhedrin 106a says: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.”

Ussher didn't know about the cousin bride's naming prerogative which meant that the cousin bride's father and her first born son had the same name. This explains the recurrance of names skipping a generation. There are two named Enoch; two named Lamech; two named Joktan, and two named Sheba. There are also two named Esau, as shown below.

Here we see that Esau the Elder married Adah. Esau the Younger married Oholibamah, a prefigurement of the Virgin Mary.





Seir is identified as a Horite in Genesis 36. The names Esau, Dishon, Uz, Lot/Lotan and Timna are Horite names. The name "Adah" can be traced back to Lamech the Elder. One of his wives was named Adah (Gen. 4:23).


Biblical studies have left Ussher behind

Ussher lived before the development of molecular genealogy which has shed much light on human origins, and especially on the dispersion of the ancient Nilotes and Kushites. He also lived before the development of kinship analysis which makes verification of the Genesis King Lists possible. It can no longer be claimed that these rulers did not live in history. Their marriage and ascendancy pattern is authentic and can be traced from Genesis 4 to the New Testament records of Mary and Joseph's families. It is not possible that this aspect of Biblical history could have been written back into the texts since the 66 books of the Bible represent the contributions of numerous scribes and authors over about 1200 years.


Related reading: Genesis on the Ancient Kingdom Builders; Cain as Ruler; Lamech's Story and Horite Kingship; Bishop Ussher Goofed; DNA Research Confirms Kushite Migrations; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; Calculating the Dates of the Patriarchs; The Genesis King Lists; Two Named Esau; Abraham and Job, Horite Rulers; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Why Fundamentalists Look Stupid; Objections to the Fundamentalist Reading of Genesis

Why Fundamentalists Look Stupid

The "science" quiz that is making Fundamentalists look really dumb. Unfortunately, all creationists are painted with the same brush by those who mock Christianity. According to Snopes.com, this is the first page of a quiz given to fourth graders at a school in South Carolina.

Perusal of Young Earth Creationist websites causes the educated and scientifically informed to scratch their heads in wonder. The earth is only 6000 years old? Humans and dinosaurs coexisted? God created the Grand Canyon with the appearance of great age? These far-fetched conclusions contribute to prejudice against a scientific approach to Genesis, making my work as a Biblical Anthropologist more difficult. Many in the scientific and academic communities assume that all Christians think like Young Earth literalists.  The distraction takes us far from recognition of the remarkable correspondence between the Biblical timeline and scientific findings.

Young Earth Creationists are building a Noah's Ark theme park in Kentucky. It will be a fun place for families and will perpetuate their ideology. Evangelicals who have bought into Darwinian theory probably will not visit the park, but Biblical literalists will flock there in droves, as they do to Ken Ham's other attraction, the Creation Museum in Cincinnati.

Young Earth Creationism is declining in popularity among Evangelicals, especially those influenced by the BioLogos crowd which tends to think that Darwinian evolution is the only alternative to literalism, and that is not true. An anthropological approach to Genesis acknowledges earth's great age and the milleniums of human existence without accepting the unproven Darwinian tenets concerning human origins. Biblical Anthropology, as scientific study of the text, requires setting aside both ideological templates in order to determine the meaning in cultural context. This is a labor to which I am fully committed.


Related reading: Lamech Segment Analysis; Theories of Creation: An overview; The State of Creationism as Measured by Scholarly Publications; Creationists Fail a Fourth Grade "Science" Test; Stephen M. Barr on Young Earth Creationism; Colleges Old Earth Creationists Should Avoid; Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiterarcy; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; Alice C. Linsley's Research on Genesis

The Origin of Castes

Alice C. Linsley


The evils of the caste system are regularly expounded in contemporary writings. In The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper argued that Plato’s ideal state, with it three-tier structure, is totalitarian. Yet, as others have noted, Plato's ideal represents an improvement upon the rigid caste structure that characterized ancient societies. Plato suggested that some particularly gifted individuals should be trained to work outside of their caste. This was a radical idea for his time (BC 428-347).

The egalitarian nature of American society makes castes anathema. We react strongly to perceived or real limitations of our freedom of choice. On this matter we find agreement among such disparate groups as feminists, the National Rifle Association, gay activists, and libertarians.

Rarely do we consider the benefits of the caste system. It lent stability to ancient societies. People knew their place in society and were proud of the work done by their caste. Caste identity provided a strong sense of duty. The Bhagavad Gita states, "By devotion to one's particular duty, everyone can attain perfection... By fulfilling the obligations he is born with, a person never comes to grief." (BG 18:44-48) This idea is found in Judaism also. Baba Batra wrote, "All appointments are from Heaven, even that of a janitor." (Talmud, Baba Batra 91b)

Members formed stable marriages with partners within their caste and received support from their kinsmen. The caste also lent job security similar to that provided by Medieval guilds and modern trade unions.


Castes as reflection of the heavenly hierarchy

As Mircea Eliade noted, ancient social structures and religious rituals are patterned on celestial archetypes. The ancient Horites believed that their ruler-priests were deified "sons" of God. They are often called "gods" (elohiym) as in Exodus 22:28:

"Thou shalt not revile the gods (elohiym),

nor curse the ruler of thy people."

In this view, rulers are appointed by God to restrain evil, to establish justice, and to reward those who do good. Not only do they act on God's behalf; they act as “gods” on earth, patterned upon the Horim (Judaism) or Houris (Islam) who comprise the divine council in heaven. This is evident in Psalm 82:1:

"Elohim has taken his place in the divine council

In the midst of the elohim he holds judgment."

The divine council is a central theological (and Christological) image in the Old and New Testaments. A later expression of the celestial hierarchy is the fascination with the ranks of angels. Often it is unclear in Biblical texts whether the writer has in mind deified rulers or angels. Consider, for example, how the terms "priests" and "angels" are interchanged in St. John's Apocalypse.

In the Rig Veda (c. 1000 B.C.) four castes are elaborated as the representation of the divine body.

When they divided the Supreme Being,
how many portions did they make?
What did they call his mouth? What his arms?
and what his thighs and his feet?

The Brahmin was his mouth, and
his arms were made the Kshatriya,
his thighs became the Vaisya, and
from his feet was the Sudra born.
(Rig Veda 10:90.11-12)

Paul likewise describes the Church as the mystical Body of Christ. His analogy of arms and legs, with Christ as the head, draws on ancient tradition. The Church is the Body of Christ, a new creation ushered in by the Messianic age. This body has many parts, but four in particular are named. In I Corinthians 12:27-30, Paul explains, “Now Christ’s body is yourselves, each of you with a part in the whole. And those whom God has appointed in the Church are…

First – apostles
Second – prophets
Third – teachers
Fourth – workers of miracles and so on


The caste system as it developed in India has five classes:

The ruler-priests or Brahmin caste performs Vedic rituals and provides guidance

The warrior-nobles or Kshatriya caste which protects society and keeps the peace

The merchant class or Vaishya caste which includes the landed families, farmers with large holdings, bankers, and merchants

The Sudra which includes artisans, peasants, servants and manual laborers

The Dalit or "untouchables" who the Aryans subjugated and forced to do the basest work.

The Sudra and Dalit are descendants of the Har-appan peoples who built the great temples of southern India with the falcon-shaped fire altars. In Vedic tradition the Shulba Sutras teach that "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon." Har-Appa means "Horus is Father" in Dravidian, and the falcon was Horus' animal totem. Gandhi called the Dalits "Harijans" and Pakistani Dalits are called "Haris."


Tracing castes back to Africa

Evidence from linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, and molecular genetic indicates an African point of origin. People in the ancient world were born into their caste and married within their caste. Among the Nilo-Saharans, one's occupation was determined by the caste to which one belonged and the caste members protected their trade secrets. The Biblical Kenites did their metal work outside the towns (I Sam. 15:6) where the artisans' secrets could be protected.

The protection of trade secrets and metal working prerogative is evident today among the Inadan smiths of Niger. When a Taureg overlord attempted to do metal work, an Inadan prerogative, the Inadan smiths launched a mock attack on his home to warn him against further attempts to make jewelry (See image below. Photo credit: Michael Kirtley).

Inadan metal worker attacks Taureg 's house with bellows
National Geography, Aug. 1979 (p. 289)

As many subcastes exist, it is difficult for a Hindu to know who is one’s equal or one superior. Many Hindus are concerned with who they may marry and with whom they may eat. Similar concerns are found among observant Jews.

Although the origin of castes is disputed, castes characterized ancient societies well before the Vedic Age (c. 1700-800 BC). One of the oldest known castes is that of the Hapiru or Habiru (Hebrew). This was a caste of priests and priest attendants who served at the water shrines and temples of the ancient world beginning as early as 4000 BC. They are sometimes called "O-piru" because they reveranced the Sun as the emblem of the Creator. The O in O-piru is a solar symbol.

Within this priest caste there emerged a cult devoted to Horus as early as 3500 BC at Nekhen in Sudan. These are called Horites. The Horites were a Proto-Saharan caste who later were found among the Kushites. The Kushite marriage and ascendancy structure speaks of the promised Son to whom God will deliver the eternal kingdom. Abraham's people were Horites. Even today Jews call their ancestors "Horim" which is a variant of "Horite."

While the term "caste system" is generally associated with the Vedic culture in India, this social organization can be traced back to neolithic Africa. Although not all lines of work were along caste lines, as John W. May has demonstrated, the Horite priesthood shows evidence of having been a caste in the strictest sense of the word. The Horites practiced endogamy whereby they preserved their bloodlines in anticipation of the coming of the Deified Ruler who would be born from one of their chaste Horite virgins.

In the Bible the Horites are associated with the Edomites (Genesis 36). They were renown for their high standards of sexual purity and morality. Before their terms of priestly service they shaved their bodies and did not consume wine. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

The southernmost state of India, Tamil Nadu, is well known for its caste system. The languages spoken here are related to ancient Egyptian and Proto-Saharan languages. Genetic studies have linked the people to Africa rather than to Asia.

The distribution of deep-rooted Indian-specific Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial lineages suggests an initial settlement of modern humans in the subcontinent from the early out-of-Africa migration. Most of the extant mtDNA boundaries in south and southwest Asia were likely shaped during the initial settlement of Eurasia by anatomically modern humans. The genetic heritage of the earliest settlers persists both in Indian tribal and caste populations. Polarity and temporality of high-resolution y-chromosome distributions in India identify both indigenous and exogenous expansions and reveal minor genetic influence of Central Asian pastoralists. (From here.)

The Indian archeologist B. B. Lal's contends that the Dravidians came from Nubia and Upper Egypt. Lal writes: "At Timos the Indian team dug up several megalithic sites of ancient Nubians which bear an uncanny resemblance to the cemeteries of early Dravidians which are found all over Western India from Kathiawar to Cape Comorin. The intriguing similarity extends from the subterranean structure found near them. Even the earthenware ring-stands used by the Dravidians and Nubians to hold pots were identical." According to Lal, the Nubian megaliths date from around 1000 B.C." (From here.)

Herodotus referred to the Sudra as the “eastern Ethiopians” and described them thus: “The Eastern Ethiopians differed in nothing from the other Ethiopians, save in their language, and the character of their hair. For the Eastern Ethiopians have straight hair, while they of Libya are more woolly-haired…” (Herodotus VI.70, The History, trans. George Rawlinson, Dutton)


Related reading: African Religion Predates Hinduism; A Tent for the Sun; The Afro-Asiatic Dominion; Wine Use in Antiquity; The Hapiru Were Devotees of Horus