The Origins of Animal Sacrifice

Alice C. Linsley


What are the origins of animal sacrifice? In "The Origin of Israelite Sacrifice" in the November/December 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, William W. Hallo, former Yale professor, attempts to answer that question.
 
Hallo insists that the practice comes from the much older Mesopotamian civilization. However, Hallo fails to clarify that this Akkadian civilization was essentially Kushite and the Kushites originated in the Nile Valley, which is where the sacrifice of rams, bulls, and sheep originated.

Horite priest sacrificing ram

 
Horite priests had shaved heads such as shown (above) in this third-millennium B.C. Mesopotamian mosaic.  Moses' half-brother Korah was a Horite priest.  His name means 'shaved one." Compare this image to the one below of an Egyptian priest or harwa. Har-wa means Hor/Horus rules.
 

 
The Horites spread their religious practices and beliefs from ancient Kush to Mesopotamia and beyond. The oldest fire altars were falcon shaped (shown below).  The falcon was the totem of Hor/Horus, who was called "Son of God."  This is why the Shulba Sutras state that "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon."

Figurine of Harappan girl shows Kushite features

At the Harappan water shrines of Kalibangan and Lothal, numerous fire altars have been discovered.  The Dravidian word Har-appa means "Hor is father." Here is further evidence of the spread of Horite religion from ancient Kush to Pakistan and India.

The Nilotic or Kushitic religious practices diffused through the agency of Horite ruler-priests who controlled water systems at a time when the Sahara, Mesopotamia, southern Pakistan and southern India were wetter. These ruler-priests are called Horites because they were devotees of Horus, the divine son by whose pattern Abraham's descendants would recognize Jesus' true identity. The Horites are called Hapiru in Akkadian and Habiru in Kushitic languages. These words appear to be related to the Arabic yakburu, meaning “he is getting big” and to the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru, meaning "he is enlarging." Likely, this is a reference to the morning ritual of Horite priests who greeted the rising sun with prayers and watched as it expanded across the horizon. This is the origin of the morning ritual whereby the sun is blessed daily in every devout Hindu home and the Jewish Sun Blessing ritual (Birkat Hachama) that is performed every 28 years.

The oldest known center of Horite worship is Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) in Sudan. Votive offerings at the Nekhen temple 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 ancient world, a temple was considered the mansion (hâît) or the house (pirû) of the deity. The Creator Re is associated with the temple in Heliopolis (City of the Sun) on the east side of the Delta. Hat-Hor, the virgin mother of Horus, had her principal temples in Dendera and Memphis to the south of Heliopolis and on the west side of the Nile. The principal temples of Horus were further south in Nekhen and Edfu, and on the west side of the Upper Nile.


Related reading:  The Kushite Marriage Pattern Drove Kushite Expansion; Nimrod Was a Kushite Ruler; The African Origin of the Dravidians

Frank Moore Cross: Israel's God is the God of the Horites

Frank Moore Cross believes the origins of Israel's conception of God is to be found in the region of Midian in northwestern Arabia. Cross argues that archaic biblical poetry locates Yahweh's movements in Edom/Seir/Teman/Midian and that these "are our most reliable evidence for locating Sinai/Horeb, the mountain of God."

My research concerning the Horites of Seir and Edom (Gen 36) certainly points in that direction. Midian was one of Abraham's nine sons and Tema was a Horite chief. Seir is explicitly designated a "Horite" in Genesis 36 and he was a contemporary of Esau the Elder who was a ruler of the Edo people.

According to Cross, Israel's earliest religious traditions about Yahweh, reflected in both the story of Exodus and archaic Biblical poetry like the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), indicate Yahweh came from Midian, a mountainous desert land in what is today southern Jordan and northwestern Saudi Arabia. This theory of Yahweh's Arabian origins, known by earlier scholars as the "Midianite hypothesis," has been augmented by recent archaeological discoveries that suggest a sophisticated urban culture thrived in this region at the end of the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 B.C.E.), the period when most scholars place Moses and the Exodus tradition.

Given this evidence, Cross believes the biblical writers understood Mt. Horeb, the mountain of Yahweh, to be in Arabia, not Sinai.

Cross notes that the belief that the 'mountain of God' was located in the Sinai Peninsula "has no older tradition supporting it than Byzantine times."

Order Cross' e-book here.


Related reading:  Abraham and Job: Horite Rulers; Moses' Horite Family; Kushite Wives; Abraham's Sons, Nephews and Niece; Edom and the Horites

Medical Care in Ancient Egypt

The Edwin Smith papyrus is the world's oldest known surgical document (c. 1600 BC). It is written in the hieratic script of ancient Egypt and Kush and reveals a high level of sophistication in medical care. It gives detailed descriptions of anatomy, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of forty-eight types of medical problems. It describes closing wounds with sutures, preventing and curing infection with honey and moldy bread (both known to contain antibiotics), application of raw meat to stop bleeding, and treatment of head and spinal cord injuries.

"Every month, for three successive days, they purged the system by means of emetics or clysters. The study of medicine with them was divided between specialists; each physician attending to one kind of illness only. Every place possessed several doctors; some for diseases of the eyes, others for the head, or the teeth, or the stomach, or for internal diseases." (Diodorus Siculus, i. 91)

This is the level of medical care known among the priestly caste when the children of Jacob were in Egypt.  Hieratic script was used by the ruler-priests. Healing was the work of the priests who were especially concerned with purity or life.

The priesthood can be traced back to around 7000 BC. The relationship between animal sacrifice and healing is evidence in the relationship of the following words: Hebrew root thr = to be pure, Hausa/Hahm toro = clean, Tamil tiru = holy, early Dravidian tor = blood.

Related reading: Nubians Used Antibiotics; Ebers Papyrus

Humans Originated in Africa

That is what Genesis claims and that is what scientists are saying. Here is an example concerning Australopithecus sediba.

Evolutionists maintain that "modern" humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago, reaching full behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago.  However, this evolutionary scheme is not conclusive. When British anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva compared the ankle joint, the tibia and the talus fossils of human ancestors ("hominins") between 4.12 million to 1.53 million years old, he discovered that all of the ankle joints resembled those of modern humans rather than those of apes. Chimpanzees flex their ankles 45 degrees from normal resting position. This makes it possible for apes to climb trees with great ease. While walking, humans flex their ankles a maximum of 20 degrees. The human ankle bones are quite distinct from those of apes. (Read about DeSilva’s research here.)

The discovery of a complete fourth metatarsal of A. afarensis at Hadar shows the deep, flat base and tarsal facets that "imply that its midfoot had no ape-like midtarsal break. These features show that the A. afarensis foot was functionally like that of modern humans." (Carol Ward, William H. Kimbel, Donald C. Johanson, Feb. 2011) Read the report here.

In other words, what evolutionists call "ancestors" of modern humans often appear to be well within the range of anatomical modernity. The picture of human evolution that is commonly presented is not supported by the evidence. However, there is general agreement that humans originated in Africa.

Genesis traces Abraham's ancestors to the Nile region of Africa where his people understood themselves as the direct descendants of the first created people. Their ancestral parents are called Adam and Eve.  The context for understanding Adam and Eve is African. Confusion as to how we are to interpret these biblical figures will persist until people accept what the Bible says about Abraham's ancestors coming from Africa. Only then can we put this material in its proper cultural context.

Adam is derived from the root DM which refers to blood (dam in Hebrew) and the color red. The Hebrew is related to the Yoruba edom and the Hausa odom which mean red or reddish-brown. The word "adam" is therefore a reference to the color of the soil where Abraham's Kushite ancestors lived. This is likely the red soil that washed down from the Ethiopian Highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic Cambisols have a strong brown or red color.

Genesis is first and foremost about Christ, the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15). The rulers listed in the Genesis genealogies are Jesus Christ's historical ancestors, the people to whom God gave the promise that the Woman's Seed would crush the head of the serpent and restore paradise.

The migration out of Africa is shown here. Abraham's ancestors were kingdom builders.  They were the founders of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion.



Related reading:   Getting the Facts About Human Origins; A.S. Haley Series: Did Adam and Eve Exist?; African Religion Predates Hinduism; Abraham's African Ancestors; Terah's Nubian Ancestors

Ancient Egyptians Were Seafaring

Archaeologists from Italy, the United States, and Egypt excavating a dried-up lagoon known as Mersa Gawasis have unearthed traces of an ancient harbor that once launched early voyages like Hatshepsut’s onto the open ocean. Some of the site’s most evocative evidence for the ancient Egyptians’ seafaring prowess is concealed behind a modern steel door set into a cliff just 700 feet or so from the Red Sea shore. Inside is a man-made cave about 70 feet deep. Lightbulbs powered by a gas generator thrumming just outside illuminate pockets of work: Here, an excavator carefully brushes sand and debris away from a 3,800-year-old reed mat; there, conservation experts photograph wood planks, chemically preserve them, and wrap them for storage.

4000 year Egyptian ship plank

Toward the back, a padlocked plywood door seals off an adjacent cave. As soon as the door is unlocked, a sweet, heavy, grassy smell like that of old hay wafts out, filling the area with the scent of thousands of years of decay. In the thin beam of a headlamp, one can make out stacked coils of rope the color of dark chocolate receding into the darkness of the long, narrow cave. Some of the bundles are as thick as a man’s chest, and the largest may hold up to 100 feet of rope.

4000 year Egyptian rope coils

The rope is woven from papyrus, a clue that it may have come from the Nile Valley, where the paperlike material was common. Archaeologists found it neatly, professionally coiled and stacked, presumably by ancient mariners just before they left the shelter of the cave for the last time.

Boston University archaeologist Kathryn Bard and an international team have uncovered six other caves at Mersa Gawasis. The evidence they have found, including the remains of the oldest seagoing ships ever discovered, offers hard proof of the Egyptians’ nautical roots and important clues to the location of Punt. “These new finds remove all doubt that you reach Punt by sea,” Baines says. “The Egyptians must have had considerable seagoing experience.”


1400 B.C. Egyptian merchant ship

 The Egyptian ships were also unique in that they were held together with mortise-and-tenon joints, tab-and-slot fittings that needed no metal fasteners and could be taken apart and put back together again. For added strength, the individual timbers were carved with curves that nested into adjacent parts, a little like puzzle pieces. “From the very beginning, the Egyptians were building boats that could be disassembled, and that makes them different from anyone else,” Ward says. “They were using the shapes of the planks to lock each of the pieces into place.”

Read the full article here.

Questions Asked by Primitive Man

Readers of Just Genesis will find this conversation about Archaic Man interesting. You will note the faulty assumptions made as to what anthropology has demonstrated to be factual.

"To the primitive men all experiences were supernatural.  It appeared in different forms and manifestations in accordance with the different civilizations of the clime and climate of the respective country.
 
According to the scientific research and the knowledge of anthropology the conversion of animals to human beings took about 30 hundred thousands years through evolutionary process ; there are two important  periods in the primitive history of mankind.  The first period is called Stone Age, when man used tools made of stone to get his food and other necessities of life to sustain his existence. It was the period when man began to conceive and feel the environment, and the conversion from animal to man had been complete.  Initiation  of awareness of the surroundings began to grow.  With the introduction of the use of Iron, man became more sophisticated and he started to think about the manifestations of nature in different forms.  He could not understand the nature and function of the objects of nature, and therefore surrendered to them . Questions in his mind were :

[a] What is the character and general structure of the universe in which we live?

[b] Is there permanent element in the constitution of the universe? 

[c] How are we related to it?

[d] What place do we occupy in it. 

[e] What is the kind of conduct that befits the place we occupy?

 These questions occurred in the mind of the primitive man.  When he could not find any satisfactory answers, he created gods, and goddesses to satisfy his passion of curiosity.  It is very interesting that in Neolithic Period of his evolution he had  more interest with Mother Earth because it provided him the necessities of life."  [Extract from Tasavaray Khudha, translated by Muhammad Asghar Butt]


Responses:

"Anthropology has not demonstrated that humans emerged from lower animals.  In fact, absolutely no physical evidence has been recovered that supports this assumption."--Alice C. Linsley



"Scientific outlook gives the objective outlook which totally discard bias and prejudice. On the other hand, religious activities are concerned with the idiosyncrasies, whims  and caprices of the mind.  Moreover, it is directly related to human emotions, passions, sentiments. A religious spirit does not inculcate the scientific bent of mind.  It is based upon the personal whims of the believer. Thus, if we take these two spirits apparently, there are poles asunder.               

The essentials of religion are blind faith and supernaturalism for its support to live in a illiterate society."-- Muhammad Asghar Butt



"The fundamental questions that Primitive Man asked are also asked by scientists and ethicists today. Primitive Man's conclusions constituted the beginnings of science.  For example, the ancient Afro-Asiatics noted a fixed order in creation.  The Sun appears to rise in the East and set in the West. We are able to greet it only as we face East.  The Sun's light is greater than moonlight as the Moon merely reflects the Sun's light. Humans are either Male or Female, and the male is larger and stronger than the female. Primitive Man grasped the binary nature of this fixed order and recognized that one entity in the binary set is greater.  This guided the decision making process of archaic man. The binary pattern observed in Nature led ancient Nilotic peoples to hypothesize about binary stars such as Siruis A and B long before Sirius B was discovered using high-power telescopes.

The binary worldview of the Horim who originated in ancient Kush was diffused by their kingdom-building rulers across a vast expanse from the Nile to Nepal.  There is substantial linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological evidence to demonstrate that this is so. These rulers were the patrons of the earliest stone and metal working technologies."-- Alice C. Linsley



"How did God come about? Imagine yourself with no ceiling, no walls, and no shelter. No beds, no pillows, and no quilts. No clothes, no shoes, no caps—not even a shawl. No factories, no industries, and not even Gandhi’s spinning wheel. No electricity, no air conditioners, and no heaters. Fire has not been discovered yet. No farms, no agriculture, no grocery stores; no food except from the trees and plants and from the animals weaker than you, whom you can kill. No doctors, no surgeons, no quacks, no hospitals, no clinics, no pharmacies—and not even turmeric.

No transportation of any sort, not even a bike or a cart. The wheel, the mother of all transportation, has not yet been invented. No telephones, no faxes, and no computers. No technology of any type — period. You have no idea about the world or its vastness; forget about its flatness or roundness. And you have zero understanding of the natural phenomenas. You have wild and gentle animals, birds, and insects as your neighbors.

Furthermore, it is extremely cold and raining with thunderstorms and lightning. Or it’s hot and humid. Your whole being is enveloped in fear and fear of the unknown.

This then is the most fertile time of your life. You are in the ovulation period. Then comes     pregnancy — not of a child, but a concept. And so during the labor pains and the fear, you give birth. What to? The God Almighty, of course, the Supreme Being.

He is not the Father God. You are the mother of God. You gave birth to God. She, he, I, they, we all are mothers of God. We gave, and give, birth to God in time of our needs." --B. R. Gowani (brgowani@hotmail.com)



"And like all other religious people from all other religions, you are making an attempt to mix science with the imaginations of men who existed hundreds and thousands of years ago and created religions." --Shazia Nawaz MD (shazianawazsays@gmail.com)



"These questions did indeed occupy the mind of primitive Man. However the archaeological, linguistic and anthropological evidence doesn't support the conclusions that Man created gods and goddesses, or that Neolithic Man was more concerned with Mother Earth than with the Creator and his heavenly domain. Within the Afro-Asiatic Dominion there was a remarkable uniformity of religious doctrine concerning a Supreme Creator whose lesser assisting spirits (henotheism) were associated with natural elements such as rivers, trees, and mountains. Archaic man is often portrayed as an ignorant idol worshiper, but as an acute observer of the fixed patterns in nature, he knew the material world had a Fixer who alone was worthy of adoration.

Further, there is not a single ancient text that speaks of 'Mother Earth.' In ancient Egypt we find exactly the opposite.  The fluid canopy of sky was associated with the feminine principle of Nut. Likewise, firmness such as displayed by stone pillars, was associated with the masculine principle.

The goddess figurines of antiquity were fertility fetishes similar to the fertility paddles worn by young Ashante women today. These are not worshiped by the Asha-nte, whose name means "People of God." -- Alice C. Linsley (aproeditor@gmail.com)


Related reading: Getting the Facts about Human Origins; Binary Sets in the Ancient World; Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; The Sun and the Moon in Genesis

Scott Hahn on the Foundational Nature of Genesis

Scott Hahn's CD series on Genesis
Genesis 1-22: The Covenant as a Family Affair

 

Dr. Scott Hahn understands the foundational nature of Genesis.  He has said, “If you understand what is written in Genesis, you will have a firmer grasp of the Christian message than many contemporary theologians!”

A renowned Catholic theologian and biblical scholar, Dr. Hahn guides you through the first twenty-two chapters of Genesis, uncovering the covenantal pattern of Abraham's people.

The series is digitally re-mastered on seven CDs and available with a comprehensive 53 page Study Guide prepared by Dr. Carol Younger, EdD.

This is a fine resource for adult education classes. The series and Study Guide will take the class verse-by-verse, with explanations of key Hebrew words, and background on how passages are interpreted by both Catholics and Protestants.

Scott received his Bachelor of Arts degree with a triple-major in Theology, Philosophy and Economics from Grove City College, PA, his Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. in Biblical Theology from Marquette University. 

Recommended related reading is Dr. Hahn's Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God's Saving Promises.  His books can be ordered here: http://www.scotthahn.com/

Extant Biblical Tribes and Clans

Alice C. Linsley


The clans and tribes of the Bible represent governmental units based on family and marriage ties.  The clan is often desginated by the head tent (oholibamah), and the Egyptian hierogylph was the symbol of a tent peg. 

Tent peg represented by the ancient Hebrew and Arabic letter Waw.

The high tent was the residence of the chief or ruler of the clan.  The clan or tribe and the locale were often named for this person. That is why there are so many place names that correspond to rulers in the Bible. Clans and tribes of the ancient world moved farther than is generally recognized.  The Yoruba of Nigeria and Benin originated in ancient Kush. This makes the work of tracing biblical peoples more challenging, but often clans, marriage ties, and lineage can be identified by their totems.

The ruling tribe is designated by the sceptre which in Hebrew is שבט.  According to Genesis 49:10, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."  Here Judah is designated as the ruling tribe and as Jerome correctly interprets, Shiloh refers to the Christ who is to be sent.  This prefigures the Son of God who will rule over peoples from every tribe, nation and tongue (Rev. 5:9), and of His kingdom there shall be no end.

The sceptre belongs to the high king who rules over the confederation of clans. The scepter is sometimes called "the rod" and is a version of the Pharaonic crook.  The crook and flail were symbols of the power of ancient Kush and Egypt, from whence came Abraham's ancestors.

The crook and flail were carried by the high king and represented his deification as a son of God.

Family based units are extremely resilient and usually adapt well to changing circumstances. This allows for the succession of rule through many centuries, even millenium.  Though it is assumed that the clans and tribes named in Genesis are extinct, it is more likely that many are extant and can be studied to gain better understanding of the cultural context of the peoples of Genesis.  Certainly this is the case with the Jebusites (Ijebu), a Yoruba people who migrated to Nigeria from the Nile region.

Study of the living Jebusites enables us to trace their Nilotic origins. The supreme ruler of the Ijebu is called "Awujali” and his coronation ceremony involves palm branches (just as Jesus was greeted as one to be enthroned in Jerusalem, formerly a Jebusite city).  The present Awajali has described how the Ijebus are descended from ancient Nubians and Egyptians (Kushites). He pointed to the correspondences between coronation rituals, scarification, circumcision and linguistics. Over 100 Yoruba words are virtually identical to ancient Egyptian words. Here are some examples:


EGYPTIAN                   YORUBA
wu (rise)                         wu (rise)
Asa (Osiris)                    Ausa (father)
eere or ar (serpent)         Ere (python/serpent)
Horise (great god)          Orise (great god)
sen (worshippers)           sen ( to worship)
ged (to chant)                 igede (a chant)
ta (sell/offer)                  ta (sell/offer)
sueg (a fool)                   suegbe (a fool)
on (living person)           one ( living person)
kum (a club)                   vkumo (a club)
enru (fear/terrible)          eru (fear/terrible)
kun/qun (brave man)      ekun (title of a brave man)
win (to be)                      wino (to be)
odonit (festival)               odon (festival)
ma or mi (to breath)        mi (to breathe)
tebu (town)                     tebu (town)
khu (to kill)                     ku (die)
tan (complete)                 tan (complete)
em (smell)                       emi (smell)
kot (build)                       ko (build)
kot (boat)                        oko (boat)
omi (water)                     omi (water)
ra or osa (time)                ira or osa (time)
Horuw (head)                  Oruwo (head)                  Jesus (HR) is the Head of the Church.
min (deity)                       emin (spirit)
ash (invocation)               ashe (invocation)
do (river)                         odo (river)
ma (to know)                   ma (to know)
hir (praise)                       yiri (praise)
hoo (rejoice)                    yo (rejoice)
osa (tide)                         osa ( tide)

Read the full list here.

An ancient name for God as Father is Ausa and is sometimes spelled Asa. The Asante tribe bears this name.  Asa-nte means "the people of Asa." The Egyptian Asa refers to God as father. Nilotic peoples living today still worship As, as is the case with the Kushitic Kalenjin, whose territory is in the Great Rift Valley. Traditional Kalenjin call the Creator Asis. Most Kalenjin are Christian.  Akkadian records attest to the antiquity of this name for God.  Sar-gon the Great was born at the shrine city of Azu-piranu, which means Sun House of Azu. God was called Azu in Akkadian, Asa in Chadic, Asha in Kushitic, and the name appears in Hebrew also. A Jerusalem priest named Am-ashai is named in Nehemiah 11:13.

Muhammad Bello, Ruler of Sokoto Caliphate, narrated the organization of the Yoruba. He explained:

"West of Katsina and Gobir there are seven separate countries called 'Banza Bakwai'. These are Zamfara and Kebbi, Yauri, Nufi [Nupe], Yoruba, Borgu and Gurma. Each of these has a Sarki [king] who is equal to the others.


The country of Yoruba is extensive and has streams and forests and rocks and hills. There are many curious and beautiful things in it. The ships of the Christians come there.


The people of Yoruba are descended from the Kanaana [Canaanites] and the kindred of Nimrud.


Now the reason of their having settled in the west according to what we are told is that Yaarubu [son]of Kahtan [great man] drove them out of Irak to westwards and they travelled between Masar [Misr, i.e. Egypt] and Habash [Ethiopia] until they reached Yoruba. It happened that they left a portion of their people in every country they passed. It is said that the Sudanese who live up on the hills [the Nigerian Plateau] are all their kindred; so also the people of Yauri are their kindred.  The people of Yoruba resemble those of Nufi in appearance."  (From here.)


Yemitom connects the Yoruba word for God - Ela - with the oldest known biblical word for God - El. He writes, "Yoruba tradition has it that Ela is derived from the name Orunmila which has been said to be a contraction of Orun lo mo atila, meaning “only Heaven knows who will be saved.”


The Yoruba Baale means "father of the land." Hence the word Baale must be a contraction of Baba Ilẹ since baba and ilẹ are translated as father and earth/land/ground respectively."



The Clans of Ar

The Arabs represent numerous extant clans and tribes that are named in Genesis. These include the Ar clans of the Red Sea, Trye, and Arvad which constitued a scribal caste. This is supported by the name Ar-vad. Vad means “to speak” in Sanskrit. The word Ar-ab can mean “father is scribe.”  The earliest known written communications originated along the coast lines of the Nile, the Red Sea and Phoenicia.

The Igbo of Nigeria call their scribes the Ar or Aro. The Arabic word for throne is aarsh and likely related to the scribal function attached to rulers.

One of the great Ar ruler was Noah's grandson Arpachshad. The peoples living in Arvad, Tyre and Sidon employed serpent imagery in their temples.  Moses lifted a serpent on a rod in the wilderness and those who looked upon it were saved from the vipers. (Numbers 21:8,9) Here the Serpent is a symbol of Christ our God. The Egyptians spoke of Asa-ar, the Serpent of God.  John 3:14-16 makes this connection: "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

Israelites associated by their names with the Ar patrimony include Aroch (1 Chr 7:39, Ezr 2:5, Neh 6:18, Neh 7:10) and Ariel (Ezr 8:16, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:7). Ariel means “Scribe/Messenger of God.”  The association of the name Ar with the scribal caste is further demonstrated by the discovery of Aramaic scrolls from Arsames, the satrap, to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-hor. (A.T.Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117) Some variations of the name Ar include Ar-Shem, Arsames, Artix, and Araxes, and all of these are figures named in historical texts.

More research must be done to trace biblical tribes to their living descendants, but as can be seen from this brief investigation, it is possible. Clan-based units are resilient and survive through the millenium.  It is highly likely that many other biblical clans are extant. They should be identified and studied in their natural contexts.  Such anthropological investigation promises to be a treasure trove of information for Bible enthusiasts.


Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendency Pattern of Abraham's People

Using Arab Math to Uncover Authors of the Torah

It is interesting when the contributions of Afro-Arabians are used to better understand the oldest sources of information about the ancient Afro-Asiatics, sources found in the oldest layers of the Bible, especially in Genesis.  Such is the case with the application of algorithm to the biblical texts.

The Arabs introduced the decimal system to Europe and the Zero, which originally was a solar hieroglyph.  From the Arabs came the works of Al-Khwarizmi who is known in English as Alghorismus, from whom the term "algorism" was derived.  His work laid the foundation for algebra and complex mathematical problems, such as square roots and complex fractions. Many of his books were translated into European languages. Now researchers hope to use his thought to uncover the authors and authorial threads of the Torah.  This may prove helpful in the case of Genesis if the kinship, marriage and ascendency pattern is factored in. However, from reading the article, it appears that the genealogical data is not part of the equation. This means that the results will be flawed.



Algorithm could untangle authors of Torah

October 11, 2011

In both Jewish and Christian traditions, Moses is considered the author of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Scholars have furnished evidence that multiple writers had a hand in composing the text of the Torah. Other books of the Hebrew Bible and of the New Testament are also thought to be composites. However, delineating these multiple sources has been a laborious task.

Now researchers have developed an algorithm that could help to unravel the different sources that contributed to individual books of the Bible. Prof. Nachum Dershowitz of Tel Aviv University’s Blavatnik School of Computer Science, who worked in collaboration with his son, Bible scholar Idan Dershowitz of Hebrew University, and Prof. Moshe Koppel and Ph.D. student Navot Akiva of Bar-Ilan University, says that their computer algorithm recognizes linguistic cues, such as word preference, to divide texts into probable author groupings.

By focusing exclusively on writing style instead of subject or genre, Prof. Dershowitz and his colleagues sidestepped several methodological hurdles that hamper conventional Bible scholarship. These issues include a potential lack of objectivity in content-based analysis and complications caused by the multiple genres and literary forms found in the Bible — including poetry, narrative, law, and parable. Their research was presented at the 49th Annual Conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics in Portland.

A keen eye for detail

According to Prof. Dershowitz, the software searches for and compares details that human scholars might have difficulty detecting, such as the frequency of the use of “function” words and synonyms. Such details have little bearing on the meaning of the text itself, but each author or source often has his own style. This could be as innocuous as an author’s preference for using the word “said” versus “spoke.”

To test the validity of their method, the researchers randomly mixed passages from the two Hebrew books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and asked the computer to separate them. By searching for and categorizing chapters by synonym preference, and then looking at usage of common words, the computer program was able to separate the passages with 99 percent accuracy. The software was also able to distinguish between “priestly” materials — those dealing with issues such as religious ritual — and “non-priestly” material in the Torah, a categorization that is widely used by Bible scholars.

While the algorithm is not yet advanced enough to give the researchers a precise number of probable authors involved in the writing of the individual books of the Bible, Prof. Dershowitz says that it can help to identify transition points within the text where a source changes, potentially shedding new light on age-old debates.

Categorizing the unknown

Part of a new field called “digital humanities,” computer software like Prof. Dershowitz’s is being developed to give more insight into historical sources than ever before. Programs already exist to help attribute previously anonymous texts to well-known authors by writing style, or uncover the gender of a text’s author. But the Bible presents a new challenge, says Prof. Dershowitz, as there are no independently attributed works to which to compare the Biblical books.

The Torah algorithm may also provide new information about other enigmatic source material, such as the many pamphlets and treatises of unknown composition that are scattered throughout history. And because the software can identify subtle linguistic cues, it is able to uncover differences within mere percentage points, a feat that has never before been possible. “If the computer can find features that Bible scholars haven’t noticed before, it adds new dimensions to their scholarship. That would be gratifying in and of itself,” says Prof. Dershowitz.
 
Source: Scienceblog


Related reading:  Who Wrote Genesis?; The Documentary Hypothesis; The Possibility of Davidic Authorship

Are Genealogies the "Inspired" Word?

Alice C. Linsley


A visitor from Portland, Oregon has asked whether the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 are inspired.  It is an interesting question to consider.

This visitor hasn't included the line of descent in Genesis 4, probably because he has been taught, contrary to the biblical evidence, that Cain's descendants died in the flood.  Genesis 4 and 5 are to be kept together as these two lines intermarried exclusively, as did the lines of Ham and Shem later.

In what way might be speak of ancestry as being the "inspired" word of God?  We can say that the rulers of Genesis 4, 5 and 11 represent flesh and blood aspects of God's plan whereby the Incarnate Word came into the world to save repentant sinners.

Asking whether the genealogies are inspired is like asking whether one's ancestry is inspired.  People live and have offspring that carry on after them.  In the case of the Genesis genealogies, we have something different.  These are king lists, not family trees.  The ancestors of these kings received a divine promise in Eden concerning a "Woman" of their people (Gen. 3:15).  From their ruling lines came Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. Could God have used other rulers?  Probably.  Why these rulers and their descendants?  Well, that's like asking why Israel?  Why Abraham?  There isn't any sense in asking why these rulers in particular. 

Are they part of the inspired plan of God?  Certainly.  Genesis is their story and they tell us that God made a promise to them concerning the "Seed" of the Woman (not Eve, as she isn't named until verse 20).  They apparently believed that promise because they intermarried exclusively and their wives were their own kin, half-sisters, cousins and nieces.  Mary is the Woman and Jesus is the Seed. He even speaks of his death using this metaphor in John 12:24:  "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest."

The test of a true prophet is whether his words come true.  The test of the inspiration of the Bible is that the Edenic Promise was fulfilled, because from beginning to end the Bible is about God's great Gift to the world, His only Begotten Son.


Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendency Pattern of Abraham's People; Kushite Wives; Chronology of the Genesis Rulers; Who Were the Kushites?

Christ as the Point of Reference

Alice C.  Linsley



A few readers have asked why I don't use B.C.E. instead of B.C.  The use of B.C.E. and C.E. is common in academia, but not a single reader of Just Genesis has expressed offense at my use of B.C and A.D., even those who are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist.

Last week the BBC announced that it would use the politically correct B.C.E and C.E.  The only surprise here is that it took the BBC so long to make that decision. I suppose the British tend to preserve tradition more than the Americans.

I agree with Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali who said, “These changes are unnecessary... Whether you use Common Era or Anno Domini, the date is still the same and the reference point is still the birth of Jesus Christ.”

Read about the BBC's decision here.



Political correctness is motivated by concern for diversity and by fear that someone might be offended and sue.  Linguistically, it is a nightmare because it layers our discourse with unnecessary verbage.  Almost always, PC talk makes Man the point of reference. 

EgyptSearch Forums Discovers Just Genesis

I often visit EgyptSearch Forums because good information is shared there about the ancient Egyptians and their language.  I especially appreciate what Dr. Clyde A. Winters has to say.  He is generous with his time and his information, and he has done the research necessary to qualify as an expert on the subject.

Dr. Winters was the subject of conversation this summer on Hood Canal (Washington) when I visited with my friend and fellow biblical anthropologist Susan Burns. She follows his research also.

Today, someone at EgyptSearch Forums discovered Just Genesis and I'm glad that they are finding the material interesting and helpful.

Read the conversation here.



 

The Problem with Dispensationalism

Alice C. Linsley


The Scofield Bible, which has greatly influenced conservative American Protestants, defines a dispensation in the subhead to Genesis 1:28: “A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect to obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God.” Scofield is not speaking here of the testing of individuals such as Cain, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph. He is speaking of the general failure of mankind to love and serve God. Each of his seven dispensations ends with God punishing evildoers. As one reader of Just Genesis remarked here: "their theology creates a kind of finger-wagging Creator who can't wait to consign his creation to periodic perdition."

Further, Dispensationalism gives the false impression that God has made no progress with humanity. It  misses the obvious contrast between the beginning of Genesis and the end of Genesis. The book of Genesis ends with the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation in the story of Joseph and his brothers. It is the antithesis to the story of Cain killing his brother at the beginning of Genesis. Cain was jealous of God's blessings of Abel. It appeared to him that God favored his brother. Likewise, Joseph's brothers resented that their father favored Joseph. If we read Genesis as a story of conflict between brothers, we see spiritual progress from resentment and murder to forgiveness and reconciliation. Christians are to embody this higher ethic of forgiveness and reconciliation shown in Joseph. In this sense, Christianity represents progress.  This is the message God would have us hear, but it is distorted by dispensationalists who stress the continued spiritual degeneration of humanity.

Here is an example of the distortion of Dispensationalists: "The primary responsibility of man in the Noahic Covenant was to "be fruitful and multiply and REPLENISH THE EARTH," but in this also he miserably failed. The earth's population did rapidly increase after the flood, but all the people stayed near an area later known as Babel. God wanted man to scatter and repopulate the whole earth, not remain in one area. The failure of man to do this brought upon him another judgment." (From here.) 

The Tower of Babel story explains the linguistic division that occurred among the Afro-Asiatics before Abraham's time. It does not concern all the peoples of the earth. It also presents a criticism of Asiatic dualism, and it speaks of the contagion of sin, a problem not limited to the Afro-Asiatics.

The overarching theme of Scripture is the promise of a savior by whom the curse is reversed and Adam and Eve are set free. This is redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. There can be no remission without the shedding of His blood.  The blood can be traced through the Bible as the unbroken scarlet cord that ties all things together. In other words, all is restored to wholeness (oneness) in Jesus Christ and this is testimony of the Three Witnesses of I John 5.

Dispensationalism asks us to focus on various covenants and their signs: the rainbow, circumcision, the tower of Babel, etc. It teaches that God changes the way He rules at different stages of history. Focusing on the signs and mutibility of God rather than on the eternal immutable One to whom the signs point is a terrible distraction.

Instead of dispensations, let us speak of an historical continuum: those who lived and died in expectation of the appearing of the Son of God (BC saints) and those who live and die having trusted Jesus as the Son of God (AD saints). Together these saints are unified in Christ. That is the meaning of the "communion of saints."

On this continuum, the fulfillment of the promise of Genesis 3:15 is attested by three persons: Simeon the Priest (blood), Anna the Prophetess (Spirit) and John the Baptist (water).  In the ancient way of thinking, heavenly realities are observed as a reflection on earth, so that what is attested in heaven is also attested on earth. Simeon, Anna and John the Forerunner are the earthly witnesses of whom John speaks: "Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood - Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." (I John 5:5-8)

The three witnesses stand at the nexus of the two covenants and testify to Jesus, the promised Son of God, who came into the world to save repentant sinners and to restore Paradise. The central problem with Dispensationalism is that it tears this one seamless work of God into many pieces. Even the soldiers at the Cross had the sense to cast lots for Jesus' seamless robe rather than divide it between them.


Related reading:  God Has Made Progress with Us!

Evidence that Yaqtan was Abraham's Firstborn Son

Alice C. Linsley


Abraham had at least eight sons, probably nine, since the Septuagint states that Eliezar was Abraham's son by a concubine named Masek. 

Jews insist that Isaac was Abraham's firstborn son while Muslims insist that Ishmael was Abraham's firstborn son.  However, the evidence of Scripture indicates that Yaqtan (Joktan) was the first in the birth order of Abraham's nine sons. He was likely born before Sarah conceived Isaac and it may have been his birth to Abraham's second wife, Keturah, that prompted Sarah's attempt to gain a son by Hagar as a surrogate.

Hagar and Masek are to Abraham's household what the concubines Zilpah and Bilhah are to Jacob's household. If the biblical pattern is to be trusted, we may reasonably suspect that Hagar and Masek were the servants of Sarah and Keturah, just as Zilpah and Bilhah were the servants of Leah and Rachel (Gen. 30). That Masek was Keturah's servant is supported by the fact that the name Masek is still found among the south Arabian Mahra who dwell in Yemen, Oman and southern Saudi Arabia.

The Elder Yaqtan is the founder of the Yaqtanite (Jokanite) Tribes of Arabia. His name is a version of the name Jonathan, meaning "God gives." He would have been a contemporary of Terah who lived about 2091-2016 BC.  Abraham's son Yaqtan would have lived about 1987-1912 BC.

Yaqtan is the son that ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named.  This means that four of Abraham's ruling sons had names beginning with the letter Y:  Yitzak (Isaac), Yishmael (Ishmael), Yaqtan, and Yishbak (another son by Keturah). In the Hebrew system, the letter Y represents a tent peg, a symbol for a settlement or a clan. Each ruler had two main settlements, one ruled by this first wife, his half-sister, and the other ruled by his second wife, his cousin or niece.  These were positioned on a north-south axis. The Sun passed over both at the same time.

Before Hebrew emerged, the Y represented the sound of the letter H.  This was true for most of the older North Arabian scripts: Taymanitic, Thamudic B and D, Hismaic, Safaitic and Hasaitic. In modern Hebrew the letter Y represents the sounds v,o,u.  In biblical Hebrew the Y represents the sounds w,o,u, but the older North Arabian scripts had only the w sound and it was represented by a solar image, usually a sphere with one line or and X inside.  This indicates that names beginning with the image of the Sun were given to high rulers who were regarded as deified sons.

Here is a diagram of the Genesis Horim whose lines intermarried.  The diagram shows Yaqtan, Keturah's father, after whom she named Abraham's firstborn son.  While Isaac ruled Abraham's territory between Hebron  (Sarah's settlement) and Beersheba (Keturah's settlement), Yaqtan the Younger would have ruled over the territory of his maternal grandfather. Genesis 10:30 says that this territory stretched from Mesha, on the Gulf of Aqaba, all the way to the eastern mountain range of the Arabian Peninsula. 

Related reading:  7000 BC Horse Burial Linked to Sheba; Biblical Sheba and East African Settlements Linked; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites