Time to Jettison Young Earth Creationism

 

100,000-year red ocher burial at Qafzeh (Israel). Red ocher was a symbolic blood covering.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Young Earth Creationists believe that the days of Genesis 1 were six consecutive 24-hour days which occurred 6,000–8,000 years ago. They cannot explain the huge body of material evidence that proves an old earth and the presence of humans on earth for millions of years. They argue almost exclusively from geological anomalies. They believe that the surface of the earth was radically rearranged by a global flood. The extinction of species is explained by the flood. Creatures that were not preserved on Noah’s Ark perished and were subsequently buried in the flood sediments. YEC creationists believe that the catastrophic global flood was responsible for most of the rock layers and fossils. They maintain that some rock layers and some fossils were deposited before the Flood and other layers and fossils were produced in localized sedimentation events or processes.

Proponents of Young Earth Creationism include the Baptist Pastor and biochemist Duane Gish, Terry Mortenson, a missionary for 26 years with Campus Crusade, and Henry M. Morris, a civil engineer and author of several books on Young Earth Creationism.

Most who adhere to the Ken Ham view of the Bible do not care about the scientific evidence that supports biblical history because they have been taught to distrust the sciences. Nevertheless, the sciences of anthropology, archaeology, climates studies, genetics, geology, hydrological studies, linguistics, and migration studies agree on the deep history of humans of Earth.

Young Earth Creationism is criticized for lacking a scientific basis. It also should be criticized for lacking a biblical basis. Consider the following points:

If Adam and Eve were the parents of Cain, they could not be the first humans on Earth because Cain built a settlement that he named for his son Enoch (Gen. 4:17). Enoch is a royal title derived from the ancient Akkadian first-person pronoun: anāku and the Ancient Egyptian anochi, a reference to one who ascends. The word anochi is also found among African populations. Among the Igbo, anochie means "a replacer" or "to replace". Among the Ashante the word anokyi means "Ano Junior" or the "Ano who follows his father." Here we find the idea of succession from father to son. A Nigerian friend says that anochie also means "direct heir to a throne."

Clearly, Enoch is associated with royal ascendancy among the early Hebrew. One of Cain’s descendants is called Lamech, another royal title. Lamech is related to the Hebrew melech, which means king. According to the Bible scholar Umberto Cassuto, Lamech is related to the Mesopotamian word lumakku, meaning “priest.” (Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1, p. 233). Two men named Lamech appear in the Genesis 4 and 5 lists of Hebrew ruler-priests (Gen. 4:18 and Gen. 5:25).

Cain and his son cannot be among the first people on earth because they already had a royal succession and territories over which they ruled. They are among The First Lords of the Earth.

The dogmas of YEC hinge on interpretations that have been demonstrated to be inaccurate. One is Bishop James Ussher's scheme whereby he counted the generations to conclude that the creation of the Earth occurred around 10,000 years ago. Ussher did not recognize that the "begats" of Genesis are not generational. They are regnal. All the men listed are rulers and some of their reigns coincided. Tubal-Cain (Gen. 4) and Methuselah (Gen. 5) ruled at the same time over different territories.

YEC assumes, contrary to the biblical evidence, that the line of Cain was wiped out by the flood. However, analysis of the kinship pattern of Genesis 4 and 5 reveals that the descendants of Cain and Seth intermarried (caste endogamy). A feature of their marriage and ascendancy pattern is the naming of the cousin bride’s firstborn son after his maternal grandfather. The pattern is evident in this diagram.

Lamech the Elder had a daughter named Naamah. She married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah. This marriage took place c. 4300 B.C.  

One of their descendants was Nimrod, a Kushite kingdom builder (Gen. 10:6-12). He married a Sumerian princess between 3500-3300 B.C. Erech (Uruk) was one of the cities ruled by his father-in-law. Uruk was the largest settlement in Mesopotamia at that time. Settlement at that site began in the Ubaid period (c. 5500-4000 B.C.), that is 7500 years ago, about the time that Young Earth Creationists claim the earth was formed.

Around 3100 B.C. Uruk may have had 40,000 residents (See Algaze, Guillermo, 2013, "The end of prehistory and the Uruk period" in Crawford, Harriet (ed.), The Sumerian World (PDF). London: Routledge. pp. 68–95. ISBN 9781138238633.)

A Better Approach to the Biblical Material

The empirical approach of Biblical Anthropology (a science) contributes to a better understanding of biblical history. Genesis makes it clear that Abraham's ancestors lived in the land of Kush as he descended from the Kushite kingdom builder Nimrod (Gen. 10). Analysis of the kinship pattern of the early Hebrew rulers listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 35 proves they are of the same caste and they are historical figures.

Adam and Eve lived c. 5000-4800 B.C. in a vast well-watered region called Eden. The Genesis 2 description of this region corresponds to the ancient Fertile Crescent. At this time humans were already globally dispersed. Further, humans were making tools, jewelry, and ritual objects for thousands of years before the time of Adam and Eve.

Nimrod left Kush and established his territory on the Euphrates River c. 3500 B.C. (Gen. 10). That is why we find Abraham living in Mesopotamia. After he relocated to Canaan (around 2000 B.C.), Abraham controlled the water systems at Hebron and Beersheba and had wells in Gerar. We see a gradual movement out of Africa into Mesopotamia and Canaan. (See Rulers of the Ancient Water Systems.)

We also see a span of time of at least 3000 years between Adam and Eve and Abraham. The different time periods and cultural contexts of these rulers cannot be made congruent by the final Jewish hands on the Hebrew Scriptures coming after 580 B.C. 

Consider a Native American chief with a fleet of birch wood canoes controlling trade between villages on the Mississippi in 1720. Fast forward a mere 200 years to 1920 when a river magnate controls commerce on the same river with his fleet of riveted steel ships. Same river, very different contexts. To understand biblical history, we must grapple with these contextual incongruities and the best disciplines to apply in this effort are cultural anthropology, archaeology, molecular genetics, and linguistics.


Related reading: The Roots of the Gospel are in Africa; Artifacts of Great Antiquity; Nimrod's Sumerian Wife; YEC Dogma is Not Biblical; YEC's Silence on Anthropology; Facts About Human Origins; YEC Hinders Understanding of the Bible; Think Like a Biblical Anthropologist; A Healthy Approach to the Bible

The Good Guy-Bad Guy Motif Fails

 

And Adam again had relations with his wife, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another seed in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD [YHWH]. (Genesis 4:25-26)

Alice C. Linsley

In the Old Testament we find examples of the denigration of certain groups. The Moabites and Ammonites are slandered as the offspring of incest (Gen. 19:30-38). Ham's "son" Canaan (Gen. 10:6) is cursed for something his father/ancestor is said to have done (Gen. 9). Cain is cast as an unrepentant murder while his brother Seth is portrayed as righteous.

This good guy-bad guy motif is superficial. It does not stand up under closer investigation. If Ham's line is cursed, so is the line of his brother Shem because the descendants of Ham and Shem intermarried. Moses and David also murdered, and there is no textual evidence that Moses repented. David married the widowed Bathsheba, but their first son died as divine punishment for David’s adultery and murder of Uriah. David repented, and Bathsheba later gave birth to Solomon. However, God did not permit David to build the Temple because of his guilt and "bloody hands" (1 Chronicles 22:6-8).

The rulers listed in Genesis 4 (Cain's descendants) and Genesis 5 (Seth's descendants) intermarried. This is the earliest kinship data in the Bible about the Horite and Sethite Hebrew. Both groups called upon the name of the LORD. Genesis 4:26 indicates that name is YHWH, which reminds the reader that we are hearing from a source that lived long after the time of Cain and Seth.

In the diagram below, the left side lists Cain's descendants (Gen. 4) and the right side lists Seth's descendants (Gen. 5). Analysis of the kinship reveals the early Hebrew feature of the cousin bride's naming prerogative. These rulers had two wives. The second wife was usually a cousin. Her paternal ancestry is traced through the naming of her first-born son. The cousin bride named her first-born son after her father.

Looking at the diagram, we see that Kain's unnamed daughter married her cousin Enosh and named their first-born son Kenan/Kain after her father. Irad's unnamed daughter married her cousin Mahalalel and named their first-born sons Jared/Yared/Irad after her father. Lamech the Elder's daughter Naamah married her cousin Methuselah and named their first-born son Lamech.

Note that the triangle at the head of the diagram is the father of the wives of Cain and Seth and his name was a royal title, Enoch (Enosh or Enos).

The LXX uses epikaleisthai from "kalew" which means call, that is, to invoke the Name of the Lord/YHWH. This indicates a later source since there is no evidence that the name YHWH was known in the time of Cain and Seth. The Sethite and Horite Hebrew knew the High God by the names Ra or Anu. The High God's son was called Hor/Horus or Enki. In an attempt to portray these pre-Abrahamic rulers as bad guys, some Jewish writings (i.e., the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan) say that it was then that men began to "profane" the Name of the Lord.

St. John Chrysostom preached that Lamech the Elder repented and received mercy. Here is what he said concerning Lamech, the Elder: By confessing his sins to his wives, Lamech brings to light what Cain tried to hide from God and “by comparing what he has done to the crimes committed by Cain he limited the punishment coming to Him.” (St. John Chrysostom’s Homilies on Genesis, Vol. 74, p.39. The Catholic University Press of America, 1999.)

St. John's interpretation is consistent with the Bible's message about God’s love, grace, and mercy, and departs from the interpretation which stresses that God destroyed Cain’s line in the flood. In fact, the text supports John Chrysostom’s view, as we will see through tracing the number 7 from Cain to Lamech, the Younger. Let us look at the number symbolism to see that Chrysostom’s interpretation is indeed upheld.

The number 7 represents new life, grace, and renewal. Cain murdered and tried to hide his crime from God. Cain’s just punishment was death, yet God showed him grace by sparing his life. Instead Cain was to be exiled from his people. Even then God shows Cain grace by placing a mark on him, not a brand of shame, but a protecting sign. Reflecting on this great grace shown to his ancestor, Lamech challenges God to show him greater grace. If grace was shown to Cain (7), then Lamech, the Elder, by confessing his sin, claims a greater measure of grace (77). Lamech, the Younger is assigned even greater grace because he is said to have lived 777 years. This younger Lamech is the son of Methuselah and Naamah, and the father of Noah.

St. John’s understanding of Lamech’s speech to his two wives (Gen. 4) is brilliant. What he says about Lamech the Elder and his daughter Naamah sheds light on the text and clarifies the confusion surrounding the persons of Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4:23) and his gransdon, Lamech the Younger (Gen. 5:26). Naamah is the clue to understanding the cousin bride's naming prerogative, an important feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the early Hebrew. He called her Naamah "Noeman" and said about her, "Well, now for the first time it refers to females, making mention of one by name. This was not done idly, or to no purpose; instead the blessed author has done this to draw our attention to something lying hidden." (St. John Chrysostom's Homilies on Genesis, CUA Press, Vol. 74, p. 38)

St. John Chrysostom recognized the story of Lamech to be about God’s mercy shown to sinners. He placed the emphasis exactly where it should be. Other interpretations reflect spiritual pride. Consider how The Jewish Study Bible claims that the “poem of Lamech” attests to the violence associated with Lamech’s ancestor, Cain, and “to the increasing evil of the human race.” But apparently the interpreters exclude themselves from the human race because they go on to state:

  “The people of Israel will emerge from the lineage of the younger son’s replacement [that is from Seth], not from that of the murderous first born [that is Cain].” (The Jewish Study Bible, p. 20.) 

This is contrary to the scriptural evidence that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried and that both are early Hebrew rulers. In the diagram below we see that Lamech the Elder's daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their first-born son Lamech, after her father. 

How easy it is to take the attitude that Cain and his descendants were sinners, but Seth’s descendants were righteous. Yet the lines intermarried and God showed grace to both, even allowing Lamech’s daughter, Naamah, to bear the righteous Lamech, father of Noah, ancestor of Abraham, David, and Jesus Messiah.


Related reading: The Mark of Cain; Hapiru, Habiru, 'Apiru, Hebrew; Horite Mounds; The Curse of Ham Falls Also on Shem; Royal Titles in Genesis; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; Hebrew Rulers With Two Wives

God's Mercy and Cain's Demise

Alice C. Linsley

This Biblical Archaeology Society article asks "Did Lamech Kill Cain?" Genesis does not tell us how any of the rulers listed in Genesis 4 and 5 died. It does reveal that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried as has been demonstrated through scientific analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of these rulers. This means that Cain is one of Jesus Christ's ancestors!

The diagram below shows how this "Lamech the Elder" had two wives. His daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their first born son Lamech after her father, according to the cousin bride's naming prerogative.

John Byron, professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary ponders Cain's demise in “Did Cain Get Away with Murder?” which appeared in the May/June 2014 issue of BAR. "Byron explains that ancient interpreters were not afraid to change the story of Cain in the Bible to fit with their sense of justice, ensuring that he was adequately punished for killing his brother Abel."

One interpretation, found in 12th-century France, credits Lamech with killing Cain. However, the first Lamech named in Genesis lived four generations after Cain.

St. John Chrysostom held a very different view and one that is more consistent with the overarching emphasis of divine mercy shown to sinners like Cain, Moses, and David, all of whom were murderers.

Cain murdered and tried to hide his crime from God. He deserved death, yet God showed him mercy by sparing his life. Cain was sent away from his people and God showed him grace by placing a mark on him as a protecting sign. Reflecting on this great mercy shown to his ancestor, Lamech challenges God to show him greater mercy. If grace was shown to Cain (7), then Lamech, the Elder, by confessing his sin, claims a double measure of grace (77). He claims to be avenged by God "seventy and sevenfold." His grandson Lamech, the Younger is assigned a triple measure of grace because he is said to have lived 777 years (Gen. 5:31). "And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy seven years."

John Chrysostom commented on the unfathomable grace expressed through the story of the Elder Lamech. He wrote: “By confessing his sins to his wives, Lamech brings to light what Cain tried to hide from God and by comparing what he has done to the crimes committed by Cain he limited the punishment coming to Him.” (St. John Chrysostom’s Homilies on Genesis, Vol. 74, p.39. The Catholic University Press of America, 1999.)

Chrysostom’s interpretation is consistent with what is communicated throughout the Bible about God’s love and mercy, yet his view is not referenced in any Bibles. Instead, most Bible footnotes stress that God wiped out Cain’s line in the flood, a view which is not supported by the regnal information in Genesis 4 and 5 which reveals that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried. Scientific analysis of the king lists supports Chrysostom's interpretation, as shown by tracing the increase from the number 7 assigned to Cain to the number 777 assigned to Lamech the Younger.

St. John Chrysostom recognized that the story of the Lamech the Elder and Lamech the Younger is about God’s mercy shown to sinners. He placed the emphasis exactly where it should be.

Related reading: The Life Spans of Methuselah and Lamech; The Pattern of Two Wives; Cain as Ruler; The Genesis King Lists; Enoch: Angelic Being of Deified Ruler; Sent-Away Sons; Genesis in Anthropological Perspective; Decoding the Genesis King Lists

Enoch: Angelic Being or Deified Ruler?

Alice C. Linsley


There is much interest and speculation concerning "the Watchers" mentioned in the books of Enoch and Daniel. Are these angels or are these robed elders (deified rulers/"sons" of God) who appear in Revelation 19?

The oldest section of I Enoch - "The Watchers" - dates between 300-220 BC. Here we read:

"And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to destroy all the ungodly: and to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." (1 En 60:8). Compare to Deuteronomy 33:2, also a source later than Genesis.

In the Book of Daniel the Aramaic term that denotes angels is "watchers" (`îrîn). Each is called "watcher and holy one" (`îr weqadîsh). The term "watcher" implies that angels act as God's sentinels, watching and guarding, as in the case of the angels appointed to guard the entrance to Eden.

Watchers appear in literature that post-dates the earliest material in Genesis. They are mentioned in Vedic (Sanskrit) texts that speak of gods begetting children with humans. They appear in the Gilgamesh Epic, in the Lamech scrolls, and in the Book of Enoch which states that 200 "Watchers" descended to earth in the time of Jared, son of Mahalalel, and instructed men in the arts and sciences.

The term "watchers" appears in the book of Daniel which has a Babylonian context with its emphasis on the sacred number seven. This tradition is later than the material found in the parts of Genesis that emphasize the binary feature: male-female (Gen. 2), "two of every sort" on the Ark (Gen. 6) vs. the narrative requiring Noah to bring seven sets of clean animals onto the Ark.

Is Enoch, who did not taste death, a deified elder or an angel? If it can be proven that the deified elders and angels alike were understood to be watching the activities of humans, the confusion can be resolved very nicely. A deified ruler may at times be regarded as an angelic being.

The deification of righteous rulers was a common practice in the ancient world, especially among the early Hebrew.


Enoch and Adam

Analysis of the kinship pattern of the Genesis king lists points to an older, less mystical, tradition that places Adam and Enoch in the same generation as founding "fathers" of the Hebrew ruler-priest lines. This is evident in Psalm 8:4 which parallels Enoch and Adam:

What is man (enoch) that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him?

The question is which Enoch? Because this Enoch is poses as a contemporary of Adam, it is likely that this Enoch is the unmentioned father-in-law of Cain and Seth who married their cousins. As has been confirmed through analysis of the kinship pattern of the Genesis kings, the cousin bride named her first born son after her father. This is shown in the diagram below.

Lamech Segment Analysis: Genesis 4 and Genesis 5
© 1998 Alice C. Linsley

Explanation of Symbols
O Female
Δ Male
= Marriage
/ Line of descent
_ Siblings

Note that Lamech's daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their firstborn son Lamech, after her father. This is called the "cousin bride's naming prerogative." This feature identifies the ruler-priest lines of the Bible, making it possible to trace the ancestry of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David and Jesus back to these earliest Biblical rulers. The number seven is associated with the priesthood in the Babylonian tradition. Enoch as the "heavenly priest" is the topic of this paper by Andrei A. Orlov, Enoch as the Heavenly Priest.

Enoch is a royal title that means "heir to the throne." Variant spellings such as hanock, anochi, enock, suggest that this is a title referring to the imperial or royal first person. It corresponds to the Hebrew first person singular pronoun forms anoki and ani, and to the Akkadian first person singular pronoun anaku. (In ancient Egyptian the equivalent first-person singular pronoun is ink.)

Cain is portrayed in Scripture as the archetypal earthly ruler. He married into a royal house, a family to which he was related. Adam is the representative of the whole of created humanity in the analogical framework of the Apostle Paul, but Enoch is the representative of the oldest known line of king-priests in the Bible. That is the likely explanation for the Psalm 8:4 parallelism: What is enoch that you spare a thought for him, or ben' adam that you care for him?

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Genesis rulers indicates that Cain and Seth married the daughters of a ruler named Enoch/Enosh/Enos. Their wives named their firstborn sons after their father according to the cousin bride's naming prerogative.

Cain's firstborn son and heir is Enoch (Gen. 4:17). Seth's firstborn son and heir is named Enos or Enosh (Gen. 5:6), the linguistic equivalent of the title Enoch. This means the hidden or unmentioned Enoch was a contemporary of the historical Adam. 

Questions about Enoch

There are questions to consider when approaching the figure of Enoch. As there are 3 men with that title, which Enoch is the focus of the Babylonian myth? If we recognize that the name of Seth's successor Enos or Enosh is the linguistic equivalent of Enoch, there are 3 rulers who hold this title: The sons of Cain and Seth, and the son of Jared (Irad). 

The Enoch under consideration is Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who was taken (translated) to heaven according to Genesis 5:24. His name, which comes from anochi, has a double meaning. It means one who ascends to the throne and the one who is heir. Enoch ascended to the throne of his father Lamech who lived 777 years, and he ascended to heaven where he offers prayers with incense. He represents the righteous elders who constitute the heavenly council.

There are problems also with the mystical symbolism surrounding Enoch. Emphasis is placed on the number seven in association with Enoch. However, it is Lamech to whom the most sacred number is applied: 777. Genesis 5 presents this information:

Seth – 912 years
Jared – 962 years
Kenan – 910 years
Methuselah – 969 years
Lamech the Younger, Methuselah's son and heir – 777 years (The grandson of Lamech the Elder whose conversation with his 2 wives is described in Genesis 4:22-24.)

The different numbers pertaining to Lamech the Younger are (Septuagint) 753, (Samaritan) 653, and (Masoretic) 777. No other man in the Genesis king lists has such a discrepancy in the total number of years. Again, Lamech, not Enoch, is the lightening rod who draws our attention and provokes questions. Blessed saint John of the Golden Tongue noticed this.

Lamech is a variant of the Akkadian and Egyptian word la-melech, meaning "priest of the King."The word la-melech has been found inscribed on hundreds of seals. La-melech seals typically had the image of a scarab (dung beetle) or a sun disc. Both were emblems of the Creator. The sun disc and scarab were used as a royal seal by the Kings of Judah. Hezekiah's seal is an example.

Lamech the Younger and a Message of Hope

Lamech the Younger, the father of Noah, is assigned 777 years in Genesis 531: "And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy seven years." Here we have a message of hope.

The number 7 represents new life, mercy and renewal. Cain murdered and tried to hide his crime from God. Cain deserved death, yet God showed him mercy by sparing his life. Cain was exiled from his people and God showed him grace by placing a mark on him as a protecting sign. Reflecting on this great mercy shown to his ancestor, Lamech challenges God to show him greater mercy. If grace was shown to Cain (7), then Lamech, the Elder, by confessing his sin, claims a double measure of grace (77). He claims that God avenges him "seventy and sevenfold" (Gen. 4:24). Lamech, the Younger is assigned a triple measure of grace because he is said to have lived 777 years.

John Chrysostom commented on the unfathomable grace expressed through the story of the Elder Lamech. Here is what he said: “By confessing his sins to his wives, Lamech brings to light what Cain tried to hide from God and by comparing what he has done to the crimes committed by Cain he limited the punishment coming to Him.” (St. John Chrysostom’s Homilies on Genesis, Vol. 74, p.39. The Catholic University Press of America, 1999.)

Chrysostom’s interpretation is consistent with what is communicated throughout the Bible about God’s love and mercy, yet his view is not referenced in any Bibles. Instead, most Bible footnotes stress that God wiped out Cain’s line in the flood, a view which is not supported by the regnal information in Genesis 4 and 5 which reveals that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried. Scientific analysis of the king lists supports Chrysostom's interpretation, as shown by tracing the increase from the number 7 assigned to Cain to the number 777 assigned to Lamech the Younger.

St. John Chrysostom recognized that the story of the Lamech the Elder and Lamech the Younger is about God’s mercy shown to sinners. He placed the emphasis exactly where it should be.


Related reading: God's Mercy and Cain's Demise; The Life Spans of Methuselah and Lamech; Who Were the Watchers?; The Mighty Men of Old; The Seventh Seal and Silence in Heaven; Does the Binary Feature Signal Greater Complexity?; Number Symbolism and the Bible; The Pattern of Two Wives; Adam Was a Red Man; INDEX of Topics at Just Genesis

Metal Workers of West Africa

The first workers of metal in the Bible are associated with the ruling line of Kain. One of his descendants, Tubal-Cain, "forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah." (Gen. 4:22)  Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methusaleh and named their first born son Lamech after her father.

Watch this fascinating video that shows the smelting of iron from ore by a West African smith family. Watch as the elders make charcoal, dig ore and flux, build the kiln, fire the kiln, offer sacrifice, smelt the iron, and finally forge the iron into tools. The women play an important role also.

Related reading: Red and Black Smiths; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; Methusaleh's Wife; Lamech Segment Analysis

Royal Names in Genesis

Alice C. Linsley

A reader has asked if Enoch is the founder of the sciences. He cites this:


"Sages affirm that all antediluvian sciences originate with the Egyptian Hermes [Tehuti], in Upper Egypt (namely Khmunu (Hermopolis). The Jews call him Enoch and the Moslems Idris. He was the first who spoke of the material of the superior world and of planetary movements...Medicine and poetry were his functions... [as well as] the sciences, including alchemy and magic." [Cf. Asin Palacios, Ibn Masarra, p. 13]

Sufficient historical, anthropological, and archaeological evidence exists to justify the hypothesis that astronomy, mathematics, binary thought, triangulation (pyramids), metal work, stonework, animal husbandry, cultivation, the earliest priestly writings, and the earliest known trade records are found among the Proto-Saharans of the Upper Nile. However, these cannot be identified with any one figure of history. Instead, these sciences and technologies are identified with a group of rulers identified as the "mighty men of old" in Genesis. Enoch/Anoch is a royal title found among these Proto-Saharan and Saharo-Nubian rulers.

Enoch is related to the word Anoch, a royal name found among Abraham's cattle-herding ancestors. The people of Anoch are called "Anakim" in the Bible. The Anakim were organized into three-clan confederations, as were many other groups living in Canaan. The three Anakim clans were named for the three highest ranked sons of Anak whose names are Sheshai (Shasu?), Ahiman and Talmai (Josh.15:14). The Shasu are found in ancient Nubia and among the Horites of Edom.

Two hieroglyphic references dating to the New Kingdom period refer to “the land of the Shasu of YHW.” These are the oldest references to YHWH outside the Bible. The "Shasu of YHW" is found on inscriptions from the Nubian temples of Soleb and Amara West, and corresponds to the tetragrammaton.

Anochi refers to the royal first-person pronoun and is derived from the Akkadian first person pronoun anāku. It is likely that Anoch, Enoch, and Hanock (Reuben's first-born son) are variant spellings of the same word, and all refer to rulers.

The word anochi is also found among peoples who migrated from the Nile westward, such as the Igbo and the Ashante. Among the Igbo, anochie means “a replacer” or “to replace” and among the Ashante the word anokyi means "Ano Junior" or the "Ano who follows his father." In both cases, one finds the idea of succession from father to son, suggesting a line of descent. A Nigerian friend reports that anochie also means "direct heir to a throne."

The name Enoch is clearly associated with royal ascendancy. It means "one who ascends after his father" and there are several who hold this title in the Genesis King Lists. Masarra does not specify which Enoch is identified as Hermes/Tehuti. However, he is correct in the association of the royal name with Tehut. The oldest known code is the Law of Tehut which dates to about 3200 B.C. It is associated with Menes who made Memphis the capital of a united Nile Valley. He issued edicts that were designed to improve food production and distribution, guard the rights of ruling families, improve education, and enhance knowledge of the natural world through geometry and astronomy.

The first Enoch of the Bible is not easily identified because his royal name must be reconstructed using the marriage and ascendancy pattern of these archaic rulers. He is the father-in-law of Kain and Seth. His daughters named their first born sons Enoch (Kain's son) and Enosh (Seth's son) after their father. The names Enoch and Enosh are linguistically equivalent. This feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern is called "the cousin bride's naming prerogative" and the practice continued among the ruler-priests to the time of Jesus Christ.

The cousin bride's naming prerogative is evident in analysis of this Lamech segment. We note that Naamah named her fist born son Lamech, after her father.

In addition to Enoch, the son of Kain (Gen. 4:17-18), there is also Enoch, the father of Methuselah (Gen. 5:21-13). He was a contemporary of Lamech the Elder who bragged to his two wives.

Lamech is another royal name. It is related to the Hebrew melech, which means king. According to Umberto Cassuto, Lamech is related to the Mesopotamian word lumakku, meaning “priest.” (Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1, p. 233). Two named Lamech appear in the Genesis King Lists. There is Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4:18-24) and Lamech the Younger (Gen. 5:26-31). Likewise there are two ruler-priests named Esau.

Esau is a royal name associated with the Horites of Edom. There is Esau the Elder and Esau the Younger. The Horite rulers of Edom/Edo/Idu are listed in Genesis 36.

To further complicate matters, we have seemingly conflicting claims about these great clan chiefs who built great territories in the ancient world. Consider the case of Irad, Kain's grandson (Gen. 4:18). The name has these variants: Jared (Gen. 5:18-20) and Yared. Yared is the best rendering of the ruler's name as it has the initial Y - a solar cradle - indicating divine appointment by the overshadowing of the Sun, the Creator's emblem. This Y symbol is found among the Canaanite rulers before the development of Hebrew: Yitzak, Yishmael, Yacob; Yaqtan, Yosef, Yared, etc.

The Igbo identify Yared as the founder of their writing system. He is among numerous archaic rulers identified with Biblical figures by the Igbo who originated in the Nile Valley. According to the Igbo apologist, Dr. Catherine Acholonu:

Sumerian texts say that the first city built by the gods on earth was called Eridu. There they placed the members of Adam’s family. Adam’s great grandson was named Yared, meaning ‘He of Eridu’, ‘person from Eridu’. Its Igbo equivalent, with the same meaning, is Oye Eridu. The father of Yared was Enosh/Enu-Esh. His name meant ‘Master of humankind’, for the first people were called Esh, Adam too was called Esh in vernacular Hebrew. In Sumerian this sacred word Esh means ‘Righteous Shepherd’. All Sumerian kings bore the title Esh. Equally in Igbo land Esh/Eshi/Nshi is a sacred word implying divine origins of the first people, who indeed were wielders of supernatural powers.

The Sumerians and the Igbo have a common point of origin in the Nile Valley thousands of years before either group emerged as a separate ethnicity. Eridu is also spelled Eredo and simply means "Ur of the Idu/Edo" and there were two places with this name. One was in Mesopotamia and the other in what is today Nigeria.

The Eredo of Nigeria (shown above) has 70-foot high ramparts that extend for 100 miles. This Eredo is associated with the royal House of Sheba, to which Abraham's cousin wife, Keturah, belonged. She is the mother of another great ruler, Yaqtan (Joktan) who she named after her father, Yaqtan the Elder. These are the ruling peoples of the Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia and the royal ancestors of Mohammed, the founder of Islam.

These rulers evidently dispersed very widely in the ancient world because Edo/Idu was the Ainu name for the capital of Japan. The original name of Tokyo was Edo.

Many of the rulers of the ancient world had names that began with Ar. This is likely an abbreviation of Har, a Horus name.


Related reading: The Ar Rulers; Edom and the Horites; Who Laid the Foundations of Science and Technology?; Ancient Moral Codes; Cousin Brides and their Ruler Sons; The Genesis King Lists; The Nubian Context of YHWH; Two Named Esau; Andrei A. Orlov, Enoch as the Heavenly Priest

Objections to the Fundamentalist Reading of Genesis

Alice C. Linsley
Objections to the Fundamentalist Reading of Genesis 1-5

This essay follows A Scientific Timeline of Genesis

God created the primal elements, and the Ruach of God brought order to the primal elements.

Here is the Fundamentalist reading of Genesis 1-5.

God created the world between 6000 and 10,000 years ago.
God created Adam and Eve, the first human couple.
Eve gave birth to a son named Cain (Kain/Qayan/Kayin/Kenan/Kahn).
After Cain killed Abel, God granted Eve another son, Seth (Set/Seti/Ta-Seti).
Cain's line was cursed and died out in a worldwide flood.
Only Seth's line survived and no other peoples were on the surface of the Earth.
Noah and his 3 sons and their wives are descendants of Seth only.
The Earth was re-populated after the flood by Noah's 3 sons.


If humans have been on the surface of the Earth for over 3 million years, and Adam and Eve represent the first created humans, then there is a gap of time between Adam and Eve and Cain.  How then are we to interpret Genesis 4:1? Fundamentalists insist that Cain is Eve's offspring. The Hebrew text suggests that Cain is Eve's royal descendant.

Here is what Genesis actually reveals:

The creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2 have a specific historical-cultural context and should be understood in that context. These stories come from the ancient Afro-Asiatics who believed that the first substance on Earth was chaotic water and the Breath (ruach) of God moved over the water establishing order. The Breath or Spirit of God separated the waters above from the waters below and the dry land from the seas. They also believed that blood (dam in Hebrew) is what constitutes Being. The word Ha-dam means the blood or the Being, and this is the likely etymology of Adam (Human Being/First Man).

Fundamentalists calculate the Earth's age at 6000 years on the basis of ages assigned to the rulers in Genesis. They accept Bishop James Ussher's chronology, which has been shown to be inaccurate. Ussher assumed that Cain was the biological son of Adam and Eve and that the men listed in the so-called "genealogies" are the first people to live on Earth. However the lists in Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11 are not genealogies. They are King lists. These lists represent a time in the past when established kingdoms, laws, armies (warriors), weapons, settlements, strongholds (cities) and numerous technologies existed that are associated with the Neolithic Period (the new stone age). This places the earliest rulers of Genesis between 10,200 and 3000 B.C. (It is possible, however, to narrow this considerably using the Biblical data, as we see here.)

Neolithic cooking utensils

The earth is about 4.5 billion years old. This is based on radiometric age dating of meteorite material and the earth's oldest rocks, and is consistent with lunar samples. Fundamentalists argue that radiometric dating is not reliable because it contradicts what they believe the Bible says about the age of the Earth. For the sake of argument, let us consider that radiometric calculations are off by 50%. Were this the case (and it is not), the earth would still be over 2.2 billion years old. The oldest human fossils are about 3.6 million years. Again for the sake of argument, let us consider that the carbon dating of the oldest human fossils is off by 50%. These humans would still have lived over 1 million years ago.

Bishop James Ussher's scheme did not recognize that the "begats" of Genesis are not generational, but regnal. All the men listed are kings and the reigns of some kings coincided. For example, Tubal-Cain (Gen. 4) and Methuselah (Gen. 5) ruled at the same time over different territories.

Further, the names of these rulers are not proper nouns; they are honorific titles. Terah means priest. Cain/Kain means king. The female equivalent is Kandake/queen, which is rendered in English Bibles as the proper name Candace. Enoch means "one to ascends to the throne." Lamech is a variant of la-melech which appears on several thousand Egyptian seals. It means "of the King" or "for the King." Lamech the Elder's daughter was Naamah, another word associated with Abraham's ruler-priest ancestors and descendants. Naamah is a royal name as attested by the connection to King David. The royal mother of one of David's grandsons was Naamah (II Chron. 12:13).

Cain as Ruler

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have gotten/gained (qa-nithi) a man with the help of the Lord." Genesis 4:1; The Hebrew Study Bible

Here is another rendering from The Schocken Bible, Vol. 1:
The human knew Havva his wife, she became pregnant and bore Kayin. She said: Ka-niti (Qanithi)/ I have gotten a man, as has YHWH.

E.A. Speiser noted that Qany(ty) or Qan-itti shows close affinity to the Akkadian itti, as in itti šarrim which means "with the king".  Cain is associated with the concept of rule or dominion among ancient Nilotic peoples.

Genesis 10 tells us that Nimrod was a Kushite, so it is not surprising to find that Akkadian shares many words with Nilotic languages. Among the Oromo of Ethiopia and Somalia, itti is attached to names. Examples include Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti and Dimashqitti. That itti is associated with Nilotic rulers is evident in the name Nefertitti.

If we take Eve to be the first woman created by God, we must place her creation before the oldest human fossils at about 3.8 million years. This poses a problem. Is it possible that Genesis 4:1 is speaking of Eve as the ancestral mother of the kings (ka-ntr) listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11? Is this another prophecy concerning the King who was expected to overcome the grave; a parallel to Genesis 3:15 concerning the Seed born of the Woman (not Eve)? Among Abraham's ancestors the ka was provided by the mother. It refers to life or essence. The word ntr refers to ruler or king. It appears from Genesis 4:1 that Eve is declaring that she has given life to a king, such as is the Lord.

The Epistle of Jude alludes to Cain as a king, along with the prophet Balaam and the priest Korah (verse 11). Kings, prophets and priests were the three highest offices in Biblical times. Further, Genesis provides many anthropologically significant details that point to Cain's status as a ruler.

He was a tiller of the soil (Gen. 4:2) which means that he controlled an area of land, as did Noah, one of his descendants, who planted a vineyard.

He was a city builder (Gen. 4:17) as was his descendant Nimrod who built cities in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. These cities were shrine cities or sacred centers within the ruler's territory.

Cain is associated with metal working. One of his descendants, Tubal-Cain, is said to be the “father” of smiths. In the ancient world, Smiths were a caste with high social status. They were in the service of the rulers. In the Upper Nile, Badari smiths smelted copper during the Chalcolithic or Late Neolithic Period (about 4000-2,800 B.C.). However, the Badari smiths used ritual flint knives for circumcision, as did Moses' wife, Zipporah, when she circumcised their son. Relics of this period found at Al-Badari include necklaces, beads, copper pins, fine linen cloth, and elaborate grave offerings. Al-Badari is on the Upper Nile at the border of Egypt and Sudan.

Cain offered sacrifice to God (Gen. 4:5). In the ancient Afro-Asiatic world only ruler-priests offered sacrifice.

Cain married a royal daughter of the House of Enoch (Nok). Only rulers married the daughters of rulers. She was his cousin as evidenced by the following analysis of the Genesis 4-5 marriage and ascendancy pattern.

We see from this analysis that Cain as a "son" of Adam and Eve must refer to the fact that kings came from the first created couple, but this particular Cain/King lived long after Adam and Eve. The founding father of the lines of Cain and Seth was Enoch/Nok. Enoch comes from the African word anochie, meaning one who is to ascend to the throne. The Nok civilization is found in the part of Africa from which Abraham's ancestors came. It is associated with the ancient Kushites. Kush (Cush) was Noah's grandson. According to the Matsya, an ancient book from India, the archaic world belonged to the Kushites (Sa-ka) for 7000 years.

Nok figurine, found at Nok on the Jos Plateau of Northern Nigeria

As can be seen from the diagram above, Seth was a great ruler also. He married a royal daughter of Enoch/Nok. As is characteristic of royal families, the lines intermarried, as is shown in the diagram below.

This segment reveals that the rulers had 2 wives. The first wife was the bride of the ruler's youth and his half-sister. Abraham's half-sister wife was Sarah. The second wife was a patrilineal cousin or niece and this marriage was consummated shortly before the heir ascended to the throne. Abraham's cousin wife was Keturah, who gave birth to 6 sons (Gen. 25).

With two wives, there were two first-born sons. They ascended to different thrones. The first born son of the sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. So Isaac became Abraham's heir.  The first born son of the cousin wife became a ruler in the territory of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named.  Lamech the Younger ruled in the territory of Lamech the Elder, not in the territory of his biological father Methuselah. Bishop Ussher was not aware of this unique marriage and ascendancy pattern.

The Genesis "begats" and the material in Genesis 10 are annals of ancient royal lines that intermarried. Ruler priests married the daughters of ruler-priests. Only some sons could ascend to the throne. Other sons were sent away to establish territories for themselves. These sent-away sons drove the Kushite expansion out of Africa, an expansion that has been verified by DNA studies.


Expansion Out of Eden

Genesis 2:10-14 says that Eden was watered by four rivers: the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Pishon and the Gihon. The first two are in Mesopotamia and the last two are in East Africa. This is the heart of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion and the place of origin of the ruler-priests and of "him that holds the scepter from the house of Eden" (Amos 1:5).

The description of Eden as a well-watered region is supported by climate and geological studies. These four rivers encompass the heart or "Eden" of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion which was ruled by a network of ruler priests. They controlled the major water systems and built shrines along the rivers.  From Eden Cain's descendants spread far and wide; his line did not die out in the flood.

The lines of Cain and Seth intermarried, as did the lines of Ham and Shem. Abraham, King David and Jesus Christ are descendants of these great ruler-priests. Perhaps this is why Jesus' King-Priest identity was recognized in Tyre in Mark’s Gospel, not on a mountain, as in Matthew's account of the Transfiguration. For Mark, the Messiah’s appearing means the beginning of the restoration of Paradise. Mark was probably thinking of this passage from Ezekiel 28: "Son of Man, raise a lament over the king of Tyre and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and flawless beauty. You were in Eden, in the Garden of God; every precious stone was your adornment... and gold beautifully wrought for you, mined for you, prepared the day you were created."

Related reading: YEC Dogma is NOT Biblical; Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; Lamech Segment Analysis; The Life Spans of Methuselah and Lamech; Kushite Wives; Genetics Confirms Biblical Migrations; The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; Abraham Was a Descendant of Both Ham and Shem; Abraham and Job: Horite Rulers; Genesis Through the Lens of Anthropology

Can an Atheist Understand the God of Abraham?

Francesca Stavrakopoulou

Francesca Stavrakopoulous, a UK academic, claims that God has a wife who was edited out of the Bible. She's an atheist so we can't expect her to understand the Bible or the God of Abraham. Even Abraham didn't understand and he spoke face to face with the Three-Person God.

Dr Stavrakopoulou says that Yahweh's wife was called Asherah and she was worshipped. There's no real news here since goddesses were worshipped and Asherah is one of many female deities. That said, goddesses were not worshipped among Abraham's Horite people. Overlooking this fact means that Stavrakopoulou has an erroneous picture of the rulers listed in Genesis.

Stavrakopoulou's claims that God had a wife and Eve was maligned are to be explored in a BBC2 series The Bible’s Buried Secrets.

Read more here.

Dr. Stravrakopoulou is mistaken in her assumption that the Almighty had only one wife.  Among the ancient Afro-Asiatics God had two wives: Dawn and Dusk, and God traveled between his two wives in their houses daily. This is what is symbolized by the sign of TNT, which shows the sun's movement from east to west and the sacred center, or place of rest on the mountain top.

To avoid setting themselves up as God, Abraham and his ruler-priest caste placed their two wives in separate settlements on a north-south axis. So Sarah is associated with Hebron and Keturah with Beersheba, to the south. This explains the criticism of Lamech (Gen. 4) who set himself up as God when he took the life of another man. As the Hebrew scholar Theodor Gaster noted, Lamech's two wives were named Ada (Dawn) and Tzillah (Dusk). The names of Lamech's wives represent his spiritual hubris, for by setting his wives on an east-west axis he pretends equality with God.

Dr. Stravrakopoulou is apparently a literalist who assumes that the ancients must have been literalists too, yet even an atheist should be able to recognize that Dawn and Dusk are not literal wives. 


Related reading:  The Pattern of Two Wives; Afro-Asiatic Symbols that Speak of God

Methuselah's Wife

Lamech Segment Analysis
© 1998 Alice C. Linsley


According to the Hebrew Scriptures, the ruler Methuselah lived 969 years, the perfect number set in the context of ancient Egyptian numerology. By his cousin wife Naamah, he had a son named Lamech. This is Lamech the Younger named for Naamah’s father (see bottom portion of the diagram.)

Naamah and Lamech are both names associated with the rulers among Abraham's people. Naamah is a royal name as attested by the name's connection with the Davidic Dynasty. David's grandson's mother was named Naamah (II Chron. 12:13). This is also the name of a region of Judah (Joshua 15:41). Lamech is a variant of la-melech which appears on several thousand Egyptian seals. It means "of the King" or "for the King."

Lamech ruled after Methuselah and is assigned another perfect number in the Masoretic text. He is said to have lived 777 years.[1] However, while the Scriptures agree on Methuselah’s 969 years, they disagree on the numbers assigned to Lamech. The Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) assigns Lamech 753 years, whereas the Samaritan Pentateuch assigns him 653 years. The Masoretic text provides the number that fits the biblical pattern. St. John Chrysostom noted the assignment of 7 to Cain, 77 to Lamech the Elder, and 777 to Lamech the Younger and believed that the number 7 in these cases speaks of God’s mercy shown to sinners.

It is likely that seven represents the seven visible planets and is linked to astrological concepts of ancient Egypt. We may never know exactly what these number sets signify, but the association of such auspicious numbers – 6, 7 and 9 – with Methuselah and his son Lamech indicate their greatness.[2]

Some view Lamech the Younger, named in Genesis 5, as the same Lamech named in Genesis 4 who bragged about killing a man. This is a mistake. Lamech the Elder is not presented as a righteous man, but as a braggart who set himself up as an equal to God.[3] Lamech the Younger, on the other hand, is the son of a righteous father and the father of Noah who found favor with God.

Why should there be such discrepancy in the number of years assigned to Lamech the Younger? Possibly the Septuagint didn’t recognize that there are two different persons named Lamech. Or the discrepancy might indicate dispute over Lamech’s character among the different recensions. Or it simply may be that the Septuagint and the Samaritan texts reflect lack of understanding of the kinship pattern of Abraham’s ruling ancestors.

I believe the discrepancy in numbers assigned to Lamech the Younger indicates lack of understanding of the kinship pattern. In this patrilineal system involving royalty and ascent to the throne, mother and first-born son do not belong to the same clan. The bride belongs to her husband’s clan while her son, if given her father’s throne name, belongs to the bride’s clan. The brilliant anthropologist, Lévi-Strauss recognized this in 1949, but his research was largely ignored by biblical scholars.

So it is that Naamah belonged to Methuselah’s clan, of the lne of Seth, while their first-born son belonged to the clan of his maternal grandfather, of the line of Kain.

NOTES



1.  The number seven has special significance as related to the first-born son’s marriage and his reception of a kingdom. In Jewish weddings the seven marriage blessings (Sheva Brachot) are recited under the huppah and the wedding feast lasts seven days. The assignment of 777 to Lamech the Younger symbolizes the son's marriage and ascension to the throne of his father.

2. Numbers were associated with totems such as the Lion, the Falcon, the Baboon, etc. The four sons of Horus are an example. Imsety is shown with a man’s head. Tuamutf is shown with a jackel’s head. Kabhsenuf is shown with a baboon’s head, and Hapi is shown with a falcon or hawk’s head. Mummification involved removing the body's organs which were placed in four jars adorned with the heads of these four sons. These four stood as guardians over the organs until such a time as the Ka and the Ba could be united, thus avoiding the second death (of which John speaks). Likewise, the Four Gospels have totems: Eagle (Matthew), Bull (Mark), Lion (Luke) and Man (John) and the Gospel writers are indeed guardians of Holy Tradition concerning the Son of God.

3. Lamech’s wives were named Adah (dawn) and t-Zillah (dusk), suggesting that Lamech the Elder placed his 2 wives on an east-west axis. All the other rulers listed in Genesis 4 and 5 likely had 2 wives also but it appears that they placed them on a north-south axis, as did Abraham. Sarah lived in Hebron and Keturah lived in Beersheba, to the south. By placing his wives on an east-west axis, Lamech the Elder claimed a territory corresponding to that of the Creator, whose emblem the Sun, makes a daily journey over the Earth, traveling from east to west. It is interesting to note that Mohammed, a descendent of Abraham by Keturah, placed his 2 wives’ apartments on the east and west sides of his mosque in Medina. Doubtless, this lent credibilty to his claim to be The Prophet of Allah.


Related reading:  The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; African Naming Practices; An African Reflects on Biblical Names

Marrying that Messiah May Be Born

Alice C. Linsley

In the letter disseminated in December 2009, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger noted that approximately 50,000 abortions are performed in Israel every year. That is, 20,000 approved by Health Ministry abortion committees, and 30,000 unapproved procedures performed illegally in private clinics. The chief rabbis wrote that abortions, which Judaism permits under certain circumstances, “delay the coming of the Messiah.”

These Rabbis do not recognize Jesus as Messiah, so they are waiting. From their perspective, Jewish women having abortions could potentially delay Messiah's coming. They await a Messiah of their own invention, however. Since Judaism rejects belief in God Father and God Son, their expectation can never align with the historical Jesus, the Son of God.

Endogamous Marriage

The Hebrew ruler-priests caste practiced endogamy from long before the time of Abraham. It appears that they expected a woman of their caste to bring forth the Son of God, the Messiah. That expectation is first expressed in Genesis 3:15 which speaks of the Woman (not Eve) who is to deliver the Son/Seed of God who will crush the serpent's head. 

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew believed that the Woman would conceive by divine overshadowing just as the Angel Gabriel declared to the Virgin Mary (Lk.1:35). The archetype for the Theotokos was Hathor, the mother of Horus who is uniquely shown in ancient iconography wearing the solar crown between the horns of the celestial Bull.

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew were devotees of the High God who they believed has a son. In ancient texts the son is called HR, which in ancient Egyptian means "Most High One". The Horite and Sethite moieties maintained separate shrines along the Nile River. From there, they dispersed widely in the service of the early kingdom builders like Nimrod the Kushite (Gen. 10).

Among the early Hebrew were Cain and Seth whose descendants intermarried. The descendants of Ham and Shem also intermarried, as did the descendants of Abraham and his brother Nahor.

David was descended from Tamar, the daughter of a priest who, according to Jewish tradition, was called Melchizedek-Shem. His hometown of Bethlehem was a Horite Hebrew settlement before Judaism emerged. Among the "fathers" of Bethlehem was Hur. Hur is a Horus name. 

Matthew 2 explains that "Nazarene" is derived from the prophecy "He will be called a Nazorean", but this has no source in the Hebrew Bible. The term is from the older Akkadian language. Na-Zor in Akkadian means "one belonging to the Zorites". In 1 Chronicles 2:54, Salma of Judah is called the “father” of the Zorites. 1 Chronicles 2:5 states that Salma is also the "father of Bethlehem". So, the prophecy connects Jesus to both Nazareth and Bethlehem.

Jesus our Great High Priest

Jesus' priesthood is "in the order of Melchizedek" and that order of priests existed long before Judaism. Mary and Joseph, both descendants of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priest caste, were cousins. They married according to the marriage and ascendancy pattern of their ruler-priest ancestors.

Marriage and ascendancy patterns are highly resistant to change. If the pattern survived Egyptian captivity and deportation to Babylon, it surely continued afterwards. 

The Hebrew lines had been intermarrying from before Abraham's time and continued to intermarry up to the birth of Jesus Christ. Joseph's family lived in Nazareth which was the home of the eighteenth division of priests, that of Happizzez (1 Chr. 24:15).

Jesus' mother's name was named Miriam daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther). From predynastic times (4000 B.C.), ntjr designated a ruler in the service of the High God. Pntjr was the name of Joachim's mother, evidence that the Hebrew traced lineage by both the male and female lines. A limestone stela (1539-1291 B.C.) bearing the names of Pekhty-nisu and his wife, Pa-netjer, is on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.

It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest caste because even those who hated her admit this. Sanhedrin 106a says: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.”

Abraham's people traced bloodline through the mother (as with Jews today), but social status and occupation of the sons was inherited through the father. So, Joseph was a carpenter like his father. St. Paul was Hebrew because he had a Hebrew mother, and he was a tent maker like his father.

Jesus was the Son of God, born to "the Woman" according to the ancient expectation (Gen. 3:15). Mary was the proper bride for Joseph since she was of a priestly line, and his patrilineal cousin. Joseph was also of the priestly line of Nazareth. Joseph of Nazareth married the daughter of a priest as did Joseph in Egypt, and Moses in Midian.

Why did Abraham's people preserve this unique and distinctive pattern of intermarriage between priestly lines? They did it for practical reasons: preservation of their Hebrew identity and wealth, but also because they believed that the expected Messiah would be born of their people. This is what Jesus indicated when he said to the Jewish authorities, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad." (John 8:56)

Likewise, John the Forerunner's testimony concerning Jesus as "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) springs from direct knowledge of the tradition of his Horim (Horite Hebrew ancestors) that the Son of God was coming into the world to save sinners.


Related reading: The Hebrew Were a Caste; Horite and Sethite Mounds; Marriage Partner Selection Among the Hebrew; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of the Early Hebrew; Jesus' Horite Hebrew Ancestry; The Blessed Woman of Genesis 3:15; The Marriage and Inheritance of Hebrew Daughters