Victory of God's Order Over Chaos

Dr. Zahi Hawass with statues, one of which is an image of Horus as a child wearing a sidelock.

Alice C. Linsley


I recently received an email from a Japanese friend in which she details some of the horrors and hardships endured by many Japanese in the aftermath of natural disasters.  She wrote: "In my country, fear of earthquakes always haunts us. We don't know when it gonna hit us and kill us. As a small child, I remember nights I could not sleep because of the fear of death by earthquake. I grew up with fear. However, because I encountered with Christ, I am no longer haunted by fear of death anymore. It is the unchanging truth, but it is quite scary when it happens. I lost words when I saw cars and houses carried away by water and drown in it as weapons to steal so many lives. I thought hell would be a place like this."

Hell is probably very like this, a chaotic state without hope of the victorious order that comes with God's Presence. According to Genesis 1, such chaos was overcome by God's Word in the beginning. The Genesis 1 and 2 accounts speak of water in a chaotic state and water that sustains life.

In the Genesis 1 creation account, the earth was chaotic. Darkness was on "deep" until the Spirit moved over waters (1:1-2).

Similarly, in Genesis 2, we read "In the day when the Lord-God made the earth and the heavens . . ." (2:4) there was nothing on earth (2:5) until a mist or water rose from the ground and watered all the surface of the ground.

In Genesis 1 we have an account similar to the ancient Nilotic belief of Tehom (Hebrew: תְּהוֹם‎), a watery and disordered deep which God put in order by His Word (Egyptian word "hu" or hut). The Tehom is subdued by the divine Tehut.

In the early Nilotic account of creation (before Egypt emerged as a political entity) the creation began when a mound or pillar of dry land emerged from the primordial sea. Here the first life form was seen as a lily, growing on the peak of the mound. The mound was called Tatjenen, meaning "the emerging land".

The victory of Tehut over Tehom relates to the annual inundation of the Nile and helps us to understand the Egyptian concept of creation. As rains fell in the Ethiopian headlands the Nile River rose above its banks, flooding the Nile Valley between June and October. The flooding lasted for 40 days. As the waters receded, only the highest mounds of earth would been seen at first. Even after the waters crested and began to recede, families did not return to their homes for another 40 nights. This is the origin of the biblical phrase "forty days and forty nights", and the context is Nilotic.

One of the oldest creation myths of the ancient Egyptians envisioned the first place in the world as a mound emerging from the waters of a universal ocean. In Hindu and Buddhist mythology the mound that emerged is called Mount Meru. It emerges from the center of the Cosmic Ocean, and the Sun and 7 visible planets circle the mountain. Mount Meru in Hinduism is a mythological mountain. 

The name meru is meri in Egyptian and is related to the ancient Egyptian word for love - mer.  The name Mary or Miriam is related to that same root - MR. The Virgin Mary, whose womb swelled with the Son of God, is portrayed in some icons as the mountain of God. The Prophet Daniel saw a mountain, from which a stone was cut by the hand of God (Dan. 2:34, 45). Doubtless this is what Malachi alluded to when he wrote, “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise [swell/be magnified] with healing in its wings.” 

This conception of Earth emerging from a universal ocean likely originated in the Nile Valley where stone pillars called benben were erected. The term is from the root, bn, meaning to "swell forth". The Egyptian word for the rising sun is wbn, which comes from the same root as benben. The benben were a solar symbol. In his book, Mountains of the Pharaohs, Dr. Zahi Hawass states that the benben was the "solar symbol par excellence, thought to have existed in reality as an object, perhaps a stone with a rounded top..." (p. 34)

Hawass believes that this artifact was kept in the main temple at Heliopolis (biblical On) where the sun was the symbol of the High God Ra. Ra's son was called HR, meaning Most High One. The Greeks called Ra's son Horus. The Horite Hebrew priests who served at the main temple in Heliopolis were devotees of Ra, Horus, and Hathor. Heliopolis is mentioned multiple times in the Old Testament. Isaiah 19:18 says that Heliopolis was one of the five cities in Egypt that swore allegiance to the Lord of Hosts.

Recently discovered tombs of officials from the 4th Dynasty were surmounted by conical mounds that represent the benben. These tombs, along with the royal tombs at Giza, indicate that the ancient rulers hoped to rise from the place of death just as the sun rises daily in the east and sets in the west. The solar arc and the hope of resurrection were linked in ancient Nilotic thought.


Related reading: The Prestige of Biblical On; Early Resurrection Texts; The Nilotic Substrata of Genesis 1; Funerary Rites and the Hope of Resurrection; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Solar Symbolism of the Proto-Gospel

Gender Bending in Australia

Babette Francis


In the beginning there was male and female. Soon there was homosexuality. Later there were lesbians, and much later gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers. But anyone who thinks LGBTQ is the full count of contemporary sexualities is sadly out of date. For example, the transgendered have for some time been divided into those who are awaiting treatment, those have had hormone treatment, those who have had hormones and surgery, and those who have had hormones and surgery but are not happy and want it all reversed.

Enter the Australian Human Rights Commission with some exciting new developments. In an extraordinary document entitled Protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sex and/or gender identity, the AHRC has come up with a further list of “genders” which they require us to recognize, and on whose behalf they want our federal government to pass anti-discrimination legislation. To date (by the time you read this, the AHRC's family of sexualities may have increased and multiplied) these are: transgender, trans, transsexual, intersex, androgynous, agender, cross dresser, drag king, drag queen, genderfluid, genderqueer, intergender, neutrois, pansexual, pan-gendered, third gender, third sex, sistergirl and brotherboy. (No, I don't know what “neutrois” means).

So if we add these genders to the LGBTQ list we get 23 in all, not to mention the divisions within the transgendered group. For PR purposes, however, the “gendered" community now identifies itself as LGBTQI (the "I" stands for "intersex".) Rather than abbreviating I think they should add all the other letters of the alphabet, then we would all feel protected and not discriminated against. Being Indian by birth and having married an Australian of Anglo-Celtic origin, I am all for diversity, but I am not going to commit to "neutrois" until someone tells me what it means.

Once the government passes proposed legislation, presumably businesses will be required to provide designated toilets for each gender, and Equal Opportunity Gender Identity (EOGI) units will ensure compliance with federal legislation.

In October last year the Australian Human Rights Commission held public consultations in Sydney and Melbourne during which interested citizens were given the opportunity to express their views on the gender discussion paper. In her introductory remarks at the consultation in Melbourne which I attended, the Hon. Catherine Branson QC, chairman of the AHRC, said that the commission was relying for its approach to gender discrimination on the Yogyakarta Principles. (No, Yogyakarta is not another gender identity, it is a city in Indonesia where a group of human rights activists met.) Branson said that while the Yogyakarta Principles were not in themselves binding, they are an "interpretation of international binding agreements to which Australia is committed."

I pointed out that not only had the Yogyakarta Principles not been accepted by the UN, they had been rejected every time "sexual orientation" was debated at the Commission on the Status of Women meetings I attended in New York. Possibly Branson had not expected that anyone at the consultation would have actually attended UN meetings in New York -- she seemed a trifle deflated after my comment -- but she will cheer up with the news from Canada where Bill C-389 protecting Gender Identity and Gender Expression in the Canadian Human Rights Act is being fast-tracked through the House of Commons.

There was the usual debate about the meaning of “gender” at this year's Commission on the Status of Women meeting in New York in March, from which I have just returned. The term is used liberally in every CSW document, past and present, but during the latest CSW session the Holy See (Vatican) -- which often speaks for other nations (mainly from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean) in presenting a more traditional view of morals -- insisted it be defined. As a result, many paragraphs in the "Agreed Conclusions" document were modified either by adding "men and women" or ensuring that the context in which the term "gender" was used in the paragraph would not easily lend itself to be understood as anything other than male and female.

The fact is that in international law the only binding definition of gender is contained in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which states: "…the term 'gender' refers to the two sexes, male and female, within the context of society. The term 'gender' does not indicate any meaning different from the aforementioned definition.”

During negotiations, the European Union and its supporters simultaneously claimed that gender is a fluid social construct but also tried to reassure old-fashioned countries that “we know what the definition is.” One delegate rebuffed the EU explanation retorting, “If it’s really not a problem, then why can’t we plainly state what it means [i.e. male and female]?"

Debates about gender are perennial at the UN even though the women of the world have more urgent needs -- such as a clean water supply, good roads, electricity, and maternal health care. This year's debate gave me a feeling of deja vu as I recalled an incident at a CSW meeting in New York some years ago. The delegate from Nicaragua refused to accept any definition of "gender" other than male and female. The Swedish government threatened Nicaragua with the withdrawal of aid unless Nicaragua sent home its recalcitrant delegate. Nicaragua is a poor country, dependent on foreign aid, so the hapless delegate was ordered home and a new delegate was sent to New York. When the debate on "gender" resumed, the new Nicaraguan delegate innocently said: "But in my country, gender is male and female.....", so Sweden was back to square one. This is but one example of the way wealthy countries bully third world nations into accepting their sexual fetishes.

When the Australian Labour Party won the federal government benches in 2007, it established policies for monitoring prices (and the movement of whales and Japanese whaling ships in the southern ocean). The government did not have much success with these policies; prices rise in response to market forces regardless of who is watching. But, not learning from the futility of Fuel Watch, Grocery Watch and Whale Watch, Julia Gillard's government is now proposing a "Gender Watch". Medium and large businesses will be subject to spot checks on the numbers of women they employ with penalties for non-compliance. Not to be outdone, Joe Hockey, Opposition Treasury spokesman, kicked an own goal by announcing that if corporates did not increase the number of women board members, quotas may have to be imposed. He stated that Australia ranked second-last among OECD countries on the numbers of females in senior executive positions. (This may be why Australia has survived the global financial crisis much better than any of the other OECD countries… Okay, I'm joking.)

However, quotas and separate toilets are not enough for true equality. Australian activist, Katrina Fox, who in 2008 co-edited a book Trans People in Love, wrote an emotive piece for the Australian Broadcasting Commission recently entitled Marriage needs redefining. In it she clarifies how all the gender boundaries surrounding marriage must be removed. “A more inclusive option,” she begins, “is to allow individuals to get married whatever their sex or gender, including those who identify as having no sex or gender or whose sex may be indeterminate.”

"Indeterminate"? Can't everybody fit into one of the 23 genders the AHRC has listed so far? But, happily, Fox does have some boundaries. Further into the article she writes: "I'm not suggesting we go as far to sanction people marrying inanimate objects, like the German woman who married the Berlin Wall and was utterly devastated when her ‘husband’ was destroyed in 1989...."

I never realized that someone actually loved the Berlin Wall and that when President Reagan said "Tear down that Wall, Mr. Gorbachev," he was trying to wreck a marriage.


Babette Francis is the National and Overseas Co-ordinator of Endeavour Forum Inc., a pro-life, pro-family NGO which has special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN. This article is published by Babette Francis, and MercatorNet.com under a Creative Commons licence

More Questions About Sex

Alice C. Linsley


The following questions were asked by a reader of Just Genesis and I consider them very important.

Q: If our Western culture traces the evolution of thought to Abraham, are we required to live by and make moral choices based on the worldview of his people?

R:  That's a good question and one too few are asking.  There are separate points to be made here. The first concerns the authority of the Bible.  For Christians the Bible is an authority. For some it is taken as the only authority (sola scriptura) and for others it is an authority along with Holy Tradition.

The second point concerns the doctrine of free will. If humans have free choice we are not bound by the worldview of any people. However, we in the West are formed and influenced by the biblical worldview. Atheists and deists, for example, choose to reject the biblical view of God, as do some Christians and Jews. Revisionists tell us that the worldview of Abraham’s people is antiquated and irrelevant for the time in which we live. These argue that homosexuality was not properly understood in Abraham’s time because the ancients did not have the benefit of modern psychology. If we are honest, we must admit that Psychology is a fairly murky science whereas the binary worldview of Abraham's people was at least based on objective and universally observed constants in nature: most fundamentally the cycle of the Sun, the fixed cyclical relationships of the stars and constellations, and the norm of male-female humanity.

Clearly none are required to live or make moral choices based on the binary worldview of Abraham’s people. That said, and I’m now speaking as an anthropologist, the binary worldview of Abraham’s people is largely misunderstood today and much of the reaction against it is based upon assumptions, not reality and certainly not material evidence.


Q: If Abraham’s relationship to his God is the model we are to emulate, then shouldn’t we be sacrificing our children?

R:  We are dealing here with two issues. A prior question is “What was Abraham’s relationship to God?” We are able to address the question of Isaac’s sacrifice once this question is resolved.

All the evidence of the Bible indicates that Abraham and his people were Horite ruler-priests, a caste devoted to Horus who was regarded as the miraculously-conceived “son of God.” Horus prefigures Jesus Christ (as Oholibamah, Esau's Horite bride, prefigures the Virgin Mary). Horite ruler-priests had a calling to be pure. This was expressed in abstinence from certain foods, wine and sex in preparation for service in the temple. They ritually washed several times daily and shaved their heads. All these activities were adjoined to intense prayer.

Clearly none today are required to live this life. Yet it is a pattern of self-denial by which ascetics have ascended above earthly concerns for thousands of years. For most of us, merely abstaining from meat during Lent is almost impossible!

Remembering that Abraham was a Horite ruler-priest helps us to understand the binding of his son Isaac (or Ishmael, according to the Quran). Genesis suggests that Abraham believed Isaac to be the expected Seed of Genesis 3:15. This Seed was to be miraculously born of a woman of Abraham’s people and was to pass through death to life. That passing was understood in terms of the Sun’s movement from east to west. Horus rose in the east as a newborn lamb and set in the west as a ram of doubled strength. This is symbolic of passing through death.

Of course, Christians are not called to emulate Abraham. We are called to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. He is the sacrifice once offered. All is accomplished in Him. No sacrifices are necessary as He sacrificed Himself.


Q:  But doesn't the Afro-Asiatic understanding of God and creation reveal some terrible aspects of child abuse?  Circumcision involves the mutilation of children. Permanently altering the future of human beings by violating their personhood when they are in the most vulnerable phase of development is barbaric.

R:  Circumcision was to Abraham's people what Baptism is to Christians. Since our children are very dear to us we want them with us in the Covenant of the Blood.  Circumcision looks forward to the Covenant of the Blood of Christ and Baptism looks back to the event in which Christ's blood was shed for the life of the world.  If people understood (or believed) what happens in Christian Baptism, Christian parents who have their babies baptized would be accused of child abuse, for in Baptism we die with Christ in order that we might also be raised with Him.


Q:  How can the elevation of male over female by virtue of physical strength be a Kingdom Principle when we are told that the meek that shall inherit the earth?

R: The Kingdom Principle represents a restoration of the order of Paradise.  In Genesis we read that Eve was the crown of creation, the pinnacle of the hierarchy of created things. The submission of her will to a creature at the bottom of the hierarchy represents an inversion of the original order. 

Inversion means the reversal of a fixed order. In nature fixed order is represented by the 1-2 pattern. In other words, there is a binary set behind the Kingdom.  God is always 1, yet God in Christ willingly became 2.  It is called kenosis.

The Horites were also great observers of nature and noted what is universally obvious: the male of the species is larger and stronger than the female. This reality is not the result of the corruption of the original order. It is part of the 1-2 order.  So St. Paul urges Christian husbands to love their wives kenotically, as Christ loves the Church.


Q:  Why should we take as authoritative a world view in which everything associated with the female reproductive process was considered "unclean"?  Surely the Semitic world view is damaging to women and should be rebutted.

R:  Deep investigation of Abraham's people doesn't support the view that women and the reproductive process were considered unclean. Male and female represent a binary set and as such one can't exist without the other.  This understanding is much older than the rabbinic teachings to which you refer.  Jesus told the Jews that they should not call "unclean" what God has made clean.

In fact, there is evidence that the Rabbis missed the point about the shedding of blood in childbirth.  This is a purifying work of women. It is life-giving blood work and as such the most important work. For the female, contact with the birthing blood does not represent ritual impurity. It does for the men of Abraham's caste because they were ruler-priests. On the other hand, women were not to come into contact with the blood of sacrificed animals.  For women this represented ritual impurity since the blood work of the priest involved taking the life of the animal.


Q:  There is no place in the binary world view for the LGBT community. In light of the fact that gay people are human beings, I wonder what function for which they were created?

R:  There is a place for all people in the biblical worldview.  However, there are lifestyles that express a dismissal of the biblical worldview, sometimes quite arrogantly. Homosexuality represents a category that does not conform to the created order with its binary distinctions of male/female, East/West, night/day, life/death/heaven/earth, etc. That is why homosexuality is considered an abomination along with sex with animals (bestiality). Bestiality blurs the distinction between humans in the image of God and creatures not in the image of God. Likewise sex with corpses blurs the distinction between the living and the dead.

Further, in the biblical worldview it is absurd to say that God created people with gender confusion or perverted desires. Gender confusion and sexual perversion are not features of God's original design in creation, but rather results of the corruption of creation resulting from sin and death.

The Bible also takes a position against onanism. Onanism is still regarded as an unrighteous deed among African and Asiatic tribal peoples. It is viewed as a violation of the order of creation. The seed that should fall to the earth is the seed of plants, which spring forth from the earth. The seed of man should fall on his own type (the womb), from which man comes forth. Clement of Alexandria wrote, “Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted” (The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 A.D. 191).


Q:  The production of children, as the Afro-Asiatics believed, was the only purpose of a sexual relationship. Levirate law required a widow to have intercourse with her dead husband's brother. Isn't this an example of dysfunction in a society?

R:  There is no evidence that Abraham's people regarded the production of children as the only purpose of sex.  In fact, the tantric-like aspects of the oldest layers of the tradition suggest that sex was viewed as a way of experiencing mystical union with the Creator. Begetting children likely was connected in their minds with co-creation.

Levirate marriage among Abraham's people served to insure the survival of the ruler-priests lines that intermarried exclusively.  These are the lines of Jesus Christ's ancestry, and they can be traced back to the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15).


Related reading:  Genesis on Homosex: Beyond Sodom; Some Thoughts on Sex; Why Women Were Never Priests; Did Abraham Believe Isaac to be Messiah?; Jesus: From Lamb to Ram; Blood and Binary Distinctions; Circumcision Among Abraham's People

Can an Atheist Understand the God of Abraham?

Francesca Stavrakopoulou

Francesca Stavrakopoulous, a UK academic, claims that God has a wife who was edited out of the Bible. She's an atheist so we can't expect her to understand the Bible or the God of Abraham. Even Abraham didn't understand and he spoke face to face with the Three-Person God.

Dr Stavrakopoulou says that Yahweh's wife was called Asherah and she was worshipped. There's no real news here since goddesses were worshipped and Asherah is one of many female deities. That said, goddesses were not worshipped among Abraham's Horite people. Overlooking this fact means that Stavrakopoulou has an erroneous picture of the rulers listed in Genesis.

Stavrakopoulou's claims that God had a wife and Eve was maligned are to be explored in a BBC2 series The Bible’s Buried Secrets.

Read more here.

Dr. Stravrakopoulou is mistaken in her assumption that the Almighty had only one wife.  Among the ancient Afro-Asiatics God had two wives: Dawn and Dusk, and God traveled between his two wives in their houses daily. This is what is symbolized by the sign of TNT, which shows the sun's movement from east to west and the sacred center, or place of rest on the mountain top.

To avoid setting themselves up as God, Abraham and his ruler-priest caste placed their two wives in separate settlements on a north-south axis. So Sarah is associated with Hebron and Keturah with Beersheba, to the south. This explains the criticism of Lamech (Gen. 4) who set himself up as God when he took the life of another man. As the Hebrew scholar Theodor Gaster noted, Lamech's two wives were named Ada (Dawn) and Tzillah (Dusk). The names of Lamech's wives represent his spiritual hubris, for by setting his wives on an east-west axis he pretends equality with God.

Dr. Stravrakopoulou is apparently a literalist who assumes that the ancients must have been literalists too, yet even an atheist should be able to recognize that Dawn and Dusk are not literal wives. 


Related reading:  The Pattern of Two Wives; Afro-Asiatic Symbols that Speak of God

Lenten Journey Isn't Convenient or Comfortable

The Very Rev. Dr. G. Richard Lobs III


Abram, whose name would in due course be changed to Abraham, heard in an undefined way a call by God to leave Haran and go to an unspecified location. He was called to leave the predictable for the unpredictable; the comfortable for the discomfort of the journey.

He was economically well to do as evidenced by his flocks that grew from few to many. He had friends, and even more importantly, family in Haran. He and Sari, her name before it was changed to Sarah, had a home and a valued place in the community.

Abram could be excused if he concluded in his self sufficiency that he had no need of God. He seemed to have it all. Perhaps he knew he needed God but surely not a disruptive God. God called Abram to journey from home in search of an abstract - a blessing. Surely, Abram must have thought, there is an easier way to obtain God's blessing.

This is a passage about beginning a journey with God without knowing the end result. It is about living with what most humans shrink from - not knowing the end result. It is about living with unpredictability and unanswered questions. It is about risking losses in exchange for promised gain.

What do you suppose it was like in their home?

Did Sari try to talk Abram out of this apparently foolish idea? Given his age she could not chalk it up to a mid-life crisis - perhaps she accused him of having a "late-life crisis"? What emotions rose to the surface in Abram and Sari: joy, anxiety, fear, anticipation or all of the above? What is certain is that their common life was suddenly problematical.

We do not want to lose sight of the point of origin of this disruption - it was the Holy God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is.

Who knows how long Abram shilly-shallied before making his decision. What is important is that he summoned sufficient faith in God and rose to the call. The entire earth has been blessed by his obedience.
 
END
 
 
Reading this, I'm reminded that the journey of Lent is a mini drama of the journey of life.  Abraham's obedience to God's guidance took him to a place in Palestine where he received guidance concerning his future and where he later had an encounter with the Three-Person God. 
 
When Abraham first arrived, he pitched his tent at the Oak of the prophet (moreh) between Ai on the east and Bethel on the west. He likely sought guidance from the prophet, as it is natural to seek counsel when we are unsure of the future. We are not told what guidance Abraham received, but the text tells us that he headed south where he would have found kin among the Afro-Arabians in Beersheba, Dedan and Raamah.  It was probably during this journey that Abraham married his cousin-wife, Keturah.  This was an important step in his rise to the position of ruler.
 
We don't know what was in Abraham's heart when he first began his westward journey, but the Lord God knew, and the Lord was faithful to Abraham even when Abraham had doubts and anxieties about his future.  The Lenten journey has a sure and certain destination: Pascha. Though we too are anxious about the future, if we are "in Christ" we can be sure that our destiny is there also. 


Abraham Rejoiced to See Christ's Day

In John 8 we read how the Jews claimed special status because Abraham was their father.  Jesus said to them, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.”

“Then the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’
Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was I AM.”

The Jews knew what Jesus was claiming.  They knew that the Christ was "the Son of God" and that He was to receive an eteranl kingdom. The Qumran Scroll text 4Q246 has these lines in Aramaic:

He will be called the son of God,
And the son of the Most High they will call him.

And after this it says:

His dominion is an eternal dominion

This phrase is found in Psalm 145:13; Daniel 3:33; 4:31, and 7:14 and is recognized as a Messianic reference, so the Jews knew what Jesus was claiming.  Sadly, they didn't understand that their father Abraham had expected the Son of God to appear in the flesh and to rise from the grave.  The religion of the Jews who confronted Jesus was very removed from what Abraham and his Horite caste believed.


Related reading:  Did Abraham Believe Isaac to be Messiah?; The Only Begotten Son Claims You

Abraham's Sons

Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Abraham had nine sons by two wives and two concubines (Hagar and Masek). Typically, high ranking Hebrew rulers had two wives. The wives resided in separate settlements that marked the ruler's territorial boundaries. His proper heir was the firstborn son of his first wife, Sarah. That is why Isaac ruled over Abraham's territory after Abraham died. According to Scripture, Abraham's sons received gifts from their father (Gen. 25:5-7) and probably a priestly blessing as happened with Jacob and his sons (Gen. 49:1-27).

He probably had a number of daughters also, but they are not mentioned in Genesis since only ruling sons are listed in the king lists.

Here is a list of the sons born to Abraham by his two wives: Sarah and Keturah, and his two concubines: Hagar and Masek. Jacob, like his grandfather Abraham, also had two concubines: Bilhah (Rachel’s maidservant) and Zilpah (Leah’s maidservant).

Sarah, daughter of Terah (Gen. 20:12)
Yitzak (Issac)

Hagar the Egyptian (Sarah’s handmaid)
Yismael (Ishmael), who was Egyptian, since race/ethnicity was traced through the mother, as is true in Judaism today. This pattern is still recognized in Egypt, which is why the Egyptian government has made it illegal for Egyptian men to marry Jewish women.

Keturah (Gen. 25). She was Abraham's cousin bride. 
Yisbak
Joktan – Probably Keturah’s firstborn son, named for her father. See cousin bride's naming prerogative.
Midian
Zimran
Medan
Shuah

Masek (Keturah’s handmaid?) If we include Eliezer as a son (following the Septuagint), Abraham had nine sons. The firstborn of the sons was probably Joktan (Yaqtan), son of Keturah, but he was not Abaham's proper heir. He was to become a high-ranking official in the territory of his maternal grandfather as happened with Jacob. (See Sent-Away Sons.)

Eliezar of Damascus was Abraham's son by Masek.

It was common for Hebrew rulers over territories to have two wives. 


Confederations

Reviewing this list, we note a linguistic correspondence between three sons: Yitzak, Yismael and Yisbak. This triad of sons appears to represent a tribal unit. Other tribal units are Og, Gog and Magog and Uz, Buz and Huz.

Some triads represent heads of clans that may not be in confederation. This seems to be the case with Jacob, Esau and Seir the Horite Hebrew, although these blood relatives might have been a tribal confederation had Jacob not fled to Padan-Aram.

When twin sons were born it was important to determine which breached first; thus the midwife’s use of the scarlet cord (Gen. 38:28). Some name pairs suggest twins, such as Perez and Zerah, Dishon and Dishan (Horite Hebrew, according to Gen. 36:21), and Letush and Leum (Dedanites, according to Gen. 25:3). Dedan is where the oldest Arabic texts have been found.

Which Son Rules Over His Father's Territory?

Abraham actually had four firstborn sons: Yaqtan (Joktan), Yismael (Ishmael), Eliezer, and Yitzak (Isaac), probably born in that order. Joktan became the head of the Joktanite tribes of Arabia. Yismael became the father of the Sinai Bedouins. No sons are named for Eliezar. Yitzak fathered Yisreal (Jacob), and Esau the elder. Esau and Jacob were contemporaries of Seir the Horite. The initial Y in the names of these Horite rulers indicates divine appointment. It is the symbol of the long horns of the Nilo-Saharan cattle and represents a solar cradle whereby the individual is overshadowed.

The firstborn sons ruled among Abraham’s people. However, the firstborn sons of wives were ranked above the firstborn sons of concubines. So, Joktan ranked over Eliezar, and Yitzak ranked over Yishmael. Joktan would rule as an official in the southern settlements of his maternal grandfather (the holdings of the Joktanite clans), and Yitzak would rule the northern settlements of his father Abraham (Hebron to Beersheba).


Two Wives

Abraham married according to the pattern of his royal Hebrew ancestors, many of whom had two wives. The first wife was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second was a patrilineal cousin (as was Keturah to Abraham). Analysis of the Genesis genealogical data indicates that the firstborn son of the cousin wife went to serve his maternal grandfather. This is consistent pattern of the cousin bride naming her firstborn son after her father is evident as early as Genesis 4 and 5. Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4) was the maternal grandfather of Lamech the Younger (Gen. 5). Likewise, Joktan, the firstborn son of Keturah, was probably named after Keturah’s father Joktan.

The firstborn son of the half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. Isaac was Abraham's proper heir and ruled after him. Genesis tells us that Abraham's other sons were given their inheritance and sent away from the territory of Isaac. This is not entirely accurate. Other sons often served as viziers in the territories of their ruling brothers. Indeed, there is much evidence that the men listed in the Horite Hebrew King lists either ruled over territories or served as high-ranking persons in the territories of their siblings or maternal grandfathers. Those who did not, were sent away to establish kingdoms of their own. Most of the heroes of the Old Testament were sent-away sons: Cain, Nimrod, Abraham, Moses, and David are examples.

The sending away of non-ascendant sons drove the early Hebrew dispersion out of the Nile Valley (as shown of the map).

Raamah and Nimrod ruled separate territories that had once been united under their father Kush. Asshur and Arpachshad ruled separate territories that had once been united under their father Shem. Likewise, Peleg and Joktan ruled separate territories that had once been unified under their father Eber.


Firstborn Sons of Concubines

Had Sarah remained without a son, the rightful heir to Abraham’s throne would have been Eliezar (Gen. 15). The Masoretic and Greek texts do not agree on Eliezer. The Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) clearly states that he was a son of Abraham by Masek, but this is not found in the Masoretic text. This suggests a peculiar characteristic of this unique kinship pattern: the assignment of territories to the firstborn sons of concubines. If the pattern of Hagar and Masek is like the pattern of Bilhah and Zilpah, then Yismael and Eliezar received lands/settlements and were included as clan chiefs along with Joktan, Yitzak, Yisbak, Midian, Medan, Zimran and Shuah.

Concerning Ishmael, his assignment of a settlement in or near Paran on the way to Egypt is indicated by these words: This is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham. And these were the names of the sons of Ishmael: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth, then Kadar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael and these were their names, by their towns and settlements… (Gen. 25:12-16).

So, it appears that firstborn sons of wives ruled territories and firstborn sons of concubines ruled cities or settlements as regional rulers in obedience to their brother Kings. This is similar to the "nomes" of Egypt, each ruled separately by a tribal chieftain. This sheds light on the relationship between Jacob's sons and can help us to understand the apportionment of land and settlements to their descendants.


Related reading: The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Abraham's Firstborn Son; Abraham's Two Concubines; Abraham's Nephews and Niece; Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles; Hebrew Sent-Away Sons; Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives

Ancient African Astronomers

Priest-astronomer Taitai, 18th Dynasty ~1380 B.C. 

Berlin, Neues Museum, Ägyptische Sammlungen

Alice C. Linsley

By 4245 BC, the priests of the Upper Nile had already established a calendar based on the appearance of the star Sirius that becomes visible to the naked eye once every 1,461 years. Apparently, Nilotes had been tracking this star and connecting it to seasonal changes and agriculture for thousands of years. This is verified by the Priest Manetho who reported in his history (241 BC) that Nilotic Africans had been “star-gazing” as early as 40,000 years ago. Plato, who studied in Egypt, claimed that the Africans had been tracking the heavens for 10,000 years.

Material evidence continues to turn up in Africa indicating sophisticated astronomy among the Africans who lived in the time of Cain, Noah and Nimrod. There are ancient astronomical monuments in southern Africa and in the Sudan. Here is a report on a discovery in the Sahara Desert of an ancient ceremonial center and possibly the oldest known sculpture in Egypt.

For more on the wisdom, science and technology of Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors, go here.

Astronomical Monuments

November/December 1998

Source:  National Science Foundation

Professor Fred Wendorf of Southern Methodist University led the NSF-supported team of archaeologists who explored the Nabta Playa in southern Egypt. The Nabta Playa, located near the Tropic of Cancer, is a kidney-shaped depression left by a seasonal lake that existed, on and off, for 6,000 years--from 11,000 years ago until about 4,800 years ago. "The Nabta area is full of prehistoric sites because of the presence of the lake there," explains Wendorf. "This is a region drier than Death Valley. Wherever and whenever there was water, people were going to be there."

Archaeologists uncovered a number of fascinating remains in the Nabta Playa, including an alignment of sandstone slabs, clay-lined tombs containing cattle, and an ancient "calendar"--a circle of sandstone slabs containing pairs of stones that aligned with sunrise on the summer solstice. The existence of the calendar circle, in particular, points to a society that understood, and in fact measured, astronomical phenomena.

In addition, a shaped stone from one of these complexes may be the oldest known sculpture in Egypt, according to Professor Wendorf.

Ancient seasonal lakes such as the Nabta Playa were formed by summer monsoons, whose shifting presence brought "wet phases," or periods of annual rainfall to regions that were otherwise arid. The lakes contained water only after summer rains, when water would come from large surrounding areas and drain into the basin.

It was during the last of these "wet phases" that the megaliths in Nabta Playa were constructed. The only complication for archaeologists: The wet phase lasted nearly 2,000 years. "We don't know for sure if these structures are contemporary," says Wendorf. "They may have been built all at one time, they may not. Some single structures may represent activity spanning more than a thousand years."

Regardless of the exact date of origin, these discoveries have led scientists to postulate that Nabta was a regional ceremonial center, a lakefront ritual ground where people from the wide surrounding area gathered to affirm their social and political solidarity. This center is the only one of its kind in the Egyptian and Sudanese Sahara, as well as being the oldest known ceremonial phenomenon in Africa.

Wendorf was joined in his work by scientists from the University of Colorado, the Geological Survey of Egypt, and the Polish Academy of Sciences--a group aptly named the Combined Prehistoric Expedition. To continue what they describe as ongoing archaeological research into the emergence of social complexity in the Eastern Sahara, the Combined Prehistoric Expedition will spend one more NSF-funded season exploring the Nabta Playa.

Related reading:  Who Were the Wise Men?; Ancient Kemetic Mythology; The Horus Enigma, Blood and Crosses; Ancient Seats of Wisdom; Abraham's Nilo-Saharan Ancestors; When the Sahara was Wet; Climate Cycles and Noah's Flood; Ancient Wisdom, Science and Technology

St. Ephrem's Paradise

This icon of St. Ephrem the Syrian may be purchased here.

St. Ephrem the Syrian lived from A.D. 309-373. His poetry is beautiful and at times makes me cry. I mean that literally. I've wept when reading his work, and I believe it is because the Spirit breathes through his works. I'm not surprised that Ephrem's writings were read and prized in the early church. 

Concerning St. Ephrem and his inspired poetry, St. Jerome says:

Ephraim, deacon of the church at Edessa, composed many works in the Syriac language, and became so distinguished that his writings are repeated publicly in some churches, after the reading of the Scriptures. I once read in Greek a volume by him On the Holy Spirit, which some one had translated from the Syriac, and recognized even in translation, the incisive power of lofty genius. He died in the reign of Valens. (LIM 115)

St. Ephrem's reflections on Genesis (Volume 91 in The Fathers of the Church series, The Catholic University Press of America) reveal an expository style that makes his Genesis reflections enjoyable reading. Besides being an excellent Bible scholar, Ephrem's use of language is so lyrical that he is called “The Harp of the Spirit.”

St. Ephrem’s approach to Scripture avoids the literalism of Fundamentalists and the allegorism of the Alexandrian school. He approaches Genesis as history, type, symbol and pattern. Ephrem’s method has been termed “symbolic theology” and has been described as “an intricate weave of parallelism, typology, names and symbols.” (The Fathers of the Church, vol. 91, p. 48) For St. Ephrem, types, symbols and patterns are woven throughout creation and are Christ God’s invitation to perceive Him and to share in the divine life He offers.

I encourage you to acquire St. Ephrem's works.  A good volume to begin with is Sebastian Brock's translation of St. Ephrem's Hymns on Paradise, published by St. Vladimir's Seminary Press (1990).

Here are some of my favorite parts from Hymn on Paradise.


Joyfully did I embark
      on the tale of Paradise --
a tale that is short to read
      but rich to explore.
My tongue read the story’s
      outward narrative,
while my intellect took wing
      and soared upward in awe
as it perceived the splendor of Paradise --
      not indeed as it really is,
but insofar as humanity
     is granted to comprehend it.

(Hymns on Paradise 1:3)



Scripture brought me
       to the gate of Paradise,
and the mind, which is spiritual,
       stood in amazement and wonder as it entered,
the intellect grew dizzy and weak
      as the senses were no longer able
to contain its treasures --
      so magnificent they were --
or to discern its savors
      and find any comparison for its colors,
or take in its beauties
       so as to describe them in words.

(Hymns on Paradise 6:2)



Hymn 7 relates the order of the creation in the rising and setting of the sun to the death and resurrection of the saints.

In the evening the world sleeps,
     closing its eyes,
while in the morning it arises.
     He who repays is distant
as it were but a night’s length away;
     now light dawns and He is coming.
Weary not, my brethren,
     nor suppose
that your struggle will last long
     or that your resurrection is far off,
for our death is already behind us,
     and our resurrection before us.

(Hymns on Paradise 7:2)



In Paradise the life cycle of the trees
     resembles a necklace:
when the fruits of the first
     are finished and plucked,
then the second ones are ready,
     with a third species following them.
Who has ever beheld
     the autumnal fruits
grasping the heels
     of the first fruits,
just as Jacob grasped hold
     of his brother's heel?

(Hymns of Paradise 10:11)



When the blessed Apostles
     were gathered together
the place shook
     and the scent of Paradise
having found its home,
     poured forth its perfumes,
delighting the heralds
     by whom
the guests are instructed
     and come to His banquet;
eagerly He awaits their arrival
     for He is the Lover of mankind.

(Hymns on Paradise 11:14)


Related reading:  St. Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis

Some Thoughts on Sex

Alice C. Linsley


Seraph, a reader of Just Genesis has written: "I would love hearing more about your thoughts on homosexuality, Alice. I am intellectually moved by your 'binary distinctions' argument. But I also know devout same-sex couples who have fallen in love with people of the same sex from childhood, and have gone through attempts at 'orientation change' for years, but to no avail. This subject cuts me to the quick. What are your thoughts as to folk who love the Lord Jesus, but who...despite all attempts...are just not drawn to people of the opposite sex?"

Here are some of my thoughts.

There is much we do not understand about sexual attraction. There is also much false information about homosexuality, much of it built upon the discredited Kinsey Report.  It seems to me the issue isn't homosexuality or even heterosexuality, by the use of the body, which is to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Sex within marriage is the only approved sex in the Bible and in Holy Tradition. Both understand marriage as between a man and a woman.

My heart is cut to watch homosexual people suffering also. Family members struggle with this. My cousin died of AIDS 15 years ago. His life of multiple partners and alcoholism left him physically and spiritually destitute. My mother prayed for him for years and on his deathbed he asked for and received God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ and died in peace.

One of my own daughters left a 10-year lesbian relationship the same month that I left ECUSA and is now married with two children. Her same-sex attraction was formed while she was at an all-girl boarding school in New England.

I was the chaplain at an all-boy boarding school for 4 years and know that same-sex attraction is experienced in same-gender boarding schools, but for most boys and girls this is experimentation, not orientation.  However, it is experimentation that can leave deep scars, just as traumatic as rape, abortion, incest and sexual abuse.

In a nearby town, a 4th grader decided that he wanted to be a girl and threatened to commit suicide if his parents and the school system didn't agree to call him by a girl's name and allow him to dress like a girl.  He has made himself the center of attention. His teacher is a Christian and has been told that she must comply with the boy's wishes, though she explains that "God is not the author of confusion."  The teacher will probably have to leave the school because she is not willing to cause the other children to be confused about gender.

When I write about the binary worldview of the Bible, I do so as an anthropologist. The binary sets of Abraham's people are fixed. There is no confusion here. The Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. There is night and day. There is heaven and earth. People are born male or female. In the ancient Afro-Asiatic world, homosex was regarded as a violation of the divine order in creation. That is why the only evidence of homosex in ancient Egypt is a drawing on the wall of an isolated cave.

Homosex was in the same category as onanism. Both were regarded as grievous violations of the boundaries found in the order of creation. The seed that should fall to the earth is the seed of plants, which spring forth from the earth. The seed of man should fall on his own type (the womb), from which man comes forth.

In our pleasure-consumed society, sex has become a comodity. The more orgiastic and pornographic, the better the comodity.  Sex as comodity misses the mark of God's righteousness by so far that it isn't even proper to discuss the two together.

A life of abstinance requires a pure heart and an almost monastic obedience. We fall, but God's forgiveness is always there for those who repent and stand upright again. Then there is another falling, and another, because a pure heart is a spiritual gift that comes after much seeking and a great desire for God, but it will come in the end. Holiness is God's will for us and God brings us on that path as we are willing to be led. 


Related reading:  Genesis on Homosex: Beyond Sodom; Binary Sets in the Ancient World; Understanding Binary Distinctions; Blood and Binary Distinctions; How to Invite Ridicule; More Thoughts About Sex

Just Genesis: Answers to Your Questions

Alice C. Linsley


People around the world are asking questions about Genesis. Some questions are emailed to me, and some appear in the comments. Most of the questions that follow appeared as search words that brought people to Just Genesis.

Sometimes the questions reveal a sophisticated understanding of the Genesis material. These are usually asked by people doing research. Other questions indicate a profound ignorance of people, events and chronology. Others reveal commendable curiosity. In at least once case there was a wager placed and the questioner hoped to win the bet! I'm not sure if he won or not.


Here are some questions people have asked:

Did Solomon live before Abraham?
No. Solomon was David’s son by Bathsheba.


Was David Moses’ father?
No. Moses’ father was Amram. Amram had 2 wives. Moses had two brothers and a sister. Korah was his half-brother.


Did the Afro-Arabians invent the compass?
It is very likely. The Arabic word for compass is al-konbas, a compound of kon and bas. Kon means universe and bas refers to home, which was the place of the Sun’s rising. The ancient Afro-Arabians were aware of the magnetic properties of meteoric iron and iron filings since they were famous metalworkers. They were able to use these filings to determine true north, but their key point of reference or “orientation” was east.


How did Abraham abuse Hagar?
There is no record of Abraham abusing Hagar. Genesis tells us that Hagar was mistreated by Sarah.


How many concubines did Abraham have?
He apparently had two, as did Jacob. One was the servant of Sarah: Hagar the Egyptian.  The other was the servant of Keturah: Masek, according to the Septuagint.


How widespread was the use of Aramaic?
Geoffrey W. Bromiley, in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (p. 231), states that Aramaic inscriptions have been found from “Greece to Pakistan, and from the Ural Mountains to Arabia.” Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Near East, Palestine and the Levant in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Aramaic used the Phoenician script which largely replaced the cuneiform of Babylon and Persia.


Had Isaac another wife beside Rebecca?
It is very likely that Isaac had two wives, as did all his ruler ancestors. By his other wife, a half-sister, he had a son named Yisbak. Analysis of the Genesis genealogies indicates that Isaac had three first-born sons. 


Who were the ancient African Hindus?
This person probably is seeking information about the Sudra/Sudanese and their relationship to the Dravidian populations in gold-rich Africa. Sudra means Sudanese. They were a Nilotic people who spread across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Dravidians are classified as Sudroid. Nilotic religion is older than Hinduism.


Are Nubians Nilotic people?
Yes. The Nile, with its many inlets and tributaries, was the center of daily life in ancient Nubia. Its waters provided food and water and a means of transportation and commerce. The Nubians were known to be great boat builders.  They also influenced Egyptian architecture. The Egyptian rock cut temple (speos) was of Nubian origin. The earliest example was the cave sanctuary at Sayala, a Nubian site just north of Abu Simbel on the west bank of the Nile River. This site is dated to 3700-3250 B.C. This Nubian architecture was adopted by the Egyptians of the New Kingdom, whose pharaohs commissioned several temples in Upper Egypt and in Nubia.

Was Lilith Adam’s first wife?
There is no mention of Lilith in Genesis. She is a figure from the Babylonian pantheon and does not reflect Nilotic culture.


Was Moses married when he lived in Egypt?
Exodus doesn’t tell us. Moses had 2 wives. One was Midianite and the other was Kushite. Both were related to him by blood and marriage.


What is the Hebrew name for a boat builder?
The Hebrews weren’t famous for being a seafaring people. The Afro-Arabians were and Arabic is older than Hebrew. The Arabic for a place where boats and ships are built is dar al-sina’a. The Hebrew word for boat work or navel workmanship is בונה ספינות. The Hebrew ספינות means to go over water, as in a drawbridge. עברית is the Hebrew word naval, an adjective.


What do the names Og and Magog mean?
The meaning of the names is uncertain. These names are related to a third name: Gog. The names Og, Magog and Gog appear to represent a 3-clan confederation of Horite ruler-priests.


Was Keturah a wife or a concubine?
Keturah was Abraham's patrilineal cousin wife.  Genesis 25:1 describes Keturah as Abraham’s wife. The word here in Hebrew is ishshah, which means woman or wife.


What happened to Keturah’s children?
Keturah had 6 sons and probably some daughters, though daughters are not named in Genesis, since they didn’t rule among the Afro-Arabians. Keturah’s sons became the chiefs of Arabian tribes. These tribes are referred to as the “Joktanite Tribes.” Joktan probably was Abraham’s first-born son by Keturah. As Keturah was Abraham's cousin bride, her first-born son ascended to the throne of her father, Joktan the Elder.


Are the Genesis origin stories like the Akan origin stories?
They are closer to the Gikuyu origin stories as Abraham’s ancestors came from the Nile region, not from West Africa. The Akan live primarily in Ghana and the Gikuyu live primarily in Kenya.


Related reading:  Common Questions About Genesis; Some Extraordinary Questions; Moses' Wives and Brothers; The Genesis Creation/Origins Stories; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology

The Tower of Babel

Model reconstruction of the ziggurat at Ur.

Alice C. Linsley

We do not know the exact nature of the tower of Babel. It is generally assumed that this was a ziggurat, but it may simply have been an observation tower in a fortified complex. Towers were used for astronomical observations and as watchtowers for defense. If the biblical writers meant a ziggurat, why does the text not use the Akkadian word for a ziggurat? The term Ziggurat comes from the Akkadian word ziqqurratu, which is translated as "rising building" (from Akkadian zaqâru, "to rise high"). Instead, the Hebrew reads: מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל‎, (Migdal Bavel). A migdal was a sacred pillar.

Genesis only describes the structure as a tower of baked brick and mortar. If the writer is speaking of a ziggurat, we would expect more description. For example, the Babylonian ziggurat typically had ramparts. Genesis does not mentioned ramparts.

The Tower of Babel narrative offers an explanation for the linguistic diversity among the biblical populations listed in the Genesis 10 Table of Nations. Yet all those populations spoke languages in the same language family, as is noted in Genesis 11:1. 

One theory is that Genesis 11:1 is speaking of a common Proto-Nostratic group. 

Another is that the populations listed in the Table of Nations were linguistically related because they were all Proto-Afroasiatics. The Afro-Asiatic language family is the oldest known group. Semitic languages are a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family. Semitic languages include Ancient Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Geez, Hebrew, Maltese, Phoenician, and Ugaritic. By Abraham's time (2000 BC) the populations whose ancestors used commonly recognized words were dispersed as shown on this map.

If we take the Tower of Babel story literally, we will force an interpretation on Genesis that goes beyond the biblical data. The peoples listed in Genesis 10 were dispersed long before the time of the ziggurats and the rise of the Akkadian Empire. Most of the ethnic groups in Genesis are closely related. Note, however, that Genesis 10 does not list the Hebrew as being among the rebellious peoples. Did the narrators of this story exempt themselves from divine judgement? Or it is because the Table of Nations does not recognize castes, and the Hebrew were a ruler-priest caste.

The Tower of Babel story has been used by the followers of Ken Ham to advance the notion that linguistic and ethnic diversity resulted from God's judgement. This is stated in one of the 12 Affirmations and Denials found at the back of some of Ham's books. Affirmation XII claims that the diversity of languages and skin color came about as a result of divine judgment at the Tower of Babel.

XII. We affirm that all people living and dead are descended from Adam and Eve...and that the various people groups (with their various languages, cultures, and distinctive physical characteristics, including skin color) arose as a result of God's supernatural judgment at the Tower of Babel..."

The Tower of Babel story comes from a time much later than Abraham. The narrative is used to speak of the contagion of sin which can increase when moral corruption is tolerated by rulers and embraced by the masses. The empire is lost. The peoples are scattered. The device of scattering is found in other places in the Bible as an antidote to sin or rebellion. Consider the Scatter-Gather Motif in Judges and elsewhere in the Bible.

The Tower of Babel story shows that the rebellion that took place characterized whole populations. This speaks of the contagion of sin. The archaic rulers were a powerful force in shaping the ancient world, but they often over-reached, as is common of rulers who think they are invincible. This same hubris is shared by most powerful rulers and heads of state.

The Genesis record allows for a more naturalistic explanation for the linguistic "confusion." Teh diversity of languages came about gradually as related people when separate ways. It resulted from the separation and dispersion of kinsmen. The narrative about the separate territories of the brothers Peleg and Joktan is instructive

To Eber were born two sons: the first was called Peleg, because it was in his time that the earth was divided, and his brother was called Joktan. (Gen. 10:25)

The Hebrew word for earth that appears in Genesis 10:25 is eretz, which can mean territory or land. Ebere divided his territory between his sons Peleg and Joktan. Peleg and his descendants became Arameans. They spoke Aramaic. Joktan and his descendants resided in Arabia. They became the speakers of Arabic. However, originally both sones were Hebrew.

Genesis 11:1 speaks of the whole world having one language. That means that the related peoples of the Table of Nations spoke language that shared common roots (radicals). The languages spoken were in the Afro-Asiatic family, the oldest known language family. This is proof of the reliability of the Genesis record. For example, were the Chinese and Polynesians listed in the Table of Nations, we would know that someone had corrupted the text, since Abraham and his Hebrew ancestors had no knowledge of those populations.


Related reading: Peleg: Time of Division; Noah's Sons and Their Descendants; The Lines of Ham and Shem Intermarried; Akkadian Lexicon; Hebrew Lexicon, Ancient Egyptian Lexicon

Binary Sets in the Ancient World

Alice C. Linsley


Ethical concerns of the early Hebrew rulers (4000-2000 BC) involved binary opposites or binary sets such as east-west, male-female, day-night, life-death, and heaven-earth. These sets are universally in the patterns of Nature. The early Hebrew rulers and priests were acute observers of those patterns. They recognized that seasons run in a cycle, the solar arc appears to move from east to west, and people bring forth people, not plants or other animals. In other words, there is a fixed quality to certain natural phenomenon. 

Not every set of opposites is a binary set. Consider that talented-untalented does not represent a binary set because this involves subjective judgement. Tall-short is not a binary set because this is relative to the observer. I am 5 feet 5 inches tall. Standing beside a Watusi warrior, I would appear to be short. However, were I to stand beside a Pygmy, I would appear to be tall.

The binary sets by which the early Hebrew made judgements were used to determine good and evil. Good recognized and honored the fixed boundaries observed in Nature. Evil violated the boundaries observed in Nature. Anomalies were noted, but excluded when forming judgements.

The opposites of Good and evil were not equal as in dualism. One member of the binary set is by its nature superior in some observable way to its partner. The sun as the greater light is superior to the Moon which merely reflected the sun's brightness (refulgence). The male as the larger and stronger member of the human species is superior to the female. Modern values and political correctness are irrelevant here. These distinctions are objective and universally obvious.

Maintaining the hierarchy of the binary opposites permitted the ancient priests to help their rulers make wise God-pleasing decisions. For example, the priests of Israel during Moses' time were to use the Urim and Thummim to receive divine guidance. These represent numerous binary sets. The Urim would have a number of associations which would be assigned the opposite meaning with the Thummim. Using these tools involved more than yes-no questions. It involved deriving meaning from the directional poles, gender, numbers and reversals. The morehs or ancient prophets apparently used the same approach when rendering counsel such as that given to Abraham by the moreh at the Oak of Mamre (Gen. 12:6).

Today astrophysicists study the heavens seeking answers to the origins of the universe. The ancients studied the heavens because they believed that the celestial pattern speaks of the Creator's nature and how we should order our lives on earth. This belief is expressed in the Lord's Prayer that says, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

The binary sets also provide direction and guidance. Lacking a compass, we can watch where the Sun rises to determine east. Knowing east, we can determine the direction of west. Just as the directional poles help us to avoid disorientation, so the binary sets observed universally and objectively in Nature can help us to avoid ethical confusion.

For the ancients they also suggested that there was a center point at the intersection of the perpendicular lines connecting north-south and east-west. One can image the place where these lines intersect as the center of a cross. This is a metaphysical sacred center that took on physical form when Jesus was nailed to the cross at Calvary. The cross is a fundamental symbol in creation.

The world has not changed in any essential way. Nothing ever really changes. That is what Plato understood and why he is still the greatest of the philosophers. There is one reality and all people exist in that one reality. Things can only become more what they were created. They cannot become less what they were created without rebelling against God's design. 

Onanism was also regarded as a violation of the order of creation. The seed that should fall to the earth is the seed of plants, which spring forth from the earth. The seed of man should fall on his own type (the womb), from which man comes forth. Clement of Alexandria wrote, “Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted” (The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2 A.D. 191).

Likewise, the prohibition against mixing types of seeds and types of fibers is intended that human should observe the order of creation and honor the way it is. The prohibition against mixing seeds, fibers, and blood, is a reminder to not confuse the holy and the unholy, or to blur the distinction between life and death, or between life-nurturing actions and life-destroying actions. This is one of the reasons why the Hebrews were forbidden to boil a baby goat in its mother's milk (Ex. 23:19; Ex. 34:26, Deut. 14:21).

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Related reading: Orthodoxy Requires Binary Reasoning; The Binary Distinctions of the Horites; Binary Distinctions and Kenosis, Blood and Binary Distinctions; Circumcision and Binary Distinctions; Ethics Forum: Binary Reasoning Informs Christian Morality and Ethics