Human Origins from Acid Bogs!

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.

Peaks and Valleys in Biblical Symbolism

Alice C. Linsley


Among Abraham's people, God was thought to reside at the summit of the universe. Later this was conceptualized as a seven-tiers cosmos with the throne of God resting at the seventh firmament of heaven. This is why 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 contemporary 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.

Elephantine between mountains to the East (Bakhu) and to the West (Manu)

The annual flooding of the Nile was a blessing because it dispersed a fertile layer of silt for crops, and it was a curse because those who dwelt along the river had to abandon their homes for forty days and forty nights.

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.

Peaks and valleys also represented the masculine and feminine principles. Indeed, the words "valley" and "vagina" are related and share the ancient symbol V.


Related reading: The Dragon and Beast of Revelation; Fertility Symbols Among Abraham's Ancestors; Sacred Mountains and Pillars

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

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

Horus, King of the Universe

Many ancient monuments along the Nile were aligned with the solar arc or aligned to a symbol of the High God such as the obelisk at Heliopolis (Biblical On).

Alice C. Linsley

Horus and his father Ra ruled over the cosmos in ancient Nilotic mythology. Together their rule is symbolized by the sun and the solar arc. In ancient Egyptian Ra comes from the word re, meaning father and the Greek word Horus comes from the ancient Egyptian word HR, meaning Most High One.

HR was believed to rise in the morning as a lamb and to set in the evening as a ram. The ram was a Messianic symbol of the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC). That sets the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah in context. 

HR is the only celestial figure portrayed as a Man in the ancient Egyptian pantheon and he was called the "son of God." His mother Hathor conceived by divine overshadowing (cf. Luke 1:35). This is why she is shown where the solar orb between the bull's horns.

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew were devotees of the High God, his Son, and Hathor. Wherever they dispersed, they shared their religious beliefs with the populations among whom they settled. 

Horus was believed to be with his father Ra from the beginning (cf. John 1). He is the one who set the boundaries of the winds, seas, and dry land. He fixed the cardinal points and the clock like movements of the constellations. This is reflected in the many words that pertain to boundaries and measurements which have the hr root - hour, horotely, horizon, horologion (a wind tower) 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 BC (July 7), the priests of Dendera 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 lion totem of the tribe of Judah. This was observed 728 years before the time of King David.

The Sun continues to be a significant symbol of the Creator in Judaism. The 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. Observant 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 the symbol of the High God in Luke's Gospel. 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 now lies isolated on the edge of the Sahara.

Related reading: The Hebrew Were a Caste, Jesus Fulfills the Horus Myth; The Double Crown of Horus; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Competition Between the Horites and the Sethites; The Substance of Abraham's Faith

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.

Why Genesis Matters

Alice C. Linsley


Genesis is the battle ground over the questions surrounding creation. It has been co-opted by both Young Earth Fundamentalists and Radical Darwinians, yet Genesis is not really about the origins of biological life. It is about the origins of Messianic expectation among Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors. It sets forth the pattern concerning the Divine King whereby Abraham's people would one day recognize Jesus as Messiah.

The Young Earth view hinges on assumptions about the Genesis "genealogies" used by Bishop Ussher to calculate the age of the universe. He did not understand that these are not genealogies. They are king lists, and their purpose is to tell us about Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors. They were the mighty men of old who spread out of Africa and established kingdoms across a vast expanse of the ancient world. They were not the first people on earth.

The Young Earth view is expressed in Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth on page 454:  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.

What happened to the Genesis 4 king list? Genesis 4 and 5 must be read as one unit as the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried. This is further supported by the fact that the Bible consistently portrays Cain as a ruler. By the time that Jude wrote his epistle (c. 68 AD) Cain was solidly established as the archetype of an earthly ruler. Jude warns those who might abandon Christ because of their suffering and false teachers that God punishes those who rebel against Him. He uses three men as examples: Cain the ruler, Balaam the prophet, and Korah the priest.

The rulers of Genesis 4 and 5 are confirmed as historical persons since analysis of their kinship pattern reveals an authentic marriage and ascendancy pattern. These rulers had 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 ruler ascended to the throne, was a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham.

Genesis matters because here we find the oldest king lists and evidence for the oldest priest caste.

Genesis matters because it presents the data which enables Biblical anthropologists to reconstruct an accurate picture of Abraham's ancestors; their marriage and ascendancy pattern; their ethics and metaphysics, and their extensive kingdom building by which they spread the Proto-Gospel across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

Darwinians insist that all biological life has a common origin, but Genesis speaks instead of the de novo creation of essences ("kinds") that may change form or condition, but not morph into a different essence over vast periods of time. God uses mutation and adaption, for sure, but Christ is the ground of all life, and the unity of biological life is due to the fact that all things were created by and through Him. Genetic boundaries (horotely), and all other boundaries and directions, are fixed in Him.

Here we find the oldest layers of Biblical material. The context of this material is not Near Eastern. It is Nilo-Saharan and can be traced back to a time when the Sahara was wet. If we misrepresent this material, we misrepresent the entire message of the Bible.

Here we find clues as to the point of origin of the Divine Name YHWH. In following the Biblical clues we discover that the Shasu who are named on ancient Nubian monuments as devotees of YHWH are kin to Moses.

Genesis provides significant data for tracing the Kushite migration out of Africa. Here we find verification of the black populations in East Africa and Southern India mentioned by Homer (8th century BC). Homer alluded to the extensive empire and unity of the Saka and Sudra when he wrote, “a race divided, whom the sloping rays; the rising and the setting sun surveys.” 

We also find clues for tracing the migrations of Abraham's Ainu ancestors to places as distant as Japan and Eastern Canada. The Biblical information has made it possible for Biblical anthropologists to make these connections.

Genesis matters because it is fundamental for developing a Biblical worldview and the ability to discern truth from falsehood. That worldview is essentially binary and never dualistic. It maintains a clear distinction between God and Man, between Heaven and Earth, between Good and Evil and between male and female.

Genesis matters because Jesus Christ is the theme of the book. Ultimately, Genesis is about the Divine Son and his ancestors to whom the promise was first given that a "Woman" of their ruler-priest lines would bring forth the "Seed" of God (Gen. 3:15).


Related reading: The Battle Over Genesis; Biblical Anthropology and the Question of Common Ancestry; YEC Dogma is NOT Biblical; Ethics and Archaic Communities; Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Who Were the Kushites?; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis

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

Nimrod and Jesus' Baptism

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 1 Chronicles 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 Tigris-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 (water) and rd (earth, globe or orb) and is a royal title of ancient Egyptian origin. 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: horim, horoni, referring to Horite devotees of Horus. Horus was the only Egyptian/Kushite 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 fortressed 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 (as in Eastern Orthodox belief). 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. 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:  Desert Dunking 2000 Years Ago; The Blessing of the Waters; Nimrod: Afro-Asiatic Kingdom Builder; The Testimony of Blessed John, Forerunner; The Stirring of the Waters

Do Abraham and Moses Represent Different Origins of Israel?

Alice C. Linsley

There are two narratives running side by side in the Old Testament. The Deuteronomist Historian has a theological perspective and is a latter influence on the Biblical text. It reflects the pain, suffering and yearning of people who were in exile in Babylon. The yearning is for a strong Israel that has a common religion based in Zion. The Deuteronomist is not concerned with upholding pre-Abrahamic tradition concerning Messiah. There is very little in the writings attributed to the Deuteronomist Historian that speak of the Messianic hope of the incarnation of the son of God, of bodily resurrection, and an eternal kingdom.

This source is more "Jewish" then "Hebrew" and Jesus is the fulfillment of the Hebrew hope, which had little to do with the Jewish hope of a earthly kingdom with Zion as the center. This is why I say that Christianity is the only true Messianic faith. Judaism rejects Jesus as Messiah. The Quran denies that God has a son.

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 not supported by analysis of the kinship patterns of both men. In fact, analysis of their kinship patterns reveals that Moses and Abraham have the identical marriage and ascendancy pattern and that is the pattern of the Horite Ha'biru (Hebrew). This should not surprise us since the Bible claims that Moses is a descendant of Abraham, and Abraham's people were Horite Hebrew.

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.

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; Another Way to Read Scripture; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule

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 about resurrection of the Sacrificed One expected by the Horites; the Righteous Ruler who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality (final justification).

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:  Ram Symbolism in the Ancient World; The Lamb is Bound; Did Abraham Believe Isaac to be Messiah?; Sons and The Son; The Bosom of Abraham; The Victory of Tehut Over Tehom