Keturah was Abraham's Second Wife

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Abraham's Hebrew caste reveals that the rulers had two wives. The first was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. The wives maintained separate settlements on a north-south axis. These settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of the ruler's territory. Sarah resided in Hebron, at the northern edge of Abraham's territory in Edom. Keturah, of the royal line of Sheba, resided at Beersheba to the south. Both Hebron and Beersheba were in the territory that the Greeks called Idumea, which is Edom, the land of red people.

This two-wife marriage pattern for high-ranking Hebrew rulers was common. Many Hebrew rulers had two wives. Among them were Lamech the Elder, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Esau the Elder, Amram, Jesse, Elkanah, Ashur, and Joash. 

In 1 Chronicles 4:5, we read that "Ashur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah."

In 1 Chronicles 4:17-18, we read that Mered had two wives, and one was "Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah, whom Mered had married."

 
According to Genesis 25:1, Keturah is described as Abraham’s wife. The Hebrew word here is ishshah, which means woman or wife. However, according to I Chronicles 1:32, Keturah was a concubine (piylegesh or piyegesh meaning concubine). I Chronicles reflects a time long after the events described and is not consistent with the overwhelming evidence that Keturah was a wife. The confusion may be due to the Chronicles' post-exilic reading of Genesis 25:6: "To the sons of his concubines Abraham made grants during his lifetime, sending them away from his son Isaac..."  It was the custom to send away non-ascendant sons. Abraham, Moses, Jacob and Joseph are among the sent-away sons in the Hebrew Bible.

Abraham married Keturah at a late age. Analysis of the marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham’s people makes it clear that Keturah was a wife. Typically, the first wife was the bride of the Hebrew ruler's youth and usually his half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. (The sequence may shed light on the relationship of the faithful of the Old Covenant and the faithful of the New Covenant.)

Keturah resided at Beer-Sheba, which took its name from the great patriarch Sheba who controlled the well there. (Beer means well.) Keturah's firstborn son was probably Joktan, who she named after her father. This is an example of the cousin bride's naming prerogative, a distinctive feature of the Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern.

It may be that the Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia are among Joktan's descendants.  

Abraham and Keturah were both descendants of Sheba, the great grandson of Ham. They are also descendants of Shem, as the lines of Shem and Ham intermarried. Sheba was a contemporary of Eber, Shem's great grandson. Eber’s son Joktan married a daughter of Sheba. We know this because Joktan’s first-born son was named Sheba, after his cousin bride’s father. This naming prerogative of the cousin bride was already a custom in the time of Lamech (Gen. 4). Lamech’s daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their firstborn son Lamech after her father.  Lamech the Younger would ascend to the throne of his maternal grandfather.
 
 

Keturah likewise named her first-born son Joktan, after her father. Abraham had two first-born sons by his wives: Isaac and Joktan. He also had firstborn sons by his two concubines Masek and Hagar. By Masek he had Eliezar and by Hagar he had Ishmael. Contrary to common belief, Ishmael was not Abraham's firstborn. Keturah, though Abraham's second wife, would have produced a son before Sarah who was barren and did not bring forth Abraham's proper heir until very late in her life.

Keturah and Sarah were wives whose firstborn sons would rule over different territories. Isaac was Abraham's proper heir who ruled over Abraham's territory after Abraham's death. Abraham's concubines Hagar and Masek were of subordinate status to his wives. This was the case also with Jacob's concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah.


The Pattern of Keturah Parallels the Pattern of Naamah

According to Gen. 10:24-30, Keturah’s father had a brother named Peleg. The text makes much of the implications of Peleg’s name which means “division”, “because it was in his time that the earth was divided” (Gen. 10:25). There are different possible explanations for this division, but the most likely is that expressed in the pattern of genealogical information. The daughter of Sheba who married Joktan and named her firstborn son Sheba is the last bride named of Ham’s line. In this respect she parallels Naamah, the last bride named of Cain’s line.

Keturah’s father was Joktan and her paternal uncle was Peleg, who is said to be the “first” son. This means that Joktan, like Abraham, was not to receive the rights of primogeniture by which he would become chief after his father’s death. So Joktan, Abraham’s firstborn by Ketu-rah, would not be chief after his death. That would fall to Isaac, the son of Sarah. Nevertheless, the Joktanites would become a powerful presence in the Sinai and by their skills and generosity would enable the Israelites to come out of Egypt and survive in the wilderness.

Genesis 10: 26 tells us that Joktan had 13 sons. Almodad appears to be the first-born, as his name is listed first. If Joktan followed the pattern of his fathers, his two wives would have maintained separate households on a north-south axis. This may be the meaning of the sites mentioned in Gen. 10:30: Mesha and Sephar, although “sephar,’ which means “numbering,” might refer to the cosmology of Abraham’s people rather than to a specific location.

Some of the descendants of Joktan and Sheba hold an annual autumn feast at an oasis in the wilderness to celebrate the date harvest. This is the one time of the year that women and men may dance together. The date palm (“tamar”) is a symbol of prosperity and fertility. The ‘Id el-Tamar is a festival when the unmarried check out the pool of available matches. As is the custom from time immemorial, wife selection takes place at a well or an oasis.

The Significance of the Well

Wells and oases are where boy meets girl in the Bible. There are several incidents of wives being found at wells. Abraham’s servant found Rebecca at a well. Moses met Zipporah at a well. The wells were under the control of the local ruler, often Hebrew priests, such as Jethro. Probably Abraham met Keturah at the well of Sheba, one of their common ancestors.

The Hebrew priests among Abraham's people established their shrines near rivers and wells. They needed the water to sustain their flocks, and it was from these flocks and herds that they selected animals to sacrifice. The evidence of the Bible indicates that the rulers among Abraham's Hebrew people married the daughters of Hebrew priests (caste endogamy). Moses married his cousin Zipporah, the daughter of a Hebrew priest named Jethro. He was of the Hebrew clan of Midian. Midian was another son born to Abraham by Keturah. Abraham had nine sons. Here is a list of sons:

Sarah, daughter of Terah (Gen. 20:12)
Yitzak (Issac)

Hagar the Egyptian (Sarah’s handmaid)
Yishmael (Ishmael) was Egyptian, since ethnicity was traced through the mother and Hagar was Egyptian. Tracing ethnicity through the mother rather than the father is still required to establish Jewish identity today. This pattern is recognized in Egypt as well, which is why the Egyptian government has made it illegal for Egyptian men to marry Jewish women.

Ketu-rah, daughter of Joktan (Gen. 25)
Joktan – probably Keturah’s firstborn son
Midian

Yishbak (Name means "sent away")
Zimran
Medan
Shuah

Masek (Keturah’s handmaid, mentioned only in the Septuagint.)
Eliezar 

Related reading: Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; Identifying the Status of the Two Wives; The Hebrew were a Caste; Abraham's Sons; Eliezar of Damascus; Abraham's Two Concubines; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Reading the Bible in a Different Way

Melchizedek and Abraham Were Kinsmen

 

In this post I respond to a friend's question about Melchizedek's relationship to Abraham.


Alice, on your blog you stated, "Melchizedek's earthly father was probably Sheba the Elder whose ancient royal line rivaled the House of David (II Sam. 20). The omission of Melchizedek's ancestry in the Hebrew Scriptures is consistent with the common practice of eliminating elements of history that do not serve the Jewish narrative. Omissions about ancestry and kinship, and aspersions cast upon some of the early Hebrew rulers is motivated by political expediency."


Do you have any supporting evidence for the assertion that Melchizedek's father was probably Sheba the Elder?

The data required to understand the relationship of Melchizedek and Abraham is found in Genesis 14 and in an understanding of the social structure of the biblical Hebrew, a ruler-priest caste.


1. Melchizedek was the ruler-priest of the high place that came to be called Jerusalem. The Hebrew were a caste of ruler-priests and Melchizedek fits that description. Melchizedek means "righteous king". He is remembered because he was a high king over lesser regional rulers (vassals) such as Abraham. Abraham's relationship to Melchizedek fits the Suzerain-vassal pattern. A vassal holds land on conditions of homage and allegiance. For the Hebrew, the allegiance was based on blood ties.


2. As I show in my book The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study, the early Hebrew were widely dispersed in the service of kingdom builders who established strongholds at elevated sites near permanent water sources. That describes Jerusalem in Abraham's time.


3. The narrative about Melchizedek has as its background a battle between regional kings. After the battle Melchizedek comes to Abraham with bread and wine, and blessed Abraham in the name of the Most High God. It is likely that this activity represents a rite of cleansing from blood guilt.


4. In that narrative, Abraham presents Melchizedek with a tenth (tithe) of the booty. This suggests that Abraham was subject to Melchizedek. Melchizedek was likely the high king over many of the regional rulers such as Abraham.


5. Abraham's territory extended on a north-south axis between Hebron (Sarah's settlement) and Beersheba (Keturah's settlement). Hebron is only 19 miles south of Jerusalem. It is likely that the entire region was Hebrew territory since the early Hebrew land holdings were extensive at that time. Canaan was the crossroads by which these early Hebrew ruler-priests dispersed. 

6. The Hebrew alliances were based on endogamous marriages. Therefore, it is not far-fetched to consider that Abraham and Melchizedek were kinsmen. The relationship of Abraham and Melchizedek appears to be through the very ancient royal house of Sheba. This is my hypothesis based on the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the biblical Hebrew which I have identified using kinship analysis.

Melchizedek was probably the maternal uncle of Abraham's cousin wife, Keturah. Keturah resided at the Well of Sheba and was of the royal house of Sheba. About a 1000 years later, a man called Sheba contested David's claim to the throne (2 Samuel 20).

The Bible makes it clear that the people of Sheba were Abraham's kinsmen. Genesis 10:7 identifies Sheba as a son of the Kushite ruler Raamah, one of Abraham's ancestors. Genesis 10:28 states that Sheba was a son of Joktan, a son of Eber who was a descendant of both Ham and Shem, since their lines intermarried (caste endogamy). Genesis 25:3 notes that Abraham and Keturah had a grandson named Sheba. 

Related reading: Belief in the High God; The Genesis Rulers Through the Lens of Anthropology; The Hebrew Were a Caste; Who Was Melchizedek?; Sarah's Story

How the Deuteronomist Changes the Genesis Narrative

The Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia
Among them were Horite Hebrew priests.

Alice C. Linsley

The whole canon is inspired and has been superintended by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is self-interpreting. We must use our God-given intelligence to sort through the material, context by context, to discover the various concerns of Biblical writers. For example, the Deuteronomist Historian seeks centralized worship at the Jerusalem temple, and the reshaping of the Passover and Tabernacles into national observances. This theological account does not align well with the historical, archaeological, and anthropological data concerning Abraham and his cattle-herding ancestors.

The Deuteronomist Historian is the final hand on the Genesis. This presence represents fundamentalism and iconoclasm and attempts to reshape Hebrew history. The book of Genesis contains information about Abraham and his ancestors who lived long before the Neo-Babylonian Period (about 700-300 BC), the period of the Deuteronomist Historian.  The DH stresses rejection of images, exclusive devotion to Yahweh, and obedience to his prophet Moses (Deut. 18:18; cf. Mark 6:125; Matt. 16:13-20; John 1:21).

Thankfully, this source preserved the King Lists in Genesis, by which another version of the history of Abraham's ancestors is told. These were the Nilo-Saharan and Saharo-Nubian cattle herding rulers who lived between the Nile and Lake Chad. Analysis of their marriage and ascendancy pattern reveals that Moses, Aaron and their half-brother Korah were Horite priests, as was their father Amram. The idea of Moses as a prophet is an anachronism.

From the Neo-Babylonian perspective, Genesis is about the people who dwelt in the Western Asian satrapy of Eber-Nahar which was comprised of Syria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus. Eber-Nahar or Eber ha-nahar means the "territory beyond the river." Eber as the eponymous ancestor of the Hebrews is problematic since analysis of the Genesis king lists makes it clear that Eber is a descendant of both Ham and Shem and the father of both Afro-Arabians (the Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia) and Afro-Asians (the Mesopotamian clans of Peleg).

An overlooked effect of the Deuteronomist's perspective is that it cuts out of the picture the importance of the Arabians, especially the Horites of Edom (Gen. 36). The word "Hebrew" does not come from Eber, as is often reported. It comes from ha-biru and refers to an ancient priest caste that included Arabians. In fact, one of the oldest words for priest is "Korah" from which comes the Arabic word for priest which is Khouri or Hori, referring to the Horite priesthood.

Some Jews and some Arabs have Horite blood. Arab historians identify twenty Jewish clans living in Arabia, including two priestly lines. The priestly lines intermarried exclusively, with priests marrying the daughters of priests according to a fixed marriage and ascendancy pattern. This intermarriage began long before Jews can be identified as a distinct ethnic group. The ruling ancestors of Jews and Arabs intermarried so that the two groups are blood kin.

One of Moses' older brothers held the title "Korah" before Aaron was consecrated a priest. Korah relates to the practice of the Horite priests to shave in preparation for their terms of service in the temples. (See Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2007, p.37)

The Neo-Babylonian Empire had two main provinces: Eber-Nahar and Babylonia.The satrap of Eber-Nahar resided in Babylon and he was served by governors who lived in Eber-Nari. One of the local governors was Tettenai, who is mentioned in the Bible and in Akkadian cuneiform documents.

Genesis took shape under the Neo-Babylonian rulers. In other words, the story is told from the perspective of those who lived east of Arabia. This perspective does not recognize the traditions of the Arabians who were never Babylonian subjects. The Babylonians and Assyrians were not able to defeat the warriors of Arabia. Nor were the Greeks able to defeat the Nabataean warriors. The Greeks called them the Idumea, meaning red people. 

The Deuteronomist Historian shapes Genesis in a way that distorts the image, just as photo-shopping a portrait gives a false impression. Ignoring the Arabians in Genesis makes it appear that they have no place in Biblical history. Nothing could be farther from the truth! 

The Horite ruler-priests of Arabia are among the great rulers named in Genesis 1-12. Abraham spoke Proto-Arabic dialects. His firstborn son was Joktan, which is Yaktan in Arabic. Josephus knew him as Joctan and his name is preserved in the ancient town of Jectan near Mecca. The Joktanite clans of Arabia are related to Abraham, and are the descendants of his Afro-Arabian forefathers Ramah, The brother of Nimrod, and Kush's grandsons, Dedan and Sheba.

Genesis 10:7 indicates that the Dedanites are related to the Kushite ruler Dedan. Dedan means "red" and is a cognate to the Egyptian didi (red fruit) and the Yoruba diden (red). Here we are scratching the older pre-Babylonian layer of Genesis. Old Arabic texts provide the closest cognates to the older stratum, which is Afro-Arabian. Dedan is where the largest collection of the oldest Arabic texts have been found at the oases of Tema and Dedan in the Hijaz. Tema (Taima) lies about 70 miles north-east of Dedan. Tema, Dedan and Dumah were caravan stops along the trade route from Sheba to Babylon.

Red Nubians wearing feathers
(Ippolito Rosellini)

Red Nubians wearing feathers
(Dr. Arthur Brack)

These resemble the Nabataean warriors (shown below) with their feathers and long wavy hair.

Dedan was the son of Ramah, the brother of Sheba and the grandson of Kush. This means that the peoples of the regions of Ramah, Dedan and Sheba were kin and Kushites. They appear to be related to the red Nubians. They spoke a North Arabian dialect referred to as Dedanite or Dedanitic. It has been grouped with Canaanite and Aramaic (Faber 1997).

We would expect to find parallels between Dedanite and the Kushitic/Nilotic languages. This is evident in the Dedanite and ancient Egyptian use of the root mr. The Egyptian word for love is mer which is related to the word for mother ‘m in Egyptian and in Dedanite. In both languages the word for woman is mr’t. Mer is also the root of the name Meri/Mary.

Dedanite shares some features with Hebrew also. The final /a/ was represented by –h, as in Hebrew, so the bi-consonantal word Rama (rm) becomes a tri-consonantal word Ramah (rmh). In both Dedanite and Hebrew the final /u/ is replaced by –w.

Linguistic connections between the Proto-Saharan, Nilotic, Dedanite, and Dravidian languages adds to the evidence of the Kushite expansion out of Africa. An example is the correspondence between Dedanite, the Nilotic Manding, and the Dravidian first person singular pronouns. The first person singular pronoun in Dedanite is ‘n which corresponds to the Dravidian first person singular an and to the Manding na.

It has been noted also that the qiblahs in the oldest mosques in Cairo and in Baghdad point to Dedan, about 500 miles north-northwest of Mecca.


Related reading: Abraham's Firstborn Son; Abraham and Job: Horite Rulers; Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs; The Afro-Asiatic Dominion: The Shock of Mohammed Atta's Afterlife; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; Understanding Violence in the Old Testament by Eric Jobe

Ethiopian DNA Study Ignores Significant Data

Ethiopians are described by representatives of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, one of the organizations involved in the study, as one of the most genetically diverse cultures in the world. By studying their DNA, the researchers detected mixing from some Ethiopians and non-Africans dating back to approximately 3,000 years ago.

“The origin and date of this genomic admixture, along with previous linguistic studies, is consistent with the legend of the Queen of Sheba, who according to the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast book had a child with King Solomon from Israel and is mentioned in both the Bible and the Qur’an,” the Institute said in a press release.

As part of their work, which is detailed in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the scientists studied the DNA of more than 200 subjects from 10 Ethiopian and two neighboring African populations, Helen Briggs of BBC News reported on Thursday. Approximately one million genetic letters in each genome were analyzed in what is being called the largest Ethiopian-centered genetic investigation of its kind.

Read it all here.

I reserve skepticism about this study.  The oldest common ancestor of the subjects studied would have to date to at least 6000 years ago, about 3000 years before Solomon.

Further, we have no proof that the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia. She may have come from the kingdom of Sheba in Arabia.

Before the time of Solomon it is likely that Sheba controlled both sides of the mouth of the Red Sea. This is suggested by the archaeological and linguistic evidence connecting Sheba in Arabia to East African settlements.

The connection between Sheba and Jerusalem is evident in the time of Abraham. Melchizedek was the priest-king of Jerusalem and the son of Sheba. It appears that Solomon's sexual liaison with a royal daughter of the House of Sheba was intended to ease tensions after David had Sheba killed at Abel beth Maachah and to add the clout of the House of Sheba to Solomon's dynastic claims.


Related reading: Biblical Sheba and East African Settlements Linked; 7000 BC Horse Burial Linked to Sheba; Jebusites: Extant Biblical Tribe; Lamech Segment Analysis

Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs

Alice C. Linsley

Sela was the capital of Edom. It is mentioned in Isaiah 16:1 and 2 Kings 14:7. Sela probably was not a major site in Abraham's time. Petra is the later name, when it came under the control of the Nabataeans who then controlled much of modern-day Jordan until the third century BC.

Petra reflects the pillared architecture of the Horite shrines of the Nile, and the first ruler of Petra, Obodas, took his name from the Edo/Edomite name for ruler which is Oba. The linguist Helene Longpre says that Nabataean Aramaic most closely corresponds to Meroitic or Old Nubian. (H. Longpre, "Investigation of the Ancient Meroitic Writing System", Rhode Island College, 1999.)

Red mountains of Edom (BAR photo)

Petra is the Greek name, and refers to the rocky location of the Nabataean capital in the red sandstone mountains of Edom. The Greeks called the Edomites the Idumea, meaning red people. Esau of Edom was described as having a red skin tone in Genesis 25:25.

Nabataean warriors

This suggests that the Edomites of the Bible may be related to the Edo or Idu of Nigeria and Benin whose rulers dress in red. The title of their rulers is further evidence. The ruler of the Edo is called "Oba" and the first ruler of Petra was King Obodas. (Likely, there is a linguistic connection to the Turkish word for ancestor or grandfather which is oboko and the Japanese word for a regional ruler which is obito.)

Edom was controlled by the Horite Hebrew, a caste of royal priests who spread from the Nile into Mesopotamia, Babylonia and beyond. Seir the Horite is listed as one of their kings in Genesis 36.

Job was of the clan of Uz. Uz was the son of Dishan. Dishan was the son of Seir the Horite. These chiefs were horse handlers and appreciated the power and beauty of the horse. In questioning Job, God asks, “Do you give the horse it’s strength or clothe it’s neck with a flowing mane?”

The Nabataean kings, such as Harithath IV, bear the Horus name. King Harithath is called King Aretas in II Corinthians 11:32. Coins have been found bearing the image of Aretas, and inscriptions have been found in the Nabataean town of Avdat with his name and the names of other Nabataean rulers. He was called "King of the Nabatu, who loves his people" (Philopatris), and it was during his reign that the greatest of Petra's tombs were created.

The connection to the kings of Egypt is evident in the name of Petra's central temple: Qasr al-Bint al-Faroun which means "The Fortress of the Daughter of Pharaoh." Its walls rise to over 75 feet. The temple was built between the late first century BC and the first century CE. Its precinct covers about 81,376 square feet or 7,560 square meters. A large open plaza was lined with 120 columns. The columns were adorned with Asian elephant-head capitals and provide evidence of connections between ancient Edom and India and other lands of the ancient Near East. At its height of glory, Petra rivaled the grandeur of Herod's Jerusalem.

The word Nabataean is likely related to Naba or Nabu, the guardian of scribes and prophets. This is the origin of the Hebrew word nabi, meaning prophet. The earliest scribes were Horite priests. The cult of Nabu was introduced into Mesopotamia and Babylon by the Kushites. Kushite kings sometimes bore the name Nabu, as with Nabu-shum-libur, an early Kushite king in Babylon and Nabu-aplu-iddina.

The Horites traced blood line through the mother while social status was based on the father's rank and occupation. Married women could hold and bequeath property and rule over their clans. Anah is listed as a "chief" in Genesis 36. Her name is also spelled Anat and Anath. Joseph married the daughter of a Horite priest. Her name was Asenath, a variant of Anath.


A Monumental Complex

Petra is a 400-acre complex cut from the rock well before the time of Jesus. It is called the "Rose City." The city reveals a sophisticated system of water management. There were aqueducts, piping systems and channels that directed water to the city center, to the temple, and to the homes and gardens of prominent citizens. Retention dams prevented flooding.

The Treasury at Petra

Note the three-portal design. Jordan has done restoration at this and other Petra edifices.

North-facing Petra temple

The Petra temple exhibits the typical Egyptian Divine Triad of Supreme God, the Divine Son (Horus, associated with Jupiter), and the Mother Goddess (Hathor). Generally, the architecture reflects the Egyptian three-part structure. Excavations at the foot of the Treasury reveal that there were three stories, not just the two shown in photographs.

Hundreds of rock-cut tombs have been found at Petra. The Tomb of the Obelisks is distinctively Egyptian in architectural style.


Nabataeans Related to Other Biblical Peoples

The Nabataeans are mentioned in historical records such as Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheca (book 19), dating to 312 BC, and in an Egyptian papyrus dating to 259 BC. They are mistakenly classified as Arabs. However, in 1 Maccabees 5 (v. 25) we note that the Nabataeans were allied with Judas Maccabees while the Arabs are named as his enemies (v. 39).
The Nabataeans were involved in the lucrative South Arabian spice, incense and perfume trade and apparently were related to the royal House of Sheba.

The rulers of Sheba were descendants of Raamah and their territory extended from the southwestern part of Arabia northward to Beersheba (the well of Sheba). Sheba and Dedan were brothers (Gen.10:7) who ruled separate territories. The qiblahs in the oldest mosques in Cairo and in Baghdad point to Dedan, about 500 miles north-northwest of Mecca.

Dedanite Y

The largest collection of ancient Arabic texts have been found at the North Arabian oases of Tema and Dedan in the Hijaz. Tema is known by Arabs as Taima and lies about 70 miles north-east of Dedan. Tema, Dedan and Dumah were caravan stops along the trade route from Sheba to Babylon.


The Horite Hebrew Warriors and Horses

Sheba is credited with early domestication, breeding and export of Arabian horses. Likely the word "horse" is derived from Horus or Horite. The word horse appears as hors in Old English texts before the 12th century. Onager horses, (related to gur or khur?) were bred by Kushites along the Tigris before 3000 BC. Rock and cave images of horses in the Sahara predate the 1670 BC Hyksos invasion of Egypt, so the Hyksos cannot be credited with introducing horses to Egypt.

The Nabataean cavalry was camel mounted with two archers, one facing forward and one facing either front or back. The warriors wore ribbons in their long wavy hair. The camel was well suited to the desert environment in which they fought, but with their expansion into Syria, the Nabataeans adopted horses for war. They preferred fast lighter horses that could, in the words of Diodorus "… flee into the desert, using this as a stronghold."

The Nabataean warriors had long wavy hair and wore feathers. These Nabataean warriors appear to be related to the red Nubians shown below.

Petra's Last Days

The power and influence of Petra's rulers was subjugated to that of Rome when the emperor Trajan formally annexed the city in 106 A.D.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, Petra became a provincial capital under Byzantine rule.

Inn May 363 A.D., Petra sustained significant damage during an earthquake. The city sits near the boundary of the Arabian plate and has suffered from numerous quakes. The quake of 363 was especially devastating. It was reported that half the city was destroyed and the water system was disrupted. Archaeologists confirm damage to the main theater, the principal temple of Qasr al-Bint al-Faroun, and the Colonnaded Street.

Petra was in economic decline before the earthquake of A.D. 363 due to changes in trade. The flourishing land trade from East Africa and South Arabia to the Mediterranean and India had declined by the 2nd century A.D.


Related reading: Edo, Edom and Idumea Architecture Links Horites and Petra; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Who Were the Horites?; Abraham's Camels; 7000 BC Horse Burial Linked to Sheba; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; The Arabian Horse and the Nabataeans; Who Was Oholibamah?; Some Jews and Some Arabs Have Common Horite Ancestry; New Petra Monument Spotted Through Satellites

Esau in Yoruba Tradition

Alice C. Linsley

In Genesis, Esau is the victim of trickery and betrayal by his brother Jacob. When Jacob returns from Paddan-Aram, Esau greets him warmly and offers to help him settle his wives, children and flocks in the land.

In this action, Esau embodies forgiveness. It has been noted that the name Esau is also spelled Issa, which is a variant of the name Jesus.

There are two named Esau in Genesis and both represent respected leaders among their people. Esau the Elder married the daughter of Elon. Their son Eliphaz married a daughter of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36).

Esau the Younger, Jacob's brother, married a high ranking Horite woman named Oholibamah. Her name means Exalted Tent or Most High Tabernacle and she is a type of the Virgin Mary.

According to Yoruba tradition, Esau was a Ketu ruler. This connects him to the Jebusites and the royal house of Sheba.  Abraham's second wife was Ketu-ra and she lived at Beer-Sheba (the Well of Sheba).

Is it possible that Euro-Christian thinking has presented a distorted idea of Esau? Has Esau "been unfairly slandered by overzealous Christians and their sympathizers?"  That is what Remi Oyeyemi argues in this article in Sahara Reporters.


Related reading:  Who Was Oholibamah?; Two Named Esau; Keturah: Wife or Concubine?; Biblical Sheba Linked to East African Settlements; Edom and the Horites; Ido, Edom, Idumea

Philip Ochieng: Kushite Flight from Canaan

Philip Ochieng, a Kenyan contemporary of President Obama's father, relates how the Kalenjin, a Kushite people, once resided in Egypt and Canaan and fled before their oppressors. They claim to have fled oppression in Egyptian held lands and wandered for 40 years in the wildernesses of Sudan and northwestern Kenya where they encountered God at the sacred mountain El-gon (Mount of the Most High). There is linguistic evidence to support this. For example, the Kalenjin capital is Kericho which is Jericho. Read more of Ochieng's views on the Kalenjin here.

The Kalenjin were a warrior caste in ancient Egypt. They have been identified with the Midianites. Midian is a Kalenjin clan of Baringo district of Kenya. Kalenjin were identified by clan divisions, namely Sebei, Sabaot, Miot and Midian until modern times. Here we have a suggestion of a Sheba-Midian-Egyptian confederation. This may explain the confusion in Genesis 37 where we are told that Joseph was sold to a caravan of Ishmaelite/Egyptian merchants (verse 25) and Midianite merchants (verse 28).

The linguistic connection between ancient Egypt and the Kalenjin is evidenced in the correspondance of many common words. The ancient Egyptian word for country was kmt, which corresponds to the Kalenjin word kemet. In both languages ntr designates divinity. The Kalenjin were a hill country people who dwelt in the region of their sacred mountain "El-gon" in the Tororo (n-trr) Hills of eastern Uganda. From there they migrated to Egypt, where they stayed for thousands of years. Some migrated back to Kenya and Uganda. Others moved into Canaan and Mesopotamia.

The Kalenjin, like the Egyptians, regarded the sun as the emblem of the Creator. Their word Asiis refers to both God and the sun. This is also an ancient Egyptian name for the Creator and is found among other African tribes who originated in the Nile Valley. The Asante of Ghana are the people (nte) of As.

The Kalenjin appear to be one of many groups that moved from the Nile Valley into Canaan and Mesopotamia. This Kushite migration is referenced in Genesis 10 and confirmed by historical records of Sargon the Great, who is likely Nimrod, the son of Kush.

Today, it is estimated that 44% of the Kalinjin are Christian.


Related reading:  Nilo-Saharan and Saharo-Nubian Populations; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; The Migration of Abraham's Ancestors; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Sacred Mountains

7000 BC Horse Burial Linked to Sheba

Alice C. Linsley

"And God took a handful of South wind and from it formed a horse, saying: "I create thee, Oh Arabian. To thy forelock, I bind Victory in battle. On thy back, I set a rich spoil And a Treasure in thy loins. I establish thee as one of the Glories of the Earth... I give thee flight without wings."-- from an Ancient Bedouin Legend (Byford, et al. Origination of the Arabian Breed)

The tribe of Sheba is credited with the earliest domestication, breeding and export of horses. This has been confirmed by the discovery of a 9000-year-old horse burial in Asir Province of Saudi Arabia on the Yemen border. Yemen is the traditional homeland of the people of Sheba.

The people of Sheba were the descendants of the son of Raamah and their territory extended from the southwestern part of Arabia northward to Beersheba (the well of Sheba). Sheba was the brother of Dedan (Gen. 10:7). The region of Dedan is where the oldest Arabic texts have been found.

The people of Sheba and Dedan are connected to Abraham. Abraham's wife Keturah resided at Beersheba and her firstborn son was the father of Dedan the Younger (Gen. 25:3). Most Arabs are descended from Abraham through Joktan (Yaqtan). Josephus knew him as Joctan and his name is preserved in the ancient town of Jectan near Mecca.

Mud residence at oasis in Asir Province

The Saudi Arabian Department of Museums and Antiquities recently reported the discovery of a 9,000-year-old horse burial at al-Maqar, along with a 3-foot-tall bust of a horse.

Ali al-Ghabban said that a Neolithic site at al-Maqar in Asir province has revealed the earliest evidence of horse domestication. “This discovery shows that horses were domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula for the first time more than 9,000 years ago,” said al-Ghabban. “Previous studies estimated the domestication of horses in Central Asia dating back 5,000 years.”

9000-year-old horse in ancient Sheba region

In his book The Black Pharaohs, Robert Merkot reports that the people of Sheba were famous for breeding high quality horses which they exported throughout the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

Genesis 10 tells us that Sheba was a Kushite whose royal ancestors originated in ancient Kush.  This is supported by the fact that the world's oldest saddles are from Nubia and the Upper Nile region that was Kush.

Abraham and his wife Keturah were descendants of Sheba, Ham's great grandson. Sheba was a contemporary of Eber, Shem's great grandson. Eber’s son Joktan married a daughter of Sheba. She named their firstborn son Sheba, after her father, according to the cousin-bride's naming prerogative.

Map showing Sheba and the Joktanite Clans

Keturah bore Abraham six sons.  The firstborn was Joktan, named after Keturah's father. The Joktanite clans still live in the region of southern Arabia. They were close kin to the people of Sheba.

It is interesting to note that the horse was associated with the Sun among the Afro-Arabians. During his reform, Josiah banned horses as a religious symbol. II Kings 23:11 reports that "He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the House of the Lord."  This may be due to the decadent practice of horse marriage in the Yedic tradition.

In the earliest Vedic texts we find warnings about transgressing these boundaries. These warn against actions and words that insult the gods, against homosexuality, and against sexual relations with animals. Later Hinduism reflects the different worldview of the Aryan invaders who entered from the north and subdued the Sudroid (Afro-Asiatic) peoples who lived there. The horse while regarded as noble, was never deified in Afro-Asiatic religion. Sexual relations with a horse or any animal was an unthinkable violation of the boundaries set by God in creation. Not so among Hindu rulers after the Aryan invasion.  The royal fertility ritual called Asvamedha yajna involved the king’s principal wife in a nightlong copulation with the king's most prized dead horse.

The Paleo-Hebrew inscription on this 7th-century seal reads "Belonging to Asayahu, servant of the king."  For more information on this and other ancient seals, go here.

Related reading: 700,000-Year-Old Horse Found in Yukon Permafrost; Biblical Sheba and East African Settlements Linked; Afro-Arabian vs Aryan Religion: The Horse as Example

Biblical Sheba and Nubians Linked

Alice C. Linsley


German archaeologists working in the Ethiopian highlands have identified the remains of settlements from the first millennium B.C. that show cultural and religious connections between Southern Arabia and East African settlements. Excavations and surveys focused on the ancient towns of Yeha and Wuqro indicate that this region in the northern Abyssinian highlands was on the ancient trade routes and connected to ancient Axum.

Yeha altar at the Almaqah temple 

Since 2008, archaeologists excavating at Yeha and surrounding sites have uncovered buildings, burials and pottery that indicate Ethiopian-Yemen connections. Among the discoveries was a perfectly preserved sacrificial altar with a royal inscription in Old South Arabian (Dedanite) bearing the name Yeha. The discovery by Ethiopians archaeologists of the sacrificial altar was made in Meqaber Ga’ewa, a previously unknown location near the city of Wuqro in the region of Tigray.

According to Kebede Amare, head of the Tigray Cultural Department, this civilization had sophisticated irrigation plans, made use of plows, grew millet, and made iron tools and weapons.

The Almaqah temple was built in the 8th to 6th centuries BC on the ruins of an earlier building. It resembles the early South Arabian temples. The sacrificial altar was dedicated by a king named W'RN. The inscription, dating to the 7th century BC, proves the ancient name of Yeha for the first time and reveals a connection between the ruler-priests of South Arabia and the ancient Upper Nile. 

Among the votive artifacts were found incense burners inscribed in Sabaean (Dedanite), the language of Sheba. The inscription stated that the area had been ruled jointly by three kings. They ruled over a population of red and black Nubians as shown on ancient Egyptian monuments. This may be the point of origin of the three-clan confederations that have been identified in Genesis.

Detail from drawing by Ippolito Rosellini (1828)

Related reading:  Who Were The Kushites?; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; The Sabaean Temple of Almaqah

28,000-Word Akkadian Dictionary Finished

Love notes and divorce papers. Accounting ledgers and legal briefs. Omens, letters between kings, thoughts on the benefits of flaxseed and the fortune-telling properties of sheep livers.

All were carved in stone or written in cuneiform on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia — the cradle of human civilization — between 2500 BC and AD 100. Scholars at the University of Chicago have worked for nearly a century on a comprehensive guide for those reading the ancient language in which some of the earliest days of human history were written.

Ninety years in the making, the 21-volume, 28,000-word Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is complete. Started in 1921, the dictionary was created over the years by about 85 employees writing on millions of index cards in up to five large offices at the school’s Oriental Institute at University Avenue and 58th Street.

Read it all here.


Akkad was one of the "cities" founded by Abraham's ancestor Nimrod according to Genesis 10: 8,9:  "Kush fathered Nimrod who was the first potentate on earth... the mainstays of his empire were Babel, Erech and Akkad."

Nimrod is probably Sargon I who lived from about 2290 to 2215 BC.  It is assumed that he died in 2215 BC because that is when his son Rimush (Ramesh) by his sister-wife ascended the throne.  Nimrod was ethnically Kushite.

Akkadian cuneiform script was used to write Sumerian, Elamite, Hurrian, and Hittite. The University of Minnesota Classical and Near Eastern Studies Department provides this explanation: "Akkadian is attested in writing from the mid-third millennium BCE until the early first millennium CE, and during this long span of time it became the vehicle for literature and scholarship as well as for practical record-keeping, legal documents, correspondence, and public inscriptions. The Akkadian language and the cuneiform script were adopted as the international medium of written communication throughout the ancient Near East, from Iran to Egypt, during the second millennium BCE."

In other words, Akkadian was the script of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion and it was a simplified system which made communication across a vast empire easier. For example, all of the 29 Proto-Semitic consonants are preserved as distinct sounds in the ancient Southern Arabian languages (the languages of Sheba and Dedan), but Akkadian has only 18 consonants.

Mohammed and Kain's Descendants

Alice C. Linsley


Mohammed left Mecca in 622 A.D. after the Meccan chiefs of his own tribe had attempted to kill him. He went to Medina which was then called Yathrib. Compared with arid Mecca, Yathrib was a paradise with lush gardens, date-palm groves, and productive farms. It was originally a Horite settlement.  Yathrib (yt-rb) means "that which belongs to the son." The Y is a solar symbol also used to designate rulers such as Yaqtan, Yitzak, Yisbak, Yacob, Yosef, etc.

Medina is situated on the western edge of the central Arabian plateau in the heart of the region of Dedan. The Dedanites descended from Kush and from Abraham by his couisn wife, Keturah. Dedan the Younger was the son of Abraham's son Joktan.

Most Southern Arabians are descended from Abraham through Joktan, his first-born son.  He is remembered by Arabs as Yaqtan. Josephus knew him as Joctan and his name is preserved in the ancient town of Jectan near Mecca.

Medina had a population of roughly 10,000 people when Mohammed arrived. Word of his prophetic utterances had gone before him and he was greeted by the common folk as a prophet, many urging him to stay in their homes which they believed would bring a blessing upon their households. In Medina there were three clans of Kenites, descendents of Kain, the earliest ruler named in the Bible.[1] The Kenites had communities throughout the territories of Ham, Shem, Midian, Dedan, Raamah, Sheba and Joktan/Yaqtan.

In Medina, Mohammed built an open-air mosque with a shaded area to the south called the suffah and he aligned the prayer space facing north towards Jerusalem. The qibla (prayer direction) was later changed to face Mecca, to the south. Adjoining this mosque were homes for Mohammed’s two wives Sauda and Aisha. Aisha lived long after Mohammed died and was regarded as a prophet in her own right. Later Mohammed added other apartments for his many concubines. One of these was a Jewish girl named Safiya, who had been betrothed to the chief Kinana, who was slain when Mohammed’s raiders attacked the Khaibar Jews in their settlement six days journey northeast of Yathrib.

Among the people in Medina, there was a small community of Jews, a three-clan confederation who had resided in this area from before recorded history. These Jews agreed to protect Yathrib alongside Mohammed were the Meccans to attack. The agreement, called the Constitution of Medina, stated that “The Jews shall be responsible for their expenses and the Believers for theirs. Each, if attacked, shall come to the assistance of the other.” It also stated that “The Jews shall maintain their own religion and the Muslims theirs.” The nature of this treaty is the subject of dispute among historians. Many maintain that it is a cobbling together of oral and written agreements, and likely reflects different periods.[2]

The Banu Kainuka (بنو قينقاع‎) was one of the Jewish clans living in Medina. In 624, they threatened Mohammed's political authority by rejecting his claim to be The Prophet of Allah. Around this time, a Moslem girl visited a goldsmith shop owned by one of the Kainuka Jews. As she sat in the shop a mischievous Kainuka pinned her skirt behind her to her upper dress. When she arose she cried out in shame at her exposure. A Moslem then slew the offending Jew, whose brothers retaliated by killing the Moslem. For fifteen days, Mohammed blockaded the Kainuka Jews in their quarter until they surrendered. He then ordered them to leave Medina without their possessions.

These Jews were descendants of Kain or "Kenites" who had intermarried with their Arab brothers for many centuries. They numbered about 700, and their principal occupation was metal work. They resided in two fortresses in the south-western part of the city and they had Arabic names. Old Arabic, sometimes called "Dedanite" was in use in this region since the 8th century B.C.[3] 

Mohammed considered himself at war with the rulers of Mecca and felt justified in removing hostile elements living in Medina. He attacked the Banu-Nadhir Jews, charging them with helping his enemies and plotting against his life. After a three-week siege, these Jews were forced to leave Medina. This time, each family was allowed to take as much as a camel could carry.[4]

Mohammed appropriated their date orchards to support his household, and distributed other lands among his supporters.

Arab historians identify twenty Jewish clans living among the Arabs, including two priestly lines. These priestly lines are traced back to Abraham's Afro-Arabian ancestors. The priestly lines intermarried, with priests marrying the daughters of priests. This intermarriage began long before Jews can be identified as a separate group in about 580 BC. The ruling ancestors of Jews and Arabs intermarried so that the two groups are blood kin.


NOTES
 
1. Kain is associated with metal smiths and one of his descendents – Tubal-Kain – is said to be the “father” of smiths. Smiths held a high social status in the ancient world. Early in the Upper Nile, Badari smiths smelted copper. These are the same people who used ritual flint knives for circumcision, such at that used by Zipporah.

2. Ibn Ishak, an 8th century A.D.,  historian wrote a history for Muslims which includes genealogies representing the Islamic tradition. He appears to be the principal source of information about the Constitution of Medina.
 
3. The highest concentration of Old Arabic texts has been found in the region of Dedan. Genesis 10:7 tell us that Dedan the Elder was a grandson of the Kush by his son Raamah.
 
4. A large bull camel can carry up to 1323 pounds (600 kg) and smaller camels up to 882 pounds (400 kg). To read about Abraham's camels, go here.


Related reading: The Shock of Mohammed Atta's Afterlife; Some Jews and Some Arabs Have Horite Blood

The Jewish Myth of Racial Purity

Alice C. Linsley


Who are the Jews? By definition a Jew is someone whose mother is Jewish or someone who properly converts to the religion of Judaism. But who are the Jews racial? They are a mixed people like the Arabs. The Semitic word for Arab is ereb meaning "mixed peoples." By this definition, Jews are also ereb.

Genetic studies have revealed that many who self-identify as Jewish are actually descendants of non-Jewish mothers, perhaps 80 percent of Ashkenazi Jewry. (Jon Entine. "Ashkenazi Jewish Women Descended Mostly from Italian Converts, New Study Asserts.")

A distinction should be made between Arabs and Islamic non-Arabs. Not all people who speak Arabic are Arabs. Many are non-Semitic peoples who came to adhere to Islam about 200 years after the time off Jesus. 

Some Arabs and Jews are descendants of Abraham's ancestors with the mixture of other peoples, both Semitic and non-Semitic. The only people who might rightfully claim to be "pure blood" descendants of Abraham are those who stand in the royal priestly lines. These lines are found among both Jews and Arabs, as the Hebrew ruler-priests of Shem and Ham's lines intermarried.

J1 and T1 have a wide dispersion: Anatolia, Yemen, north-east Africa, Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, the Fertile Crescent, and the Caucasus. Where J1 and T1 are found in high frequency, mtDNA haplogroups HV, N1 and U3 are also present. ZS227, a subclade of J1, includes the Kohanim (priest) haplotype found among some Jews and some Arabs.

Abraham's people were a caste of ruler-priests, who were organized into to ritual groups (moieties): the Horite Hebrew and the Sethite Hebrew.  The Horite Hebrew were the more dominant group, and this may explain why Jews call their parents and ancestors Horim. 

The Horim included royal priest lines of Southern Arabia long before the time of Islam. However, after Islam, the Arab conquerors of Israel did not marry women from the local population. David Ben-Gurion and Yitzak Ben-Zvi wrote a book Eretz Israel in the Past and in the Present (1979) in which they noted this fact on page 196:

"The fellahin are not descendants of the Arab conquerors, who captured Eretz Israel and Syria in the seventh century CE. The Arab victors did not destroy the agricultural population they found in the country. They expelled only the alien Byzantine rulers, and did not touch the local population. Nor did the Arabs go in for settlement. Even in their former habitations, the Arabians did not engage in farming... They did not seek new lands on which to settle their peasantry, which hardly existed. Their whole interest in the new countries was political, religious, and material: to ruler, to propagate Islam and to collect taxes."

Some of the Egyptian heritage residents of Palestine were likely the descendants of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian handmaid. Some were likely the descendants of Abraham by his cousin-wife Keturah. Keturah bore Abraham six sons. These are related to the Joktanite tribes of southern Arabia. The Bible tells us that these people intermarried with the offspring of Abraham’s other sons, Ishmael and Isaac. One of Abraham's sons by Keturah was Yisbak and Yisbak's daughter married Isaac.  She was Isaac's first wife and a half-sister, just as Sarah was Abraham's first wife and his half-sister.

Arabic, like the languages of Hebrew and Aramaic, is classified in the Afro-Asiatic family. Old Arabian script appears as early as the eighth century BC, with regional dialects across the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant. The greatest concentration of Old Arabic texts are found at Dedan. According to Genesis 10:7 and Genesis 25:3, Dedan descended from Kush and from Abraham by Keturah. Dedan's father was Abraham's first-born son Joktan. Dedan's brother was Sheba the Younger. So the Old Arabic script called Dedanite is the language of Abraham's descendents and Dedan was their ancestral homeland. Dedan extended the length of the Red Sea to the northern boundary of Ophir. It corresponds to the territory of the ancient Horites, devotees of Horus who was called "Son of God."

Isaiah 21:13 alludes to the "caravans of Dedanites" in Arabia, and Ezekiel 27:20 speaks of Dedan as supplying Tyre with precious things.  Dedan is associated with Uz in the hill country of Edom. Uz was the homeland of Job. Uz was Nahor's son by Milcah (Gen. 22:20). This is Uz the Elder whose grandson was Uz the son of Dishan (I Chron. 1:42). Dishan was a son of Seir the Horite and the brother-in-law of Esau the Younger. Here is Seir's Horite family:

 

In other words, long before we can speak of Jews as a people (umah, le'om or am), Abraham’s people were Horite Habiru (or Hebrew Horim). The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who practiced endogamy. They were ethnically Nilotic, sometimes called Kushites. The early Hebrew priests were devotees of Ra, Horus (HR), and Hathor. Ra is derived from the ancient Egyptian word Re, meaning "father". Horus is the Greek for the ancient Egyptian HR, meaning "Most High One". Hathor is portrayed as the mother of HR who conceived by divine overshadowing (cf. Luke 1:35).

In ancient texts the ruler-priest caste is known by various related names: Opiru, Hapiru, and Habiru (Hebrew). The number seven was sacred to them because it referred to the seven heavenly bodies which were viewed as ruling the heavens. This is evident in the Luo (Nilo-Saharan) word for seven: abiriyo. The word abir is a cognate of habiru. The Y suffix is a solar symbol that indicated divine appointment, as in the names of these Habiru rulers: Yaktan (Joktan), Yishmael (Ishmael), Yitzak (Isaac), Yosef (Joseph), Yetro (Jethro), Yeshua (Jesus/Joshua), etc.

Within this caste of ruler-priests there were sub-castes dedicated to stone work and metal work. Tutu was a high ranked priest in the service of Akhenaten. Tutu's titles included:

Overseer of all the craftsmen of the Lord of the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Nile)
Overseer of all the works of His Majesty
Overseer of silver and gold
Chief spokesman of the entire land

The king of Tyre was allied by kinship with David and sent skilled artisans to help David build a palace in Jerusalem. Hiram is also known as "Huram" and "Horam", which are versions of the shorter names Hur or Hor. According to Midrashic tradition, Hur was Moses’ brother-in-law, the husband of Miriam. Hur’s grandson was one of the builders of the Tabernacle. I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur as the "father of Bethlehem", that is the patriarch of the place known as the "city of David". In other words, the king of Tyre and David were related. Their common ancestors were Horites, and as the Genesis genealogies indicate, the Horite lineage can be traced back to Eden.

The Horites believed that the Son of God would be born of their blood. They expected Him to come to visit them. This was fulfilled when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, visited Tyre (Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7: 24). Here the Markan mystery is revealed, for we are told that in Tyre Jesus "could not pass unrecognized."

The king of Tyre was allied by kinship with David and sent skilled artisans to help David build a palace in Jerusalem. Hiram is also known as "Huram" and "Horam", which are versions of the shorter names Hur or Hor. According to Midrash, Hur was Moses’ brother-in-law, the husband of Miriam. Hur’s grandson was one of the builders of the Tabernacle. I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur as the "father of Bethlehem", that is the patriarch of the place known as the "city of David". In other words, the king of Tyre and David were related. Their common ancestors were Horites, and as the Genesis genealogies indicate, the Horite lineage can be traced back to Eden, a vast well-watered world of the late Holocene.


Related reading:  Religion of the Archaic Rulers; Some Jews and Some Arabs Have Horite Ancestry; Abraham was a Descendant of Both Ham and Shem; Who Were the Horites?; Jesus' Kushite Ancestors; Nicholas Wade. "Genes Suggest European Women at Root of Ashkenazi Family Tree." The New York Times (October 9, 2013); Ha'biru, Ha'piru, 'Abiru or Hebrew?; Y Chromosome Profile of 64% of European Men