A Closer Look at the Jebusites

 

Jebusite stepped wall in Jerusalem.

Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah. (Joshua 15:63)



Dr. Alice C. Linsley


Contrary to the view that the Jebusites were a Canaanite tribe, they were a widely dispersed population by the 16th century AD. Today some Jebu live in Nigeria and in ancient times, two Jebusite populations lived in Canaan. One branch lived in the region of Gilead and the other in and around Jerusalem which was a Jebusite stronghold before David’s time.

The two groups of Jebusites who lived in Canaan maintained their solidarity, giving military aid to each other when needed. They were never defeated or driven out of Canaan by the Israelites. In fact, Jebusites served in David’s army and court. 1 Kings 9:20-21 states that Jebusites also served in Solomon’s kingdom.

Jerusalem was named for the Jebusites, as is evident in 1 Chronicles 11:4 – “David and all Israel marched to Jerusalem, that is Jebus, where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land.”

David purchased a threshing floor from the Jebusite chief Araunah and used the site to erect an altar to God. Threshing floors were sacred places among many biblical populations.

The Jebusites had been living in Canaan for many centuries. Jerusalem in Abraham's time was called Salem and the King of Salem was Melchizedek, "the priest of the Most High God." (Gen. 14:18) The Jebusites built their royal complex on the southeastern hill of Jerusalem.

Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday

The waving of palm branches to greet kings and high priests who entered the city appears to have originated with the Jebusites.

Jebu rulers are installed with branches from the Igiọ̀pẹ (palm tree). As a child, Jude Adebo Adeleye Ogunade was warned not to touch the leaves of the Igi-Ose tree, because as his Mama Eleni explained: "That tree is the tree whose leaves are used to install Chiefs and Kings of Ijebu and as your grandfather was a custodian of the rites of chieftaincy and kingship you must not play with its leaves." The Igi Ose is a Baobab used in arid areas in ceremonies as an alternative to the Igiọ̀pẹ.

The terms Jebu and Yebu are probably related. The Jebusites apparently dispersed along the Nile. Yebu was a principal shrine on Elephantine Island in the Nile. The history of Yebu extends back to 3000 BC. It was the original 'border town' between Egypt and the Nubian lands to the south and in ancient times was an important strategic position both for the defense of the border and as a trading route.

The Jebusites are an ancient people with a tradition of kings and priests. Today their presence in the Middle East is less evident than in Nigeria where they are known as “Ijebu.” As with the Canaanite Jebusites, the Ijebu are divided into two groups: the Nago-Jebu and the Ketu-Jebu. Both divisions take the serpent as their totem. Ketu and Naga are two ancient words for serpent. In ancient Egyptian literature the cosmic serpent is called Rahu Ketu who threatens to devour the Sun (solar eclipse). This suggests that the Jebu moved into Nigeria from the Nile Valley.

Eredo rampart

John Lliffe reports in his 2007 book Africans: The History of a Continent that in 1500 AD Ijebu Ode was "a very large city" (p. 80). To the southwest of Ijebu-Ode is the largest pre-colonial monument in Africa. Local people link the Eredo boundary walls to Bilikisu Sungbo, another name for Sheba, according to the late Patrick Darling, the British archaeologist who drew world attention to the Eredo system of walls. He reported, "We are not linking what we found to a city, but to a vast kingdom boundary rampart." The wall system runs for 100 miles and is 70 feet high.

T. O. Ogunkoya's The Early History of Ijebu also claims the Jebu presence in Nigeria goes back to the 16th century. However, it is possible that the Jebu came there from the east where they had deeper roots historically. The Eredo discovery links Jebu territory and Sheba in ancient Yemen. There is evidence of other populations migrating from the east to Nigeria and Niger (See A Brief History of the Lake Chad Region.)

The genetic studies of some populations (Kanembu, Ouldeme, Daba, Daza, Fali, and Tali) in Northern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon reveal paternal ancestry of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b as shown on the map above. This further suggests a connection between some populations of those countries and some populations living in lands to the east and north. This is the same haplogroup as King Tut's.

Today the two IJebu provinces are called Jebu Remu and Jebu Ode, and the title of their high king is "Awujali.” The IJebu are classified as Yoruba, but the term "Yoruba" was applied to related groups after the 18th century A.D.

In 1892, the New York Times reported on the Jebu control of the water systems of the Benue Trough extending to the Port of Lagos. The headline (shown above) reads "The king of Jebu threatens to attack Lagos."


Related reading: The Judean Palm; The Trees of Prophets; A Brief History of the Lake Chad Area

Kushite Diversity and Unity

Alice C. Linsley


The Kushite rulers held a theology that Biblical Anthropologists recognize. This can be determined from artifacts such as the Sheba-qo Stone which describes the theology that held sway at Heliopolis (Biblical On) and Memphis. The Stone dates to the Nubian Dynasty or the Kushite Empire, but the theology is much older. According to this theology the Creator is the great Craftsman who gives wisdom and skill to the King and his craftsmen. This is expressed in Proverbs 25:2 - "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter."

The royal craftsmen worked with visible things such as tools of stone and metal. The Creator, on the other hand, works with what is concealed and mysterious like the wind or breath (ruach). The breath of the Creator went forth at the beginning of creation and things were created out of His mouth/word, and not from a pre-existing substance. He crafted the heavens above and the earth below, and separated the light from darkness. This theology is expressed in Genesis 1 and in the Wisdom Tradition that regards God as the architect whose wisdom is evident in the order of creation.

The seats of wisdom that have been identified in the Bible include Tema, Edom and Tyre, all of which have a history of metal work and connection to the Horite ruler-priests.

The Feminine Principle (Heb: hokma, Gr: sophia) is described in language that identifies her with the ruach of God. She says, “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High and covered the earth like a mist… I walk in the depth of the abyss.” (Wisdom of Ben Sirach 24:3,5) Here we have echoes of Genesis 1 where we are told that the Spirit of God went forth over the chaotic waters and brought order, separating the waters above (firmament) from the waters below, and the seas from the day land. This ordering Principle is sometimes called Tehut, and the oldest known moral code is the Law of Tehut.

Tehut is sometimes likened to the Egyptian Ma'at, but there is a significant difference. Ma'at was created whereas Tehut appears to be the generative and uncreated Word of God (logos). Proverbs 8:22-31 and 9:1-6 appear to be about Ma'at. She says that "Yahweh created me, first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works... the deep was not, when I was born..." Whether Proverbs is attributed to Solomon or to a time well after Solomon, the theology concerning Ma'at comes from a period much later than Abraham's Kushite ancestors.


The Kushites reflect the genetic diversity of Africa

Among the Kushites are the dark skinned Dravidians, the Sudra, who established their religious practices in southern Pakistan and India. This is called the Harappa culture. Har-appa is Dravidian for "Horus is Father". The Dravidians have much in common with the Nilotic people living in the Horn of Africa.

"Kushite" is a general term that includes many people groups who lived along the Nile and in the Chadic Basin. Some were light skinned, some black, some reddish, some reddish-brown, and some were brown. To this day Africa has the greatest genetic diversity of any place in the world.

Ancient Nilotic cattle herders were red and black.

Among the Kushites we find Nubians, Beja, Copts, Egyptians, Proto-Saharans, Horites, and their kinsmen who were living on the western and southern coast of Arabia.

DNA studies of the Sudan show "genetic unity and linkage" between the Sudanic, Egyptian, Nubian and other Nilotic peoples, as well as some populations of the Horn of Africa (Yurco (1996), Keita (1993, 2004, 2005) Lovell (1999), Zakrewski (2003, 2007). Genetic and linguistic research indicates that the Copts are one of the oldest Egyptian populations. This is based on the relatively high frequency of the B-M60 marker, indicating early pre-dynastic colonization of Egypt by Upper Nilotes.

From the University of Khartoum we have this report:

The area known today as Sudan may have been the scene of pivotal human evolutionary events, both as a corridor for ancient and modern migrations, as well as the venue of crucial past cultural evolution. Several questions pertaining to the pattern of succession of the different groups in early Sudan have been raised. To shed light on these aspects, ancient DNA (aDNA) and present DNA collection were made and studied using Y-chromosome markers for aDNA, and Y-chromosome and mtDNA markers for present DNA. Bone samples from different skeletal elements of burial sites from Neolithic, Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods in Sudan were collected from Sudan National Museum. aDNA extraction was successful in 35 out of 76 samples, PCR was performed for sex determination using Amelogenin marker. Fourteen samples were females and 19 were males. To generate Y-chromosome specific haplogroups A-M13, B-M60, F-M89 and Y Alu Polymorphism(YAP) markers, which define the deep ancestral haplotypes in the phylogenetic tree of Y-chromosome were used. Haplogroups A-M13 was found at high frequencies among Neolithic samples. Haplogroup F-M89 and YAP appeared to be more frequent among Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods. Haplogroup B-M60 was not observed in the sample analyzed.For extant DNA, Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplogroup variations were studied in 15 Sudanese populations representing the three linguistic families in Sudan by typing the major Y haplogroups in 445 unrelated males, and 404 unrelated individuals were sequenced for the mitochondrial hypervariable region.

Y-chromosome analysis shows Sudanese populations falling into haplogroups A, B, E, F, I, J, K, and R in frequencies of 16.9, 8.1, 34.2, 3.1, 1.3, 22.5, 0.9, and 13% respectively. Haplogroups A, B, and E occur mainly in Nilo-Saharan speaking groups including Nilotics, Fur, Borgu, and Masalit; whereas haplogroups F, I, J, K, and R are more frequent among Afro-Asiatic speaking groups including Arabs, Beja, Copts, and Hausa, and Niger-Congo speakers from the Fulani ethnic group.

Accordingly, though limited on number of a DNA samples, there is enough data to suggest and to tally with the historical evidence of the dominance by Nilotic elements during the early state formation in the Nile Valley, and as the states thrived there was a dominance by other elements particularly Nuba/Nubians."

Correlating the data with the Bible

It is difficult to correlate the Kushites with the peoples living in Arabia and the coast lands who are listed in Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy and Joshua. It is evident that Canaan, Phoenicia and greater Arabia were populated by many peoples, including Amorites, Dedanites, Horites, Jebusites and Kenites. The tent-dwelling Kenites were in Canaan during Saul's reign, as evidenced by I Samuel 15:6 - "Saul sent this warning to the Kenites: 'Move away from where the Amalekites live, or you will die with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up from Egypt.' So the Kenites packed up and left."

The Kenites were itinerant metal workers and probably related to the metal working Nes of Anatolia. In ancient Egypt the term Nesu biti refered to the ruler of a united Upper Nile and the Lower Nile. Nesu biti contains the signs for papyrus sedge and bee. Sedge symbolized the Upper Nile and the bee was the symbol of the Lower Nile.

Genesis 10:15-19, traces the Canaanite peoples to an otherwise unknown descendant of Noah: "Canaan fathered Sidon his first-born, then Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later Canaanite clans spread out. The Canaanite frontier stretched from Sidon all the way to Gerar near Gaza and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim near Lehsa."

The root of the names Arkite and Arvadite is AR and its origin is likely Proto-Saharan. Among the Igbo of Nigeria, the scribe clans were called Ar or Aro. The ancient Egyptian Asa-ar means the Serpent of Asa (Deity). The peoples living in Arvad, Tyre and Sidon employed serpent imagery in their temples and shrines.

A Jebusite ruler called Araunah sold King David a threshing floor upon which David constructed an altar. Araunah means "the lord".

In II Chronicles and I Kings 9:20 only the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites are identified as living in the land.

Exodus 3:8 provides this list: "The Canaanite, and Hethite, and Amorite and Perizzite, and Hivite, and Jebusite."

Joshua 12:8 provides this list of peoples living in Canaan in the hill country, the western foothills, the Jordan Valley, the mountain slopes, the Judean wilderness, and the Negev: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Another list appears in Deuteronomy. "When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you..." (Deut. 7:1)

Genesis 15:19-21 lists "the Kenites, the Kenizzites, Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaim, the Amorites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."

Some names are descriptive. Perizzites, for example, means "scattered people." The Hivites are connected to the Hittites. These were metal workers who introduced iron work to Anatolia. They called themselves the Nes (NS) and their language was called Nesli.

The proto-root for vein, river, tongue, sinew, lightening and serpent was NS. The S originally would have been a pictograph representing a serpent or anything serpentine. It also indicates "great" and can mean "Man" (Egyptian - sa), and throne (Proto-Saharan es or is). NS suggests connection between heaven and earth, and between deity and man. The serpent was a sacred symbol to the Kushites, especially to the metalworking clans, such as the Hittites.

The names Hittite and Hivite share the root HT (same as the name Het or Heth). Genesis 10 tells us that these two clans form a Heth confederation. HT in the Hebrew and Arabic refers to copper - nahas-het. Nahash means serpent. As an adjective it means shining bright, like burnished copper. So the evidence suggests that the clans of HT were Bronze Age coppersmiths. The serpent image was sacred for them, as it was for Moses and the people in the wilderness.

We note that the Horites do not appear in any of these lists. That is because they were not a people, but rather a caste of ruler-priests who lived dispersed among the peoples from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates (cf. Gen. 15:18). The Septuagint incorrectly identified the Horites (“Choraios”) with the Hittites, though doubtless there here Horite Hebrew priest serving among the Hittite rulers.

The only peoples that appear in all these lists are the Amorites and the Jebusites. The Biblical writers are in agreement that these two peoples inhabited Canaan from very early. They are probably related clans, not different ethnic groups.


Who were the Amorites?

The Amorites, also called the Amurru, lived in ancient Egypt and are shown on tomb as light skinned with reddish brown hair. This has been confirmed by Flinders Petrie and Archibald Sayce. According to Sayce, "The Amorites… were a tall, handsome people, with white skins, blue eyes and reddish hair, all the characteristics, in fact, of the white race." (The Hittites, 1889)

The Amorites are represented on the Egyptian monuments with fair skins, light hair, blue eyes, and pointed beards. Tomb No. 34 at Thebes (18th Dynasty, c. 1550-c. 1292), shows a bearded Amorite chief with white skin and red-brown hair. Henry George Tomkins (1897), a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute, also concluded that the Amorites were fair haired with blue eyes.


Who were the Jebusites?

The Jebusites likely ranged from reddish-brown to black with dark hair and dark eyes. Some may have had green eyes. Prince Rotimi Obadofin believes that “perhaps the Jebusites, that is the original inhabitants of Jerusalem were Ijebu people of today, since Oke-Eri is owned and inhabited by Ijebu people.” Eri is connected with the huge archaeological monument of Eredo. Eridu is also the name of the oldest known Sumerian city.

The Jebusites may indeed be the Ijebu who are an extant people and related to the modern day Edomites who are called "Edo." Both peoples live in Nigeria and Benin. The Jebusites had close connections with the Horites of Edom. Melchizedek, the Priest-King of Jerusalem (Jebu/Yebu), was Jebusite and a kinsman to Abraham. Melchizedek was probably the brother-in-law of Joktan, Abraham's father-in-law.



Related reading: Confirmation of Early Biblical Populations; The Jebusites Unveiled; The Victory of Tehut Over Tehom; Canaanite Origins of the Alphabet; The African Background of Genesis; Kushite Kings and the Kingdom of God; The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Kushite Gold; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; The Kenite-Horite Connection

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

Extant Biblical Peoples

Alice C. Linsley


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


The Jebusites were a Nilo-Saharan people who migrated into Palestine and to the region of the Benue Trough when the Sahara began to dry. They migrated into Nigeria where they controlled the major water systems at the conjunction of the Niger and Benue Rivers and at the Atlantic coast near modern Lagos. They also moved into the land of Canaan where one of their leading men - Melchizedek - was the ruler-priest of Salem (Jerusalem) in Abraham's time (Gen. 14:18).

The modern day Jebusites are the Ijebu and they live near and have close association with the modern day Edomites who are called "Edo." Both tribes live in Nigeria and Benin. In Canaan the Jebusites had close connections with the Horites of Edom.

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


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

Read the full list here.

An ancient name for God as Father is Ausa and is sometimes spelled Asa. The Asante tribe bears this name.  Asa-nte means "the people of Asa." The Egyptian Asa refers to God as father. Possibly the name Hausa is derived from this name for the Creator.

Nilotic peoples living today still worship As, as is the case with the Kushitic Kalenjin of the Rift Valley. Traditional Kalenjin call the Creator Asis. Most Kalenjin are Christian. 

Akkadian records attest to the antiquity of this name for God.  Sar-gon the Great was born at the shrine city of Azu-piranu, which means Sun House of Azu. God was called Azu in Akkadian, Asa in Chadic, Asha in Kushitic, and the name appears in Hebrew also. A Jerusalem priest named Am-ashai is named in Nehemiah 11:13.

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

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


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


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


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


The Clans of Ar

The Arabs represent numerous extant clans and tribes that are named in Genesis. These include the Ar clans of the Red Sea, Trye, and Arvad which constitued a scribal caste. This is supported by the name Ar-vad. Vad means “to speak” in Sanskrit. The word Ar-ab means “people of Ar.” The Igbo of Nigeria call their scribes the Ar or Aro. The Arabic word for throne is aarsh and likely related to the scribal function attached to rulers.

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

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

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


Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendency Pattern of Abraham's People; Abusing Biblical Lists; Kushite Diversity and Unity; The Jebusites Unveiled

Trees in Genesis

Alice C. Linsley

Trees are significant in biblical symbolism. A study of trees in Genesis helps us to understand the ancient world of Abraham and his ancestors. Trees provided shade, were sources of water in arid places, and brought forth edible fruits. They marked boundaries, such as the Oak of Zaanannim, which marked the northern border of the territory of the Naphtali clans (Joshua 19:33).

Once Lebanon was forested with cedars and the Judean palm forests stretched over a range of 7 miles across the Jordan valley from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the shores of the Dead Sea in the south. The trees grew to a height of 80 feet and had branches all year round.

The trees known to have grown in the region of Abraham’s people include acacia, cedar, date nut palms, sycamore fig trees and baobab. These figure prominently in biblical symbolism, although not all are mentioned in Genesis. Acacia and cedar were used in the construction of the Ark and the Tabernacle. The baobab tree is likely the origin of the idea of waters flowing from a tree as in Revelation 22:1-2.

Six trees are especially important in the symbolism of Genesis: the Tree of Life; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; fruit-bearing trees; the prophet's oak at Mamre, the "trees" used to built Noah's ark, and the date palm (tamar) which grew around water shrines.


The Tree of Life

The “tree of life” in the Garden of Eden (as in Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14) is a symbol of communion with God at the metaphysical sacred center. The Church Fathers regarded this tree as representing the cross upon which the Son of God died. In fact, the cross is four times spoken of as a ‘tree’ (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; 1 Peter 2:24). Deuteronomy 21:23 says that “anyone who is hung on a pole [or tree] is under God’s curse.” Quoting this verse, the Apostle Paul explains that Christ bore that curse, “becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

The Tree of Life archetype is as old as the serpent archetype and the two are often shown together, as in the image (below) of Re's cat killing Apophis, the giant water serpent. The point of origin of both archetypes appears to be the Nile, the region from which Abraham's ancestors came.  Re's cat is perhaps the prototype of the Lion of Judah. Note in the image how the serpent's head is under the cat's paw.

The Church Fathers view the Tree of Life is a symbol of Jesus Christ and the serpent is the symbol of His adversary. We meet both in Genesis and in Revelation, at the beginning and at the end of the biblical story.

Both the Tree of Life and the serpent are associated with the first man and the first women. At the Horite shrine of Heliopolis, the first couple Isis and Osiris were said to have emerged from the tree of life.

The Gikuyu, a Nilotic people, place their first parents on a ridge north of Muranga, a town south of Nyeri in Kenya. One can visit the site. A sky-blue gate marks the entrance to Mukurwe Wa Nyagathanga—the Tree of Gathanga. Inside the gate are two mud huts, one for Gikuyu and one for Mumbi. The site looks toward the cloud-shrouded Mount Kenya (formerly called "Mount Kirinyaga"). To the Gikuyu, Mount Kenya is God's seat on earth and fig tress grow in abundance on the slopes of the mountain.

The Gikuyu call the creator Ngai and when Ngai created Gikuyu he told him: “Build your homestead where the fig trees grow." This is why many believe that the Tree of Life was a fig tree. The fig tree plays a significant role in revealing Jesus as the Son of God in the Gospels (Mark 11, Matthew 21 and Luke 13).

In the Gikuyu creation story we are told that at the beginning It was, our elders tell us, all dead except for the thunder, a violence that seemed to strangle life. It was this dark night whose depth you could not measure, not you nor I can conceive of its solid blackness, which would not let the sun pierce through it. But in the darkness, at the foot of Mount Kerinyaga, a tree rose. At first it was a small tree and it grew up, finding a way even through the darkness. It wanted to reach the light and the sun. This tree had Life. It went up, sending forth the rich warmth of a blossoming tree - you know, a holy tree in the dark night of thunder and moaning. This was Mukuyu, God's tree.

Now you know that at the beginning of things there was only one man (Gikuyu) and one woman (Mumbi). It was under this Mukuyu that He first put them. And immediately the sun rose and the dark night melted away. The sun shone with a warmth that gave life and activity to all things.


Tree of Knowledge

Cyrus Herzl Gordon suggested that the phrase “good and evil”( טוֹב וָרָע ) is a figure of speech whereby a pair of opposites refer to something greater than the constituents, as in the phrase, "they searched high and low", meaning that they searched everywhere. This figure of speech is called a “merism.” Merisms are a common feature of biblical language. For example, in Genesis 1 the phrase “the heavens and the earth” speaks of God’s creation of the whole universe. Such language isn’t merely a literary device. It also represents the binary worldview of the ancient Afro-Asiatics. Similarly, "male and female" constitute the whole of humanity. In the biblical worldview there is no gender continuum!

The tree of the Knowledge of good and evil can therefore represent all things, and all things pertain to God alone; thus the prohibition or boundary. This is a boundary that we continue to violate, attempting to make ourselves as God.

The Tree of Life is mentioned in Genesis 3:22 as distinct from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both trees are mentioned in The Book of Enoch, a text sacred to Coptic Christians. In chapter 31 we read:

The tree of knowledge also was there, of which if any one eats, he becomes endowed with great wisdom. It was like a species of the tamarind tree, bearing fruit which resembled grapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed, How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its appearance! Then holy Raphael, an angel who was with me, answered and said, This is the tree of knowledge, of which your ancient father and your aged mother ate, who were before you; and who, obtaining knowledge, their eyes being opened, and knowing themselves to be naked, were expelled from the garden.


Every Fruit-bearing Tree

In is on the third day that God said, “Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit.”

The third day signals the exercise of divine power, or in mystical terms, the arousal of God. Trees are the pillars that rise from the earth by God's command.  So Jesus who was lifted up on the cross also rose from  the ground; a sign of God's great power.

The Baobab is one of the trees that Abraham's ancestors likely had in mind when speaking of fruit-bearing trees. The bark is used for cloth and rope and the leaves for condiments and medicines. The baobab’s fruit is called "monkey bread."

1000 year old baobab

This legend surrounding the baobab describes what happens if you are never content with what you are:

The baobab was among the first trees to appear on the land. Next came the slender, graceful palm tree. When the baobab saw the palm tree, it cried out that it wanted to be taller. Then the beautiful flame tree appeared with its red flower and the baobab was envious for flower blossoms. When the baobab saw the magnificent fig tree, it prayed for fruit as well. The gods became angry with the tree and pulled it up by its roots, then replanted it upside down to keep it quiet.

In the wet months the baobab stores water in its thick, corky, fire-resistant trunk for the long dry period ahead. The water is tapped when drinking water becomes scarce and by this tree life is sustained in the arid months. Likely, this is the origin of the idea of a tree from which a river flows for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:1-2), an image of the restoration of Paradise.


The Oak in Mamre

In Genesis 12:6 we read that upon his arrival in Canaan Abraham sought guidance from the Moreh (prophet) when he pitched his tent at the Oak of Moreh. The word "Torah" is usually rendered guidance or instruction, but Torah also is associated with a prophet sitting under a tree.

Males prophets sat under firm upright tress such as oaks whereas females prophets sat under soft flowing trees such as date nut palms, called "tamars." Judges 4:4-6 says, “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."

Genesis 12 that tells us that the Oak of the Moreh was at the sacred center between Bethel and Ai (an east-west axis). Deborah's Palm was between Ramah and Bethel (a north-south axis). The Tree of Life was in the middle of the garden. If the sacred center is the place where the east-west axis and the north-south axis intersect, we have the image of the Cross.

Many Bibles render the oak of Genesis 12 as the terebinth (Pistacia terebinthus), also called turpentine tree. It is a small deciduous tree or shrub related to the pistachio and likely the earliest known source of turpentine. It is also possible that the word in the original telling was the "tree of the daughter of Terah."  Terah was the father of both Abraham and Sarah. This is a reasonable explanation and it suggests that when Abraham and Sarah left Haran they went first to a place where they had kin on their father's side. Arabic is older than Hebrew and the Arabic word bint (بنت) means "daughter of" and tera or Terah is a royal title that means priest. Also related to the name Terah is the word teraphim, which were ancestors figurines of Terah's ancient Horite family.


The Tree of Weeping

Rebecca's nurse, Deborah, was buried at Bethel under a tree known as the “Oak of Weeping" (Gen. 35:8). The type of tree is not specified. It is named allon-bachuth, which means “tree of weeping.” Although allon is often translated oak the word can refer to a large tree of any species. Here it probably refers to an oak, a terebinth or a sycamore fig. The sycamore fig was associated with Hat-Hor, the virgin mother of Horus and there is some evidence that graves were placed beneath sycamore fig trees.

There is a natural association between the fig tree and the name Deborah which means bee or wasp.  The wasp lays its eggs inside the ripening figs.


Gopher Wood  (גפר gofer)

Noah's ark was made of this material according to Genesis 6:14. Since this word does not appear elsewhere in the Bible, it is uncertain what material is indicated. However, archaeology and anthropology provide adequate information about boat building in Noah's time in east Africa to safely say that the material used was reeds or sedge such as the boat shown in the masthead of Just Genesis.  This is supported by the fact that the word translated "ark" in Genesis 6:14 is found only one other place in the Bible: in the story of Moses' mother putting him in a reed basket (Exodus 2:3). The Schocken Bible reads: "Make yourself an Ark of gofer wood, with reeds make the Ark...", Vol. I, p. 35.

Reed Boat

Sedge is a grass-like plant which grows in wet areas, such as the Nile region. At the time of Noah much of the Sudan was wet. In ancient Kush sedge reeds were used to construct boats, baskets and sandals. Bas-reliefs of the Fourth Dynasty show men cutting reeds to build a boat; similar boats are still made in the southern Sudan. As Noah's sons and their descendants spread across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion, they spread their ship building technologies so that reed boats exactly as those made along the Nile are also found in Pakistan and India.


The Tamar (Date Nut Palm)

The date nut palm is probably the most ancient cultivated tree in Africa. The Hebrew and Arabic word for the date palm is "tamar” and the tree was traditionally associated with females, probably because the nut has the appearance when opened of the vagina (below). In ancient Kush, as in Sudan today, fluidity and softness are associated with the female principle, so the soft movement of palm branches contrasts with the firm, pillar-like quality of the oak.

A. Zaid and P.F. de Wet report “that the date palm was cultivated as early as 4000 B.C. since it was used for the construction of the temple of the moon god near Ur in Southern Iraq - Mesopotamia (Popenoe, 1913; 1973).

More proof of the great antiquity of the date palm is in Egypt's Nile Valley where it was used as the symbol for a year in Egyptian hieroglyphics and its frond as a symbol for a month (Dowson, 1982). However, the culture of date palm did not become important in Egypt until somewhat later than that of Iraq (Danthine, 1937), about 3000 - 2000 B.C.

The above is confirmed by history, and corroborated by the archaeological research into ancient historical remains of the Sumerians, Akadians and Babylonians. Houses of these very ancient people were roofed with palm tree trunks and fronds. The uses of date for medicinal purposes, in addition to its food value, were also documented.”

The association of palm trees (tamars) with rulers and prophets is a common among many Africans and Arabians and is found in the Bible. Fresh palm tree fronds are used ceremonially at the installation of rulers and are used to decorate places of worship. The tamar as a sacred symbol is the complement of the oak tree. Male prophets sat under oaks while female prophets sat under date palms.

Jebu (Jebusite) rulers are installed with palm branches. Jude Adebo Adeleye Ogunade writes in his memoir about growing up Ijebu. He was warned not to touch the leaves of the Igi-Ose tree because, as his Mama Eleni explained, "That tree is the tree whose leaves are used to install Chiefs and Kings of Ijebu and as your grandfather was a custodian of the rites of chieftaincy and kingship you must not play with its leaves." This explains the greeting of Jesus with palm fronds as he entered Jerusalem.

Related reading:  Theories About the Tree of Life; The Fig Tree in Biblical Symbolism; The Tree of Life; The Chiastic Center of Ecclesiasticus; Wells and Brides; Circumcision and Binary Distinctions

Three-Clan Confederations to Twelve Tribes

Alice C. Linsley

Some groups in Genesis are three-clan confederations (such as Isaac's 3 sons) and others are described as twelve-tribe confederations. Nahor, Abraham's older brother, was the progenitor of twelve Aramean tribes through his twelve sons, of whom eight were born to him by Milcah and four by Reumah (Gen. 22.20-24).

Three clan confederations are fairly common. The Jebusite confederation is Yoruba, Egba and Ketu.  In Canaan, the 3-clan Jebusite confederation consisted of Sheba, Jebu and Joktan.

Among the Sara of Chad, Sudan and Somalia the confederation is comprised of the qir ka, the qin ka, and the qel ka. The Sara are descendants of the Sao, an earlier three-tribe confederation of warriors and kingdom builders. According to legend, there were giants among them.

Three clan alignments lend themselves to a larger twelve clan alignment. There is an attempt to organize Esau into a 12-tribe confederation in Genesis 36:40 but only eleven chiefs are listed.  The attempt fails because there are two named Esau. Esau the Elder was the father of Eliphaz.  Esau the Younger married Basemath who bore Reuel, and Oholibamah who bore Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah (Genesis 36:1-9). These were the people of Seir, the Horite. They were Horite Hebrew (Habiru) clans. Their socio-political organization appears to be that of 3 clans.

Ishmael, Abraham's son by an Egyptian concubine, was the progenitor of twleve Nabatean tribes:  "Nebajoth; Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations." (Genesis 25:13-16).

Jacob, a son of Isaac, is cast as the progenitor of twelve tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebuln, Dan, Naphati, Gad, Asshur, Joseph and Benjamin. There is discrepancy on the number of Israelite tribes. Some count Dinah's line and some count Joseph's two sons Ephraim and Manassah.

The twelve-tribe organization appears to be the handiwork of a writer influenced by Babylonian thought. It represents an attempt to neatly classify the ruler descendants of Noah according to a celestial pattern. However, the Bible tells us that these rulers intermarried. The lines of Kain and Seth intermarried, as did the lines of Ham and Shem. The lines of Abraham and Nahor also intermarried. This means that socio-political affiliations were less formal than suggested by the twelve tribe organization. 

Further, there is evidence that the older organization comprised three sons of the same father. Where three sons appear in Genesis we have a code indicating a tribal unit of three clans.  Perhaps this is why Leah named her third son Levi, meaning "joining" (Gen. 29:34).  Likely, Leah hoped that she would be credited (and loved?) by providing Jacob with the three sons necessary to establish a tribe.

The 12-tribe organization is likely imposed upon an older order by a late source, such as the Deuteronomist Historian (c.700 BC - 250 BC). Abraham's ancestors never associated the Moon with the Creator. For them the Creator's emblem (boat or chariot) was the Sun. Veneration or worship of the Moon was characteristic of those who lived, not in Canaan, but "beyond the Euphrates." Joshua 24:2 says: “In olden times, your forefathers – Terah, father of Abraham and father of Nahor – lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.” The implication is that Terah, whose ancestors came from Africa and Canaan, fell into worshiping contrary to his fathers’ tradition while living “beyond the Euphrates.” This is historically accurate since Abraham's Horite Hebrew ancestors never worshiped the Moon, as was done in Ur and Haran.

Martin Noth, in his seminal work "The Scheme of the Twelve Tribes of Israel" (1930), demonstrated that the Twelve Tribes of Israel did not exist prior to the covenant assembly at Shechem described in the book of Joshua.

The Joshua passage shares with the Deuteronomistic History a common concern about idolatry, and places the covenant at Shechem at precisely the location where God appeared to Abraham in 3
Three Persons (Gen. 18). Here in reference to the Godhead, the number three speaks of one-ness or unity; the God of Three: "Baal Shalisha."
  
There is more evidence in the Bible for the 3-clan organization than for the 12-tribe organization. Consider the Horite Hebrew confederations of Uz, Huz and Buz and Magog Og and Gog. Here are some of the three-clan confederations listed in Scripture:

Cain Abel Seth (Gen. 4-5)
Ham Japheth Shem (Gen. 5-9)
Og Gog Magog (Gen. 10 and Nu. 21:33)
Haran Nahor Abraham (Gen. 11-12)
Ishmael Jokshan Isaac (Gen. 16, 21, and 25)
Jeush Jalam Korah (Gen. 36: 4-18)
Korah Moses Aaron (Ex. and Nu.)
Dedan Tema Buz (Jeremiah 25)


Related reading: Three Clan Confederations of the Bible

Nigerian Boundary of the Jebu-Sheba Confederation

Alice C. Linsley



This 72-foot rampart at Eredo marked the western boundary of an ancient Jebusite kingdom. 

The Jebusites ruled in Jerusalem in the time of David.

The archaeologist Patrick Darling described the Eredo site as a breathtaking find with many of its remains relatively intact, though overgrown by the rainforest.

"We are not linking what we found to a city, but to a vast kingdom boundary rampart," he told the BBC.

Eredo is a system of walls and ditches located to the south-west of the Yoruba town of Ijebu-Ode in Ogun state southwest Nigeria (6°47′13″N 3°52′30″E / 6.78700°N 3.87488°E / 6.78700; 3.87488). It is reputed to be the largest single pre-colonial monument in Africa.  Local people link the Eredo monuments to Bilikisu Sungbo, another name for Sheba, according to Dr Patrick Darling, the archaeologist credited with drawing world attention to Eredo.

Dr. Darling reports that, "The vertical sided ditches go around the area for 100 miles and it is more than 1,000 years old. That makes it the earliest proof of an kingdom founded in the African rain forest."

From here.

Two things fascinate me about this spectacular find: the connection to the Jebusites and the connection to the biblical clans of Sheba and Joktan.

The Jebusites had two main divisions: the Nago-Jebu and the Ketu-Jebu. Both divisions take the serpent as their totem. Ketu and Naga are two ancient words for serpent.  In ancient Egyptian literature the cosmic serpent is called RahuKetu.

Of the Ketu-Jebu there is a good deal of information in Genesis. This division resided in Palestine and Arabia. Abraham payed tribute to the Ketu-Jebu priest Melchizedek, who was the ruler of the Jebusite city of Salem (Jerusalem).  Abraham's second wife was of this division of Jebu, as evidenced by her name Ketu-rah. She resided at Beer-Sheba, which took its name from Sheba who controlled the well there. (Beer means well.)  Ketu-rah's firstborn son was Joktan, the progentior of the Joktanite clans of Arabia.  So the clans of Jebu, Sheba and Joktan are related, but what was their western boundary? It appears from historical records that it was in Nigeria at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers which in the time of Abraham's ancestors were very great rivers.

We might be surprised to find Jebusites in Nigeria, but this isn't surprising when we consider that Cain and Enoch are associated with Nok on the Jos Plateau of Nigeria, and Noah is associated with Bor-No, in northern Nigeria near Lake Chad. The discovery of Eredo's association with the Jebu of Nigeria suggests that this 72-foot high rampart was the western boundary of the Jebu-Sheba-Joktan confederation.

In 1892, the New York Times reported on the Jebu tribe, which controlled the water systems of the Port of Lagos. The Jebu are classified as Yoruba, but the term 'Yoruba' applied to related tribal groups only after the 18th century. The Jebu, also called Ijebu, are called Jebusites in the Bible. There are two groups: Nago-Jebu and Nago-Ketu, depending on where they reside. While there are two Jebu groups, there are three brothers: Yoruba, Egba and Ketu and these constitute a tribal unity.

In Genesis we find this two kingdoms-three brothers pattern throughout the book. One of the three brothers is often veiled in the text or peripheral to the events described. For example, Noah had three sons and the lines of Ham and Shem intermarried, but we know very little about the line of Japheth. Likewise, Abraham had three first-born sons: Joktan, Ishmael and Isaac, and we have to dig into the text for information on Joktan, from whom come the Joktanite clans of southern Arabia.

Consistent with the pattern of rulers among Abraham's people, a Jebu ruler-apparent ascended to the throne after he married a second wife. This explains Abraham's urgency to fetch a cousin bride for Isaac before his death. Following the marriage pattern of the rulers of his people, Isaac already would have had a half-sister wife in Beersheba.

According to the New York Times report, the king of the Jebu levied taxes on all products carried through his territory. This is consistent with the biblical information concerning Abraham’s ruler-priest ancestors who controlled water systems in throughout the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

The link to the royal name Sheba also fascinates me. This name appears more than once in the ancestry of Abraham, David and Jesus. (See diagram below.)

Sheba the Elder ∆ = O
                              ׀
                             O =  ∆ Joktan (Abraham's son by Keturah)
                                 ׀
                                ∆  Sheba the Younger (Gen. 10:28, 25:3)

Sheba the Elder was the brother of Eber and both rulers were descendents of Noah. Sheba was descended from Noah through Ham and Eber was descended from Noah through Shem. The lines of Ham and Shem intermarried.

Joktan  married a daughter of Sheba, and though the rulers settled in geographically separate regions, their kinship pattern remained unchanged. The lines of Eber and Sheba continued to intermarry, which means that cousin wives were chosen from ruling kin who lived in other territories. We find this with Isaac who resided in Beersheba but married his patrilineal cousin Rebecca who lived in Mesopotamia.

Descending from Sheba the Younger in chronological order according to Genesis 10 and 25 are:
Reu
Serug
Na’Hor
Terah
Abraham
Joktan, Abraham’s son by Ketu-rah, his cousin bride.

Ketu-rah named her first-born son after her father Joktan, according to the cousin bride’s naming prerogative. This means that there were at least two Shebas and at least two Joktans between the generations of Noah and Isaac. (There are also at least two men named Esau. There are at least two Korahs as well. One was Moses' half-brother and the other was Amram's father-in-law.)

The pattern of intermarriage between Sheba's people and Joktan's people parallels the pattern of intermarriage between the lines of Cain and Seth and the lines of Ham and Shem. So the time of division associated with Peleg (Joktan's brother) began about 5 generations before Abraham, but can only be understood as geographical separation, not social separation.

Though the clans of Joktan, Sheba and Jebu became became geographically separated from some of their fellow clans in the time of Peleg, their rulers continued to intermarry according to a long-standing pattern. This pattern is characterized by two wives. The first wife was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second wife, married much later, was a patrilineal cousin or niece (as was Ketu-rah to Abraham). The firstborn son of the sister wife ascended to the trone of his father.  The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named.  So Isaac ruled over Abraham's territory by Joktan ruled over the territory of Joktan the Elder, Ketu-rah's father. The two lines continued to intermarry according to a pattern that is traceable, using the Biblical genealogies, to Jesus Christ. It is also a kinship pattern that has been identified with the Kushites.

This suggests a very high importance to the preservation of the bloodline of these rulers. It is likely that they believed themselves to be heirs of God's promise that the Son of God would come through their lines.
This suggests that the ruling lines believed the promise made in Eden (Gen. 3:15) concerning the Woman's Seed who would crush the serpent's head, deliver from death and receive the Father's Kingdom. This line is traced through Jesse and David, but because of the exclusive intermarriage (endogamy) of the clans, it is also traced through Sheba and Joktan. This explains why Sheba opposed David's claim to the throne in Israel and considered himself the rightful heir. Sheba lost his life when the Wise Woman of Abel Beth Maccah had him beheaded in order to save the town from being destroyed by Joab (II Sam. 20).

Related reading:  The Jebusites Unveiled; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; The Afro-Asiatic Dominion; The Pyramids of Bosnia; Extant Biblical Peoples and Clans; The Jerusalem that David Knew