Prehistoric Obelisk Found in Judah

Alice C. Linsley

Archaeological evidence indicates that Horite temples, such as those found at Petra, and near the Amman airport, and at Shechem, were square with a "holy of holies" at the heart of the larger square. This holy space at the Amman airport temple was 6.50 meters wide (almost exactly 7 yards) and surrounded by a narrow corridor that was broken into six rooms of equal size. At the very center of the most sacred space was a round stone platform that either served as the pedestal of a stone pillar or as the base of an altar.

Horite temples and shrines were located at water sources such as wells or along major rivers like the Nile. Cisterns have been found in many of the ancient temples. Solomon's temple had a cistern that held over 66,000 gallons of water (250 cubic meters).

In prehistoric times, regional shrine settlements attracted people from surrounding areas. These settlements were administrated by a "deified ruler" and caste of priests. The prehistoric shrine settlements were build around a central shrine or temple. There was a stone pillar (bnbn) or an east-facing obelisk. Archaeologists have found large mace heads at these temples.

1.8 million year stone axes

In the ancient world, a temple was considered the mansion (hâît) or the house (pirû) of the deity. The shrines and temples were aligned to the rising sun and were called O-piru.  The O is a symbol of the Sun. The priests who served at these sites were Hapiru or Habiru (Hebrew).

Biblical On (Ainu) or Heliopolis (City of the Sun) was an ancient shrine settlement on the east side of the Nile. The pyramids of Giza, Saqqara and Abusir are aligned to the obelisk at Heliopolis.

Recently a six-sided obelisk was found at a 10,000 year shrine settlement in the Judean Sephalah. The obelisk is oriented to the rising sun. This means that the architects of the shrine tracked the solar arc. The majority of ancient and prehistoric sacred sites align to meridian cardinal directions and the solar arc.

In addition to an obelisk, axes, and a well designed administrative area, the archaeological team discovered the oldest known plaster floor in the region. It was near this floor that a cluster of flint and limestone axes was found. These are smaller than the mace heads found at Nekhen, a Horite shrine settlement in Sudan. Votive offerings at the Nekhen shrine were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that the Nekhen settlement was very prestigious.

Read more about the discovery of an obelisk in Judah.

Related reading:  Horite Temples, Orientations of Nilo-Saharan Monuments; Where Did Animal Sacrifice Originate?; Egyptian Shrines on the Horus Way

Jacob's Journeys

Alice C. Linsley


The biblical record of Jacob's journeys to and from Haran (Padan-aram) reveal a fascinating parallelism that suggests that these accounts have been carefully crafted. For example, both departures represent reactions to the anger of brothers. Jacob flees from Canaan for fear of his brother Esau and he later flees from Padan-aram for fear of his wives' brothers (Gen. 31:1, 2). Consider the following:

Departure from Canaan

• Departure is precipitated by threat of violence from Jacob's brother
• Jacob's mother and father deliberate with him about the best course of action
• Departure is urgent, but well provisioned. In Genesis 32, Jacob says that he left Canaan with only his staff, but this is clearly hyperbole because in Genesis 28 we find that he has oil to anoint the pillar that he set up at Beth-el. His mother would have made sure that her favorite son was well provisioned before his journey. 
• Another motive for Jacob's departure to Haran is marriage.  A proper marriage would be to a half-sister and/or a patrilineal cousin or niece. Rachel and Leah fit the requirement.
• Isaac prays that God would make Jacob to become a "company of peoples" (Gen. 29:3 NAS).
• On the way to Padan-aram Jacob covenants with God and sets up a stone pillar which he anoints with oil (Gen. 28:18).
• Jacob is fearful of his reception in Padan-aram, but he arrives safely and is well received at the well where he meets Rachel, his future wife (Gen. 29:2-11).

Departure from Padan-aram

• Departure is precipitated by the animosity of Rachel and Leah's brothers and Laban's change of attitude toward Jacob (Gen. 31:1, 2)
• Jacob deliberated with his wives about the best course of action
• Departure is urgent, but well provisioned. Jacob and his wives made sure that they had sufficient provisions for both wives' households/companies before the journey.
• Another motive for Jacob's return to Canaan is his desire to keep his 2 wives (Gen. 31:31).
• Jacob returns to Canaan with 2 companies or 2 households (Hebrew: mahanaim), the camp of Rachel and the camp of Leah.
• On the way to Canaan Jacob and Laban form a covenant and set up stone pillars (Gen. 31:44-46).
• Jacob is fearful of his reception in Canaan, but he and his 2 companies arrrive safely and are well received by his brother Esau.

The parallelism between Jacob's journeys is striking and invites us to further explore a possible parallel between the two events that don't appear to be connected: Jacob's dream of the ladder and Rachel's confiscation of the Teraphim.  We will now turn to the intriguing question of whether these represent parallel cosmological views.

Teraphim were ancestor statues that belonged to the great Afro-Asiatic kingdom builder Terah. Terah was the father of Haran, Nahor and Abraham. Ancestor statues or figurines are still used in traditional African religions. The ancestor figurines were are not worshiped, but were venerated as they represented great ruler-priests who were expected to intercede for their people after death. This is like the veneration shown by Christians to saints and martyrs to whom they turn for intercessions.[1]

The word Teraphim is usually rendered "images" or "idols" but the word actually means the things pertaining to Terah. The confusion is due to the appearance of the word in 1 Samuel 19:13 where we read that "Michal took the Teraphim and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with clothes." She was attempting to make a decoy for David's sleeping body, so it is clear that this reference is not speaking of a small ancestor figurine such as Rachel was able to hide in a saddle.

The Teraphim and the ladder in Jacob's dream speak of a henotheistic worldview, that is, belief in a creator God supreme over all things who is assisted by lesser powers (baals), dieties, spirits or angels. These lesser powers do not act independently of God's sovereign will. In this view when good or evil comes upon a person it is because God has allowed it. This explains why there is often lack of precision about identifying angels and the spirits of the righteous (deified) dead in the Bible.[2] Both were seen as messengers or agents who could move between Heaven and Earth. 

So it appears that Jacob's ladder and Rachel's teraphim are part of the carefully crafted journey narratives and that Jacob's going to Haran and his return to Canaan are perfectly parallel.


NOTES
1. There is a darker side to ancestor veneration, observed today in Africa and experienced by St. Paul in Philippi (Acts 16:16-18), where demons are invoked and false prophets declare through demon possession.

2.  In Acts 12, Peter is delivered from prison by an angel.  He knocks at the door where the faithful are gathered and Rhoda tells the gathered that Peter is at the door, but they say that she must have seen Peter's angel.

Sacred Mountains and Pillars

Alice C. Linsley

“And the mountains shall be melted under him: and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as waters that run down a steep place.” (Micah 1:4)

“The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.” (Psalm 97:5)

Mount Tabor

The Connection Between Mountains, Pillars and Shrines

Mountains among the ancient Afro-Asiatic peoples were regarded as meeting places between God and Man. Volcanos spoke of God's power to create new earth and were associated with male ejaculation. Thus the connection between stone pillars, mountains and shrines. We find this in the story of Jacob setting up a pillar and calling that place "Beth-el", house of God (Gen. 28:10-22). Then we are told that Jacob anointed the pillar, as Hindus today anoint the lingam.

Each region had a sacred mountain and the people living near it claimed that it belonged to them. Covenants were formed on these mountains. In an earlier essay on “Finding Noah’s Ark”, it was noted that Noah offered sacrifice to the Lord on “the mountain of life after” and that God established a covenant with Noah and his descendents.

Pillars also represented deified heroes in the temples and shrines. Temples were constructed of many pillars, both inside and out. The ancient temple at Heliopolis (Biblical On) was a place of pillars. To the church at Philadelphia Christ says: “Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name” (Rev.3:10-13).

This church is to the Kingdom of God what Heliopolis was to the ancient Horites. It is the place of true worship, characterized by many pillars (iunu) in the temple. Iunu refers to the pillared temple of Heliopolis. The pillars represented the righteous ones in the temple of God. Exodus 24:4 explains that the twelve pillars in God's house represent the twelve tribes upon which God has inscribed the holy Name.


Follow the Mountains: A Different View of the Exodus

After leaving Egypt, the clan of Jacob (Israel) journeyed by stages, making contact with Hebrew kinsmen at each stage. The first people to help them were their cousins the Midianites (descendants of Abraham by Keturah) in the region of Horeb, the Midianite sacred mountain (Deut. 29:1). Another people to help them were the Edomites related to Seir the Horite Hebrew chief named in Genesis 36. The Edomite sacred mountain was Paran (Deut. 33:2). Crossing through Edomite territory (where Aaron was buried), the Hebrews moved northeast into Moab. They visited with Lot’s descendants and worshipped on Mount Nebo (Deut. 32:49), where Moses died. At each of these sacred sites, the reunion of kin was celebrated by a covenant that included animal sacrifice and a night of feasting. These covenants likely resembled the covenant made between Jacob and Laban at Mizpah (Gen. 31:44-54).

Temples as Man-Made Mountains

Where there were no mountains, the Afro-Asiatics built ziggurats or pyramids. The Babylonian ziggurats were quadrangular and aligned with the cardinal points: the East representing the rising light or the arousal of God, and the West representing the future or the dusk of time. The alignment of the man-made mountains to the cardinal points is significant. We find this in the (Ethiopian) Book of Enoch. Enoch was regarded as a great prophet who saw the coming day of judgment. In chapter 17:1-7, we read:

“And they took and brought me to a place in which those who were there were like flaming fire, and, when they wished, they appeared as men. And they brought me to the place of darkness, and to a mountain the point of whose summit reached to heaven. And I saw the places of the luminaries [sun and moon] and the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder and in the uttermost depths, where were a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword and all the lightning. And they took me to the living waters, and to the fire of the West, which receives every setting of the sun. And I came to a river of fire in which the fire flows like water [volcano] and discharges itself into the great sea towards the west. I saw every large river, until I arrived at the great darkness. I went to where all flesh migrates; and I beheld the mountains of the gloom which constitutes winter, and the place from which issues the water in every abyss.”

(While Christians often dismiss the Book of Enoch, we should remember that Jude quotes Enoch, chapter 2: “Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him.”)

The Babylonian temple mounts were referred to as houses ("beth" in Hebrew) or high places. The temple of Bel at Nippur bears the name “E-Kur” which means “mountain house”. One of the oldest temples found in Assyria bears the name “E-Kharsag-Kurkura” which means “house of the mountain of all lands”. This may be analogous to the Israelite conception of the temple on Mount Zion as “a house of prayer for all nations.”

It was believed that God resided at the summit of the universe, which was at the seventh firmament. This is why the ziggurats were seven stories. This notion stands behind Saint Paul’s mystical experience of being taken to the third heaven.

Mountains in Traditional African Societies

Many tribes in Africa claim mountains as their sacred ladder to heaven. For the Gikuyu, Mount Kenya is the sacred mountain. They call it “Kere-Nyaga” which means Mountain of Brightness. For the Masai, the sacred mountain is the active volcano "Oldoinyo LeNgai" in Tanzania. "Ngai" is the name for the supreme God among the Gikuyu and the Masai.

The typical village is arranged with the “fathers’ house” (where the elders meet) in the center. Its roof is usually domed to represent a mountain. Among the Baganda (Uganda) the royal tombs have peaked roofs, symbolizing mountains or pillars.

Mircea Eliade wrote extensively about the connection between mountains and the sacred center. (See The Sacred and the Profane, especially pages 36-47). In placing the Fathers' House in the center of the village, traditional Africans conceive of their village as being situated at the navel of the world. This notion of the center as a place of meeting between God and Man is found among tribal peoples around the world.

The Great Zimbabwe water collection system involved pillars such as these. 

Egyptian and Canaanite Religion

The religion of the Canaanites was influenced by the sensuality of Egyptian religion. The festival dedicated to Amun-Min, who inseminated the earth and brought about plentiful harvests, was celebrated in the spring. A statue of Min, with erect phallus, was placed on an inclined pedestal that represented the primordial mountain. After the pharaoh's enthronement at the harvest festival, four arrows were shot toward the north, east, south, and west, and birds were released in the directions of the cardinal points.

Sacred prostitution was a fact of life among some Canaanite populations, but generally shunned by the Egyptians who valued purity of life among their priests. In ancient Egypt and Canaan fertility was a sign of blessing. Motherhood was venerated, giving a woman with children higher social status.

The obsession with fertility led to decadence among some populations. This focus on the creature rather than on the Creator is what some of the later Old Testament Prophets criticized. They spoke against the "high places" with their sacred poles which they equated with sexual activities (perhaps such as that described between Tamar and Judah).

The Egyptians regarded their kings as channels of blessing. This why the Pharaoh who took Sarah was so angry with Abraham (Gen. 12:10-20). Had the king committed adultery with Sarah, he and his entire kingdom would have been under divine judgment.

The Mountain of Judgment

The Prophets Enoch and Micah, and the author of Psalm 97, speak of the mountains melting before the Lord. This is an image of the Day of Judgment and is imagined as "Armageddon" in the Book of Revelation. Armageddon is a corruption of the Hebrew "Har Megiddo" which means "Mountain of Megiddo". Megiddo is a site of multiple judgments, one piled on top of another.

Eric Cline, Chairman of the Department of Classical and Semitic Languages and Literature at George Washington University will be digging in Armageddon next summer. He reports, "Armageddon is a real place: Har Megiddo, the Mountain of Megiddo in Israel. We go out every other year... and we've got 20 cities one on top of another from about 3000 BC, until about 300 BC, from the Canaanite period to the Persian period."

Cline writes, "During the past 4000 years, at least 34 bloody conflicts have already been fought at the ancient site of Megiddo and adjacent areas of the Jezreel Valley. Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, Midianites, Amalekites, Philistines, Hasmonaeans, Greeks, Romans, Muslims, Crusaders, Mamlukes, Mongols, French, Ottomans, British, Australians, Germans, Arabs and Israelis have all fought and died here. The names of the warring generals and leaders reverberate throughout history: Thutmose III, Deborah and Barak, Sisera, Gideon, Saul and Jonathan, Shishak, Jehu, Joram, Jezebel, Josiah, Antiochus, Ptolemy, Vespasian, Saladin, Napoleon, and Allenby, to name but a few of the most famous. Throughout history Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley have been Ground Zero for battles that determined the very course of civilization. It is no wonder that the author of Revelation believed Armageddon, the penultimate battle between good and evil, would also take place in this region!"


Related reading: Peaks and Valleys; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Mount Mary and the Origins of Life; Mount Moriah; Mount Where Noah's Ark Landed