The Age of Earth

A reader of Just Genesis has sent 9 questions which she would like for me to address. I will post answers to these questions in the next few weeks. The first question is: "What do you believe about the age of the Earth?"

Answer: I believe that science is a reliable source of information about the age of the Earth and that science and Scripture are not in conflict on this question.

The Earth is at least 3.5 billion years old because the oldest Earth rocks date to about 3.5 billion years. These are dated using several radiometric dating methods. Rocks dating to 3.5 billion years have been found on five continents. Some of these rocks include minerals which are as old as 4.2 billion years. Rocks of this age are fairly rare however.

Most scientists place the Earth's age at between 4.2 and 4.55 billion years and the universe at about 14 billion years. (For more on this, go here.)

Bishop Usher's dating of the Earth at 10,000 years is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the Genesis genealogies, some of which are telescopic, leaving out some of the ruler-priests who might have appeared in a complete sequential listing. He also didn't recognize that Cain and Seth, who are presented as the offspring of Adam and Eve, lived at a time when tribal government, laws and religious offices were already well established.

Analysis of the Genesis 4 and 5 geneological information reveals that Cain and Seth married sisters who were the daughters of an African chief named Nok (Enoch). The Nok civilization was in west central Africa and is dated to between 30,000 and 2000 years ago. Cain lived closer to the time of Noah's flood (about 8000 years ago) than he did to the time of the appearance of the oldest known human fossils dating to 160,000 years ago.

The 160,000 date for the first "modern humans" is disputed by some who believe that older fossils dating to 3 million years also represent human populations despite the nomenclature of convergence evolutionists and the artistic drawings of ape-like creatures.

Scientists have found a fish dating to 350 million years and the Fossil Fuels Brewing Company produces beer from a yeast strain that has lain dormant for up to 45 million years.

To read the various theories of creation, go here.

Missionary Horite Priests

Alice C. Linsley

Olupero R. Aiyenimelo, a member of the Biblical Anthropology Group and a reader of Just Genesis has asked about the evidence that connects traditional religion of Nigeria (her homeland) with religion of the Afro-Asiatics who influenced religious practices in India. She is interested in this after reading an essay I wrote on “Linguistic Evidence for the Afro-Asiatic Dominion”. Olupero noted that the Nigerian word ‘Orisha’ is linguisticsally equivalent to the word 'Orissa' found in India and this prompted Olu's curiosity.

Here I will reproduce some of the linguistic evidence for the diffusion of the Afro-Asiatic worldview, but mostly I’d like to address Olupero’s curiosity and focus on the evidence for an ancient order of priests (not shamans) who were largely responsible for the spread of the Afro-Asiatic religion and worldview.

What is meant by the “Afro-Asiatic Dominion”?

I coined the term “Afro-Asiatic Dominion” for lack of a better way to speak of the apparent correspondence of religious concepts and practices diffused across a vast area extending from west central Africa to the Indus River Valley and even among the Sarki who live as ‘Haruwa’ (priests) in the Tarai region of Nepal.

In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) the Afro-Asiatic Dominion is suggested by the correspondence of western (Afro) and eastern (Asiatic) traditions. The distinct traditions are seen in a detailed study of the 2 creation stories and the 2 flood stories, and in the consistent binary framework of both traditions. (For more on this read “Eden’s Flood East and West”.)

My thesis, based on 32 years of research, is that Afro-Asiatic religious beliefs and practices were spread largely through the agency of priestly lines who intermarried according to a specific kinship pattern that I have identified. These were ruler-priests who exercised control of water systems at a time when west central Africa, Mesopotamia and India were wetter.

Further evidence of common religious views is found in the linguistic comparison of cognate languages and religious words used among peoples who share the Afro-Asiatic religious heritage. Consider the following examples:

The Semitic word ‘wadi’ = river, corresponds to the Sanskrit ‘nadi’ = river.

The Semitic root ‘mgn’ = to give, is the same as the Sanskrit ‘mgn’ = to give.

The Hebrew ‘rison adam’ = ancestral man is ‘adamu orisa’ = ancestral Adam in Hahm/Hausa languages of Nigeria. The Hausa word for human being is ‘dan adam.’ The Sanskrit word for male human is ‘manu’ which resembles the African word ‘adamu’ more closely than the Hebrew word.

The Hebrew ‘adamah’ = red clay/ground and the related Semitic words ‘dam’ = blood and ‘adom’ = red, are related to the Hahm/Hausa word ‘odum’ = reddish brown.

The Hebrew ‘bara’ = to begin, is related to the Yoruba/Hahm word ‘bere’ = to begin. There is an apparent relationship between the verb ‘to begin’ and the word Creator which in Hebrew is ‘bore’ and in the African Twi dialect is ‘Borebore’ = Creator.

The Hebrew ‘hay’ = ‘living being’, is related to the Hausa/Hahm word ‘aye’ = life, created world. Likewise, the Hebrew ‘iya’ = mother, corresponds to the Dravidian ‘ka ayi’ = mother, and the Hausa/Hahm ‘eyi’ = gave birth.

The Hebrew ‘abba’ = father, corresponds to the Hausa/Hahm ‘baba’ = father, to the Dravidian ‘appa’ = father, and to the Mundari ‘apu’.

The Hebrew ‘ha’nock’ = the chief, corresponds to the Hahm word ‘nok’ = “first ancestral chief”. The words Adam and Nok are paralleled in the Hebrew of Psalm 8:4 indicating recognition of both the mythical first father (Adam) and the historical ancestor-father (Nok) of the peoples descending from Nok (Enoch), the father-in-law of Kain and his brother Seth (Genesis 4 and 5).

The Hausa word for hunter is maharba. Compare this to the Hebrew word that appears in the Targum ‘nah shirkan’ (meaning hunter) and note the similarity to the Hausa word ‘sarkin maharba’ (meaning lead hunter).

The Sanskrit ‘svah’ = sky or heaven, corresponds to the Semitic ‘svam’ or ‘Sam-yim’ = sky or heaven. The Semitic resembles the Proto-Dravidian word ‘van’ = heaven. The Spanish ‘desvan’ (attic, rooftop) comes from the Arabic-speaking Moors.

The Sanskrit ‘Sakti’ = wine in Tantric use at harvest moon celebration, is the linguistic equivalent of the Falasha word ‘Sarki’ = harvest moon festival. For more on this read http://www.scribd.com/doc/13982742/Sakti-and-Sakta-John-Woodroffe-E)

Sarki also means ruler among the people of Kano (biblical Kain), who today are called the Kanuri. They reside in west central Africa which is where Noah and his ancestors lived according to the Genesis genealogical data. Sarki are also a people group who live in the Orissa Province of India. So here we have a linguistic coneection between India and Nigeria and it has to do with the ruler-priests who spread the Afro-Asiatic worldview. They went even beyond India into Nepal. We see that this is so because Sarki also live as ‘Haruwa’ in the Tarai region of Nepal. The word Haruwa is equivalent to the ancient Egyptian word ‘Harwa”, meaning priest.

Another word for priest is the Hebrew ‘Kohen’, equivalent to the Arabic ‘Khouri’ or ‘Kahin’ and the Persian ‘Kaahen’. Kaahen relates to the Persian ‘Kaahenaat’ which is translated "timeless being". This word is related to ‘Kahenat’ which means priest in the Ethiopian Church.

The Hebrew ‘yasuah’ = salvation, corresponds to the Sanskrit words ‘asvah’, ‘asuah’ or ‘yasuah’ = salvation.The Hebrew root ‘thr’ = to be pure, corresponds to the Hausa/Hahm ‘toro’ = clean, and to the Tamil ‘tiru’ = holy. All are related to the proto-Dravidian ‘tor’ = blood.

The Hebrew ‘echad’ or ‘ehat’ = one, corresponds to the Syrian ‘eka’ and to the Sanscrit ‘eca’ = one. It is a cognate to ‘ikka’ = one, in the Gonga languages of southeast Ethiopia.

As many ancient Afro-Asiatic peoples used base 6 in counting and as the basis for their calendars, the number six is a significant indicator of related languages. Consider the following:The number six in Proto-Dravidian is ‘caru’. This correlates to ‘koro’ in South Africa; to ‘karkia’ in some Chadic Languages; and to ‘korci’ in Meidob (eastern Sudan). The most striking similarity is between the Kanembu (Sudan) ‘araku’ and the Tamil ‘aarru’.

There are numerous other examples of linguistic affinity between peoples living in what was the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Linguists have noted these correspondences. Further, we can identify eight key features of ancient Afro-Asiatic religion. They are features that we find prominently in the Bible. They include belief in the Son of God who was expected to come into the world.

From the beginning, God has made known what He has wanted us to know about the coming of the Beloved Son.


Related reading:  Who Were the Horites?; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology

On the Light Side

Noah was the greatest financier in the Bible. Why?
Because he was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.


Why didn't they play cards on the Ark?
Because Noah was standing on the deck. (Groan .....)

St Basil on the Creation of Man

God creates Eve from Adam's side.

On Harmony of Thunder you may hear St. Basil's final sermon from the Hexaemeron (the six days of creation). This sermon focuses on the pinnacle of creation - Man - made in the Image of God, the only creature made after God's Kind.

In this ultimate act of the six days of creation, God ceases creating. On the seventh day begins the Sabbath rest of God and Man in perfect communion until death entered the world by disobedience.

This Podcast can be heard here. You may also read the text of St. Basil's sermon here.


Related reading:  Basil the Great's First Sermon on Creation; Who Was St. Basil the Great?; St. Basil Engages the Pagans

Avoiding Heresy and Syncretism

Alice C. Linsley


Many heresies spring from failure to apply basic critical thinking skills. Such is the case with the Episcopal Church's sexual ethics, with most feminist biblical interpretation, and with gender-neutral Bibles. These represent erroneous and non-biblical anthropology in that they fail to preserve, and even obfuscate, the celestial pattern that is universally observed in the order of creation and which presented throughout the Bible.

The Bible has a binary framework. The binary feature is evident in the binary sets: sun-moon; male-female; heaven-earth, east-west, and life-death.This worldview emerges out of the acute observations of Abraham's Proto-Saharan ancestors. The binary distinctions are observed universally in nature and experienced on the most fundamental level of existence. The biblical worldview is not concerned with relative or subjective opposites such as tall-short, talented-untalented, dark skin-light skin, intelligent-unintelligent, etc., but rather speaks about what is real ontologically. There is no fantasy world where women serve as priests. The notion of women priests is antithetical to the Biblical worldview.

The Horite ruler-priests honored many realities, and were careful not to violate the boundaries they perceived to have been established by Horus, the Seed of God. The ancient priests saw boundaries in earth's geometry. From the tops of high mountains they noted the curvature of the Earth at dawn and dust. They "oriented" themselves by facing east as the Sun rose. Ancient towers and temples reflected the sacred geometry and cosmology of their builders. The differing geometric shapes of the temples of the Horite Sabians (Afro-Arabian Dedanites) associated the hexagon with Saturn, the triangle with Jupiter, the rectangle with Mars, the square with the Sun, the octagon with the Moon, and a triangle within a quadrangle with Venus

Abraham's Nilotic ancestors conceived of the cosmos as God's sacred pyramid or temple. As the Sun rose, God entered the temple from the east. As the Sun set, God left the temple toward the west. Rulers were buried in pyramids with the hope that they would rise with the Sun and lead their people in procession to immortality. St. Paul refers to this belief when he writes about how Christ rose from the grave, leading captives in his train. (Ephesians 4:7-9)

This is the symbolism of the sand scarab, which comes out of the sand when the Sun rises and returns to the sand as night approaches. The sand scarab represents the Sun's journey and life after death (repose). The female sand beetle lays her eggs in the sand and when the eggs hatch, she is no longer, because she gives her body to be eaten by her newborn young (cf. Jesus' words, "This is my Body given for you...").

For Abraham's Horite ancestors, the Sun and the scarab spoke to them of their deity, HR (Horus in Greek). He was regarded with his father Ra as the marker of boundaries. Horos (oros in Greek) refers to the boundaries of an area, or a landmark, or a term. From horoscome the English words hour, horizon and horoscope. The association of Horus with the horizon is seen in the word Har-ma-khet, meaning Horus of the Horizon. Today the word horoscope connotes astrology, but the word original meant "observer of the hours", from hora (time or hour) and skopos (observer or watcher).

In the time of Abraham's ancestors, the priests of Horus (called "Horites") were dedicated to observation of the planets and constellations. They observed that the planets and the constellations have an orderly clock-like movement. They conceived of this order as fixed and established by the generative force which makes existence possible (logos, nous, ruach, etc.) The Horite priests were the earliest known astronomers and it is likely that horo is a reference to their celestial archetypes surrounding Horus, the son of Ra, born to Hathor-Meri. Hathor-Meri's animal totem was a cow. She is shown at the Dendura Temple holding her newborn son in a manger or stable.

The Horites were devotees of HR (Hor, Hur, Har or Horus) whose mother Hathor-Meri conceived miraculously by the overshadowing of the Sun (the Creator's emblem). Horus is the archetype by which Abraham's descendants would recognize Jesus as the promised Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15). His authentication was His rising from the dead on the third day, in accordance with Horite expectation. In a 5 day ceremony, the Nilotic peoples fasted as a sign of grief for the death of Horus at the hand of his brother. On the third day the priests led processions to the fields where grain was sowed as a sign of Horus' rising to life. Jesus described his death as a seed of grain falling into he ground and dying (John 12:20-26). St. Augustine noted that the Egyptians took great care in the burial of their dead and never practiced cremation, as in the religions that seek to escape physical existence. Abraham's ancestors believed in the resurrection of the body and awaited a deified king who would rise from the grave and deliver his people from death.

Horus marked the boundaries and established the "kind" (essences). He guarded the four directional points and controlled the water and the wind. The Harmattan trade wind that blows from the northeast and east across the Sahara was named for Horus. The word is comprised of the biradicals HR for Horus and MT meaning order. The Nilotic peoples were probably the first to invent the sail because the prevailing wind blows south while the Nile (Hapi) flows north. Horus was invoked to send favorable wind. The four winds sometimes appeared as birds at the four quarters of the heavens announcing the accession of Horus' deified ruler on earth. On the walls of Amenemhat's burial chamber at Hawara Horus is depicted at the cardinal points and associated with the resurrection of the ruler. The four forms of Horus top the canopic jars holding the ruler's organs.

The male-female distinction

One of the most important binary distinctions upheld by Abraham's people is the male-female distinction. They associated maleness with the Sun and femaleness with the Moon. This association extended to semen and milk. The Sun inseminates the earth with its light and warmth and the Moon, which influences tides and body fluids, stimulates female reproduction and lactation. The ancients observed a relationship between the lunar cycle and the periodicity of the menstrual cycle. In France, menstruation is called le moment de la lune.

The binary distinctions were the basis for law and religious practice in the Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Both law and religion recognized that one of the opposites is always greater in some way. The Sun’s light is greater than moonlight. Males are stronger and larger than females. Heaven is more glorious than earth, and life is superior to death. Only in this last category is the feminine greater than the masculine, because the blood of menstruation and childbirth speaks of life, whereas the blood drawn by men in war, hunting and animal sacrifice speaks of death.

Because the Creator wants the distinction between life and death to be clear at all times to all peoples, He established this distinction between the “blood work” of women and men. This distinction between the two bloods is important for understanding the origins of the Christian priesthood, an office ontologically exclusive to males, since only men were priests.

There is no ontological difference between male and female. Both are human and both are fully in the image of God. Both crown the Creation, being created on the 6th day. Yet it is obvious that men and women are different. The Bible understands the difference as supplementarity. To understand the biblical worldview we must grasp its binary feature and the concept of supplementarity. These must be held together to avoid heresy and understand what the Bible teaches us about the created order and about the Creator.

In a sense, the woman is the gemstone of the crown of creation. This explains the gravity of Eve's sin. She who was created as the crown of the creation, the peak of the pyramid, inverted the order of creation when she submitted herself to the will of a creature who slithers along the earth. That is Eve's sin. Yet the Creator redeems the situation through The Woman (Gen. 3:15) from whom Christ became flesh by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. If we say that the woman is of a substance different from the man, we fall into heresy, because that would mean that the substance of Christ is different from the substance of men.

The Faith we've received from the Afro-Asiatics through Abraham recognizes a distinction and supplementarity between male and female when it comes to the order of creation. The man was made first, then the woman. The headship of males was expressed in the blood work of hunting, war, execution of lawbreakers, and in animal sacrifice by the ruler-priest. Anglicans who ordain women as priests, but not as bishops, on the "principle of headship" are missing the point! The pattern is about the blood work. The priest takes the life of the animal in sacrifice to make atonement for sin.

The blood work of women is distinct and speaks of life. Women sacrifice blood in first marital intercourse. They bleed in their monthly cycle and in childbirth. The blood shed of women is distinct yet supplementary to the blood shed by men in hunting, war and animal sacrifice.

The prohibition against mixing types, be they fibers, seeds or blood, is like the prohibition against confusing the holy with the unholy, or blurring the distinction between life and death, such as happens when a baby goat is boiled in its mother's milk (forbidden 3 places in Scripture). That is why each seed is to go to its own kind. As plants are born from the earth, so the seeds of plants return to the earth. As the man is born from the woman, so the seed/semen of man is to return to woman. The spilling of seed called 'onanism' is regarded as an unrighteous deed, a violation of the order of creation. So obviously is homosex.

Bloods were never permitted to mix or even to be present in the same space. And of course, this is what Orthodox and Catholic Christians say about the Eucharist, where Christ's Blood alone is to be present. That is why, according to ancient instruction in the Priests' Manuals, the priest must immediately leave the Holy Place should he in inadvertently cut himself and bleed. This is why women never can be priests and why they are "churched" after childbirth, following the ancient custom.

God's ordering of creation is for the benefit of those who would know God's Nature (as St. Paul tells us in Romans). As male and female alike are in God's Image, and God is not divided, neither can we divide in substance the male and the female. In marriage the two are able to become one because they are of the same "kind" and supplementary. Supplementary means that one cannot be perceived to exist without the other. This is a picture of the Godhead - for the Father and the Son (Logos) can't be perceived to exist one from the other. To say that the Word became flesh is to say that the Son of God became human in order to redeem and restore believing humanity to our original state. We fall into heresy when we leave out the part about the "Son" of God. The language of Father and Son is not coincidental to what God is revealing to us. The Father delivers the Kingdom to the Son. The Father presents the Church as a pure and radiant Bride to the Son.

The supplementarity of opposites is evident only when their distinctions are maintained. Satan directs a good deal of effort to blurring distinctions by encouraging androgenous dress, homosex, the ordination of women to the priesthood, and by fanning the flames of feminist rhetoric. However, if we attend to the binary distinctions of the created order which God declared "good" and we affirm their supplementarity, we are less likely to stray from path of life, which is not a path so much as it is the person of Jesus Christ.


Related reading: The Binary Aspect of the Biblical Worldview; Genesis on Homosex: Beyond Sodom; The Importance of Binary Distinctions; God as Male Priest; Mary and the Origins of Life; Ideologies Opposed to Holy Tradition; The Biblical Meaning of Eve; Impressions of the New American Anglicanism

Commonly Asked Questions about Genesis

Today a reader of Just Genesis e-mailed a list of nine meaty questions. She is a very sharp lady, a medical doctor and Jill-of-many-trades, living on the KY/OH/VW border. I asked for and received her permission to post the questions here:

1. What do you believe about the age of the earth? (Answer is here.)

2. Do you believe in a literal 6-day creation? (Answer is here.)

3. Do you believe in evolution of man or was he created out of dust, fully formed? (Answer is here.)

4. If there were several original human couples, were they all involved in the fall? (Answer is here.)

5. Do you think the fall was eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or was that just symbolic for some other disobedience? (Answer is here.)

6. I don't read Genesis 1 and 2 as two separate creation stories, but rather chapter 2 as an expansion on the outline laid out in chapter 1.... what do you think? (Answer is here.)

7. If marriage is between one man and one woman, as Gen. 2 seems to be saying....what is all this about men having two wives one North and one South? Is this disobedience or part of God's design, and if so, why doesn't Christianity accept polygamy now? (Answer is here.)

8. Did I understand you to say the Orthodox don't believe in inherited (original) sin? If so, how you they explain David saying he was conceived in sin, and sinful from birth? (Answer is here.)

9. What about the garden of Eden, real place or myth? (Answer is here.)

I love meaty questions like these! God willing, I intend to provide answers to each of them.

Before tackling the first question, I invite readers to address any of the questions that may interest you. What do YOU think? Please provide support from Scripture and Holy Tradition (which never contradict each other) in explaining your position.

TEC Activists Hate the Nigerian Church

Alice C. Linsley

The 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church has removed the final canonical obstacles to the "full inclusion" of non-celibate homosexuals to holy orders. They may now be ordained and their "unions" may be blessed in the churches. Of course, this has been going on for a good while in TEC so this isn't really news.

The story behind this story is the Anglican Church of Nigeria, which was blasted by a leading gay-rights activist who believes that divorce contradicts sexual ethics and because it is permitted in the Church, so should homosexuality be permitted (even 'celebrated', as Gene Robinson insists).

This leading activist is my former bishop and the man who has to sign my retirement papers in 2 weeks. He said: "It is time for the church be liberated from hypocrisy under which it has been operating about our gay brothers and sisters. Divorce contradicted sexual ethics. Our gay and lesbian members don't think much about what other Anglicans around the world think. The Nigerians are our most ardent critic. The Scribes and the Pharisees tied people up in burdens..." (Read the full report here.)

It should be noted that the heretic bishop puts forth a straw man in this argument. The Church does not oppose divorce. It opposes divorce and remarriage, unless it can be shown that the marriage was never valid.

The revisionist Bishop Stacy Sauls recently stated, "The Nigerians are our most ardent critic." Humm... Perhaps we should ask why that is?

The Nigerians know the Bible and Holy Tradition because they live in the crucible where Abraham's faith was formed. They affirm the male-female pattern of God's creation and recognize the deviance.

When Africans read Genesis they hear the Proto-Saharan and Nilotic resonances of Abraham's ancestors. They note the similarity between the biblical worldview and their own.

They recognize the similarities between the creation stories of Genesis and African creation stories.

Noah's homeland is Bor'no near Lake Chad in northern Nigeria. This is the only place on Earth claimed by the natives to be Noah's homeland. It is shown of this map as the dark red spot in central Africa. The priestly lines, from which Jesus Messiah came, originated among the ancestors of people living in the region of Lake Chad and the Upper Nile. These peoples are in Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b. This has been verified through linguistics, archaeology, migration studies, climate studies, DNA, and cultural anthropology.

So the weight of Holy Tradition and right doctrine is on the side of the Anglican Church of Nigeria and its Primate, Archbishop Peter Jasper Akinola, who is vehemently hated and constantly vilified by gay activists who want to change the Church.

Related reading: Gene Robinson on the Bible; The Nilotic Context of Genesis 1 and 2; Nigerian Boundary of Jebu and Sheba; King Tut and the Dispersion of R1b; The Jebusites Unveiled

The Jebusites Unveiled

Alice C. Linsley

The Jebusites were likely a Nilo-Saharan people who migrated to the region of the Benue Trough when the Sahara began to dry out. What is known about the Jebusites indicates that they migrated into Nigeria where they controlled the major water systems at the conjunction of the Niger and Benue Rivers and at the Atlantic coast near modern Lagos. They also migrated east into the land of Canaan where one of their leading men - Melchizedek - was the ruler-priest of Salem (Jerusalem) in Abraham's time (Gen. 14:18).

The modern day Jebusites are the Ijebu and they live near and have close association with the modern day Edomites who are called "Edo."  Both tribes live in Nigeria and Benin. In Canaan the Jebusites had close connections with the Horites of Edom.

The ruler-priests who controlled the ancient water systems that connected West Africa to Mesopotamia were Horites.  That is they were devotees of Horus, whose worship along with his father Re and his virign mother Hat-hor, spread along the water systems from ancient Kush to Mesopotamia and beyond.  This was about 10,000 years ago when there was a great Kushite migration and the Sahara was much wetter.

Dr. Christopher Ehret explains how the climate caused the movement of three groups of people. He writes, "The initial warming of climate in the Bølling-Allerød interstadial, 12,700-10,900 BCE, brought increased rainfall and warmer conditions in many African regions. Three sets of peoples, speaking languages of the three language families that predominate across the continent today, probably began their early expansions in this period. Nilo-Saharan peoples spread out in the areas around and east of the middle Nile River in what is today the country of Sudan. Peoples of a second family, Niger-Kordofanian, spread across an emerging east-west belt of savanna vegetation from the eastern Sudan to the western Atlantic coast of Africa. In the same era, communities speaking languages of the Erythraic branch of the Afrasian (Afroasiatic) family expanded beyond their origin areas in the Horn of Africa, northward to modern-day Egypt. (History in Africa, p.3-4)

The Jebusites are classified in the second group, as are the Ashante of Ghana. (Asha-nte means "People of Asha." Asha was a name for God; as is Azu in Accadian, Asa in Chadic, and Ashai in Hebrew; a Jerusalem priest was named Am-ashai in Neh. 11:13.)

The Jebu are generally classified as Yoruba, but the term 'Yoruba' applied only after the 18th century. The Jebu identify themselves as distinct from other Yoruba sub-groups by calling themselves Nago-Jebu. The Jebu are also called Ijebu, and in the Bible they are called "Jebusites."

According to African legend, the Yoruba migrated to the Atlantic coast of Nigeria from the east. Some stopped in the region of Lake Chad where they had kin in Bor'no (land of Noah). Their kin were likely the Kanuri tribe (descendants of Kain), which may explain why some Yoruba have tribal marks similar to those of the Kanuri.


New York Times Report Confirms Jebusite Control of Waterways.

In 1892, the New York Times reported on the Jebu tribe, which controlled the water systems of the Port of Lagos. The king of the Jebu levied taxes on all products carried through his territory. This is consistent with the biblical information concerning Abraham’s ruler-priest ancestors who controlled water systems in Nigeria (where Jebu still reside), Canaan and Mesopotamia. This also explains the relationship between Abraham and Melchizedek, a Jebusite ruler priest of Jerusalem, to whom Abraham offered tribute.


The Jebusite 3-Clan Confederations

The Jebusites 3-clan confederation is identical to the 3-clan confederations found among Abraham's horite caste. While there are 2 Jebu provinces, there are 3 brothers: Yoruba, Egba and Ketu. In Genesis we find this 2 kingdoms-3 brothers pattern throughout the book. One brother is often veiled/hidden or more peripheral to the events described. For example, we are told that Noah had 3 sons and Genesis makes it clear that the lines of Ham and Shem intermarried, but the Bible tells us very little about the descendants of Japheth since they appear to have migrated into Europe.  Likewise, Abraham had 3 first-born sons: Joktan, Ishmael and Isaac, but we really have to dig into the text for information on Joktan, the firstborn of Keturah,  Abraham's second wife.

We also discover from study of the Jebu living today that a kingdom is established when the ruler-apparent marries a second wife. This explains Abraham's urgency to fetch a cousin bride for Isaac before his death. Following the marriage pattern of the rulers of his people, Isaac would have already had a half-sister wife in Beersheba.

The principal ruler of the two Jebu provinces - Jebu Remu and Jebu Ode - is called "awujali." Jebu rulers are installed with palm branches. Jude Adebo Adeleye Ogunade writes in his memoir about growing up Ijebu. He was warned not to touch the leaves of the Igi-Ose tree, because as his Mama Eleni explained: "That tree is the tree whose leaves are used to install Chiefs and Kings of Ijebu and as your grandfather was a custodian of the rites of chieftaincy and kingship you must not play with its leaves." (Interestingly, the University of Oxford, Institute Paper, n° 7, (1937) on Medicinal Plants lists this plant as a blood purifier - see reference HA 1k, here).

Fresh palm tree fronds are used ceremonially at the installation of rulers and are used to decorate places of worship. The association of palm trees (tamars) with rulers and prophets is a common among Abraham's people.  Deborah sat under a tamar as a judge and a prophet in Israel.

When the people used palm fronds to greet Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, they greeted him as one to be enthroned. The connection between rulers and trees at sacred centers is found among the tribal peoples of West Africa. Among the Yoruba, fresh palm tree leaves are employed on occasions of installation of a sovereign, and to the office of high priest. (Read more about the palm tree in connection with rulers, prophets and shrines here.)

Related reading:  Trees in Genesis; 3-Clan Confederations to 12 Tribes; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors;  Who Were the Horites?; Abraham's Firstborn Son; Nimrod was a Kushite Ruler; The Nigerian Jebu

The Creature After God's Kind

God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” It was so. The land produced vegetation – plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:11-12

The word 'kinds' in Genesis 1 is not analogous to the modern biological categories Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, or Species. This would be a foreign concept to the Afro-Asiatics whose religious worldview frames Genesis. The Hebrew word is מִין, min which is often translated ‘type.’ The Hebrew min has other uses, as in the phrase "from a man" – מִן אָדָם (min āḏām).

The meaning of ‘kinds’ is tied to the ancient Afro-Asiatic observation of the binary character of the order of creation. In Genesis 1 the distinction is between Heaven as the dwelling place of the Creator and Earth as the dwelling place of creatures. In the order of creation, humans are the most like God, but their dwelling place is earth. In Genesis 3:8 we are told that God came to earth (to the garden) to commune with those who He created in His Image. In the New Testament we are told that Christ, the Son of God, has come again to earth to restore communion with God the Father.

The word ‘kinds’ simply points to the observable reality that there are many non-human creatures on earth and all as a group are distinct from the Creator in Heaven. In Genesis the term ‘kind’ is used in reference to only 3 categories: vegetation (verse 12); birds and sea creatures (verse 21) and creatures that inhabit the dry ground (verse 25). This is significant because the number 3 in Genesis always indicates unity or ontological oneness. So vegetation, birds, sea creatures and land creatures share in a unity to which humans are peripheral. We recognize that this is so because the word ‘kinds’ is not used in reference to humans in Genesis 1. Why?

Because our communion is with the Triune Creator, in whose Image we are made. The Psalmist recognized this when he asks “What is man (Enock/Nok) that thou art mindful of him and the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him? For a time you have made him less than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor and put all things under his feet.” (Psalm 8:4-8). The Church Fathers teach that this speaks of the Son of God who emptied Himself and became flesh and dwelt on earth as one of us. The Creator became Man so that after a time, He could restore man's original state, as the creature made after God's kind.

This is why before His death and resurrection, Jesus prayed that those who believe in Him as the Son of God would be 'in Him' as He is in the Father (John 17). Jesus was praying for a restoration of the original order.

For more on this go here and read the comments.

Where Calvinism Errs

At the recent constitution of the Anglican Church in North America in Bedford Texas, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah expressed the hope of restored Christian unity and spoke of Calvinism as a heresy that has caused division. He identified the following as essential for unity:

• Affirmation of Holy Tradition
• Recognition of the authority of the seven Ecumenical Councils
• Return to the original form of the Nicene Creed (without the filioque clause inserted at the Council of Toledo, 589 A.D.)
• Recognition of all seven Sacraments
• Rejection of 'the heresies of the Reformation' and subsequent 'isms' that resulted when Protestants rejected the authority of Holy Tradition: Calvinism, anti-sacramentalism, iconoclasm, Gnosticism, and the feminism and the egalitarianism that led to the ordination of women priests and the consecration of women as bishops.

Read it all here.

Afro-Asiatic Religious Life

Alice C. Linsley

I've done a good deal of original research on the Afro-Asiatic Dominion, tracing the linguistic evidence for such. I have also written about the decline of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion, but I have yet to present the key features of ancient Afro-Asiatic religious life, of which I have identified eight. The features are: Triune God; the Sun as emblem of the Deity; concept of the Son of God; fixed order of creation; hereditary priesthood; blood sacrifice at altars, a common number symbolism, and prophets.

Let us consider each of these features separately.

1. Triune God
The Hindu Trinity (trimurti) consists of the TriGods - Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver and Shiva, the judge and destroyer.

The concept of a Triune God is found in the Hebrew Scriptures. We see the author of Genesis struggle to describe the appearance of the Lord (as 3 persons) to Abraham in Genesis 18. There is also an ancient Semitic name for the Triune God - Baal Shalisha – usually rendered ‘God of 3 powers’ or ‘the third idol’ which suggests a shrine dedicated to this God. ‘Baal’ means Lord and ‘shalisha’ is the number three, so it is possible that this could simply mean Triune God. If this is the case, the accusation that the Church invented the Trinity hardly seems justified by the evidence.

2. Sun as Deity’s Emblem or Chariot
In Hinduism, the sun is called 'Surya' and is regarded as the visible form of God that one can see every day. Devout Hindus offer prayers and morning sacrifice to the rising sun in the traditional Sūrya namaskāra or Sun Salutation.

The Hebrew Birkat Hachama ("Blessing of the Sun") is recited once every twenty-eight years, when the vernal equinox as calculated by tradition falls on a Tuesday at sundown (the sacred midpoint of the 7 day cycle). Jews recite a blessing to the Creator on the exact day, every 28 years. This year the blessing was recited on April 8, 2009. It was recited also on April 8, 1953 and on April 8, 1981. The next date of the blessing of the sun will be April 8, 2037.

We find the idea of the Sun as deity in Luke (New Testament). Here the priest Zechariah prophesies concerning the Forerunner of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist. He declares: “And you, little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for Him, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, because of the faithful love of our God in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us…” (Luke 1:76-78)

3. Concept of the Incarnate Son of God

In Hinduism Shani or Shanichar (Saturn) is believed to be the son of Surya the Sun-god. And Lord Rama, the most perfect avatar of God is at once the ideal son. Further, Hindus believe that Krishna was flesh and blood on earth as deity incarnate. Many Hindus accept Jesus as “a son of God’ since it is possible through ascetical practice to be divinized. This is similar to the kenotic or noetic tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy which holds that humans were created to enjoy God-ness and are restored to that original state through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

4. Fixed Order of Creation

According to the Hebrew Scriptures God alone created the world and established a predictable fixed order to His creation (Genesis 1; Psalms 104:19-20, Jeremiah 33:19-36). This predictable order is referred to as ‘RTA’ in Hinduism. It is an order which we perceive foremost as having binary opposites: God-Man; Heaven-Earth; Male-Female; Sun-Moon; Night-Day, etc.

Because the order is fixed, there is no possibility of essential change. Entities can only be what they were created (as Aristotle recognized in his teleological conversations). What we often call 'change' is fluctuation in outward form but not change in essence. So water is always water (H2O) though its form fluctuates between liquid, vapor, and ice. (This is where the biblical worldview and convergence evolution knock heads. To read more on this go here.)

Likewise the social order is perceived as fixed. This is seen in Laws of Manu which speaks of four castes: Brahmanas, the priestly class; Ksatriyas, warrior class; Vaisyas, agriculturists; and Sudras, those who serve the other three classes. The Apostle Paul regarded the Church as having a fixed order established by God when he writes: “And those whom God has appointed in the Church are, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers…” He lists other orders after them, including miracle workers and healers. (I Corinthians 12:28-30)

5. Hereditary Priesthood

In Jewish tradition all Kohanim (priests) are descendants of Aaron, who Jews consider to be the original Kohen. However, as my kinship research has demonstrated, the line of Kohanim was passed from father to first-born son without interruption from before the time of Aaron. This is evident in the intermarriage of the priestly lines descending from Kain and Seth, and from Ham and Shem, and from Aaron and his half-brother Korah, who was also a priest (‘harwa’). The descendants of these priestly lines intermarried, preserving the priests' bloodline to the time of the birth of Jesus Christ who is said to be the Priest Messiah of the ‘order of Melchizedek.’ Psalm 110:4 declares that “Yahweh has sworn an oath he will never retract, you are a priest forever of the order of Melchizedek.”

Over time the word ‘Kohen’ has come to mean "priest" but was probably an earlier designation of social position in the community. This suggests that the word relates more to the fact that the most ancient families (those who preserved their bloodlines) usually give guidance to the rest of the community. Thus ruler-priests, who married only within their priestly lines, influenced the spread of the Afro-Asiatic religion far and wide.

6. Blood Sacrifice at Altars

It appears that priests (called sarki or harwa and later kohen or brahman) played a leading role in the diffusion of the Afro-Asiatic worldview. The work of the priest involved blood sacrifice for atonement. According to priestly law, the blood of a sacrificed animal was to be sprinkled seven places on the altar. Christians note that Jesus Christ bled from seven areas of his body and his blood is said to give “life to the world” (John 6:52-56).

It is interesting to note that the word 'sarki' also refers to red ochre which was ground into power and used as a symbol of blood throughout the Afro-Asiatic world and beyond in the burial of nobles between 20,000 and 80,000 years ago. While mainstream Hinduism rejects animal sacrifice, Tantric practice involves something akin to the sacramental use of Bread (Flesh) and Wine (Blood) among Christians. The meat offered in Tantric ritual is called ‘Siva’ and the wine is called ‘Sakti’. Tantrics believe that sacrificial killing of approved animals pleases the forefathers and gods and is therefore permitted.

7. Common Number Symbolism

The significance of the number seven in reference to union or completion is seen in the first Genesis creation story which says that God's creative work lasted for six days and that God rested from all His work on the seventh day. The number seven in association with God at rest (sabbath) portrays the concept of completion or perfection of a relationship between Master and Servant, or between Creator and Creation, or between Husband and Bride.

In the temple dedicated to the sun in Upper Egypt (ruins of Babian) there were seven urns. 

Hindus also have held the concept of a 7-day week. According to Hindu law the new bride was to take seven steps around the altar during the wedding ceremony.

Likewise the marriage ceremony of the Agharias of Orissa (India), involves the number seven, as described here:

The bridegroom's father sends a present of a bracelet and seven small earthen cups to the bride. She is seated in the open, and seven women hold the cups over her head one above the other. Water is then poured from above from one cup into the other, each being filled in turn and the whole finally falling on the bride's head. This probably symbolizes the fertilizing action of rain. The bride is then bathed and carried in a basket seven times round the marriage-post, after which she is seated in a chair and seven women place their heads together round her while a male relative winds a thread seven times round the heads of the women.

In Jewish weddings the Sheva Brachot (seven marriage blessings) are recited under the huppah and the wedding feast lasts 7 days. Samsom gave the Philistines the full seven days of his wedding to work out his puzzle, which poses Delilah's betrayal of her husband as a very evil act.

The number seven was attached to weddings in ancient Babylon also as attested by Esther 1:5-11: And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty..."


8. Prophets
Prophecy and prophets were a common feature of the ancient Afro-Asiatic civilizations. Afro-Asiatic prophets resided near bodies of water or sacred springs, so we are not surprised to find that prophecy is attested at shrines along the Nile, at Hama on the Orontes (8th century B.C.), and at Mari on the Euphrates (18th century B.C.)


There were prophets and seers in the flourishing civilization of Sudan before the time of the Pharaohs. Some of them foretold the invasions of Africa from central Asia. The rulers of Egypt had their personal prophets. Pharoah recognized Abraham as a prophet (Gen. 20:7).  Joseph was elevated in Egypt because of his prophetic interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams. Dream interpretation was one of the prophet’s tasks. In Deuteronomy 13, the prophet is called "a dreamer of dreams" (Dt. 13:2).

Prophets were connected to the Temple. Jeremiah tells us that a man of God, Ben-Johanan, resided in a room in the Temple. We remember Anna, who prophesied concerning Jesus at his presentation in the Temple. We are told that she lived in the Temple (Luke 2:36-38).


Before the Temple, it was customary for prophets to dwell at sacred places marked by great trees, springs or wells. Deborah, “the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet” associated with a tamar (date nut palm) midway between two important shrines: “Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment” (Judges 4:4-6). Likewise Abraham consulted a prophet (moreh) when he arrived in Canaan. This prophet was associated with a sacred oak between Ai and Bethel (Gen. 13). It was here that God appeared to Abraham in three Persons (Gen. 18).

We find evidence that there were confraternities such as the one that was in touch with Elijah (2 Kings 2:3-18; 4:38ff; 6:1ff and 9:1) and alluded to in Amos 7:14. These companies of prophets appear to have had a good following. They performed symbolic mimes under the influence of music (1 Sam. 10:5). It is significant that the prophetic messages recorded in the Bible are NOT associated with groups of prophets, but with individual prophets whose lives exemplified holiness. The prophet is someone to whom God’s holiness and desires are an immediate experience through which the present and the future come into clear focus.


Conclusion

Collaborative research in linguistics, climate change, archaeology and cultural anthropology indicates that Afro-Asiatic ruler-priests are largely responsible for the diffusion of the Afro-Asiatic religious life that took root around the large water systems from west central Africa to the Indus River Valley and even beyond. It is a religious life that shares theses distinctive features, all of which are found in the Bible and which indeed frame the biblical worldview. They point to a God who desires Sabbath communion with us through the Blood of His Son and eternal Priest, Jesus Christ. All true prophets point to this Communion.