Was Earth Repopulated After Noah's Flood?

Alice C. Linsley


My grandmother was a brilliant woman.  She read her Bible in Greek and Hebrew and spoke Telegu fluently.  She was born in India and lived there for the first 16 years of her life. Her experience of different cultures was considerable and she had a good anthropological sense.  I invite you to read more about her remarkable life here.

My older sister once asked my grandmother if all the peoples of the earth came from Noah's three sons after the flood.  Grandmother Linsley expressed her doubt that this was the case.  In doing so, she was not expressing an iota of doubt about the truth of the Bible.  She taught an adult Bible class every Sunday for more than 30 years and she believed that the Bible is trustworthy.  However, she recognized that some interpretations of Genesis fly against the evidence of globally dispersed populations before, during and after the time of Noah.

Noah lived approximately 2490-2415 BC, when the Sahara experienced a wet period (Karl W. Butzer 1966). This is the period of the Old Kingdom, a time of great cultural and technological achievement in Egypt. This places Noah and his sons in relatively recent history, not at the dawn of human existance. They ruled over territories during the 7th, 8th and 9th Dynasties in Egypt.

First Intermediate Period
2475-2445 BC: 7th - 8th Dynasties Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth and Kush

2445–2160 BC: 9th -10th Dynasties Nimrod, Arpachshad, Salah, Eber and Peleg and Joktan


Middle Kingdom
2160-2000 BC: 11th Dynasty Nahor, Terah and Abraham

2000-1788 BC: 12th Dynasty Jacob, Esau, Joseph


These were rulers over the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion which extended from Nigeria to India. Noah descendants did spread out of Africa. Genesis 10:8-12 tells us that Noah's great grandson Nimrod built an empire in the Tigris-Euphrates valley.  DNA studies have confirmed the Kushite migration out of Africa. However, there were already human populations scattered across the earth, especially at the more temporate zones. Some of those populations resulted from earlier migrations out of Africa. The first took place about 120,000 years ago and the second about 70,000 years ago.  The Kushite expansion coincided with the spread of the Horite religion by the Hapiru. In the proto-Saharan languages p is replaced by b so Hapiru also appears as Habiru.

The Hapiru were a caste of priests who served in the temple. A temple was considered the house—pirû—of the god, so Ha-piru referred to priests who served at the temple or water shrine. In the case of Abraham's people this referred the Horite priests, devotees of Horus, called "son of God." His emblem was the Sun. The ancient Dravidians referred to their east-oriented temples as Opiru, meaning "Sun House."

Some scholars believe that the Hapiru are related to the proto-Hebrew or Canaanite rulers who are listed in the 14th century Amarna Letters. In these letters, written in Akkadian script, the language of Nimrod's city of Akkad, the word Habiru is found among the Canaanite peoples. The name does not designate a tribal group or ethnicity, but rather a caste of priests who were dispersed among Afro-Arabian and Afro-Asiatic peoples.

Some of these priests were called "tera" among the Nilotic Ainu.  This is the origin of the name of Abraham's father, Terah. Among the Ainu of Japan tera refers to a temple.  The Ainu people of Japan are in haplotype D (Y-chromosome) and haplogroup X (mitochondrial chromosome). Their elders are bearded and have a red skin tone similar to Abraham's Horite (Edomite = red) people. Genesis 36 names Seir the Horite as a ruler of Edom. The Ainu migrated from the Nile to Japan, as did the black skin tone Onges and Jarawas who also belong to Haplotype D.



What was happening in Africa before Noah?

The evidence of archaic human industry, religion, ritual burial, and domesticity in Africa, Arabia and China creates a more accurate picture of the earlier populations.

On the Arabian Peninsula, the Qafzeh population was using tools125,000 years ago at Jebel Faya.

Humans were making reed mattresses 77,000 years ago in South Africa. That is where the oldest mattress— made from compacted grasses and leafy plants— was found at the Sibudu Cave site in KwaZulu-Natal (map).  In this same region a stone carving of a python has been found that dates to 70,000 years.

Tsodila Hills of Botswana
Photo credit: S. Coulson

There is the evidence of mining in South Africa between 80,000 to 100,000 years ago. These are major mining operations that included quarries and tunnels. It is estimated that a million kilos of red ocher ore was excavated from several mines. At one mine half a million stone-digging tools were found. The red ocher was ground to power and was used globally to bury rulers. Anthropologists agree that the red ocher symbolized blood. Apparently, it was connected to the people’s hope or expectation that the ruler might rise from the dead and lead his faithful people to immortality.

The Pengtoushan culture thrived along the Yangtze River between BC. 7500–6100, and the Yangshao culture flourished along the central Yellow River between BC. 5000 and 3000. Yangshao nobles wore silk garments. 

About 4000 years before Noah people were using dugouts to navigate the rivers of the Sahara. This is attested by the discovery of an 8000 year old black mohagany dugout in Dufuna in the Upper Yobe valley along the Komadugu Guna River in Northern Nigeria. This region was much wetter at the time that Noah and his sons ruled there.

8000 year old dugout found in the Sahara

Cemetaries were established which reveal ritual burial. Paul Sereno unearthed 10,000 year old skeletons at Gobero in Niger. These were buried on the edge of a paleolake on the northwestern rim of the Chad Basin. The Gobero site is the earliest known cemetery in the Sahara and the skeletons found there indicated that some were at least 6 feet tall.

Gobero skeleton (G3B8) measures 6 feet 6 inches
Photo (c) Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration

At the time of the Gobero populations (9700-4400 years ago), humans were dispersed globally, and during the time of Noah these populations were not destroyed. Consider the following population estimates by urban center between 2400 and 2200 BC, the time when Noah's flood would have occurred:

Memphis, Egypt - 32,000 inhabitants

Lagash, Iraq - 60,000 inhabitants

Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan - 40,000 inhabitants

Mari, Syria -50,000 inhabitants

Baodun settlements, China - Baodun is the largest settlement, covering an area of about 373 miles. There is no evidence of destruction by flooding though all six Baodun settlements straddled the Min River in central Sichuan province. The Min is a tributary of the upper Yangtze River.

There is no evidence that any of these peoples were wiped out by a worldwide flood   The evidence simply does not support the interpretation that all the peoples of the earth were destroyed in a catastrophic global flood and that the earth was repopulated by Noah's descendants.

As a fascinating side note, the oldest known zoological collection was discovered during excavations at Hierakonpolis or Nekhen in Sudan in 2009. This royal menagerie that dates to ca. 3500 BC and included hippos, hartebeest,elephants, baboons and wildcats. The story of Noah preserving a collection of animals is based on historical reality.

Related reading:  The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection, Answers to Questions About Noah's Flood; The Extent of Noah's Flood; False Assumption #3 of Young-Earth Creationists

Anglicanism and Spiritualism

Alice C. Linsley



Spiritualism (also called "Spiritism") seeks to connect the living and the dead through practices such as automatic writing and séances. The central belief is that the spirits of the dead reside in the spirit world and have the ability to communicate with the living through the agency of mediums. 

Spiritualism reached its peak growth in membership between the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in England and the United States.  By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe. It was promoted by such popular figures as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote a two volume "History of Spiritualism." Doyle was President of the London Spiritualist Alliance and President of the British College of Psychic Science.

In America Harry Houdini set out to debunk several acclaimed mediums in the 1920s. His debunking exploits were chronicled in his book, A Magician Among the Spirits. He was a member of a Scientific American committee that offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural powers, but the prize was never collected. Houdini debunked the mediums George Valentine and Mina Crandon. His activities cost Houdini the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Unfortunately, Houdini's wife Bess lent popularity to spiritualism by attempting to contact her dead husband every Halloween for ten years. Before Houdini died, he and his wife agreed that if Houdini found it possible to communicate after death, he would communicate the message "Rosabelle believe." This was a secret code they agreed to use. It was reported that Bess had a contact with her dead husband through the medium Arthur Ford in 1929, but Bess later claimed the incident had been faked.

In September 1967, Episcopal Bishop James Albert Pike participated in a televised séance with Arthur Ford, a Disciples of Christ minister. Pike detailed these experiences in his book The Other Side. Today a number of American mediums have association with the Episcopal Church. Margaret Duke and Psychic Joanna were both raised in the Episcopal Church. The Philadelphia Medium and Psychic Development Group meets on Sundays at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Levittown, Pennsylvania.

Spiritualism had early activist tendencies.  Since many of the leading spiritualists were females who felt resistance to women speaking in public, they also championed women's rights. These included Sarah and Angelina Grimke (sisters) and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Spiritualist speakers Amelia Colby Luther, Cora Richmond, Moses and Mattie Hull, and Wallace Hibbits spoke against slavery. Many of these were associated with Camp Chesterfield in Indiana.



Spiritualism and Anglicanism

In April 2002, Richard J. Mammana, Jr.'s review of Rene Kollar's book Searching for Raymond: Anglicanism, Spiritualism, and Bereavement Between the Two World Wars appeared in Touchstone Magazine. Because the English Reformers largely condemned any form of Prayer for the dead due to abuses in the Roman Church, the age old practice (still observed in the eastern churches) was mostly lost. This led to a pastoral crisis during the great wars when so many lost their lives. Mammana sets the stage for the review with this explanation:

Despite the heroic actions of dedicated priests in the trenches, a spiritual vacuum haunted many of the men who returned from the Great War. This vacuum likewise haunted the homes whose hearths they left empty when they died “over there.” Into this void stepped a series of religious fads, loosely based, as all heresies are, on some aspects of the Christian faith bent out of shape. Prominent laymen—among them Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—promoted the idea that spiritualism and Christianity were not by any means at odds, but rather were complementary and even essential to one another. Hungry audiences devoured the deception, and clergymen weak in their own understanding of Christian doctrine willingly adopted the relation as well.

The first Lambeth Conference after the Great War addressed itself in earnest to the challenges raised by “Some Movements Outside the Church,” including spiritualism, Christian Science, and Theosophy. This conference, the same one that condemned artificial methods of birth control, said that these movements “are clearly shewn to involve serious error” when “tried by the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Cross.” It “urge[d] strongly that a larger place should be given in the teaching of the Church to the explanation of the true grounds of Christian belief in eternal life, and in immortality, and of the true content of belief in the Communion of Saints as involving real fellowship with the departed through the love of God in Christ Jesus.” (Read the full review here.)

Archbishop William Cosmo Gordon Lang established a committee in 1937 “to discuss the relationship, if any, between spiritualism and the traditional teachings of the Anglican Church.” As Archbishop of Canterbury during the abdication of 1936, Archbishop Lang was faced with crisis upon crisis, not the least of which was the popularity of spiritualism. Although Archbishop Lang took a strong moral tone toward the failure of duty of Edward VIII in abdicating the throne, he reopened the question of spiritualism by forming the committee. One of the committee members was Evelyn Underhill, who later withdrew, stating that she was “very strongly opposed to spiritualism... especially to any tendency on the part of the Church to recognize or encourage it.”

The committee delivered its report in 1939, but its findings were not made public until 1979. (A similar delay took place with the 1922 Doctrine of the Church of England report which was not published until 1938.) As Mammana notes, "The “Conclusions of the Majority” reveal a shocking discovery of inherent value in spiritualist practices. One paragraph merits quotation without comment:

It is often held that the practice of Spiritualism is dangerous to the mental balance, as well as to the spiritual condition, of those who take part in it, and it is clearly true that there are cases where it has become obsessional in character. But it is very difficult to judge in these cases whether the uncritical and unwise type of temperament which does undoubtedly show itself in certain spiritualists is a result or a cause of their addiction to these practices. Psychologically it is probable that persons in a condition of mental disturbance, or lack of balance, would very naturally use the obvious opportunities afforded by Spiritualism as a means of expressing the repressed emotions which have caused their disorder. This indeed is true of Christianity itself, which frequently becomes an outlet, not only for cranks, but for persons who are definitely of unstable mentality.

They closed with the recommendation of a sort of ecumenism between the Church of England and the spiritualist movement: “It is in our opinion important that representatives of the Church should keep in touch with groups of intelligent persons who believe in Spiritualism.”


Related reading: Are Anglican Bishops Schimatics?; The Crisis of Authority in Anglicanism; Why Not Leave Anglicanism? by Dr. William G. Witt

The Anglican Circus

The Church of England will have women bishops and those who hold to the catholic faith and practice will have to lump it.

Black, white, gay, lesbian, male, female... anyone can be a priest or a bishop in western Anglicanism if they bow to the circus master, and that isn't Jesus Christ.

“When one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also.” – St. John Chrysostom

“The divine law indeed has excluded women from this ministry, but they endeavour to thrust themselves into it; and since they can effect nothing of themselves, they do all through the agency of others.” – St. John Chrysostom

Related reading:  What is Lost When Women Serve as Priests?; C.S. Lewis on "Priestesses in the Church"; Why Women Were Never Priests; God as Male Priest; What is a Priest?;  Women Priests: History and Theology by Patrick Henry Reardon

Are Anglican Bishops Schismatic?

Alice C. Linsley



That question has come up in response to my article "The Crisis of Authority in Anglicanism." It is evident that many Anglican bishops have set aside the doctrine and discipline of the Church and this has turned Anglicanism into a schismatic branch of Christianity. In this tragedy, the Episcopal Church bears a large portion of the shame, beginning at least as early as James Albert Pike.

Pike was charged with heresy three times, though the charges were dropped. Apparently, it was politics as usual in the Episcopal House of Bishops. In October 1966, he was formally censured by his fellow Bishops. This was the year his son James Jr. committed suicide.

Pike was never deposed by the House of Bishops though he rejected the Virgin Birth, the Trinity, and the doctrine of Hell.  He also supported the ordination of women and the acceptance of homosex. In December 1960, Pike had an essay published in Look in which he argued that the Church was no longer relevant for contemporary life.  He became a severe critic of the Church, her Tradition and the Bible.

Pike met the Christian apologist Elton Trueblood at a conference in Alaska and there was correspondance between the men in 1955. Trueblood taught Philosophy at Earlham College and mentions Pike's apostacy in his book The Company of the Committed.

James Albert Pike

Pike's Demise

In August 1969 Bishop James Pike and his third wife who he married in 1967, went to Israel to gather material for a book Pike was writing. The book was to present Pike's version of the origins of Christianity. On September 2nd they set out in a rented car for the wilderness where Jesus was tempted by the devil. After passing Herodion, Pike turned off on an unpaved track which he believed led north to Jericho. In fact, he was at the beginning of Wadi Mashash, leading east towards the Dead Sea. Soon the unpaved road ended where it had been washed out by flash floods. The Pikes tried to turn around, but the rear wheels of the car dropped into a deep rut. They couldn’t free the car and didn’t know how to use the jack. The Pikes abandoned the car after trying unsuccessfully to get it out of the rut. Then they walked for two hours until Bishop Pike was too exhausted to go on. They found a relatively flat rock under a bit of an overhang that gave them some shade. As the sun was setting, Diane Pike left her husband and continued walking. After some ten hours of climbing steep canyons in the moonlight, she stumbled onto the road being built between Ein Gedi and Ein Fashha. A security guard found her and she was taken to police authorities in Bethlehem. When they returned to the place where Diane had left her husband, they found the map that Diane had left with her husband but no clue as to where he had gone. Pike's Apostacy Pike was raised as a Roman Catholic and became an agnostic while attending the University of Santa Clara. After earning his Law degree, he worked in Washington D.C. After WWII, Pike and his second wife, Esther Yanovsky, joined the Episcopal Church.  He had met Esther while she was attending his law class at George Washington. He entered the Virginia Theological Seminary and then the Union Theological seminary. He was ordained in 1946, though he never renounced his agnosticism. In 1952 he became Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he used the pulpit to proclaim social reform. In 1958, following the death of Bishop Karl Morgan Block, Pike was consecrated the fifth Bishop of California.  Though he was originally from Oklahoma, Pike was never comfortable with the values of America's heartland.  He lived most of his adult life in the urban centers of the East and West and was clearly out of touch with the average Episcopalian. Pike's third marriage was to a woman about half his age.  He was 56 and she was 31. Diane Kennedy Pike was the executive director of a foundation that conducted research into life after death and paranormal experiences.  James and Diane collaborated on the book, "The Other Side: An Account of My Experience with Psychic Phenomena." The book tells of  Pike's dabbling in necromancy in an effort to establish contact with his son, James Jr., who committed suicide in a New York hotel in 1966. James Jr. was Pike's son by Esther Yanovsky. After three days of temperatures above 100 degrees, the hunt for Bishop Pike was called off. At a news conference, Mrs. Pike reported that the seer who had put her husband in contact with the spirit of his son had had a vision of him alive in a cave near the place Diane had left him. Off duty army scouts and local Beduoin searched for him, but his body was not found. On September 7th, James Pike's body was found. Pike was climbing a steep ascent in Wadi Mashash when he slipped and fell to his death.  He was buried in St. Peter's cemetery in Jaffa under a tamarisk tree.  Before his death in 1969, Pike announced that he and Diane were ending their affliation with the Episcopal Church and with all forms of organized religion.

Related reading:  The Modernist-Traditionalist Divide in Anglicanism; Impressions of the New American Anglicanism; Anglicanism and Spiritualism; Why Not Leave Anglicanism? A Followup by William G. Witt

Kushite Gold

Alice C. Linsley


Kush is first mentioned in the Bible as the father of Nimrod and Ramah. Kush and his sons were great rulers who controlled the water ways in their territories.  The rivers were used to transport cargo and supplied the necessary water for mining industries.  Kush was famous for gold, a fact to which Genesis alludes when speaking of the river Pishon that flowed through the land of Ha'vilah, where there is gold (Gen. 2:11). Another African river is the Gihon which wound through the land of Kush (Gen. 2:13).

Genesis 10 speaks of the migration of the Kushites into Mesopotamia. This is one of the later migrations out of Africa, between 3500 and 1500 BC. Nimrod (2290 and 2215 BC.) is noted in Genesis as one of the Kushite kingdom builders.  He and his brother Ramah were the sons of Kush.  Both moved out of the Nile Valley to establish territories; Ramah in Arabia and Nimrod in Mesopotamia.

The Kushites were a highly organized people, consisting of numerous clans and castes. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of their rulers drove their expansion into new territories.  They were skilled in hunting, combat, sailing, astronomy and metal working. Their rulers controlled the major water systems and founded early mining industries along the Nile and in southern Israel.

As Robert Morkot notes in his book The Black Pharoahs, the Upper and Lower Nile regions were first united by sub-Saharan Nilotes. The Subsequent history of Egypt was largely based on the religious and social practies of the Upper Nile. We see this as late as Amenhotep III. He ruled ruled Nubia, Libya, Gaza and Syria in the 18th Dynasty (BC. 1382 -1350).  His name means "peace of Amen."  In the Upper Nile, Amen, a name for God was favored over the name Set, which was favored in the Delta. It was during the 18th dynasty that the title 'King's Son of Kush' was first used.

The first rulers of a unified Nile Valley were Kushites. The Biblical prophets group Mizraim (Egypt) and Kush (Upper Nile/Sudan/Ethiopia) together because the Lower and Upper Nile regions were first unified by the Kushite ruler Menes (Meni) around 3000 BC.  Whether Menes was Narmer or Ahauiti, his unification of the Upper and Lower Nile established him as the founder of a new House/Dynasty. This remained the case even after Mentuhotep II reunited Egypt after the 1st Intermediate Period. Instead of being recognized as the founder of a new House, Mentuhotep II was considered a ruler of the 11th Dynasty.

Another Kushite ruler was called K-ash-ta, meaning "the Throne of Kush." The Saharan origins of the rulers of Egypt has been well documented by the Canadian archeologist Mary McDonald.

Biblical Kush was a vast region that included Egypt, Sudan, Nubia, the coastal areas of the Horn of Africa, and the Afro-Arabian populations living in Ramah, Sheba and Dedan. DNA studies show "genetic unity and linkage" between the Sudanic, Egyptian, Nubian and other Nilotic peoples, as well as some populations of the Horn of Africa. (Yurco (1996), Keita (1993, 2004, 2005) Lovell (1999), Zakrewski (2003, 2007). The Copts are one of the oldest Egyptian populations. This is based on the relatively high frequency of the B-M60 marker, indicating early pre-dynastic colonization of Egypt by Nilotics.



Kushite Mining Operations


In 2007, archaeologists from the Oriental Institute discovered a 4000 year gold-processing center along the middle Nile in the Sudan. The site is called Hosh el-Guruf and is located about 225 miles from Khartoum.  More than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss were found at the site. The ore was ground to recover the gold and the water was used to separate the flakes from the particle residue. Similar grinding stones have been found in Egypt and at Timnah in southern Israel.

The oldest mines at Timnah are at least 6,000 years old. The miners at Timnah recovered tourquoise and copper. They followed ore veins underground and created shafts with stone chiseling tools. These galleries spread in all directions, following the ore.  The mines were worked by Kushite metal working clans between 2000 to 1500 BC.  Ancient rock carvings showing Kushite warriors in chariots, holding axes and shields have been found in the area. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timnah by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University.  In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

The gold mines of Kush (later called Nubia) were described by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus. He mentions fire-setting as a method used to break down the hard rock. The ore was then ground to a fine powder before washing. The process required a substantial source of water such a river. Mining operations found in desert areas suggest that there was more water during the time of the Kushite expansion.



The Kushites Reflect Proto-Saharan Burial Practices

Workmen clear the surface of a second-millennium cemetery discovered by Geoff Emberling's team.  The site is now flooded by a massive dam. (Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition)

Geoff Emberling, Director of the Oriental Institute Museum and a co-leader of the expedition that discovered the gold working operation at Hosh el-Guruf, reported that his team also discovered a cemetery with Kushite artifacts at the nearby site al-Widay. These included high-status pottery vessels that appear to have been made at Kerma, about 225 miles away. 

Kerma was one of the most important centers of ancient Kush. Excavations at Kerma have uncovered a walled town surrounding a monumental mud-brick temple. In a royal cemetery to the east, four massive grave tumuli contained several hundred human remains. The remains were surrounded by thousands of cattle skulls. This was a common burial practice among to the Proto-Saharan peoples.

The cemetery near Hosh el-Guruf included 90 closely packed stone circles. The covered shafts were circular and lined with stones, a typical feature of the Pan Graves of Proto-Saharan nobility. Pan Grave cemeteries have been found at a number of sites in Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia. These graves are associated with the Beja, an ancient metal working people of the Sahara. The Egyptians called them "Medjayu." They brought gold to Egypt from mines deep in the heartland of Nubia and Kush. At the Temple at Dendur in Nubia the sons of a local Beja chieftain, Pedisi and Pihor, are honored. Ped-isi refers to Hathor who was later called Isis, and Pi-hor refers to Horus.

In the first room of the Dendur temple, reliefs show the ruler praying. The middle room was used for offering ceremonies and the inner most room was the sanctuary of Hathor/Isis. The only carvings in these two rooms are around the door frame leading into the sanctuary and on the back wall of the sanctuary. These show Pihor worshiping Isis and Pedesi worshiping Horus.

 

 

The Kushite Cities of Kerma, Nekhen, and Akkad

Temple precinct of Kerma

The oldest layer of occupation at Hosh el-Guruf dates to the later Neolithic period (ca. 4000-3000 BC.) and corresponds to the urban center at Nekhen, the shrine city of Horus. His mother, Hathor, was venerated as the patroness of metal workers. The Kushite center at Kerma, by comparison, dates from 2450-2000 BC.

The rulers of Nekhen had access to sub-Saharan the mineral resources of the eastern desert. The high quality of the gold work at Nekhen is evidenced by the discovery of this gold plumed falcon representing Horus.

The mining center at Hosh el-Guruf and the nearby cemetery document the sub-Saharan kingdom of Kush, but the book of Genesis provides the most significant information about the Kushite expansion into Arabia, Canaan and Mesopotamia.  It tells us that Kushite rulers moved out of Africa and became established in distant regions. Nimrod is mentioned as a specific example. The center of his kingdom was Akkad and the script of his kingdom was Akkadian.

Genesis helps us to connect the dots historically.  Unfortunately, many archaeologists ignore such valuable information. The result is a great deal of mis-information such as this statement by Emberling: “The Kingdom of Kush was unusual in that it was able to use the tools of power—military and governance—without having a system of writing, an extensive bureaucracy or numerous urban centers.”

Emberling adds to this distorted picture with this statement: “Studying Kush helps scholars have a better idea of what statehood meant in an ancient context outside such established power centers of Egypt and Mesopotamia.” Statehood would have been a foreign notion to the Kushites.  They were empire builders and the evidence points to the power centers of Egypt and Mesopotamia as owing a great debt to the Kushites.




The Linguistic Connection

The Afro-Asiatic languages have four geographical groups: northern peripheral, northern central, southern central, and southern peripheral. Akkadian and Amorite are in the northern peripheral group. The northern central group includes the ancient Canaanite, Ugaritic, ancient and modern Syriac and Hebrew, Moabite, Old Aramaic, Amorite, and Phoenician and its Punic dialect. The southern central region includes Arabic, Maltese, and the archaic Oasis North Arabian dialects, some of the earliest attested belonging to the group. The southern peripheral region includes South Arabian dialects and the languages of northern Ethiopia.

GOLD

Ancient Egyptian - nub
Akkadian - dahh-ubu
Arabic - dha-hab
Hebrew - za-hab


Gold was associated with Horus, whose emblem was the sun. This is evident in the Babylonian word for gold hur-asu.  The Egyptian hr means "the One on high." The Turin Canon, which provides important information on Egypt's early history, describes the Predynastic rulers as "Followers of Horus" and Horus as the "Ruler of the Two Horizons."

The ancient Egyptians observed the death of Horus (Osirus) in a 5-day festival. The first 3 days were marked by solemnity and fasting, as Plutarch noted in Isis and Osiris, 69.  His death on the 17th of Athyr was commemorated by the planting of grain. On the third day, the 19th of Athyr, there was feasting to celebrate Horus’ rising to life. It is no coincidence that Jesus alludes to the ancient Horite myth when informing his disciples of his impending death.  He said, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." (John 12:24)  In referring to himself as the "Seed" Jesus alludes to the promise God made to Abraham's Edenic ancestors that the Seed of the Woman would one day crush the serpent's head and restore paradise (Gen. 3:15).

Related reading: A Scienific Timeline of Genesis; The Gold of Kush; Biblical Sheba and East African Settlements Linked; Who Were the Kushites?; The Gold of Ophir; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; Osiris and Dionysus Foreshadow Christ; The Religion of Tamar of Timnah

Ket-Navajo Connection in the News

Alice C. Linsley


This 2008 study showed that Ket, spoken in Siberia, and Na-Dene, the language of the Navajo, are cognate languages. Another study that traces the connection based on DNA has been reported at Science Daily.

Linguistic evidence indicates that the Yeniseian family of languages, spoken in central Siberia, is most
closely related to the Na-Dene family of languages spoken, for the most part, in northwestern North America. This hypothesis locates the source of one of the three migrations responsible for the peopling of the Americas.

These reports indicate that some native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and the American southwest came from Asia. This is not new information among anthropologists or linguists. What is new information is the migration of the Nilotic Ainu. The Ainu did not come across the Bering Strait. They came through Finland, Greenland and Labrador to Eastern Canada. Why is this not grabbing media attention?

Many native peoples of the Atlantic coast of North America migrated from the Nile Valley, via Finland, Greenland and Labrador. These are the Ainu, a seafaring people who also went to Japan. The Ainu are at the center of Cavalli-Sforza's genetic distance chart, which is what we might expect from such an early migration out of Africa.

The Ainu are connected to Abraham's ancestors. Abraham's father held the title Tera which meant "priest" among the royal Ainu of the Upper Nile. Tera-neter means priest of  God. The name is associated with Het-u temples. Genesis 10 lists Het as a descendant of Noah. Het and Sidon are indicated as the original inhabitants of Canaan.


Related reading:  The Orign of the Na-Dene; Navajo and Ket are Cognate Languages; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; A Kindling of Ancient Memory

False Assumption #3 of Young Earth Creationists

Alice C. Linsley



This continues the series on "False Assumptions of Young Earth Creationists."

False Assumption 1:  Genesis is history and should be read as a chronological account

False Assumption 2:  The Genesis “begats” list the first people living on Earth



False Assumption 3:  Bishop Ussher's timeline is reliable and can be used to calculate the age of the Earth.

Young Earth Creationists use Archbishop James Ussher’s chronology to date the age of the Earth. Ussher assumed that the "begats" were the first living people on earth. Instead these early rulers of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion lived within the historical period and their reigns correspond to early Egyptian dynasties.


First Intermediate Period
2475-2445 BC: 7th - 8th Dynasties Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth and Kush

2445–2160 BC: 9th -10th Dynasties Nimrod, Arpachshad, Salah, Eber and Peleg and Joktan


Middle Kingdom
2160-2000 BC: 11th Dynasty Nahor, Terah and Abraham

2000-1788 BC: 12th Dynasty Jacob, Esau, Joseph


The Afro-Asiatic Dominion was essentially Kushitic and a vehicle for the diffusion of Horite religion. Dr Christopher Ehret confirms this in his "History in Africa." He writes, "The linguistic, genetic, and archaeological evidence combine in locating the origins of this family far south in Africa, in Eritrea or Ethiopia, and not at all in Asia. A complex array of lexical evidence confirms that the proto-Afrasian society belonged to the pre-agricultural eras of human history." (p.4)

Beginning with François Lenormant, the Kushite expansion into ancient Sumer/Chaldea has been well-documented. In Sumerian inscriptions the Kushites were called Meluha Kasi.  Nimrod, the son a Kush built a geat empire in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley.  He is known in history as Sar-gon the Great. Sar-gon is a title meaning "High King" or "King of Kings." The Elamite word for king is sunki, a cognate of the Hausa sarki, meaning king or ruler. The Sumerian word for king is sar and the Chadic word for ruler is gon.

Sargon the Great lived from about 2290 to 2215 BC, which is when his son Rimush (Ramesh) by his sister-wife ascended the throne. Alternative dates for Sargon the Great are 2360-2279, but these dates likely refer to his maternal grandfather after whom he was named. It was Sargon the Elder, not Sargon the Great, who conquered Nippur in 2340 B.C. and established his capital in Accad (Agade/Agadez).



Timeline of Rulers in Genesis

B.C. 2490-2415 - Noah lived when the Sahara experienced a wet period (Karl W. Butzer 1966)

B.C. 2438-2363 - Ham, son of Noah by his cousin-wife

B.C. 2417-2342 - Kush, son of Ham and the father of Nimrod and Ramah

B.C. 2290-2215 - Nimrod

B.C. 2238-2163 - Arpacshad, Nimrod's son by Asshur's daughter (of Ar clans)

B.C. 2217-2042 - Salah, likely Arpacshad's son by his sister wife.

B.C. 2196-2121 - Eber, likely Salah's son by his sister wife.

B.C. 2175-2100 - Peleg, son of Eber (Peleg's brother was Joktan the Elder.)

B.C. 2154-2079 - Reu (The name appears in Leah's line. She named her first-born son Reu-ben.)

B.C. 2133-2058 - Serug, likely Reu's firstborn by his sister wife.

B.C. 2112-2037 - Nahor, likely Serug's firstborn by his sister wife.

B.C. 2091-2016 - Terah, likely Nahor's firstborn by his sister wife.

B.C. 2039-1964 - Abraham, Terah's son by his cousin wife.

B.C. 1987-1912 - Joktan, Abraham's firstborn son by his cousin wife, Keturah.




Lists are Regnal, Not Generational

Ussher didn’t recognize that the Genesis genealogies are regnal, not generational. The begats cannot be used to count generations because they are king lists and some kings ruled simultaneously.  Others ruled for short periods, and still others ruled for longer than a generation (40 years). Further, some of the king lists are telescopic.  These do not list every ruler.

Only Ascending Sons are Listed

Ussher was unaware of the marriage and ascendency structure of the Horite rulers whereby each ruler had two wives and two firstborn sons. Ussher's timeline is flawed because he failed to take this into consideration.

The marriage and ascendancy structure was clearly well established among these powerful rulers, indicating that they had been in power long before Noah's time. The oldest known site of Horite religion at Nehken dates to about 4000 B.C. and reflects a high level of technological and cultural achievement.

Menes is credited with first uniting the Upper and Lower Nile peoples into one Kingdom. He wore the double crown to show that he was sovereign over both regions. The serekh surrounding his name is surmounted by the falcon, the totem of Horus. Horus was called “son of God” at Nekhen.

At the Horus temple of Nekhen, votive instruments were ten times larger than the mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite priests placed invocations to the Creator at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. Likely, this is the origin of the sun blessings in Hinduism (the Agnihotra morning ritual) and in Judaism (the Birka Hachama, or “Sun Blessing” ritual performed every 28 years).




The Pattern of Two Wives and Two Sons


Horite rulers maintained two wives in separate households on a north-south axis. The ruler's first wife was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second wife was a patrilineal cousin or niece (as was Keturah to Abraham). The firstborn son of the half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. So Isaac ascended to the throne of Abraham. The firstborn son of the patrilineal cousin or niece bride ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. So Abraham's son Joktan ascended to the throne of Joktan's the elder, his maternal grandfather.

The maternal grandfather would have had a sister wife and her firstborn son ruled, but not on the throne to which the cousin bride's firstborn son ascended. There was a hierarchy of chiefs, vassals and kings. Chiefs were placed over the separate settlements and the king would have maintained a residence with a shrine or temple at the sacred center between the two wives' settlements.

All other sons were given gifts of camels, jewelry, flocks, herds and servants and sent away to conquer settlements and build territories for themselves. The importance of these "sent-away sons" as a driving factor in Kushite expansion should not be overlooked.

This pattern is evident in the case of the Kushite kingdom-builder Nimrod. Nimrod, one of Abraham's ancestors, is an example. He was ethnically Kushite but was probably sent away from his older brother Ramah whose territory was in northern Arabia. This explains why he regarded his mother as "lowly." She would have been a woman of less wealth and status than the wife of Ramah, Kush's the firstborn son. After numerous conquests, Nimrod’s territory was far greater than his brother’s. It extended the length of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and within this territory there were three principal cities: Babel, Erech and Accad in the plain of Shinar (Gen. 10:10). The script used to communicate across Nimrod’s empire was Akkadian. It has close affinity to the languages of the Nile Valley.





Titles, not Proper Names


Ussher did not take into consideration is that Kushite rulers, like Egyptian rulers, did not name their biological fathers in their king lists. This explains why many of the names are titles of royal persons ratehr than proper names.  Enoch means "one to follow" or "one who replaces." It is a royal title.

The title Terah (Tera) means "priest."  Abraham's father was Terah and he was associated with the royal Ainu of the Upper Nile. Tera-neter means "one devoted to God."  The title is associated with Het-u temples. The Het are listed in Genesis 10 as descendants of Noah's grandsons Sidon and Het and were inhabitants of Canaan.  (The dispersion of the Nilotic Ainu has been well documented at this blog.)

The Kushites believed that the ruler-priest was the son of Re or Ammon whose emblem was the sun. The Pharaoh was called "son of Re" which is why Egyptian texts never mention the king's earthly father. Kingship was rather a manifestation of the solar deity's overshadowing of noble women. Sargon the Great claimed not to know his father. He based his authority to rule on the suggestion that he was conceived according to the Horite myth of miraculous virgin conception.  The proof of the ruler's diety was his resurrection from the dead.  Sargon stayed dead, as did all the rulers of Egypt and Mespotamia.  However, Jesus Christ, a descendant of their royal lines, did indeed rise from the dead and his rising was verified by many eye witnesses. 




Related reading:  Who Were the Kushites?; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Kushite Kings and the Kingdom of God

The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection

The following is a fascinating conversation with Judith Hishikawa about the Ainu. Judith is a former volunteer for missions with the Episcopal Church in Japan. She graduated from Middlebury College with High Honors in Anthropology-Sociology. Her honors thesis was on North American Trickster myths.


Alice C. Linsley

We began the conversation after she read an article that mentions the Ainu at Biblical Anthropology on “The Bible and the Question of Race.” Judith contacted me with some questions about the Ainu. She is familiar with the Ainu of Japan, but was not familiar with their Nilotic ancestors.


Judith,

If Abraham's Ainu ancestors spread far and wide as Genesis 10 reports, we would expect them to be an early stock from which many other peoples come. This has been confirmed by Luigi Cavalli-Sforza's genetic distance studies which places the Ainu at the center.

The Ainu originated in the Nile Valley and migrated eastward as far as Japan and northward to Finland. From Finland, they crossed through Greenland and Labrador to the eastern seaboard of Canada. Today many Ainu descendants live in the fishing communities of northeast Canada. They are known to be excellent hunters. Some are called MicMak.

The Matagi hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan have much in common with the bear cult of the Ainu. When I think of hunting, I recall two of Abraham's ancestors who were remembered for their hunting prowess: Nimrod, the son of Kush, and Esau who was said to be hairy and red.

The Arawa hunters in Niger and of ancient Kush are called maharba. This is the same word used for hunter among the Maori Arawa.

My Ainu friend from Canada tells me that the Ainu have a red skin tone and are bearded. Some have green eyes. The red skin hue may appear as rosey cheeks or a reddish tone over tanned skin like that of Egyptians who work in the sun (I Sam. 16:12; 17:42). King David was described as having this red skin tone. The Hebrew word for red or ruddy is edom. Edom is equivalent to the Hausa odum, meaning red-brown and to the word Adam, the first man formed from the red clay which washed down to the Upper Nile Valley from the Ethiopian highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic Cambisols have a strong red brown color.

Abraham means “burnt father” and refers to his reddish skin color. In Arabic, the word ham means burnt. The Nilotic peoples were referred to burnt because they had a reddish skin tone.


Best wishes,

Alice C. Linsley





Alice,

What about a connection with early people living in the north of Europe? The early Finnish were bear-worshippers like the Ainu of Japan.

None of the Ainu I knew seemed reddish in hue, as I recall. Although the Ainu I met in Hokkaido in the 1960's on a church work camp were not pure Ainu. As a volunteer for missions, we were helping rebuild an Ainu church.

In Japan, the Japanese I talked to thought of the Ainu as Caucasian in appearance. Ainu have angular faces, paler skin, deep eye sockets, are hairy, and hunted. Not Buddhist at all. They are often referred to in literature as the "hairy Ainu." Their faces contrast with the smooth, rounded, less hairy Asian faces of southern Japanese, many of whom can't grow a full beard. My brother-in-law, a Shinto Priest at Ise Shrine, was from Aomori Prefecture in Northern Honshu. He didn't look "Japanese" at all. He looked very Ainu with his square angular face, full mustache, sunken eyes and pale skin. I bet he was in that haploid group mentioned. The Ainu were once settled in Northern Honshu, but were later driven out to Hokkaido across the straits. Zenichiro Oniisan burned readily in the summer sun, and always wore a hat.

Regards,

Judith Hishikawa



Judith,

The Ainu of Japan and the Ainu who crossed into North America through Finland, Greenland and Labrador are in the same haplogroup. In the northern climates the bear appears to have been their totem, but in the Nile, their totem was probably the lion.

The red skin tone is not always pronounced, but other characteristics, such as beards, distinctive headwear and decorative motifs on the robes are evident among all the Ainu men. Compare these photos.

Ainu of Eastern Canada

Ainu elder of Hokkaido Japan

The Ainu are in mtDNA haplogroup X. The dispersion of haplogroup X is shown below. The greatest concentrations are indicated by the darker shade. MtDNA traces lineage by the mitochondria, received from the mothers.

Note the small dot in Southern Siberia.  This is the only known archaic HgX population in that entire region, indicating that the Ainu did not come to North America across the Bering Strait.

Best wishes,
Alice



Alice,

Also, about the Ainu motifs, these share traits with the motifs of the Northwest Coast peoples and the Maori.

Regards,
Judith



Judith,

That doesn’t surprise me. Those motifs are similar also to those found among the fishing communities in Eastern Canada, Labrador and Greenland. That is where the Ainu crossed over to North America from Finland, and originally from the Nile Valley.

A friend from Niger recently called to my attention to the discover of twin pyramids in Tanout Niger.  He said that in discussion about Hausa origins the connection between the Arawa of Niger and the Arawa-Maori of New Zealand was noted. He explained that the Songhaï (Zarma) people are called called "Maori" in Niger and both groups of Arawa claim a common ancestor named "Tama."  He notes also that the names of many Maori towns sound Hausa example: Arawa, Gizo, Buka etc.

It is reasonable to speculate that a confederation of Ar clans traveled across the seas.  Genesis 10 speaks of the clans of Ar who controlled the Red Sea and the Mediterranean island kingdoms of Tyre and Arvad. These were seafaring people. This appears to be a typical Kushite 3-clan confederation, consisting of Ar, Arvd and Arkt. The last two clans are called “Arvadites” and “Arkites” in Genesis 10:15-18. They are the peoples of Sidon and, with other clans living in Canaan, are classified as under the general label “Canaanite.” They spread eastward with the Kushite expansion. Their Mesopotamian kin are called "Arameans" in the Bible.


The Ainu are fascinating and rightly can be called a "first people," but there is still much to learn about them. Were they the predecessors of the Ar clans?

Does your brother-in-law speak English? I would love to communicate with him. Might he be willing to share some of the stories about the Ainu?

Also this shrine you mention... Ise reminds me of Isis or Hathor, the mother of Horus who was called "Son of God" among Abraham's Horite ancestors. This appears to be the origin of Messianic expectation, long before the Jews emerged in history as a distinct people.


Best wishes,

Alice




Alice,


I'm afraid that my brother-in-law has passed away. Ise Shrine is the most important Shinto Shrine in Japan as it is the one dedicated to the ancestors of the Imperial family. It is dedicated to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu-o-mi-kami, the mythological founder. (The god who lights up heaven) This area of Japan is still thought of as an area where women are very strong. It was once a matrilineal society.

One of the shrine's functions was as an agricultural guide, telling people when to plant what etc. My brother-in-law was in charge of their agricultural museum for a while.

It is where people go to pray at New Years for a good year to come. Babies are taken for a blessing, and thank you. I was told by my mother-in-law that engaged couples shouldn't go there because Amaterrasu-o-mi-kani would get jealous and break up the marriage!

There is a forest preserve around the shrine that has been a natural forest since ancient times, something very rare in Japan. There are many lesser Shrines around the main one, all in the forest. The architecture is like southwest Asian style. The main buildings are rebuilt every 20 years, so they are always fresh and new.

The shrine is a small rather modest structure with a white cloth and scared paper hanging in front blowing in the breeze. There is nothing inside usually, although some have an emblem of the deity. You go and pay your respects by first cleaning your hands and mouth at a watering place, then you sprinkle salt as a purifier on the ground in front of the shrine, and you clap your hand three times to get the attention of the deities, (some places have a rope and bell) and you silently make your case: thanks, requests, whatever, bowing your head.

People who earn their living by gathering seaweed to sell, or making silk, or anyone who depends on a product of nature for their livelihood, take offerings to the shrine to thank the deities for nature's blessing.

We always liked that part because brother-in-law would bring home his share of the seaweed and we got to eat it, usually in miso soup, and I have a lovely pink kimono that my sister-in-law had dyed for me from a roll of white silk that had been a thank-offering.

The priests make a new fire every morning using the old techniques of bow and stick and tinder, brother-in -law was good at that. They also pray for peace in the world at the same time. Neat place!

There are special chickens, called "Phoenix Chickens" in English which roam around the shrine ground. They are the messengers of the Sun Goddess. I've seen carved Roosters on the top of a wooden church in Bergen, Norway. They seem to know when to crow, don't they!

The origin of the name ISE is not clear, but it was a place name long before writing came to Japan in the 800s, along with Buddhism. I can tell you that the name "ISE" is an old one from a time of oral language only. The Chinese character that was chosen for the "I" part means "that one" and is used in other contexts in combination for "dandy' "showy dresser" etc. The "SE" part uses a character that stands for "energy," "influence," "power," "military power," "might" and is used in combination for words like "influential family."

As for sun worship, when I went to Japan in the 1960s, I saw older country people get up and bow to the sun and saying a prayer with their hands held up together in front of them. When I asked, it was dismissed as something old people did. Native Americans in the southwest do the same thing, or so I have read.

Judith




Judith,

The veneration of the sun is extremely ancient. Among Abraham's Nilotic ancestors the sun was regarded as the emblem of the Creator and sometimes shown as the Deity's solar boat.  In some images, such as this one found at Anghor Wat, Horus appears in the form of a falcon flying above the sun.

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

The practices you describe are common in Africa. If the Ainu came to Japan from the Nile, this should not surprise us. I asked about Ise because the name reminded me of Ishtar and Isis. Earlier she was called Hathor among the Proto-Saharan and Nilotic Ainu. Abraham's father was Terah (Tera) and his name was associated with the royal Ainu of the Upper Nile. Tera-neter means one devoted to God. Tera indicates a priest and ntr refers to God. The name is associated with Het-u temples. The Het lived well after the time of the Patriarchs. In Genesis 10 they are listed as Noah's descendants by his grandsons Sidon and Het and are indicated as the original inhabitants of Canaan.

The Proto-Saharan word for throne is es or is. It is associated with serpents. The proto-root for vein, river, tongue, sinew, lightening and serpent was NS. Originally, the S would have been a pictograph representing a serpent or anything serpentine. It also indicates "great" and can mean "Man" (Egyptian - sa), and throne (Proto-Saharan es or is). The serpent was a sacred symbol to the Kushites, especially to the metalworking clans such as the Hittites of Anatolia who called themselves Nes.

With kind regards,

Alice

Alice,

Hum... in current Japanese, "tera" is the word used for "temple" as in Buddhist Temple. A throne is not an original Japanese concept. Rulers sat on a higher tatami mat or higher floor part, or one closer to the center of the room in the back. Snakes, as far as I can tell, are just used for medicine and are often thought of in a benevolent way. They help the farmers by eating rats and mice. We had an aodaisho, a large black-blue snake in our neighborhood, and I was directed to treat it with respect because of it's age and usefulness. It was round and quite long and went about it's business undisturbed until it found its way into the cage of the baby parakeets that the manager's wife had left hanging on her eaves when she went shopping. What a scream she let out! I went over to help. Our friendly neighborhood snake had gotten itself into the cage and eaten so many baby parakeets that it couldn't get out. I was going to take it down for her and open the door to let it out, but she wanted to wait until her husband came home. In any case, the snake was let loose again.

I don't remember any snake motifs around shrines. People did catch them and make snake wine, though.

The Japanese word for snake is "hebi." The Egyptian sign for river is very similar to the Chinese character for river. The Egyptian one looks like a "W". The Chinese character is three vertical lines in a row, the last being longer. If you let your brush touch the page lightly between strokes, it can look like "W". "River" is "kawa", "vein" is "joumyaku', "tongue" is "shita", "sinew" is "tsuji", lightening is "kaminari."  Kaminari can be translated as "from the gods" or "the gods are up to something" or simply "from above." Terasu is "to shine."

Judith

Judith,

The sinew that the angel touched on Jacob’s thigh is called gid ha'nasheh in Hebrew. There is a relationship between nasheh and nahushtan, the bronze serpent on Moses' rod. Reeds, sinews, veins, lightening and rivers are like serpents. It is easy to see how prehistoric man might have thought of lightening as God's serpent. Where it struck there was a connection between heaven and earth. That place would be considered the sacred center, just as the Nile was the sacred center between the Pole Star and the rising sun, and the Jordan was the sacred center between M-nasheh/Ephraim and M-nasheh/Gad.

In the older Proto-Saharan languages spoken by Abraham's Kushite ancestors, N at the end of the word designates the plural form. Appa is father, but appan means fathers. When N comes at the beginning of the word, it refers to God, as in the Egyptian ntr. The original root for vein, river, serpent, sinew and lightening was probably NS. It would have represented the idea of connection between heaven and earth, and between God and man.

Best wishes,
Alice




Alice,


Such interesting topics! The origin myth of Amaterasu-o-mi-kami has her parents, Izanagi and Iznami, who are the progenitors of all the gods, standing on the "bridge of heaven" (a rainbow) and stirring the ocean with a long pole. The places where they stirred the bottom up became the 8 main islands of Japan. If you remember the opening ceremonies for the Nagano Olympics, you will remember that the world was shown the ancient art of raising a large pole using ropes. Such a pole could be used in building a large structure. When Izanagi and Isanami were married, they walked around the main pole. As the story goes, Izanami, the female, was too anxious for the union and she walked around and met Izanagi first. This was considered inappropriate, and they had to do it over again. The gaikokubashira or main pole of a house, is a term used to describe someone who quietly supports the people around them. In a traditional Japanese house, there is a raised platform half-way across the back of the parlor, the zashiki or receiving room. This platform is about 8 inches high and usually there are sliding doors and a storage area over it under the ceiling. This is the place of honor in a home where you hang a scroll to match the season and put a flower arrangement and maybe a special ornament. This tokonoma has a decorative pole to the right of it that is made of special wood, highly polished and given respect. There are many grades of wood used for this supporting pole and the trees used are specially grown for this purpose.

The Japanese language consists of consonant-vowel syllables, except for the N sound which only comes at the end of a word. The N sound in Japanese can come at the beginning of a word as part of a consonant+vowel syllable. When it stands alone, it can only come at the end. Generally speaking plurals are not always given, but understood. When necessary for clarity, there are word endings which can be added depending on the type of word. I remember distinctly getting a letter from school in which I was asked to provide my daughter with hakko for a kindergarten project. So I went and got a special kind of soap that came in a very pretty little box, when actually they wanted all sorts of used boxes for the children to tape together and make whatever object they wanted. Sigh!

Father is ottosan, or more formally in the old style chichiue. As for the connection between heaven and earth, that was provided when Amaterasu-o-mi-kami came down to live in Ise in human form. The gods are not far away. You can go to any shrine and talk to them anytime you want to. You don't have to wait for Sunday services, or pay for special sacred dances, or musical performances, or shrine festivals. Shinto shines are everywhere, sort of ''fast-food" gods, ready at our convenience. The inari jinja are special shrines to the fox god who is clever and good for merchants and shop keepers. You can find them near busy shopping streets. There are local shrines to a multitude of gods. You name it, somewhere there is a shrine to it. Natural objects, like a pine tree, for instance, that is especially old and has weathered many storms, can be inspirational. Such a tree will have a shimenawa or sacred rope with sacred paper streamers attached to it to show respect for the courage of the tree. Especially noted rock formations will have shimenawa, or waterfalls.

In modern American, we had "The Old Man of the Mountains" in New Hampshire, for example that was made much of, or Walden Pond. Natural caves and land bridges are admired and turned into parks. We admire the "handiwork."

All the best!

Judith



Alice,

Reflecting some more on matrilinial families, that tendency is still present in modern Japanese society.  I know that the Emperor only has a daughter and the authorities are dithering about succession, that's a whole story in itself.  If they looked to the past they would not dither.

Anyway, if in modern Japanese society, you have property, let's say, and only a daughter to inherit, you can adopt a male legally, and he will change his family name and marry your daughter.  He'll marry in. This is usually a second son who didn't inherit.  That's what my mother-in-law did.  She went off and found herself a husband and her parents legally adopted him, he changed his last name.  This is not uncommon.

Also, in certain prominent families with say, traditional occupations such as flower arranging, dancing, acting etc,  the males will have several different personal names over their life time to indicate that they've mastered new skills.  I believe Native American had the same practice.
What about Africa?

Regards,

Judith



Judith,

Matrilineage is a significant feature of Abraham's Horite people who originated in the Nile Valley. To this day, Jewish identity is traced through the mother, not the father. I have identified the marriage and ascendancy structure of the Horites and can confirm that line of descent and blood line are traced through the mothers.

It was the Horite custom to have two wives.  The first wife was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second wife was either a patrilineal cousin or niece (as was Keturah to Abraham).  The wives lived in separate households on a north-south axis.  The east-west axis was considered God's territory as the Sun traveled this direction over the Earth.

With two wives, there was a question of succession of two firstborn sons.  The firstborn son of the sister wife ascended to the throne of his father.  So Isaac became Abraham's heir and successor.  The firstborn son of the cousin wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named.  So Abraham's firstborn son Joktan ascended to the throne of Joktan the Elder, after whom he was named.

Sons were also born to concubines, although it appears that each ruler only had two concubines.  The sons of concubines and the younger sons of wives were sent away to establish territories of their own. This marriage and ascendancy pattern drove the Kushites expansion out of Africa into Mesopotamia, India, Nepal, Cambodia and Japan.  The Kushite expansion has been attested by DNA studies.



Related reading: The Nilotic Origins of the Ainu; Ainu at the Center of Cavalli-Sforza's Genetic Distance Chart; A Kindling of Ancient Memory; Does Genesis 10 Describe the Ainu Dispersion?

Students Wonder "Why Abraham?"

Alice C. Linsley


Part 6:  Answers to High Schoolers' Questions about Abraham
This continues the series "Answers to Hign Schoolers' Questions About Genesis."

Part 1: About God
Part 2: About Adam and Eve
Part 3: About the Serpent
Part 4: About the Flood
Part 5: About the Earth


Q:  What made Abraham so special that God chose him?

A:  Abraham is a pivotal figure in the Bible. He is mentioned in 230 Bible verses and is the central figure of the book of Genesis. In Romans 4:1, the Apostle Paul calls Abraham "the chief of our forefathers." Paul explains that non-Jews who believe that Jesus is the Son of God have been grafted by God into the faith of Abraham. Here Paul uses the image of a tree, alluding to Jesus' parable of the kingdom of God as a great tree (Matt. 13:31).  He goes on to say that Jews who have rejected Jesus as the Son of God have been pruned from the tree.

Why is Abraham cited as one who had faith in the coming of the Son of God?  Because his Horite people believed that God would overshadow a virgin from among their ruler-priest lines and that she would become pregnant and give birth to the "Seed" of God who was first promised in Genesis 3:15.

In John 8, God promises to provide through Abraham’s Seed (see Acts 7:2ff.). Paul elaborates that the “Seed” of Abraham, through whom blessings are bestowed on all who believe, is Jesus, not Israel.  Jesus referred to Himself as the promised "Seed" when He foretold his death in Jerusalem. He told his disciples "Unless a seed fall into the ground and die, it cannot give life." (John 12:24)

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy Seed, which is Christ… And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:16, 29)

In the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:22-31), Jesus illustrates that not all who call Abraham "Father" will receive heavenly recognition.  To those who claimed special privilege by descent, He said, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do."

Christians assume that we alone are the recipients of God's revelation of His Son, yet Hebrews 4:2 states that the Gospel was preached to the Apostles' ancestors. From this we gather that that Abraham and Moses shared the faith of their ancestors to whom God first revealed the plan of salvation. We might call this the "Proto-Gospel" concerning the Seed of God who would be born of the ruler-priest lines. He was expected to pass through death to life and lead his people from the grave to eternal life. Until the day of resurrection at Christ's return, the faithful dead rest "in the bosom of Abraham."

When Abraham died at age 175 he was “gathered to his people” (Gen. 25:8). This phrase is used interchangeably with the phrase "gathered to his fathers."  The word for "fathers" is Horim and refers to ruler-priests among Abraham’s people. None of the rulers who were buried with great pomp and circumstance ever rose from the dead, but the Ruler-Priest Jesus did, thus proving Him to the the Seed of God.  (The ancient Egyptians regarded 175 as the ideal lifespan. Here we have further evidence of Abraham's Nilotic cultural context.)

Genesis is the story of God’s dealings with Abraham and his ruler-priest ancestors (chapter 1-12). The other chapters deal with Abraham's descendants before the establishment of a unified Israel under King David. Clearly, the promise concerning the Seed of God by the Woman (Gen. 3:15) does not originate with the Jews. It is much older. The expectation of Messiah's coming into the world was preserved by Abraham's ancestors to whom the promise was first made in Eden, a well-watered region that extended from East Africa to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. This appears to be the point of origin of the Proto-Gospel and the faith of Abraham. It is also the origin of the Christian faith. In this sense, the core of Christian belief may be considered the oldest known religion.



Abraham, Moses and David: A Common Pattern

While Abraham is certainly the pivotal figure of Genesis, he is not the only chosen leader in the Bible. Moses and David are other example. Moses led Israel out of Egypt and David ruled in Jerusalem. We cannot grasp the counsel of God or know why God appoints some to leadership, but by exploring what these men have in common, we discern a pattern.

None of these men were in line to rule. Only firstborn sons of wives ascended to the throne.
Abraham, Moses and David were all the youngest sons. This means that God chose the son who was not the heir.  Each of these men was sent away from home as an adult and forced to build a kingdom as God led him and with God's help. Each man was elevated by God to a position of leadership and strengthened through hardships.  The same can be said for Jacob, the young man who preferred to stay home (Gen. 25:27). After attempting to steal his brother's birthright, we was sent away and endured many trials before he returned to Palestine.



Q:  If God gave the land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants, doesn't that mean that He wants the Jews to have it?

This question springs from several false assumptions. First, Abraham was not a Jew.  He was a Horite who spoke a language closer to Arabic than to Hebrew. He lived approximately B.C. 2039-1964, about 1420 years before the Jewish people emerged as a distinct group.

Second, many of Abraham's descendants are not Jews. Abraham had nine sons and only those who descend from his grandson Jacob can be considered Jews. Further, Jewish identity did not exist before the Babylonian captivity (B.C. 587–538). It was formed through that trial where the people suffered far worse treatment than they did in Egypt before the Exodus.

It is impossible to speak of a single direct line from Abraham to the Jews because Abraham had nine sons and their descendants intermarried. The genealogical data in Genesis suggests that Abraham's firstborn son was Joktan, the forefather of the Joktanite tribes of Arabia. Abraham could as easily be described the first Arab, since most Arabs are descended from him through Joktan.

Abraham's descendants by Ishmael are Egyptians, since Ishmael's mother and wife were Egyptians and ethnicity was traced through the women, not the men. Ishmael was not Abraham's firstborn son.

The land was given to Abraham's descendants. Zionists attempt to validate an exclusive Jewish claim to the land by insisting that Jews have always been in Israel. However, Abaham's ancestors and Abraham himself were not Jews. They are best described as Afro-Arabians.

Zionism is a political ideology without Biblical support. It is the brainchild of the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl, who was not religious and was from a secular Pest family.  The Haredi Jews who live in Israel do not recognize the State of Israel because they believe only the Messiah can proclaim the Return. The Haredi are mostly indigenous orthodox Jews whose ancestors never left the land. They did not inherit the Zionist attitudes of Jews from the Babylonian diaspora.




Q:  What is the nature of the covenant that God made with Abraham?

A:  There are at least two covenants involving the person of Abraham. The covenant concerning Isaac is unconditional since Abraham was not able of his own power to produce an heir. The covenant concerning salvation for the world is conditional since it depends upon the faith of the individual, as it did for Abraham (Gen. 15:6). St. Paul says, "For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that He would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith." (Rom. 4:13)


The Conditional Covenant with Abraham and His Heirs by Faith

A conditional or bilateral covenant is an agreement that binds both parties to fulfill certain conditions. If either party fails to meet their responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither party is required to fulfill the expectations of the covenant.

As Abraham was a Horite, he believed that God would fulfill the first promise of the Bible found in Genesis 3:15. This promise involves faith on the part of those who would enter into the promise.  Without faith, none can receive the gift of eternal life that comes through the work of Jesus the "Seed" of God, a descendant of Abraham. 

This part of the covenant is elaborated in the promise of many descendants. God kept this promise is evident in that Abraham had nine sons and an unknown number of daughters. Here is a list of the sons born to Abraham by his two wives: Sarah and Keturah, and by his two concubines: Hagar and Masek.

Sarah, daughter of Terah the Aramean (Gen. 20:12)
Isaac (Yitzak)

Hagar the Egyptian (Sarah’s handmaid)
Ishmael (Yismael), who was Egyptian since race/ethnicity was traced through the mother, as is true even today among Jews.

Keturah, daughter of Joktan the Afro-Arabian (Gen. 25)
Yishbak (His name means "sent away" and he was a sent-away son.)
Joktan – probably Keturah’s firstborn son
Midian
Zimran
Medan
Shuah

Masek, the Aramean/Syrian
Eliezar of Damascus

The promise of many offspring is amplified in Genesis 17:6 where God promises that nations and kings would descend from Abraham, and that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). This promise is expanded in the Davidic Covenant of 2 Samuel 7:12.  David's throne was not to pass away.  It would be filled by an eternal King, Jesus the Messiah, of whose kingdom there will be no end.



The Unconditional Covenant with Abraham Concerning an Heir


An unconditional or unilateral covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one of the parties is bound by the terms. Nothing is required of the other party. The unconditional covenant involves the promise of an heir to Abraham's throne by his sister wife Sarah. The enactment of this covenant is described in Genesis 15 where God appeared to Abraham as a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passing between the sacrificed animals halves.

When both parties passed between the animal pieces the fulfillment of the covenant was dependent upon both parties keeping their commitments. However, in this event God alone moved between the halves of the animals because Abraham was asleep. This is an unconditional covenant concerning the miraculous birth of an heir could be fulfilled by God alone. Issac was born and became Abraham's heir, instead of Eliezar.

Jews speak of the sacrifice of Isaac as the "binding of Isaac" (Akeidat Yitzchak) because their rabbis do not agree on what this story means. Most do not believe that Abraham intended to sacrifice his son. The story of the binding of Isaac suggests that Abraham likely believed that Isaac was the promised "Seed" of Genesis 3:15 since many of the circumstances surrounding Isaac align with the ancient Horus myth.

Consider the following correspondences:

Isaac was born miraculously (Gen. 21:5) as was Horus, who was said to have been born of a virgin queen Hathor who was overshadowed by the Sun, the emblem of God. Issac was not born of a virgin, but as with Jesus, he was born miraculously by the will of God, not man.

God named Isaac as the son by whom Abraham's Seed would be called (Gen. 21:12). His brother Ishmael was banished. Horus was exalted after being abused by his brother who was banished. Jesus will be exalted and those who reject Him will be banished to the fire.

Isaac was sacrificed by the father (by faith) and restored to life (Gen. 22:2-9), since to Abraham he was already given up (holocaust). Horus was restored to life on the third day in an Egyptian five-day ceremony. Ancient Egyptian funerary amulets were made in the shape of the Eye of Horus.

Isaac received the kingdom from his father (Gen. 25:25) just as Horus received a kingdom from Osiris. Jesus receives the kingdom from the Father. In the Horite myth, Horus and Osiris are frequently interchangeable - "I and my Father are one," as Jesus explained in John 10:30.

The miraculous birth of Isaac fulfilled the unconditional covenant God made with Abraham and pointed to the future miraculous birth of the "Seed" of God who would be born of the Virgin Mary.



Q:  How do we know that Abraham was a ruler?

A: Abraham was the son of a great ruler named Terah.  Terah was the son of a great ruler named Nahor.  All the men listed in the Genesis "begats" were rulers.  Further, Abraham's marriage and ascendancy structure is that of the ruler-priests. He maintained two wives in separate households on a north-south axis.  His first wife was his half-sister and the wife of his youth.  His second wife was a patrilineal niece or cousin and was taken before he established a kingdom. Abraham's firstborn son by Keturah ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, as was the Horite custom. Isaac, the promised son of Sarah, ascended to the throne of his father Abraham, as was the custom.

Before his death Abraham did two things that tell us that he had become a great ruler. First, he found a second wife for his son Isaac, which was required before Isaac could ascend to his father's throne.  We know that Rebecca was a second wife because she was Isaac's patrilineal cousin or niece. Second, he gave gifts to his other sons and sent them away from Issac to establish their own territories.



Q:  How do we know that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham?

A:  The Horites were a caste.  The ancient world had a strict caste structure. A universal characteristic of castes is endogamy. Endogamy means that caste members marry within their caste, never outside their caste.  The daughters of Horite ruler-priests married the sons of Horite ruler-priests. Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Onn (Heliopolis). Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of the priest of Midian.  This practice continued to Jesus' time.

Joseph, from whom Jesus inherited his social status and occupation, belonged to the ruler-priest line of Mattai (Matthew). Joseph's family lived in Nazareth which was the home of the eighteenth division of priests, that of Happizzez (1 Chronicles 24:15). The words happi and ntjr originate in the Nile Valley, as do the names of many of the ruler-priests listed in the genealogies in Luke and Matthew.

I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur (Hor) as the "father of Bethlehem." The author of Chronicles knew that Bethlehem was originally a Horite settlement in the heart of Horite territory. The prophets foretold Bethlehem as the birth place of the Son of God.

Jesus' mother was Miriam daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther) Priests of Nathan of Beth Lehem. From predynastic times, ntjr designated the king among the Kushites. The name Panther or p-ntjr meant "God is King."

It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest caste because even those who hated her admit this. Sanhedrin 106a says: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.” It is said that she was so despised that some Jews tried to prevent the Apostles from burying her body. Melchi, a name that appears twice in Mary's ancestry, means "my image" in Amharic and refers to kings.



Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; The Proto-Gospel: Jesus, the Son of God Fulfills the Horus Myth; The Ethnicity of Abraham and David; Abraham's Complaint