Here is the claim of bacteria with an "intermediate cell structure" as the missing link in the origin of life according to Darwinian evolution. Since waste treatment plants were created by humans they can't be the cause of our existence. But trees and plants that decay and form acid bogs... now that's a possibility! Genesis teaches that God made the plant life first, so Evangelical evolutionists can claim this as the mechanism... if they buy the assumption of an evolutionary path from prokaryotic to eukaryotic cells.
Genesis also teaches that there is a hierarchy among created things with plants being lower than animals and humans being at the top. Why assume that the more complex cell structure developed from the less complex? In a hierarchy these can exist simultaneously. This never enters the minds of these men who are committed to Darwinian explanations only. Here is an excerpt from the Nov. 26 report:
"Our discovery means that the appearance of eukaryotic cells on Earth can be explained by Darwinian evolution over billions of years rather than a 'big bang' fusion theory," says cell biologist Dr Emmanuel Reynaud from University College Dublin, one of the co-authors of the scientific paper.
"Our analysis shows that PVC [Planctomycetes, Verrucomicrobiae, Chlamydiae] bacteria, members of which are commonly found in today's sewage treatment plants or acid bogs, represent an intermediate type of cell structure. They are slightly bigger than other known bacteria, and they also divide more slowly."
"The structure of PVC suggests that it is an ancestor of a 'missing link' cell which connected prokaryotic to eukaryotic cells along an evolutionary path all those billions of years ago," says Dr Damien P Devos from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany, who co-authored the scientific paper.
Darwinians can't explain human origins and necessarily make a case against human uniqueness. Now we are merely a complex arrangement of sewage.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
The Substance of Abraham's Faith
Alice C. Linsley
But what was the substance of Abraham's faith? That important question can be answered by investigation of Abraham's cultural context using Genesis and extra-biblical sources of information such as linguistics, kinship analysis, archaeology, anthropology and DNA studies. When we bring together the evidence of these disciplines we draw the following conclusions:
1. Abraham's people originated in Eden
Abraham's people originated in the Upper Nile region which includes western Sudan, southern Ethiopia and northern Somalia. This is the region of ancient Eden (eden is derived from the Kushite word egan, meaning garden). It was here that the first Bible promise was made to Abraham's ancestors. The Edenic Promise of Genesis 3:15 foretells how the Woman would bring forth a son who would crush the serpent's head and restore paradise.
The region of Eden is where we find the oldest agricultural practices, metal-working, circumcision of priests, and the oldest temples and shrines.
The Genesis genealogies indicate that Abraham's ancestors migrated from ancient Kush to Mesopotamia. Nimrod, the son of Kush (Gen. 10:8), built a vast kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. This Kushite migration has been confirmed by DNA studies. Nimrod's brother was Ramaah who settled to the southeast of Dedan in northern Arabia.
2. Abraham's people were Horites
Abraham's people were Horites. Horite isn't an ethnicity, but refers a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Horus, called the "son of God". The temple at Hierakonpolis in Sudan had the oldest known Horus shrine. The Horite priesthood of Abraham's ancestors was dedicated to a Divine Triad which included the Creator God and his Uniquely Begotten Son by a Chosen Woman.
Abraham's people believed in a supreme creator God with lesser assisting semi-divine powers in a hierarchical ranking, like a pyramid. This is called henotheism. Each clan was headed by a hereditary ritual leader and had guardians from among the lesser powers (along the idea of guardian angels). In ancient Egypt these powers were represented by animals totems. Only one power was represented as a man - Horus -God's uniquely begotten son, who was served by a caste of royal priests called Horites. The biblical priesthood originates here among the devotees of Horus. The Horite priesthood was restricted to males and was concerned with ritual purity, especially the avoidance of blood guilt.
3. Abraham's people trace their lineage from two founders
Genesis presents two founding ancestors for Abraham's people. One is Adam, the archetypal first Man and the other is the historical patriarch Enoch. Adam and Eve are etymological, not proper names. "Adam" is traceable to "dam" in the Chadic and Kushitic languages, which means red and refers to the earth which the ancient Kushites believed was the source of blood. So we are told that the first man was made from the red earth. The first historical persons in Genesis are Kain, Seth and their wives, the daughters of a chief named Enoch. The name Enoch is probably the name Nok which pertains to a region west of Lake Chad as well as to an historical individual.
Genesis poses Adam as the first man and Enoch as the first ancestor of the historical persons listed in Genesis 4, 5 and 11. The biblical writers understood this because the names Adam and Enoch are parallel in Psalm 8, verse 4:
What is man (Enoch) that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him?
Here we see that the historical first ancestor Enoch is paralled with the archetypal first man Adam. This means that the author of the Psalm understood the difference between the two figures, and we should as well, if we want to understand Genesis.
4. The Horite ruler-priests are Jesus Christ's ancestors
The kinship pattern of Abraham's people indicates that the ruler-priests married two wives. In his youth, the ruler-designate married his half-sister, as did Abraham with Sarah. Before ascending to the throne, he married his second wife, a patrilineal cousin or niece. The cousin wife named her first-born son after her father, a pattern which begins in Genesis 4 and can be traced to Mary and Joseph. The pattern of ruler-priests having two wives disappeared among Jews with the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.
The origins of the faith of Christ, the Son of God, came to Abraham, not as special revelation, but as a tradition received from his forefathers. The distinctive traits of this tradition align remarkable well with the key features of catholic faith and practice:
Because of God's promise in Eden, Abraham and his ancestors lived in expectation of the Son of God and taught their children to do so. Their priestly lines intermarried exclusively in expectation that the Seed of the Woman would come of their priestly lines. The Edenic Promise was a central belief of the Horite family-tribal tradition. They believed that the son would be born of the chosen Woman (not called Eve in Gen. 3:15). They believed that he would be killed by his own brother and that he would live again.
The Virgin Birth is one of many signs that the One born to Mary is the Son of God. This is not about the birth of the Sun at the winter solstice. This is not a reworking of the Egyptian tale of Horus. The Horus archetype provides the pattern whereby Abraham's descendants would recognize Messiah. It points us to the Virgin who gave birth to the Son of God under humble circumstances. In the Horus myth, Hat-Hor gives birth in a cave. In Orthodoxy, icons of the Nativity show the Theotokos with the newly born Christ in a cave.
Christianity is an organic religion that emerges out of a belief that God made a promise in Eden and that He has been busy fulfilling that promise in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The core of Christianity can be traced to the beliefs of Abraham and his ancestors. It predates all the great world religions. Christianity isn't original, but what it lacks in originality it makes up for in great antiquity, and herein rests its authority.
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| Ancient Eden |
Abraham is the central figure of the book of Genesis. He is presented as a man of faith who acted on his faith and was justified by faith. Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. (James 2:21-24)
But what was the substance of Abraham's faith? That important question can be answered by investigation of Abraham's cultural context using Genesis and extra-biblical sources of information such as linguistics, kinship analysis, archaeology, anthropology and DNA studies. When we bring together the evidence of these disciplines we draw the following conclusions:
1. Abraham's people originated in Eden
Abraham's people originated in the Upper Nile region which includes western Sudan, southern Ethiopia and northern Somalia. This is the region of ancient Eden (eden is derived from the Kushite word egan, meaning garden). It was here that the first Bible promise was made to Abraham's ancestors. The Edenic Promise of Genesis 3:15 foretells how the Woman would bring forth a son who would crush the serpent's head and restore paradise.
The region of Eden is where we find the oldest agricultural practices, metal-working, circumcision of priests, and the oldest temples and shrines.
The Genesis genealogies indicate that Abraham's ancestors migrated from ancient Kush to Mesopotamia. Nimrod, the son of Kush (Gen. 10:8), built a vast kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. This Kushite migration has been confirmed by DNA studies. Nimrod's brother was Ramaah who settled to the southeast of Dedan in northern Arabia.
2. Abraham's people were Horites
Abraham's people were Horites. Horite isn't an ethnicity, but refers a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Horus, called the "son of God". The temple at Hierakonpolis in Sudan had the oldest known Horus shrine. The Horite priesthood of Abraham's ancestors was dedicated to a Divine Triad which included the Creator God and his Uniquely Begotten Son by a Chosen Woman.
Abraham's people believed in a supreme creator God with lesser assisting semi-divine powers in a hierarchical ranking, like a pyramid. This is called henotheism. Each clan was headed by a hereditary ritual leader and had guardians from among the lesser powers (along the idea of guardian angels). In ancient Egypt these powers were represented by animals totems. Only one power was represented as a man - Horus -God's uniquely begotten son, who was served by a caste of royal priests called Horites. The biblical priesthood originates here among the devotees of Horus. The Horite priesthood was restricted to males and was concerned with ritual purity, especially the avoidance of blood guilt.
3. Abraham's people trace their lineage from two founders
Genesis presents two founding ancestors for Abraham's people. One is Adam, the archetypal first Man and the other is the historical patriarch Enoch. Adam and Eve are etymological, not proper names. "Adam" is traceable to "dam" in the Chadic and Kushitic languages, which means red and refers to the earth which the ancient Kushites believed was the source of blood. So we are told that the first man was made from the red earth. The first historical persons in Genesis are Kain, Seth and their wives, the daughters of a chief named Enoch. The name Enoch is probably the name Nok which pertains to a region west of Lake Chad as well as to an historical individual.
Genesis poses Adam as the first man and Enoch as the first ancestor of the historical persons listed in Genesis 4, 5 and 11. The biblical writers understood this because the names Adam and Enoch are parallel in Psalm 8, verse 4:
What is man (Enoch) that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him?
Here we see that the historical first ancestor Enoch is paralled with the archetypal first man Adam. This means that the author of the Psalm understood the difference between the two figures, and we should as well, if we want to understand Genesis.
4. The Horite ruler-priests are Jesus Christ's ancestors
The kinship pattern of Abraham's people indicates that the ruler-priests married two wives. In his youth, the ruler-designate married his half-sister, as did Abraham with Sarah. Before ascending to the throne, he married his second wife, a patrilineal cousin or niece. The cousin wife named her first-born son after her father, a pattern which begins in Genesis 4 and can be traced to Mary and Joseph. The pattern of ruler-priests having two wives disappeared among Jews with the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.
The origins of the faith of Christ, the Son of God, came to Abraham, not as special revelation, but as a tradition received from his forefathers. The distinctive traits of this tradition align remarkable well with the key features of catholic faith and practice:
- All-male ruler-priests who were mediators between God and the defiled
- A binary (versus dualistic) worldview
- Blood sacrifice at altars whereby sin was propitiated
- Expectation of the appearing of the Son of God in the flesh
- God's will on earth as in heaven - interpreted by morehs (prophets)
- Belief in an eternal and undivided Kingdom delivered by the Father to the Son.
Because of God's promise in Eden, Abraham and his ancestors lived in expectation of the Son of God and taught their children to do so. Their priestly lines intermarried exclusively in expectation that the Seed of the Woman would come of their priestly lines. The Edenic Promise was a central belief of the Horite family-tribal tradition. They believed that the son would be born of the chosen Woman (not called Eve in Gen. 3:15). They believed that he would be killed by his own brother and that he would live again.
The Virgin Birth is one of many signs that the One born to Mary is the Son of God. This is not about the birth of the Sun at the winter solstice. This is not a reworking of the Egyptian tale of Horus. The Horus archetype provides the pattern whereby Abraham's descendants would recognize Messiah. It points us to the Virgin who gave birth to the Son of God under humble circumstances. In the Horus myth, Hat-Hor gives birth in a cave. In Orthodoxy, icons of the Nativity show the Theotokos with the newly born Christ in a cave.
Christianity is an organic religion that emerges out of a belief that God made a promise in Eden and that He has been busy fulfilling that promise in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The core of Christianity can be traced to the beliefs of Abraham and his ancestors. It predates all the great world religions. Christianity isn't original, but what it lacks in originality it makes up for in great antiquity, and herein rests its authority.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Peaks and Valleys
Alice C. Linsley
Among the Afro-Asiatics, God was thought to reside at the summit of the universe, at the seventh firmament of heaven. This is why most of the Babylonian ziggurats had seven terraces. Saint Paul’s mystical experience of being taken to the third heaven should be understood in the context of the Afro-Asiatic cosmology which shaped his Jewish thought. Jacob's dream of a ladder going up to heaven is another image of God at the summit.
Many African tribes claim mountains as their sacred ladder to heaven. For the Gikuyu, Mount Kenya is the “Kere-Nyaga” which means Mountain of Brightness. For the Masai, the sacred mountain is the active volcano "Oldoinyo LeNgai" in Tanzania. "Ngai" is the name for the supreme God among the Gikuyu and the Masai.
The concept of God at the summit led to the construction of high places, temple mounts, pyramids and ziggurats. The Babylonian temple mounts were houses for the deity ("beth" in Hebrew). Bel's temple at Nippur was called “E-Kur” which means “mountain house”. One of the oldest temples found in Assyria bears the name “E-Kharsag-Kurkura” which means “house of the mountain of all lands”. This may be analogous to the Israelite conception of the temple on Mount Zion as “a house of prayer for all nations.” The temple platform in Jerusalem is about 2500 feet above sea level and the temple at ancient Hierakonpolis sat high above the city on the summit of the fortress. This city and temple were ancient even to the ancient Egyptians.
In the Bible we find God self-revealing on mountain tops: to Moses on Sinai, to Abraham on Mount Moriah, and to Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Important biblical symbolism is also attached to being between the mountains. In contemporay Christian idiom we speak about spiritual peaks and valleys. However, there is a tendency to interpret these are positive and negative experiences - spiritual highs and lows - which is NOT consistent with the biblical view. Peaks and valleys are places where we encounter both blessing and judgement.
The valley is where the melting snow flows down from the mountains. It is were rivers cut trenches in the earth's surface. These rivers provided water in abundance, which is why Egypt was called a garden. The place between mountains is the place of inundation, for good and bad. It symbolizes divine blessing and divine judgement.
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| Elephantine between mountains to the East (Bakhu) and to the West (Manu) |
The Nile flows north between two mountain chains, one on the east and the other on the west. In ancient Egyptian mythology there were two sacred mountains flanking the Nile. Bahku was the mythical mountain from which the sun rose on the eastern horizon. The other sacred mountain was Manu on the western horizon. In Abraham's time, Bakhu and Manu were the most frequent expressions for the extreme East and West. These peaks were guarded by the double lion, Aker, and between the peaks Re came at high noon like a lover between the breasts of his beloved.
Elephantine Island, the largest of the Aswan area islands, was the center of Nubia's international power. Pepinakht-Heqaib, who lived during the third millenium BC, rendered judgement from Elephantine and waged wars. Pepinakht-Heqaib claimed that when judging between two brothers, presumably first-born sons, he never deprived a rightful heir of his inheritance. Since he lived before the time of Joseph, we may speculate that he was honoring a long-standing custom among his people. This indicates that the practice of chiefs having two first born sons (by two wives) pre-dates the Asiatic Hyksos' domination of Egypt. Elephantine sat at the sacred center between mountains on the east and on the west.
The sacred center in ancient Canaan was Shechem (modern Nablus). It was located between the mountains of Ebal on the northern side of the valley and Mount Gerizim on the southern side. Mount Ebal rises 3084 feet above sea level, some 194 feet (59 meters) higher than Mount Gerizim. From Mount Gerizim the priests declared the blessings and from Mount Ebal the curses (Deut. 11:29). This was part of the covenant at Shechem, but curiously only the curses are recorded in Scripture (Deut. 27).
The situation of Ebal and Gerizim, with the sacred shrine in the valley below, is like that of the Bakhu and Manu bordering the Nile, with Elephantine at the center. . Likewise, the waters of Eden were said to flow from four rivers and the Jordan begins at the junction of four streams (the Bareighit, the Hasbany, the Leddan, and the Banias), in the upper part of the plain of Lake Huleh.
Bakhu-Manu represents east-west and Ebal-Gerizim represents north-south. The difference in the polarity suggests that the north would be the direction from which trouble would come upon Israel, a sad reality confirmed by history.
Sacred centers such as Elephantine and Shechem are indicated by their placement between two shrine cities, mountains or high places. The moreh who Abraham consulted at the oak of Mamre was midway between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east (Gen. 12:6-8). The prophetess Deborah judged from her palm tree at the sacred center between Bethel to the north and Ramah to the south. So we see that the masculine is associated with the east-west axis and the feminine with the north-south axis. If curses were from the north, then blessings were from the south, the direction from which Abraham's ancestors originated. They were the first to hear the Edenic Promise that the Woman's Seed would crush the head of the serpent and restore Paradise (Gen. 3:15). This is the faith from which all blessings spring.
Related reading: The Dragon and Beast of Revelation
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Giving Thanks for What Matters
May this Thanksgiving be joyful and peaceful for all the readers of Just Genesis. Perhaps we could take this time to reflect on the great love that God has shown to humanity from the beginning.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten (unigenetic) Son to the end that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. - John 3:16
Porque tanto amó Dios al mundo que dio a su Hijo unigénito para que todo el que cree en El no se pierda, sino que tenga vida eterna. - Juan 3:16
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Adam and Enoch: Archetype and Ancestral Rulers
Alice C. Linsley
Bishop Usher’s dating of the earth at 10,000 years and mankind at 4000 years is terribly mistaken. Some Bible literalists insist on the accuracy of Usher's dating, though it flies in the face of all the physical evidence. How do they reconcile a 10,000 year earth with human-crafted tools and ochre plaques dating to 100,000 years? They argue that radio carbon dating is inaccurate. Okay, let's say that it is wrong by 50%. That would mean that the mace heads found in Africa are only 50,000 years old. That's still 40,000 years older than the literalists say the earth has existed
Adding the life spans of the rulers doesn't provide a "biblical" answer to the age of the earth because the Septuagint, the Masoretic, and the Samaritan texts don't agree on the number of years. The total number of years in the Septuagint and the Masoretic (Hebrew) records agree except in the case of Lamech the Younger (Noah's father). The Septuagint assigns Lamech a total of 753 years, whereas the Samaritan Pentateuch assigns him only 653 years. The Masoretic text assigns Lamech 777 years. Lamech the Elder, the father of Tubal-Kain, isn't assigned an age span. It is evident that the age of the earth can't be calculated using the lifespans of the rulers listed in Genesis.
Instead, Genesis poses two men as the founders: Adam, the first ruler and Enoch the first ancestor of the historical persons listed in Genesis 4, 5 and 11. We find a clue as to how we are to correctly understand both biblical figures in Psalm 8:4:
What is man (Enoch) that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him?
Here we see that the historical first ancestor Enoch is paralled with the first man Adam. The author of the Psalm makes a distinction between the two figures, but also regards them as real fathers of the people. They are the deified rulers who are ancestral to Jesus Christ, the Divine "Son of Man."
Bishop Usher’s dating is not accurate because he didn’t recognize the telescopic nature of some genealogical lists. He believed that all the genealogical lists involved biological fathers and sons, but some of the lists are telescopic, listing only the most famous of the chiefs. This means that we can’t use the genealogies to measure years. All the genealogical lists are telescopic except for Genesis 4, 5 and Genesis 11:24-26.
Usher also didn’t understand that the genealogical material in Genesis 4 and 5 pertains to the wives of Cain and Seth, the daughter of an African chief named Enoch or Nok. Therefore the name that should appear at the head of the family tree is Nok, the father-in-law of Cain and Seth. Analysis of the Genesis 4 and 5 kinship pattern makes it clear that Adam is not the head of these lines.
In biblical parlance Adam represents the first created man. Since the oldest human fossils are over 3 million years old, Adam would have been created at least before these humans. Enoch, on the other hand lived no more than 12,000 years ago. He is the father-in-law of Cain and Seth.
Cain and Seth's brides named their first-born sons Enoch, after their father. This name is sometimes rendered Hanoch, as in the case of Reuben's first-born son. The name that should appear at the head of the Genesis 4 and 5 family tree is Enoch or Nok.
Bishop Usher appears to have been unaware that the descendents listed in Genesis 4 and 5 were ruler-priests whose lines exclusively intermarried. Each ruler-priest had 2 wives. One was a patrilineal cousin or niece who named her first-born son after her father. This explains the recurrence of names in chapters 4 and 5. For example, Kain and Kenan and Irad and Jared are linguistically equivalent names.
In the case of Lamech's daughter, Naamah, the pattern is quite clear. She married her cousin Methuselah and named her first-born son Lamech after her father.
Knowing the marriage pattern of the Horite ruler-priests helps us to trace Jesus Christ's ancestors from Genesis 4 and 5 to Joseph and Mary, of the ruler-priest lines, whose marriage appears to have been consistent with this pattern.
Related reading: Horite Deified Sons; The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; Andrei A. Orlov, Enoch as the Heavenly Priest
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Were the Natufians Kushites?
Alice C. Linsley
The Natufians [1] populated an area that includes Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon between 15,000 and 9,000 years ago. All the evidence indicates that they were East Africans, what the Bible calls "Kushite." They practiced the removal of teeth as an initiation rite, a trait of many Nilotic tribes.[2]
Consider what these experts have to say:
Graeme Barker: "the similarities in the respective archaeological records of the Natufian culture of the Levant and of contemporary foragers in coastal North Africa across the late Pleistocene and early Holocene boundary".[3]
Ofer Bar-Yosef cites the microburin technique and “microlithic forms such as arched backed bladelets and La Mouillah points" as well as the parthenocarpic figs found in Natufian territory originated in the Sudan. [4]
Christopher Ehret noted that the intensive use of plants among the Natufians was first found in Africa, as a precursor to the development of farming in the Fertile Crescent. [5]
That the Natufians were a Nilotic people is confirmed by the fact that Natufian physiology indicates a Mediterranean type with negroid affinities. (See Marcellin Boule, Henri Vallois, and René Verneau, Les Grottes Palaeolithiques de Beni Séghoual, pp. 212—214.) [5]
Natufian territory corresponds exactly to Horite territoryheld by Abraham's ancestors.
The prominence of the Horites is attested in Genesis 36 and I Chronicles 1. Until recently, these people have been regarded as tangentially related to Abraham, when in fact they are Abraham's people. Rebeccah, Isaac's cousin bride was a descedent of Na'Hor, and his half-sister bride (living in Beersheba) was a descendent of Sheba. Jacob also married Horite brides in Rachel and Leah, both descendents of Na-Hor. Genesis 36 tells us that Esau married a Horite bride in Oholibamah.
When the Natufians lived in this area it received sufficient precipitation to sustain crops and orchards. Shrine priests managed the plantations and received the first fruits of the harvests. During the Halocene period, the whole region from the Nile to the Jordan was wet and there were abundant wadis, salt marshes and swamps. It is therefore difficult to know the exact boundaries of the Yam Suf (Reed Sea) in late Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. This explains the abundance of tortoise shells at the Naturfian burial sites. Decorated ostrich-egg vessels and ostrich shell beads have been found at numerous Natufian sites, including burial grounds. In ancient Kush painted ostrich eggs were placed in the graves of children, symbolizing the hope of life after death.
It is not far-fetched to state that the Natufians are probably the biblical Horites, whose religious beliefs and practices can be traced to the Upper Nile. The principal religious office of the Horites was that of the priest, so it is curious that archaeologists working at Hilazon Tachtit, near the Sea of Galilee, insist that this burial site suggests shamanic practices. Here is the pertinent section of their report:
The goods accompanying the burial are also typical of shaman burials. Tortoises, cow tails, eagle wings, and fur-bearing animals continue to play important symbolic and shamanistic roles in the spiritual arena of human cultures worldwide today [e.g., (28)]. It seems that the woman in the Natufian burial was perceived as being in a close relationship with these animal spirits. Shamans are universally recorded cross-culturally, in hunter gatherer groups and small-scale agricultural societies (25). Nevertheless, they have rarely been documented in the archaeological record [but see (29)], and none have been reported from the Paleolithic of Southwest Asia. Perhaps, it is not surprising if clear evidence for a shaman comes from the Natufian, as the profound social and economic changes associated with the transition to agriculture [the Neolithization process (6)] surfaced during the Natufian and undoubtedly entailed equally substantial ideological changes (30, 31, 32). Whether the changes in the spiritual outlook preceded and triggered the economic changes (33) or vice versa, an inseparable interplay is clearly observed between ideological and socioeconomic change across the forager-to-farmer transition. The unique grave at Hilazon Tachtit Cave provides us with rare concrete evidence for those processes in their initial stages at the termination of the Paleolithic on the eve of the Neolithic transformation. (From here.)
The report assumes that one of the buried women was a shaman, something that can't be ascertained from the evidence. Note that the report makes no specific connections between the supposed female shaman and observed shamanic practices. This is pure conjecture! It is highly unlikely that these people had both priests and shamans since the two offices represent distinct and contradictory worldviews. Shamanic practice involves traces in which the shaman mediates between the spirits of dead ancestors and the community. Such a practice was forbidden to priests, whose role was to mediate between the community and the Creator God.
The Natufians were more likely to have had priests since that office originates in the Nile region. That is not dismiss the evidence that this woman's burial clearly indicates that she was a woman of high rank among her people. However, we should not assume that she was a shaman when the symbolism of the animals found in her grave is easily explained in the context of the religious beliefs of the Upper Nile. These animals were sacred to the ancient Nubians and Kushites who had priests, not shamans. The two birds, which appear to be released from the woman's hand, likely represent the binary worldview of Abraham's ancestors and remind us of the two birds released by Noah. The leopard’s skin designated royalty and was worn over the shoulders by Kushite priests, with the paws crossed over the breast. The cow was the symbol of the Kushite celestial mother who was called Hat-Hor, the mother of Horus. Further, most of the animals found buried with the woman are mentioned in the book of Job and the genealogical information in the Bible reveals that Job was a Horite.
NOTES
1. The British archaeologist Dorothy Gerrod coined the term "Natufian" because she was studying remains from the Shuqba cave at Wadi an-Natuf in Palestine. Therefore the term applies to a place, not a people.
2. Among the Luo tribe, for example, initiation involves the removal of six front teeth - three each from the upper and lower jaws. The Luo are a Nilotic tribe.
3. Barker G, Transitions to farming and pastoralism in North Africa, in Bellwood P, Renfrew C (2002), Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis, pp 151–161.
4. Bar-Yosef O., Pleistocene connections between Africa and SouthWest Asia: an archaeological perspective. The African Archaeological Review; Chapter 5, pg 29-38; Kislev ME, Hartmann A, Bar-Yosef O, Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley. Nature 312:1372–1374.
5. Ehret (2002) The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
6. The French School of Anthropology developed under the influence of Paul Broca. Boule studied the Peking Man fossils, Henri Vallois served as Chair of the Museum of Natrural History in Paris from 1960 to 1967, and René Verneau studied paleolithic rock paintings in North Africa.
Related reading: Who Were the Kushites?; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology
The Natufians [1] populated an area that includes Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon between 15,000 and 9,000 years ago. All the evidence indicates that they were East Africans, what the Bible calls "Kushite." They practiced the removal of teeth as an initiation rite, a trait of many Nilotic tribes.[2]
Consider what these experts have to say:
Graeme Barker: "the similarities in the respective archaeological records of the Natufian culture of the Levant and of contemporary foragers in coastal North Africa across the late Pleistocene and early Holocene boundary".[3]
Ofer Bar-Yosef cites the microburin technique and “microlithic forms such as arched backed bladelets and La Mouillah points" as well as the parthenocarpic figs found in Natufian territory originated in the Sudan. [4]
Christopher Ehret noted that the intensive use of plants among the Natufians was first found in Africa, as a precursor to the development of farming in the Fertile Crescent. [5]
That the Natufians were a Nilotic people is confirmed by the fact that Natufian physiology indicates a Mediterranean type with negroid affinities. (See Marcellin Boule, Henri Vallois, and René Verneau, Les Grottes Palaeolithiques de Beni Séghoual, pp. 212—214.) [5]
Natufian territory corresponds exactly to Horite territoryheld by Abraham's ancestors.
 |
| Natufian territory corresponds exactly to Horite territory. |
When the Natufians lived in this area it received sufficient precipitation to sustain crops and orchards. Shrine priests
It is not far-fetched to state that the Natufians are probably the biblical Horites, whose religious beliefs and practices can be traced to the Upper Nile. The principal religious office of the Horites was that of the priest, so it is curious that archaeologists working at Hilazon Tachtit, near the Sea of Galilee, insist that this burial site suggests shamanic practices. Here is the pertinent section of their report:
The goods accompanying the burial are also typical of shaman burials. Tortoises, cow tails, eagle wings, and fur-bearing animals continue to play important symbolic and shamanistic roles in the spiritual arena of human cultures worldwide today [e.g., (28)]. It seems that the woman in the Natufian burial was perceived as being in a close relationship with these animal spirits. Shamans are universally recorded cross-culturally, in hunter gatherer groups and small-scale agricultural societies (25). Nevertheless, they have rarely been documented in the archaeological record [but see (29)], and none have been reported from the Paleolithic of Southwest Asia. Perhaps, it is not surprising if clear evidence for a shaman comes from the Natufian, as the profound social and economic changes associated with the transition to agriculture [the Neolithization process (6)] surfaced during the Natufian and undoubtedly entailed equally substantial ideological changes (30, 31, 32). Whether the changes in the spiritual outlook preceded and triggered the economic changes (33) or vice versa, an inseparable interplay is clearly observed between ideological and socioeconomic change across the forager-to-farmer transition. The unique grave at Hilazon Tachtit Cave provides us with rare concrete evidence for those processes in their initial stages at the termination of the Paleolithic on the eve of the Neolithic transformation. (From here.)
The report assumes that one of the buried women was a shaman, something that can't be ascertained from the evidence. Note that the report makes no specific connections between the supposed female shaman and observed shamanic practices. This is pure conjecture! It is highly unlikely that these people had both priests and shamans since the two offices represent distinct and contradictory worldviews. Shamanic practice involves traces in which the shaman mediates between the spirits of dead ancestors and the community. Such a practice was forbidden to priests, whose role was to mediate between the community and the Creator God.
The Natufians were more likely to have had priests since that office originates in the Nile region. That is not dismiss the evidence that this woman's burial clearly indicates that she was a woman of high rank among her people. However, we should not assume that she was a shaman when the symbolism of the animals found in her grave is easily explained in the context of the religious beliefs of the Upper Nile. These animals were sacred to the ancient Nubians and Kushites who had priests, not shamans. The two birds, which appear to be released from the woman's hand, likely represent the binary worldview of Abraham's ancestors and remind us of the two birds released by Noah. The leopard’s skin designated royalty and was worn over the shoulders by Kushite priests, with the paws crossed over the breast. The cow was the symbol of the Kushite celestial mother who was called Hat-Hor, the mother of Horus. Further, most of the animals found buried with the woman are mentioned in the book of Job and the genealogical information in the Bible reveals that Job was a Horite.
NOTES
1. The British archaeologist Dorothy Gerrod coined the term "Natufian" because she was studying remains from the Shuqba cave at Wadi an-Natuf in Palestine. Therefore the term applies to a place, not a people.
2. Among the Luo tribe, for example, initiation involves the removal of six front teeth - three each from the upper and lower jaws. The Luo are a Nilotic tribe.
3. Barker G, Transitions to farming and pastoralism in North Africa, in Bellwood P, Renfrew C (2002), Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis, pp 151–161.
4. Bar-Yosef O., Pleistocene connections between Africa and SouthWest Asia: an archaeological perspective. The African Archaeological Review; Chapter 5, pg 29-38; Kislev ME, Hartmann A, Bar-Yosef O, Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley. Nature 312:1372–1374.
5. Ehret (2002) The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
6. The French School of Anthropology developed under the influence of Paul Broca. Boule studied the Peking Man fossils, Henri Vallois served as Chair of the Museum of Natrural History in Paris from 1960 to 1967, and René Verneau studied paleolithic rock paintings in North Africa.
Related reading: Who Were the Kushites?; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Horus, King of the Universe
There is evidence that Horus was regarded as King of the universe in ancient Nilotic mythology. He is the only celestial figure portrayed as a Man in the ancient Egyptian pantheon and he was called the "son/seed of God." A caste of priests served him. They are called Horites. The rulers of Abraham's people were Horite ruler-priests.
Horus was believed to be with his father Ra from the beginning. He is the one who set the boundaries of the winds, seas and dry land. He fixed the cardinal points. This belief is reflected in the many words that pertain to boundaries and measurements which have the root hr - hour, horotely, horizon, horologion (a wind tower and a book) and horoscope.
The axis of the Dendera temple on the Upper Nile aligns with the figure of a Horus falcon perched on a papyrus stem (sema sign) 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 united the peoples of Canaan.
The Sun continues to be a significant symbol of the Creator in Judaism. The Hebrew Birkat Hachama ("Blessing of the Sun") is recited every twenty-eight years, when the vernal equinox as calculated by tradition falls on a Tuesday at sundown (the sacred midpoint of the 7 day cycle). Jews recite a blessing to the Creator on the exact day, every 28 years. Most recently, the blessing was recited on April 8, 2009. Before that it was recited on April 8, 1981 and on April 8, 1953. The next date of the blessing of the sun will be April 8, 2037.
We find the idea of the Sun as deity in Luke (New Testament). Here the priest Zechariah prophesies concerning the Forerunner of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist. He declares: “And you, little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for Him, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, because of the faithful love of our God in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us…” (Luke 1:76-78). The image is especially strong in Malachi’s description of the Day of the Lord, “glowing like a furnace”. On the day God will purify the priesthood, consume the wicked, and preserve and justify the righteous. These will be God’s “most prized possession” upon whom the “Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his rays.” (Malachi 3:16-20)
 |
| Temple of Dendera with the face of Hathor on the pillars |
Dendera is on the west bank of the Nile River opposite the modern town of Qena. It was called Iunet or Tantere by the ancient Egyptians and was the capital of the 6th nome of Upper Egypt. In antiquity, the population of Dendera moved to Qena on the east bank of the Nile and the ancient temple lies isolated on the edge of the Sahara edge.
Dendera is about 38 miles north of the temple of Karnak (modern Luxor). According to the Babylonian Talmud, Abraham’s mother was the daughter of a priest associated with Karnach. This is evident from her father's name/title "Karnevo" in the Babylonian Talmud. Karnevo would have been a Horite since the shrine of Karnach was dedicated to Horus, who unites the peoples. Horus is the son of Hat-Hor whose womb "housed" him. She is often shown holding the ruler's staff in her right hand and the ankh (a cross image) in her left hand.
Hat-Hor was later called Isis and Re was later called Amon or Amon-Re. Amon-Re is called "King of the gods" in ancient Egyptian literature such as The Journey of Wen-Amon to Phoenicia (James B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East, Vol. I, p. 17). The high priest of Amon-Re was called "Heri-Hor", which means priest of Horus. While Amon and Horus are understood as distinct in ancient Nilotic theology, they rule the universe as one.
Related reading: Jesus Fulfills the Horus Myth; A Tent for the Sun; The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ;
The Double Crown of Horus; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Who Were the Horites?
Thursday, November 18, 2010
People Say the Dumbest Things!
Here are 3 prize winners for dumbness by seemingly intelligent people on the book of Genesis.
First Prize goes to Paul Hunting. He wants us to know that the Council of Nicea and Emperor Constantine are to blame for our ignorance. He writes, "Since the council of Nicea in 325 CE, our entire culture, whether we be religious, scientific or atheist, has been deeply programmed with one archaic interpretation of the Bible. The arbitrary decisions made way back then by a seemingly well-intentioned Constantine were subsequently forced upon us under threat of torture, death, genocide and excommunication -- hardly conducive to freedom of choice, thought, belief and action. Yet now we can enjoy these freedoms, the terror of heresy remains imprinted on our very DNA.
Hunting adds, "The arguments between science and religion and between different sects of Judaeo-Christianity itself are creating such clamour that few people bother to look more deeply within the scripture to divine the lost meaning." (From here.)
Second Prize goes to Matt Goldberg who wrote about Paramount Pictures production of Genesis. The picture posted with his news release shows Moses raising his staff over the Dead Sea. Apparently, Matt Goldberg doesn't realize that story isn't in Genesis. Goldberg writes, "Paramount Pictures and former Walden Media co-founder Cary Granat will attempt to literally bring audiences closer to God by creating In the Beginning, a 3D adaptation of the Book of Genesis." (From here.)
Third Prize goes to Sir David Attenborough, a British naturalist who actually said, "The idea that the Lord had given us a present, that the world is a gift from God... well, the amount of stuff, back then, that the Lord was giving away was limited. We do not have dominion." (From here.) In Abraham's time there was a greater variety of flora and fauna in the region in which he lived than there is today. Today there are about 5000 endangered animals and at least one species dies out each year.
First Prize goes to Paul Hunting. He wants us to know that the Council of Nicea and Emperor Constantine are to blame for our ignorance. He writes, "Since the council of Nicea in 325 CE, our entire culture, whether we be religious, scientific or atheist, has been deeply programmed with one archaic interpretation of the Bible. The arbitrary decisions made way back then by a seemingly well-intentioned Constantine were subsequently forced upon us under threat of torture, death, genocide and excommunication -- hardly conducive to freedom of choice, thought, belief and action. Yet now we can enjoy these freedoms, the terror of heresy remains imprinted on our very DNA.
Hunting adds, "The arguments between science and religion and between different sects of Judaeo-Christianity itself are creating such clamour that few people bother to look more deeply within the scripture to divine the lost meaning." (From here.)
Second Prize goes to Matt Goldberg who wrote about Paramount Pictures production of Genesis. The picture posted with his news release shows Moses raising his staff over the Dead Sea. Apparently, Matt Goldberg doesn't realize that story isn't in Genesis. Goldberg writes, "Paramount Pictures and former Walden Media co-founder Cary Granat will attempt to literally bring audiences closer to God by creating In the Beginning, a 3D adaptation of the Book of Genesis." (From here.)
Third Prize goes to Sir David Attenborough, a British naturalist who actually said, "The idea that the Lord had given us a present, that the world is a gift from God... well, the amount of stuff, back then, that the Lord was giving away was limited. We do not have dominion." (From here.) In Abraham's time there was a greater variety of flora and fauna in the region in which he lived than there is today. Today there are about 5000 endangered animals and at least one species dies out each year.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
God Asked Me to Be Quiet
Alice C. Linsley
I had an interesting experience today of God's power to confirm His will for me in a particular situation. I went to the Association of Christian Schools Convention which was held at my school. One of the presentations was on "Why Genesis Matters" and was given by a very pleasant medical doctor, Tommy Mitchell and it was awful. He presented the typical Fundamentalist view of Genesis. It lacked a solid basis in both science and the Bible.
I tossed and turned in my bed all last night, thinking that I might lose my job were I to speak against the Young Earth Creationism that prevails at my school and at this convention. I wasn't sure that I should even attend because I was afraid that I would say something to get myself in trouble.
I kept praying about it and on the way to school this morning I felt the Lord tell me that I was to attend, but I was to remain silent. I wasn't sure I could do this - it is difficult when it comes to things I feel strongly about - so I decided that I would ask a fellow teacher to sit with me and jab me in the side if I started to speak. This teacher knows about my Genesis research and has given me good advice. I arrived late because of having to drive in heavy rain and I didn't have time to look for him, but when I walked into the room for the presentation, he was already there and had an empty seat next to him. I sat down beside him and the first words out of his mouth were "Don't say anything!" I laughed and told him that God had already given me those very instructions!
Dr. Mitchell said something very important - that there will evolutionists in heaven and creationists in hell because in the end, it isn't what we believe about Genesis that saves us. It is whether we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world to bring sinners to repentance and eternal life. I fully agree.
Related reading: YEC Dogma is NOT Biblical; Why Fundamentalists Look Stupid
Monday, November 15, 2010
Why Genesis Matters
Alice C. Linsley
Genesis matters because it presents the data which enables Biblical Anthropologists to reconstruct an accurate picture of Abraham's Kushite ancestors; their marriage and ascendancy pattern; their metaphysics, and their extensive kingdom building by which they spread the Proto-Gospel across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.
Why Genesis matters is the topic of a presentation to be given tomorrow at the Association of Christian Schools International conference in Lexington, Kentucky. I'm interested in what the presenter, Dr. Tommy Mitchell, will say. Here is the description of the session from the conference brochure:
• Explains why a literal acceptance of the book of Genesis from the pastor to the pew is foundational for the modern church to fulfill its mission of winning souls and raising up strong Christians.
Dr. Mitchell is affiliated with Answers in Genesis, founded by Ken Ham, a young-earth creationist and founder of the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio.
I'm curious about what is meant by "literal acceptance" and why this is necessary for the "modern church" and not for the church in all ages?
Why Genesis matters might draw diverse responses, but probably most who attend will be on board with the young-earth creationism that Ham and Mitchell espouse. It is bad science because it ignores the human fossils dating to over 3 million years and human artifacts dating to over 100,000 years. It holds that God created things with the appearance of age. Occam's razor aside, one wonders why this proposition isn't found anywhere in the Bible. It is a very significant assertion and one which scientists would want to test, but of course, it is beyond proof. We are expected to take their word for it.
Young-earth creationist see Genesis as the battle ground between Bible-believing Christians and evolutionists. If evolutionary theory wins, it will undermine our children's confidence that Genesis is the word of God and reliable. This is a tempest in the Christian schools' teapot since evolutionary theory has won in the public schools, though it too is bad science, having no real physical evidence.
Others might say that Genesis matters because it is the foundation to the whole Bible and the basis for a "biblical worldview". Holding a biblical worldview hardly matters to most people today, so this too is a tempest in a teapot. There is also the question of whether the Evangelical representation of the biblical worldview is authentically biblical, but that's another topic.
The young-earth creationists' view is expressed in Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth on page 454 where they state: We affirm that the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 are chronological, enabling us to arrive at an approximate date of creation of the whole universe.
One must ask what happened to the genealogy of Genesis 4? Genesis 4 and 5 have to be read as one because the Bible makes it clear that these rulers are the descendants of the brothers, Kain and Seth, whose lines intermarried. It is exactly here that we can verfiy that these rulers are historical persons since analysis of their kinship pattern reveals that the pattern remained unchanged from Genesis 4-5 to Joseph and Mary. That pattern involved each of these rulers having two wives living in separate settlements on a north-south axis. The first wife was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife, taken before the heir ascended to his father's or maternal grandfather's throne, was a patrilineal cousin or niece, as was Keturah to Abraham.
Genesis matters because Jesus Christ is the theme of the book. Ultimately, Genesis isn't about material or human origins. It is about the ancestors of Jesus Christ. This is evident in analysis of the Genesis genealogies. Of course, Jewish readers wouldn't agree with this view, but all Christians should be able to accept this.
Related reading: Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Who Were the Kushites?
True Food for the Nativity Fast
The Nativity Fast begins today for the Orthodox. It is a challenge for me to observe the fasts diligently, not having been raised Orthodox. I fail in so many ways to practice my faith and I pray that my failings might not cause others to stumble. If I have offended any of you, dear readers, please forgive me.
Perhaps these words will satisfy our spiritual hunger and strengthen us for the Fast.
Troparion of the Forefeast Tone 4
Make ready, Bethlehem, Eden has been opened to all.
Prepare Ephratha, for the Tree of Life has blossomed in the cave from the Virgin.
Her womb was a spiritual paradise whence came the Divine Plant.
If we eat it we shall live and not die like Adam.
Christ is born to raise up the image that of old had fallen.
H/T to Orthocath
Perhaps these words will satisfy our spiritual hunger and strengthen us for the Fast.
Troparion of the Forefeast Tone 4
Make ready, Bethlehem, Eden has been opened to all.
Prepare Ephratha, for the Tree of Life has blossomed in the cave from the Virgin.
Her womb was a spiritual paradise whence came the Divine Plant.
If we eat it we shall live and not die like Adam.
Christ is born to raise up the image that of old had fallen.
H/T to Orthocath
Friday, November 12, 2010
Support The BioLogos Forum
Alice C. Linsley
The BioLogos Forum is led by a group of evangelical Christians who are committed to promoting a perspective on the origins of life that is "theologically and scientifically sound." As far as I know, none are anthropologists, but I don't hold that against them! These folks are biochemists and theologians who use the language of evolution, which I happen to think isn't useful. Here's why:
The earliest human fossils show a range of anatomical features yet all these features are found among humans today. The nearly complete skulls of people who lived 160,000 years ago are, in the words of paleontologist Tim White, "like modern-day humans in almost every feature."[1]
When Jeremy DeSilva, a British anthropologist, compared the ankle joint, the tibia and the talus of fossil "hominins" between 4.12 million to 1.53 million years old, he discovered that all of the hominin ankle joints resembled those of modern humans rather than those of apes. [2]
In 1979 Mary Leakey discovered early footprints of humans at Laetoli in Tanzania. The footprints were preserved about 3.6 million years ago under falling ash from the nearby Sadiman volcano. The raised arch and rounded heel of the footprints showed that these creatures walked as humans today. Unfortunately, Lucy and her kin were given the name "Australopithicus" (meaning ape of the south) by Donald C. Johanson, though Mary Leakey would have called the finds Homo. She expressed her regret that "the Laetoli fellow is now doomed to be called Australopithecus afarensis," a name contrary to the evidence that Lucy and her people walked upright, had oppositional thumbs, short fingers, human dentition, built fire, shared their food, and used flints to scrap, saw and chop. [3]
With DNA samples from 2400 individuals from more than 100 modern African populations, researchers have identified a panel of 1327 sites of genetic variation across the entire genome. Analysis of the data suggests that modern Africans are descended from 14 ancestral populations, which correlate with known linguistic groups. Comparative linguistics and genetics are moving to similar conclusions when it comes to the question of "change" among humans. The evidence in both fields indicates a limited amount of flux, but no essential change.[4]
In other words, there is no evidence of essential change within "kinds", and no support for the macro-evolutionary view of change from one kind into another kind. Roux and others say, "Evolutionary convergence at the molecular level is presumed to be widespread, but is poorly documented."[5]
Convergence evolution is an interpretation based on a non-biblical ideology, not an unbiased presentation of data.
Consider the work of Richard Lenski at Michigan State University. He has grown E. coli in the test-tube for more than 40,000 generations. The first generations showed little mutation. Then a “mutator” strain arose, after which new genetic varieties were present in all cells, resulting in more than 250 varieties. The total number of single changes is more than a thousand, yet Lenski has produced nothing fundamentally new.
It is important that we discuss these things as Christians and to examine the truth and validity of the biblical claim that there is a fixed order in creation, that is, life at all levels has boundaries beyond which it develops only abnormally. That's how we are able to identify anomalies. That's why I ask you to consider making a donation. Also, subscribe to The BioLogos Foundation's YouTube channel to see the latest from their "Conversations" video series.
Related reading: Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; Biblical Anthropologists Discuss Darwin
Here's a letter from the President of BioLogos
Regularly, we at BioLogos hear the very real stories of Christians who have experienced a crisis because they see no way out of the false choice between their faith and the scientific facts set before them. I think of the researcher who was singled out from the pulpit for her work as a paleontologist. Or the physician who has hidden his views for years from fellow believers. Or most tragically, the young college students who tell us that they must abandon the Christian life because they can no longer make sense of creationism doctrines that are clearly in conflict with the scientific data.
What a tragedy, that our brothers and sisters in Christ might choose spiritual death because they cannot reconcile a fundamentalist creationism with the evidence before them, when their faith does not require it. For those of us who know that Christ reigns, this situation is untenable.
Perhaps you have also been touched by the issues at the heart of the BioLogos mission. It is my earnest prayer that you will consider supporting this work with a gift to BioLogos. We are a young organization, and we are wholly dependent on God to provide. We trust that He will do so through the gifts of likeminded friends like you. A gift of $25, $100, $500, or more, can make a difference for a brother or sister in Christ.
NOTES
1. Read the report on the 160,000 year old Ethiopian fossils here.
2. Chimpanzees flex their ankles 45 degrees from normal resting position. This makes it possible for apes to climb trees with great ease. While walking, humans flex their ankles a maximum of 20 degrees. The human ankle quite distinct from that of apes. Read more here.
3. There is evidence that Lucy and her kin butchered meat. This pushes back the use of butchering flints in this region from 2.6 to 3.4 million years ago. Here is the gist of the report: "stone-tool-inflicted marks on bones found during recent survey work in Dikika, Ethiopia, a research area close to Gona and Bouri. On the basis of low-power microscopic and environmental scanning electron microscope observations, these bones show unambiguous stone-tool cut marks for flesh removal and percussion marks for marrow access.” On page 11 of the supplementary materials, it states that microscopic stone fragments were found in the cut marks on the 2 fossilized bones, marks made by stone tools.
4. To read about the "out of Africa" gene study go here.
5. Roux et al. 1998 The identification of a unusual antigen receptor protein structure found in camels and nurse sharks can't be explained by having a common ancestor.
The BioLogos Forum is led by a group of evangelical Christians who are committed to promoting a perspective on the origins of life that is "theologically and scientifically sound." As far as I know, none are anthropologists, but I don't hold that against them! These folks are biochemists and theologians who use the language of evolution, which I happen to think isn't useful. Here's why:
The earliest human fossils show a range of anatomical features yet all these features are found among humans today. The nearly complete skulls of people who lived 160,000 years ago are, in the words of paleontologist Tim White, "like modern-day humans in almost every feature."[1]
When Jeremy DeSilva, a British anthropologist, compared the ankle joint, the tibia and the talus of fossil "hominins" between 4.12 million to 1.53 million years old, he discovered that all of the hominin ankle joints resembled those of modern humans rather than those of apes. [2]
In 1979 Mary Leakey discovered early footprints of humans at Laetoli in Tanzania. The footprints were preserved about 3.6 million years ago under falling ash from the nearby Sadiman volcano. The raised arch and rounded heel of the footprints showed that these creatures walked as humans today. Unfortunately, Lucy and her kin were given the name "Australopithicus" (meaning ape of the south) by Donald C. Johanson, though Mary Leakey would have called the finds Homo. She expressed her regret that "the Laetoli fellow is now doomed to be called Australopithecus afarensis," a name contrary to the evidence that Lucy and her people walked upright, had oppositional thumbs, short fingers, human dentition, built fire, shared their food, and used flints to scrap, saw and chop. [3]
With DNA samples from 2400 individuals from more than 100 modern African populations, researchers have identified a panel of 1327 sites of genetic variation across the entire genome. Analysis of the data suggests that modern Africans are descended from 14 ancestral populations, which correlate with known linguistic groups. Comparative linguistics and genetics are moving to similar conclusions when it comes to the question of "change" among humans. The evidence in both fields indicates a limited amount of flux, but no essential change.[4]
In other words, there is no evidence of essential change within "kinds", and no support for the macro-evolutionary view of change from one kind into another kind. Roux and others say, "Evolutionary convergence at the molecular level is presumed to be widespread, but is poorly documented."[5]
Convergence evolution is an interpretation based on a non-biblical ideology, not an unbiased presentation of data.
Consider the work of Richard Lenski at Michigan State University. He has grown E. coli in the test-tube for more than 40,000 generations. The first generations showed little mutation. Then a “mutator” strain arose, after which new genetic varieties were present in all cells, resulting in more than 250 varieties. The total number of single changes is more than a thousand, yet Lenski has produced nothing fundamentally new.
It is important that we discuss these things as Christians and to examine the truth and validity of the biblical claim that there is a fixed order in creation, that is, life at all levels has boundaries beyond which it develops only abnormally. That's how we are able to identify anomalies. That's why I ask you to consider making a donation. Also, subscribe to The BioLogos Foundation's YouTube channel to see the latest from their "Conversations" video series.
Related reading: Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; Biblical Anthropologists Discuss Darwin
Here's a letter from the President of BioLogos
Regularly, we at BioLogos hear the very real stories of Christians who have experienced a crisis because they see no way out of the false choice between their faith and the scientific facts set before them. I think of the researcher who was singled out from the pulpit for her work as a paleontologist. Or the physician who has hidden his views for years from fellow believers. Or most tragically, the young college students who tell us that they must abandon the Christian life because they can no longer make sense of creationism doctrines that are clearly in conflict with the scientific data.
What a tragedy, that our brothers and sisters in Christ might choose spiritual death because they cannot reconcile a fundamentalist creationism with the evidence before them, when their faith does not require it. For those of us who know that Christ reigns, this situation is untenable.
Perhaps you have also been touched by the issues at the heart of the BioLogos mission. It is my earnest prayer that you will consider supporting this work with a gift to BioLogos. We are a young organization, and we are wholly dependent on God to provide. We trust that He will do so through the gifts of likeminded friends like you. A gift of $25, $100, $500, or more, can make a difference for a brother or sister in Christ.
NOTES
1. Read the report on the 160,000 year old Ethiopian fossils here.
2. Chimpanzees flex their ankles 45 degrees from normal resting position. This makes it possible for apes to climb trees with great ease. While walking, humans flex their ankles a maximum of 20 degrees. The human ankle quite distinct from that of apes. Read more here.
3. There is evidence that Lucy and her kin butchered meat. This pushes back the use of butchering flints in this region from 2.6 to 3.4 million years ago. Here is the gist of the report: "stone-tool-inflicted marks on bones found during recent survey work in Dikika, Ethiopia, a research area close to Gona and Bouri. On the basis of low-power microscopic and environmental scanning electron microscope observations, these bones show unambiguous stone-tool cut marks for flesh removal and percussion marks for marrow access.” On page 11 of the supplementary materials, it states that microscopic stone fragments were found in the cut marks on the 2 fossilized bones, marks made by stone tools.
4. To read about the "out of Africa" gene study go here.
5. Roux et al. 1998 The identification of a unusual antigen receptor protein structure found in camels and nurse sharks can't be explained by having a common ancestor.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Nimrod and the Baptism of Jesus
Alice C. Linsley
Before Alexander the Great there was Nimrod the Great! That's what Genesis tells us. Nimrod, the son of Kush, is mentioned in 1Chronicles 1:10, Micah 5:5 and Genesis 10:8-12 where he is portrayed as "a mighty hunter before the Lord." The term "mighty hunter" is related to the Hausa term for lead hunter - sarkin maharba. Sar means king in Sumerian.
Nimrod's brother was Ramah who assumed rule over his father's territory in Arabia (the area of Dedan-Ramah). Nimrod left Kush's territory for the Tigrus-Euphrates River Valley where he established his kingdom and built cities along the great rivers. The ruling lines of Ramah and Nimrod continued to intermarry, following the pattern of the Horite ruler-priests, but the geographical distance was to be felt in the way that Arabic (Dedan-Ramah) and Aramaic (Haran-Ur) developed.
We first meet Abraham in the region of Haran and Ur because he is a descendant of Nimrod.
The name Nimrod is formed from the phonemes nim and rod (or nim and rah) and is clearly a royal name. A son of Osorkon III of Thebes (23rd Dynasty) was named Nimlot. Rulers in Egypt with the name Lot include Luwelot, Nimlot and Takelot. Egypt is the origin of the biblical names Nimrod and Lot. Nimlot C was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during the latter part of the reign of his father Osorkon II. He died before the end of his father's reign and his son Takelot II succeeded him as High Priest of Amun.
The word nim is associated with water. A water shrine called Nimrah or Beth Nimrah is mentioned in Isaiah 15 and Jeremiah 48. It is mentioned in association with Zoar and Horonaim (Hebrew: horoni, refering to Horites, devotees of Horus, the only Egyptian/Kusite deity to be incarnate as a man). Beth Nimrah appears to have been near the Dead Sea. In Joshua 13:27 and Numbers 32:36 Beth Nimrah is paired with Beth Haran. Both were fortessed cities with enclosures for flocks. Again, the water shrine of Nimrah is linked with the Horites, since Haran is a Horite name.
Nimrah likely means the waters of Ra the Creator. It is possible that Jesus was baptized here. Sir George Grove in Dictionary of the Bible identifies Bethabara as Beth Nimrah, a few miles above Jericho (see Beth-nimrah), accessible to Jerusalem and all Judea. If this is the water shrine where Jesus was baptized, we have another connection to the Horite expectation that the Son of God would restore the waters He had created at the beginning. John didn't understand why the Pure One should come to him to be ritually cleansed, but Jesus said that it was necessary "to fulfill all righteousness" (Mat. 3:15).
Note that Jesus doesn't say that his baptism by John in that place is to fulfill the Law of Moses. For that, Jesus could have stayed in Jerusalem and washed at the pool of Siloam. No! The righteousness of which Jesus speaks is much older than the Law of Moses. It harkens back to Genesis 3:15 (the Edenic Promise)and to Genesis 1.
So the Orthodox sing at the Feast of the Baptism of Christ our God:
When Thou wast baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,
The worship of the Trinity was made manifest.
For the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee,
And called Thee His beloved Son.
And the Spirit, in the form of a dove,
Confirmed the truthfulness of His word.
O Christ God, Who hast revealed Thyself,
And hast enlightened the world, glory be to Thee!
Related reading: The Blessing of the Waters; Nimrod: Afro-Asiatic Kingdom Builder; The Testimony of Blessed John, Forerunner
Before Alexander the Great there was Nimrod the Great! That's what Genesis tells us. Nimrod, the son of Kush, is mentioned in 1Chronicles 1:10, Micah 5:5 and Genesis 10:8-12 where he is portrayed as "a mighty hunter before the Lord." The term "mighty hunter" is related to the Hausa term for lead hunter - sarkin maharba. Sar means king in Sumerian.
Nimrod's brother was Ramah who assumed rule over his father's territory in Arabia (the area of Dedan-Ramah). Nimrod left Kush's territory for the Tigrus-Euphrates River Valley where he established his kingdom and built cities along the great rivers. The ruling lines of Ramah and Nimrod continued to intermarry, following the pattern of the Horite ruler-priests, but the geographical distance was to be felt in the way that Arabic (Dedan-Ramah) and Aramaic (Haran-Ur) developed.
We first meet Abraham in the region of Haran and Ur because he is a descendant of Nimrod.
The name Nimrod is formed from the phonemes nim and rod (or nim and rah) and is clearly a royal name. A son of Osorkon III of Thebes (23rd Dynasty) was named Nimlot. Rulers in Egypt with the name Lot include Luwelot, Nimlot and Takelot. Egypt is the origin of the biblical names Nimrod and Lot. Nimlot C was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during the latter part of the reign of his father Osorkon II. He died before the end of his father's reign and his son Takelot II succeeded him as High Priest of Amun.
The word nim is associated with water. A water shrine called Nimrah or Beth Nimrah is mentioned in Isaiah 15 and Jeremiah 48. It is mentioned in association with Zoar and Horonaim (Hebrew: horoni, refering to Horites, devotees of Horus, the only Egyptian/Kusite deity to be incarnate as a man). Beth Nimrah appears to have been near the Dead Sea. In Joshua 13:27 and Numbers 32:36 Beth Nimrah is paired with Beth Haran. Both were fortessed cities with enclosures for flocks. Again, the water shrine of Nimrah is linked with the Horites, since Haran is a Horite name.
Nimrah likely means the waters of Ra the Creator. It is possible that Jesus was baptized here. Sir George Grove in Dictionary of the Bible identifies Bethabara as Beth Nimrah, a few miles above Jericho (see Beth-nimrah), accessible to Jerusalem and all Judea. If this is the water shrine where Jesus was baptized, we have another connection to the Horite expectation that the Son of God would restore the waters He had created at the beginning. John didn't understand why the Pure One should come to him to be ritually cleansed, but Jesus said that it was necessary "to fulfill all righteousness" (Mat. 3:15).
Note that Jesus doesn't say that his baptism by John in that place is to fulfill the Law of Moses. For that, Jesus could have stayed in Jerusalem and washed at the pool of Siloam. No! The righteousness of which Jesus speaks is much older than the Law of Moses. It harkens back to Genesis 3:15 (the Edenic Promise)and to Genesis 1.
So the Orthodox sing at the Feast of the Baptism of Christ our God:
When Thou wast baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,
The worship of the Trinity was made manifest.
For the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee,
And called Thee His beloved Son.
And the Spirit, in the form of a dove,
Confirmed the truthfulness of His word.
O Christ God, Who hast revealed Thyself,
And hast enlightened the world, glory be to Thee!
Related reading: The Blessing of the Waters; Nimrod: Afro-Asiatic Kingdom Builder; The Testimony of Blessed John, Forerunner
Monday, November 8, 2010
Abraham and Moses: Different Origins of Israel?
Alice C. Linsley
In Genesis and the Moses Story: Israel’s Dual Origins in the Hebrew Bible, the Swiss bible scholar, Konrad Schmid, argues that the Genesis ancestor narratives and the Moses story are competing myths of Israel's origin. This is a common myth which is not supported by analysis of the kinship patterns of both men. In fact, analysis of their kinship patterns reveals that they are identical in every detail.
The myth appears to be true until one investigates the genealogical information and finds that the kinship pattern of Abraham and Moses is the pattern identified with and unique to the Horites. This should not surprise us since the Bible claims that Moses is a descendant of Abraham and Abraham's people were Horites whose cultural context was that of Egypt and Kush.
Schmid notes that "Explicit literary connections between Genesis and Exodus appear only in Priestly texts or in texts that presuppose P." (From here.) This is an important observation because Abraham and Moses are both of the ruler-priest lines. These lines exclusively intermarried, so we should not be surprised that a comparison of their kinship patterns reveals that Abraham and Moses were both Horites.
Moses’ father was a Horite ruler-priest Amram. Am means of the people and Ram designates a ruler. Amram had two wives. Abraham’s father was Terah and he had two wives. By his cousin-wife Amram had a son and doubtless a daughter, probably Miriam. By his cousin-wife Terah had a son and a daughter. By his half-sister Amram had two sons: Aaron (which is Harun in Arabic, a Horite name) and Moses. By his half-sister wife, Abraham had a son Isaac and through Sarah’s surrogate Hagar, Abraham had another son, Ishmael. Amram’s youngest son was Moses and he was sent away or banished. Terah’s youngest son was Abraham and he too was sent away.
Moses had two older brothers: Aaron and Korah the Younger (Numbers 26:59). Korah opposed Moses' authority in the wilderness because he was the older brother and possibly Amram’s firstborn son. According to Numbers 26, Korah's claim to be the ruler-priest was supported by the Hanochites (descendants of Hanock, the first-born son of Jacob's first-born son, Reuben). As the first-born son of the cousin-bride Korah was to rule the territory of his maternal grandfather, Korah the Elder. He would not assume rule over Amram's territory. That would fall to Aaron, Moses' older brother. This is what Claude Lévi-Strauss discovered in his studies of tribal peoples. He noted that in a patrilineal system, mother and son do not belong to the same clan.
With this information, we see that there is one continuous thread from Genesis 4 to Numbers, not competing accounts of Israel's origins. The continuity of the kinship pattern indicates that Moses and Abraham were of the same people. More exactly, they belonged to the same caste of ruler-priests whose unique kinship pattern I have identified as Horite.
Related reading: Abraham and Moses; Abraham's Two Concubines; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Moses' Horite Family
In Genesis and the Moses Story: Israel’s Dual Origins in the Hebrew Bible, the Swiss bible scholar, Konrad Schmid, argues that the Genesis ancestor narratives and the Moses story are competing myths of Israel's origin. This is a common myth which is not supported by analysis of the kinship patterns of both men. In fact, analysis of their kinship patterns reveals that they are identical in every detail.
The myth appears to be true until one investigates the genealogical information and finds that the kinship pattern of Abraham and Moses is the pattern identified with and unique to the Horites. This should not surprise us since the Bible claims that Moses is a descendant of Abraham and Abraham's people were Horites whose cultural context was that of Egypt and Kush.
Schmid notes that "Explicit literary connections between Genesis and Exodus appear only in Priestly texts or in texts that presuppose P." (From here.) This is an important observation because Abraham and Moses are both of the ruler-priest lines. These lines exclusively intermarried, so we should not be surprised that a comparison of their kinship patterns reveals that Abraham and Moses were both Horites.
Moses’ father was a Horite ruler-priest Amram. Am means of the people and Ram designates a ruler. Amram had two wives. Abraham’s father was Terah and he had two wives. By his cousin-wife Amram had a son and doubtless a daughter, probably Miriam. By his cousin-wife Terah had a son and a daughter. By his half-sister Amram had two sons: Aaron (which is Harun in Arabic, a Horite name) and Moses. By his half-sister wife, Abraham had a son Isaac and through Sarah’s surrogate Hagar, Abraham had another son, Ishmael. Amram’s youngest son was Moses and he was sent away or banished. Terah’s youngest son was Abraham and he too was sent away.
Moses had two older brothers: Aaron and Korah the Younger (Numbers 26:59). Korah opposed Moses' authority in the wilderness because he was the older brother and possibly Amram’s firstborn son. According to Numbers 26, Korah's claim to be the ruler-priest was supported by the Hanochites (descendants of Hanock, the first-born son of Jacob's first-born son, Reuben). As the first-born son of the cousin-bride Korah was to rule the territory of his maternal grandfather, Korah the Elder. He would not assume rule over Amram's territory. That would fall to Aaron, Moses' older brother. This is what Claude Lévi-Strauss discovered in his studies of tribal peoples. He noted that in a patrilineal system, mother and son do not belong to the same clan.
The ruler's first wife was the half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife, married before the ruler came to power, was a patrilineal cousin (as was Keturah to Abraham) or a patrilineal niece (as was Isaac's first wife, the daughter of Yisbak). This means that Moses married his first wife while he was still in Egypt, and this was probably a marriage contracted by Amram. She was a Kushite, a woman of the ruling class. Zipporah was Moses' second wife and his marriage to her strengthened his position as ruler by forming an alliance between the Kushites and their Midianite kinsmen.
Related reading: Abraham and Moses; Abraham's Two Concubines; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Moses' Horite Family
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Jesus: From Lamb to Ram
Alice C. Linsley
God works single-mindedly throughout the ages to restore lost humanity to Himself. This is the theme from Genesis to Revelation, and it is predicated on the first promise concerning the Seed of the Woman who would crush the head of the serpent and restore Paradise. In calling Himself "Son of Man", Jesus identified Himself as the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15). To receive Him as the Son of God, we must affirm His complete humanity. To believe that He is God with the power to save us, we must receive Him as both the Son of Man and the Son of God.
When Scripture poses binary opposites such as God-Man, it is initiating a pattern of thought that travels between 2 points, just as the Sun appears to move from east and west. In this movement there is a point in which the Sun's glory is greatest - the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, which in the northern hemisphere is June 21- 22. Likewise, on a sunny day the sun is felt most intensely upon one's shoulders at hign noon, the point between east and west.
The notion here is that of a shuttle moving back and forth. The weave requires redoubling to make the fabric or the web strong. The English web is likely derived from the word keb or kab. Kab pertains to weaving with a shuttle. Weavers are called the ka, those who kab. Ka also refers to the the body which is "knit" in the womb. Ka-ba refers to the relationship between the body and the soul. Kab also implies a doubling or redoubling to strengthen.
This movement between points corresponds to the ancients' observations of the stars and constellations. They were adept at sidereal astronomy. Horus of the two horizons (east-west) and Horus of the two crowns (north-south) are examples of how meaning is derived by holding 2 points in view. We see this in the Passover sacrifice at twilight, what is called in Hebrew ben ha-'arbayim, meaning "between the two settings." Rabbinic sources take this to mean "from noon on." According to Radak, the first "setting" occurs when the sun passes its zenith at noon and the shadows begin to lengthen, and the second "setting" is the actual sunset (p. 55, vol. 2, The Jewish Publication Society Torah Commentary, "Exodus").
On the eastern horizon Horus is the lamb, young and pure as the new day. On the western horizon, after his sacrifice at the sacred center (the Cross), he is the ram who comes to full strength. The ram's horn (shofar) symbolized the covenant between God and the Israelites. When it was blown the veil or tehome was lifted, allowing God's Presence to be seen. In Genesis One, tehom signifies the chaotic waters which are subdued and put into order by the Word or Wisdom (tehut) of God. The ram's horn which lifts the veil and the Word of God which subdues chaos refer to Jesus the Christ.
From Lamb to Ram on Mount Moriah
As they ascended Mount Moriah, Isaac asked Abraham "where is the lamb" for the sacrifice. Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb, but God didn't provide a lamb, but rather a ram. The ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah symbolized to Abraham that his offering had been accepted, because the lamb had become the ram. In his intention to offer his son, Abraham appears to have believed Isaac to be the Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15), but Isaac was spared because God would supply his own Lamb who passed from weakness (kenosis) to fullness of power (resurrection).
The sign of the Old Covenant is the blood of lambs and rams, but the lamb is weak compared to the adult ram. The blood of lambs speaks of the kenotic work of Christ, the Lamb of God. Horus was called the Lamb in his weaker (kenotic) existence and he was called the Ram in his glorified strength. Both are associated with the death and resurrection symbolism of the vernal equinox. This sheds light on the story of Abraham's offering of his son. James 2:21 says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" Is this really about the necessity of faith and works? Or is James saying that faith is perfected or redoubled through sacrifice, death and resurrection? This understanding of redoubled strength better fits the context of Abraham's binding of Isaac.
When John pointed to Jesus and called Him the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world", he identified Him as the fulfillment of the first promise. John writes: "Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (I John 5:5) To paraphrase: "who goes from fleshly weakness to divine strength?" Only those who "put on Christ", the Lamb who has become the Ram.
This is the faith of Abraham and his Horite ruler-priest ancestors. "Har-Ur" (likely the origin of the place names Haran and Ur) refers to Horus in maturity, or the Elder Horus. In his infancy, he was depicted in ancient Egypt as either a calf or a lamb and in his maturity as a bull or a ram. Horus is the only mythological figure in ancient Egypt who was understood to be a man. And only as a man does he wear the two crowns.
Related reading: Did Abraham Believe Isaac to be Messiah?; Sons and The Son; The Bosom of Abraham; The Victory of Tehut Over Tehom
God works single-mindedly throughout the ages to restore lost humanity to Himself. This is the theme from Genesis to Revelation, and it is predicated on the first promise concerning the Seed of the Woman who would crush the head of the serpent and restore Paradise. In calling Himself "Son of Man", Jesus identified Himself as the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15). To receive Him as the Son of God, we must affirm His complete humanity. To believe that He is God with the power to save us, we must receive Him as both the Son of Man and the Son of God.
When Scripture poses binary opposites such as God-Man, it is initiating a pattern of thought that travels between 2 points, just as the Sun appears to move from east and west. In this movement there is a point in which the Sun's glory is greatest - the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, which in the northern hemisphere is June 21- 22. Likewise, on a sunny day the sun is felt most intensely upon one's shoulders at hign noon, the point between east and west.
The notion here is that of a shuttle moving back and forth. The weave requires redoubling to make the fabric or the web strong. The English web is likely derived from the word keb or kab. Kab pertains to weaving with a shuttle. Weavers are called the ka, those who kab. Ka also refers to the the body which is "knit" in the womb. Ka-ba refers to the relationship between the body and the soul. Kab also implies a doubling or redoubling to strengthen.
This movement between points corresponds to the ancients' observations of the stars and constellations. They were adept at sidereal astronomy. Horus of the two horizons (east-west) and Horus of the two crowns (north-south) are examples of how meaning is derived by holding 2 points in view. We see this in the Passover sacrifice at twilight, what is called in Hebrew ben ha-'arbayim, meaning "between the two settings." Rabbinic sources take this to mean "from noon on." According to Radak, the first "setting" occurs when the sun passes its zenith at noon and the shadows begin to lengthen, and the second "setting" is the actual sunset (p. 55, vol. 2, The Jewish Publication Society Torah Commentary, "Exodus").
On the eastern horizon Horus is the lamb, young and pure as the new day. On the western horizon, after his sacrifice at the sacred center (the Cross), he is the ram who comes to full strength. The ram's horn (shofar) symbolized the covenant between God and the Israelites. When it was blown the veil or tehome was lifted, allowing God's Presence to be seen. In Genesis One, tehom signifies the chaotic waters which are subdued and put into order by the Word or Wisdom (tehut) of God. The ram's horn which lifts the veil and the Word of God which subdues chaos refer to Jesus the Christ.
From Lamb to Ram on Mount Moriah
As they ascended Mount Moriah, Isaac asked Abraham "where is the lamb" for the sacrifice. Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb, but God didn't provide a lamb, but rather a ram. The ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah symbolized to Abraham that his offering had been accepted, because the lamb had become the ram. In his intention to offer his son, Abraham appears to have believed Isaac to be the Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15), but Isaac was spared because God would supply his own Lamb who passed from weakness (kenosis) to fullness of power (resurrection).
The sign of the Old Covenant is the blood of lambs and rams, but the lamb is weak compared to the adult ram. The blood of lambs speaks of the kenotic work of Christ, the Lamb of God. Horus was called the Lamb in his weaker (kenotic) existence and he was called the Ram in his glorified strength. Both are associated with the death and resurrection symbolism of the vernal equinox. This sheds light on the story of Abraham's offering of his son. James 2:21 says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" Is this really about the necessity of faith and works? Or is James saying that faith is perfected or redoubled through sacrifice, death and resurrection? This understanding of redoubled strength better fits the context of Abraham's binding of Isaac.
When John pointed to Jesus and called Him the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world", he identified Him as the fulfillment of the first promise. John writes: "Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (I John 5:5) To paraphrase: "who goes from fleshly weakness to divine strength?" Only those who "put on Christ", the Lamb who has become the Ram.
This is the faith of Abraham and his Horite ruler-priest ancestors. "Har-Ur" (likely the origin of the place names Haran and Ur) refers to Horus in maturity, or the Elder Horus. In his infancy, he was depicted in ancient Egypt as either a calf or a lamb and in his maturity as a bull or a ram. Horus is the only mythological figure in ancient Egypt who was understood to be a man. And only as a man does he wear the two crowns.
Related reading: Did Abraham Believe Isaac to be Messiah?; Sons and The Son; The Bosom of Abraham; The Victory of Tehut Over Tehom
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