A Coptic Monk Reflects on Genesis

Abuna Elia was one of the disciples of the monastic reformer, Abuna Mina el Muttawahad, who rejuvinated monasticism in Egypt in the 1940s and 1950s. Abuna Mina later became the Coptic Patriarch, Pope Kyrillos VI. 

Abuna Elia was the only one of Abuna Mina's original disciples who didn't become a bishop, an abbot, or a pope. He lived for about a decade as a solitary in a cave in the desert. Concerned monks of St. Bishoi (Pishoy) brought him to their monastery when he was no longer able to care for himself in the harsh desert environment. As the monks were carrying the aged monk into the monastery, Abuna Elia saw Mark Gruber, an American Benedictine monk and Catholic priest. Fr. Gruber was staying with the monks to conduct a year-long anthropological study. At the gate of the monastery, the aged monk turned to Fr. Gruber and said, "You are a Roman... You will want to see me; you will want to have some opportunity to talk with me." 

Fr. Gruber reponded, "Yes, Abuna. I would be very happy to see you." 

This fateful encounter led to numerous conversations between Abuna Elia and Fr. Gruber, and some of Abuna Elia's thoughts are presented in Fr. Gruber's books: Journey Back to Eden and Sacrifice in the Desert (Orbis Books). Journey Back to Eden is available to read online here.

 

In discussing Abuna Elia's understanding of Abraham's relationship to Sarah and Keturah, Fr. Gruber explains, "Abuna Elia was keen on preserving a sense of the unique character of Sarah, the 'princess' whose personality had no peerage for Abraham. The monogamy he bore to her was a reflex of the monotheism to which his faithfulness to Sarah predisposed him. So for Keturah, Abuna Elia supplied a commentary of remarkably modern ringing vintage: Keturah was the apical maternal ancestor of a Semitic people 'grandmothered' into Hebrew stock at the time after Joshua. They eventually embraced monotheism and so posthumously Abraham embraced them by the marital reference to her in Genesis. Analogously Abuna Elia observed that the dozen or so ethnic pilgrimage groups in Jerusalem recorded by St. Luke in the Pentecost narrative of the Acts of the Apostles are so included to give a kind of map of Christian missionary expansion when the Acts were written; as if they too were there at the Church’s birthday because they too shared the same Spirit… This is part of the economy of grace whereby Jews today share the Passover Night of Moses or Christians are present in the Upper Room, Calvary, the Empty Tomb and at the Ascension’s Trinitarian Embrace when they receive Communion. Abuna Elia also observed that if we take the marriage to Keturah on literal face value we have the oddity of trivializing the conception of Isaac regarded as so marvelous for Abraham’s (and Sarah’s) advanced age… 'After… my husband is so old, shall I have with him the pleasures of marriage?' (Gen. 19). But the children accorded to Abraham almost casually and offhandedly are born many years after Isaac without any sense of wonder noted. Indeed, a certain Keturah may well have received Abraham after the disaster at Moriah and she may be the ancestor of whom these peoples are descendents so named in Genesis. But their inclusion into the paternity of Abraham owes to her or her descendents accepting the seed of his faith rather than his natural procreative powers. Genesis is a book of the Table of the Nations where apical ancestry is a crucial element… And by faith and faith’s acceptance Genesis previews for us how Abraham becomes a father of many nations. Kinship and national formation through ancestry re-interpretation is rather lost on the atomized citizenry of contemporary western folk. But Egyptians (Hamites) and Semites retain a taste for this kind of meditation." 

There is difficulty in reconciling the apical view of Keturah with the kinship pattern revealed in Genesis king lists of Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36. Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the early Hebrew ruler-priests reveals that they had two wives. The first wife is the bride of the man's youth and usually a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife is necessary to establish a kingdom, and is usually a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. The wives resided in separate households on a north-south axis. Sarah resided in Hebron, and Keturah resided in Beersheba. These settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory in ancient Edom (called Idumea by the Greeks, meaning "Land of Red People.")

Abuna Elia's reflections on the Genesis narratives lift up a theological point or teach a spiritual lesson. They are midrash of a Coptic flavor. Midrash is beneficial only to the degree that it stays close to the biblical text. Problems arise when interpretation is layered on interpretation so that meaning strays rather far from the details of the text. This is when midrash becomes tangential to the overall picture of Genesis. (The Noahide interpretation of Nimrod is an example.) 

Most midrashim are based on the teachings of the Tannaim and can be dated to between 2 B.C. and 200 A.D. This means that the Rabbis were interpreting the Hebrew Bible at the same time that the early Church Fathers were expounding on the same Bible from a Christian perspective. The divergence of interpretation concerning Messianic passages is explained by the polemic of those centuries. 

In recent centuries Bible commentators relied more on Jewish interpretation and became less acquainted with the Patristic writings. Midrashic notions have influenced Christian interpretation. This seems to be changing as more commentators return to the biblical texts for closer observation. 

 

Fr. Mark Gruber recognized layers of midrash in his conversations with the Coptic monks. He asked them about an ostrich egg that hung between the ceiling oil lamps in the monastery chapel. He wanted to know of its significance and he was given different interpretations. One monk said that the egg was there to remind monks to keep their spiritual eyes fixed on God. Another explained that the ostrich warms its egg by gazing on it and that this reminds us that God’s gaze is always on us. 

Fr. Gruber decided on an experiment that involved empirical observation. While sitting in the chapel one night, Fr. Gruber "saw a scrawny desert rat crawling along a groove in the wall, creeping very slowly and with great stealth. It proceeded to slide down the wire till it came to the egg. However, when it tried to navigate the large smooth surface, it couldn’t get a grip. Its little claws had been so tightly closed around the wire that when it came to the egg, it couldn’t open them wide enough to hold onto it. So it slipped off the egg and fell to the ground. The rat seemed to be injured by the fall. It scurried away… So it turns out that the eggs actually have a practical purpose. They keep the rats away from the lamps, away from the oil reserve which they might otherwise try to drink, desert rats being omnivorous” (p. 171). 

This story illustrates the importance of observation in situ. An empirical approach to the Bible requires that we observe the fine details of the biblical narrative. We must not ignore details because they don't seem to align with our interpretations. Fr. Gruber reports that Abuna Elia still lives and has achieved a very ripe age. He tells me that "these monks have been known to live a long time."

Related reading: The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; The Chiefs of Edom; Hebrew Rulers With Two Wives

Teraphim: Idols or Ancestor Figurines?

Ancestor figurines from Central Africa

Alice C. Linsley

Genesis 31: 34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them.

The word teraphim is usually rendered "images" or "idols" but the word actually means the things pertaining to terah. Terah is an ancient word meaning priest. Abraham's father was called Terah, though this is likely a title, not a proper name. This is the case with other Biblical persons such as Lamech and Enoch.

The teraphim which Rachel hid from Laban were small clay figurines that represented Rachel and Jacob's common ancestor, the great Horite ruler-priest Terah. There would have been at least 2 figurines, 1 male and 1 female. Possibly there were 3 figurines: 1 male (representing Terah) and 2 females (representing Terah's wives). The set of three would have had great value as they represented Terah's kingdom.

Given the urgency of Rachel's actions, these figurines must have had great significance. According to Hurrian/Horite legal records, possession of the ancestor figurines validated claims of inheritance.

The Teraphim were likely clay figurines with perforations around the top of the head. The hair of the ancestor Terah would have been woven through these holes. Such perforated figurines, dating to as late as the time of King David, have been excavated in Israel and are preserved among Israel's antiquities.

The word teraphim appears in 1 Samuel 19:13 - "Michal took the teraphim and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with clothes." 

It is not certain if Michal covered ancestor figurines or sacred images/idols, or if she simply hoped these would serve as a decoy. However, it is clear that these are larger than the Horite Hebrew ancestor figurines Rachel hid under a saddle.

Clay figurines made with relics from an ancestor are carefully guarded by their families. These are passed from generation to generation, often through the mother's line as in the case of the Teraphim mentioned in Genesis 31. 

Terah the Younger's mother married Nahor and named her first-born son after her father, Terah the Elder. (For more on this see Bride's Naming Prerogative.) This was the naming practice of the cousin or niece bride and indicated to whose throne her first-born son would ascend. The first-born son of the patrilineal cousin served as a high official in the territory of his maternal grandfather.

Among Abraham's early Hebrew people great ancestor chiefs would be regarded as having as real a presence as living persons. Their relics would have been guarded by Terah's clan and passed from generation to generation through the mother's line. The custom is traced to West Central African and there is much physical and anthropological evidence for the practice.

The Sao culture in the Chari Valley of Cameroon produced elaborate human figure sculptures, representing deified ancestors. Carbon-14 dates for the Sao figurines date from the 5th century BC to the 18th century AD.

Small figurines of fired clay dating to the 6th century BC were excavated at Daima near Lake Chad, Noah's homeland. The figurines were simple animal figures in clay, produced by a population of Neolithic herdsmen. The Daima style is different from that more sophisticated Nok figurines, farther to the west. Nok was a fully Iron Age Culture, producing large, hollow sculptures in well-fired pottery, some of the stylistic features of which imply still earlier prototypes. 

In traditional African and Asian societies ancestors are honored by family and community in the homes and at shrines. These places hold relics of the ancestors. Contact with the relics is believed to stimulate awareness of the ancestors’ presence and produce trances whereby the living communicate with the dead.

The Yoruba of Nigeria believe that the Creator God "Olurun" is served by a pantheon of lesser deities called "Orisha". Figurines of honored orisha are guarded by families and clans. Voodoo practices of the Caribbean come from this west African religion. In voodoo ritual, a relic of hair, nail clippings or an item of clothing must be used to identify the figurine with a living person.


Related reading: Graven Images and Idols; Were Rachel and Leah Half-Sisters?; Why Rachel Didn't Trust Laban; Terah Means Priest

Abraham's Horite Mother (‘m)

Alice C. Linsley


Who was Abraham’s mother? Why is she nameless, given that Jewish identity is traced through the mother? Given Abraham’s prominence in Scripture, it seems odd that his mother should not be named, or her ancestry more precisely identified.

The Babylonian Talmud says that "Terah took a wife and her name was Amsalai, the daughter of Karnevo; and the wife of Terah conceived and bare him a son in those days." (Jasher 7:50) This connects her to the Horite Hebrew who maintained temples and shrines at high places (the kar). An example is Karnak on the Nile. Kar refers to a sheltered or fortified site with shrine priests. Karnak on the Nile and Carnak in Brittany are examples. In Dravidian car means "sheltered together" and kari refers to a river. In Manding kara means "to assemble." In ancient Sumerian Ekur (𒂍𒆳 É.KUR) refers to a mountain house, pyramid, or elevated temple. This same triple mountain symbol has been found on seals from the Indus Valley civilization.

Since the Kar were places of burnt offerings, the term is often associated with charcoal and soot. The Turkish kara means "black." In Magyar korom refers to soot, as does the Korean word kurim. Among the Nilotic Luo kar specifies a place with boundaries.

Abraham's mother may have been a daughter of a ruler of Kar Nebo or Har Nevo, that is, Mount Nebo. She probably was the daughter of a Horite priest. The evidence indicates that the Horites and the Sethites were Hebrew. Endogamy was a culture trait of these early Hebrew. The men married the daughters of Horite and Sethite Hebrew priests.

Analysis of the kinship pattern of Abraham’s people reveals that her father was Nahor the Elder. She married Terah and named their first-born son Nahor after her father. This means that Nahor was older than Abraham and explains why Nahor inherited Terah's territory.

Abraham’s mother and father were the children of Nahor by different wives. Both mothers were daughters of Terah the Elder who was likely a Horite. It may have been during his lifetime that the clans parted ways, some leaving Terah in Canaan (Ex. 33:28-29) for Mesopotamia.

Since both of Nahor’s wives were daughters of Terah the Elder, it is evident that Nahor married sisters who were his cousins. We find this pattern with Jacob and his wives Rachel and Leah. It appears that Terah sought his wives from among his mother’s people, just as Jacob did.

Where would Terah have gone to acquire his wives? He would have gone to his mother's people, to the clan of Terah in the land of Canaan. He would have gone to his Horite kin who lived between Mt. Hor near Petra and Mt. Hor near Sela. This is an important piece of information because it links Abraham’s father to the land of Canaan and identifies him as a Horite. Terah was named after his maternal grandfather Terah the Horite. This means that Abraham's mother was from Canaan.

The difficulty in tracing her line is due to the hidden third, Terah the Elder, Abraham's great grandfather. He represents the third of three earlier patriarchs: Nahor, Haran and Terah. From these three Afro-Asiatic chiefs come the later Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (See Three-Clan Confederations.)

The recurrence of 3 sons is a theme of Genesis. The 3 clan chiefs represent a unity so seeing the bigger picture of Abraham's people requires looking for all 3 sons, one of which is sometimes hidden. Gog Magog are mentioned in Gen. 10, but the third "Og" clan in this confederation is not mentioned until and Numbers 21:33.

The “Hidden Son” is a Messianic message that runs throughout the Bible. Christians believe that the Hidden Son is the divine person of Jesus Christ, the perfect fulfillment of all Messianic expectations and promises.

We note the persistence of the theme of 3 sons in these listings:

Gen. 4 - Cain, Abel, Seth
Gen. 4 - Jubal, Jabal, Tubal
Gen. 7 - Ham, Shem, Japheth
Gen. 11 - Haran, Nahor, Abraham

Exploring the identity of Abraham’s mother reveals another triad:

Terah the Elder, Joktan the Elder, and Nahor the Elder. These were great Afro-Asiatic chiefs whose territories were probably contiguous.

Abraham’s mother was a daughter of Terah the Elder and likely the sister of Keturah’s mother. (Keturah was Abraham's cousin bride.) If so, we can say that Terah the Elder and Joktan the Elder (Keturah's father) married sisters. We have seen this pattern before. Cain and his brother Seth married sisters, the noble daughters of an Proto-Saharan chief named Enoch/Enosh/Enos.

The Horites appear to have been a confederation of numerous clans including the House of Sheba and the House of Joktan. They were a caste of ruler-priests as is evidenced by their names.


Horite Names and Roots


Ancient Egyptian priest

One of Abraham's nephews was named Tebah. Tebah is related to the verb to sacrifice and to the noun that denotes the lamb, ram, calf or bull that is to be slaughtered. The verb used for the sacrificial Messianic offering in Isaiah 53:7, and the release of all nations in Isaiah 34:2. A descendant of Tebah served as a Temple gatekeeper according to I Chronicles 26:11.

Another of Abraham's nephews was Tahash.  Exodus 25:5 speaks of "5 rams' skins dyed red, and tahash skins; acacia wood."  This suggests that he was in the priestly caste. These were called sarki in the ancient Afro-Asiatic world. The sarki sacrificed animals and tanned the hides. God acts as the first sarki when He sacrifices animals to make coverings for the man and the woman (Gen. 3:21). Today Sarki live in the Orissa province of India, and as rulers in Orisha, Nigeria. They are also in the Tarai region of Nepal. Sometimes they are called Har-wa which is the ancient Egyptian word for Horite priest. Today the Buddhist priests of central Asia wear attire very similar to the priests of ancient Egypt.

One of Abraham's descendants was Buz, the grandfather of Yeshishai, the Aramaic form of Yeshua/Jesus (I Chronicles 5:14).  This connects Jesus' name with the devotees of Horus. Buz is grouped with the peoples of Dedan and Tema in Jeremiah 25:23. This Horite confederation is identified as Dedan, Tema and Buz. Abraham and his mother spoke languages like ancient Dedanite, the language of the Arabian Kushites.

Dedanite and the other North Arabian dialects have much in common with Old Egyptian. This is evident in the Dedanite and Egyptian use of the root MR. In both languages the word for woman is mr’t. This is related to the Egyptian word mer, meaning love. The word for mother in Egyptian and Dedanite is ‘m . 

Related reading: Abraham's Maternal Line; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Horite Mounds; The Horite Ethnicity of Abraham and David; Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles

Nimrod: Talmudic Legend vs Biblical Account

On the weird side, but deserving of notice is this far-fetched interpretation of Nimrod:

“While still in Chaldea, Nimrod demanded that Abram acknowledge him as a god. When Abram refused, he was thrown into a fiery furnace. His brother, Haran, had thought to side with Abram if he survived, but if not, with Nimrod. When Abram came out of the furnace alive, he declared that Abram’s belief in the One Gd was true. Haran, however, did not survive the furnace.”

Source: NoahideNations.Com

In reality, Nimrod was a Kushite kingdom builder (Gen. 10:8). Following the pattern of his ruler-priest ancestors, he would have had two wives. One was likely established in Ninevah and the other in Calah.  One wife would have been Nimrod's half-sister and the other would have been his patrilineal parallel cousin.  This is the same marriage pattern seen with Abraham and with Moses.

Ancient Kush encompassed Ethiopia and eastern Sudan, essentially the entire region of the Upper Nile Valley. The Kushites were great kingdom builders during the height of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Nimrod, is specifically mentioned as having a territory that ranged between Ninevah and Calah. He was the son of Kush.

Calvin on God's Motive in Creation

Alice C. Linsley

Is divine love a sufficient motive for creation? John Calvin thought so.

In considering human relations, we observe that love stimulates creative attitudes and actions. I see this in my students. Those reared in loving and supportive homes tend to approach life with gusto and ingenuity. Some who have little nurture at home find their salvation in creativity. I can think of several students who failed their core subjects but flourished in art class or drama.

Love is generative and when the creator destroys, it is to generate anew. I think of my youngest daughter. She struggled in school but her accomplishments in art and drama were remarkable. Her art teacher often found my daughter starting over, crushing the clay, shredding the paper, sweeping the canvas clean in an effort to achieve her vision. 

The Scriptures speak of how God prunes the branches that do not produce fruit so that the tree will be more productive. The tree is not destroyed, only the branches that do not fulfill their purpose.

Here is John Calvin's view:

Therefore, God created all men in love, not in hatred." And again, "No beast is so cruel (to say nothing of man) that it would desire to create its young to misery. How much less, then, shall such a desire be found in God! Would not God in such a case of creation be less kind and merciful than the wolf which He has created?" Christ argues in this way: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall God?" (Matt. vii. 11.) It is just thus that your adversaries argue. They say, If Calvin, though an evil man, yet would not wish to beget a child unto misery, how much less shall God desire to do so? These and like arguments your opponents bring forward with respect to nature.

But with reference to the Scripture they reason thus: God saw that "all things" which He had made were "very good." Such therefore was man, whom also He had made "very good." But what if God created him to destruction? If such be the case, God created that which "was very good" to destruction and perdition, and therefore He must love to destroy! But that is a thing impious, even in thought. And again, they argue: God created one man and placed him in Paradise, which is a life of happiness. Therefore God created all men for a happy life, for all men were created in the one man. And if all men fell in Adam, it follows that all men stood in Adam, and also in the very condition in which Adam stood. And further, God says, "I would not the death of a sinner;" and again, it is written that God "willeth not that any should perish, but that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. ii. 4). Farther, if God created the greatest part of the world to perdition, it follows that His anger is greater than His mercy, and it consequently follows also that His anger is strewn" unto the third and fourth generation." Whereas, "it is evident, on the contrary, that His mercy extends " even unto the thousandth generation!"

Source: Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics

Related reading: John Calvin on Genesis; John Wesley on Genesis; Martin Luther on Genesis; Patrick Henry Reardon on Genesis

Nimrod was an Afro-Asiatic Kingdom Builder



This small population living in the Andaman Islands (India) migrated from East Africa. Their ancestors are believed to have migrated from Africa between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago. Another Kushite migration took place later. See Clyde A. Winters' The Kushite Spread of Haplogroup R1*-M173 from Africa to Eurasia, here: http://maxwellsci.com/print/crjbs/v2-294-299.pd Current Research Journal of Biological Sciences 2(5): 294-299, 2010 ISSN: 2041-0778 © Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2010

Alice C. Linsley


Before Alexander the Great there was Nimrod or Sargon the Great! That's what Genesis tells us. Nimrod was a sent-away son because his brother Ramah inherited Kush's territory in southwest Arabia. Other sent-away sons who became great rulers include Kain, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and David.

Nimrod's brother was Ramah who assumed rule over his father's territory in Arabia (the area of Dedan-Ramah). Nimrod left Kush's territory for the Tigrus-Euphrates River Valley where he established his kingdom and built cities. The ruling lines of Ramah and Nimrod continued to intermarry, following the pattern of the ruler-priests, but the geographical distance was to be felt in the way that Arabic (Dedan-Ramah) and Aramaic (Haran-Ur) developed.

We first meet Abraham in the region of Haran and Ur because he is a descendant of Nimrod.

Nimrod is an important clue in piecing together the migration of Nilo-Saharan peoples from Africa to Mesopotamia, Turkey and India. (Remember Dr. Lalji Singh's samples from 46 Onge in India? His research reveals that this tribal group living at the eastern edge of the Bay of Bengal came originally from Africa.

Kush is an older name for the the Upper Nile, or ancient Nubia. The region extended from Sudan to the Horn of Africa and along the eastern side of the Red Sea. The oldest known agricultural tradition in Africa is traced to this region and dates to about 3800 BC.

Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord" was the son of Kush, according to Genesis 10:8. The term "mighty hunter" is related to the Hausa term for lead or chief hunter - sarkin maharba. The name Nim-rwd tells us about the extent of his rule. It means "waters of the earth" and reflects the ancient Afro-Asiatic riverine civilization which I have termed "the Afro-Asiatic Dominion."  It was indeed as expansive as Nimrod's name suggests.  It expresses the idea of universal rule such as is ascribed to God in Psalm 104.

Nimrod's cultural context was more Nilotic than Mesopotamian. Bible commentators assign Nimrod to a Mesopotamian cultural context because they generally do not recognize that Abraham's people were ethnically Kushite and spoke languages much older than Hebrew.  The language of Nimrod's kingdom was likely Sumero-Akkadian.

The rabbis argue that the name Nimrod comes from the Semitic root מרד (MRD) meaning "to rebel", but the Hebrew specialist Jeff Benner maintains that the root MRD (marad) gives us the words MaRauDer and MuRDer.

However, I believe that name is related to the Hausa word for hunter, which is maharba (MRB). Hausa is in the same language family as Egyptian, Arabic, Hebrew and the Akkadian of Nimrod's empire. The name emphasizes the hunter-warrior nature of this great kingdom builder. Compare the word nahshirkan (hunter) which appears in the Targum with the Hausa word for lead hunter sarkin maharba.

Nimrod's cultural context is Afro-Asiatic or what the Bible calls "Kushite" and he is named as a son of Kush in Genesis 10:8.  He is connected to the Mesopotamian city of Calah (Akkadian 'Kalhu'). This was the northern point of his territory, consistent with the practice of Kushite chiefs who established territories on a north-south axis. Nimrod's territory extended along the Tigris River between Calah and probably Ashur. (Likewise, Terah's between Ur and Haran, and Abraham's between Hebron and Beersheba.)

Afro-Asiatic chiefs controlled the waterways and established their settlements on a north-south axis. As with Sargon, they also controlled the ridges. (The legend of Sargon says, "The brothers of my father loved the hills.") They controlled the high places. A high place was a shrine city called kar or har. The people of these high places were called Ar. The designation of Ar is found in the Bible in reference to important biblical figures and places: Wadi Arnun (Ar-nxn, meaning Ar of Onn); Arabia; Aram; Arpachshad, A-amaic; Arsames, the satrap, Arod and Areli.

There is sufficient reason to believe that Nimod did live. Calah on the Tigris River is the present city of Nimrud. There also is a city southwest of Babylon named Birs Nimrwd. Nimrwd's name appears on tablets found in Palestine also. In 1876, George Smith wrote that, "Nearly thirteen hundred years before the Christian era, one of the Egyptian poems likens a hero to the Assyrian chief, Kazartu, a great hunter...and it has already been suggested that the reference here is to the fame of Nimrod. A little later in the period BC 1100 to 800, we have in Egypt many persons named after Nimrod, showing a knowledge of the mighty hunter there." (Chaldean Genesis p. 313)

Actually, the words nim and rwd have a Nilotic origin. A great Kushite ruler Nimlot controlled the waterways between Arvad on the Mediterranean and Sidon on the Red Sea. Abraham's nephew, Lot, was kin to the great Nimlot, as is attested by Deuteronomy 2:9 where we read that God gave Ar to Lot's descendants the Moabites. The ancient 3-clan confederation of Ar included the island kingdom of Arvad and the Arkites (Gen. 10:15-18). 

The Arvadites had close Egyptian ties and paid tribute to the Kushite Pharaohs for protection. The Kushite Pharaoh Tahar-ko called the land of Canaan and Syria “Khor” which is a compound of K for Kush and Hor for Horus. (Kash, Kwash, Akwanski and Kush are cognates referring to the First People, who were considered deified ancestors.)  In 2010, the 4400 year old tomb of a Kushite priest was found at Giza. The tomb belongs to a priest named Rwd-Ka (Ruler of the Sphere) and dates to the 5th Dynasty, between 2465 and 2323 B.C. He is recognized as a very high ranking ruler-priest.

The older Kushitic root of the names Arkite and Arvadite is AR and its origin is likely Proto-Saharan. Among the Igbo of Nigeria, the scribe clans were called Ar or Aro. They are also known for their skill in hunting and war.

The word Arab means “father is scribe.” The earliest known writing originated in Canaan among the coastline peoples of the Red Sea and Phoenicia. The oldest Arabic texts were found in the region of Dedan. The Arabic word for throne is aarsh and related to the scribal function attached to rulers.

These references from antiquity testify to the Kushite expansion out of Africa. This expansion was driven by the unique marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham's Kushite people.  Each Kushite ruler had two wives. The first wife was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second was a patrilineal cousin or niece (as was Keturah to Abraham).  The firstborn son of the sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father, so Isaac was Abraham's heir. The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. So Joktan, Abraham's firstborn by Keturah, ascended to the throne of Joktan the Elder, Keturah's father. All other sons were given gifts and sent away to establish territories of their own with God's help.


Related reading:  Hittite Religion; Who were the Kushites?; Abraham's Nephews and Niece; Peleg: Time of Division; The Migration of Abraham's Ancestors

GLTB Activists Must Destroy the Priesthood

Geoffrey Kirk has been listening to Bishop Gene Robinson and finds him percipient in his understanding of the issues

What would we do without Gene Robinson? He is the bellwether of the liberal agenda. Like God himself, if he did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.

Long ago, when women's ordination was no more than an idea in the mind of Christian Howard, many of us were warning that gay marriages and gay bishops were the logical corollaries. Of course we were ridiculed. The issues were discrete and distinct, it was said. No connection between them could reasonably be posited. Evangelicals in favour of women's ordination were especially adamant on the subject. I recall one particular Archdeacon...but it would be churlish to mock the retired.

Now Gene (bless him!) has come forward with a belated vindication of all those fears - as if the progress of the agenda were not now plain for all to see. Gene was addressing a conference of gay American Roman Catholic priests (like diligent Pharisees, revisionist liberals will encompass sea and land to make one proselyte, and with the same result). He concluded with the following advice: 'It's too dangerous for you to come out as gay to your superiors, but I believe that if you work for the ordination of women in your church, you will go a long way toward opening the door for the acceptance of gay priests.'

Read it all here.

Gay activists pose women priests and gay priests as essential developments for their egalitarian religion. Both represent an attempt to destroy the priesthood as a unique sign of the Pleromic Blood of Jesus, a sign of salvation, and a mystery whereby we recognize God's binary order order in creation.

They oppose the binary worldview of the Bible. Trans activist Riki Wilchins, writing in the gay magazine The Advocate, says that the real goal that fellow gay and trans activists should be pushing for is “blowing up the binary.”


Related reading: The SexRev Tipping Point by Rod Dreher; Genesis on Homosex: Beyond Sodom; Is Opposition to Homosexual Activity Irrational? by Thomas Stork; Some Thoughts on Sex; More Thoughts on Sex

Newsweek: Authority on the Bible?

Newsweek has ventured into deep waters with this latest effort to present a case for biblical acceptance of homosexuality. The piece drips with sarcasm and ignorance. Here is an excerpt:

"Segal says, if you believe that the Bible was written by men and not handed down in its leather bindings by God, then that verse was written by people for whom polygamy was the way of the world. (The fact that homosexual couples cannot procreate has also been raised as a biblical objection, for didn't God say, "Be fruitful and multiply"? But the Bible authors could never have imagined the brave new world of international adoption and assisted reproductive technology—and besides, heterosexuals who are infertile or past the age of reproducing get married all the time.)

Ozzie and Harriet are nowhere in the New Testament either. The biblical Jesus was—in spite of recent efforts of novelists to paint him otherwise—emphatically unmarried. He preached a radical kind of family, a caring community of believers, whose bond in God superseded all blood ties. Leave your families and follow me, Jesus says in the gospels. There will be no marriage in heaven, he says in Matthew. Jesus never mentions homosexuality, but he roundly condemns divorce (leaving a loophole in some cases for the husbands of unfaithful women)."

Fact: Having more than one wife was not "the way of the world". Only Afro-Asiatic chiefs maintained multiple wives; even then they had only two, maintained in separate households on a north-south axis. This is very clear from a study of the kinship pattern of Abraham's people. The 2 wives at opposite poles represent the binary worldview of the ancient Afro-Asiatics from whom Israel emerged. In this binary worldview homosexuality would be regarded as disordered and ontologically contrary to observable Reality.

Gay activists argue that homosexuality is observed in nature and therefore must be a feature of God's order in creation. No one is ignoring this fact. However, the universal pattern is heterosexuality. Homosexuality, as the anomaly, simply underscores the pattern.

We can't argue that the apparent convergence of Jupitar and Venus is the pattern when such a phenomena occurs rarely. We notice the phenomena because it isn't the norm.

God's Motive for Creation

Concerning the motive for the creation in the mind of God, the Orthodox Confession and the Longer Orthodox Catechism express it thus: The world was created by God “so that other beings glorifying Him, might be participants of His goodness.”

The idea of the mercy and goodness of God, as expressed in the creation of the world, is to be found in many Psalms, such as Psalms 102 and 103 (“Bless the Lord, O my soul”), which call on one to glorify the Lord and give thanks for one's existence and for all of God's providence.

The same thoughts are expressed by the Fathers of the Church. Blessed Theodoret writes, “The Lord God has no need of anyone to praise Him; but by His goodness alone He granted existence to angels, archangels, and the whole creation.” Further, “God has need of nothing; but He, being an abyss of goodness, deigned to give existence to things which did not exist.” St. John Damascene says (as we have just seen), “The good and transcendentally good God was not content to contemplate Himself, but by a superabundance of goodness saw fit that there should be some things to benefit by and participate in His goodness.”

Read it here.