African Naming Practices

The West could learn from African naming practices, as is evident in this piece written by Uchenna Uzo, a Nigerian living in Barcelona Spain.


Names and the Value of a Human Person
Uchenna Uzo


How many people actually know what their first names mean? In the four years that I have spent outside of my home country in Nigeria, I have frequently asked the people I meet in Europe and the United States what their names actually mean. I have always found it amazing to get replies such as: I do not know? Who cares? Why is that important? Such responses are very different from the typical response of an African.

Take Nigeria, where I grew up. Nigerians actually introduce themselves by not only telling their names but also explaining their meanings to people who belong to other linguistic groups. Why is the meaning of names accorded so much value in Africa? It is because for an African, a name does not only represent a person´s identity but a name is also regarded as a promise, a vocation and a list of expectations.

For a similar reason, when Pope Benedict baptized 21 babies belonging to Vatican staff recently he took the opportunity to remind Catholics that a Christian name should be just that, Christian, since every new member of the faith acquires the character of a son or daughter of the Church.

In Africa it all starts a few months before a child is born. Parents draw up a list of possible names for the newborn and they share the list with grandparents, extended family members and family friends. The appropriate names from the list are selected depending on important family events surrounding the conception of the child and also the expectations of the parents from the child. When the child finally arrives a naming ceremony is organized to formally give the selected names. Each child is given at least three names: one from the parents and two from the maternal and paternal grandparents.

This is a common practice in several African countries such as Kenya, Togo, Sudan, Ghana, Cote’Ivoire and Nigeria. Among the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria, The first name is the personal name (oruko). The second name is the praise name (oriki), which reflects the hopes for the child. The third name connects the child to its family or community (orile).

Parents who have been childless for years and finally give birth to children give names such as "Ndidi" which means patience. Such names affirm that patience is usually rewarded. This name also represents a call to the child to remain patient in time of adversity.

Another example is the name "Nonye" which means "stay with us". This is the typical name that parents who have lost a child give to the new borne baby. In Cameroon, parents give names such as Pegwo (disappointment); Jurodoe, (faithful); Sohna (anxiety) to represent the circumstances around the child´s birth. Large families also have special names for their youngest children.

One might ask why all the fuss about giving names to children? At the heart of this practice among Africans is a profound appreciation of the value of the human person. By giving the child a name, parents and their family members go beyond seeing a child as a composition of cells to seeing the child as a person in search of an identity and a vocation. How does this compare with events in Europe and the United states?

In these countries where there are increasing rates of divorce, abortion, child-sex selection, and so on, it is not surprising that children’s names often reflect popular culture, with a host of little Ollies and Bellas named after film and television celebrities. Too bad that, by the time they are 15 or 20, the significance of their names will have been forgotten, along with other trends of the era.

The West does have a few rules about names. A couple in Sweden spent the 1990s protesting that country’s naming laws by giving their son the name “Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116”, pronounced “albin”, and then simply “A”, which is pronounced the same way. It is hard to see where respect for the child and its future comes into this.

The Chinese, by contrast, put a lot more thought into naming their children, striving for something individual as well as meaningful since there are only about one hundred official surnames (family names) shared by most of China’s population. But, even there, historical events and patriotism can create the equivalent of pop culture trends -- “Space Travel” and “Olympic Games” were popular names a couple of years ago when the games were staged in Beijing.

Giving a child a meaningful name in Africa requires accepting that the child has a personal dignity right from the moment of conception that needs to be respected and protected. This respect for the dignity of the newly born is symbolized through practices associated with the naming ceremony. Among the Yorubas of Western Nigeria, water is dabbed on the child´s face during the ceremony to symbolize the child´s purity and the importance of having no enemies. In some other African countries, honey and bitter kolanuts represent the sweet and bitter dimensions of the life that the child is about to begin.

All these details reflect that naming is not a trivial exercise in Africa. In fact, naming is accorded almost the same significance as marriage. After the naming ceremony, parents take every available opportunity to reinforce the messages behind the names that are given to their children. Parents use popular African proverbs to drive home their messages. When children do not act according to expectations, they are told proverbs such as: "If you do not stand for something, you will fall for something"; "It is a bad child that does not take advice"; "For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."

Africa has distinctive cultural qualities that the rest of the world can learn from. One of those who have emphasized this fact is Pope John Paul II who said in 1980 during his visit to Ghana: "The essential aspects of African culture are a vision of the world where the sacred is central, a deep awareness of the link between Creator and nature, a great respect for all life, a sense of family and of community that blossoms into an open and joyful hospitality, reverence for dialogue as a means of settling differences and sharing insights, spontaneity and the joy of living expressed in poetic language, song and dance".

The practices associated with naming in Africa show that naming represents an opportunity for parents to positively influence the life of their children and in the process influence their own lives.


--Uchenna Uzo is a student at IESE Business School in Barcelona Spain.
Reprinted from MercatorNet


Naming is a community concern in African societies.  The names given to the child assign him or her a place in the family, the community, and the cosmos.

Among the Yoruba babies are named on the 8th day (corresponding to the day of circumcision of boys among the Horites/Horim). Among the Edo (Edomites), babies are named on the 7th day.



Related reading:  The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Methuselah's Wife; An African Reflects on Biblical Names; Recovering the African Background of Genesis

Science Teachers and Creationism

Alice C. Linsley

In a Live Science piece by Jennifer Welsh (28 Jan. 2011) some high school biology teachers are accused of lack of knowledge - that is, ignorance of their subject - because about 13 percent teach creationism in their classrooms. According to Welsh, these teachers believe that humans appeared on the surface of the Earth about 10,000 years ago.

Michael Berkman, co-author of the study, told Livescience: "Our general sense is they lack the knowledge and confidence to go in there and teach evolution, which makes them risk-averse."

Showing her own ignorance, Jennifer Welsh defines all who believe that God created the Earth as biblical literalists. She writes, "Creationists broadly believe God created Earth, its inhabitants and the universe, with Christian creationists taking a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. However, scientific evidence says evolutionary theory, the idea that all organisms evolved from some common ancestor, by means of natural selection, explain the planet's diversity of life. Some of the earliest life on Earth dates back to 3.7 billion years ago."

I believe that God created the Earth and I also believe that the earliest life on Earth appeared billions of years ago. I know that the oldest human fossils are about 3.4 million years and that they show the same anatomical range as modern humans. When Jeremy DeSilva, an 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.

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."

Some of the australopithecine fossils dating between 700,000 and 2.4 million years are recognized as "early human fossils". Although classified as "ape of the South", some are recognized as having had human dentition, bipedalism and stone tools.

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 human origins. The evidence in both fields indicates flux, but no essential change.

In other words, there is no evidence to support the macro-evolutionary theory of change from one kind into another kind. The physical evidence indicates that humans appeared as humans and unheralded by sub-human ancestors more than 4 million years ago. Kenneth H. Roux admits, "Evolutionary convergence at the molecular level is presumed to be widespread, but is poorly documented."

Welsh's claim that the theory of evolution -  "the idea that all organisms evolved from some common ancestor" has been proven is simply false.  There are plenty of evolutionary scientists who question the theory.  I've mentioned a few already.

The battle ground is the book of Genesis, which few in this debate understand. Genesis isn't a scientific record of the beginning of life.  It really isn't about human origins. It is about the origins of Messianic expectation among Abraham's cattle-herding Proto-Saharan ancestors.  But that's another subject for another day.

 
Related reading:  Genesis and Genetics; Genesis: Is it Really About Human Origins?; Oldest Human Fossils; Theories of Creation; Evangelical Colleges Battle Over Creation and Evolution

A Child's Prayer

Sometimes we adults make things too complicated. Here is a child's prayer that says it all.  James is my niece's 3 year old son.


Dear Jesus,


Thank you for helping our sins.

Welcome to the earth.

We are clapping our hands.

Amen.

The Holy One Hidden and Revealed

Alice C. Linsley

Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215) believed that the writers of scripture practiced a "prophetic and venerable system of concealment." He explained: "For many reasons the scriptures conceal their meaning; primarily, with the aim of making us diligent and unresting in our study of the words of salvation and, secondly, because it is not in the province of all men to examine their meaning, lest they should receive hurt through a mistaken interpretation.” (Clement of Alexandria by R.B. Tollinton. 1914. Volume II, p. 302.)

Clement believed that concealment encourages truth-seekers to dig deeper. There is also a belief among the early Church Fathers that revealing the sacred mysteries to scoffers can bring condemnation upon them. This belief is evident in these words of the Eastern Orthodox liturgy: For I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies, neither like Judas will I give Thee a kiss; but like the thief will I confess Thee: “Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.”

What is the nature of this "prophetic and venerable system of concealment"? The rabbis believed that sacred mysteries were concealed by mystical symbols. Rabbi Kaduri's pronouncements that the hidden Messiah had been revealed is an example. His name is Yehoshua or Yeshua (Jesus). Yeshua comes from the ancient royal and priestly name Yesu, found among Abraham's early Hebrew ancestors.

(Source: Bill Manley, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, 2012, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London)

The name is derived from the ancient Egyptian name Yesu (shown above) which is associated with royal authority. The feather represents the letter Y and stands for one who judges, measures, or weights. The next symbol represents horns. The idea of God's presence "between the horns" predates Judaism. Then there is the sedge plant which represents a king, and finally the falcon, the totem of HR (Horus), the patron of kings. HR in ancient Egyptian means "Most High One" or "Hidden One".

Mark seems to veil the Christ more than the other Evangelists. He tells us that Jesus' true identify was known in Tyre, not in Jerusalem.

The king of Tyre was allied by kinship with David and sent skilled artisans to help David build a palace in Jerusalem. Hiram is also known as "Huram" and "Horam" and these variant spellings contain the HR root which is a Horus name. The Horus Name is the oldest part of the Nilotic royal titulary, dating to at least 1200 years before Egypt became a political entity. Abraham's older brother Na-Hor had a Horus name as did Moses' brother-in-law Hur, and Moses' brother Harun (Aaron). 

Hur’s grandson was one of the builders of the Tabernacle. I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur as the "father of Bethlehem" in the heartland of Horite Hebrew territory. Matthew 2 explains that the title "Nazarene" is derived from the prophecy "He will be called a Nazorean", but this has no Old Testament source. The source is likely from the much older Akkadian language. Na-Zor means "one belonging to the Zorites". In 1 Chronicles 2:54, Salma of Judah is called the father of the צרעי (Zorites). Salma is also called the "father of Bethlehem" in 1 Chronicles 2:51. So, the prophecy speaks of one born in Bethlehem, which was home to the Zorites.

The king of Tyre and David had common ancestors in the early Hebrew who believed that the Son of God would be born of a young woman of their ruler-priest caste. They expected Him to appear among them. This was fulfilled when Jesus visited Tyre (Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7: 24). Here the Markan mystery is revealed, for we are told that in Tyre Jesus "could not pass unrecognized."

The early Hebrew (both Horites and Sethites)believed that the Son of God would be born of a woman of their ruler-priest caste, that he would be conceived by divine overshadowing, that he would die and rise on the third day, and that He would be God incarnate. They referred to the son as HR, which in ancient Egyptian means "Hidden One."


Related reading: The Theme of Hidden Sons; The Hebrew Were a Caste; Hebrew Names and Titles; Why Jesus Visited Tyre; Sons and The Son

Nubians Used Antibiotics

Red and black Nubian captives

Alice C. Linsley


The Nubians were a Nilotic people who would have been called Kushites in the time of Abraham's ancestors. Some were red and some were black.

Before the naming of modern nations in Africa, Kush was ruled by powerful tribal chiefs. Ancient Kush was a much larger territory than generally recognized. It probably included Upper Egypt, and much of Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania. Kushite peoples moved into Eurasia where they were known by different names: Kushan, Kushana, Saka, Scythians, etc. It is likely that the Hittites were culturally Kushite.

The following is a report about tetracycline laced beer consumed by Nubians who lived between 350 and 550 A.D.  However, Egyptians and other Nilotic peoples consumed beer as early as 3000 B.C. The fermentation process was perceived to be a gift from the High God. Nubian beer is mentioned in the Ancient Pyramid Texts (Utterance 151): "O Osiris the King, provide yourself with the ferment which issued from you - 2 bowls of Nubian beer."

Clearly, there is a ancient precedent for what George Armelagos found.

People have been using antibiotics for nearly 2,000 years, suggests a new study, which found large doses of tetracycline embedded in the bones of ancient African mummies.
What's more, they probably got it through beer, and just about everyone appears to have drank it consistently throughout their lifetimes, beginning early in childhood. 

While the modern age of antibiotics began in 1928 with the discovery of penicillin, the new findings suggest that people knew how to fight infections much earlier than that — even if they didn't actually know what bacteria were. 

Some of the first people to use antibiotics, according to the research, may have lived along the shores of the Nile in Sudanese Nubia, which spans the border of modern Egypt and Sudan. 

"Given the amount of tetracycline there, they had to know what they were doing," said lead author George Armelagos, a biological anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta. "They may not have known what tetracycline was, but they certainly knew something was making them feel better." 

Armelagos was part of a group of anthropologists that excavated the mummies in 1963. His original goal was to study osteoporosis in the Nubians, who lived between about 350 and 550 A.D. But while looking through a microscope at samples of the ancient bone under ultraviolet light, he saw what looked like tetracycline — an antibiotic that was not officially patented in modern times until 1950.

Read it all here.

Beer was a staple in Egyptian diets and was listed in the rations for pyramid builders. Some archaeologists suggest that we owe the development of agriculture to the desire to brew beer. Despite the availability of other food resources, barley was domesticated as early as 10,000 years ago even though it is a labor-intensive crop.


Related reading:  Who Were the Kushites?; The Saharan Origin of Pharaonic Egypt; Wine Use in Antiquity; Neolithic Medical Care

Wine Use in Antiquity

Alice C. Linsley

In the ancient world, wine was consumed mainly by the ruling class and it was used in religious rituals. It was offered by kings as a "drink offering" to the High God, and it was consumed at feasts that involved the ratification of treaties. The High God was believed to be the Witness to these treaties. In a Ugaritic text, the God El became drunk at such a feast and had to be carried home by his sons. Here we find a parallel to the story of Noah's drunken state and his sons' attempt to "cover" for him.


Timeline of Archaeological Discoveries

6000-5500 BC:  At the Chinese Neolithic site of Jiahu archaeologists found pottery shards with residue from a fermented beverage made of a mixture of rice, honey and fruit. Researchers found species of the tartrate from grape, hawthorn, or longyan cherry, or a combination of two or more of these. Ji-ahu means "mound or hill of Ahu." Ahu is an ancient name for the deity of water shrines. Ahu is found in Genesis in only one place: Genesis 41:18, and here the term denotes the bank of the Nile. In Mesopotamia, wine was enjoyed by the upper classes. 

4000 BC:  Wine was produced by Neolithic farmers in what is today the Republic of Georgia. In 2007, a team excavating Areni-1, a cave complex in a canyon between the Little Caucasus and the Zagros mountains, found ancient grape seeds and wine making implements with residue of malvidin which means the Areni vintners were making red wine. The cave is near Armenia’s southern border with Iran outside a village still known for its wine-making activities. It is believed that some ancestors of the Nilotic Luo settled in this area. (See the work of Wandera Salmon.)

3150 BC:  In the late 1980s, German archaeologists found remains of wine making equipment in the tomb of the ancient Nubian king Scorpion I. That find consisted of grape seeds, grape skins, dried pulp and imported ceramic jars covered inside with a yellow residue chemically consistent with wine. Ancient Egyptian murals depict details of wine-making.

Egyptians flavored their wines with tree resins, herbs, and figs and used hieroglyphs to label place and producer, and the vintage according to year of the pharaoh’s reign.

Generally, Nilotic peoples preferred beer to wine and their beer contained high levels of tetracycline. Beer was a staple in Egyptian diets, and was listed in the rations for pyramid builders. Despite the availability of more easier cultivated food resources, barley was domesticated as early as 10,000 years ago even though it is a labor-intensive crop.

It is likely that wine was reserved for special rituals and religious festivals. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

Noah was drunk with wine on at least one occasion and the outcome wasn't good. Likewise, the outcome of Lot's drunken stupor was not good. Genesis presents criticism of excessive wine consumption as this was not considered proper for Hebrew priests.

1600 BC:  In 1963, two plaster basins that appear to have been used to press grapes were excavated in what is now Israel's West Bank.

1000 BC: Biblical kings consumed wine flavored with vanilla. The evidence of vanilla-infused wine was discovered in two separate excavations within the City of David. In both cases, excavators uncovered numerous large wine jars inside buildings destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.

Wine for pleasure and for ritual use

One of the oldest uses of wine was in religious ritual. In Tantric ritual, wine is called shakti or sakti. Sakti is also the name for the Hindu harvest moon festival. Likely, the word is related to the Falasha word sarki, which also refers to the harvest moon festival at which priests - the harwa - played a role. Harwa is an ancient Egyptian word for priest.

Some Sarki live as Haruwa in the Tarai region of Nepal where Tantric practices emerged. In the West, where we are obsessed with sexual desire (lust), there are no true practitioners, for as a Tantrica of West Bengel has explained: "Those most fit for Tantra almost never take it up, and those least fit pursue it with zeal."

In Tantric spirituality, copulation is practiced to achieve higher consciousness by a spiritual joining of male and female principles. This is called the “transmutation of desire” in order to transcend all desires. Think of this as a spiritual wrestling match in which the weight and momentum of the opponent (desire) is used to overturn the opponent.

According to the Rig Veda 10.129, this love (kama) is the generative power that makes all life possible. Kama appears personified in Hindu myth as the enemy of spiritual discipline (asceticism), but he cannot be destroyed. Here we see the tension in Hinduism between desire and pleasure and renunciation of all desire and pleasure.

In the following hymn Kama is praised as the divine source of all creation.

Love (Kama) is the firstborn, loftier than the gods, the Fathers and men. You, O Love (Kama) are the eldest of all, altogether mighty. To you we pay homage!

Greater than the breadth of earth and heaven, or of waters and fire, You O Love, are the eldest of all, altogether mighty. To you we pay homage!  

In many a form of goodness, O Love, you show your face. Grant that these forms may penetrate within our hearts. Send elsewhere all malice! (Atharva Veda 9.2.19-25)

The Horite Hebrew were a caste of ruler-priests who spread their worldview and religion throughout the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. They were widely dispersed in the service of the archaic rulers who are called the "mighty men of old" in Genesis 10. This is before the Vedic Age and long before the Axial Age.

These ruler-priests controlled water systems at a time when the Sahara, Mesopotamia, Pakistan and India were wetter. They are called "Horites" because they were devotees of Horus, who was called "seed/son of God." They are called 'Apiru or Habiru in ancient texts. Habiru is rendered "Hebrew" in English Bibles.

Hebrew priests did not practice ritual sex. Their Sun temples were places of prayer, worship, judgement, and sacrifice.

The Arabic yakburu means “he is getting big” and with the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru means "he is enlarging." It is a reference to the rising of the Sun in the East. The east-facing temple was termed O-piru, meaning Sun House/Temple.

The Sun temples were also places of judgement. This is evident in the old Hungarian/Magyar word for judge, which is bíró, and likely related to the word biru, which pertains to a place of sacrifice.

The Harappa civilization reflects the Habiru's influence. Har refers to Horus and "appa" is the Dravidian word meaning father. The Harappa civilization dates to about the same time as one of Egypt's oldest and largest city at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis), an archaeologically rich site.

Nekhen is the oldest known center of Horite Hebrew worship, dating to around 3800 BC.Votive offerings at the temple of Horus were up to ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite Hebrew priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose.

In the ancient world, a temple was considered the mansion—hâît, or the house—pirû—of the deity. The Creator Râ lived in Heliopolis on the east side of the Delta; Hathor, the mother of Horus had her principal temple in Memphis to the south of Heliopolis (the principal water shrine of the Nilotic Annu) and on the west side of the Nile. Horus, who was said to be one with his Father, lived further south in Nekhen and Edfu on the west side of the Upper Nile.

The relationship of Râ, Hathor and Horus is reflected in the relative locations of the temples. Hathor represents the Feminine Principle, and as such is located to the south (the direction associated with birth and renewal). Râ is to the north, and as his symbol is the Sun, his temple is on the east side of the Nile. Horus is to the southwest, the direction associated with the future. He rises as a lamb and sets as a ram.

Against those who claim that the Horite Hebrew were polytheists, note that only Horus and Hathor are shown in human form, and usually together, as in Christian icons of the Theotokos and the Christ Child.

The Horite Hebrew maintained high standards of moral behavior. Before their time of service in the temples they shaved their bodies and did not consume wine.

Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

Heliopolis is biblical On. Joseph married the daughter of the priest of On. It was the pattern for Horite Hebrew men to marry the daughters of priests. They practiced endogamy, a trait of castes.

The Horite Hebrew, who the Jews call their "Horim," enjoyed married life, but abstained from sexual relations before their terms of serve in the temples. Ritual sex was discussed because it represented a departure from the ways of the Horim, an aberration. We have no evidence that Horite priests followed the practices involving sex and child sacrifice condemned by the prophets. In the ancient world the Horite Hebrew were known for their purity and devotion to the High God.

Drunk Fathers and Sexual Misbehavior

Wine consumption and sex are not presented in a positive light in Genesis. There are two accounts of drunken sexual misbehavior. In Noah’s case, his three sons decide what to do while their father sleeps in a drunken stupor and Noah curses his grandson Canaan. In Lot’s case, his two daughters decide what to do while their father sleeps and both become pregnant by their father. These stories stand in contrast to stories involving wine as a sign of redemption, as in the Passover and in the Eucharist.

The symmetry of these stories is remarkable. The story of Noah involves sons, and the story of Lot involves daughters. Likewise, in tracing the cord of blood in the Bible we find a similar symmetry. In the Egyptian Passover Moses is the central figure, and in the Jericho Passover, it is Rahab who lets down the scarlet cord that saves her whole household. Male and female are instrumental in bringing deliverance.

The wine in the Passover Seder is not ordinary wine once it is blessed. Likewise, the wine used in the Holy Eucharist is not ordinary wine. It is sacramental. Both celebrations recount God's deliverance and speak of the consummation of a love relationship, as is evident in Jesus' explanation to His disciples that he would not drink the cup again until the celestial wedding feast.

“This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. I say to you, I will not drink this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:28-29). On that day, the Son of God shall take to Himself the Church, His royal bride. Her nobility, like her purity, is derived from her royal Groom.
 

Related reading: Two Passovers and Two Drunken Fathers; Genesis and the Eucharist; Oldest Wine-Making Equipment; Divine Vintage: Following the Wine Trail from Genesis to the Modern Age by R. Haskett and J. Butler; “Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages by Patrick McGovern

The World's Oldest Books

Alice C. Linsley


When considering written communication in antiquity, one must begin with the oldest known written communication. That would be ostrich eggshell fragments dating to 60,000 years ago. These have been hailed as the oldest example of symbolic written communication. The unusually large sample of 270 engraved eggshells were mostly excavated at Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa.

However, if one wishes to consider the world's oldest books, there is now a set of 70 contending for that title.

A group of 70 or so "books", about the side of a credit car, with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, were discovered in northern Jordan after a flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave. One one of the niches was marked with a menorah. A Bedouin found the books.  They are believed to be extremely rare relics of early Christianity.  Below is a photo of a page showing a date nut palm (tamar) which is a "tree of life." (Read more here.)

The other books were found in Egypt.  Here's the report:

It was on January 20, 1988, while excavating a third- century Roman house at Kellis, part of the Dakhleh Oasis Project, that student volunteer Jessica Hallet excitedly called out to her supervisor to come and look at a piece of wood with writing on it. Colin Hope, director of the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History at Australia’s Monash University, wandered over to delicately brush sand from it. What emerged from that ancient kitchen were two wooden-paged books. One contained three speeches by the Greek orator Isocrates; however, it was the other book, underneath that one, that has garnered more attention.

The three years of the Kellis book were either 361 to 364 or 376 to 379, just before the site was abandoned. Wooden books were popular at the time, though papyrus ones were about to come into common use. A private letter, written in Greek and found in the house next door, contained an order: “Send a well-proportioned and nicely executed 10-page notebook for your brother Ision.” The addressee didn’t have to go far. A room adjacent to where the book was found revealed a bookmaker’s workshop containing acacia-wood mallets, three cut wooden pages, a block marked for cutting and a tool box which allowed Hope to reconstruct the process of making the book.

Hope agrees that calling it “the world’s oldest book” is a matter of definition. “It’s certainly the oldest as we know a book,” he says, “with a front and back cover, a pagination system and individual pages bound at the spine.”

Made from a single block of acacia wood, the book’s eight pages measure 33 by 11 centimeters (13"by 4"). Each page is coated with gum arabic to provide a writing surface. They’re held together by tightly spun linen strings threaded through pairs of holes drilled at the top and bottom. Should the binding ever have broken, re-ordering the pages would have presented no problem: Notches along the spine line up to a perfect V when the pages are in the correct order.

The book is now safely housed in the Kharga Archeological Museum in Egypt’s Kharga Oasis, near Dakhleh, where crops similar to the ones named in it are grown, and similar payments continue to be made.

The second book, dubbed the Kellis Agricultural Account Book, is a revealing record written by the manager of an agricultural estate of all the comings and goings of the business of the estate over three years. Its 1784 entries list payables and receivables, including annual obligations to the landlord, the mistress of the house and the field workers. Income items include crops like wheat, barley, chickens, figs, olive oil, honey and wine. Outgoing payments included “to Syrion, for wage,” “to Father Psennouphis, for wedding gifts,” “transport charge,” and notes indicated how each payment was made, whether in cash or produce or both. It’s an extremely important written record that can be compared to archeological remains found at the site.

From here. Dakhleh is in the desert in the southwestern part of Egypt in what was part of ancient Kush.
 
 
Related reading: The Writing System of Menes; Canaanite Origins of the Alphabet; The Origins of Written Communication; Sacred Writings and the Uniqueness of the Bible; Paleolithic Ostrich Eggshell Communication; The Writing of David's Realm

Who Were the Horite Hebrew?

Image of a Sethite Hebrew priest of the Nile (Flinders Petrie, 1939)

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew are the oldest know priest caste. The two groups represent a moiety system of two ritual groups who served at the Sun temples of the ancient world before Abraham's time. 

The first person to be explicitly designated as “Hebrew” in the Bible is Abraham and a detailed study of Abraham reveals a great deal about the biblical Hebrew and their Messianic Faith. Sadly, the artificial division of Genesis 1-11 and Genesis 12-50 creates a distorted picture of the Hebrew and the antiquity of the Messianic Faith among Abraham’s ancestors.

The unity of the book of Genesis is evident in analysis of the kinship pattern of the rulers listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36. The pattern is identical. All these persons were Hebrew. Abraham is one of their descendants. His Hebrew ancestors lived in the Nile Valley, Canaan, and Mesopotamia. They were a ruler-priest caste that dispersed widely in the service of kingdom builders like Nimrod.

Beginning in chapter 11, Abraham becomes the focal point of Genesis. We are told that he was Hebrew, and he was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold (Gen. 13:2). His high social status is evident in the personal audiences he had with Pharaoh and King Abimelech. Melchizedek, the priest-king of Jerusalem, ministered to Abraham after battle. This involved ritual cleansing from blood. The Hittites (descendants of Heth) recognized Abraham as a "great prince" among them. Abraham’s personal guard consisted of at least 318 warriors trained in his household.

Genesis 13 states that Abraham left Egypt and moved into the Negev (the "south"), a region known for mining and metal work. Abraham had clan and kin there among the Kenites. Likely, it was at this time that he married Keturah of the clan of Sheba. She established their southern settlement at Beer-sheba (the Well of Sheba). From there Abraham moved north to the region of Bethel and Ai/Hai. Eventually, Sarah established her settlement at Hebron. The wives' settlements marked the southern and northern boundaries of Abraham's territory. Bethel and Ai are shown on this map. Hebron and Beersheba are also shown, farther south.

As with the earlier Hebrew ruler-priests Abraham had two wives. The wives' settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory in Edom/Idumea. Abraham's father Terah (meaning priest) also had two wives. One wife was the mother of Sarah, and the other wife was the mother of Abraham. Sarah was Abraham's half-sister and the wife of his youth. Keturah was Abraham's patrilineal cousin and the wife of his later years. By his two wives, Abraham had 7 sons and an unknown number of daughters.

Hebrew sons who were not the firstborn sons of the half-sister (principal) wife or the firstborn sons of the cousin (second) wife were sent away. Genesis 25:6 explains that before he died, Abraham "made grants" to his other sons and then sent them away from his proper heir Isaac. This feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the early Hebrew drove their expansion out of Africa. However, by Abraham's time the size of the territories of the sent-away sons was relatively small. Abraham was a sent-away son who established his territory on a north-south axis between Hebron and Beersheba (a distance of 27 miles/43 kilometers) and on an east-west axis between Ein Gedi and Gerar (a distance of roughly 94 miles/152 kilometers). His authority in this territory was absolute.

The Hebrew ruler-priest caste

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew were a caste of royal priests who dispersed widely from the Nile Valley where they maintained shrines and temples ("Horite and Sethite Mounds"). The terms "Horite" and "Sethite" do not designate races or ethnicities. They designate a moiety system. Though separate ritual groups or moieties, they shared common religious practices and beliefs, worshiped the same God, and served the same king.

Study of the social structure of the biblical Hebrew indicates that they were a caste. They exhibit all the traits associated with castes: endogamy, membership by birth, hierarchical status, inherited occupation, distinctive physical appearance such as shaved bodies, circumcision, type of dress, and restraints on eating with persons outside the caste. The ancient Egyptian rulers observed restrictions on eating with those regarded as ritually impure (Gen. 43). The practice of not eating with Gentiles continues today among strict Orthodox Jews. The prohibition is meant to discourage social mingling that can lead to marriage outside the caste.

The term “commensality” refers to the positive social interactions that are associated with people eating together. Communal meals encourage conversation, increase familiarity, and can lead to closer social, familial, and marital relations.

Exceptions were made in diplomatic relations. Hebrew rulers feasted with non-Hebrew rulers to formalize treaties and covenants. The feasts usually took place at sacred high places and were accompanied by animal sacrifice. Scholars have learned much about ancient treaties through study of the Mari Tablets (Mesopotamia), the Pact of Esarhaddon (Assyrian), the Amarna Texts (Egyptian), and the Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty. 

The early Hebrew were in the service of the archaic kingdom building "mighty men of old" who controlled the trade routes from the wet Sahara to the Indus River, and from Anatolia to ancient Brittany. These shrine and temple attendants kept records, recorded measurements, and collected taxes on cargo that moved along the trade routes and major water systems. They also married within their clans (endogamy).

As temple attendants, the Hebrew were responsible for the fabrication of sacred vessels, stone altars, temples, royal tombs, and artifacts pertaining to the ruler's authority (crooks, flails, crowns, etc.). They often used copper and meteoric iron. Later they fabricated sacred objects of bronze, an alloy of tin copper and tin. In their world there was no separation of sacred and secular. The king was the Creator's representative of earth, and the royal priest was the link between the king and the people, and between the Creator and the people.

The ancient priests who served at the sun temples were called 'Apiru, Hapiru or Habiru (Hebrew). These words derive from the ancient Akkadian word for priest: abru. 

The term piru/biru refers to a house or temple. A temple dedicated to the High God whose emblem was the Sun was called Opiru. The Hebrew interceded for the ruler and the people and offered blood and grain sacrifices. Job offered sacrifice daily for the sins of his own family. At the end of the book, God tells Job to pray for his kinsmen Eliphaz, Zophar and Bildad. This is reminiscent of Abraham praying for Abimelech and his whole household (Gen. 20:17,18).

Purity of life was an essential trait of the Hebrew priest. The Horite Hebrew of Heliopolis (biblical On) were known for their meticulous devotion to the Creator and his son, and for their sobriety and purity of life. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

Horite names  

The word "Horite" takes many forms: Har, Harwa, Khar, Khori, Hur, Hurrian, Horonaim, Horoni, Horowitz, Horim, and Hori. Hori was the son of Lotan son of Seir whose descendants were the "lords of the Horites in the land of Seir" according to Genesis 36:20-29 and 1 Chronicles 1:38-42. Lot, Lotan, and Nimlot are Nilotic titles. Nimlot C was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during the latter part of the reign of his father Osorkon II.

The Horite Hebrew kings of Edom are listed in Genesis 36. Here is a diagram of the lines descending from Seir the Horite. Note that there are two men named Esau. Esau, like one of his descendant David, is described has being red. 

Abraham's territory extended between Hebron (Sarah's settlement) and Beersheba (Keturah's settlement). This places his entire territory in the land of Edom, called "Idumea" in Greek. Idumea means "land of red people". 

The Horites were devotees of HR (Hor, Hur or Horus) whose mother Hathor was said to conceive by the overshadowing of the sun, the Creator's emblem. Horus is the archetype by which Abraham's descendants would recognize Jesus as the promised Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15). The "Woman" is Mary, the virgin who conceived by divine overshadowing (Luke 1:35).

Jesus' authentication was His rising from the dead on the third day, in accordance with Horite expectation. As St. Augustine noted, the Egyptians took great care in the burial of their dead and never practiced cremation, as in the religions that seek to escape physical existence. Abraham's ancestors believed in the resurrection of the body and awaited a deified king who would rise from the grave and deliver his people from death.

Hathor's animal totem was a cow. She is shown at the Dendura Temple holding her newborn son in a manger or stable. The stable was constructed by the Horite priest Har-si-Atef. Atef was the crown worn by deified rulers. The Arabic word atef or atif means "kind." The ruler who wore the "atef" crown was to embody kindness and he was to unite the peoples.

Horite Hebrew belief in a deified son who would embody kindness and unite the peoples found fulfillment in Jesus Christ, a descendant of the Horite ruler-priests, the divine son of the Virgin Mary, daughter of the priest Joachim of the line of Nathan. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham's Horite ancestors in Eden (Gen. 3:15). This is why Frank Moore Cross cannot avoid the conclusion that the God of Israel is the God of the Horites.

Consider how Horus, the mythical archetype of Christ, describes himself in the Coffin texts (passage 148): I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'. (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, p. 216)

Here we find the words of Psalm 110:1, a messianic reference: The Lord says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."

Horus, son of Ra, was venerated at the Predynastic shrine city of Nekhen.

Horus, whose totem was the falcon, was known by many titles. He was called the "Son of God," "Horus of the Two Crowns," "Horus of the Two Horizons," and he was associated with the three superior planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Mars was named "Horus of the Horizon" or "Horus the Red." Jupiter was called "Horus Who Illuminates the Two Lands." Saturn was named "Horus, Bull of the Sky." The three superior planets were always depicted with the falcon-head of Horus (Krupp 1979).

Horus as a falcon on the mast of Ra's solar boat.
Relief found at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Hebrew religious ideas spread across the ancient world from the Nile region long before Egypt became a political entity. Abraham's ancestors came from the Nile region. He is descended from Nimrod, a son of Kush (Gen. 10:8). We first meet Abraham in the Mesopotamia that is where Nimrod built a vast kingdom.

Typical of castes, the Horite and Sethite Hebrew intermarried (endogamy). The genealogies of the Bible reveal that intermarriage of the ruler-priests lines continued to the time of Jesus. Jesus is the culmination of His ancestors' expectation of the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise. (Gen. 3:15)

It is from the Horite priesthood that the priesthood of Israel developed. Moses' two brothers, Korah and Aaron, were Horite priests before Judaism emerged as a distinct world religion, even before Israel can be identified as a nation. Horite priests served in the temple in Jerusalem on a rotating schedule. I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur (Hor) as the "father of Bethlehem". The author of Chronicles knew that Bethlehem was originally a Horite settlement in the heart of Horite territory.

The word Horite is related to the Egyptian word for priest harwa. Another word for priest is korah. One of Moses's brothers was Korah. Korah means "shaved head" The Horite priest was to be purified before entering the temple. The purification ritual involved shaving their heads and bodies. According to Numbers 16:17,18, Korah carried the censor to offer incense before God.

Analysis of the kinship pattern of Moses's family reveals that it is identical to the pattern of the other Horite Hebrew ruling clans.

Josephus calls the descendants of Abraham by Keturah "Horites" and quoting another ancient historian, speaks of them as "conquerors of Egypt and founders of the Assyrian Empire." Doubtless this is a reference to Nimrod, the Kushite kingdom builder, who established a vast empire in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. Josephus failed to note that the Horite Hebrew already existed before Abraham married Keturah. They are Abraham's ancestors among whom the Messianic hope found early expression.

Horite men married only Horite women and according to a pattern which was tied to ancient tradition. It is not a coincidence that Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of "the priest of On" (Gen. 41:45). The exclusive intermarriage between Horite lines requires that we take these words quite literally: "For me you shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." (Ex. 19:6)

Special care was taken in the selection of the wives of the firstborn sons, and each ruler-priest had four firstborn sons. The firstborn son of the half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. The firstborn son of the patrilineal cousin or niece ascended to the throne of this maternal grandfather (as did Nimrod, who ascended to the throne of Nimrod the Elder). Nimrod the Younger was named by his mother after her father. This was done only by the cousin/niece brides, so while Nimrod's father is not known, we know that his mother was the daughter of the Kushite ruler Nimrod the Elder who conquer Nippur in 2340.

The firstborn sons by the ruler's two concubines, and sons by wives who didn't ascend to established thrones, were given gifts and sent away to conquer territories of their own. Sent-away sons include Cain, Abraham, Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. The biblical data indicates that the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the early Hebrew drove their expansion out of Africa.

The Horite Hebrew Priesthood

We have no evidence that Horite priests performed the Canaanite practices condemned by the Biblical prophets, who were their descendants. Horite priests were concerned about purity, especially when preparing for their time of service in the temple.

Horite priests were asked to pray for people because they were recognized as especially holy people. Abraham was asked to pray for Abimelech's household and Job was asked by God to pray for his friends. So, the Horite priest's work involved intercessory prayer. That prayer sometimes involved sacrifice. Righteous Job offered sacrifice on behalf of his whole family.

Horite priests are also shepherds. They kept sheep for the sacrifice and maintained shrines at water systems where they could sustain their flocks. This is why the Horite leaders met their wives at wells.

The trial of Job, in which Satan acts as the accuser, parallels Zechariah 3:2-6 where Satan accuses the High Priest Yeshua. In Yeshua's trial, God acquits Yeshua and commands that he be clothed in clean garments and crowned with 2 crowns (ataroth).

The correspondence between the Horus Myth and the story of Jesus can be explained in two ways. Either Christians borrowed the Horus myth or Christianity emerges in an organic way from the belief system of Abraham and his Horite people. If we decide that Christians borrowed the Horus myth, we must explain why they should have selected this particular myth. There are other great world myths that could have served as the pattern for the story of Jesus. I know of no other religions that prefigure Jesus Christ, the Son of God, other than the faith of Israel as it emerges out of the faith of Abraham's Horite people.

Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He will receive an eternal kingdom from the Father. He is the Son of God, the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise of Genesis 3:15. He is able to conquer death and deliver sinners from the curse of death. This is the core of Christian belief. Surrounding this are attendant beliefs which logically follow. One is that to receive eternal life, we must acknowledge our need for mercy, forgiveness and salvation. Another is that God does this for us out of His boundless love. John wrote, "This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him." (1 John 4:9)

When Abraham arrived in Canaan he did not abandon the traditions of his ancestors. He continued the marriage pattern of his Horite Hebrew people, believing the promise made to them in Eden that the Seed of the Woman would be born of their bloodlines. That is why Abraham married his half-sister (Sarah) and his patrilineal cousin (Keturah), following the pattern of his ruler-priest ancestors. The Horites anticipated the coming of the Son of God to earth and believed that He would be born of their priestly bloodlines. That is why the lines of priests intermarrried exclusively, and why unchaste daughters of priests were burned alive (Lev. 21:9). Sexual impurity was not tolerated.

Joseph, Jacob's first-born son by Rachel, married Asenath, the chaste daughter of a priest of Heliopolis (city of the Sun). Heliopolis, which was called Iunu by the Greeks, was a shrine city of Horus. Iunu means place of pillars because the temple of Heliopolis was constructed with many pillars. Heliopolis was one of the most prestigious Horite centers in the ancient world. The pyramids of Giza, Saqqara and Abusir were apparently aligned to the obelisk at Heliopolis.

The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship in at Nekhen on the Nile (3800 BC). The votive offerings at Nekhen were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine.

Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. In the morning the priests faced the eastern horizon to greet the rising sun, the emblem of Ra and his son Horus. Prayers were offered at dawn and dusk. The Chief Inspector of the Horite Hebrew priests of Nekhen was Horemkhawef. His tomb has been identified.

Nekhen's sister city was Elkab (Nekheb), on the opposite side of the river. The tomb of Horemkhawef in Nekhen and the tomb of Sobeknakht in Elkab were painted by the same artist. Further, Hormose, the chief priest of Nekhen, was able to request material goods from the temple at Elkab for use at the temple at Nekhen.

One of the more intriguing discoveries at Nekhen was the recovery of an almost complete beard in association with the redheaded man in Burial no. 79. The facial hair of the man in Burial no. 79 had been trimmed with a sharp blade. The presence of long wavy natural red hair and a full beard suggests that this individual may be of the same ethnicity as the red haired rulers known as Ur-David (shown below) buried in a pyramid in the Tarim Valley of China.

Note the solar mark on the face of this Tarim Valley ruler.

Related reading: Abraham the Hebrew; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Horite Mounds, Ha'biru, Ha'piru, 'Apiru, Hebrew; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Moses' Horite Family; Samuel's Horite Family; Sent-Away Sons; Ancient Words for Priests

My Mother Has Gone Home

Mother's Day 1999

Betty Ruth Linsley died at 3:12 am Pacific time today.  Her dying was prolonged and at several times in the past 6 months we thought she would rally, but her 3 daughters know that this life is terminal. She would have been 89 in February.

For most of her life, my mother served Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In a very humble way, she led many to faith in HIM and I pray that her reward will be great in heaven. 

Dying is sometimes a slow and difficult process. Why some die instantly and others so slowly is a mystery.

In August, I was able to say goodbye to her. I prayed for her with my hand resting on her head and thought of how that head had breached her mother's womb at birth by God's grace and how she would breach the gateway to God's presence by that same grace.

As my older sister prayed for our mother she had this thought: "From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands Mom's destiny."

Thanks to all who have prayed for her and our family: Tina, Ron, Sean, Margaret, Bishop David Chislett, David Ould, Brent, Michael, Lvka and Georgia.

Please remember her family as we will miss her very much.

Thank you.

Alice



For family and friends who wish to make a memorial gift, please consider a donation in her memory to one of these organizations:

The Christian Legal Society

USO

John Coat's Book on Genesis

John R. Coats, a former Episcopal priest and graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, has written Original Sinners: A New Interpretation of Genesis (2009), in which he presents Genesis not as historical narrative, but as metaphor and symbolism reflecting the reader's own life. In other words, he misses the point of the book! Genesis is about the origin of Messianic expectation among Abraham's Horite people and about the ancestry of Jesus Christ.

Here is part of a review of the book:

The introduction lays out the sources used in compiling the chapters. One form of understanding these is known as Source Theory, which is briefly explained. The notes at the end list each page's group of references for further study if one chooses, since some are more obscure than others. 

Coats sprinkles his thoughts with personal reflections of how he identifies with the people and places in Genesis. For the most part, these are interesting. The tale of an interaction with his daughter will curdle milk. While I realize it should be taken in context, Coats is also clearly out of line. 

Rather than an interpretation of each chapter, there are four large sections covering a certain person or group. These sets have a further breakdown of Acts - three subsets apiece. In a way, this makes a lot of sense. Readers can read straight through, or select whatever section appeals best. 

Despite Coats having a theological background, this book is easy enough to understand. There is a natural ebb and flow to his words so readers will want to know more as the pages go by. Is it the best interpretation out there? Each person can decide. Further study might be indicated, but perhaps not. Just don't consider this book the final word on the subject. Other ones exist.

From here.

Related reading: A Comprehensive List of Commentaries on Genesis, Good Commentaries of Genesis

The Christ in Nilotic Mythology

Alice C. Linsley


While the creation stories of Genesis are often likened to the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, they have much closer affinity to the creation stories of Africa. This is evident in motif and in theological detail. Since Abraham’s ancestors were Proto-Saharan and Nilotic peoples and Genesis reflects their worldview, we should not be surprised to find the closest parallels to the Genesis stories in this part of Africa. Here are some examples:

Asiatic/Nubian/Babylonian/Egyptian

The Shilluk of southern Sudan call the Creator Jo-Uk. Jo-Uk made white people out of white sand and the Shilluk of out black dirt. When he came to Egypt, he made the people there out of the Nile mud which is why the Egyptians are red-brown. 

Much of the soil of the Nile Valley is red or reddish brown due to the high levels of Chromic Cambisols which produce a strong brown or red color.

Here we find the motif of the Creator making the man from the dirt of the earth. We also have a clue as to the original context of the account of God creating the man (Gen. 2:7). The Hebrew adamah (Adam) means red clay and is related to the Hamitic/Hausa words odum, odu and edo, meaning red or reddish brown. So this story comes from that part of the Nile known as Egypt and probably dates to the time of the Kushite rulers. This is the origin of the associated of Edom with the color red. The Greek name for the Edomites was Idumea, meaning red people.

The Horites of Edom had a reddish skin tone. The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Horus. Horus is the archetype by which Abraham's people would later recognize Jesus as the Son of Ra, the "Seed" of the Woman of Genesis 3:15.

Abraham's Proto-Saharan ancestors considered Horus the Seed of Ra because Hathor-Meri was said to conceive when she was overshadowed by the Sun. In the oldest known Messianic tradition the Son of God is born as a calf to Hathor-Meri who is portrayed as a sacred cow, and the birth took place in a stable with the Babe sleeping in a crib. By all appearances, Jesus fulfills the Horus myth perfectly.

The sacred cow is an ancient motif among the Proto-Saharans, Nilotes and Kushites. Jo-Uk brought forth his only begotten son, Kola, by the Sacred White Cow. Kola was the father of Uk-wa who had two wives. One of Uk-wa's son's was Nyakang who became the first ruler.
 
Here we find the idea of the Creator having an only begotten son. We also find the practice of the ruler having two wives, as did all the Horite ruler-priests among Abraham's people.

Hathor was later called Isis. She is part of the sacred Triad of the Nilotic peoples: Osirus (Re), Isis (Hathor) and Horus. Osirus and Horus are said to "be one." Hathor and Horus were often portrayed as a cow with her calf. The Hebrews asked Harun (Aaron) to make a golden calf, the symbol of Horus who was called the "son of God."

Abraham’s people were devotees of Horus (Horites/Horim). They were ethnically Kushite and the oldest known center of Horus worship is the ancient city of Nekhen in Sudan (Hierakonpolis) in Sudan. At the Nekhen temple, votive instruments were ten times larger than the mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. This is the likely origin of the sun blessings in Hinduism (the Agnihotra morning ritual) and in Judaism (the Birka Hachama, or “Sun Blessing” ritual performed every 28 years).

The Kushites and Egyptians observed the death of Horus (Osirus) in a 5-day festival. The first 3 days were marked by solemnity (as Plutarch noted in Isis and Osiris, 69). The last 2 days were a time of feasting and rejoicing. Horus is said to have died on the 17th of Athyr. His death was commemorated by the planting of grain. On the third day, the 19th of Athyr, there was a celebration of Horus’ rising to life. It is no coincidence that Jesus alludes to the ancient Horite myth when describing his passion and resurrection. He is a direct descendant of the Horite ruler-priests lines which exclusively intermarried and he was born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the ruler-priest line of Matthew (Mattai/Mattan). This was the line of Joseph of Hari-mathea, a voting member of the Sanhedrin. He and Nicodemus, another member of the Sanhedrin, buried Jesus’ body.


The Bronze Serpent

Harun was apparently an Afro-Asiatic metal worker.  He also crafted the bronze serpent on Moses' rod. When bitten by vipers in the wilderness the people looked upon the rod with the serpent image and were saved. Jesus compared his crucifixion to Moses raising up the rod with a brass serpent: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14,15). Why the comparison? Because Moses’ staff was a symbol of Horus, who was called the "son of God."

Biblical anthropologist Susan Burns reports, "Jewelry work requires coils of metal. Coiling makes the metal stronger and easier to work. I have a picture of a bronze coil with a flattened nose resembling a snake from the Neolithic."

The flat part was where the metalworker held the coil while working the metal. Such coiled bronze serpents have been recovered at Neolithic metal working sites in the Arabah. Mining operations were always under auspices of Hat-Hor, the virgin mother of Horus, as at the Timna Valley copper mines near Eilat.


Horite Religion

The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who were called Hapiru in Akkadian and Habiru in the Kushitic languages. The Egyptians called these temple attendants ˁpr.w, the w being the plural suffix. This has been rendered '*wap'er' by the Afro-Asiatic expert Christopher Ehret. The *wap'er had significant political authority alongside the ruler. They presided over the rituals directed toward the High God and acted as intercessors and prophets. The Habiru (Hebrew) were devotees of Horus, whose worship originated in what is today Sudan. At Nekhen in Sudan, Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. The sun was the emblem of the Creator.

The Dravidian east-facing temple was termed O-piru, meaning Sun House or House of the Sun. The Arabic yakburu means “he is getting big” and with the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru means "he is enlarging." Likely this is a reference to the morning ritual of the Horite priests who greeted the rising sun and watched as it expanded across the horizon. This is the likely origin of the sun blessings in Hinduism (the Agnihotra morning ritual) and in Judaism (the Birka Hacama, or “Sun Blessing” ritual performed every 28 years).

Many Dravidian settlements and monuments are now submerged under the sea, but originally they were on a land bridge between the Arabian Peninsula and Southern Pakistan. This is sometimes referred to as the "Har-appa" civilization. Har refers to Horus and "appa" is the Dravidian word meaning father. The origin of Dravidian religion was apparently Egypt and ancient Kush.

The Indian archaeologist, B. B. Lal, contends that the Dravidians came from southern Egypt and Sudan (Nubia). Lal writes: "At Timos [Timnah in ] the Indian team dug up several megalithic sites of ancient Nubians which bear an uncanny resemblance to the cemeteries of early Dravidians which are found all over Western India from Kathiawar to Cape Comorin. The intriguing similarity extends from the subterranean structure found near them. Even the earthenware ring-stands used by the Dravidians and Nubians to hold pots were identical."

The Timnah Valley of the southwestern Arabah is rich in copper ore and has been actively mined since the 6th millennium BC. Here Beno Rothenberg excavated a small Horite shrine dedicated to Hat-Hor at the base of Solomon's Pillars. It was built during the reign of Pharaoh Seti I at the end of the 14th century BC. Hat-Hor was the Guardian of Afro-Arabian mines.


The Tree of Life and First Parents

The motifs of the Tree of Life and First Parents are also Nilotic. The Gikuyu of Kenya tell this story from precolonial times:  

There was wind and rain. And there was also thunder and terrible lightening. The earth and the forest around Mount Kerinyaga shook. The animals in the forest whom the Creator had recently put there were afraid. There was no sunlight. This went on for many days so that the whole land was in darkness. Because the animals could not move, they sat and moaned with the wind. The plants and trees remained dumb.
 
It was, our elders tell us, all dead except for the thunder, a violence that seemed to strangle life. It was this dark night whose depth you could not measure, not you nor I can conceive of its solid blackness, which would not let the sun pierce through it.

But in the darkness, at the foot of Mount Kerinyaga, a tree rose. At first it was a small tree and it grew up, finding a way even through the darkness. It wanted to reach the light and the sun. This tree had Life. It went up, sending forth the rich warmth of a blossoming tree - you know, a holy tree in the dark night of thunder and moaning. This was Mukuyu, God's tree.

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

Here we find the motifs of primal darkness, a tree of life, first parents, sacred mountains, and sacrifice to the Creator.
 
The Kikuyu place the first parents on a ridge north of Muranga, a town south of Nyeri in Kenya. One can visit the site. A sky-blue gate marks the entrance to Mukurwe Wa Nyagathanga—the Tree of Gathanga. Inside the gate are two mud huts, one for Gikuyu and one for Mumbi. The site looks toward the cloud-shrouded Mount Kirinyaga (Mount Kenya).
 
To the Kikuyu, Mount Kenya was the seat of God, who they called Ngai. Ngai created Gikuyu and told him: “Build your homestead where the fig trees grow."  This is why many believe that the forbidden fruit was not an apple, but a fig.
 
At the foot of Mount Kenya's northeast slope, is the town of Meru, on the Kathita River. This town takes its name from Mount Meru in neighboring Tanzania. Some call Mount Meru "Kinyangiri," which is the equivalent of Kirinyaga, meaning Mount Kenya.
 
Mount Kenya stands at 15,000 feet and is 42 miles west-southwest of Mount Kilimanjaro. It is an extinct volcanic crater and the land at the base is rich volcanic soil. As one ascends the mountain, there are forests with fig and Acacia trees. Mahogany, olive, and date palm trees grow on the drier crater walls. So many species of animals live here that the Kenyan tourist agencies refer to Mount Meru as "Noah’s ark."  Some say that Mount Meru is where Noah's ark landed. This makes sense because the biblical Noah lived in the area of Lake Chad in Bor-No, meaning the "Land of Noah."  No other place on earth claims to be Noah's homeland.


The Meru/Meri/Meni Connection
 
The word "meni" appears in Isaiah 65:11, where it is paralleled with the word gad, meaning good fortune. A connection can be established between the word meni and sacrifice on mountain tops because where the word gad appears there is often a contextual reference to sacrifice on mountains. We recall that Noah offered burnt sacrifice on Ar-Meni after his deliverance (Gen. 8:20). Armenia is an incorrect translation of 'Ar-Meni.

Angkor Wat in Cambodia is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru in Buddhist and Hindu myths. This was originally a Horite shrine as evidenced from a stone relief which shows Horus as a falcon flying above the sun on Re' solar boat.

Horus at top right flying as a falcon above the sun.

Angkor Wat faces west toward the Nile. Angkor Wat and the Egyptian royal tombs correspond in form to the number 72. The number 72 represents represents the numerical sequence linked to the earth’s axial precession, which causes the apparent alteration in the position of the constellations one degree every 72 years. It has been noted also that Angkor Wat is located 72 degrees of longitude east of the Pyramids of Giza. The name Angkor correlates with the ancient Egyptian Anhk-Hor, meaning "May Horus Live." This was originally a Horite shrine, evidence that the Horite ruler-priests are responsible for the diffusion of Horite religious beliefs and practices across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

Meru is Meri in Egyptian and Mary in English. In Cambodia, Meri is Meni, with the n taking the place of the r, as often happens in the Southeastern Asian languages. There Mary is called "Mania." The association of Mary with a sacred mountain is very old. The Virgin Mary, whose womb swelled with the Son of God, is often portrayed in Christian iconography as the sacred mountain.

The Prophet Daniel saw a mountain, from which a stone was cut by the hand of God (Dan. 2:34, 45). This is the stone which the builders rejected and which has become a stumbling block, even Jesus Christ, the Son of God.


Related reading:  The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs; Horite Expectation and the Star of Bethlehem; What Color was Abraham?; The Genesis Creation Stories; The Afro-Asiatic Metalworkers;  Mount Mary and the Origins of Life; Genesis: Is It Really About Human Origins?