The Binary Distinctions of the Horite Hebrew

Alice C. Linsley


Binary Distinctions Reflects Horite Hebrew Values


Archaic Nilotic peoples were attuned to the patterns observed in nature and aligned their thinking with those patterns. This is evident in the orientations of their tombs and in the astronomical alignments of their monuments. It is also evident in their binary theological perspective which frames the Biblical worldview.

The binary sets are expressed in the distinctions and separations within "kinds" or essences. The waters (firmament) above are separated from the waters below. Male and female are of the same kind yet distinct. Other binary sets include heaven-earth; God-mankind; day-night, sun-moon, and life-death. One of the entities in the binary set is superior to the other in strength, brilliance, glory, or purpose and its lesser is a reflection of the greater. So humans reflect the image of the Creator, the moon reflects the light of the sun, and Adam recognizes the woman as distinct from him but of his essence, i.e.,  "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh..." (Genesis 2:23)

The superiority of one of the entities of the binary set kept the Horites from slipping into the dualism that characterizes other world religions.

Observed natural entities were associated with gender, numbers and symbols. The sun, for example, was associated with a male ruler over the universe and represented the masculine principle of rule and insemination. It was the emblem of Re, the father of Horus. Hathor, Horus’ virgin mother, was believed to conceive the son of God by the overshadowing of Re. Because of this association of the sun with maleness, the ancient Egyptian rulers exposed themselves to the sun’s rays to turn their skin reddish brown (edom, odam, adam). Their royal wives, on the other hand, were covered with chalk to make them white like the moon.

In the Song of Songs the sister bride praises her beloved whose skin is dark as the tents of Kedar because he, like David, was made to work in the sun by his brothers. The tents of Kedar were woven with the black wool from the Nubian desert goats. His dark skin is associated with the masculine virtues of the sun. The sister bride was "made white" through the application of a white chaulky powder. Her pale skin is associated with the feminine virtues of the moon.

The moon was associated with femaleness or the feminine principle. This intuitive association extends to semen and milk. The sun inseminates the earth and the moon stimulates female reproduction and lactation. Because the moon affects water, tides, and body fluids in a repeating cycle there is a natural association of the moon with the periodicity of the menstrual cycle. Many ancient peoples associated pregnancy with the moon and in France menstruation is called “le moment de la lune.”

In a dualistic view, the sun and the moon are equals so both are worthy of veneration. In a binary view, one of the entities of the binary set is always superior and to venerate the lesser entity is a form of idol worship. This is what stands behind the Joshua 24 criticism of Terah. (Note this is not a criticism of Abraham.) There is no other verse in the Bible to support the view that Terah, a Horite, worshiped the moon god contrary to the practice of his ancestors who regarded the sun as the emblem of the Creator. Abraham's Horite ancestors did not worship Napir/Sin as was done in Ur and Haran and later in Mecca. The Horite ruler-priests were devotees of Horus who was called "son of God," and his emblem was the sun. The ossuaries of the Horite members of the Sanhedrin during the Second Temple bore the 6-prong solar symbol image.

Ossuary of Miriam, the daughter of Y'shua

Genesis 1:16 expresses the binary view in these words: "God made the two great lights; the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night." Sometimes the binary distinction is rather subtle and easy to miss. Consider, for example, the binary set of hot and cool encounters with God. Abraham was visited “in the heat of the day” by God in three Persons (Gen. 18:1). The binary opposite is “in the cool of the day”, the time of God’s visitation to Adam and Eve in Paradise (Gen. 3:8). We have encounters with God described as hot and cool. We must always pay attention to such distinctions. In the first God has come to punish Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the second God has come to enjoy fellowship with the Man and the Woman.

Binary logic is based on empirical observation. The Sun's light is greater than the refulgent light of the Moon. Males are larger and stronger than females. Life is stronger than death. Life involves vitality. The dead are simply dead.

Another example on binary thinking is found in the male-female couplets involving trees. The prophetess Deborah sat under her tamar tree (Judges 4:4-6). A tamar is a date nut palm and was associated with the female principle. The prophet or "moreh" consulted by Abraham sat under an oak (Genesis 12). This tree was associated with the masculine principle.

The male principle involves insemination, protection of the weaker, expansion and uprightness. It is symbolized in the ancient world by meteorites and iron seeds covering the surface of the earth, by the Sun's rays shining down, the lengthening of shadows, and the strength of mountains and pillars. The female principle involves receptivity, birthing, nurturing, fluidity and softness.

Binary Distinctions and Blood

Blood was also viewed according to a binary pattern. A distinction was made between the blood work of men in killing and the blood work of women in birthing. The two bloods represent the binary opposites of life and death. The blood shed in war, hunting and animal sacrifice fell to warriors, hunters and priests. The blood shed in first intercourse, the monthly cycle and in childbirth fell to wives and midwives. The two bloods were never to mix or even to be present in the same space. Women did not participate in war, the hunt, and in ritual sacrifices, and they were isolated during menses. Likewise, men were not present at the circumcision of females or in the birthing hut.

The mixing of life-giving substances with the blood shed in killing was absolutely forbidden among the Afro-Asiatics. This is why the Israelites were commanded never to boil a young goat it its mother’s milk. It also places into context the Judeo-Christian teaching against abortion, which mixes birth blood with killing blood, thus perverting the binary distinction between male and female to a point of desecration. It is also significant that among tribal peoples, brotherhood pacts are formed by the intentional mixing of bloods between two men, but never between male and female. The binary distinctions of male and female are maintained as part of the sacred tradition.

Early man had an intuitive anxiety about blood. We see this in the belief that the blood of Abel cries to God from the ground (Gen. 4:10). Anxiety about the shedding of blood is universal and very old. The sacrificing priesthood likely came into existence the first day that blood was shed and the individual and the community sought relief of blood anxiety and guilt.

As a point of fact, the first blood shed in the Bible was shed by Eve when she gave birth. This is significant because it places life-giving blood ahead of the blood shed when Cain killed Abel.

The second shedding of blood was when God made clothes of animal skins for Adam and Eve. Here we see the first sacrifice of animals for the benefit of humans. This places God at the center between the life-giving blood and the blood shed by Cain when he killed his brother. Between the two bloods (birthing and murder) God sacrifices an animal to provide for the needs of humanity. In this sense, God is the first Priest and that first animal is a symbol of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

According to the cosmology of Abraham’s people what is at the sacred center is of God. The image of blood at the center speaks of the blood of the Incarnate God. We glimpse this mystery of the sacrifice on the mountain where God has Abraham cut into half a 3-year old ram, a three-year old heifer and a three-year old she-goat (Gen. 15:9-21). This story and the story of the Three-Person God apparing to Abraham at Mamre (Gen. 18) are very old. The symbolism of the number 3 suggests the Egyptian/Kushite divine Triad.

When the sun set and it was dark a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the animal pieces. On that day God promised Abraham that "this country" would be given his descendants. Here the descendants are not specified as Jews. As Abraham was a Horite and so were his sons and daughters, he would have understood this to mean that "this land" was to be a Horite possession.

God moved as a fire between the sacrificed animals that Abraham had cut into halves. God trailed across a bloody strip of earth, like a scarlet thread. God passed through it to confirm an unconditional covenant with Abraham concerning the land for his descendants.

The scarlet thread that hung from Rahab’s window brought salvation to her and to her household. The scarlet smudge over the doors in Egypt brought deliverance from the death of the firstborn. These images of blood speak of God’s prevenient grace whereby blessing precedes every human act, thought or intention.


Related reading:  Rethinking "Biblical Equality"; The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; Levi-Strauss and Derrida on Binary Oppositions; God as Male Priest; Blood and Binary Distinctions; Afro-Asiatic vs Aryan Religion: The Horse as Example; The Scarlet Cord Woven Through the Bible; The Story of Ontology

Life is in the Blood

Alice C. Linsley

One of the fascinating discoveries of cultural anthropologists involves the extremely ancient and universal practice of burying people (especially rulers) in red ochre dust, a symbol of blood. Red ochre or hematite (from the Greek word for blood, haema ) is found naturally around the globe. When hematite powder is mixed with water is looks just like blood.

The oldest site of red ochre mining is in the Lebombo Mountains of southern Africa. Here H.B.S. Cooke’s team discovered the oldest known human burial, between 70,000 and 80,000 years old. The grave is that of a small boy, buried with a seashell pendant and covered in red ochre. This is also the location of the oldest known mining operations in which thousands of mining tools have been found in excavated tunnels. Here hematite was mined 80,000 years ago.

These same archaeologists report the finding of the 35,000 year old Lebombo bone at Border Cave in Natal. The Lebombo bone, carved from a baboon femur, is the oldest mathematical tool found to date and appears to be a moon phase counter. It counts up to 6 phases, which suggests that it represents a binary calendar of 2 sets of 6 moon phases. One set is likely associated with the Feminine Principle and the seasons in which plants and animals reproduce. The other set is likely associated with the Masculine Principle and the seasons in which plants and animals are harvested and hunted. The Lebombo bone was the invention of the people who mined red ochre and used it to bury their people in the hope of life after death.

The use of red ochre in burial was widespread in prehistoric times. A man buried 45,000 years ago at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in southern France, was packed in red ochre. “The Red Lady" of Paviland in Wales was buried in red ochre about 29,000 years ago. The “lady” was actually a man whose skeletal remains and burial artifacts are encrusted with the red ore.

The ‘Fox Lady’ of Doini Vestonice, Czechoslovakia, who was buried 23,000 years ago, was also covered in red ochre. There is also the 20,000 year old burial site in Bavaria of a thirty-year-old man entirely surrounded by a pile of mammoth tusks and nearly submerged in red ochre. Natives peoples of the Americas also used red ochre to bury their dead.

Red ochre has been found adhering to bones or as scattered layers covering skeletons at Körtik Tepe, ’Ain Ghazal, and Jericho. There is evidence of widespread use of ochre in burials throughout the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period in Anatolia and the Levant. At Göbekli Tepe, ochre traces were detected on fragments of skull 1. The placement of this most complete skull, found in a concentration of ochre, indicates the special significance of this object, likely associated with the veneration of an important ancestor.
P.L. Kirk reports that prehistoric Australian aboriginal burials reveal pink staining of the soil around the skeleton, indicating that red ochre had been sprinkled over the body. The remains of an adult male found at Lake Mungo in southeastern Australia were copiously sprinkled with red ochre.


Blood Speaks

In the ancient world, blood was suspected of having supernatural powers.  The blood of sacrificed animals could pay for certain human crimes, but for other crimes only the blood of the offending party would suffice.  The blood of humans was more powerful than the blood of animals because it was perceived to come from the Creator directly through the mother. For example, the Ashanti of Ghana believe that an individual's blood is derived from the earth and passed through that individual's mother.  In this scheme, human blood has the power to speak to its Source or Origin, blood speaking to blood. This notion is reflected in the story of Cain and Abel.

When Cain kills his brother and God asks him about it, Cain replies with a question that poses a theme of the entire Bible. Cain asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer is not obvious, though it is natural that brothers should care for one another. However, there is much more to this story. The blood of the murdered brother cries to God from the ground where it spilled (Gen. 4:10). The blood of the murdered has a voice! There is life in the blood of the innocent one. Abel is the archetype of the Son of God who was killed by his own brethren.

There is still more to the story. Cain was the first-born son. He killed his younger brother, the very person he should have tried to protect. In this, Cain’s jealousy of his younger brother overturns his natural affection. Likewise, the jealousy of Joseph’s older brothers overturned their affection and they sold him into slavery. Neither was David, the youngest of the 12 sons of Jesse, treated well by his brothers. They left him to tend the flock while they returned home to feast with the Prophet Samuel. We have an allusion to this in the Song of Songs (1:5,6), which says that beloved’s skin is as dark "as the tents of Kedar" because he was made to work in the sun by his older brothers.

Moses had two older brothers: Aaron and Korah. Aaron created the Golden Calf, a representation of Horus, the divine "son" of the Creator. The golden image he formed incorporated the sun and would have been a representation of the divine overshadowing or appointment of the Calf of God, Horus. Below is picture of what it would have looked like.

The calf is suggestive of Horus as a child. Horus' anthropomorphic form is either as a adult male or more usually as a boy wearing the sidelock typical of royal Egyptian youth. Horus as a boy is often shown on cippi dominating crocodiles and serpents. Consider this in light of the Woman, the Child, and the Dragon in Revelation 12. Consider also the red heifer of Numbers 19 that stands as a perpetual symbol of Israel's need for cleansing. The cow is sacrificed and burned outside the camp and the ashes used for "water of lustration." (Num. 19:9)

The creation of the Golden Calf was criticized by the Deuteronomist, but the image was not a new one to the Horites whose ancestors were cattle-herding Nilo-Saharans.  Korah, Moses’ other brother, challenged Moses’ authority in the wilderness. According to the Horite pattern of ascendancy, Korah, as a first born son of Amram by his cousin wife, had higher authority than Moses. However, Moses was the sent-away son to whom God would deliver authority to rule. Korah died when the earth opened and devoured him (Numbers 26:10).

The theme of the beloved younger brother being abused by his older brothers runs through the entire Bible and speaks of the only begotten Son of God. His Blood gives life to the world and His blood makes it possible for our hearts to speak to Him. This sheds light on these words of Jesus:

"Truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him." (John 6:53-56)

Related reading: Blood and Binary Distinctions; Mining Blood; Blood and Crosses; Graven Images and Idols; Water and Blood

Blood and Crosses

Alice C. Linsley


The association of blood and crosses can be traced to prehistoric times. The first man was formed from the red earth (Gen. 3). This is the etiology of the word Adam, or ha-dam, meaning the blood. The Hebrew word for red/ruddy is edom. The word edom and the Hausa odum and the Hebrew adam originally referenced the red clay that washed down from the Ethiopian highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic cambisols have a strong red brown color.

Red and black Nubians
Detail from a Champollion drawing

The blood-colored substance that is found naturally around the globe is red ochre or hematite (from the Greek word for blood, haema). When hematite powder is mixed with water is looks like blood.

The oldest site of red ochre mining is in the Lebombo Mountains of southern Africa. This ore was ground to powder and used to paint sacred objects and to bury the dead. The red ochre represented blood and the power of blood as a symbol of life. It implies an impulse to immortality among archaic populations of Africa.

In the cosmology of the Nubian's southern ancestors blood was associated with crosses. This is evidenced on the Blombos Cave artifact found in southern Africa. It is a red stone etched with X around the edges (see right).

This is the oldest known symbolic artifact and the plaque was likely taken from mines that were in operation about 80,000 years ago in the Lebombo Mountains. This was the site of major mining operations, as Stan Gooch explains:

One of the largest sites evidenced the removal of a million kilos of ore. At another site half a million stone-digging tools were found, all showing considerable wear. All of the sites in fact produced thousands of tools and involved the removal of large quantities of ore; and while some were open quarries, others had true mining tunnels.

In Israel red ochre burial has been found at the Qafzeh Cave dating to 90,000-100,000 years.

In the Lebombo Mountains H.B.S. Cooke and his associates discovered a human burial dating between 46,000 and 80,000 years old. The burial is that of a small boy buried with a seashell pendant and covered in red ochre.

The use of red ochre in burial was widespread in prehistoric times. A man buried 45,000 years ago at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in southern France, was packed in red ochre. “The Red Lady of Paviland” in Wales was buried in red ochre about 20,000 years ago. Her skeletal remains and burial artifacts are encrusted with the red ore.

Two flexed burials were found in Mehrgarh, Pakistan with a covering of red ochre on the bodies. These date from about 5000 BC. The ‘Fox Lady’ of Doini Vestonice, Czechoslovakia, who was buried 23,000 years ago, was covered in red ochre.

A 20,000 year old burial site in Bavaria reveals a thirty-year-old man entirely surrounded by a pile of mammoth tusks and submerged in red ochre powder.

The idea that blood is the substance of life seems obvious to us moderns who have learned some human anatomy and physiology. What is less obvious is the basis of blood for rebirth or life after death, a concept assigned to the realm of theology and therefore dismissed by most people.

From earliest times man observed that death occurred when an animal or human bled out. Blood was recognized as the substance of life.

Among Abraham's ancestors the resurrection of the ruler meant the salvation of the people. He was expected to lead them from life to the greater life, passing decisively through death. In pre-dynastic times and in the earliest dynasties people were believed to follow their deified ruler from this world to the next. Their immortality depended on the bodily resurrection of their king.

Proto-Saharan nobles were buried with red ochre at Nekhen in Sudan (3500 BC). Nekhen was a Horite shrine city dedicated to Horus whose totem was the falcon or hawk. Early dynastic Egypt adopted the Horite religion and never practiced cremation, as in the religions that seek to escape physical existence (samsara). Abraham and his Horite ancestors believed in the resurrection of the body and awaited a deified king who would rise from the grave and deliver his people from death.

Abraham's ancestors

Cultural anthropology and genetic studies shed light on the etiology of the association of blood and rebirth or resurrection. The anthropological, linguistic and genetic evidence indicates that Abraham's ancestors were Proto-Saharan and Nilotic peoples, probably Nubians. The Nubians have their own genetic marker which indicates migration from the sub-Sahara to the Nile and there has been virtually no immigration into the lower Nubia area from Asia according to the Y chromosome study done by Lucotte.

Among the Nubians the sun was a central symbol of life and was often shown as a red orb. This lent the additional association with the red eye of Horus. In this ancient Nubian relief we see baboons facing the sun. Baboons chatter at the rising sun. (In other versions two lions or two leopards face away from the sun. They are sentinels or guards.) The ankh or cross symbol is found over the heads of the baboons.

Between the baboons is the dung beetle or scarab. Among Abraham's Horite caste the heart was the single organ that was not extracted from the mummified body. All the other organs were removed and stored in canopic jars. The heart was the essential organ when it came to resurrection of the body, as it would be weighed in the afterlife. The body of the pure-heart would rise from the dead, as the sun rises in the morning. This is the significance of the dung beetle scarab placed over the mummy's heart.

Some claim that this image represents Duat which they interpret as the cycle of reincarnation or the transmigration of souls. However, the Duat of ancient Egypt is not the same as Samsara. It is about the mirror image of the cosmos patterned on the Sun's rising and setting. The long expected ruler rises from death with the sun on the third day.

Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the imperishable stars. (Pyramid Texts Utterance 667.1941b)

The body of the dead ruler was carried in procession to the tomb or pyramid, his retinue following behind. The procession to the tomb was the earthly journey that would be continued beyond the grave at the deified ruler's resurrection. This stands behind Paul’s description of Jesus Christ leading captives from the grave to the throne of heaven. This is why it says: When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men. (Ephesians 4:8)

In the image above, the eyes of Horus are seen to the right and left of the rising sun. This establishes the theological context as Horite. Abraham's ancestors were devotees of Horus, the seed or son of Ra. He was born of Hathor-Meri, a virgin queen who conceived by the overshadowing of the sun. Her totem was a cow and she is shown at Nile shrines holding her infant in a manger. Here we have elements of the Proto-Gospel and evidence that Messianic expectation is based on the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15) made to Abraham's Proto-Saharan and Nilotic ancestors.


Related reading: Of Dung Beetles and Red Herrings; Three Specimens to Ponder, Water and Blood; Resurrection as Mirrored Reality; The Scarlet Cord Woven Through the Bible; The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; The Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; Sheol and the Second Death; Christianity Lacks Originality; Life is in the Blood

Jacob's Blood and Betrayal

Alice C. Linsley

The burial of Jacob, who is called "Israel," poses a fascinating suggestion of thematic bracketing in Genesis. This becomes evident as we explore the two different accounts of Jacob’s burial. One places his grave in the cave at Machpelah (Gen. 23) near Hebron, and the other places it at Goren-ha-Atad (“threshing-floor of the brambles) near Shechem (Gen. 50). Because Jacob was embalmed and buried according to Egyptian custom, the local inhabitants called the place where he was grieved and buried “Abel-mizraim,” meaning the meadow (or field) of the Egyptians.

Clearly two tribal areas are competing for the right to be known as Jacob’s final resting place. One is Hebron, in the kingdom of Judah, and the other is Shechem, in the kingdom of Israel. So we have evidence of competition between tribes. But is this the meaning intended by the author of Genesis? Are we to take away from this discrepancy simply an acknowledgement of competing tribal claims or is there a deeper story?

In Genesis, conflicts between tribes or clans are conflicts between brothers. We see this in the conflict between Abraham and Lot, his brother's son, between Ishmael and Isaac, and between Jacob and Esau. The archetypical conflict is between Cain and Abel, which results in bloodshed.

To discover the intent of the author, we must pay attention to the etymology of the word “abel,” which means field or meadow. We first encounter “abel” in Genesis 4 in the story of Cain and Abel. Cain killed his brother in a field or meadow. From that field Abel’s blood cries out to God (verse 10). Abel is betrayed by his brother and God sees the betrayal and imposes judgment on Cain. Divine judgment involves Cain's having to leave the very land that is marked by Abel's blood.

The fact that the author of Genesis mentions “abel” again at the very end of the Genesis narrative suggests thematic bracketing. Abel is betrayed by Cain; likewise Jacob or Israel is betrayed by Mizraim or Egypt. This implies that those who ruled Egypt were blood relatives to Jacob and his people. It also implies an expectation that God will vindicate Israel and impose judgment on Egypt. There is further evidence for this idea of thematic bracketing in the account of the Egyptians’ journey to Goren ha-Atad. The burial procession corresponds to the route of Israel’s exodus under Moses’ leadership.

Different Burial Practices
According to Genesis 50, Jacob was embalmed and the process took at least 40 days to complete. More typically the process took 70 days. Genesis says, “It required forty days, for such is the full period of embalming. The Egyptians bewailed him seventy days.”

The Egyptians practiced embalming for thousands of years, yet no Egyptian embalmer recorded the process. It remained a secret until the Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt around 450 B.C. Herodotus described the embalming process as follows:

As much of the brain as possible is extracted through the nostrils with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach is dissolved with drugs. Next the flank is slit open with a sharp Ethiopian stone and the entire contents of the abdomen removed. The cavity is then thoroughly cleansed and washed out, first with palm wine and again with a solution of pounded spices. Then it is filled with pure crushed myrrh, cassia, and all other aromatic substances, except frankincense.

The incision is sewn up and then the body is placed in natron, covered for 70 days, never longer. When this period, which may not be longer, is over, the body is washed and then wrapped from head to feet in linen which has been cut into strips and smeared on the underside with gum, which is commonly used by the Egyptians as glue. In this condition the body is returned to the family....

This elaborate embalming process does not represent the oldest burial practices of the Egyptians, however. Before 3400 BC, Egyptians were buried intact. Because of a lack of cultivatable land, the early Egyptians buried their dead in desert pit-graves where the heat and dryness of the sand produced natural mummification. This natural process produced remarkably well preserved bodies. Later tombs for nobility were brick lined burial chambers that didn’t provide the same conditions that led to natural mummification in the desert graves. To artificially preserve the bodies, embalming became the norm. The preserved bodies of men were often covered in red ochre and the bodies of women in yellow ochre.

The burial practices of Abraham’s people do not include embalming. Instead the body was to be buried in such a way that it would “return to the ground” from which God first formed humanity (Gen. 3:19). The blood of Abraham marked the ground where he was buried near Hebron, but since Jacob’s blood was removed as part of the embalming process in Egypt, his blood did not mark the ground near Shechem.

Returning to the first Abel’s blood (Gen. 4) we understand that his blood shed in the field marked that place. The absence of Jacob’s blood in Shechem suggests that Israel does not call out to God for vindication from Shechem, but from Egypt where Jacob’s blood would have been ritually disposed.

Red Ochre and Red Deer

Alice C. Linsley

The red deer that are native to western Europe and Africa were an important symbol among the prehistoric populations of England and Wales. Red deer (Cervus elaphus) are the largest native land animal found in the UK. The stags are larger than the hinds (females), and have wide branching antlers. The coat is reddish-brown in summer.

Recent research suggests that prehistoric peoples brought red deer to Scotland by boats, possibly from Gaul, Corsica, and Sardinia. DNA analysis revealed that deer on Scotland’s most northern islands is unlike the species of deer found on mainland Scotland, Norway, Britain, Ireland, the western European mainland or Scandinavia.

Red deer antlers were used in rituals and the red colored hides were used to bury the dead. The hides may have served a symbolic blood just as in other places nobles were buried covered in red ochre.

A New York Times article states:

New radiocarbon dates from human cremation burials among and around the brooding stones on Salisbury Plain in England indicate that the site was used as a cemetery from 3000 B.C. until after the monuments were erected around 2500 B.C., British archaeologists reported Thursday.

“It’s now clear that burials were a major component of Stonehenge in all its main stages,” said Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield in England.  (Read it all here.)

The number of cremated bones found at Stonehenge is not large, suggesting that this burial site may have been reserved for high-ranking persons. This made me think of the burial sites of noble persons who were covered in red ochre.

What I find most interesting about this report is the discovery of a red deer antler. Indeed this may be a clue to understanding Stonehedge.

The New York Times report goes on to say, “In other recent findings at Stonehenge and adjacent sites, archaeologists uncovered a piece of a red-deer antler that was apparently used as a pick for digging. It was found in what is known as the Stonehenge Greater Cursus, a cigar-shaped ditched enclosure nearly two miles long that is thought to have a sacred significance. Julian Thomas, an archaeologist at the University of Manchester, who led this investigation, said the antler was dated at 3630 to 3375 B.C. That puts the cursus about 1,000 years before the large stones were erected, meaning, he said, that “this landscape maintains its significance over a long period of time.”

The red deer antler may have been used as a digging tool, but more likely it is part of a ceremonial mask or head dress. British archeologists are aware that long before Stonehenge was erected, ancient inhabitants of the British Isles used such head dresses in religious ceremonies dating back to 9,500 BC. At Starr Carr, 21 such red deer skulls with antlers were discovered. All had holes that would have been used to tie them to the head with a leather thong for ceremonial use.

The Red Deer of Europe, western Asia and North Africa is a distinct species from the red elk of eastern Asia and North America. The discovery of red-deer antlers at the site suggests a connection to the older Mesolithic (9,500 year old) Star Carr community in North Yorkshire England. These red stag and hinds roamed from North Africa to Ireland. The red color symbolized revitalizing blood for many tribal peoples, especially in Haplogroup R1b. That would explain the presence of red deer antlers at Stonehenge. A parallel is the burial of rulers in red ochre dust.

"In European art, color is generally understood in terms of the primary colors red, yellow and blue," says Karen Milbourne, an expert in African art. "But throughout much of Africa, the primary colors are red, white and black. They don't mean the same thing to every group, but they appear over and over again."

According to Milbourne, the color white signifies the spirit world of the ancestors, procreative power, and the nurturing quality of mother's milk. Black connotes the unknown or the mysterious. Red signifies the blood shed in warfare, hunting, animal sacrifice and in childbirth. Among many ancient peoples, burying dead rulers in red ochre expressed the hope that they would have life beyond the grave where they would intercede for their people before the Creator. This practice has been observed in burial sites in Czechoslovakia, Wales, France, Syria, Turkey, and Australia.


Related reading:  Mining Blood; Life is in the Blood; The Scarlet Cord; The Pleromic Blood and Gnosticism; The Pleromic Blood and Gender Distinctions; What Constitutes Being?

The Scarlet Cord Woven Through the Bible

Alice C. Linsley


The Apostle Paul reminds the Hebrew Christians that they may enter with boldness into the Most Holy Place "by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is His body..." (Hebrew 10:19, 20)  In this we follow Christ, our great High Priest, who "did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood..." (Hebrew 9:12)

The Blood of Jesus Christ is the source and substance of the Christian's life. Scripture teaches that life is in the blood. For Christians this has radical and profound implications. When one is born, there is water and blood. When our Lord died, there was water and blood. In Baptism and Communion there is water and blood. We humans are attracted to the water, but wary of the blood.

For years I didn't grasp the distinct yet interwoven nature of Baptism and Communion. I think this is because I thought of Baptism apart from His blood, even though the Apostle Paul makes it clear that we are baptized into Christ's Sacrifice and raised to new life with Him. Does this mean that we are free of passions that drive a wedge into our fellowship with Him? Certainly not. That is why we also need the Priesthood, confession and spiritual disciplines such as prayer, fasting, alms-giving and Scripture study.

I have never spoken of the vision I had inside the little church of St. Paul in West Whiteland, Pennsylvania.  I saw an angel pouring His blood from a golden pitcher into the baptismal font. Over the years I have pondered this and delved more into the mystery of the blood of Jesus by which we sinners are forgiven and cleansed. I was an Episcopal priest at the time and I associated the blood of Christ with Holy Communion, but somehow I had neglected the significance of His blood in reference to Baptism. I knew that the Scriptures hold forth this truth: "Life in in the blood."  Hebrews explains that no cleansing comes by the blood of beasts, but only by the blood of Christ, the true Priest.

That set me thinking.  If Christ is the Mediator of a new Covenant in His blood and I enter that covenant by baptism, then my life depends entirely on His once and for all sacrifice. Somehow in that vision beyond the mundane, I sensed a timeless dimension to His Sacrifice and I began to ponder the pleromic nature of His blood. The Apostle Paul explains that Jesus Christ is the fullness (pleroma in Greek) of all things in heaven and on earth, both invisible and visible. The term “pleroma” was used among the Gnostics to describe the metaphysical unity of all things, but Paul uses the term to speak about how all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ in bodily form (Col. 2:9).


Pondering the Pleromic Blood

There is a significant difference between the Gnostic application of “pleroma” and Paul’s application. For the Gnostics, the pleroma is vague and undifferentiated, but for Paul the pleroma is the manifestation of the benefits of the “blood of Jesus.” Paul never allows the churches he planted to wander far from the blood of Jesus that brings forgiveness, cleansing and eternal life.

Paul articulated his understanding of the pleroma as early as his second missionary journey when he preached to the Athenians that, “in Him [Jesus Christ] we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) His thoughts developed further as he continued to reflect on the Hebrew Scriptures, and as he prayed, fasted, and received greater illumination. We find the fullest expression of the pleroma in his latter writings, especially in Romans and in Ephesians.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. (Ephesians 1:7-10)

While not yet fully developed in the Church, the Trinity underlies Paul’s understanding of the pleroma. He speaks of the distinct Persons of the Trinity and of the oneness of the Body of Christ in the language of Shema: “There is one Body, one Spirit, ...one hope ...one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, and one God and father of all, over all, through all and within all” (Eph. 4:4-5).

These words follow Paul’s explanation of the saving work of Jesus Christ. He explained to the Ephesians:

But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ. For He is peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in His own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single man in Himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace through the Cross, to unite them both in a single body and reconcile them with God. In His own person He killed the hostility… Through Him, both of us have in one Spirit our way to come to the Father. (Eph. 2:13-14)

Paul moves the Christian faith toward a Trinitarian comprehensiveness that forever distinguishes it from polytheistic dynamism (Hinduism), henotheistic animism (tribal religions) and the mushiness of post-Christian theologians.


All Things through Him and in Him

Since God is not bound by the constraints of time and space, perhaps the blood of the Son of God is that substance by which the world was made. The Creed and the Apostle John affirm that "through Him all things were made."  All things were made by Him before the Incarnation and now all things are gathered in Him, the Incarnate One.

If life is in the blood and only His blood gives life, we might trace the scarlet cord from before time, were that possible. Then we pick it up in Genesis. The promise that the woman's Seed shall overcome death and restore Paradise came to be fulfilled through Jesus' sacrifice and His resurrection. Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 when he told his disciples about his death.  He said that unless a seed fall into the ground and dies it cannot give life. (John 12:24)

In tracing the scarlet thread, we discover the "deeper magic" (to use C.S. Lewis' words from The Magician Nephew). The sacrifice of God's Lamb is alluded to in many biblical images and the scarlet cord image weaves throughout the Bible.

We continue to trace the scarlet cord where we read of the birth of twin boys to Tamar (Gen. 38:28-20). The story is told that when it came time for Tamar to give birth, Zerah stuck out his hand and the midwife tied a scarlet cord around the infant's hand. As soon as she had done this, the baby withdrew his hand and his brother Perez was born first. St Jerome wrote, "What is one to say of Tamar, who brought to birth the twins Zerah and Perez? Their separation at the moment of birth was like a wall that divides two peoples, and the hand tied with the scarlet ribbon already then speckled the conscience of the Jews with the passion of Christ." (Letter 123.12)

Perez is the younger son, but he is remembered in Ruth as one of David's honored ancestors. We remember that David too was the youngest of many sons, yet chosen to rule in Israel. And from Perez and David would come the Promised Messiah.

What is the significance of this story? It speaks of the redemption of the one who is not chosen to rule. It speaks of God's grace shown to the other, just as God promised Abraham that He would bless Ishmael and Abraham's sons by Keturah. The chosen one, Isaac, is not the only one blessed. The chosen people of Israel are not the only people blessed. The Blood which gives life, symbolized by the scarlet cord, is for all people. And that we be looking in the right direction, the scarlet cord leads from Tamar to David and from David to Messiah.

The scarlet cord is found in Leviticus. Here it is used in a priestly ritual to cleanse lepers and to retore them to the community (Lev. 14:4-6; 49-52). This too points us to the Blood of Jesus, for we who were afar and rotting in our sins, have been cleansed by His Blood and brought home.

The cord is found in Egypt on the doorposts of the Hebrews preparing to depart. This is the first Passover.

The cord appears again at Rahab's house in Jericho.  This forebearer of David and of Jesus tied a scarlet cord outside her window so that she and all her family would be saved from destruction. This is a second Passover and it too speaks of the salvation for those who are obedient to God's call.

St. Ambrose wrote concerning Rahab that she "uplifted a sign of her faith and the banner of the Lord's Passion; so that the likeness of the mystic blood, which should redeem the world, might be in memory. So, outside, the name of Joshua [Jesus] was a sign of victory to those who fought; and inside, the likeness of the Lord's passion was a sign of salvation to those in danger." (On the Christian Faith, Book V, no. 127)

And finally, the cord is traced to a temporal end and perfection in Hebrews 9:11-26, which tells us:

(11-14) But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

(15-22) And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you." Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

(23-26) Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another - He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Christ suffered the sacrifice of Himself only once.  Its "innumerable benefits" are such that Thomas Cranmer wrote in the first Exhortation before Communion, "And above all things ye must give most humble and hearty thanks to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ, both God and man; who did humble himself, even to death upon the Cross, for us, miserable sinners, who lay in darkness and the shadow of death; that he might make us the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting life."

What is our response to such great love shown to us while we were yet sinners? Cranmer continues, "And to the end that we should always remember the exceeding great love of our Master, and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us, and the innumerable benefits which by his precious blood-shedding he hath obtained for us; he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death, to our great and endless comfort. To him therefore, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, let us give, as we are most bounden, continual thanks; submitting ourselves wholly to his will and pleasure, and studying to serve him in true holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. Amen. ((First Exhortation before Communion, Book of Common Prayer, 1928)



Related reading:  Two Passovers and Two Drunken Fathers; The Messianic Priesthood of Jesus; The Pleromic Blood and Gnosticism; The Pleromic Blood and Gender Distinctions; Life is in the Blood; Blood and Crosses

Jesus' Blood is Restorative

Alice C. Linsley

Paul’s authority in the Church is undisputed. However, he is hated by some because of his uncompromising defense of the Gospel. The Church has the Apostle Paul (and four Evangelists) to thank for its confessional of redemption by the Blood of Jesus. His confessional approach has rivals in modernist theology.

What is meant by Paul’s “confessional hermeneutic?” It is based on a conviction that spiritual authority rests not with human institutions and hierarchies, nor with works of piety, but with the Incarnate Word whose blood was shed for the life of the world.

Clearly, the Reformation came out of a cultural context very different than that of Paul in the first century. However, Martin Luther’s argument with Rome does touch on a Pauline understanding of the Blood of Jesus. The Pope cannot remit guilt. To claim that is to claim saving power equal with the Blood of Jesus. Luther disputed this in the first eight of his theses. 

Disputation On The Power And Efficacy Of Indulgences Commonly Known As The 95 Theses

“Out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it, the following heads will be the subject of a public discussion at Wittenberg under the presidency of the reverend father, Martin Luther, Augustinian, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and duly appointed Lecturer on these subjects in that place. He requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing.

1. When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of penitence.

2. The word cannot be properly understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, i.e. confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy. 

3. Yet its meaning is not restricted to penitence in one's heart; for such penitence is null unless it produces outward signs in various mortifications of the flesh. 

4. As long as hatred of self abides (i.e. true inward penitence) the penalty of sin abides, viz., until we enter the kingdom of heaven. 

5. The Pope has neither the will nor the power to remit any penalties beyond those imposed either at his own discretion or by canon law. 

6. The Pope himself cannot remit guilt, but only declare and confirm that it has been remitted by God; or, at most, he can remit it in cases reserved to his discretion. Except for these cases, the guilt remains untouched.

7. God never remits guilt to anyone without, at the same time, making humbly submissive to the priest, His representative.

8. The penitential canons apply only to men who are still alive, and, according to the canons themselves, none applies to the dead.” 

It is not a coincidence that Martin Luther came to these conclusions by reading Paul’s Epistles. Paul’s confessional hermeneutic is centered on the Blood of Jesus. He never allows philosophical speculation to lead the Gospel away from the comprehensive reality of the Blood of Jesus. All the things of God are realized in His Blood. All suffering, which many religions attempt to explain apart from Christ, or to avoid through asceticism and enlightenment, are made meaningful by His Blood. All worldly striving is shown to be futile by His Blood. In historic Lutheran theology, this focus on the Lamb's sacrifice is called “the centrality of the Cross.” 

The greatest strength of Lutheran theology has been the insistence on the centrality of the Cross. The deficiency is that the Cross is too often seen as bloodless, which is to miss the point. Jesus’ death could have taken place in many ways. He could have been beheaded or driven through with a spear. He died on a cross in fulfillment of the prophecies that he would be hanged on a tree. Jesus’ Cross is the new Tree of Life, from which we were driven by our sin in the beginning. The shed Blood of Jesus must be regarded as “restorative”. By His Blood we are restored to Paradise and the divine image is renewed. 

In a very real sense, the waters of baptism are Jesus’ Blood making us clean and restoring the divine image. I first perceived this in a vision that I had in 1990 while sitting in St.Paul Episcopal Church, West Whiteland, Pennsylvania. I was alone in the church and suddenly everything around me disappeared except for the stone baptismal font which had replaced the altar, front, center and elevated. An angel appeared above the font, and from a golden pitcher poured blood into the font. I knew that it was the Blood of Jesus and I slipped to my knees, overwhelmed by His holiness. 

Remembering that the Apostle Paul was thoroughly steeped in the Hebrew worldview, we must look there for an explanation as to how blood can be both contaminating and purifying. Linguists are able to trace the linguistic connections between many languages in the Afro-Asiatic family. Here is a significant finding: The Hebrew root "thr" = to be pure, corresponds to the Hausa/Hahm "toro" = clean, and to the Tamil "tiru" = holy. All are related to the proto-Dravidian and ancient Egyptian "tor" = blood. Among the Horite Hebrew (Abraham's ruler-priest caste) all blood that was shed was to be accounted for as it was believed to have power. There were rituals appropriate to all blood that was shed; for women after childbirth and for hunters after the kill. For warriors the ceremony was to relieve blood guilt, something that conributes to post-traumatic stress disorder. In Genesis 14, Melchizedek ministered to Abraham after combat and the ceremony involved bread and wine.

The Apostle Paul refers to the power of Jesus' shed blood no less than twelve times in his writings. Because God makes peace with us through the Blood of the Cross, he urges “Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together” (Eph. 4:3). Paul's confession of the saving Blood of Jesus informs his understanding of Baptism and the Body of Christ. He continues: “There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God. There is one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and within all” (Eph. 4:4-5).

The blood of the saints is precious to God because it is the Blood of His eternal Son, by which we are restored to union with God and therefore made one body in Him. Writing to the Ephesians, Paul says: "But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ. For He is peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in His own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single man in Himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace through the Cross, to unite them both in a single body and reconcile them with God. In His own person He killed the hostility... Through Him, both of us have in one Spirit our way to come to the Father" (Eph. 2:13-14).

Related reading: Jesus' Blood Cleanses; St. Paul's Application of Greek Philosophy; Water and Blood; Blood and Binary Distinctions; On Blood and the Impulse to Immortality

Mining Blood?

Alice C. Linsley


The Lebombo Mountains in Southern Mozambique, Swaziland and Eastern South Africa have proved to be archaeologically rich. The Swaziland side is mostly volcanic rock. In this region there are mines which appear to have been in operation between 40,000 to 80,000 years ago. These were not small hallows in the earth, but major mining operations.

“One of the largest sites evidenced the removal of a million kilos of ore. At another site half a million stone-digging tools were found, all showing considerable wear. All of the sites in fact produced thousands of tools and involved the removal of large quantities of ore; and while some were open quarries, others had true mining tunnels.” (From here.)

At Lion Cavern it is estimated that at least 1 200 tons of soft haematite ore had been removed in archaic times.

What ore was so important that it would be mined on such a scale and be used almost universally in Paleolithic burial sites? They were mining red ochre, an ancient and universal symbol of blood, the liquid of life. Stan Gooch explains:

Everyone, both heretic and orthodox, and including the present-day users of ochre themselves, agree that it represents blood. A very common interpretation, and one that we can readily accept here, is that just as a new baby comes into the world covered with blood, so the corpse must also be covered with blood to facilitate, or perhaps cause, the re-birth of the deceased in the spirit world beyond. Birth blood is therefore one very probable meaning.

A further significance (borne out also by much other evidence) is given by the Unthippa aboriginal women. They say that their own female ancestors once caused large quantities of blood to flow from their vulvas, which then formed the deposits of red ochre found throughout the world. So we can say that red ochre also represents menstrual blood: in both cases therefore female blood connected with the birth process. (We shall later be able to be even more precise and say that ochre is the menstrual blood of the Moon Mother; or more properly, the placental blood which covered the Earth when She gave birth to it.) (http://www.aulis.com/twothirds8.htm)

The Lebombo Mountains in Swaziland is the region where these mines have been found. This is also where H.B.S. Cooke and his associates report the discovery of the oldest known human burial, perhaps between 46,000 and 80,000 years old. The site is that of a small boy, buried with a seashell pendant and covered in red ochre. These same archaeologists report the finding of the Lebombo bone, at least 35,000 years old, at Border Cave in Natal. The Lebombo bone is the oldest mathematical tool found to date and appears to be a moon phase counter. It counts up to 6 phases, which suggests that it represents a binary calendar. This bone is associated with the people who were mining red ochre.


Red ochre burial

The earliest known use of red ochre powder (300,000 years) is at the site GnJh-03 in the Kapthurin Formation of East Africa, and at Twin Rivers in Zambia.

The use of red ochre in burial was widespread in prehistoric times. A man buried 45,000 years ago at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in southern France, was packed in red ochre. “The Red Lady of Paviland” in Wales was buried in red ochre about 20,000 years ago. Her skeletal remains and burial artifacts are encrusted with the red ore.

Australian burial sites dating to about 20,000 years reveal pink staining of the soil around the skeleton, indicating that red ochre had been sprinkled over the body. The remains of an adult male found at Lake Mungo in southeastern Australia were copiously sprinkled with red ochre.

The ‘Fox Lady’ of Doini Vestonice, Czechoslovakia (near Russia) who was burial 23,000 years ago, was also covered in red ochre.

A 20,000 year old burial site in Bavaria reveals a thirty-year-old man entirely surrounded by a pile of mammoth tusks and nearly submerged in a mass of red ochre.

In the La Braña-Arintero cave in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain, 7000 year old skeletons were discovered in 2006. The bodies were covered with red ochre.

Two flexed burials were found in Mehrgarh, Pakistan with a covering of red ochre on the bodies. These date from about 5000 BC.

Native Americans used red ochre for ceremonies and burial.

John Greenway tells this story concerning the influence of red ochre among Australian Aborigines today:

The most terrifying physical inquisitors in aboriginal Australia are the little known Red Ochre Men… It is astonishing how little is known by outsiders of the Red Ochre Men. Many whites who have learned about everything else of aboriginal life have not even heard of them, so well enforced is the omerta among even those of the aborigines who wish the whole organisation ended… The cult is nearly universal in aboriginal Australia… In the deserts the Red Ochre cult moves right across the land in the course of a year, carrying its own ceremonies and myths, touching all tribes in its path, and working as a kind of ecclesiastical circuit court embodying all processes of the religious judiciary.

The function of the court is to punish law-breakers — not so much the perpetrators of everyday misdemeanours like spear fights and wife-beating, but those felons who blaspheme the laws incorporated in the myths. If, for example, the young man on trial in Meekatharra had really shown the tjurunga [the law sticks] to women, his only chance to escape the Red Ochre Men would have been to flee from his tribal jurisdiction and live in a city or large well-policed town among other fugitives from their honour and their heritage.

The Red Ochre men are Aboriginal priests in that they alone are responsible for blood sacrifice to re-establish community/communion. The shedding of blood is done according to the sacred laws and offered with prayer and priestly ritual. Here again we find evidence that the priest resolves issues of blood guilt and anxiety surrounding the shedding of blood through killing or menstruation or the birth process.

Among every "primitive" society studied by anthropologists a preoccupation with blood has been noted. A principle of anthropology that applies here is: The wider the distribution of a trait, the older it is. Since the use of red ochre as a symbol of blood is virtually universal, we may conclude that it is very old and that the earliest populations regarded blood as a primal substance akin to water.

The oldest known religious offices are the priest and the shaman. They serve similar roles in their communities but they represent different worldviews. Yet for both blood and water are the most fundamental substances of life.

Red ochre was used cosmetically and for cave art among peoples who inhabited rock shelters. A 50,000 year old ochred mammoth tooth plaque was found in Tata, Hungary. Many of symbols found in rock shelters of Africa, Indonesia and Australia were made by archaic humans using red ocher.


Related reading: Blood and Binary Distinctions; Life is in the Blood; What Constitutes Being?; African Religion Predates Hinduism; Theories of Primal Substance; Red Ochre and Red Deer at Ancient Burial Sites

The Origins of the Priesthood

Alice C. Linsley

Chrismation in the Orthdox Church

The priesthood is verifiably the oldest known religious institution and appears to have originated in the Upper Nille region. Despite what feminists, theological revisionists and politically-correct academics might say, the priest was from the beginning and has continued to be exclusively the work of men, and not all men.  In the most ancient times the office was unique to the priestly castes which in Genesis are represented by the priestly lines descending from Kain and Seth and Ham and Shem.

Before turning to the pertinent texts in Genesis, it would be helpful to briefly explore gender roles in primitive societies. We must also examine another principle of cultural anthropology that can help us to understand the primeval origins of the priesthood.


Statuses and Roles in Primitive Societies

In primitive societies (where we find the origins of today’s primary religious systems) division of labor along gender lines is very evident. The more important the task to the community’s welfare, the more status is ascribed to the task. Both hunting and agriculture are regarded as essential to the survival for the community, but hunting is the labor of men and agriculture is the labor of women. Even here we see that the lines of division do not represent a dichotomy because men may participate in the harvest and women may participate in the hunt when portioning out the butchered game and preparing it to be eaten.

Tasks of lesser importance to the survival of the community are not fixed as to gender. Basket weaving, an important aspect of many primitive societies, is not essential for survival. Among the Hopi basket weaving is a female task whereas among the Navaho, it is a male task. (Grunlan and Myers, Cultural Anthropology, Zondervan, 1979, p. 137)

Status assigned to a task depends on whether males or females do the work. Higher status is ascribed to males. This does not mean that males achieve higher status. The status associated with the hunt is ascribed, not achieved. However, if a man distinguishes himself as a great hunter, he has both ascribed and achieved status. Likewise, lower status is ascribed to agriculture and gathering, but that does not mean that every female is without achieved status.

For Christians this relates to the blessed Theotokos, to whom God ascribes the status of Queen among saints, an unachieved glory. In Mary we find realization of these words of the Magnificat: “He has exalted the low and brought low the mighty.” In Mary, God fulfilled the first promise of the Bible, the Edenic Promise of Genesis 3:15.

In exploration of the primeval origins of the priesthood the difference between ascribed and achieved statuses is important. Ascribed status is assigned by society whereas achieved status involves the individual’s accomplishments. Status may be ascribed on the basis of birth order, hereditary office, age, special circumstances surrounding one’s birth, unusual physical appearance or body marks, and social class or caste.

While roles and statuses are different there exists between them a reciprocity that suggests the existence of sacred laws or rules. No strict separation or dichotomy exists since roles are always complementary and rules exist so that some plants require being killed by both males and females and some animals require protection and nurture by both males and females.


An Important Principle of Cultural Anthropology

Primitive societies are characterized by division of labor. Universally hunting is a male task whereas cultivation of plots near residences is a female task. Both hunting and cultivation require physical strength, but the spiritual danger associated with bloodletting requires that hunting be undertaken by the physically stronger. Among every primitive society that has been studied anthropologists have noted the belief that here is power in the blood and this power is spiritual and potentially dangerous. Those who carry the young and tend the home fires are not to be exposed to the blood shed in war and hunting. The division of labor applies to the sacrifice of animals.

This brings us to an important anthropological principle that states: “The older the trait, the wider the distribution.” Since this anxiety about the shedding of blood is universal, we conclude that it is also very old. It is in fact primeval, and from the first day that man shed blood, the priesthood has existed to address this anxiety.

When archaic man took life in the hunt, the spiritual leader of the community offered prayers for the sacrifice of the animal. The ritual act of sacrifice and prayer is apparent from the beginning. The sacrifice gave the community life and the prayer protected it from bloodguilt. The prayers and the sacrifice of the hunt were performed according to sacred law. The spiritual leader symbolizes prayer, sacrifice and law. This observed and well documented reality stands behind the Church’s tradition of a male priesthood.

This anthropological information helps us to understand the primeval origins of the priesthood as it is developed in Genesis.


Related reading:  What is a Priest?; Who Were the Horites?; Why Women Were Never Priests; The Origins of Animal Sacrifice