Busy and Blessed

Dear Readers of Just Genesis,

This week I'm finishing my book: The Ancestors of God: An Anthropoligcal Study of the Ancestors of Jesus Christ.

It is a busy time and I apologize for not posting new essays until the project is completed.  I hope that you will pray for me this week.  The manuscript will be mailed next week to three possible publishers.

You have been one of my greatest assets in the preparation of the manuscript! When you buy the book, you will find it is dedicated to you with these words:

"The faithful readers of my blog Just Genesis where I’ve floated my ideas for the past three years. Your comments and support have been of enormous value to me."

Thank you.

Alice C. Linsley

Cosmology and Ethics

Alice C. Linsley

Cosmology is the study of the structure and dynamics of the universe. It involves our most fundamental experience of earth and the heavens. It necessarily involves recognition of the binary distinctions observed in the order of creation: hot-cold; night-day; axis of rotation-equator; north-south; east-west and finite-infinite. Ancient peoples believed that the structure and dynamics of the cosmos speak of the Creator’s eternal power and divine nature. [1]

The directional poles (east-west and north-south) appear to be of primary cosmological importance for Abraham's people. These bring recognition of the distinction between heaven and earth and God and man. The binary distinctions must have impressed upon early humans the reality of their limitations. Since they had no power to make the Sun follow a different course or to move the polar star early man recognized that a greater Power had established these luminaries and that they were dark reflections of that greater Light.

The Sun's observed path was thought to be the Creator’s daily "circuit", during which He surveys his territory "as far as the East is from the West". In recognition of God’s heavenly territory, Afro-Asiatic chiefs placed their two wives in separate households on a north-south axis. Abraham’s wife Sarah lived in Hebron and Keturah lived to the south in Beersheba. Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4) is portrayed as a braggart because he set his wives on an east-west axis, thereby setting himself up as God. [2]

When we examine the most ancient temples and shrines we find that these were structured and aligned with the poles, with their entrances facing east to welcome the rising light. The Jerusalem Temple was arranged taking the path of the sun into account and the great Pyramids face east. Many of the temples had zodiacs which were used to study the heavens (sidereal astronomy). The axis of the Dendera temple in Egypt aligns with the figure of a Horus falcon perched on a papyrus stem on the Dendera zodiac. While sky watching on the summer solstice in 1728 B.C. (July 7) the priests of Dendera would have observed that the Sun and Mercury were in Leo on opposite sides of the king star Regulus. This is a Trinitarian alignment – The Father (Sun) and Spirit (Mercury) surrounded the King in the constellation of Leo, the totem of the tribe of Judah. This was observed about 728 years before David became king in Israel.

The poles were associated with animals, numbers and experiences in life. North was associated with divine judgment and also death, its polar opposite was associated with birth and renewal of life. South symbolized Earth, fertility and birth. Abraham, still without a heir, consulted the Moreh/Prophet at the Oak between Bethel and Ai. The next event of his life was a journey south to Beersheba where he found his cousin-bride Keturah, by whom he had 5 sons.

The ethical implications of this are evident. The ancient Afro-Asiatics wanted to correctly discern and respect the boundaries that they perceived as having been established by God. Worship, daily ritual, kinship, gender roles and laws all reflected this ethical concern to honor boundaries and to prevent people from trespassing them. That being the case, the safest place to be is near the center of one’s territory, not near the edges.

The Cross and the Sacred Center
In other words, in this cross-shaped cosmology, the safest place is the sacred center. Jacques Derrida (an Arabic-speaking Jew who was born in Algers), after all his deconstruction, concluded that there is a center and that something is there. He claimed that throughout the history of Philosophy this metaphysical presence is called by different names, “God” being one of them. Abraham and his people would have understood what it means to be physically and spiritually present at the center of the perpendicular north-south and east-west lines that form a cross.

Before he died at age 108, Israel's leading rabbi, Yitzhak Kaduri, left a signed note indicating Messiah's identity: Yeshua - Jesus. A few months before, Rabbi Kaduri had surprised his followers when he told them that he met the Messiah in dreams and visions. He also had taught on Yom Kippur how to recognize the Messiah. His manuscripts, written in his own hand, have crosses painted all over the pages.

For Christians the image of Christ on the Cross takes on even deeper meaning when we remember that He was pierced in his center and from that center came forth blood and water, the two most sacred symbols of Holy Tradition.

Directional Poles and Numbers
Using the binary oppositions of east-west and north-south, ancient man assigned names to phenomena that he perceived as belonging to certain vectors on a circle. An example is the designation of winds that proceed from directions between the 4 cardinal poles: a southwest wind or a northeast wind. To each wind was given a meaning. Winds proceeding from the west were regarded as a positive omen. Theophrastus, a 4th century BC scholar wrote, “Zephyros, the west wind, is the most gentle of all the winds and it blows in the afternoon and towards the land, and is cold.” The east wind (called “Sirocco” in Arabic) was less welcome as it brought heat, dust and swarms of locusts carried on strong winds.

We have confirmation of the association of 1 with north and 3 with south in I Kings 7:23-26 and II Chronicles 4:1-4. Here we read that the altar in Solomon’s temple was to rest on 12 oxen: 3 facing north, 3 facing west, 3 facing south and 3 facing east. We note that north heads the list, having the position of priority (number 1). Then comes west (associated with 9 and 10) and then in the third position we have south. [3]

In the Afro-Asiatic scheme, vector 1 would be that space on earth where sunlight falls as the sun makes its journey from morning to noon. Vector 2 would be that space on earth where sunlight is seen as the sun journeys from noon to dark. Vectors 3 and 4 would be associated with the sun’s hidden activity from dusk to the Sun’s rising again (vector 4). Thus, according to ancient Egyptian hymns, the sovereign Deity was both immanent (present as light), transcendent (present beyond sight) and “double-concealed.”

The cosmology of Abraham’s ancestors resembled that of ancient Egyptians. For example, the notion of the shrine of the heart as the sacred place of the indwelling god is evident in Egypt as early as 1200 BC, when personal piety entailed facing the rising Sun, thereby inviting the most sovereign Deity to dwell in the person.[4]  The Pharaoh was called “son of Re,” the celestial being whose emblem was the Sun. Rulers were not chosen based on hereditary bloodline which explains why Egyptian texts never mention an earthly "father of the king". Kingship was a manifestation of the solar deity’s cultic overshadowing of noble women. [5]


Symbols of Afro-Asiatic Cosmology
The cosmology of Abraham’s people is represented in the Egyptian Ankh, the sign of Tanit, the Agadez cross, and the horned altar of Israel. The loop at the top of these symbols represents the Sun. The cross bar represents the Sun's daily journey from east to west. The Sun is shown resting at the mountain top or the sacred center (high noon, and as James explains, "In Him there is no shadow..."). Mountain tops were a meeting place between God and man. Consider the many incidents of biblical heroes meeting with God on the tops of mountains.

The Sign of Tanit, associated with Carthage, has been found with the TNT inscription in the temple of Eshmun near Sidon. It dates to about the 5 century B.C. The name 'Tanit' is a guess, since no one knows how TNT should be rendered. It almost certainly is related to the metal working chiefs who live in the Air Desert surrounding Agadez. They maintain 2 wives in separate households on a north-south axis and speak a secret language called TeNeT (National Geographic, Aug. 1979, p. 389). They are the artisans who create the Agadez cross.


There are at least 22 different patterns of crosses in Africa. The different crosses identify the towns where people come from. The four points represent the four corners of the world. Originally, these were passed from father to son. The father would say: "My son, I give you the four corners of the world, because one cannot know where one will die."

The upright horns are similar to those on the Tanit symbol. The horned altar is a negative image signifying the same view of God's sovereignty over the earth, only here the circle has disappeared and God's hidden presence is signaled by the negative space.


Conclusion
Abraham's people were concerned about respecting the God-established boundaries that they observed in creation. In doing so they showed respect to the God who established the boundaries. This God respects individual persons.  Unlike mythological gods (Zeus comes to mind) this God never uses His power to impose. The One who established boundaries and expects us to honor them does so Himself, a mark of holiness.


NOTES

1. The Apostles Paul alludes to this in Romans 1:20.

2. Adah is related to the word for dawn and T-zillah is related to the word for dusk.

3. The number system of Abraham’s people was base 9. The number 10 represented the beginning of a new cycle.

4.  The Spirit of God indwells by invitation unlike demons who possess by trickery and without consent of the victim.

5. Holy Tradition teaches that Mary conceived the Son of God when overshadowed by the Holy Spirit after she had consented to bear the Christ.

Adam and Eve Were White Europeans!

You can find strange ideas while researching online.  Here is one of the strangest I've found in a long time, written by a preacher:

Yahweh had millions of the pre Adamic, Asiatic and African people around. If He just wanted somebody wide between the shoulders and narrow between the eyes to spade up the garden, He had them. He didn't have to create a special being for that purpose.

Adam and Eve weren't supposed to intermingle with these people. If Negroes and Asiatics were all that Yahweh wanted, He already had them. What He created was a different and separate being who was to be a different sort of person, whom the Negroes and Asiatics could never produce.

From here.

Bottom line: Adam and Ever were white Europeans. They are the only chosen.  Negroes and Asiatics are "Satan's seed."  One of Bertrand L. Comparet's cronies, E. Raymond Capt, author of "The Glory of the Stars," and "Great Pyramid Decoded," believed that the throne of David was transferred from Palestine to Europe.

Lord, protect weak minds from such bigotry!

A Women at a Well

Alice C. Linsley

To understand the Bible we must look for patterns that first appear in Genesis. In this sense, Genesis is foundational to a proper understanding of the whole of the Bible. Often the patterns are more evident when we focus on the women because blood line was traced through the mothers and the Bible, from beginning to end, is about the royal ancestry of Jesus Christ.

The cultural patterns of the ancient Afro-Asiatics are reflected in the Bible since it is one of their most lasting contributions to the world. One such pattern concerns the daughters of priests and their presence at wells, sacred springs and river shrines. Caesarius of Arles spoke of this in one of his sermons. He wrote: “Therefore blessed Jacob, as you have heard, went into Mesopotamia to take a wife. When he had come to a certain well, he saw Rachel coming with her father's sheep - after he recognized her as his cousin, he kissed her as soon as the flock was supplied with water. If you notice carefully, brothers, you can recognize that it was not without reason that the holy patriarchs found their wives at wells or fountains. If this had happened only once, someone might say it was accidental and not for some definite reason. Blessed Rebekah who was to be united to blessed Isaac was found at the well; Rachel whom blessed Jacob was to marry was recognized at the well; Zipporah who was joined to Moses was found at the well.” (Sermon 88:1)

To Rebekah, Rachel and Zipporah we must add Keturah, Asenath, and Tamar. All these women grew up around shrines where their fathers served as priests. Asenath’s father was a priest of the Egyptian shrine at Heliopolis on the Nile. Zipporah’s father was a priest of a shrine in the Negev. Tamar’s father is identified in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan as the priest Shem of Melchizedek. This explains why Tamar was to be stoned to death. According to Leviticus 21:9, a priest's daughter guilty of prostitution or adultery was to be executed by this means.

These daughters of priests were women of high rank but they did not live pampered lives. Zipporah was drawing water for her father’s livestock when she met Moses. Rebekah was likewise engaged when Abraham’s servant arrived to contract a marriage between her and Isaac.

It is important to note that most of these priestly daughters had two sons:

Rebekah – Esau (oldest) and Jacob (youngest)
Rachel – Joseph (oldest) and Benjamin (youngest)
Asenath – Manasseh (oldest) and Ephraim (youngest)
Tamar – Zerah (oldest) and Perez (youngest)

In each case, the younger son was tagged as an ancestor of the Messiah. This does not mean that the other son was not an ancestor of Messiah, however, since the priestly lines intermarried. We first find this preference for the youngest son in the story of Cain, Abel and Seth. We also find it in the story of Abraham, who was the youngest of Terah's three sons. [1]

Let’s take a closer look at each of these women in chronological order.

Keturah, Abraham’s Cousin Wife
Keturah resided at the Well of Sheba (Beersheba) where Abraham went to take her as his cousin wife. She was the daughter of the priest Joktan. According to the cousin bride’s naming prerogative, she named their first-born son Joktan after her father. She bore Abraham six sons. Her son Midian is the ancestor of Zipporah who married Moses.

Rebekah, Isaac’s Cousin Wife
Rebekah's father was Bethuel. Bethuel was Abraham’s nephew, the son of his brother Nahor who ruled over Terah’s territory called Aramea or Aramathea. His name means "House of God" and likely refers to his shrine. [2]

Rachel, Jacob’s Cousin Wife
Rachel was the younger daughter of Laban. Jacob met her while she was drawing water at the well. She bore him two sons, both of whom are significant ancestors of the Son of God. The oldest son, Joseph, married Asanath.

Asenath, Joseph’s Egyptian wife
Asenath bore Joseph two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim. Ephraim, the younger son, was tagged as an ancestor of the Jesus, God’s Son. Asenath's name means “holy to Anath”. Anath was an Afro-Asiatic goddess who was sometimes called Mari-Anath, the consort of the high God. Many water shrines were dedicated to her and women came to these shrines to ask the Deity for children or to ask for healing (compare to John 5).

Zippporah, Moses’ Midianite Wife
Zipporah was Moses’ wife and a daughter of Jethro, Priest of Midian. Her name is derived from the word ציפור (tsipor, meaning “bird”). Moses met her at a well where she and the other women were being harassed by Egyptians. She bore Moses two sons: Gershom and Eliezer. The younger son was Eliezer, whose name means "God is my help”, is tagged as the ancestor of Jesus, the Son of God. Jacob gives the blessing reserved for the firstborn to Ephraim (Gen 48). Ephraim's descendents inhabited the principal Canaanite settlements, including Baal-shalisha which means the Threesome God. [3]

In 1 Chronicles 23:17, we read about Eliezer’s descendents: "Rehabiah was the first. Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very numerous.” Note that the name of Eliezer's only son is a variant of the name Rehab. Rehab, who dwelt in Jericho, was another ancestor of Jesus Christ. [4]

Tamar, Mother of Twins
Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law who bore him twin sons after he had intercourse with her at a shrine. Possibly this was the shrine of her "father's house" to which she was sent by Judah when he refused to provide her another of his sons as levir. [5] Tamar's name means date nut palm. The tamar was a symbol of fertility. Judah praised Tamar as "more righteous” than himself (Gen. 38:26) because she found fulfilled the levirate law when he failed to do so. The younger of Tamar's two sons was Perez, is tagged as an ancestor of Jesus Christ. The book of Ruth tells us that King David is a descendent of Abraham through Perez.

The Pattern in the New Testament
In the New Testament, we find the pattern with the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s well. According to Tradition her name is Photini and she symbolizes the Church, the "Bride of Christ". The well represents refreshment and a place of ritual cleansing, like baptism. Caesarius of Arles explains that Isaac, Jacob and Moses are types of Jesus Christ, "for this reason they found their wives at wells, because Christ was to find His church at the waters of baptism."

Mary's father was Joachim and tradition tells us that he was both a priest and a shepherd. This meant that he would have needed a well or river to water his flocks. Mary's husband was Joseph of Bethlehem [6], the city of David. According to 2 Samuel 24, David built an altar at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. Here the shepherd David is shown as a priest, the dual roles that characterize the ruler-priests whose patrilineal lines intermarried, bringing us to the house of Joachim, Mary's father, who was both priest and shepherd.

Widows attached themselves to shrines and temples once their husbands have died. This is what happened in the case of the Prophetess Anna (Luke 2:36-38). She had been living in the temple precincts for many years when Mary brought Jesus to the temple. She beheld the Christ child and proclaimed to all the appearing of Messiah.

The Pattern Observed Today
Priest daughters, widows and indentured virgins lived at temples and shrines throughout the Afro-Asiatic Dominion. The custom is observed even today in Africa and in India, the western and eastern ends of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. To understand Canaanite shrines, we do well to investigate its counterparts in West Africa and India.

Osofo Ahadzi, spokemen for Africania Mission in Ghana, explains that women consult deities at the water shrines in order to have children. These children are often pledged to the shrine or to the deity (as Hannah pledged Samuel to God in return for blessing her with a child). Ahadzi says that people who fail to redeem such pledges eventually lose those children.

The same practice is evident at Hindu temples. Dr. Shabhash C. Sharma writes, "Regarding the treatment of people (including the young girls and widows) in shelters, temples and orphanages, Hinduism is quite emphatic in its opposition to any abuse and exploitation at the hands of those in positions of power and authority: 'He, who betrays one who has sought refuge, will meet destruction. The very earth will not let the seed that he sows, sprout.' The Mahabarata (1, p. 181).

Dr. Sharma further explains: "Sometimes even if the parents of a young girl or boy are alive, they might not be in a good socio-economic condition to take care of their kid and thus could decide to send her/him to live in a temple thinking that the temple would do a better job in raising their child. Thus the temple might be considered by some people an ideal place to raise their child where free room, board and education (in spirituality, arts, music, dancing etc.) are available, perhaps in return for a small or light physical (manual) service (work) to the temple."

Dr Sharma explains: "The same type of consideration, as indicated above for young girls, is generally applicable to adult women, especially the widows, when they decide to live in temples and religious places like Vrindavan. Note that even though the widows living in such places (temples etc.) might number in several thousand they still represent an extremely small minority relative to millions of Indian widows..."


NOTES

1. While it seems that most of the stories of conflict between brothers involve two brothers, there is always the larger picture to consider which often involves a third brother.  For example:  Abel is killed and Seth is his replacement. Abraham's older brother Haran is said to have died in Ur. Usually one of the three sons is less well known, dies, or even hidden in the text. This is the case with the three brothers Magog, Og and Gog. We have to hunt to find Og, because this third brother is hidden in the text. We note the persistence of the pattern of 3 sons here:

Gen. 4 - Cain, Abel, Seth
Gen. 4 - Jubal, Jabal, Tubal
Gen. 7 - Ham, Shem, Japheth
Gen. 11 - Haran, Nahor, Abraham
Gen. 46 - Jimnah, Jishvah, Jishvi

The same trait is found among the Jebusites. While there are two Jebu provinces, there are three brothers: Yoruba, Egba and Ketu. In Genesis we find this same two kingdoms-three brothers pattern.

2. Bethuel of Paddan-Aram or Aramathea was a "brother" of the tribal unit designated Huz, Uz, Buz. According to Genesis 22:20-22, Buz was one of Abraham’s nephews. Job was a “son” (descendent) of Uz (Job 1:1). The ruler Joseph, who asked to bury Jesus’ body in his family tomb, was from Aramathea.

3. Abraham was visited “in the heat of the day” by God in three Persons (Gen. 18:1). Compare this to the binary opposite of “in the cool of the day”, the time of God’s visitation to Adam and Eve in Paradise (Gen. 3:8). In the first instance, God comes to commune with the Man and the Woman. It is a cool encounter. In the second, He comes to punish Sodom and Gomorrah, a hot encounter.

4. Rahab helped Joshua and Caleb to capture the city of Jericho. She lowered the spies from a window and tied a scarlet cord from the window to protect her household when the Israelites attacked. The scarlet cord, like the blood of the lamb on the doorposts in Egypt, is a sign of the Pleromic Blood of Jesus.

5. The practice of levirate marriage is very ancient. The term is derived from the Latin word levir, meaning "husband's brother". When a man died without a man heir, his widow was married to the next oldest son whose duty it was to produce a son for his dead brother.

6.  Bethlehem was earlier a Horite town and the Horites and Jebusites shared much in common. I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur (Hor) as the "father of Bethlehem". The author of I Chronicles knew that Bethlehem was originally a Horite settlement, less than 10 miles from Mt. Hor. The Horites were called "Khar" by the  Egyptians and were a tribe of ruler-priests who were careful to marry chaste daughters of priests. The word "khar' also relates to a measurement of fuel used in burnt offerings.

Zipporah's Flint Knife

Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched his legs with it. She said, "You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!"  And when He let him alone, she added, "A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision."  Exodus 4:25, 26 (The Jewish Study Bible)

Badarian-Naqada flint knife with ivory handle (3200 B.C.)

Moses had two wives, following the pattern of his ruler-priest father and forefathers. One wife was Cushite (Numbers 12). This wife would have been his half-sister. Her designation as "Cushite" means that Moses' father married a Cushite. The mother of Korah and Moses' half-sister wife was Ishar, a descendent of Seir.  Moses' mother was Jochebed. Korah's mother was Ishar, but the two men had the same father, Amram. Amram had two wives according to the pattern of ruler-priests among his people.

Moses' cousin wife was Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest. Moses met her at a well where she was drawing water for her father’s livestock. Priests maintained shrines near wells, natural springs or along the banks of rivers. As a priest's daughter, Zipporah would have been familiar with animal sacrifices and with circumcision, but she would not have performed these nor would she have been present when they were performed. This is why her circumcision of her first-born son is remarkable. It also suggests that Moses was not qualified to circumcise his son. Apparently, Amram's first-born sons were Korah and Aaron, both priests. They would have been qualified to do it, but were not present when the necesity arose.

Flint knives and circumcision are also mentioned in Joshua. At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the people of Israel again the second time." So Joshua made flint knives, and circumcised the people of Israel at Gibeath ha-aralot. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of lthe people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died on the way in the wilderness after thy had come out of Egypt. Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people that were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. Joshua 5:2-5

4000 B.C. Badarian flint

The necessity to circumcise those born in the wilderness required the production of flint knives. Flint was the first mineral used to make tools.  Flint or obsidian have edges sharper than modern surgical steel. Flint workshops have been found throughout the Negev, suggesting that even after the production of iron tools, the flint knife was prefered for circumcision in honor of an ancient tradition among Abraham's Horite people.
The largest flint knives, dating to about 3000 B.C., were produced in Egypt and were found at Hierakonpolis, a center for the worship of Horus, who was called the "son of God." Votive offerings at the temple of Horus were gigantic, up to ten times larger than the normal maceheads and stone bowls found elsewhere. These objects are found only at Hierakonpolis, suggesting that the 4000 B.C. temple there was extremely prestigious.

Hierakonpolis is the site of the most ancient temple and city in Egypt. By 3500 BC, it was a city of many neighborhoods, industries and privates homes, extending over 3 miles along the Nile. Masks, pottery, graves and tombs with reliefs and paintings have been found there. Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit as the sun came over the eastern horizon.  At Hierakonpolis archeaologists have discovered a 3000 B.C. life-sized statue of a Horite priest and a 2300 B.C. golden hawk head of Horus.

Kushite Kingdom Building

Alice C. Linsley

Ganga in Omotic is related to words meaning river. Other words like sanga (“having limbs”) suggest the meaning of the intervocalic "ng", which in Sanskrit appears in words associated with tributaries, extensions, off-shoots, or limbs. This is the meaning of the River Ganges.

This map of the Nile drawn by Ptolemy is quite accurate.

The rulers of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion were ethnically Nilotic peoples who controlled the major water systems from West Africa to the Indus River Valley from around 12,000 to 1500 B.C. They charged tariffs for commerce conducted on the parts of the river that they controlled. Their priests maintained shrines at sacred sites along the rivers. We see this pattern from the Niger and Benue Rivers in west Africa to the Indus and Sarawati Rivers in India. Between these are the river systems of the Nile, the Jordan and its seasonal wadis, and the Tigris and Euphrates. These rulers and their priests founded cities and shrines in all of these river valleys.

The point of origin of these Kushite ruelrs appears to be the Sudan where 4000 year old artifacts have been recovered at Hierakonpolis on the Nile. These reveal that the rulers had goods and animals from distant places such as Afghanistan and Nepal.

To facilitate discussion of the kingdom building of the Afro-Asiatic river rulers, we will divide them into two groups:  the western Afro-Asiatics and the eastern Afro-Asiatics.

The Western Afro-Asiatic Kingdom Builders
Between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago the Nile river system filled with waters from the Angolan Highlands. Before this time, the streams of the Ugandan highlands flowed west to join the Congo River, which drains into the Atlantic. Geological uplift about 12,000 years ago tilted the region to create Lake Victoria and direct its excess flow north into the White Nile. The waters of the White Nile provide most of the Nile's water during the dry season. It was after the last wet period, ending about 10,000 years ago, that settlements emerged along the Nile.

Likewise, the now dry Botswanan lake basin in southern Africa was once a sea, filled by water from the Angolan Highlands.  Thousands of stoneage tools have been found here.

The Nok civilization spread across the Jos Plateau. The two oldest cities are Nok and Kano to the north. This civilization was bounded on the west and south by the Niger and Benue Rivers. In the last Ice Age, the Nile connected to the Niger and Chad water systems through a series of shallow lakes in the Sahara Desert. Because of this, a common plant and animal species is found in all three river systems.

Between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago Lake Chad filled its present drainage basin and spilled southwest out the Benue River to the Atlantic. It was called "Lake Megachad" and during that time it was the world's largest lake with a surface five times larger than Lake Superior.

This is the approximate time of Noah's flood in the region of Lake Chad, which is called "Bor-nu" meaning Land of Noah. (This period corresponds to the time of the Badarian culture in Upper Egypt.) The identification of Noak's Ark with Ararat in Asia Minor is a misunderstanding of the Arabic herarat - حرار - which means vehemence. Har-arat, better translated, would mean Mountain of Vehemence. Noah's ark came to rest on Mount Meni, near Lake Chad. Reference to "Armenia" is likely a misunderstanding of Har Meni, meaning Mount Meni. Mount Meni is known today as Mount Keringaya (Mount Kenya). According to David M. Westley, PhD, Director of the African Studies Library at Boston University, "From the center of the Chad Basin to Mount Meni is about 230 miles." In the time of Noah, Mega Chad would easily have extended that far. 

Geological surveys have discovered that Lake Chad has flooded and dried multiple times in the last 20,000 years. When there are heavy rains the area floods quickly because the clay lake bed does not permit the water to percolate.  It is not difficult to image why the flood of Noah appeared to cover the "whole earth."

 
The Eastern Afro-Asiatic Kingdom Builders
The Indus civilization had several large cities, including Mohenjo-daro and Harrapa. That civilization is known by the name “Harappa” and the people of this civilization were Dravidians. [1]

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

The German archaeologists, Friedrichs and Muller identified some of the skulls of Mohenjo Daro as "Hamitic." The term Nilotic would probably be more accurate.

Paleontologists B.K. Chatterjee and G.D. Kumer reported in "Comparative Study and Racial Analysis of the Skeletal Remains of the Indus Valley Civilization" that the 18 Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa skulls that they examined are "similar to skulls from Nubia during the third to second Millennium B.C."[2]

The Sudra were Nilotic peoples who migrated north and east and inhabited Pakistan, southern India and Sri Lanka. The Sudra Kingdom, mentioned in the epic of Mahabharata, was one of the ancient Saraswati Valley kingdoms. Herodotus referred to the Sudra/Dravidians as the “eastern Ethiopians” and described them thus: “The Eastern Ethiopians differed in nothing from the other Ethiopians, save in their language, and the character of their hair. For the Eastern Ethiopians have straight hair, while they of Libya are more woolly-haired…” [3]

They buried their dead in wooden coffins with the heads toward the north (symbol of God’s throne and the place of judgment) and the feet toward the south (the symbol of fertility and rebirth). This distinguished the Sudra from other Indians who practiced cremation. This parallels the burial practices at ancient Hierakonpolis[4], where archeaologists have discovered a 3000 B.C. life-sized statue of a Horite priest, a 2300 B.C. golden hawk head of Horus, and a ruler's grave with a triple interment of a bull, cow and calf. [5]

It is not certain that all Dravidians venerated Horus and his Father, Osiris, as divine. In the Horite myth the two are frequently interchangeable - "I and my Father are one", as Jesus explained. (They are also all seeing, even when their eyes are dimmed by blood.) The Vedas speak of falcon-shaped fire-altars. These are associated with Horus, whose totem is the falcon. Vedic tradition teaches that "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon." [6]

Temple of Horus

Kingdom Building and Missionary Priests

The oldest Dravidian traditions speak of ancient prehistoric kingdoms in southern India, extending further south into land that is now under the seas. The Sudra didn’t establish cities in the north, but their priests traveled as far as Nepal where they are called "Harwa", the ancient Egyptian word for priest. These 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. It is a religious life that shares eight distinctive features, all of which are found in the Bible and constitute the biblical worldview.

Legacy of the Ancient Afro-Asiatic River Civilizations
The Afro-Asiatic river civilizations built upon a social network of rulers and priests who shared a common worldview. The rulers were regarded as semi-divine beings and they exercised great power over their subjects. Their priests were responsible for the diffusion of the Afro-Asiatic worldview and cosmology across a vast expanse from modern Nigeria to Nepal. They built cities, monuments, temples, shrines and ships. They traded within their territories using the waterways to transport goods and they crossed seas to trade with others. 


NOTES

1. The ancient Harappan language has not been deciphered, so knowledge of this civilization is based on physical remains. No temples remain as these were at the river’s edge and were washed out centuries ago.

2. Wayne Chandler: "The Jewel in the Lotus: The Ethiopian Presence in the Indus Valley Civilization" in African Presence in Early Asia, Ivan Van Sertima et. a1. eds., 1985 p. 87

3. Herodotus VI.70, The History, trans. George Rawlinson, Dutton

4. Hierakonpolis is the site of the most ancient (4000 B.C.) temple and city in Egypt. By 3500 BC, it was a city of many neighborhoods, industries and privates homes, extending over 3 miles along the Nile. Masks, pottery, graves and tombs with reliefs and paintings have been found there.  Priests placed invocations to Horus at the fort-summit as the first rays of the sun came over the eastern horizon. Of particular interest is the tomb painting of two men painted in red ochre with black necklaces. They carry crooked staffs with objects that look like flails, suggesting that they might be ruler-priests. The colors used in the tomb are yellow ochre for the ground, red ochre for the figures and black for the details. White, probably gypsum, and traces of green, probably malachite, were also used. Karen Milbourne, an expert in African art, says "throughout much of Africa, the primary colors are red, white and black. They don't mean the same thing to every group, but they appear over and over again."  The north-south burial and the right-left (north-south) division of paintings at Hierakonpolis suggests a binary pattern of thought.

5.  The bull, cow and calf are a trinity symbol.

6. The hierofalcon originated in Africa. "Hiero" means priest.  This species is brown with an arrowhead pattern on its belly.

Does Bible Study Benefit You?

For the past few years I've coordinated the Sunday Bible Study class at my church. The attendance ranges from around 7 to 20, depending on the topic and the number on the teaching team. For a congregation our size, this represents average participation. There are others who regularly read the Bible who don't attend and there are many who don't read the Bible at all. How do we persuade the latter that study of Scripture is vital for their spiritual formation? 

I'd like to hear from readers on this topic:  "How I benefit from study of Scripture."

• Perhaps God has spoken to you about a matter in your life?
• Perhaps Scripture has brought clarity in a time of confusion?
• Perhaps you have received direct guidance?
• Reproof?
• Encouragement?
• Comfort?
• Deeper understanding of the Holy Trinity?
• Correction of ideas contrary to Scriptural teaching?
• Better understanding of the catholicity of Holy Tradition as presented in Scripture?

Holy Tradition: A Continuous Stream

Road to Emmaus: A Journal of Orthodox Faith and Culture has published an inteview with me in which I  reflect on my years as an Episcopal priest and the events that brought me to Orthodoxy.  The interview is titled "Stepping into the Stream" (Winter 2010, #40) and details how my Genesis research has been instrumental in helping me to understand Holy Tradition, the male priesthood, and the biblical worldview.

Please consider a subscription to this excellent journal, or a one-time donation, to help with the work.

Are Adam and Eve Real?

Alice C. Linsley

In what sense are Adam and Eve real? In biblical parlance they represent the first humans created by God.  As such, we must relate them to the oldest known human populations over 3 millions years ago. In this sense they are best described as meta-historical.

Must they be historical persons to be real? Clearly, not. To Abraham's Nilotic ancestors the idea of a meta-historical archetype was not foreign. Neither did they require that something be historical to be true or real. 

In this essay we look at five approaches to understanding Adam and Eve.


1. Literal Interpretation

In this view, Adam and Eve were the historical first parents of humanity. Many who hold this view also hold to a young earth creationism, placing Adam and Eve only about 10,000 years ago. They are not concerned with reconciling this view with the fact that the oldest human remains are millions of years old or that the Genesis genealogies reveal that Cain [1] and his brother Seth married into the royal house of Nok (Enoch). This would make Nok a contemporary of Adam.


2. Allegory
In this view, the story of Adam and Eve explains how humans fell from innocence to a state in which they experience suffering and death. An allegory is a literary and artistic device in which characters represent an idea or a religious or moral principle. Those who hold this view need not insist that Adam and Eve were historical persons. An example of the allegorical approach is Philo's commentary [2] which looks at the history of mankind, beginning at Genesis 2.


3. Federal Headship
Others view Adam as the “federal head” or head male who brought all of humanity into sin. They argue that Adam must therefore be an historical person. They cite Hebrews 7:9-10: “And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.” Here federal headship rests with Abraham, from whom Levi descended. Levi, who received tithes from his brothers, is said to have acted while still in the loins of his "father" Abraham when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek (Gen. 14:20).

Of course, this misses the point that it was Eve who first sinned, not Adam.  She who was the crown of creation, who stood upright with her head to the heavens, submitted herself to the will of the lowest of creatures - one that moves with its belly near the earth. Eve's agreement to do the will of the serpent represents an inversion of the hierarchical order of creation.

Likewise, instead of listening to God, Adam listened to his wife and became like the serpent, eating dust all the days of his toil. Adam’s fall recalls his origins from dust: "And God formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7).



4. Typology
In Romans 5:14, Paul declares that Adam “is a figure (tupos) of him that was to come”, i.e., Christ. Charles T. Fritsch [3] wrote that “A type is an institution, historical event or person, ordained by God, which effectively prefigures some truth connected with Christianity.” By this definition we can’t say that Jesus is like Adam or like Melchizedek. Instead we must hold that Adam is a type of the true Man Jesus and Melchizedek is a type of the One Priest whose ministry is Messianic and eternal.

Typology can be approach from another angle. Instead of prefiguring, a type can be understood as a shadow cast on the pages of Old Testament by a reality, embodiment or antitype found in the New Testament. According to this view, Adam is but a shadow (skia, following Colossians 2:17) of the eternal Form Man, who is Christ Jesus.

Typology must always be considered against the backdrop of the pattern of Reality. The use of antitupona, rendered “figures” (KJV) or “pattern” (ASV) in Hebrews 9:24, leads us to explore the pattern shown in Scripture and explored by the Church Fathers. Typology is fruitful because there is a pattern. It is the very weave of Reality and runs deeper than we generally recognize. We discover it when we explore the couplets found in Scripture: Two Passovers and Two Drunken Fathers, 2 Tabernacles: the earthly and heavenly, and 2 trees at the sacred center (here we have another type of the "tree in the midst of the garden" which has as its antitype the Cross at the center of all things, seen and unseen).


5. Myth
Some see the Adam and Eve story as an origin myth. Myths, like dreams, speak in symbols. Symbols pose meaning at the deepest level by presenting relationships. Adam is made from the red earth, which is the meaning of the word adamah. This may also be a reference to the place Adamah in west central Africa and to the ruddy skin color of the Nilotic peoples who give us this origin story. Myths lift up relationships such as flesh to spirit, woman to man, and heaven and earth, and also contain clues to the origin or source of the myth. The Adam and Eve story finds its closest parallels to origin myths of East Africa.

The cultural context of the Genesis creation stories is African [5]. That being so, we must try to understand the story in the context of creation stories held by African tribes. For example, we note the similarities of the Garden of Eden story to the story of Gikuyu and Mumbi, the first ancestors of the Gikuyu (East Africa). Here is a portion of that story:

Now you know that at the beginning of things there was only one man (Gikuyu) and one woman (Mumbi). It was under this Mukuyu that He first put them. And immediately the sun rose and the dark night melted away. The sun shone with a warmth that gave life and activity to all things. The wind and the lightning and thunder stopped. The animals stopped moaning and moved, giving homage to the Creator and to Gikuyu and Mumbi. And the Creator, who is also called Murungu, took Gikuyu and Mumbi from his holy mountain to the country of the ridges near Siriana and there stood them on a big ridge. The He took them to Mukuruwe wa Gathanga about which you have heard so much. But He had shown them all the land - yes, children, God showed Gikuyu and Mumbi all the land and told them: "This land I hand over to you, O Man and Woman. It is yours to rule and to till in serenity, sacrificing only to me, your God, under my sacred tree.

It is evident that Gikuyu and Mumbi are the first ancestors of the Gikuyu. They are not conceived by the Gikuyu as the progenitors of all humanity. Likewise, it is not necessary to insist that Adam and Eve are the progenitors of all humanity. Instead we may understand them as the first ancestors of the people who gave us Genesis. This concept of the first ancestors or heads of tribes and clans is found throughout the Bible. Midian is the head of the Midianites; Jacob is the head of the Israelites, and Lot is the head of the Moabites.

In the Revised Standard Version of the Bible the word adamah is rendered as “land” 105 times, as “ground” 67 times, as “earth” 37 times, as “soil” 6 times, and as “country” twice. It never refers to an historical person.

In what sense may we speak of Adam and Eve as real? The question reveals a shortcoming in the Western approach to Scripture.  We tend to equate real with historical, an equation that would have struck the ancients as strange. Our approach is informed by Empiricism which views as real only what is material and finite.

The biblical worldview, on the other hand, allows for metaphysical realness in the Platonic sense (although Plato likely borrowed his binary idea of Form and Image from the ancient Egyptians). Genesis presents Adam as real, not in the Empirical sense, but in the sense of archetypes.  In Platonic thought, the temporal and material is a reflection of the eternal and immaterial. The temporal passes away, but the eternal can neither pass away nor can it be corrupted or changed. St. Paul is a great master of the method and he views Adam as the archetype of the God-Man. Adam, the temporal and material points to Jesus Christ. Adam experiences corruption and passes away. Christ is ever without corruption and eternal. When Adam was made in the image of the eternal true Form, he was made in the Divine Image. In His incarnation, Christ our God was eternally 'begotten' of the Father, but without corruption since His existence is from before time.


6.  Archetype
Adam and Eve as archetype does not necessarily exclude the possibility that they are also ancestors.  The ancient Afro-Asiatics regarded ancestors as archetypes and archtypes as ancestors. A problem comes when we insist that they lived as the historical first parnets of all the people in the world. When we make this statement we force the Bible to say something that it doesn't say.  In fact, we make it say the opposite of what it says, because analysis of Genesis 4 and 5 reveals that Cain and Seth married the daughters of an African chief name Nok (Enoch) and where there are chiefs, there already exists a social fabric, laws, traditions, language and artifacts. Cain and Seth are themselves associated with the symbols of authority.  So if Adam and Eve are ancestors, they are ancestors of Cain and Seth's people who are identified in Genesis as Kushites.


NOTES

1. The genealogical information found in Genesis 4 and 5 reveals that Cain and his brother Seth married sisters. These brides were the daughters of an Afro-Asiatic chief named Nok (Enoch in Hebrew). The Nok civilization is dated between 12,000 and about 2000 years ago and is related to the Naqada civilization. Cain likely lived close to the time of Noah’s flood which would have been during the Guirian Wet Period between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago.

2. Read http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book2.html

3. Read Charles T. Fritch here: http://www.bible-researcher.com/fritsch.html

4. Read Wick Broomall here: http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/126-a-study-of-biblical-typology

5. Read about the cultural context of the Genesis creation stories here.

Reading reading:  Christians Debate Genesis and Evolution; The Genesis King Lists; Bishop Ussher Goofed; Adam and Eve as Archetypal Ancestors; The First Verifiably Historical Persons in Genesis; Eve's Sin

The Marriage Pattern of Abraham and His People

Alice C. Linsley


The rulers among Abraham's people married cousins, nieces and half-sisters. The patrilineal parallel cousins are of special interest because they named their first-born sons after their fathers, thus enabling us to trace descent through many generations.

A patrilineal parallel cousin bride is a first cousin who is in the same descent group as her husband. In other words, she and her cousin husband have a common male ancestor. This appears to have been the preferred marriage arrangement for rulers among Abraham's Horite people whose religion was Egyptian/Nubian. These rulers had two wives living in separate households on a north-south axis. One wife was a cousin and the other was a half sister. In Abraham's case, Keturah was his cousin bride and Sarah was his sister bride.

This arrangement doesn't seem to have been the practice among common people, as evidenced from excavations such as Deir El Medina where the average housing indicates monogamous marriages. Yet having multiple wives was common among kings and ruler-priests in ancient Nubia and Egypt. Also, the tradition of brother/sister marriages was confined to the royalty until the Greek period.

Brother/sister marriage was a common feature of the deities in Egyptian mythology, although these siblings often have different mothers. It may be that Egyptian kings, who were regarded as deities, married according to the mythological deities. Brother/sister, uncle/niece, and patrilineal cousin marriages also strengthened the king's control over his territory. It is also possible that the rulers believed that the Son of God, who they called Horus, would be born of their royal priestly lines and therefore they married only the daughters of royal priests.

Egyptian royal couple. Note that the wife is “made white” and the husband is dark, suggesting the symbolism of the Sun (male) and to the Moon (female). 

Cousin marriage and uncle/niece marriage was common among ancient Egyptian rulers and priests, although it appears that nieces were considered cousins. Half-sister marriage was also common and there is some evidence that the first wife was a sister bride. This was the case with Abraham who married Sarah before he married Keturah. It appears to have been the case with Isaac also (see diagram below). This explains the youthful sexual forlicking described in the Song of Songs where the groom addresses his bride as "my sister" (see 4:9-12). The sister wife is the bride of the man's youth. She is described as having been "made white" (8:5) while her beloved has skin as dark "as the tents of Kedar" because he was made to work in in the Sun by his older brothers (like David).

The second wife, a cousin or niece, would be taken at the age that the man was to take over the rule of his father's territory. This explains Abraham's urgency to fetch a cousin bride for Isaac before his death (Gen. 24).

It was through the cousin/niece brides that throne names were passed to first-born sons. I call this the cousin-bride's naming prerogative, although it sometimes pertains to nieces as in the case of Isaac's first wife, a daughter of his brother Yisbak. See below.

Symbols of Authority Linked to Cain and Seth

Naqada is a prehistoric site of one of the world's oldest known civilizations.  It is also the name given to the Naqada culture (c. 6000-4000 BC) that included the sites of el Badari, Nekhen (Hierakonopolis), Qau, and Gerzeh, where Egyptologist Wainwright discovered meteoritic iron beads, the earliest known artifacts of iron. Stone tools dating to 12,000 years have also been found in the area, revealing a long established human population.

Naqada settlements dating to about 4,000 BC have yielded decorated pottery, clay figurines and objects made of ivory and iron, as well as alien materials like lapis lazuli, indicating external trade. The civilization advanced due to irrigation, trade, political alliances along kinship lines, and the earliest writing.

The dead were buried in simple oval pits.  Later there were more sophisticated burial practices, especially for rulers and their wives.

The Naqada culture appears to have connections to the Nok culture.  A figurine of a Nok dignitary portrays a ruler wearing a shepherds crook affixed to the right arm and a hinged flail on the left. Both are symbols of authority among the ancient Nubian (Sudanese/Sudra) and Egyptian rulers. [1]
 
"Nok" and "Naqada" might refer to the same family.  I say this not only because of the linguistic similarity between "Nok" and "Naq" but also because Set (Seth) was venerated at the temple near Naqada, and according to Genesis 4 and 5, Set is Kano's (Cain) brother.
 

The brides of Cain and Seth were Africans of noble status. Their father was a ruler of great wealth who controlled the waterways at the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers. During this time west entral Africa was much wetter than it is today. The Chadic Sea was about 600 feet deep and sustained boating and fishing industries. The average fishermen used dugouts while nobles used boats constructed of marsh reeds lashed together and sealed with pitch.

 

Cain or Kano means metalworker. Social status (caste) and occupation were inherited from the father. Tubal-Cain (Genesis 4) would have inherited his livelihood from his father, Lamech the Elder, a descendent of Cain.

Intermarriage between the lines of Cain and Seth continues with the same intermarriage pattern between the lines of Ham and Shem and between the lines of Eber and Sheba.

Nok Figurine

NOTES

1.  We observe some common features among the chiefs listed among Abraham's people. They kept flocks, dug wells, and built up their households through 2 wives.  According to this pattern there is an association of 3 offices: ruler, priest and shepherd. The Protoevangelium of James says that Mary’s father had flocks and we know that he was in a priestly line. Many priests of the Bible had flocks. Moses tended the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. What could be more natural than for priests to maintain a source of animals for sacrifice?

GLOSSARY

Apical Maternal Ancestors: Women founders of clans or tribes though they may not be biological ancestors to all the people in the clan/tribe. Sarah and Oholibamah are examples. See: http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2008/11/coptic-monk-reflects-on-genesis.html

Binary Oppositions: (also called “binary distinctions” or “supplementary opposites”) These are perceived in the order of nature and are inseparable and complementary, such as heaven/earth, east/west, life/death, male/female, night/day, hot/cold, etc.  See:  http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2010/01/importance-of-binary-distinctions.html

Binary Worldview: The worldview of the Afro-Arabians and therefore of Abraham's people is binary. They perceive in the order of nature binary oppositions which are inseparable and complementary, such as heaven/earth, life/death, male/female, etc.  See:  http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2008/09/afro-asiatic-symbols-that-speak-of-god.html

Blood anxiety:  Anthropologists have found in every primitive society that has been studied the belief that here is power in blood and this power is potentially dangerous. This anxiety about shed blood is universal (widely diffused), evidence that it is very old and one explanation for the development of the office of priest. See http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2007/08/primeval-origins-of-priesthood.html

Caste System:  Strict social stratification made it impossible to change one’s status in the ancient world. We see this in one of the oldest established religions, Hinduism. Castes were viewed as having been established by God in the beginning. In the Bhagavad Gita, a first century A.D. Hindu text, Krishna declares that he has become incarnate yet he was being in the beginning because he also declares “The four castes were created by me.” In the Rig Veda, dating to about 3000 years ago, four castes are mentioned. The most prestigious are the Brahmans (priestly and intellectual class); then the Kshatriyas (ruler and warrior class); then the Vaisyas (farmers and artisans) and the lowest caste are the Sudras (the “untouchables” whose ancestors came from Sudan.) In the Laws of Manu (about 250 B.C.) these castes are elaborated as the primeval divine creation. Many sub-castes exist under these, making it difficult to know who is one’s equal or one superior.

Circumcision:  Removal of flesh from the foremost part of the penis or from the clitoris. Female circumcision parallels male circumcision and emphasizes the binary distinction between females and males. The practice reflects the binary worldview of the Afro-Asiatics and originated in west central Africa before the time of Abraham. Circumcision is seen as an enhancement of the woman’s femininity by the removal of what appears to be a male organ.  It is also believed to enhance female fertility and purity. Likewise, male circumcision is believed to enhance maleness by removing the soft folding tissues that appear like the female organ. It is also believed to enhance male fertility and purity. The complement to the circumcised male is the circumcised female. See: http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2009/03/circumcision-and-binary-distinctions.html

Concubine:  A royal consort whose firstborn son could under some circumstances ascend to the throne of his ruler father.  Concubinage historically pertains to African Afro-Arabian and Asian rulers. It was common in China under the Zhou Dynasty.  This practice, and castration of husbands guilty of adultery, may have been introduced there by the Afro-Asiatics who introduced the use of iron tools.

Cousin Bride’s Naming Prerogative: The ruler-priests of Abraham’s people married 2 wives. One was a cousin. The cousin bride often named her first-born son after her father. So we find Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4), father of Naamah, and Lamech the Younger (Gen.5), son of Naamah. The cousin bride’s naming prerogative makes it possible for us to trace descent through the maternal line.

Diffusion: The process by which a cultural trait, material object, idea, or behavior pattern is spread from one society to another, often traceable to a central point. A principle of anthropology states that the wider the diffusion of a culture trait, the older the trait.

Egalitarianism: Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people. The ancient world of the women we are studying was decidedly NOT egalitarian. It was characterized by a caste system. The highest social caste consisted of rulers and their priests. Most of the women we read about in the Bible are the daughters or wives of rulers or priests and are therefore women of high social standing.

Endogamous Marriage: Marriage to people within one’s clan structure. Almost without exception, the women named in the Bible married according to this pattern.

Empiricism: The view that experience, especially experience of the senses, is the only source of knowledge. Unless something can be verified by sight, hearing, taste, smell or touch, it can’t be said to have real existence. The realm of the “unseen” is not real, but imaginary. Many empiricists are atheists or agnostics.

Exogamous Marriage: Marriage to people outside one’s clan structure. Exogamous marriage is extremely rare among the people mentioned in the Bible.

Feminism: A modern ideology that views social structures with suspicion of male dominance and which employs female language for God and the Holy Trinity. Feminism is ideologically opposed to Holy Tradition.

Feminist Hermeneutic: How Feminists interpret texts, information and the world in general. Feminist interpretations generally assume that men are responsible for the abuse and oppression of women worldwide.

Holy Tradition:  The dogma received from the Elders and faithfully passed from generation to generation concerning Jesus Christ as the fullness (Pleroma) of all things in heaven and on earth, both invisible and visible. This dogma can’t be changed because it represents Reality centered in the divine person of Jesus Christ. Scripture and Holy Tradition agree that nothing exists outside of Christ. See http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-holy-tradition.html

Horites:  Abraham's people were a Horite caste of ruler-priests. they originated in the Nile Valley. The Horites were devotees of Horus, who was called "Son of God". Their totem was the falcon so their altars were built in the shape of the falcon. These altars have been found wherever the Sudra (Sudanese) established themselves.  Images of Horus show him with the body of a man and the head of a falcon. The falcon was a symbol of divine kingship. Horus or Har is called "lord of the sky". "Har" in Egyptian probably means "the one on high". The name appears on Egyptian hieroglyphs at the beginning of dynastic civilization (c. 3000 BC).

Isomorphism:  An isomorphism is a mapping that shows a relationship between two properties, objects, or operations. If there exists an isomorphism between two structures, we call the two structures isomorphic. Isomorphic structures are structurally identical, if you ignore fine-grained differences that may arise from how they are defined.

Levirate marriage:  A type of marriage in which a woman is required to marry her deceased husband's brother in order to produce an heir for her dead husband. Levirate marriage is practiced by societies with a strong clan structure in which exogamous marriage (marriage to people outside the clan) is forbidden.

Marginalization:  The social process of becoming marginal to a group or being relegated to an unimportant or powerless position within a society. In the ancient world the caste system meant that most people had a sense of belonging and empowerment, at least within their caste. Most marginalized people were diseased (lepers), poor foreigners, or the mentally ill.

Matriarchy:  A social organization in which a female is the family or clan head with final say about family matters. In a true matriarchy, line of descent and rights of inheritance also must be traced through the female line. No true matriarchies are known to exist.

Matrilineal Descent:  Line of descent traced through mothers.

Matronym:  A matronym is a component of a personal name that indicates maternal lineage.  An exaxmple is Jesus son of Mary. In Hebrew this is Y'shua ben Miriam, and in Arabic it is `Isa ibn Maryam. Another example is the matronymic name Hor, son of the virgin Hat-hor in Horite mythology.

Moral Absolutism: The view that some actions are always morally wrong when judged against moral standards that are universally accepted. Universally, murder is regarded as morally wrong.

Moral Relativism: The claim that there are not universal standards whereby one can judge right and wrong, but instead one's judgment of right and wrong is relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances.

Onomastics:  The study of names, involving three areas of investigation: toponyms or place names; anthroponyms or personal names and titles, and ethnonyms or names of ethnic groups, clans or tribes.

Panmictic:  Refers to unstructured (random-mating) populations.

Paternal Ancestors: Men regarded as the founders of clans or tribes even though they may not be biological ancestors to all the people in the clan/ tribe. Noah and Abraham are examples.

Patronym: A patronym is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or a male ancestor. An example, found in Genesis 22:24, is the name of Nahor's son G-Ham (Gaham).  The G prefix indicates that this name is patronymic, meaning "a descendant of Ham."

Patriarchy: A social organization in which a ruling male is the family or clan head with final say about family matters. In a true patriarchy, line of descent and inheritance also must also be traced through the male line. Many patriarchies are known to exist.

Patrilineal Descent:  Line of descent traced through fathers.

Patrilineal Parallel Cousin:  First cousins who have related parents of the same sex; in other words, their mothers are sisters or their fathers are brothers. The rulers among Abraham’s people had two wives. One was a patrilineal parallel cousin and the other was commonly a half-sister. Keturah was Abraham's patrilineal cousin bride.

Phatic function:  A phatic expression in linguistics is one whose only function is to perform a social task, as opposed to conveying information. The term was coined by anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski in 1900s. An example from the Bible is Ruth 2:6 where Boaz greets his workers with this phatic expression: "The Lord be with you."  The expression formalizes priest-initiated prayer in the Latin liturgy with the celebrant saying "The Lord be with you."  The phatic response of the congregants is traditionally "And with your spirit" to which the celebrant responds, "Let us pray."

Platonism:  The philosophical view that abstract concepts exist independent of their names. The philosophy attributed to Plato that asserts ideal forms as an absolute and eternal reality of which earthly entities are mere reflections.  Plato may have borrowed this idea from the ancient Egyptians.  See: http://college-ethics.blogspot.com/2010/01/plato-and-ancient-egypt.html

Polygyny:  The practice of having more than one wife, originally the prerogative of rulers only. Later, men who aspired to high rank took more than one wife to show that they were wealthy, since only the wealthy could afford multiple wives. The ruler-priests we meet in the Bible married only 2 wives. One was a half-sister and the other was a cousin.  Sarah was Abraham's half-sister and Keturah was his cousin.

Sororate marriage:  A custom in which a man marries his wife's sister(s).

Ostrich Eggshells: Evidence of Paleolithic Easter Eggs?

Long before human communication evolved into incessant tapping on computer keys, people scratched on eggshells.

Don't laugh -- researchers say a cache of ostrich eggshells engraved with geometric designs demonstrates the existence of a symbolic communication system around 60,000 years ago among African hunter-gatherers.

The unusually large sample of 270 engraved eggshell fragments, mostly excavated over the past several years at Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa, displays two standard design patterns, according to a team led by archaeologist Pierre-Jean Texier of the University of Bordeaux 1 in Talence, France.

Each pattern enjoyed its own heyday between approximately 65,000 and 55,000 years ago, the investigators report in a paper to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

From here.  For related news go here.
Ostrich eggs 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.  She weighed the hearts of the dead to determine who would enter eternal life.  Painted ostrich eggs have been found in tombs at Hierakonpolis (Nekhen) and in many graves of children in ancient Nubia (Kush). 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.

Canaanite Origins of the Alphabet

To the Asiatics, as they were called, the lush Nile Delta, with its open marshlands rich with fish and fowl, was a veritable Garden of Eden. From earliest times, Canaanites and other Asiatics would come and settle here. Indeed, this is the background of the Biblical story of the famine in Canaan that led to Jacob’s descent into Egypt (Genesis 46:1–7).


By the beginning of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (a few years after 2000 B.C.E.), the pressure of immigrants on the eastern Delta was so strong that the Egyptian authorities built a series of forts at strategic points to “repel the Asiatics,” as the story of Sinuhe tells us.1
 
More than a century later, however, Egyptian policy toward the Asiatics changed. Instead of trying to prevent them from coming in, the Egyptians cultivated close relations with strong Canaanite city-states on the Mediterranean coast and allowed select Asiatic populations to settle in the eastern Delta... [Read it all here.]
 
 
For more on this topic, go here.

An African Reflects on Biblical Names

My friend Salamatou of Niger has shared some fascinating linguistic comparisons between the Hausa language and biblical names. Here they are:

Alice, I haven't heard from you lately. Hope all is well with you.

I was reading about Esau, being Ishan in Nigeria. I would say Isa which is a common name among the Hausas in Niger.

I will add, as I told you Hausa still uses names like:

Esaie = Isha'u
Salau which for me is Saul
Sarai = sarah
Nuhu = Noah

To tell you the truth, among my people leaders, there are Jews names. First they didn't make much sense to me but after researching; there might be a clue...

Dela or Delulu = Delila ( the song for Delulu is: "Dela, you are despised of women but the joy of men), all Delulu are also called "Kande=Kandas", she is called the one with twin names. It is not a given name, but a name given to all girls born after two, three, or various brothers. So a baby girl born after several brothers, not one, is named Delulu, Dela on the spot in addition to her baptism name. I am one.

Lutu = Loth, Zakariya'u = Zakariya'u, Dodo, Haruna = Aaron, Laban = Labo, Jeremiah = yerima, Sephora = Sahura etc...

Also, the story of Moses,"Musa" is told at night to children in remote villages, where people are illiterate, how he went through a big "kogi" with his people, calling to the all mighty for help, from the enemy coming after him.

And if Noah people originated in Africa, how is it that, the garden of Eden is said to be located in Irak? If Noah's arc stopped somewhere in Europe, how is it that most varieties of the animals it contained are found in Africa?

I am confused.

Salamatou



Dear Salamatou,

Genesis indicates that the biblical Noah lived in the area of Lake Chad. This is the only place on the surface of the earth that claims to be his homeland - Bor' Nu or Bor-No, meaning "land of Noah."

Armenia is probably Har'Meni, or more likely Har'Meru or Meri, only about 200 miles from the present shores of Lake Chad. Remember that in Noah's time Lake Chad was a sea, much larger than it is today.

Likewise, the word Ararat is not a reference to a place in Iraq, but is a misunderstanding of the Old Arabic herarat - حرار - which means vehemence. Better translated, har-arat would mean Mountain of Vehemence. This, coupled with the Genesis genealogical data showing that Noah's ancestors lived in the area of northern Nigeria and Lake Chad, seems conclusive. All the data fits this hypothesis: Noah's ark landed on a mountain in Africa.

When you read the book of Genesis you find 2 traditions about Noah (and 2 about the Garden). One is western (Afr-Arabian) and older, and the other is eastern (Mesopotamian) and later. This reflects the reality of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion which was ruled by Afro-Arabian and Afro-Asiatic (Aramaean) rulers who controlled water systems extending from west central Africa to the Indus River Valley. These ruling lines intermarried, as is the practice with ruling families. Their priests spread these stories and the binary worldview of the Bible.

Jewish names are close to the Hausa and Arabic. Hebrew, Hausa and Arabic are Afro-Asiatic languages that share common roots. The oldest of these common words pertain to priests, blood and ritual purity. They tell us a good deal about the Afro-Asiatic Dominion of the Afro-Arabians and Aramaeans. Their dominion has been reasonably well demonstrated by comparative linguistics, comparative mythology, cultural anthropology and archaeology.

You will find more information here:
http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2007/12/finding-noahs-ark-lets-look-in-right.html


Salam,
Alice


Related reading:  The Afro-Asiatic Dominion; African Naming Practices; Mount Mary and the Origins of Life; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology