The Ethnicity of Abraham and David

Alice C. Linsley


Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David were all Horite Hebrew as evidenced by the common marriage and ascendancy pattern of their fathers. Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy structure of their families reveals the distinctive pattern of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priest caste that involves two wives. Abraham's wives were Sarah and Keturah. Moses's wives were an un-named Kushite bride and his cousin bride Zipporah. David's father had two wives also. 2 Samuel 23:24 makes this clear. It identifies Abishai, Joab, and Asahel as the sons of Jesse's daughter Zeruiah. Zeruiah was King David's half-sister.

The pattern of Moses' family is identical to that of the Nilo-Saharan rulers listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11, and to that of Abraham's father Terah, and Samuel's father Elkanah. Elkanah's two wives were Penninah and Hannah.

David's father was a ruler-priest of the Horite Hebrew city of Bethlehem. It appears that all of these great men were Horites or Horite Hebrew, called "Horim" by Jews today.

This diagram shows one line of descent from the Horite ruler Seir (Gen. 36). Aram's cousin wife Ishara was descended from Seir. Her grandmother was Oholibamah, Seir's great granddaughter.

At the time that Abraham lived there were no nations in the modern sense. There were peoples, clans, and castes. Ethnic identities aligned with the territorial chief. Jewish ethnicity, however, is figured through the Jewish mother, and the maternal line appears to have been considered among the Horite Hebrew, especially in cases where the mother was of high status. 

Abraham's ethnicity was Kushite and his father was a ruler-priest descendant of Nimrod, a son of Kush. Nimrod was a sent-away son who became a mighty ruler in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. This is why we first meet Abraham in Ur, though his ancestors were cattle-herding Nilo-Saharans.

Abraham was another sent-away son whose territory extended on a north-south axis between his two wives Sarah and Keturah. Sarah resided in Hebron and Keturah lived in Beersheba. Abraham also dug wells in Gerar to the west and had a treaty with the ruler of that region. Likely he also had water rights at Engedi to the east. This means that Abraham's territory was entirely in the region know as ancient Edom. The Greeks called this region Idumea, meaning "land of red people."

Edom is named in the Bible as one of the ancient seats of wisdom. The wisdom of the Horites extended to medicine, astronomy, writing, commerce, navigation, natural sciences, and architecture. The 400-acre Edomite complex at Petra reflects Horite beliefs. This was the home of the red Nabateans. Naba or Nabu was the guardian of scribes and prophets. The cult of Nabu was introduced into Mesopotamia and Babylon by the Kushites. Kushite kings sometimes bore the name Nabu, as with Nabu-shum-libur, an early Kushite king in Babylon and Nabu-aplu-iddina. This is the origin of the Hebrew word nabi, meaning prophet.

The Horites were devotees of the Creator RA and his son Horus, born of Hathor who was divinely overshadowed. The Ra-Horus-Hathor narrative is a primitive form of the Gospel, or the Proto-Gospel about God the Father and the Son, and the miraculous conception of the Son of God by divine overshadowing.

From Abraham's Horite people receive a long-standing tradition concerning the Son or "Seed" of God (Gen. 3:15). The Horites are the direct ancestors of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1-17), and understanding their way of life and religious beliefs helps us to understand who Jesus is.

When someone asks about the ethnicity of a Biblical figure, they usually want to know about that person's appearance. The Bible tells us very little about the physical appearance of most Biblical persons. This is probably because people were less concerned about what we call "racial" distinctions. The genetic mix of the inhabitants of the ancient Afro-Asiatic world was extremely varied. There were black and red Nubians.

Red and black Nubians

The Egyptians were reddish-brown, dark brown and black.  The Edomites were lighter with dark wavy hair and a reddish skin tone. David is described as having a red skin tone, reflecting his connection to the Horite Hebrew of Edom (Genesis 36). The Ainu (Anu) were lighter with a reddish tone and some had green eyes. Ainu rulers wore beards.


Although both Abraham and David are portrayed in films and images as European or Middle Eastern Jews, neither was Jewish. Both lived before a people called "Jews" can be identified. Abraham lived between 980-1200 years before David and about 2200-2400 years before Jesus. (See Thoughts on Calculating the Dates of the Patriarchs.)

This Jewish writer, when asked if David was Jewish, defines Jewishness and then evades the question that must be answered. One is a Jew if his mother is Jewish or if he properly converts to Judaism. David was a Jew if his mother was, yet strangely the Bible is silent about David's mother. According to the Talmud her name was Nitzevet. The reason we find scant information about David's mother is because she wasn't a Jew. Judaism had not yet emerged as a separate religion. David's mother was a blood relative of Jesse (Yishai). She was either his half-sister or his patrilineal cousin.

Likewise, Abraham was a Jew if his mother was, yet the Bible describes Abraham as a Hebrew because Judaism did not yet exist. Again, the biblical texts tell us little about Abraham's mother. This is intriguing, given that the Jews are fastidious about genealogical records. We have reason to suspect that this information was withheld or deleted at a time after Abraham and David, probably by the Deuteronomist Historian who places great emphasis on Jewish racial purity.

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew (shown above) reveals that Abraham's mother was the daughter of a great ruler named Nahor. This is Nahor the Elder. Nahor the Younger is Abraham's older brother who ruled Terah's territory after Terah's death. Abraham was a sent-away son to whom God delivered a kingdom in Edom.

The Horite Hebrew were a caste of ruler-priests who practiced endogamy. The Genesis text explains that Abraham and Sarah had the same father, but different mothers. Sarah was Abraham's half-sister. Keturah was his patrilineal cousin bride.

The Bible does not explicitly state the ethnicity of the mothers of Abraham and David. However, research on their identity makes it fairly certain that both women were of the Horite ruler-priest caste. Horite priests married the chaste daughters of Horite Hebrew priests who maintained shrines along rivers or at wells. This is why so many of the leading figures of the Bible meet their wives at wells.The Horite Hebrew priests have been traced back to the oldest know Horite shrine at Nekhen in the Nile valley. 

The Hebrew root for Horite or Horim is hr, and is derived from the anceint Egyptian HR, meaning Most High One. It is a reference to Horus. The Horite And the Sethite Hebrew were devotees of Horus and his father, Re. 

HR also appears as a proper name. Hur was Moses' brother-in-law. Moses' family was Horite Hebrew, as evidenced by his father's marriage and ascendancy pattern. The name takes many forms including Hur, Haran, Harun (Aaron), Horomo, Horowitz, Horim, Horite, and Harwa. 


David of Bethlehem

David was born about 1040 B.C. He was the eighth and youngest son of Jesse (Yishai). Jesse also held the title Nahash (2 Sam. 17:25). Nahash is linked etymologically to the word “snake” and to an Akkadian word meaning “magnificence.” Jesse was a Horite Hebrew shepherd-priest, as was Mary's father Joachim. Sacrificing priests kept sheep.

Jesse had a wife in Bethlehem, David's mother. The settlement of Bethlehem was originally known for the sacrifice of sheep and rams. The meat was distributed to the poor, which is why the settlement was originally called "House of Meat." This meaning is retained in the Arabic name for the town: bayt lahm. Jesse had at least twelve sons, probably by two wives.

The ruler-priests of Abraham's people maintained their two wives in separate households on a north-south axis. This is what is revealed by analysis of the kinship pattern of Genesis 4-5 and Genesis 11. I Chronicles 2:13-16 lists David’s siblings, but does not mention that these children are the offspring of Jesse by two wives.

If Jesse followed the residency pattern of his ancestors, one wife resided in Bethlehem and the other resided in a Horite Hebrew settle to the north or south of Bethlehem. Probably David's mother was in Bethlehem and the other wife was probably in Hebron. This would explain why David was anointed first in Bethlehem and later anointed as king of Judah in Hebron (II Samuel 2:1-4).

We note also that before being anointed as the ruler, David had married two wives following the custom of his ruler-priest ancestors. This parallels Isaac's story, in which Abraham must find his son a second wife (Rebecca) before he dies so that Isaac may become the ruler over his territory.  Rebecca was Isaac's cousin bride. Isaac's half-sister bride would have been living in Beersheba, which is where the servant brings Rebecca to wed Isaac.

David's first two wives are likely a half-sister and a patrilineal cousin.  Ahinoam of Jezreel would have been his cousin bride, as Jezreel is just north of Hebron. Abigail of Carmel was probably his half-sister bride, as Carmel is south of Hebron. [3] She is probably the Abigail named as David's sister in I chronicles 2:16. She had married Nabal who refused to help David when he needed provisions for his men. 

Now the question arises as to the identity of David’s mother. What should this matter? Because according to the custom of Abraham’s people, ethnicity or bloodline is traced matrilineally. Even today Jewish Law defines a Jew as one of three things:

• Someone who is matrilineally descended from Jacob (Israel) by any of his wives
• Someone who has properly converted
• Someone who is matrilineally descended from a proper convert.

The first is the only definition that can be applied to Abraham and David since both men lived before the Babylonian Captivity which marks the beginning of Jewish identity, and among their people ethnicity was traced through the mothers. This being the case, the critical question is what was the ethnic identity of David's mother?


David's Mother

According to the Talmud (tractate Bava Batra 91a), David's mother was a daughter of Adael. Adael is the masculine equivalent of the name Adah. Adah was the wife of Lamech the Elder, and the mother of Jubal and Jabal (Genesis 4). This is also the name of one of Esau the Elder’s wives. So Adah and Adael is a family name traced back to the lines of Cain and Seth (which intermarried). Both versions of the name are traceable to the Kenites, the descendants of Cain who intermarried with Seth's line.  So David is kin to the Kenites. This explains why David sent the spoils of war to the cities of Judah and to the Kenites (1 Samuel 30:29).

We are familiar of the story of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, who killed Sissera by driving a tent peg through his temple while he slept (Judges 4:21). Here we find a connection between the Kenites and the Hebrews. Heber means friend in Hebrew. The title was given to Abraham, the friend of God.

David's ancestry is traced through the following women: Tamar, the daughter of a priest. Tamar, the Righteous, tricked Judah into impregnating her. When Judah discovered that she was pregnant, he ordered that she be burned to death. This was the sentence for daughters of priests who committed adultery or harlotry. The Horite Hebrew, sometimes known as Khar/Korah, were ruler-priests who married chaste daughters of priests who ruled over shrines and temples at high elevations near permanent water sources.

Rahab of Jericho was the wife of Salmon the Horite, the Son of Hur (Hor). Salmon is called the "father of Bethlehem" in 1 Chronicles 2:54. Rahab became the grandmother of Boaz who married Ruth. Salmon (also Salma or Solomon) is a Horite name and is associated with Bethlehem (1 Chronicles 2:51).  The evidence concerning David's ethnicity points to Kenites and Horites who intermarried.


Abraham's Horite Hebrew Mother

In the ancient world shrines were places of rituals. Common rituals included baptisms or water cleansing; circumcision, and the removing of front teeth called nak or naak. Kar-nak means place of performing the removal of teeth, a practice found among the ancient Nilotes.

Abraham’s mother is not named in the Bible, but according to tradition she was the daughter of a priest associated with the Horite shrine of Karnach in ancient Nubia (Upper Nile). This is evident from the name of her father, called "Karnevo" in the Babylonian Talmud. Karnevo would have been a Horite Hebrew since the shrine of Karnach was dedicated to Horus, son of the Creator.

Another theory is that Abraham's maternal grandfather was the high priest of the shrine at Kar (mountain fortification) Nevo (Nebo). I find this theory the most compelling.


Related reading: Genesis in Anthropological Perspective; Endogamy and Jewish Identity; The Nilotic Origin of the Ainu; Kushite Diversity and Unity; Who Were the Horites?; Abraham's Horite Mother Challenge to Shaye Cohen's Portrayal of Abraham; Moses' Wives and Brothers

Abusing Biblical Lists

Alice C. Linsley

Over the years I have come across some strange ideas about the peoples named in different Biblical lists. It seems everyone has a theory about their identity. The interpretations of the "Table of Nations" to the right contains many erroneous connections. It reminds me of the false correlations that have been made between Brahma and Abraham and between Brahma's wife Saraswati and Sarah.

The book of Joshua contains lists of people who were to have been driven out of Canaan by Joshua's army:

Joshua 3:10: This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.

In Joshua 24:11 we find the same names in a different order: Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands.

The Joshua lists parallel the list of Israel's enemies in Deuteronomy 7:1-3:

When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;  And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, [and] utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

This list comes from a time long after Abraham and suggests that intermarriage between these peoples was forbidden, yet the rulers of most of these peoples were related. The Jebusites were a Kushite people with whom Abraham and his descendants had close interaction.

Under Jebusite rule and earlier, Jerusalem was divided into two cities.  The western part was called Jeru  or Yiru, and the eastern part called Salem. Both of these names appear in Genesis. In Genesis 21:14 we read that "Abraham called that place...Yiru" and Genesis 21:14 speaks of Melchizedek the King of Salem, who likely was the maternal uncle of Abraham's wife Keturah.

A Jebusite ruler called Araunah sold David a threshing floor upon which David constructed an altar. Araunah means "the lord". Threshing floors were built at high windy elevations so the wind could carry away the chaff. These were also places of worship in the ancient world. The daily activities of cooking, sowing, harvesting and threshing grain had religious significance. Threshing floors also were used to determine times and seasons. A center post served to cast a shadow on the same principle as a sundial. Threshing floors were associated with the Sun, which was regarded as the emblem of the Creator among many ancient peoples. 

According to this end times enthusiast, Psalm 83 names the alliance of peoples who "will soon attack Israel." Here is the passage to which he refers:

Psalm 83:5-12

With one mind they plot together;
they form an alliance against you—
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
of Moab and the Hagrites,
Byblos, Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the people of Tyre.
Even Assyria has joined them
to reinforce Lot’s descendants.
Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
who perished at Endor
and became like dung on the ground.
Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

who said, “Let us take possession
of the pasturelands of God.”

Here is his interpretation:

Somebody needs to sit this man down and have a conversation about hermeneutics!

The ten groups named in Psalm 83 represent a list of Israel's traditional enemies, but there are many such lists and they are not consistent in the groups they name. However, the mysterious "Hagrites" or "Hagarites" appear only in this list.

The House of David had close connections to many of these peoples, so it is possible that Psalm 38 is one of the later psalms. Though it is thought to be from David's time, it has passages that resemble portions of the much older book of Job and the post-exilic poem of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 (as interpreted by Jews to be about Israel.) In most Bibles, Psalm 83 is attributed to Asaph, one of the leaders of David's choir mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:39. It was recited by Jews as an act of repentance whereby they hope to spare Israel from its enemies, and probably dates to the time after Ezra.

David was related to the rulers of Edom, and Gebal was part of Edom. Abraham's territory was entirely in the land of Edom, shown below.

Both Hebron (where Sarah lived) and Beersheba (where Keturah lived) are in Idumea. Abraham's territory extended on a north-south axis between the settlements of his two wives and was entirely in Edom, the region called "Idumea" by the Greeks.

David was also descended from a Moabite, Ruth. He received materials and technical assistance from King Hiram of Tyre in building his palace. It was in Tyre that Jesus' true identity was known. The rulers there had preserved elements of Messianic expectation that were neglected or rejected by the rulers in Jerusalem.

The Ammonites were related to the Israelites also. They are the descendants of Lot, Abraham's nephew. The casting of the Moabites and the Ammonites as the fruit of incest is the work of the same writer who told us about Noah becoming drunk and exposing himself to his sons (Gen. 9:21-27). These stories of drunken fathers are used to bolster claims of one people over another by denigrating the ancestors. When this happens, God often overrules. According to Deuteronomy 23:3, no descendant of Moab was allowed in the assembly of Israel, yet David appeared in the assembly and he is a descendant of the Moabite woman Ruth.


The mysterious Hagrites

The peoples listed in Psalm 83 are all identified except the Hagrites. They pose a mystery. A man named Haggeri or Hagri is listed among David's great men in 1 Chronicles 11:38. He is of the line of Nathan. This suggests a possible connection to the Virgin Mary, known as "Miriam Daughter of Joachim, Son of Pntjr, Priest of Nathan of Bethlehem." Among Abraham's Horim, ntjr designated God or the divinely appointed ruler. Pntjr is Pa-Netjer, the name of Joachim’s mother. A limestone stela (1539-1291 B.C.) bearing the names of Pekhty-nisu and his wife, Pa-netjer, is on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.

It is curious that Ishmaelites and Hagrites would be grouped separately if Hagrite is a reference to Ishmael's mother, Hagar. Among Abraham's people, blood line was traced through the mothers, not the fathers. However, regional identity was linked to the ruler, who often was an outsider, a conqueror.

Hebrew and Proto-Hebrew have no vowels. The root of this word is hgr and can appear in many forms. Hagrite has variant spellings, including: Hagarenes, Hagarite, Hagri, Haggeri. The word is also a girl's name - Hagrita - among the descendants of Noah who populated ancient Hungary. The Hungarians call themselves the Magyar and some Magyar-ab (people of Magyar) still live along the Nile Valley. I suspect that the Hagrites of Psalm 83 is a reference to the sea-faring ancestors of the Sardinians and Hungarians. 

This study compared the Y-DNA of Hungarians with other Finno-Ugrian populations to understand why modern Hungarians have so little of the typical Uralic haplogroup N1c. A few individuals from a 10th-century cemetery were tested and half of the individuals belonged to N1c. Ob-Ugrian is in the the macro-haplogroup N, with its sibling M, and is a descendant of haplogroup L3, originating in the Nile Valley. They are people whose ancestors moved through the Mediterranean into Europe. Multiple studies have verified that the Neolithic Hungarians are genetically close to Sardinians, and the data obtained from archaic Sardinian samples enabled Italian researchers to go back in time to the African ancestors of all humans.

It is also possible that the term Hagrite simply refers to traders. This theory deserves more research. The word "ha" means "the" and "gr" is an ancient reference to traders who moved from the Nile Valley and the Sahara into Pakistan, India, Anatolia and as far as Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They are called Gur, Gar, Gurguri, Gurgar, and Gurjars in history books.  In their efforts to control borders and protect their holdings, the rulers of Israel would have encountered problems with the Gurjars or the Ha-grs.

One thing is certain: Biblical lists are important. They often tell us more about the composer of the list than about the peoples listed.

Related reading: Connecting Magog, Gog and Og; The Peoples of Canaan; The Sons of Noah and Their Descendants; Why Jesus Visited Tyre; Edo, Edom and Idumea; Commonly Asked Questions About Genesis; Extant Biblical Peoples; The Deuteronomic Theology of the Book of Joshua

History Channel's Bible Series: Episode 2

Alice C. Linsley


The second episode of the History Channel's Bible series is likely to have as many viewers as the first episode, which broke all 2013 records for cable programs with 13.1 million viewers.

The second segment covers the "tribes of Israel" returning to the "homeland" under the leadership of Joshua (Yeshua/Jesus). These Israelites were Horites and they were fighting other Horites to gain control of important cities in Canaan. The Horites (Horim in Hebrew) were a caste of ruler-priests who were in charge of the shrines in Canaan. These shrines were in the important cities that the warriors of Joshua attacked.



Samson

The Samson segment pointed out that some Horites took Nazarite vows to refrain from wine and beer and to leave their hair uncut. In some African languages "delila" means troublesome flirt. This story highlights the conflict with the Philistines, but belongs in the category of nationalistic literature, not history. Other stories in this category include the heroines Susanna and Esther. The Samson story sets up the story of David as a warrior who is victorious over the Philistine giant Goliath.



The Judges

Life under the "judges" (morehs) is passed over as the story moves to Saul and David. This was another missed opportunity, as here we might have learned about the authority of women in the ancient world. The judges included women such as Deborah. Judges 4:4-6 tells us, “Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment." Deborah is associated with a tamar at the sacred center between the important shrines of Ramah to the south and Bethel to the north. Ramah was the hometown of the prophet Samuel.

Abraham consulted the moreh at the oak tree in Shechem (Gen. 12:6) and likely consulted another between the shrines of Bethel to the west and Ai the the east (Gen. 12:8).

There continued to be judges after the establishment of the monarchy. Huldah is an example. She lived approximately 655 years after Deborah. We read in 2 Kings 22:14 that King Asaiah sent his priests to consult the “prophetess” Huldah. She was living in Jerusalem, in the new section. Her name indicates that she belonged to the Horite clan of Hul, a son of Aram (Gen. 10:23).

From the information available, it appears that the judges were good regional rulers. People traveled great distances to confer with them in matters pertaining to marriage, sickness, and fertility. The rulers especially relied on them in making decisions about war and alliances.The judges, unlike the ruler-priests, resided at water sources located midway between the shrine cities. This "between" position marked a sacred center, just as the tree of life was in the middle of the garden.



Missing the Horites in front of our faces

The History Channel's first episode (which I reviewed here) missed the Nilotic cultural context of Abraham and his Horite ancestors, and the second episode also fails to tell the story of the Horites. Both Abraham and Moses were Horites, as has been definitively demonstrated in analysis of the common marriage and ascendancy pattern of their ruler-priest fathers Terah and Amram.

The Horites originated in ancient Kush so Moses' marriage to a Kushite woman was consistent with the endogamous marriage pattern of the Horite rulers. The lines of Cain and Seth intermarried, as did the lines of Ham and Shem, and the lines of Abraham and Na-Hor (Horus is exalted). The marriage and ascendancy pattern of these lines remained unchanged from the earliest days of Horite rule to the time of Jesus (The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ).

Anthropological analysis demonstrates that Moses was indeed a direct descendant of Terah through the line of Nahor and his younger brother Abraham. The following diagram, based on biblical data, shows that Moses' father was a descendant of Seir the Horite who is named in Genesis 36.

Seir's Horite clan resided in the area of Edom. Petra was an Edomite shrine city and rivaled Jerusalem in grandeur, size and importance. It had underground water systems similar to those under Jerusalem.

The Edomites, to whom David was related, were said to have a reddish skin tone. (Edom, edo, odum, and ido are variations of Nilo-Saharan and Akkadian words for red.) 1 Samuel 17:42 describes David as ruddy or red-skinned. He is one of the descendants of the red Nubian Horites.

Red and black Nubians
reflect the great genetic diversity of Africa

Seir the Horite was the son of Dishan and the brother-in-law of Esau the Younger. Uz the Younger was Seir's grandson.

Two of Abraham's nephews were Huz and Buz (Gen. 22:20). Uz the Elder is mentioned in Genesis 10:23. His grandson, Uz the Younger, is shown in the diagram above. He is the son of Dishan (I Chron. 1:42). These are the sons and grandsons of Abraham's older brother Na-Hor. Nahor inherited Terah's kingdom in the region of the Tigris-Euphrates. 

According to I Chronicles 5:14 Buz had a son named Jahdo, and Jahdo's son was Yeshishai, the Aramaic form of Joshua (Yeshua/Jesus). This connects the name Jesus with the Horites. 

The entire Bible is about Jesus and his Horite ancestors

From Genesis to Revelation we have one story. It is about Jesus, the Seed of God first promised in Genesis 3:15, and his Horite people. The prominence of the Horites is attested by the detail provided in Genesis 36 and I Chronicles. Bethlehem, Jesus' birth place, was a Horite settlement.

Before the Exodus Horites were dispersed throughout Canaan. They served at shrines and temples throughout the ancient Afro-Asiatic dominion which extended from the Lake Chad Basin to the Indus River Valley.

The Horites are ignored in the History Channel's Bible series, and regarded as distantly related to Abraham in Bible commentaries, when in fact they are Abraham's people. Even today Jews call their ancestors "Horim".

Horite men married the daughters of Horite priests whose shrines were at rivers, oases, and wells. This is why there are many stories about men meeting their future wives at wells. Isaac and Jacob married Horite brides. Genesis 36 tells us that Esau the Younger married a Oholibamah, another Horite bride. (Oholibamah means most high tent or tabernacle, and she is a type of the Virgin Mary.) Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of a Horite priest of the Nile shrine city at Onn (Heliopolis), to which the great pyramids were aligned.

From study of the Heliopolitan cosmogony expressed in the Pyramid and Coffin texts, it is apparent that Heliopolis was both the city of the Sun and the sacred center of the primeval ocean which was called Nun. The many pillars that comprised the temple complex symbolized the connection between the waters below and the waters above (Gen. 1:7). Joshua, son (bin) of Nun, was of a ruler-priest family associated with this prestigious complex. This connection to Egypt is evident in the fact that Joshua is the only spy in Numbers 14:4-16 for whom the Arabic bin is used instead of the Hebrew ben.



Horites fighting Horites in Canaan

The Hebrews who came out of Egypt are called "Israelites" because they are descendants of Jacob who was called Israel. Jacob and his descendants were Horites. The word "Hebrew" comes from the word Ha-biru. The word also appears in ancient records as Ha-piru and O-piru. In all the texts it refers to shrine priests and temple attendants. The Hebrews who came out of Egypt were not the only Hebrews. Habiru were living dispersed among the Canaanites before the time of the Exodus. They were the priests, warriors and metalworkers who enjoyed relatively high status in the Canaanite shrine settlements.

The shrine cities in which Horites lived included Hazor, Ramah, Bethel, Jerusalem, Hebron and Beersheba. They were built on high ground and are therefore called "mound settlements" or tells. They had good water sources and were organized with separate neighborhoods for the ruling class and the commoners. Extended families lived in close proximity, usually with a common courtyard. The ruler's complex was on higher ground and included quarters for residential staff such as cooks, craftsmen, warriors and priests. The most holy shrine or small temple was often within the royal complex. The Habiru coming out of Egypt sought to displace their Habiru brethren from these cities

Joshua bin Nun led bands of Horites in forays against towns and cities in Canaan. Probably the first to be attacked was Hazor, the administrative center of an ancient territory. This is attested in Joshua 11:10: "Hazor in olden days was the capital of all these kingdoms."

Grain and other commodities were brought as tribute to Hazor and were stored there. Excavations have uncovered huge storage facilities there. These and tunnels to the subterranean water pits testify to the importance of the city.

Hazor is mentioned in 14th century BC diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru (Amorites) during the New Kingdom. These are called the Amarna Letters. Hazor is also mentioned in earlier Execration texts, and in 18th century BC documents found in Mari on the Euphrates River.

From the Upper Egyptian Amarna letters come evidence that the king of Hazor was under the rule of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Other rulers mentioned in the Letters include Lib'ayu of the shrine city of Shechem and Abdi-Heba who ruled in the shrine city of Jerusalem in the mid-1330s BC. Abdi-Heba hired some Apiru/Habiru (Hebrew) to serve as mercenaries. Among the Habiru were clans known for their skill in spying and combat. Others were known for their skill in metal work some of which was done at the shrine cities since these had sufficient water, and metal articles such as jewelry, mirrors, tools, weapons and sacred vessels were crafted for the rulers.

It is possible that Hazor was burned by the Egyptians with the help of Horite warriors such as Joshua and Caleb. Seti I claimed to have destroyed Hazor in a military campaign around 1300 BC. It is plausible that Horite warriors were among Seti's destroyers of Hazor and that event is remembered in the Hebrew Bible.

Archaeologists know that Hazor was destroyed by a large fire between 1400 and 1100 BC, but they do not agree on the cause of the fire. Israeli Archaeologist Amnon Tor-Ben believes that the Israelites conquered Hazor and burned it as described in Joshua 11:11- "None of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor only; that Joshua burned."  Joshua 8:28 contradicts this, reporting that Joshua also burned Ai, which was a Horite shrine in Abraham's time. Joshua 6:24 further reports that Joshua burned Jericho.

Jericho is where a second passover took place, the symbol of which is the scarlet cord. The scarlet cord is used in a priestly ritual to restore people to the community (Lev. 14:4-6; 49-52). Rahab and her household were passed over when the Horites attacked Jericho. She tied a scarlet cord outside her house so that she and all her family would be saved when the Israelites swept through that city. God redeemed their lives from destruction, and from Rahab and Salman came King David and a greater king - Jesus.

Concerning Rahab, St. Ambrose wrote that she "uplifted a sign of her faith and the banner of the Lord's Passion; so that the likeness of the mystic blood, which should redeem the world, might be in memory. So, outside, the name of Joshua [Jesus] was a sign of victory to those who fought; and inside, the likeness of the Lord's passion was a sign of salvation to those in danger." (On the Christian Faith, Book V, no. 127)



Caleb, another Horite warrior

Another great Horite leader who waged war against Canaanite cities was Caleb son of Jephunneh. Jephunneh was a descendant of Kain which is why he was called a ‘Kenizzite’ הַקְּנִזּי haKenizi (cf. Gen. 15:19). The Kenizzites were a Horite clan according to Gen. 36:11 - "And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.” Caleb's connection to the Kenites is made explict in 1 Chronicles 2:55 which says that Caleb's sons were Kenites. Kenaz was a son of Eliphaz by Timna, daughter of Seir the Horite (See green diagram above).

One of Caleb's grandsons was named Korah (I Chron. 2:43), which refers to the Horite priesthood. Moses' half-brother was Korah. The name means "shaved one" as Horite priests shaved their bodies before their terms of service.

From this information we may infer that Caleb also was associated with the Horites. His family settled in Bethlehem, a Horite settlement. Caleb's son Salma is designated the "founder" of Bethlehem in I Chronicles 2:51.

Better the rule of judges than the rule of Saul

Saul was from Giba (Gibeah), where they raped the Horite priest's concubine and practiced homosex. The Priest cut his concubine's body into pieces and sent pieces to the tribes saying, "Never has such a thing [homosex] been known among the Israelites." (Judges 19:30)

God told Samuel to go along with the elders' wish to have a king, but Saul was a disaster. The judges showed greater wisdom and righteousness than Saul. Saul practiced shamanic religion in that he prophesied in a frenzied state (1 Sam. 10). This is attributed to an evil spirit in 1 Sam. 18:10 - "The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house...".  Horite prophets (morehs/judges) were forbidden to prophesy in trace states. Saul also consulted mediums (1 Sam. 28:4-25), another practice forbidden to Horites.

Saul was the son of Kish/Kush (1 Sam. 14:51) and a descendant of Abraham through Jacob, Rachel and Benjamin. In Judges 1:21, we read that the men of Benjamin did not force the Jebusites out of Jerusalem. The Jebusites were their kinsmen, both being sons of Kish (Kushites). The Jebusites eventually accepted David as the new ruler in Jerusalem, and with the consecration of David of Bethlehem there was a renaissance of Horite wisdom. Much of this wisdom was consolidated and codified and is reflected in the Psalms, the Proverbs and the book of Job the Horite.

Horite Wisdom 

The wisdom of the Horites extended to medicine, astronomy, writing, commerce, navigation, natural sciences, and architecture. They were the inventors of the earliest known writing systems. They were the early scribes and wise men or prophets. 

The wisdom of the Horites was so extensive that it was unrivaled in the ancient world before the rise of Greece and much of the wisdom ascribed to the ancient Greeks was borrowed from the Horites. Iamblichus wrote that Thales of Miletus insisted that Pythagoras go to Memphis to study because the priests there were esteemed for their knowledge and wisdom. Plato studied for 13 years in Egypt under the priest Sechnuphis and his conception of the eternal Forms was based on Horite metaphysics.

The Greek word for boundaries in creation is oros or horos, a reference to the celestial archetype of Horus who was said to be the marker of boundaries. Horus was born of Ra by the Virgin Queen Hathor-Meri who became pregnant when overshadowed by the Sun, the emblem of the Creator. Hathor's totem was a cow and temple images show her holding her son in a manger. This is an early expression of Messianic expectation and it is based upon the Edenic promise that a Woman of the Horite lines would bring forth the "Seed" who would crush the serpent's head and restore Paradise (Gen. 3:15). Jesus identified Himself as that Seed in John 12:24 when he told his disciples, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

In the works of Plato and Aristotle horos or horismos refers to landmarks, boundaries and categorical limits. From Horus come the words hour, horoscope, horologion, horotely and horizon. The association of Horus with the horizon is evident in Har-ma-khet, meaning "Horus of the Horizon". Horus was said to control the winds and to establish the cardinal points. The stars, planets and constellations were fixed in place by Horus, and as Ben Sira reminds us, not one of the heavenly bodies "has ever got in the way of another, and they will never disobey his word." (Ecclesiaticus 16:24)

Horus shrines and temples were located at major water systems and Horus ruled the waters. This is why the Horus name appears in the word for river in Hebrew and Arabic (nahar/nahr) and in Aramaic (nehar). Abraham’s older brother controlled commerce on the Tigris River between Ur and Haran. His Horus name is Na-Hor (Gen. 22:20).

Related reading:  Episode 1: History Channel Scores a C; Episode 3: The Messiah Appears; Episode 4: The King is Revealed; The Ethnicity of Abraham and David; Seats of Wisdom; Samuel's Horite Family; The Spread of the Afro-Asiatic Worldview; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; The Horite Ancestry of the Virgin Mary; The Jebusites Unveiled; The Men Who Spied on Canaan

Worship the Promise Keeping God

The Rev. Dr. Rick Lobs


Generally speaking, we humans view historical events as isolated proceedings. In fact all in space and time is connected, and is graciously superintended by the Creator God. This management is called "Providence."

In 2 Samuel we read about David. Behind the passage are these facts about David: he was a shepherd, catapulted into prominence by his killing of Goliath, was a court musician for (crazy) King Saul, became an outlaw and guerrilla warrior, became king of Judah and later King of all Israel, captured Jerusalem from indigenous inhabitants, brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, built himself a very nice house of cedar in Jerusalem.

Having all that in his curriculum vitae he desired to build a house for the Lord - which is to say a Temple in which to house the Ark of the Covenant. Nathan the court prophet first approved the building of the house for the Lord - but later reversed his approval at God's prompting.

Nathan then says something quite cryptic to King David. "The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you ... Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever." 2 Samuel 7:11, 16.

David will not be the one to build a house for God. But God would build a house for David, that is a dynasty. As if that is not enough, the Lord God promised David that David's kingdom and throne will be eternally established. Wow!

In times of adversity Israel would prayerfully remind God of His promise. For example we read this in Psalm 132:11: "The LORD swore an oath to David, a sure oath he will not revoke: "One of your own descendants I will place on your throne."

The notion of the messiah being in the lineage of David was deeply, very deeply, ingrained in the consciousness of Israel.

Now let's jump about one thousand years. By any measure, that's a long time. We read in Luke 1, that a messenger, Gabriel, is sent from God to a girl in the backwater town of Nazareth - her name is Mary. Gabriel communicated a disturbing and yet, amazing word. Consider.

"...the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever; his kingdom will never end."

The promise Mary had heard all her life about David and the messiah was going to be fulfilled through her. How amazing is that?

Mary answered. "May your word to me be fulfilled."

We learn much from the juxtaposition of these inspired texts.

We learn that prayer is sometimes answered in a different time reference than we might wish. In this case one thousand years. Let that be an example and comfort to you if you have been praying for someone or a situation for a long long time.

We learn that events are not accidental but are guided by God's gracious providence.

The passages remind us of the importance of the "house", lineage or dynasty, God built for David. Was it not Jesus in the book of Revelation that said of Himself, "I am the root and offspring of David." (NIV) "I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne." (TLT) Revelation 22:16. All this through Mary, the blessed mother.

The important truth, the overarching truth to note is that we worship a promise keeping God.

The Jerusalem that David Knew

Alice C. Linsley


The Jerusalem that David knew is the oldest part of the city, a 12-acre ridge south of the Temple Mount, known as the "city of David" (II Samuel 5:9). It extended south of the Old City walls. This area was inhabited continuously for 2000 years before David. In David's time, there was a fortified citadel under control of the Jebusites. Jerusalem, which was called "Urusalim" in Akkadian, was an important shrine city in David's time, exhibiting typical characteristics of ancient shrine cities. It had flowing water from a perennial spring and was built on a precipice, as was the shrine city Nekhen at El-Kab on the eastern bank of the Nile in Sudan. The region around Amman in Jordan (Gen. 36:35) was likewise famed for its springs and high citadel.

The name Urusalim in Akkadian cuneiform

Excavations of the City of David have uncovered remains from the Early Bronze Age through the Muslim Period.  Bronze ancestor figurines (teraphim) were found which have perforations around the top of the head. Human hair from the dead ancestor was woven through these perforations. This was common practice and observed among extant biblical tribes.

Bust (Ife) showing perforations for hair

In Area E, the Iron Age rampart reused the Bronze Age city wall. In Area G, the Iron Age remains are on top of the stepped-stone structure. This is a system of foundation walls erected below the summit of the southeastern slope.  The system is comprised of boxes filled with stone and the construction protrudes beyond the natural contour, providing an additonal 2691 square feet. The yellow courses of stone are believed to have served as the base for the Jebusite citadel, and David would have been familiar with this area.

Dame Kathleen Kenyon's partial excavation of the southeastern hill uncovered a fragment of a pilaster capital with the palmette design typical of that which originated in ancient Egypt with subsequent development into various forms throughout Eurasia. 

Jerusalem's Importance in Abraham's Time

The first biblical evidence of the city's importance is Melchizedek.  He was the ruler-priest of Salem who came to Abraham after the battle of the kings (Gen. 14).  It was the custom among Abraham's Kushite people to make atonement for the shedding of blood after battle and likely this is the service that Melchizedek performed for Abraham. Melchizedek, the king of Salem, is called "the priest of the most high God" in Genesis 14:18. His name mean "righteous king."

Three centuries before David ruled in Jerusalem, the city was ruled by Abdi-hepa.  He received his training in Egypt, as was proper for sons of the ruling Kushite caste. The Egyptians regarded him as a warrior and Adbi-hepa claimed to rule by the authority of Pharaoh. The name hepa may be a variant of heqaib, a common name among men of the ruler-priest caste, according to the Egyptologist Labib Habachi. Another ancient water shrine was that of Prince Heqaib on the island of Elephantine. On that same island was found the biography of Pepi-nakht-Heqaib, an official and military commander under Pepi II (BC 2278-2184). As a ruler, Pepi-nakht-Heqaib was known for upholding the rights of firstborn sons.

David himself appears to have been kin to the Kushite rulers of Jerusalem which might explain why he is described as ruddy or red (1Samuel 17:42). This is the same Hebrew word used to describe Esau, one of David's ancestors. Kushite rulers had a red-brown skin color. The Sudanese Kushites were the first to domesticate wild sorghum and millet. These became staple grains in Egypt and were taken to Pakistan and India between 3000 and 1000 BC. David's kingdom, with its center in Jerusalem, would have been at the crossroads of such commerce and would have enjoyed the benefits of trade between Africa and Eurasia.

Had David's claim to the throne been accepted by his kinsmen in Jerusalem, which it apparently was, this would explain why there is no archaeological evidence of David's "conquest" involving destruction of property. Further support for the theory that David was related to the Jebusites is found in II Samuel 24, where we are told that David built a fire altar at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. David was of the ruler-priest caste and therefore qualified to offer sacrifice.  He was also a shepherd. All the Horite ruler-priests were shepherds.  These are very roles that characterize the Horite ruler-priests whose patrilineal lines intermarried, bringing us to the Joachim, Mary's father, a descendant of David's prophet Nathan. The Virgin Mary was Miriam Daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther) Priests of Nathan of Beth Lehem. From the earliest predynastic times in Egypt, 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 class 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.”


Jebusite Builders
The Jebusites were a Kushite people and the Kushites were known as great builders.  Nimrod, the son of Kush, is an example. He built cities in the Tigris River Valley, though his people originated in the Nile Valley.  From the Nile, the Jebusites migrated both east and west. The western boundary of the Jebu is marked by a 1000-year old rampart that is 70 feet high and 100 miles long. The British archaeologist Patrick Darling is credited with drawing world attention to the discovery of the Eredo system of walls. He reports, "We are not linking what we found to a city, but to a vast kingdom boundary rampart."

Eredo rampart

The Eredo walls and ditches are located to the south-west of the Jebu town of Ijebu-Ode in Ogun state in southwest Nigeria. This is the largest single pre-colonial monument in Africa. Local people link the Eredo boundary walls to Bilikisu Sungbo, another name for Sheba, according to Dr Patrick Darling. This discovery confirms the biblical genealogical data that links the clans of Jebu and Sheba (in ancient Yemen).

German archaeologists working in the Ethiopian highlands have identified the remains of settlements from the the time of David that reveal strong cultural and religious connections to biblical Sheba. The clans of Sheba were close relatives of the Jokanite clans of South Arabia. The territory of Sheba is referred to 24 times in the Hebrew Bible. Beersheba, Keturah's home, was at the northern end of the territory of Sheba. Keturah was Abraham's cousin wife.  See diagram below.

Related reading:  Who Were the Kushites?;  Edom and the Horites; The Jebusites Unveiled; Frank Moore Cross: Israel's God is the God of the Horites

Judahite Fortress

Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel believes the discovery of the two fortified gates at Elah Fortress not only proves the existence of Sha'arayim named three times in the Bible in connection with David, but also suggests that the fortified city was part of a centralized government administered by King David.

Elah Fortress is the oldest known fortress of the biblical period. It dates to the tenth century B.C. The fortress is southwest of Jerusalem on what was the border between the Kingdom of Judea and the coast lands of the Philistines. The massive stone gate faces Jerusalem.

Garkinkel's team also found a 3,000-year-old pottery shard with five lines of text at the Elah Fortress. He believes the text provides evidence for the existence of a vast kingdom under David's rule. Garfinkel believes the site was the westernmost outpost maintained by the Kingdom of Judea, which controlled land in southwest Asia and Palestine before the Kingdom of Israel.

Read more here and here.

The Writing of David's Realm

What may be the oldest known Hebrew text, found on a hilltop above the valley where David is said to have battled Goliath, could lend historical support to some Bible stories, archaeologists say.

The 3,000-year-old pottery shard with five lines of text was found during excavations of the Elah Fortress, the oldest known Biblical-period fortress that dates to the 10th century B.C.

It is the most important archaeological discovery in Israel since the Dead Sea Scrolls, according to lead researcher Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology.

His team believes the text may provide evidence for a real-life King David and his vast kingdom, the existence of which has been long doubted by scholars.

Carbon-14 dating of olive pits found at the archaeological site, as well as analysis of pottery remains, also place the text to between 1000 and 975 B.C., the time King David, head of the Kingdom of Israel, would have lived.

"This means that historical knowledge of King David could pass from generation to generation in writing—and not just as oral tradition."

The exact nature of the text— believed to be Hebrew written in Proto-Canaanite script, a type of early alphabet—has yet to be determined, but a number of root words have already been translated, including "judge," "slave," and "king."
Read it all here.


This discovery confirms that scribes recorded information and that royal archives existed in David's realm. This is the raw material that enabled the development of the Genesis narratives and the story of Ruth. The seals and ostracon of that period reveal that names were spelled differently depending of the source of the writing. Archaeologists acknowledge that the Holy Name and theophoric elements were spelled one way in the northern populations and another way among the southern populations like the Dedanites.

David is said to have ruled a territory that extended from the Nile River to the Euphrates. This is but a small portion of the older Afro-Asiatic Dominion that extended from the Atlantic coast of modern Nigeria to the Indus River Valley. David may have sought to extend his political influence into the Nile Valley through the house of Sheba to which he was related. Scribal adaptation of Nilotic and Thamudic scripts would have served to that end.

Related reading: The Writing System of Menes; Enigmatic Petroglyphs of Saudi Arabia's High Plateau; Who Were the Kushites?; Nimrod (Sargon) was a Kushite Kingdom Builder; Proto-Elamite Script; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Yahu Seals