The first painted eggs were ostrich eggs. From the beginning these represented the hope of eternal life. This is evident from archaeological finds throughout Africa. Painted or incised ostrich eggs have been found in El-Badari and ancient Kush (Nubia). In the Oriental Museum there are examples of ostrich eggs which have been decorated over their entire surfaces. At Naqada, a decorated ostrich egg replaced the owner's missing head. This egg is now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Ostrich eggs, which are as hard as earthenware when dry, were used in prehistoric times throughout the Nile valley as perfume containers, bowls for oblutions, and as canteens. Ostrich feathers were worn in the hair of warriors and rulers of ancient Egypt, and the Egyptian goddess Ma'at is shown with an ostrich feather in her hair. Using this feather, she weighed the hearts of the dead to determine who would enter eternal life and who would experience the second death (Rev. 2:11, 20:14).
Painted ostrich eggs have been found in tombs at Hierakonpolis (Nekhen) and in many graves of children in ancient Nubia (Kush). The oldest find of decorated ostrich eggshells includes 270 engraved shell fragments, excavated in the area of Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa. These are between 65,000 and 55,000 years old.
The ostrich represents the Winter Solstice. This explains why the ostrich is placed between the Bull (symbol of the Autumnal Equinox) and the Griffin Vulture (symbol of the Spring Equinox) in Elihu's discourse on the transcendence of the Creator in the book of Job. The Winter Solstice marks the end of the old year and the birth of a new year.
Abraham's Horite people observed the Spring Equinox (March 21-22), the Summer Solstice (June 21-22), the Autumnal Equinox (Sept. 21-22), the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21-22). From the Winter Solstice, the hours of daylight lengthen and the Sun is shown to be Sol Invictus ("the undefeated Sun"). This is symbolized by the ostrich which hides its head for a time by lying flat against the ground, and after the Winter Solstice, it begins laying its eggs. The wild ostrich, which originates in Africa, produces 90% of its eggs between January and March.
Ostrich eggs were traded by Abraham's Kushite ancestors, some of whom were rulers in Kerma, between the third and fourth cataracts on the Upper Nile. These Kushite rulers, such as Nimrod (son of Kush), one of Abraham's most famous ancestors, established trade routes that connected the interior of Africa to Egypt and the islands of the eastern Mediterranean Sea and beyond. They traded exotic hardwoods, animals and their skins, ivory, ostrich eggs and ostrich feathers. "Through the wealth built up by this exchange of goods, the Nubians of Kerma became exceedingly rich....." (The Nubians by R.S.Bianchi) Those who built cities in southern India were called "Sudra", which means Sudanese.
Related reading: The Ostrich in Biblical Symbolism; Abraham and Job: Horite Rulers; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology
10 comments:
Alice, Didn't God call Abraham out from among his father's people, to leave behind the religion and customs and to create a discernibly new people and culture built around God Himself, His character, will and ways and eventually The Law and The Living Word?
How much different were these people in religion and customs before the Abrahamic Covenant (circumcision) than before, or than Abram's father's people?
Could it be that female circumcision was discontinued at that point since it was not written in Genesis?
God told Abraham to leave Haran and go to a place where He would establish him as the father of many peoples. God has plans for Abraham and there was nothing for him in Haran, since his older brother Nahor ruled in Terah's place when Terah died. This does not indicate that Abraham abandoned the religion or marriage pattern of his Horite people. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that Abraham continued to believe that the Seed fo the Woman would be born of the blooodlines of the ruler-priests because he married his half-sister (Sarah) and his patrilieal cousin (Keturah), following the pattern of his ruler-priest ancestors.
There is nothing in the core of Christianity that can't be traced back to Abraham, the Father of our Faith. There are many things in modern Judaism that don't align with the Abrahamic faith. This is because Jews have had to go around the core of their faith to avoid acknowledging that Jesus is the Messiah.
Circumcision origiated in the Upper Nile region known as Nubia/Kush (modern eastern Sudan) which is where Abraham's ancestors came from, so not surprisingly, circumcision indicated a certain ethnicity and religious group. Remember that Abraham wasn't a Jew, but a Horite, a devotee of the myth of Horus who was a type or pattern whereby Abraham's descendents were to recognize Jesus as the Son of God.
Female circumcision was never spoken of, just as the female reproductive organ was never shown in public. Only the pillar was shown in public, unlike Hinduism which shows both the lingum and the yoni. Among Abraham's people the feminine principle was a sacred and veiled mystery and to be treated with respect.
Alice, this seems like false, pagan religion to me. If they were worshiping the true God, why did they respect their own traditions(feminine principle sacred and veiled mystery and to be treated with respect)more than they respected God's ability to design humanity the way he wanted them designed. Genital mutilation seems to be a belief in their own abilities to improve on what God had made in his own image; thereby creating a man made religion of their own imagining (and desire for power). I know this is poorly worded and rambling, but female mutilation is creepy (to me at least)and harmful, and I don't see anything respectful of God's creation in it at all. Maybe they kept it a "veiled mystery" because what they were doing to those women was wrong.
Didn't Christ come to free us from
such oppression?
Lydia
You will find this helpful:
http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2009/03/circumcision-and-binary-distinctions.html
The ancient Sudanese believed that in the beginning God created the masculine firm and structural and the feminine soft and fluid. It is possible that they perceived that sin at work in the world was corrupting this binary distinction - something that sin does. So the soft foreskin was removed and the structural clitoris was removed. These were removed using obsidian flint knives that were very sharp and had a high saline content which greatly reduced the risk of bacteria infection. Circumcisions today are sometimes performed by much less skilled people and can cause harm. Still, it is the woman's choice to be circumcised and feminists are all about granting the woman choice over her body. This is a case where feminists are inconsistent and causing some harm in Africa by forcing the practice out of clinics.
Again, I'm not defending circumcision, but calling this ancient practice "gential mutilitaion" is a form of cultural imperialism. The "creepiness" of the practice is likely because of the indoctrination by feminists on this subject. Feminists fails to understand cultural practices and traits in their proper context because for them there is only one context: the universal and systemic oppression of women. And they try to use the Bible to support this fundamental assumption of their movement. Only this doesn't work because 70% of the women named in the Bible are the wives and/or daughters of ruler-priests and these women exercised considerable influence in their societies. Likely all had undergone Pharaonic circumcision, which was the norm for the ruling class.
Alice, thank you for your answer. However, I detest the great damage done by feminists, and in no way do I base my opinions on what they have to say. Women are intelligent and capable, and I applaud the remarkable contributions they have made to the societies they live in. I can think of no higher calling than to be a Godly wife and mother, where God grants the ability to do so, and to use our gifts in all that we do. Feminists, in my opinion, have made themselves enemies by their contemptuous disdain for God's families, their hatred for men, and their love for the killing of children through abortion. However, it seems to me that just because they have ridden their twisted idea of "oppression" into a state of lunacy, it does not follow that no oppression exists.
No, my feeling that female circumcision is creepy comes from the same place in my heart that tells me abortion is wrong, or that letting little girls burn to death in a building because they do not have on their burkas is a crime against all that is holy. I don't see what this has to do with cultural imperialism at all. Surely, this is more a matter of discernment than imperialism. It is my personal belief, not a belief that I am trying to push on others. After all, if all cultures have to be equal in our (own) eyes, the "culture" of abortion, eugenics, and same sex marriage would also have to be acceptable it seems to me. I simply cannot imagine myself ever seeing these things as being OK.
You said, "It is possible that they perceived that sin at work in the world was corrupting this binary distinction - something that sin does." Yes, I can certainly see that this would make sense. Please forgive me if I have been too blunt. I am greatly distressed at the "culture" that seems to threaten us from all directions, and the cruelties that abound. I need to spend much time in prayer that I, a sinner, will learn to write and speak with more grace, and that those who are hurt by such cruelties will be comforted and healed. God bless you and your work.
Lydia
I agree that oppression exists. It is most evident in the honor killings in dark places like Pakistan and in the treatment of little girls in China.
The worldview of Abraham's people regarded women as the binary opposite (though not equal) of men. However, for the most part the women of the Bible were treated with honor. These women were neither Jews nor Muslims.
I didn't mean to accuse you of being a cultural imperialist. It is the term "genital mutilation" that I find disturbing, since the removal of the clitoris is not any more mutilating than the removal of the foreskin. That doesn't mean that there aren't botched jobs, especially with the UN cutting funding for circumcision at the clinics so that the practice is driven into the bush.
It is very difficult to see Abraham and his Horite people objectively as 20th-21st century Americans. Our worldview is so very different, drawing on western European Enlightenment ideas and post-modernism. As an anthropologist, I have to set aside my ideas and feelings about what should be to understand their cultural context. This is essential if we are to understand what the Bible is telling us at a deeper level.
God bless you, Lydia.
I hold written Scripture to be more authoritative than tradition, even ancient anthropological pre-historical tradition.
The Abramic covenant does not state/require female circumcision, and it is definetly harmful, makes delivery and intercourse impossible without further cutting and risk of infection and removes the nerve endings for female orgasm, while male circumcision does none of these things. The, the theological and biological evidence agree that God does not require or approve female circumcision.
It is also my conviction that the religion of the Horites is a only a pre-figurement (just as other religions contain certain elements of truth) of the true faith and the True and Living GOD who completely revealed Himself with the Living Word, Christ's Words, the Cross, Blood and Resurrection of our Lord and the coming of the Parakletos, The Holy Spirit.
I know of no other religions that prefigure Jesus Christ, the Son of God, other than the faith of Israel as it emerges out of the faith of Abraham's Horite people.
Georgia, the Horus Myth is much older than the Canaanite practices to which you refer. Horus was the central figure in Kushite religion 5,200 years ago. The story of Horus and the story of Jesus correspond in great detail, though Horus never existed in the material sense. He was the prefigurement of the One who would wear 2 crowns and unite 2 peoples.
We don't have any evidence that Horite priests performed these Canaanite practices that their descendants condemned. They were very concerned about purity, expecially when preparing for their time of service in the temple. They worshiped the Creator who emblem was the Sun. They anticipated the coming of the Son of God to Earth and believed that He would be born of their royal-priest bloodlines. In the ancient world the Horite priests were known for their purity and devotion to the High God. 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.”
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