Latest News Flash on Noah's Ark

Web sites are buzzing over claims that remains from Noah’s Ark may have been found on Turkey’s Mount Ararat. The finders, led by an evangelical group, say they are "99.9 percent" that a wooden structure found on the mountainside was part of a ship that housed the Biblical Noah, his family and a menagerie of creatures during a giant flood 4,800 years ago.

But researchers who have spent decades studying the region – and fending off past claims of ark discoveries – caution that a boatload of skepticism is in order.

Read it all here.

People continue to look in the wrong place! Noah lived in Africa during the Halocene Wet Period, in the region of Lake Chad. During Noah's time, the waters of Mega-Chad extended many miles beyond the present boundaries of Lake Chad, flooding an area approximatley the same square miles as the modern nation of Sudan, Africa's largest country. Bor-nu, on the southwestern rim of the Chad Basin, means "Land of Noah." This is the only place on the surface of the Earth that claims to be biblical Noah's homeland.

Noah's ark has never been found.  There are several reasons:

• Noah's ark came down in the area of Lake Chad, not in Turkey.
• The ark was probably made of reeds, not wood, leaving little hope of finding remains after all this time.
• The flood took place between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago.

Read more here and here.

Holy Tradition is a Family Tradition

Alice C. Linsley


As an Orthodox Christian I value Tradition, and as a biblical anthropologist I conceive of Tradition as a subject to be studied as objectively as possible. Such study is able to identify specific features and suggest an origin. This approach is likely to get me into trouble with my fellow Orthodox and so I ask them to forgive me if I offend. That is not my intention.

In Orthodoxy, Tradition is said to live in the Church as the continuous expression of the Spirit's guidance and revelation and is the basis for the Church's authority. For an anthropologist, this definition seems theoretical and raises more questions than it answers. What exactly is the substance of the revelation? Is it fixed or does it change?

Looking at Holy Tradition through the lens of anthropology one finds an unchanging tradition that was already well developed among Abraham's ancestors.  This is evidence that God has had witnesses to His divine nature and eternal power in every generation since Eden.

It also indicates that Holy Tradition is received, not invented, and that it has specific features that the followers of Jesus Christ would immediately recognize. These features include expectation of the appearing of the Son of God by a miraculous birth, His blood shed on a cross, His resurrection, and His oneness with the Father.

For an anthropologist, the Bible is a useful resource for understanding Holy Tradition because only here do we find a consistent and cogent account of the people who lived in expectation of the Son of God and taught their children to do so.  In other words, Holy Tradition is a family tradition. This is evident when one studies the genealogies and discovers that Abraham's ancestors and Abraham's descendents are a more homogeneous group than suggested by the different ethnic labels assigned to them.

Abraham and David are the key figures in this unique family tradition.  Strangely, the Bible is silent about their mothers. This should stir curiosity since, among Abraham's people, one's ethnicity or bloodline was traced through the mothers.  Were we able to identify these two women, we would be able to point to the core family around which Holy Tradition is built. That has been one of my pet projects these past few months.  Next week I'll tell you what I've discovered. 

By the grace of God have a peaceful weekend, friends.

The Bible as the Woman's Story

Alice C. Linsley


The Bible is a book for all people, but reading some commentaries one gets the impression that the Bible is about men and the experiences of men. Doubtless this is due to the fact that most commentaries are written by men who tend to filter the material through their male experience. Exposition of the biblical text on the basis of the male experience alone does not render a full picture of God’s work in the world. In fact, it distorts the Tradition concerning the Son of God which is the central and over-arching message of the Bible.

John 3:16 states that belief in the Son of God is necessary for salvation. Likewise, Peter’s confession “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mat. 16:16) is the message of the Church. The emphasis on the Son of God is because Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made to “the Woman’ (Mary, the Blessed Mother of God) in Eden that her Seed would crush the head of the serpent and restore paradise (Gen. 3:15). Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of this promise and prophecy.  When his disciples refused to accept that he was going to Jerusalem to die, he told them that unles a seed/grain falls into the ground and dies, it cannot give life (John 12).

Abraham’s ancestors expected the Seed to be born of their priestly bloodlines, which is whythe Horite ruler-priest lines intermarried exclusively.

The female experience as it is presented in the Bible is not well represented. The commentaries written by women tend to be feminist critiques of the patriarchal world in which the women lived. Feminists largely portray the women of the Bible as victims when, in fact, few are victims and few are oppressed. Many women of the Bible are shown to exercise considerable influence, some for good and some for bad. Most of the women in the Old Testament are the wives, daughters and daughters-in-law of rulers and priests. This means that they were upper class and rather protected, though not often pampered. The women of the Bible were prophets, judges, witches, queens, wise women, harlots, merchants, seamstresses, and servants of the Most High God. Their stories round out our understanding of the Bible and of the Tradition concerning the Son of God that comes to us from Eden itself.[1]

To understand the Tradition concerning the Son of God we must pay attention to the women in the Bible because among Abraham’s people bloodline was traced through the mothers. We see how this is true when we trace Jesus’ ancestry through key women. Consider this telescopic line of descent from A to K. (Telescopic means that not all the generations of mothers are listed.) If we begin with B – Cain’s wife – we have a depth of 10 mothers, which is the usual number in telescopic lines of descent.[2]

A. The “Woman” of Eden (Gen. 3:15) is not Eve. She is the mother of the Son of God.

B. Daughter of Nok , wife of Cain (Gen. 4)

C. Naamah, wife of Methuselah (Gen. 4 and 5) Mother of Lamech, who she named after her father.

D. Wife of Shem

E. Mother of Abraham (Horite wife of Terah)

F. Sarah, Abraham’s half-sister

G. Rebekah, daughter of a priest

H. Leah, wife of Jacob

I. Tamar, daughter of a priest

J. Rahab of Jericho, wife of Salmon the Horite

K. Ruth, descendent of Terah by Lot


Explanation

A. The “Woman” of Gen. 3:15 is recognized by the Church Fathers as the Theotokos, or God-Bearer. She is at the beginning of the Messiah’s line as prophesy and she is at the end of Messiah’s line as his virgin mother. She is foreseen in the same way that Levi is said to have existed in the “loins” of Abraham. Hebrews 7:9-10 explains: “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.” Levi, yet unborn is said to have paid the tithe while still in the loins of his "father" Abraham when Abraham paid the tithe to the priest Melchizedek (Gen. 14:20).

B. Cain and his brother Seth married sisters, the daughters of the African chief Nok. We must trace Jesus' ancestry through Cain's descendent Naamah who married Methuselah and was the grandmother of Noah.

C. Naamah is the daughter of Lamech the Elder and the mother of Lamech the Younger. She was Methusaleh’s cousin bride.

D. Shem’s wife is not named. She was likely his half-sister. Shem and Ham’s lines intermarried according to the pattern of the ruler-priests. So Jesus is descended from both Shem and Ham.

E. Abraham’s mother is not named in the Bible, but according to tradition she was the daughter of a priest associated with the Egyptian shrine of Karnach (Karnevo in the Babylonian Talmud). This shrine was dedicated to Horus, called the “son of God”. The genealogical information indicates that her father was Na’Hor. She named her first-born son Na'Hor, according to the cousin bride's naming prerogative.

F. Sarah and Abraham had the same father, Terah, but different mothers. As a ruler-priest, Terah had two wives. One was a half-sister and the other was a patrilineal cousin.

G. Rebekah was Isaac’s cousin wife. His half-sister wife was the daughter of Abraham by Keturah who dwelt in Beersheba. This explains why Eliezar brought Rebekah to marry Isaac in Beersheba, and not to Hebron.

H. Leah is the mother of Judah. The Son of God would come from Judah by Tamar.

I. Tamar, the Righteous, tricked Judah into impregnating her. When Judah discovered that Tamar was pregnant, he ordered that she be stoned to death. This was the sentence for daughters of priests who committed adultery or harlotry.

J. Rahab was a prostitute visited by Hebrew spies. She helped them to escape and as a reward her family was spared when the Hebrews attacked Jericho. The sign of her protection was a scarlet cord hanging from her window, a symbol of the Blood of Lamb. This is like the blood on the doorposts in Goshen and Rahab’s story is a second Passover. She married Salmon, the Son of Hur (Hor). Salmon is called the "father of Bethlehem" in 1 Chronicles 2:54.  Rahab became the grandmother of Boaz who married Ruth. Salmon (also Salma or Solomon) is a Horite name and is associated with Bethlehem (1 Chronicles 2:51).

K. Ruth is the celebrated great grandmother of King David. With Ruth the bloodlines descending from Terah converge. Ruth is the celebrated great grandmother of King David.

NOTES


1. Genesis 2:10-14 says that Eden was watered by four rivers: the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Pishon and the Gihon. Two are in Mesopotamia and two are in Africa. This is the heart of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. This is the place of origin of the ruler-priests and of "him that holds the scepter from the house of Eden" (Amos 1:5). So Eden is not a mythical garden, but an actual region on earth and the point of origin of Abraham’s ancestors.

The description of Eden as a well-watered region is supported by climate and geological studies. Around 12,000 years ago the Nile river system filled with waters from the Angolan Highlands. Geological uplift tilted the region to create Lake Victoria and direct its excess flow north into the White Nile which provides most of the Nile's water during the dry season. Essentially the entire Albertine Rift was a vast flood plain extending 3,700 miles from Syria to central Mozambique.

The Ethiopians identify the Gihon with the Abay River, which encircles the former African kingdom of Gojjam (where Ge'ez was spoken, the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox church). The Pishon "flows through the whole land of Havilah" (Gen. 2:11). Havilah is a son of Kush (Gen. 10:7) and the "Kushites" lived in the upper Nile region and the Sudan. Kushite kings also ruled in Egypt. These four rivers encompass the heart of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion which was ruled by a network of ruler-priests. They controlled the major water systems and built shrines along the rivers.

2. One theory holds that the genealogical segments were in groups of 10 because to facilitate the memory of the tribal story teller. While this is certainly possible, it seems more likely that 10 represents the beginning of a new cycle, since the counting system of Abraham’s people used 9 as the base. This would mean that Ruth, descendent of Terah, begins the new cycle and this cycle traces the Son of God through David. This is significant since David’s city was Bethlehem and the “father of Bethlehem” was a Horite. 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.


Related reading:  The Daughters of Priests

We're in Big Trouble!

Alice C. Linsley


In a course I’ve been teaching on Women of the Bible students were asked to list the purposes of the Bible. Here is a compilation of the list:

• To communicate God’s message
• To understand the Ten Commandments
• To better understand our lives
• To better understand the mystery of God
• To give us faith in Jesus Christ
• To help us to live a good life
• To prepare us to enter Heaven
• To prepare us for death
• To understand the world
• To get a handle on Reality
• To comfort us in times of sorrow
• To provide guidance
• To aid evangelism
• To inspire
• To help us repent of our sins
• To explain where humans and life on Earth came from/started
• To tell us about our ancestors
• To tell us about Jesus’ ancestors

Many of the answers can be grouped under the heading moral guidance, but if the Bible’s purpose is moral guidance we would expect this aspect to be as obvious and precise as the great ethical teachings of the Vedas, or Buddhist teaching or Confucius’ writings.

Other answers reflect the belief that the Bible is an evangelistic tool to be used to save souls by calling people to repentance. This is a good use of the Bible, but such answers identify one use of the Bible as the Bible’s purpose. Was the Bible written for Christian evangelism? I think not. In fact, evangelistic use the Bible without a clear sense of its purpose confuses people.

It was interesting that some of the answers pose the Bible as an epistemological resource. I agree that the Bible helps us to understand the world, and I believe that the Bible presents a true view of reality, but I do not regard this as the Bible’s purpose, per se.

Some of these answers reflect what the students recognize as their teacher’s anthropological interest in origins and the ancestors of Jesus Christ. These are good answers, but not what I consider the purpose of the Bible. This surprised my students! They were sure that they were giving me the answers I wanted to hear.

Based on extensive study, I believe that the purpose of the Bible is to record what those who wrote the Bible considered important. This purpose never makes the list because Americans don’t value what people of the ancient world considered important.  We are despisers of tradition and most consider ancient wisdom irrelevant. We believe that we are the most knowledgeable people, living in the most enlightened age, when in fact we are babblers who chase after entertainment rather than enlightenment.

If I am correct about this, we are in big trouble! For as Cicero said: To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child. The Apostle Paul says the same, urging believers to grow up through apprehension of the Holy Tradition concerning the Son of God. It matters that Abraham’s people lived in expectation of the appearing of the Son of God and that they knew God's purpose in His coming. It means that we have not invented Christianity. It means that, when our dogmatic quarrels take us off course, we can find the way by attending to this Holy Tradition.

The Scarlet Cord: Poem and Painting

Rahab and the Scarlet Cord


"so secreted into cold air
they made their way
from your roof
your bed
bound by promise
and sealed with a sign
to wave when the Day would come

and come it will...
but spared (you and yours)
from the falling swords
by this silken pledge
Jericho Jericho
your dead
will pile like wet leaves
choking the gutters

walls will fall
stone blood
and ash
and in the harlot's window
a scarlet cord
made of midnight oaths
will be all that remains"

From here.

God as Male Priest

Alice. C. Linsley


The Afro-Asiatic worldview, as expressed in the Bible, holds to the binary distinctions observed in nature and experienced on a most fundamental level of existence. These binary opposites are objective in that they are observed by all people in all places on earth. The biblical worldview is not concerned with subjective opposites such as tall-short, talented-untalented, dark skin-light skin, intelligent-unintelligent, etc. as these are relative and subjective, not absolute and objective. The Bible is concerned about what is real ontologically.

The ancient Afro-Asiatics honored many realities, but one of the most significant 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 the basis for the priesthood, an office ontologically exclusive to males, since only men in the priestly lines could fill the office.

Warriors were responsible for the blood they shed in battle. Hunters were responsible for the blood they shed in the hunt, and priests were responsible for the blood of the animals they sacrificed. Midwives, wives and mothers were responsible for the blood of first intercourse, menstrual blood and blood shed in childbirth. The two bloods were never to mix or even to be present in the same space. Women didn’t participate in war, the hunt, and in ritual sacrifices. Likewise, men were not present at the circumcision of females or in the “mother’s house” to which women went during menses and to give birth.

It is also significant that among tribal peoples, brotherhood pacts are formed by the intentional mixing of bloods between two men, but never between male and female. The binary distinctions of male and female were maintained as part of the sacred tradition.


Female Blood Work
As a point of fact, the first reference to the shedding of blood in the Bible is not Cain’s murder of Abel. The first reference is to the blood of “the Woman” who would give birth to the One who would crush the head of the cosmic serpent and restore Paradise. This is significant because it places life-giving blood before killing. In other words, the blood work of women is posed as both prior to and equal to the blood work of priests.

In the Bible, the first blood work of women is not the birth of Cain, but the birth of Messiah promised to “the woman” in Eden in Genesis 3:15. This woman is not Eve, since Eve is not named by Adam until verse 20. The first blood work of Scripture is Christological, as indeed is the blood work of priests.


Male Blood Work
The second blood-letting in the Bible is when God makes clothes of animal skins for Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:21). Here we see the first sacrifice of animals for the benefit of humans. This places God between the life-giving blood of the Woman (Gen. 3:15) and Cain's murder of his brother (Gen. 4:8). This is consistent with the Afro-Asiatic view that the sacred center is where God is to be found. Between the two bloods, representing life and death, God sacrifices what is His for humanity. In this sense, God is the first Priest and that first animal is a symbol of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

From the Afro-Asiatic perspective, which is the perspective of the Bible, God is male and God is priest.  It is clear also that God condescends to grant to the lesser a greater role. So it is that a young maiden, from the least of the tribes of Israel, should become the unwedded Bride of God and the ever-virgin Mother of Christ our God.


Related reading:  The Importance of Binary Distinctions; The Binary World and Kenosis; Blood and Binary Distinctions; The Priesthood as Heavenly Ordinance; Ideologies Opposed to Holy Tradition

Seven Planets, Seven Bowls

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork...Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."  Psalm 19:1-6

          

Alice C. Linsley

For the ancient Afro-Asiatics, the Sun was the symbol of the Creator and it was venerated much as Christians venerate (not worship) the Cross of Jesus Christ. Priests and rulers concerned themselves with the movement of the Sun, the Moon and the planets because it was their responsibility to fix the dates for feasts and fasts and because they believed that the pattern for right living on earth was found in the God-established pattern found in the heavens.[1]

This makes sense when you consider that the Sun is the single entity visible in creation that speaks adequately of the Creator's divine nature, eternal power, faithfulness and omnipresence. The apparent disappearance of the Sun during an eclipse speaks of the conquest of Light over Darkness.  A solar eclipse begins with light and ends with light. Between, there is darkness but the darkness is overcome by the Light.

By watching the heavens ancient man was able to better understand his place on earth since the stars and the planets move relative to one another in a fixed and stable pattern. There are seven visible planets and these were percevied as urns or bowls. According to Heraklitus of Ephesus [2] these bowls carried the stars and other celestial bodies. Heraklitus didn't invent this idea, but received it from the Afro-Asiatics, for this was how they explained the diurnal motion of the fixed stars as they revolved around a point above the north pole, and the apparent motions of the sun, the moon and planets.

In the temple dedicated to the Sun in Upper Egypt, at the ruins of Babian, there were seven urns. These represented the seven visible planets. The urns caught blessings from heaven in the form of rain. The six urns at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus Christ turned water to wine, speak of what is yet to be fulfilled in Jesus at the Cross and Empty Tomb.  He who went down also ascended to the heights, taking captives and giving gifts to mankind (Ephesians 4:9,10). [3]  This is what Heraklitus meant when we wrote that "the path up and down is one and the same."

This Afro-Asiatic perception of the seven bowls of heavenly blessings is evident in the Hindu wedding ceremony during which the new bride takes seven steps around the altar. The Agharias marriage ceremony (Orissa, India) begins with the bride’s father delivering a bracelet (as did Abraham's servant to Rebekah) and seven small earthen bowls to the bride. The bride is seated in the open, and seven women hold the bowls over her head one above the other. Water is then poured from one bowl into the other, each being filled in turn and the whole finally falling on the bride's head. The bowls represent the blessing of fecundity on the bride’s womb. Pouring the water from above represents the heavenly blessing by which God overcame the demonic forces that withheld water inhibiting life on earth. 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.

Though many churches baptize by immersion, use of a bowl to baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is consistent with this ancient practice of blessing.

In Jewish weddings the seven marriage blessings (Sheva Brachot) are recited under the huppah and the wedding feast lasts seven days. Seven days was the duration of the wedding feast for Samson (Judges 14:12) and for Queen Vashti (Esther 1:5-11).

The significance of the number seven in reference to union or completion is seen in the first Genesis creation story which says that God rested from all His work on the seventh day. Seven in association with God at rest portrays the concept of a peaceful relationship between Master and Servant, between Heaven and Earth, between Creator and Creation, and between Husband and Bride. Seven in reference to the Sun's coming forth as a bridegroom points to the eighth day in which he prepares the Great Wedding Banquet. [4]

Bowls were used both to bless and to curse.  In the ancient Afro-Asiatic world, both were done by priests because they alone knew the words of power. Blessing and cursing were seen as binary opposites.  To be blessed was to be under divine protection and to be cursed was to be removed from divine protection.  This is the meaning of the twin mountains of Gerizim and Ebal.  From Gerizim came declaration of divine protection for those who follow the path of righteousness.  The opposite was declared from Ebal (Deut. 11:26-30).

Shown is a cursing bowl. The curse is inscribed inside the bowl and the one invoking the curse would pour water from that bowl on the cursed person or on their property.  Presumably the worst curse would involve seven bowls or the pouring of water seven times. This bowl dates to about 3000 B.C. and was found in Egypt.

In the use of bowls for opposite purposes, we again find an example of the binary worldview of Abraham's people. John H. Walton has noted, "Blessing and curse are common terms in Genesis from the initial blessing in Genesis 1 to the curses of Genesis 3, 4 and 9, and then to the juxtaposition of curse and blessing in Genesis 12:1-3."  This helps us to understand what is meant in Genesis 12:3, where God says to Abraham: "The one who curses you, I will curse", which is to say that God will remove from his protection and favor from the one who invokes words against Abraham's seed.

Daniel's rejection of the "new" cosmology

Antiochus IV (the "little horn" of Daniel 8) attempted to stamp out knowledge of the diurnal rotation of the earth by imposing geocentric corruptions and insertions in the Hebrew scriptures. Daniel presents him as the little horn reaching to the sky to cast down stars and trample on them.  He sought to eliminate the "daily", which can refer only to the Sun (Dan. 8:10).  (The Hebrew doesn't say daily sacrifice. The word sacrifice was added by later interpreters who missed the significance of this passage.)  Antiochus IV opposed the older solar cosmology of Abraham's people which emphasized God's daily oversight and promise of union.  We gain a better understanding of the cosmological references in Scripture by looking at the larger Afro-Asiatic context of the Bible.


NOTES

1. Eupolemus in Eusebius ascribed the origin of astronomy to Nok (Enoch) of west central Africa.


2. Heraklitus, a pre-Socratic philosopher, understood binary opposites as being unified by the Logos. He stated that "all things come to be in accordance with this Logos."  In this belief, he appears to have been influenced by the Afro-Asiatic worldview. Diogenes Laertius wrote of Heraklitus [ix, 9-10] He does not reveal the nature of the surrounding; it contains, however, bowls turned with their hollow side towards us, in which the bright exhalations are collected and form flames, which are the heavenly bodies. Brightest and hottest is the flame of the sun ... And sun and moon are eclipsed when the bowls turn upwards; and the monthly phases of the moon occur as a bowl is gradually turned.

3. This is suggested by the diurnal motion of the stars around the north and south celestial poles. Earth's Great Year begins when the north-south polar axis is exactly perpendicular to the equatorial axis. This happens about every 25-28,000 years. In other words, earth's New Year begins with the erect Cross, the sign of Jesus Christ.

3. Abraham's people apparently used a base-nine system.  Each number had rich symbolism, some of which is preserved in Jewish, Islamic and Vedic mysticism.

What Makes a Woman Virtuous?

Alice C. Linsley

The Proverbs 31 Woman is presented as a model of the virtuous or godly woman. She was the wife of a city elder (like Ruth) and a respected figure in her own right (like Deborah and Anna, the Prophetess). Her responsibilities include buying and selling merchandise, which means that she was a business woman (like Phoebe). The Proverbs 31 Woman “makes herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple” (like Lydia). [1]

In other words, the Virtuous Woman is a composite of the industrious, self-disciplined and faithful woman. Such a woman would have been a great asset to her husband. The King James Bible expresses her worth in these words: “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” We wonder if this image of the woman is from the husband’s perspective more than from the woman’s perspective. From the woman’s perspective, this life was one of constant duty to family, household and community. And while her husband and children respect and honor her, this image doesn’t portray much warmth or intimacy.

For thousands of years, Jewish women recited Proverbs 31 when they lighted the Sabbath candles at dusk on Friday. Jesus’ mother would have had this poem about the Virtuous Woman in mind from earliest childhood.

Although Proverbs 31 is held up as a model of the virtuous woman, what we actually have is a general template of faithfulness to God. The same qualities would be expected of a godly man. The woman described in Proverbs is a portrait of ideal womanhood, but the focus of this portrait is a woman’s relationship with God, not her abilities or her efficiency as a homemaker. The Proverbs 31 woman realizes that her strength and her value come from God. [2]

Many faithful woman don't fit the good homemaker model of Proverbs 31. The Prophetess Anna was married for only 7 years. The rest of her years were spent as a “monastic” living in the temple.

Some of the women are remembered for unladylike acts, such as when Zipporah acted as a priest in circumcising her son. In doing so, she sacrificed her femininity to save her husband’s life. She also made it clear to Moses that she wasn’t happy about it, thus dismissing the idea that women must sweetly sacrifice themselves for their husbands. This is the opposite of what the Bible teaches. St Paul reminds Christian men that they are to love their wives and to be ready to lay down their lives for their wives, as Christ loved and gave His life for the Church.

Jael, wife of a tent-making descendent of Kain, can hardly be praised for her hospitality and gentleness. She killed her houseguest Sisera while he slept by driving a tent peg through his temple. And the Bible praises her for disposing of an enemy of Israel!

In fact, there is no single model of godly womanhood in the Bible. Some were judges who waged war, some were influential prophets, some were rulers’ wives, some were virgin daughters of priests, and some were barren and troubled women. The only thing they have in common is their reliance on God.

None fit the stereotype of the housewife overwhelmed by dirty dishes, laundry and the demands of husband and children. None seem to be oppressed women, though Feminists insist that their condition under Patriarchy was one of subjugation.[3]

Instead we find strong, dignified, multitalented, caring women who make a mark for themselves in the world by putting their trust in God. They invest wisely, oversee servants, and manage real estate. They are listed in the lines of descendent, sometimes even called “chief”, as in the case of Anah, Oholibamah’s mother. They are consulted by priests and kings as in the case of Huldah, and by the heads of tribes, as was Deborah. They are responsible for running large households and often save their husband’s estates from destruction, as did Abigail. They were recognized in their communities for their wisdom, such as the Wise Woman of Abel Beth-Macaah. They were respected in their communities for their kindness and generosity, such as the seamstress, Dorcus.

NOTES

1. The extraction of the purple dye from the Tola mollusk was extremely time consuming and labor intensive. That’s why only royalty and the very wealthy could afford the colored garments. To took about 250,000 mollusks to make one ounce of the dye.

2. This is an important message for women today, especially for those who consider that their value comes from being married or from achieving success in a career.

3. Feminists accuse St Paul of hating women and of attempting to impose a hierarchical order that oppresses them. This is a misrepresentation of the Apostle's teachings.  In the ancient Tradition which St. Paul knew very well, the binary distinctions of male and female meant that both sexes gained meaning for their lives from their differences and from the distinction between them as creatures and God as Creator.

Eden: A Well-Watered Region

The area shaded in red is the location of biblical Eden. It was said to be a well-watered area. Today this is one of the driest regions on earth, but during Noah's time and before it was vastly wetter. Abraham's ancestors came from this region.  It is the point of origin of the Afro-Asiatic peoples who came us the Bible.

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. Essentially the entire Albertine Rift was a vast flood plain extending 3,700 miles from Syria to central Mozambique.

Likewise, the now dry Botswanan lake basin in southern Africa was once a sea, filled by water from the Angolan Highlands. Thousands of manmade stone tools have been found in the area dating to between 80,000 and 100,000 years.

Between 12,000 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 Lake Superior.

Genesis 2:10-14 says that Eden was watered by four rivers: the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Pishon and the Gihon. Two are in Mesopotamia and two are in Africa.  This is the heart of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. This is the place of origin of the ruler-priests and of "him that holds the scepter from the house of Eden" (Amos 1:5).

The Ethiopians identify the Gihon with the Abay River, which encircles the former African kingdom of Gojjam (where Ge'ez was spoken, the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox church). The Pishon "flows through the whole land of Havilah" (Gen. 2:11). Havilah is a son of Kush (Gen. 10:7) and the "Kushites" lived in the upper Nile region and the Sudan. Kushite kings also ruled in Egypt.

The description of Eden as a well-watered region is supported by climate and geological studies. These four rivers encompass the heart or Eden of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion which was ruled by a network of chiefs who were priests. They controlled the major water systems and built shrines along the rivers.

Sons and "The Son"

The motif of three sons in Genesis is helpful in understanding that the number three represented a unity to Abraham’s people. Three sons comprise a tribal unit. So Ham, Shem and Japheth; Haran, Nahor and Abraham; and Og, Gog and Magog represent tribal units.

The first-born son inherited his father’s earthly kingdom. Nahor is an example. He inherited Terah's kingdom between Ur and Haran. This indicates that Nahor was Abraham's older brother. Haran may have been the oldest, but according to Genesis he died before his father.

The younger son received a kingdom by divine provision, or what we might term a heavenly kingdom. Abraham is an example.  After Nahor inherited Terah's earthly kingdom, God provided Abraham a kingdom which speaks of the Messianic kingdom.

In Genesis, we often find that the third son either dies or is hidden in the text.  Abel and Haran are examples of sons who die.  Og is an example of third son hidden in the text as is Joktan, Abraham's first-born son (from whom the Jokanite tribes of south Arabia are descended.)

All of these sons point to the divine Person of Jesus Christ, the Son who was hidden in the Father's bosom until His revealing in these last days, who was killed by his brethren, and who inherits the Kingdom that is not of this earth. Genesis is the story of His earliest ancestors.

Holy Theophany Church of Nagoya Japan

Holy Theophany Church (Orthodox)

For my friend Yumi:

There is an Orthodox Church in your town. Go here for information. 

You are in our prayers, dear sister!

Noah's Birds

The historicity of Noah’s great flood is supported by findings in many disciplines. There are two birds in the story: a dove and a raven. The birds provide a clue as to the location.

In Africa the dove is a symbol of prophetic discernment so sending out a dove was Noah’s way of seeking guidance. The most common dove in the part of Africa where the flood occured is the Pink-bellied Dove. This species is abundant near water and would have been associated with shrines which were located at rivers, springs and wells.  The pink belly is suggestive of blood sacrifice which made peace between the penitent and God.  This peace is symbolized by the olive branch which the dove brought to Noah.

The raven mentioned in Genesis is the Fan-tailed Raven, in the crow family. Its habitat extends across North Africa, Arabia, Sudan and Kenya. It also ranges across the Air Massif in Niger where it nests in crags. The red area shows the Fan-Tailed Raven’s habitat. This is exactly the location of Noah’s flood.

This is the natural habitat of both the Pink-bellied Dove and the Fan-tailed Raven, the birds that Noah released from the ark. It is also the heart of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

In the ancient Afro-Asiatic world the dove represented heavenly confirmation. Noah sent out a dove to determine whether the waters had subsided and it returned with an olive branch. In many paintings of the Annunciation, the dove is portrayed as descending from the Father to Mary as confirmation.

In the ancient world, doves hovered near water shrines and sacred wells, so the idea of the Spirit hovering over the waters at the beginning of creation is consistent with Afro-Asiatic belief.

The dove seems a fitting symbol for the Spirit of God, just as the Sun is a fitting symbol for the Father. What then is the symbol for the Son? It is the veil that hides the most holy. Jesus is both the veil and the veiled or hidden Son. This is why the veil concealing the most Holy Place was torn from top to bottom when Jesus was crucified. At Calvary the Son was revealed fully. The veil was pulled away. At the Orthodox Paschal liturgy this is symbolized by the opening of all the doors of the iconostasis. This happens only on Pascha.

Sweeping Away Gender and the Biblical Worldview

Alice C. Linsley

So what is at the heart of this attempt to sweep away binary distinctions and the biblical worldview? The fallen nature of humanity which resists God and God's purpose; the arrogance of the human heart which pushes against the boundaries that God has established. How foolish we are! We are nothing; humble clay imagining ourselves to be gods who can make the Sun rise in the west.

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Norrie, a 48-year-old born in Scotland but now living in Sydney, was allowed to list "sex not specific" on his government-issued "details certificate" last month. However, news of this achievement flew round the globe and the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages of the state of New South Wales told him that the certificate would be cancelled.

The Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, said: "Advice from the Crown solicitor is that the registrar may only issue a recognised details certificate or new birth certificate following a change of sex in either male or female gender."

Norrie, who was born male, but lives an androgynous existence after a sex-change operation, was outraged. "I felt killed. It's a hideously humiliating position to find myself in and makes a mockery of my human rights. I feel completely violated by the [NSW] Attorney-General's office," he told ABC News. He has lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Perhaps unaware of the reversal of the decision, Oxford bioethicist Julian Savulescu applauded it as "a step forward for respect for personal autonomy and for human enhancement". He went on to explain, "The old binary categories are falling - tall and short, talented and untalented, smart and stupid, male and female. Human life is incredibly diverse. All states and talents affecting humans occur in shades of grey. We should make our choices in recognition of the shades of grey. And it makes sense to make decisions not based on crude categories but fine-grained realities." ABC, Mar 18;C-FAM, Apr 1


Note how Savulescu dismisses all the ancient wisdom with thee two words "Crude categories. It is apparent that Savulescu doesn't understand what binary distinctions are. Of his list - talented-untalented, smart-stupid, tall-short, male-female, etc.- only one is a binary distinction: male-female.

To what "fine-grained realities" is Julian Savulescu referring?  The binary distinctions are as fine-grained as one can get. They are observable as the pattern of nature and have been the basis for Law and Ethics for at least 12,000 years. The grey areas of which he speaks always represent anomalies in nature. In Law and Ethics they are a nightmare!

When we attempt to sweep away gender distinctions we are essentially saying to the Creator that we know better. 


Related reading:  What's Lost When Women Serve as Priests?; The Importance of Binary Distinctions; Blood and Binary Distinctions; Gene Robinson on the Bible

How to Invite Ridicule

To understand the biblical worldview we must grasp the supplementary nature of the binary opposites. This involves understanding of what is meant by binary opposites and supplementary.

Supplementary is about meaning.  It is not an egalitarian principle. That is to say that meaning is derived from the relationship of the binary opposites. I experience hateful acts as evil because I have experience of loving acts and know them to be good. The reverse is also true. The male-female relationship has meaning because of the supplementary nature of male-female.

Supplementary doesn’t mean equal, since one of the opposites is perceived as greater in some way. This is how the biblical worldview avoids dualism.

Supplementary is what makes a relationship meaningful. In fact, meaning is derived from the supplementary nature of two things.

Consider Law and Grace. St. Paul presents these as binary oppositions, and their meaning is found in the supplementary relationship of the oppositions. One is greater, stronger, brighter, etc. than the other in its attributes. Grace is superior to the Law, but makes no sense without the Law. For as St. Paul says, the Law was our "school teacher" until grace should be revealed in the Incarnate Son.

The Sun is brighter than the Moon and the Moon's light is a reflection of the Sun's light. The western Afro-Asiatics thought the Chaldeans and Babylonians were confused because they venerated the Moon. Since the Moon merely reflects the Sun's light, it is a lesser entity. Why would anyone want to venerate a lesser entity? Abraham's father was accused of being an idol worshiper (Joshua 24:2) because he lived in the region of Ur and Haran where people worshipped the moon god.

Binary distinctions are not figments of the ancient imagination. They are observed in the order of creation. Men are physically larger and stronger than women.

Among Abraham's people it was taboo to allow distinct entities to become confused. This is why both men and women were circumcised, a custom that continues in many parts of Africa. Male circumcision is seen as an enhancement of maleness and the complement to the circumcised male could only be a circumcised female.  Circumcision in its original context derives meaning only when considered in this supplementary way.

Many examples of supplementary binary distinctions are found in Scripture. Consider the distinction between heat and cool. Abraham was visited “in the heat of the day” by God in 3 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). Why are the two accounts posed as hot and cool encounters with God? Because in the first God has come to punish the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the second God has come to enjoy fellowship with the Man and the Woman.

Bible verses which forbid sowing two types of seed in the same field, weaving two types of fabric in the same garment, and boiling a baby goat in its mother's milk - are about NOT blurring the distinctions God has created in nature. The last is especially troublesome because the offspring meets death in the life-giving mother's milk.

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' was regarded as an evil deed, a violation of the order of creation and therefore an affront to the Creator. So obviously was homosex.

Bloods were never permitted to mix or even to be present in the same space. For example, men were not permitted in the birthing hut. Women (and many men also) were not permitted where animals were sacrificed. This is why women were never priests and why in church tradition they waited 40 days to return to church, following the ancient custom requiring purification after shedding blood.

Ancient peoples recognized a fixed order in creation. The male is larger and generally stronger than the female. The male is equipped for war and hunting while the female is equipped for cultivation and childbirth. This leads us to the distinction between the blood shed by men and the blood shed by women. Male "blood work" was expressed in hunting, war, execution of lawbreakers, and in animal sacrifice by the rulers, priests or prophets.

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

I’ve found that speaking about the binary distinctions draws fire. Suggesting that they are important invites ridicule. Yet, this is how the ancient Afro-Asiatics made sense of their world and their thinking informs us today through the Bible, Law and Ethics.

Documents, Sources and God's Purpose

The Documentary Hypothesis is exactly that: an hypothesis.  It has proven useful in literary criticism of the Bible.  It is one of many useful tools.  However it fails, as has modern scholarship in general, to demonstrate the purpose of the Bible.  Until we can answer that question we miss the larger picture.

The Documentary Hypothesis (DH) maintains that the Pentateuch derives from four documentary sources:

(1) The Yahwist (J) source, representing the southern tradition of Judah in early monarchial times

(2) The Elohist (E) source, representing the north tradition of Israel after the division of the kingdoms. Somewhat later these two sources were combined and the combination is referred to as JE.

(3) The Deuteronomic (D) source, representing renewal of Torah during the 621 B.C. reforms of Josiah.

(4) The Priestly (P) source, which mos adherents of the Documentary Hypothesis thought to be post-Exilic. These sources were combined by an editor or final Redactor (R) to form the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch).

The Documentary Hypothesis was the dominant approch in critical scholarship for most of the 20th century.  Its detractors were largely ignored, but some were too persuasive to dismiss, such an Hermann Gunkel. In his three commentaries on Genesis, Gunkel posed serious doubts about Wellhausen's hypothesis. Wellhausen regarded Genesis as a compliation of narratives projected backward into pre-Mosiac times at the time of the Monarchy. He argued that the material reflects the life and times of the Monarchy and presents an erroneous picture of the earlier time of the Patriarchs. Gunkel, on the other hand, insisted that the Patriarchal sagas are a reliable oral transmission from before the time of Moses.

Wellhausen wasn't interested in the archaeological discoveries that shed light on the Afro-Asiatics living in Canaan, but Gunkel recognized that the finds of biblical archaeology revealed that Canaanite culture was not an anomaly. Rather it was consistent with the larger ethnological and linguistic heritage of the Afro-Asiatics who had been around for centuries before the time of Moses.

Both men failed to account for the purpose of the Bible, and especially for the uniqueness of Genesis, the account of Afro-Asiatic ruler-priests who preserved their bloodlines through endogamy. The intermarriage between priestly lines existed long before the emergence of a people called Israel. The pattern is consistent throughout the Bible and can be traced from Genesis 4 to Jesus, the Son of God. The pattern ends there, having fulfilled its purpose and the purpose of the Bible.

The historical-critical method of Gunkel, R. H. Pfeiffer and Julian Morgenstern is helpful in identifying older sources. Pfeiffer identified the Seir Source (S) which brings forth the people of Edom whose history is linked to Abraham and his Horite ancestors. Morgenstern identified a Kenite Source (K) and explores the Kenite link to Moses through his bride, Zipporah.  In both sources, we uncover important information about Jesus' ruler-priest ancestors. Pfeiffer and Morgenstern were scratching the more ancient level of the material.

Having completed lengthy research on Genesis, I'm persuaded that the genealogical data provided is accurate, verifiable, and the account of historical people. This is the single conclusion that one could reach based on the findings of this project.

I believe that the Bible is reliable because the kinship pattern that runs unchanged from Genesis to the New Testament could not have been written back into the text by a later editor. That would be impossible given that the Bible consists of sixty-six books written by many different authors over about 1300 years. So how do we explain the consistent pattern of intermarriage between priestly lines from Cain and Seth to Jesus Christ? There can be but one explanation. The Bible is the account of the people whose story it claims to be: the ancestors of Christ our God. This provides a clue as to how the Bible came to be. Only God could have authored a book over 1300 years! Granted He used human agents, but they were agents who understood God’s purpose and who were attached to the ruler-priest lines from which Jesus would come.

Twentieth century scholarship has failed to account for the purpose of the Bible and for the uniqueness of Genesis. In part, this is due to the blind eye European scholars have turned to the African origins of the material. Today it is virtually impossible to ignore the African origins since every field employed in the study of Scripture points us to the African ancestors of Christ our God. These were ruler-priests who married the daughters of other ruler-priests and thereby preserved their priestly bloodlines through intermarriage (endogamy). The endogamous marriage pattern is consistent throughout the Bible and can be traced from Genesis 4 to Jesus, the Son of God. The pattern ends with Jesus’ appearance, having fulfilled its purpose and the purpose of the Bible.


I wish all a blessed Holy Week and joy in knowing that the Son of God has destroyed death and opened for us the way to Paradise.