The Dispersion of the Early Hebrew

 

       Map produced by Daniel Todd

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The Hebrew were widely dispersed before Abraham's time (c.2000 BC). They were in the region of Lake Chad, the Nile Valley, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Eurasia, and the Indus Valley.

Nekhen on the Nile is the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship. It is marked on the map by a star. Nekhen's sister city, Nekheb, sat on the opposite side to the Nile River. Both were shrine cities with Hebrew priests. A great deal is known about the Horite and Sethite mounds from texts dating to as early as 4200 years ago.

The historical Adam and Eve lived around 5000-4800 BC in a vast well-watered region called Eden. Genesis 2 describes Eden as a lush riverine region that extended from the sources of the Nile in Ethiopia and Uganda to the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia (C on the map). The early Hebrew lived throughout Eden.

The firstborn son of Adam and Eve was Cain (Gen. 4). He was sent away and established a settlement "east of Eden" (Gen. 4:16). He named that settlement for his son Enoch, a royal title. Cain's descendants, the Kenites, are found in the land of Kenan which is the land of Canaan כנען, pronounced kena'an.

Noah was one of the descendants of Adam and Eve. Different accounts of Noah are given in Genesis chapter 6-8. He probably ruled in the region of Lake Chad (A on the map). This is the only place on earth that the natives call Noah's homeland - Bornu (Borno/Benue), meaning "land of Noah." The local Kanuri people call Lake Chad Buhar Nuhu, meaning "Sea of Noah." When Noah lived the Sahara was wet and green. The Lake Chad Basin was prone to flooding. The oldest known canoe, the "Dufuna boat," was found in this region. This is a photograph of that 8000-year mahogany dugout.

One of Noah's descendants was Nimrod (Gen. 10), a son of Kush. Nimrod left Kush (modern day Sudan) and established his territory on the Euphrates River around 3500 BC (Gen. 10). He married a Sumerian princess, the daughter of King Asshur.

The practice of marrying high-status women to form political alliances and to become established in a new territory is illustrated by Nimrod’s marriage to a Sumerian princess. Nimrod was a Kushite kingdom builder and his marriage to Asshur’s daughter is evidence of the close connection between the rulers of the Nile Valley and the rulers of Mesopotamia, two early riverine civilizations.

Another of Noah's descendants was Heth (Gen. 10). The Hittites of Canaan and Anatolia (C on the map) are Heth's Hebrew descendants.

Abraham was one of Nimrod’s descendants. Around 2000 BC, Abraham controlled the water systems at Hebron and Beersheba and the wells that he dug in Gerar. His proper heir was Isaac and Isaac's proper heir was Esau. Jacob was sent to serve his maternal uncle, a common practice among the early Hebrew. The sending away of non-ascendant sons drove the Hebrew dispersion into many regions.

The clans of Joktan and Sheba were also Hebrew. They settled in southern Arabia. This map shows the Joktanite clans of Arabia.

The widely dispersed Hebrew ruler-priests controlled commerce on sections of the major water systems. They traded as far as Pakistan and the Indus River Civilization. By the time Nimrod married a daughter of Asshur, long-distance trade had become a source of wealth for the Mesopotamian lords and ladies. Ships coming from Bahrain (Sumerian "Dilmun") brought wool, gold, copper, lapis lazuli, and carnelian to the Sumerian cities of Ur, Nippur, and Uruk (Erech). Archaeologists discovered a 4,000-year-old boat at Uruk. The boat was constructed of organic materials, probably marsh reeds, and covered in bitumen, a tar-like substance used for waterproofing. This technique was used in the construction of Noah’s ark (Gen. 6:14).

As early as 7000 BC, the island of Bahrain (F on the map) served as a major trade depot with its own commercial seal. Ancient documents speak of Dilmun's trade in gold, silver, ivory, sesame oil, wool, carnelian beads, lapis lazuli, and copper. One document details a cargo of eighteen tons of refined copper purchased in Dilmun. Dilmun was a maritime connection between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.

Sumerian ships brought cargo to Dilmun and to port cities in the Indus Valley (G on the map). Ships sailed southeast on the Tigris or Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, making stops at the port of Dilmun, passing the Oman Peninsula, and entering the Arabian Sea. From there the ships sailed northeast on the Indus River to Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Trade in lapis lazuli and carnelian beads ran between Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Afghanistan as early as 4000 B.C. Indus seals with Harappan inscriptions have been found in Mesopotamia. Indus pottery and seals have been found along the maritime routes between the Indian subcontinent and Mesopotamia. Note the close resemblance of Indus Valley and Nilotic inscriptions found on pottery.

The early Hebrew rulers sent their merchants along ancient trade routes that ran from the Nile to Arabia and Canaan, and from Mesopotamia to modern Bahrain. Routes extended into the Indus Valley and as far north as China. There is considerable evidence that the religious beliefs of the early Hebrew influenced the populations among whom they lived. This explains the common religious practices and solar symbolism among the diverse populations of the Fertile Crescent and the Ancient Near East.

The term "Hebrew" is derived from the ancient Akkadian word for priest - abru. They were a ruler-priest caste that married only within their caste (caste endogamy). The caste structure of the early Hebrew meant that wherever they lived they were identifiable as Hebrew. It is possible to speak of Egyptian Hebrew, Canaanite Hebrew, Kushite Hebrew, and Mesopotamian Hebrew. The Hebrew living in the Nile Valley were kin to the Hebrew living in Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia.

The Hebrew priests were in the service of the early kingdom builder which are described in Genesis as the "mighty men of old" and "heroes of renown." As new territories were established and as older territories expanded, the Hebrew went where they were appointed to serve at royal temples and river shrines. Many Hebrew women ministered to women at the river shrines which were places of healing, purification, and prayer, especially for women struggling with infertility.

All this movement happened long before Judaism emerged as a world religion after about 580 BC. None of the people mentioned above were Jews. They were Hebrew, and there were many Hebrew clans.

Related reading: The Ministry of Hebrew Woman at the Sun Cities; Temple Women; Horite and Sethite Mounds; The Hebrew Rulers of Genesis; The Roots of the Gospel are in Africa

Exploring Isaac's Story

Isaac ruled over his father's territory in ancient Edom. 

The territory extended between Hebron and Beersheba, both shown on this map.

Alice C. Linsley

Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him, and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. (Gen. 26:12-14)

Isaac was a high-ranking prince of ancient Edom. His name is derived from iššakkum, a Sumerian title designating the ruler or prince. He was a man of great wealth.

He was Abraham's proper heir, and he inherited control of Abraham's territory that extended north-south from Hebron to Beersheba. That territory was entirely in the region that the Bible calls "Edom" or "Idumea" in Greek. Edom was under the control of Horite Hebrew ruler-priests listed in Genesis 36. 

Both Hebron (where Sarah lived) and Beersheba (where Keturah lived) were in ancient Edom. Abraham's territory extended between the settlements of his two wives and included mountains and lowlands.

Questioning Isaac's existence

When I was in seminary, my Old Testament professor told the class that he doubted Isaac’s existence because there is so little information about Isaac. He noted that the story of Isaac pretending that Rebecca was his sister parallels the story of Abraham asking Sarah to say that she is his sister. He concluded that Isaac is a literary construction reflecting the author’s love of doublets, two different narrative accounts of the same event.

Duplicative narratives reflect a pattern that is familiar to two different authors. An example is the attempt of Abraham and Isaac to pass off their wives as their sisters. In Abraham's case, Sarah was indeed his half-sister. They had the same father, but different mothers because it was the custom of high-ranking Hebrew ruler-priests to have two wives. It is likely that Issac followed the marriage pattern of his Hebrew ancestors. If so, his first wife was a half-sister, the daughter of Abraham and Keturah. 

Another example of a duplicative pattern involves the birth of twins. There are close parallels between the birth of Esau and Jacob and the later birth of Zerah and Perez. Both stories speak of the birth order of twins and identify the firstborn sons as Esau and Zerah. By rights, Esau was Isaac's proper heir, but as such, he probably was not Rebekah's son. He would be the son of Isaac's half-sister, the bride of his youth. In the Hebrew marriage and ascendancy, the firstborn of cousin brides did not rule over the territories of their fathers. They were sent to serve their maternal grandfathers, which is what happened with Jacob. 

My professor also noted the limited genealogical information about Isaac. However, a closer look reveals that Isaac had at least 7 half-siblings. They include Ishmael (born of Hagar) and Eliezer (born of Mesek). Hagar and Mesek were concubines. Genesis 25:6 makes it clear that Abraham had more than one concubine. The Hebrew literally speaks of Abraham's sons by concubines (Speiser on Genesis, Anchor Bible, p. 197).

Abraham's cousin wife Keturah bore him 6 sons: Joktan/Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Zimran, Shua, and Ishbak/Yishbak. Yishbak means "sent away". He is one of the sons to whom Abraham gave gifts and sent away from Isaac. The sending away of non-ascendant sons is made explicit in Genesis 25:5-6: “But Abraham gave everything he possessed to Isaac. While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons he had by his concubines, but then sent them away to the country of the east, putting a good distance between them and his son Isaac.”

Ishmael also was a sent-away son. The circumstances of his being sent away vary in the book of Genesis. According to one account, Ishmael and Hagar were sent away ("cast out") because of Sarah's jealousy (Gen. 21:10). According to another account, Abraham's eight sons were given gifts and sent away from Isaac's territory before Abraham died.

While I appreciate my professor’s observations, I disagree with his conclusion. Isaac’s historicity can be verified by his adherence to the kinship pattern of his ancestors. Fictional characters do not have verifiable kinship patterns.

The Bible does not identify Isaac’s first wife. Her presence is suggested through multiple lines of evidence. The text in Genesis 26:7 speaks of Isaac having a sister wife. The half-sister wife clearly was not Rebekah since she was Isaac's patrilineal cousin. Isaac would have married according to the pattern of his Hebrew ancestors which means he had two wives. Isaac was living near Beersheba when Abraham’s servant arrived from Padan-Aram with Rebekah. Beersheba was where Keturah resided and where Isaac's half-sister bride was living.

The twin boys assigned to Rebekah were probably the firstborn sons of Isaac’s two wives. Since Esau was Isaac’s proper heir, he would have been the firstborn son of Isaac and his first wife, his half-sister. Rebekah would be the mother of Jacob, a son sent to serve in his maternal grandfather’s territory. This aligns with the social structure of the early Hebrew, as the son of the cousin bride belonged to the household of his maternal grandfather and would reside there after coming of age. This occurred with Jacob who went to live with his maternal uncle (avuncular residence).

Related reading: Abraham's Sons; Abraham's Two Concubines; Sent-Away Sons; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles; Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives

Abraham's Proper Heir

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The Hebrew inheritance laws are complex because high-ranking rulers such as Abraham had two first-born sons. Abraham's first-borns sons were Joktan (born of Keturah, Gen. 25) and Ishmael, but neither of these sons were Abraham's proper heir. 

Among the early Hebrew the proper heir was the first-born son of the first wife, usually a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham (Gen. 20:12). This explains the deep sorrow of Abraham and Sarah that she was unable to bear children. It also sheds light on the story of Hagar and Ishmael’s banishment. Having provided a proper heir for Abraham after years of barrenness, Sarah became angry when she thought that Abraham’s love for both Ishmael and Isaac might lead him to divide his territory between them, as Eber did for his sons Peleg and Joktan.

Genesis 10:25 reports: “To Eber were born two sons: the first was called Peleg, because it was in his time that the earth [eretz] was divided, and his brother was called Joktan.”

The word eretz has multiple meanings: earth, land, soil, and territory. Since this passage deals with royal sons, the most appropriate word choice in this context is “territory”. It the appears that Eber divided his territory into two, assigning separate regions to each royal son. Peleg ruled over one territory and Joktan over the other. Abraham was a descendant of Peleg, and his half-brother Haran likely was a descendant of Joktan.

The clan of Jacob (Israel) went into Egypt, but they were not the only Hebrew clan. Clearly, some Hebrew were never in Egypt. The story of the Exodus does not apply to them. It is also likely that some Hebrew people remained in Egypt as they had deep roots in the Nile Valley.

In the Hebrew social structure, provision was made for the sons of high-ranking rulers to receive an inheritance, and grants were made to the sons of concubines. The value of the grants likely depended on the dowery of high-status concubines and on the generosity of the patriarch. Grants included land, servants, herds, camels, linen, leather goods, and articles of gold, copper, silver, and bronze.

However, only one son could assume control over the territory of his father and that was the first-born son of the principal wife. In Abraham's case, that was Isaac. He received the bulk of Abraham's wealth and assumed control over Abraham's territory which extended between Hebron and Beersheba. Abraham’s other sons received gifts and were sent away from Isaac (Gen. 25:6). The gifts helped the sent-away sons to become established in their own territories. This practice preserved Abraham’s territory intact and led to the wide dispersion of the Hebrew ruler-priests even before Abraham's time.

The Hebrew practice of endogamy played a role in amassing and preserving wealth. Their distinctive marriage and ascendancy pattern allowed for a smooth transition of power among the ruler-priests. It also made it possible to keep territories intact and to preserve wealth. Wealth among the early Hebrew involved herds, servants, gold, copper, and water resources. Some Hebrew controlled commerce on the rivers and major water systems. This provided income from cargo taxes. A major trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia ran through part of Abraham’s territory and this likely provided him with a source of income. He also held the water rights to wells he dug in Gerar (Gen. 26:15).

It is evident from the biblical data that Abraham's clan observed an ancient code or tradition that pertained to rights of inheritance. His authority was attached to the ruler-priest caste into which he was born and was reinforced by his observation of this code. The early Hebrew believed that the tradition received from their ancestors was not to be changed. They preserved their religion heritage, ethnic identity, and wealth by marrying exclusively within their caste (endogamy).

Related reading: Abraham the Hebrew; Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles; Sent-Away Sons; Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Cousin Brides

The Water Shrine of Lahai Roi

Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her:“You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered." (Genesis 16:13-14)


Alice C. Linsley

In the Bible, Beer Lahai Roi is mentioned in connection to Hagar, one of Abraham's concubines, and Isaac, Abraham's heir. Genesis 25:11 explains, "After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi." Presumably, Isaac lived near Beer Lahai Roi with Rebekah who he had married before Abraham died.

Beer Lahi Roi refers to an oasis in the wilderness between Kadesh and Bered, two sites that have not been definitively identified. The oasis was south of Beersheba. It may be the sacred fountain on the way to Shur mentioned in Genesis 16:7 where the angel of YHWH found Hagar. Likely, it was a water shrine frequented by women when they were troubled.

As Abraham's heir, Isaac ruled over territory in Edom (shown below). Abraham's territory extended between Hebron and Beersheba (north-south axis) and between Ein Gedi and Gerar (east-west axis).

This region was called "Idumea" by the Greeks, meaning "land of red people." One of the rulers of Edom was Esau who is described as red and hairy. Esau was one of Isaac's sons, and his proper heir.

As the ruler, Isaac traveled from place to place within his territory. He spent time in Gerar repairing wells that had been dug by Abraham (Gen. 26:1), and he spent time in Beersheba where Abraham's cousin wife Keturah dwelt. Isaac had half-siblings living there.

Isaac also spent time at Beer Lahai Roi (Gen. 25:11), especially after his father died. Genesis 24:62 reports that Isaac traveled from the way of Beer Lahai Roi, for he lived in the "land of the South," a reference to Edom, the region south of Judah. Perhaps Isaac lived for a time in Beer Lahai Roi with Rebekah because his new wife had kin there. In Isaac's time, all of this area was within the territory controlled by the Horites of Edom.

Isaac married Rebekah shortly before Abraham's death. Genesis 25:20 says that Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. The marriage and ascendancy pattern for the rulers among Abraham's Horite Hebrew caste indicates that Rebekah was Isaac's second wife. He probably had married a half-sister when he was much younger.

Isaac had half-sisters where Abraham spent the last years of his life in the "wildernesss of Beersheba" (Gen. 21:14). It is likely that Isaac's first wife was a half sister, as was Sarah to Abraham.

Once Isaac ascended to rule over Abraham's territory in Edom, Isaac's two wives would have lived in separate households on a north-south axis. These settlements would then have marked the northern and southern boundaries of Isaac's territory.


Related reading: The Chiefs of Edom; Abraham's Concubines; Abraham's Sons; A Woman at a Well; Ishmael Was Not Abraham's First Born Son

Did Abraham Intend to Sacrifice Isaac?

Caravaggio, 1598

Alice C. Linsley

The Binding of Isaac is best explained by early Hebrew beliefs concerning the High God and His son, Hor/Hur/Horus, from the ancient Egyptian HR, meaning "Most High One." In the symbolism of the early Hebrew the Divine Father-Son were represented by the Sun and the solar arc. The Sun was described as rising in the east like a young lamb and setting in the west like a mature ram. As Abraham and Isaac ascended Mount Moriah, Isaac asked his father "where is the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham replied that God would provide the sacrifice.

God provided a ram. Horus is the single figure shown in ancient iconography with the body of a man and the head of a ram. This animal was sacrificed by the Hebrew at festivals. One such festival commemorated the death and resurrection of Horus. This lasted five days and involved sowing wheat seed in the fields. Another festival involved making a three-day journey into the wilderness (Exodus 3:18; 5:3, and 8:26-28.). This involved the sacrifice of a ram, an animal that the Egyptians did not sacrifice. This explains why Moses said to Pharaoh that the Hebrew clans had to make a three-day journey into the wilderness. "...for the sacrifices that we offer to the LORD our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we offer in the sight of the Egyptians sacrifices that are an abomination to them, will they not stone us?”

There is an interesting linguistic connection between the words for ram and soul in ancient Egyptian thought. Both are the same word - ba. No wonder the Egyptians did not sacrifice rams! Yet God provided a ram. The early Hebrew ruler-priests clearly did not hold to the religious syncretism of the Egyptians. Indeed, their faith is rooted in a Messianic Tradition that existed at least 2000 years before Egypt became a political entity.

To understand what the events on Mount Moriah meant to Abraham, we must be aware of his Hebrew beliefs concerning the expected Righteous Ruler who would die and overcome death, rising to immortality.

Horus, the son of Ra (meaning "Father" in ancient Egyptian) was depicted among Abraham's Nilotic ancestors as being one with the Father. He rode with the Father on the solar boat. The boat of the morning hours was called Mandjet and the boat of the evening hours was called Mesektet. While Horus was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form. The east represented the past and the west represented the future, as with many indigenous peoples even today. 

The narratives that speak about the death of Horus involve being bitten by a scorpion or by a poisonous serpent. Both accounts are fairly late (c.1720-c.1250 B.C.), but the idea of the Seed of God being bitten by a serpent is found in Genesis 3:15. Some have claimed that Horus was crucified. No such narrative exists in the ancient texts. The lack of description of HR's death in ancient texts may be explained by the symbolism of the solar arc in which the ram is connected to the future, an event to take place after Abraham's time.

The ram was the Heavenly Father's substitute for Isaac who Abraham may have believed to be the long-awaited Messiah. That Abraham believed the sign of the ram became grounds for his justification. The ram caught on Mount Moriah symbolized to Abraham that the offering of his heart was accepted. 
ManageJews speak of the "binding of Isaac" as the Akeidat Yitzchak. Most Jews do not believe that Abraham intended to sacrifice his son. In The Binding of Isaac, Religious Murders and Kabbalah, Lippman Bodoff argues that Abraham never intended to sacrifice his son. Rather, he had faith that God had no intention that he should do so.

Genesis Rabbah holds that God "never considered telling Abraham to slaughter Isaac. Rabbi Yona Ibn Janach wrote that this story is about a symbolic sacrifice. Rabbi Yosef Ibn Caspi maintained that Abraham's "imagination" led him astray. Ibn Caspi wrote, "How could God command such a revolting thing?"

Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz maintains that child sacrifice was "rife among the Semitic peoples," and finds it "astounding that Abraham's God should have interposed to prevent the sacrifice, not that He should have asked for it." Hertz's interpretation of Genesis 22 is that God was correcting the practice of human sacrifice among Abraham’s people. Unfortunately, there is little anthropological and archaeological support for this view. The is no evidence that the early Hebrew practiced human sacrifice.

Jacques Kinnaer reports, "The earliest known example of human sacrifice may perhaps be found in Predynastic burials in the south of Egypt, dated to the Naqada II Period. One of the discovered bodies showed marks on the throat from having been cut before having been decapitated."-- Human Sacrifice, Jacques Kinnaer

Kinnaer also provides two definitions of human sacrifice:

• "The ritual killing of human beings as part of the offerings presented to the gods on a regular basis, or on special occasions."

• "Retainer sacrifice, or the killing of domestic servants to bury them along with their master."

For the first definition there is no evidence among Abraham's ancestors, and regarding the second definition, there is dispute among Egyptologists. Caroline Seawright has written, "Human sacrifice is not generally connected with ancient Egypt. There is little evidence of human sacrifice during most of the dynastic period of ancient Egypt... but there is some evidence that it may have been practiced in the Nile Valley during the 1st Dynasty and possibly also Predynastic Egypt.

Seawright is referring to subsidiary graves at Abydos, the burial place for the first kings of a unified Egypt. These were Kushite rulers. However, these were the graves of domestics and officials who probably died naturally, not the graves of servants who were sacrificed to serve the ruler in the afterlife. Even the most provocative National Geographic report has to admit that this is probable, lacking hard evidence that the ancient Nilotic peoples sacrificed humans.

The "binding of Isaac" involves a promise. The promise is understood in the exchange of the lamb Isaac asked his father about, for the ram that God provides. For the Horite Hebrew this speaks of the Creator's son, Horus, who was said to rise with the sun as a lamb and set with the sun as a ram in its full strength. That being the case, this story is about God providing His own sacrifice, but in the future (symbolized by the west). The text supports this interpretation.

"Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, 'In the mount of the LORD it will be provided." (Gen. 22:14, 15)

It is apparent that Abraham intended that Isaac should be offered to God, perhaps dedicated to God's service, as Samuel was dedicated to serve in the temple? Genesis tells us that Abraham expected to return with Isaac to his men waiting at the base of the mountain. Abraham the Hebrew expected resurrection and he told the men that both he and Isaac would return (Genesis 22:5).

Abraham knew to expect a son who would overcome death. He likely believed that Isaac would be raised to life after the sacrifice. In other words, he acted by faith. By provision of the ram on Mount Moriah, a site that was sacred to the Horite Hebrew, Abraham received confirmation that his offering was accepted, and he also discovered that Isaac was not the anticipated Ruler foretold in Eden (Gen. 3:15). That one would be revealed in the future.

Paul and James are perceived to be in conflict on the question of justification, yet they both argue based on this story of Abraham and Isaac. There is no conflict in their understandings of this event if they understood that Abraham trusted God to confirm the truth to him. This is the man who posed the great question: "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25) This same Abraham believed God's promise concerning the appointed Son who would appear in the future. 

What Abraham discovered on Mount Moriah is that Isaac was not the long-awaited Messiah who would overcome death and lead the people to immortality. That Lamb of God was yet to be born, and He would die a ram (in full strength of manhood) in the future. James tells us that Abraham discovered justification through acting on his Messianic faith... that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (James 2:21-24).

The Jews call their ancestors "Horim" because they recognize the Horite Hebrew identity of Abraham and his ancestors. The Horite (and Sethite) Hebrew believed in the resurrection, but this fact has been suppressed by rabbinic teaching.

The Horites anticipated that a woman of their ruler-priest lines would miraculously conceive by the overshadowing of God and bring for the Son of God. This explains why their lines intermarried exclusively, as analysis of their marriage and ascendancy pattern shows. Both Joseph and Mary are descendants of the Horite ruler-priest lines. This is attested by the fact that Joseph had to register for the census in Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a Horite town. I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hor as the "father" of Bethlehem.

The Nilotic Horites held an annual a 5-day festival in which they mourned the death of the son of God. He is called Horus, from which come the terms "Horite" or "Hurrian." On the third day, the priests lead the people to the fields where they planted seeds of grain to symbolize his rising to life. This was a custom among Abraham's Nilotic ancestors who hung their hopes on the resurrection of the Righteous Ruler.

Genesis 3:15 speaks of how the Woman would bring for the Seed who would crush the serpent's head. Jesus claimed to be that Seed when He spoke to his disciples about his impending death. He explained: "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (John 12:24)

The rabbis do not agree on the meaning of the binding of Isaac, but one thing is certain: the Horite Hebrew did not practice human sacrifice. The biblical evidence indicates that child sacrifice among the Semites developed after Abraham's time because God condemns it between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, about 1200 years after Abraham.

There is little evidence of human sacrifice among biblical peoples. This narrative of Abraham with Isaac isn't about human sacrifice. It is about Messianic expectation of the dying and rising son. The narrative concerning Jephath's sacrifice of his daughter is a moral lesson about not swearing rash oaths (compare James 5:12), and a critique of Canaanite practices surrounding war.


Related reading: Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity; Ram Symbolism in the Ancient World; Jesus: From Lamb to Ram; What Abraham Discovered on Mount Moriah; The Substance of Abraham's Faith

What Abraham Discovered on Mt. Moriah

Alice C. Linsley

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.  (James 2:21-24)

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Romans 4:2-3)

Both James and Paul point to the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah to speak about the nature of justification. Therefore, it is important to understand what that event meant to Abraham the Hebrew.

Abraham was a Horite Hebrew, a devotee of God father and God Son. The "son" was called HR in ancient Egyptian, meaning "Most High One" or "Hidden One". 

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew were a ruler-priest caste that originated in the Nile Valley. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is Nekhen, an ancient city that stretched for two miles along the Nile. Votive offerings at the Nekhen temple were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite Hebrew priests placed invocations and prayers to Re (Father) and HR (Hur/Hor/Horus) at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. For the early Hebrew, the sun was the symbol of God Father and the co-equal Son. They viewed the solar arc as God's path through the heavens. 

"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)

As Abraham and Isaac ascended Mount Moriah, Isaac asked his father "where is the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb. However, that is not what God did. As the story goes, God provided a ram. To understand what this would have meant to Abraham, we must investigate the early Hebrew beliefs concerning the expected Righteous Ruler who would die and overcome death on the third day.

God provided a ram instead. For Abraham the Horite Hebrew, the lamb was associated with the east and the rising of the sun. The ram was associated with the west, the setting sun, and the future. This belief emerged from the solar imagery of the Proto-Gospel. Horus, the son of the High God was depicted as being one with the Father. He rode with the Father on the solar boat. The boat of the morning hours was called Mandjet (Ancient Egyptian: mꜥnḏt) and the boat of the evening hours was called Mesektet. While Horus was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form.

The ram symbolized God's acceptance of Abraham's offering at that moment (justification now) and God's acceptance of Abraham at the eschaton (future justification). The ram caught on Mount Moriah symbolized to Abraham that his offering had been accepted, because the lamb had become the ram, in mature strength. Horus was the Lamb in his weaker (kenotic) existence, and he was the Ram in his glorified strength. 

It appears that Abraham believed Isaac was the appointed son whose death would be overcome. but Isaac was spared when God provided his own sacrifice. Abraham likely believed Isaac to be the son of promise since some circumstances surrounding Isaac's birth align with the early Hebrew expectation of the Son of God.

Consider why Abraham might have believed he was to offer up Isaac:

1. Isaac was born miraculously (Gen. 21:5) as was Horus, who was said to have been conceived of a virgin when she was divinely overshadowed. Consider the Angel's words in Luke 1:35, explaining to Mary that she would conceive by overshadowing.

2. As Abraham's heir, Isaac was honored as being one with his father. From pre-dynastic times, the Creator was said to have a son, Horus. The Father and the Son are inseparable and of one essence in the theology of Abraham's Horim. Horus knows the Father and the Father knows the Son.

3. 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 Seth who was banished.

4. 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. This is why many ancient Egyptian funerary amulets were made in the shape of the Eye of Horus.

5. Isaac received the kingdom from his father (Gen. 25:25).  Horus receives a kingdom from Ra. In Horite Hebrew belief, Horus and Ra are frequently interchangeable - "I and my Father are one", as Jesus explained (John 10:30). The Father and the Son are inseparable and of one essence in the theology of Abraham's Horim. Horus knows the Father and the Father knows the Son. This is expressed in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. In the priest's prayer to the King, he says, "Horus is a soul and he recognizes his father in you..." (Utterance 423)

6. Isaac had two wives who lived in separate settlements with separate flocks. Together these constituted his kingdom. There were practical reasons for this practice.  In the event of attack, Isaac's line was more likely to survive if divided into two camps. This fear motivated Jacob to separate his two wives and their people into two groups when returning to Canaan (Gen. 32). Likewise, Horus is said to have two land holdings, as evidenced by one of his titles Har-pa-Neb-Taui, which means "Horus of the two lands." The Horus narrative speaks of how he unites the peoples of the Upper and Lower Nile into one people. Jesus Messiah is the one who unites all peoples.

7. The association of sheep with the Son of God is found in the Old and New Testaments. Horite Hebrew priests kept herds from which they took the best to offer as sacrifices. Jesus comes from a long line of shepherds of the priestly lines, on Joseph's side and Mary's side. Keeping sheep was not their only occupation, however. Some were metal workers, others were carpenters, but all were skilled in various enterprises. The rulers of Egypt kept flocks and acknowledged that Jacob's people were especially skilled shepherds. This is why Pharaoh asked Joseph to put the best of shepherd of Jacob's clan in charge of the royal flocks (Gen. 47:6).

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, speaks of having other sheep in another fold (John 10:16). Often the two folds are cast as dispensations: one consisting of those who lived in faithful expectation of the Son of God and the other being the witnesses of His resurrection (the Church). Together these comprise the Kingdom of God. They might also be seen as the two wives of Christ. The second wife was taken shortly before the ruler ascended to the throne. This puts the marriage feast of the Lamb in a new light.

8. The ruler-priests among Abraham's people were shepherds. The signs of their authority were the shepherd's crook and the flail. These emblems of royal authority have been found in pre-Dynastic wall paintings. Nekhen is the site of the most ancient Horite Hebrew temple (c. 4000 B.C.). Of particular interest is the tomb painting of two men who carry crooked staffs with objects that look like flails, suggesting that they might be ruler-priests.

In God's economy, which always gets the order of things right, it was the shepherds of Bethlehem, a Horite Hebrew settlement, who were the first to receive the news of the birth of the Son of God!

9. Jesus is often portrayed as the Lamb, a tender image. In His resurrection victory He is better portrayed as a ram, mighty in strength, mature, and ready to defend his flock. In the story of the binding of Isaac, the ram speaks of God's self-sacrifice and would have been confirmation for Abraham that his offering was accepted. The acceptance was justification of Abraham by faith in what he expected God to do in the future.

10. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts provide a great deal of information about Horus and the Father-Son relationship. The righteous rulers who were buried in the half dozen pyramids in question hoped for bodily resurrection and their hope rested in Horus who was pierced in the side, died, and risen from the dead on the third day. The expectation that the Righteous Son would not remain in the grave is expressed in Psalm 16:10: For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. The final enemy is death. Psalm 110: The Lord says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."

In the Coffin Texts, funerary prayers dating to about 1000 years before Psalm 110, we read in passage 148:

"I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'."

Abraham knew to expect a son who would overcome death. He likely believed that Isaac would be raised to life after the sacrifice. In other words, he acted by faith. By provision of the ram on Mount Moriah, a site that was sacred to the Horite Hebrew, Abraham received confirmation that his offering was accepted, and he also discovered that Isaac was not the anticipated Ruler foretold in Eden (Gen. 3:15). That one would be revealed in the future.

The narrative sheds light on the relationship between the justified of the Old Covenant and the justified of the New Covenant. There is only one ground for justification, as the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah reveals. That is trust in the promised Son of God.

Paul and James are perceived to be in conflict on the question of justification, yet they both argue based on this story of Abraham and Isaac. There is no conflict in their understandings of this event. Abraham obeyed God by going to Mount Moriah. There he was given the sign of the Ram by which he apprehended by faith the promised Son of God. Abraham trusted God to confirm the truth. This is the man who posed the great question: "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25) This same Abraham believed God on a very deep level.

By all appearances, Jesus fulfills of the Horite Hebrew expectation of the Divine Seed who would crush the serpent's head. This expectation was expressed about 1000 years before Psalm 91 in the Pyramid Texts.

"Horus has shattered (tbb, crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot (tbw)" Utterance 388

The early Hebrew believed that one of their virgin daughters would be divinely appointed by overshadowing to bring forth the Messiah. They lived in expectation of the fulfillment of a promise made to their Edenic ancestors that a Son (Seed) would be born who would be their Savior (Gen. 3:15).

Related reading:  Jesus: From Lamb to Ram; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Genesis on Sons and The Son; Ram Symbolism in the Ancient World

Where I'm Going With JUST GENESIS

Alice C. Linsley

From a reader:

“I have a few questions about your blog. I'm a little confused about where you are going with Genesis. I see Cultural Anthropology 101, kinship stuff, the Afro-centric emphasis and literary criticism, deconstruction style, and a lot about priests and shamans (more cultural anthropology). I'm having trouble getting a coherent thread I can follow, but honestly, it's probably just me. Can you give me some hint of where you are going and the purpose of all of this?”

My Response

My concern is that Genesis be understood at the deepest possible level since the material there is foundational to the whole canon. Genesis should not be forced into a modern mold. We should make the effort to understand what this material meant to the archaic peoples for whom this divine revelation was sacred. One of the best ways to do this is to apply the tools of cultural anthropology.

At JUST GENESIS I apply standard tools and methodologies to the Biblical text to lift up anthropologically significant data. This is an investigation into the prehistoric roots of Biblical peoples using kinship analysis, comparative linguistics, climate and migration studies, molecular genetics, and archaeology. Kinship analysis of the Genesis king lists has confirmed that these are authentic lists pertaining to historical people. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of these archaic rulers is important because it points to the ascendancy of Jesus Christ. The first place we find the pattern is among the rulers listed in Genesis 4 and 5.

This is a scientific approach to Genesis, having little to do with the more speculative approach of theology in which the term "anthropology" has a different meaning. Christian anthropology is the study of humanity through the lens of Christianity and primarily focuses on the nature of humanity in reference to the Creator and to creation. In a sense, this approach places a template over the material. A scientific approach removes the template and allows us to note details and nuances that we might not see with the template.

A scientific approach lifts up the data and allows it to speak for itself without forcing a given interpretation, be it Young-Earth Creationism, Theistic Evolution, ID, literalism, or the speculation of the Biblically illiterate. Allow me to give just two examples.


Example One

The writers of Scripture refer to Adam as the first created human. Of the surface it would appear that all humans are Adam's descendants. However, the material refers to the experience of a specific group of humans from whom Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus descended. If one insists that Adam and Eve are the original first parents of humanity, then one must reconcile this with the millions of years of human existence on Earth.

While the Bible certainly speaks of Adam as the symbolic first father, there is an alternative view of Adam as the founding father of the "red" people who anthropologists today would recognize as belonging to the L and R1 haplogroups. Redness was a sign of royal blood, and this is noted in reference to rulers of this ancestry, including Esau and David. The Genesis text suggests that this is the meaning of the name Adam. Adam was a red man.

When we place the emphasis on Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all humans, we distract from the evidence that verifies what Genesis tells us about Abraham's Proto-Saharan (sometimes called "Kushite") ancestors. Noah was one of the Proto-Saharan rulers who would have been in the R1b haplogroup. On this map his homeland is marked by the deep red mark in central Africa.

The R1b Haplogroup is often presented as a European haplogroup and it has been shown that 70% of men in Britain are in this group. However, the dispersion of peoples in this haplogroup is extremely broad and among the archaic rulers there are many cultural commonalities. These include solar symbolism for the High God, shrine cities at high elevations, control of the major water systems, similar cone shaped structures, knob sticks carried by the clan chiefs, circles of standing stones, stone tombs, and burial in red ocher.

Consider also the assertion in Genesis 11:1 that the people who dispersed out of Africa in this group had common linguistic roots. That has been demonstrated in recent phoneme studies. This is what Genesis 11:1 means:“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.” This "whole world" is like the whole world that appeared to Noah to be flooded. The whole world is what was known to the people or the testimony that was received by them from their ancestors. Common sense tells us that we are not required to take this literally.

The was the understanding of the peoples who are mentioned in Genesis 10 (the "Table of Nations") and it is from them that we receive this information. Comparative linguistics has demonstrated a connection between the languages of the peoples named in the Table of Nations. To avoid abusing the Table, the best science should be used to investigate this material.

Consider the recent research connecting the Luwian hieroglyphs, Hittite hieroglyphs and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Luwian scripts took two forms: (1) Akkadian cuneiform, as with the Hittite scripts found at Hattusa, and (2) Egyptian hieroglyphic. Both writings systems are connected to the Proto-Saharan rulers who dispersed out of Africa into the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. The spoken language had properties typical of Chadic, Nilotic and ancient Sumerian languages, which like spoken Luwian, are ergative-agglutinative languages. The Luwian writing system is known from quotations in Hittite documents and from ancient scripts from Crete and Cyprus.

If in Genesis 10 a modern language or a people of recent history appeared, we would have reason to suspect that someone had tampered with the text. Instead we have reliable data that aligns with the findings of anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, and DNA studies.


Example 2 

Genesis 25:1 tells us that Abraham’s second wife was Keturah. The placement of this information after the death of Sarah creates the impression that Abraham married Keturah after Sarah died. However, Abraham, like his father and his grandfather, had two wives simultaneously. The wives maintained separate households. Sarah resided in Hebron (Kiriath-Arba) and Keturah resided in Beersheba, to the south. This means that Abraham's entire territory was in the region of Edom (Edom or Idumea means "land of red people") and suggests that he was a great Horite ruler, along with those listed in Genesis 36.

Many of the archaic rulers who were mummified and buried had red hair and red beards. The males of the Tarim Basin mummies are an example. Their DNA classifies them in Haplogroup R1a1a. Likely, this is the same Haplogroup of the redheaded man in Burial no. 79 at the ancient Horite shrine city of Nekhen along the Nile. The wavy red hair and full beard of the man in Burial no. 79 had been trimmed with a sharp blade.

In Genesis 25:5 we read, “Abraham left everything to his son Isaac. While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.” The practice of sending away sons did not begin with Abraham. Sent-away sons were kingdom builders who spread the faith of their ancestors, the Horite Habiru/Hebrew, across the ancient world.

Isaac inherited Abraham’s territory, as he was the proper heir, being the first born son of Abraham's half-sister wife. He would have relied on help from his brothers who were men with resources living in their own territories. We know that Isaac was close to his Beersheba/Negev brothers because he was living among them when Abraham’s servant returned with Rebekah (Gen. 24:62). Beersheba is also where Abraham lived out his last years.

Mummy mask of a bull

Genesis 25:5 gives priority to the line of Isaac, and in so doing, discriminates against Abraham’s other sons and their descendants. Abraham had at least eight sons: Ishmael (Yismael), Isaac (Yitzak), Zimran, Jokshan (Yaqtan), Medan, Midian, Ishbak (Yishbak) and Shuah. Likely, he also had a son by his concubine Masek, Eliezer. These were chiefs of their clans and their divine appointment was indicated by the initial Y, the long horns cradling the Sun. This was a sign that the High God had overshadowed them. Among their European kinsmen the appointed chief wore the antler headdress of the red stag. This is analogous to the circlet of bull horns worn with the Atek crown of the Pharaohs, and the Apis bull images in which the horns cradle the Sun. The Y sign is evident in the names of New Testament persons also. Yeshua (Jesus/Joshua) and Yaḥyá (John) are examples.

Anthropological investigation into the familial relations of the archaic rulers and chiefs contributes to a better understanding of the ancestry of Abraham and his ruler-priest caste. Though Abraham is often credited with introducing monotheism, it is closer to the truth that he received a tradition concerning "the Good God" and he came to trust that God with his full being. Therefore Abraham is called the "father of faith" (Genesis 17:3-6; Genesis 18:18; Exodus 3:6; Isaiah 51:2; Romans 4:11,16; Galatians 3:7; John 8:33-41).


Conclusion

My research involves tracing antecedents, looking for the older pattern from which Judaism emerged in the Axial Age. I want to know about the religion of the archaic rulers who believed in a supreme Creator, about the origin of Messianic expectation among those rulers, and how they dispersed widely, establishing kingdoms from Africa to Asia and from Southern Europe to Ireland. I am always asking the questions: Where did this culture trait comes from? When did this religious practice first appear? How does the pattern of sons ascending relate to the Son's ascension?

Related reading: Something Older; Support Research in Biblical Anthropology; Genesis in Anthropological Perspective; Abraham's Complaint; The Edomites and the Color Red; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of the Horite Habiru; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Some Marks of Prehistoric Religion; Why Biblical Anthropology?; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; The Sun and Celestial Horses; Boats and Cows of the Proto-Saharans

Isaac's Wealth

Alice C. Linsley

Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him, and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. (Genesis 26:12-14)

Isaac was a high ranking prince of ancient Edom. His name is derived from iššakkum, a Sumerian title designating the ruler or prince.

He was Abraham's proper heir, and he inherited control of Abraham's territory that extended north-south from Hebron to Beersheba. That territory was entirely in the region that the Bible calls "Edom." Edom was under the control of Horite ruler-priests. The Edomite rulers are listed in Genesis 36. Jews call their ancestors "Horim," which is a variant of Horite/Hurrian.

Both Hebron (where Sarah lived) and Beersheba (where Keturah lived) were in ancient Edom (called Idumea in Greek). Abraham's territory extended between the settlements of his two wives, and included mountains and lowlands.

This passage from Genesis 26 speaks of Isaac's great wealth and conveys the idea that his prosperity came as divine blessing. There is little doubt that Isaac was more prosperous even than Abraham as he received a territory from his father and apparently was able to make this land productive. Isaac kept herds of cattle on the lowlands and flocks of sheep on the hillsides. He "reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them" (Gen. 26:18). Wells were essential to his herds and flocks for by Isaac's time (c. 1987-1888 B.C.) Edom was more arid, but it was a rich region known for copper and copper smiths. It also was known to have a very ancient royal house and was a seat of wisdom (Jer. 49:7).

Abraham dug wells in the area of Gerar, on the western side of his territory (Gen. 20:1). The wells were dug by hand through solid limestone. Often steps were carved in the limestone and the people went into the well with their containers. Some wells required ropes and water skins to draw out the water. Only the wealthy owned wells. Abraham's wealth was passed to Isaac. Beer-Sheba means the well of Sheba. Keturah, Abraham's cousin bride, was of the noble house of Sheba. Many Horite Hebrew rulers met their wives at wells.


The Philistines

Genesis 10:13, 14 names the Philistines and the Caphtorim as descendants of Mizraim, which is Egypt. There is no doubt that these coastline peoples were culturally Egyptian (as was the island of Tyre in the time of David). The Philistines occupied territory on the Mediterranean coast. Their northern boundary reached to the border of Ekron, and their southwestern limit was the brook of Egypt (Wadi al-'Arish), as described in Joshua 13. Their territory was a wide, fertile plain bordering the Judean hills and Edom. This was very productive land. Genesis 26 tells us that Isaac's territory was so prosperous that the Philistines envied him.

The Philistines are linked to the "sea peoples." The sea peoples included peoples from Libya, the islands of the Mediterranean, and contiguous lands. Scholars have identified at least nine people groups as "sea people." The Denyen; the Ekwesh; the Antaolian Lukka; the Peleset, the Shekelesh; the Sherden; the Teresh, (ancestors of the Etruscans); the Tjeker; and the Weshesh. These people were not called "Philistines" during Isaac time.

About six hundred years after the time of Isaac a coalition of sea peoples attempted an invasion of Egypt. This happened during the reign of Merneptah (1213-1203 B.C.), but they were repulsed. Their defeat is described in King Merneptah's stele. Here is a portion of that description:

Their archers abandoned their bows,
The hearts of their runners grew weak as they sped,
They loosened their water-skins, cast them down,
Their packs were untied, thrown away.
The vile chief, the Libyan foe,
Fled in the deep of night alone,
No plume on his head, his feet unshod,
His wives were carried off from his presence,
His food supplies were snatched away,
He had no drinking water to sustain him.
The gaze of his brothers was fierce to slay him,
His officers fought among each other,
Their tents were fired, burnt to ashes,
All his goods were food for the troops.

Since 1873, based on etymological evidence, the Philistines and the Peleset they have been connected with the Aegean "Pelasgians." This identification is held by many Egyptologists and archaeologists.

Israel Finkelstein maintains that archaeological research to date has not corroborated a mass settlement of Philistines during the Ramesses III era (c. 1187-1064 B.C.), about seven hundred years after Isaac. In Isaac's time there were many "sea peoples" but probably not a ethnic group known as "Philistines." This term is likely an anachronism and comes from a time well after Isaac's lifetime.

Related reading: Thoughts on Calculating the Dates of the Patriarchs; Two Named Esau; Edo, Edom and Idumea; Isaac's Second Marriage; The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Wells and Brides; Abraham and Job: Horite Rulers

Isaac's Second Marriage

Alice C. Linsley

Isaac was the proper heir to Abraham's holdings in Edom. Abraham's territory extended on a north-south axis between his two wives Sarah and Keturah. Sarah was Abraham's half-sister wife, the bride of his youth. Keturah was Abraham's patrilineal cousin wife, the bride of his old age.

The map shows Hebron (Kiriath-arba) , where Sarah resided, and Beersheba, where Keturah resided. These settlements marked the northern and southern boundary of Abraham's territory. His territory was entirely in the land of Edom, called "Idumea" by the Greeks. Idumea means "land of red people."

Rebekah was to Isaac what Keturah was to Abraham. Both women were second wives and both were related to their husbands patrilineally, that is, they share a common male ancestor. Both named their first born sons for rulers from whom the sons descended. Keturah named her first born son Joktan (Yaqtan) after her father. The Joktanite clans still reside in this region.

Rebekah named her first born son Esau. Esau is a royal name associated with the kingdom of Edom, and it was noted that Esau was red and had an abundance of hair: “The first to be born was red, altogether like a hair cloak; so they named him Esau.” (Gen. 25:25) More than one ruler of Edom was named Esau and the name is a variant of Issa which is also the name Jesus. Variants of the name Jesus include Yeshua, Joshua, Issa, Esse and Esau.

The cousin bride's naming prerogative was an established custom in the time of the Proto-Saharan ruler Lamech (Gen. 4). Lamech’s daughter, Naamah, married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their first born son Lamech (see diagram below). This is a distinctive feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew who ruled Edom. Some of those rulers are listed in Genesis 36.

The evidence of kinship analysis indicates that Rebecca was Isaac's second wife. His first wife would have been a half-sister living in the area of Beersheba. His first wife would be the mother of Oholibamah who is named in Genesis 36 as being of the clan of Seir the Horite Hebrew. Oholibamah married Esau the Younger around the age of 17 or 18. She was his half sister, as Sarah was to Abraham.

Isaac's first wife would have been a daughter of Abraham and Keturah. This was the bride of Isaac's youth, long before he could ascend to the throne of his father Abraham he needed a second wife. Abraham's rightful heir was Isaac so Abraham took great care to assure that he married according to the custom of the Horite Hebrew rulers of Edom. This way his ascension to the throne was less likely to be challenged.

As Abraham approached his death in Beersheba, Isaac had not taken his second wife, a prerequisite for ascension to his father's throne. As the second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin or a niece, Abraham enjoined his servant to seek a wife for Isaac among the women of Paddan-Aram in the territory of Abraham's older brother Nahor. Abraham's servant asks what he is to do if the woman refuses to come back with him to Beersheba. Abraham answered: "If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there." (Genesis 24:8) Isaac was to remain in the territory over which he would rule. As the proper heir to the throne of his father, Isaac was not to leave Abraham's territory in Edom. Abraham was confident that the Lord would insure the servant's success, and this would not entail Isaac leaving the territory he was to rule.

Abraham's servant was divinely guided to the proper bride for Isaac in the person of Rebekah. Rebekah consented to return to Beersheba in the Negev (Gen 24:62) where she married Isaac, and Isaac then ascended to the throne of his father Abraham.

Note that the New Testament speaks of Jesus taking His bride at the time of His revealing as the Son of God.  Jesus is a descendant of these Horite Hebrew rulers, as was David. David and Esau are both described as having a red skin tone. Perhaps this was true of Jesus also.

Here is a diagram of the clans of Seir the Horite. This includes Job’s clan of Uz.




Note that there are two named Esau. This is explained by the cousin bride's naming prerogative.  Esau the Elder was a contemporary of Seir. Esau the Younger was Jacob’s half-brother, reinforcing the suggestion that Isaac had a sister wife in Beersheba before he married Rebecca, his cousin wife.  As Isaac's first born son by his cousin wife, Esau would have been a vizier in the hill country of Seir in Edom. Not being a first born son, Jacob would have been sent away to establish a kingdom for himself, which is exactly what Genesis 28:2-4 describes. Note the contrast between Isaac’s admonition to Jacob to leave and not marry a local girl (Genesis 28:1-4) and Abraham’s admonition to his servant never to take Isaac from his territory, but instead to fetch a wife for him from his own Horite people in Paddan-Aram (Genesis 24:4-8).

Before he died, Abraham gave gifts to all his other sons and sent them away. These sent-away sons  would have to establish territories for themselves, with God's help. This feature of the Horite Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern drove the Kushite expansion out of the Nile Valley. The oldest known Horite shrine was there at Nekhen. Votive offerings at Nekhen were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine.

The pattern of two wives for the ruler insured a rightful heir to the father's throne and a strong alliance between the Horite Hebrew/Habiru clans. This was not the practice of the common folk. Isaac's two wives would have lived in separate settlements on a north-south axis.

Related reading:  Abraham's Sons; Genesis on Ancient Kingdom Builders; Kushite Brides; Jacob's Journeys; Abraham's Complaint; Jacob Leaves Beersheba; Twins Sent-Away Sons and Heirs to the Throne; Isaac's Wealth; Methuselah's Wife; Adam was a Red Man; Edo, Edom, Idumea; Archaic Rulers, Ascendancy, and the Foreshadowing of Christ