Is it Possible to Speak of the Proto-Gospel?

Dr. Alice C. Linsley


Just Genesis presents an "anthropological sleuthing of pre-Abrahamic origins." I have identified the marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham's Hebrew caste and have demonstrated that this pattern drove the early Hebrew into distant lands where they established territories as early as 4000 BC. The dispersal of the early Hebrew kingdom builders was driven by the practice of sending away sons.

The early Hebrew believed in God Father and God Son and anticipated the incarnation of the Son by divine overshadowing of a virgin of their ruler-priest caste (Luke 1). This expectation is expressed in the first Messianic promise of Scripture - Genesis 3:15 - given to Abraham's ancestors. Some of those ancestors are named in the King Lists of Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11.

I want to thank the faithful readers of Just Genesis. You have been an excellent sounding board as I have pursued the research on Abraham and the Horim/Horite Hebrew ancestors. I appreciate that you recognize the unique nature of this blog. Just Genesis is unique in these aspects:

• takes an anthropological approach to the study of Genesis
• acknowledges the great age of the earth and of human existence
• rejects aspects of Darwinian theory that lack material evidence
• asserts that Genesis interprets itself on questions of origins
• shows that the first verifiably historical persons in Genesis are kings listed in Genesis 4 and 5
• examines the material in its original cultural context, that of ancient Nilotic peoples
• argues that Genesis isn't about human origins as much as it is about the origin of Messianic expectation among Abraham's ancestors

All the articles at Just Genesis are listed by topic alphabetically in the INDEX. Articles on Biblical Anthropology can be found at my other blog by that name.

About one-quarter of Genesis is the story of God’s dealings with Abraham and his ancestors (chapters 1-12). The other chapters deal with Abraham's descendants before the establishment of Israel. Because this is so, we recognize that the promise concerning the coming of the Seed of God by the Woman (Gen. 3:15) does not originate with the Jews. It is much older. We may speak of it as the "Proto-Gospel" because the Horite and Sethite Hebrew believed that the Son of God would be miraculously conceived, and that in his repose he would proclaim glad tidings to those in Hades. A Horite Hebrew song found at the royal complex at Ugarit speaks of Horus (HR) who descends to the place of the dead "to announce good tidings." 

The Seed of God was expected to crush the serpent's head. This early Hebrew expectation was expressed in the Pyramid Texts, dating to 2400 BC. "Horus has shattered (tbb, crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot (tbw)" (Utterance 388).

They believed that the Son of God would rise on the third day. A reference to the third day resurrection is found in the Pyramid Texts: "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." (Utterance 667) Jesus' third-day resurrection fulfilled that Horite Hebrew expectation in every detail.

The Messianic reference in Psalm 110:1 - The Lord says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet." - is expressed 1000 years earlier in the Coffin Texts (Passage 148). "I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, p. 216)

Jesus subdues the Father's enemies so that God's children might live and prosper. This is expressed in Psalm 2:12: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him."

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Horus is called the "advocate of his father" (cf. 1 John 2:1).

The expectation of the coming of the Son of God was preserved by Abraham's ancestors to whom the promise was first made in Eden, a well-watered region that extended from the sources of the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley.

The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is at Nekhen on the Nile. The Hebrew ruler-priests served at many of the ancient Sun Cities. They gave the world the earliest known resurrection texts.

Waiting for the Eternal King 

The Genesis King Lists help us to understand the Bible's purpose and what we might call the "proto-Gospel" or the pattern upon which the prophets reflected and whereby Jesus Messiah would be identified as the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. 

From beginning to end, the Bible is about the royal ancestry of Jesus Christ. It is possible to trace His ancestry because of the cousin bride's naming prerogative, whereby the cousin bride named her first-born son after her father. This is why there are two named Enoch, two named Lamech, two named Nahor, two named Esau, etc. Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4) bragged to his two wives, and his daughter Naamah gave birth to Lamech the Younger (Gen. 5). Naamah named her first-born son after her father. This is one of many examples in the Old Testament of the cousin bride's naming prerogative.

The cousin-bride's naming prerogative is found from Genesis 4 to Numbers and beyond, so it is not coincidental. Rather it is a feature of the unique marriage pattern of the early Hebrew. Many scholars (Noth, Albright, Speiser, etc.) concluded that Genesis 4 and Genesis 5 represent different oral or textual traditions of the same ruling line. This is NOT what the Bible claims, however, and I take the Bible's claims very seriously. Genesis claims that the rulers listed in Genesis 4 are the descendants of Cain and those listed in Genesis 5 are the descendants of Seth. The correspondence of names (Enoch/Enosh, Kain/Kenan, Irad/Jared, Lamech/Lamech, etc.) between the two lists has to do with the cousin-bride's naming prerogative, something that I discovered about 20 years ago using kinship analysis, a tool of anthropology. 

The kinship pattern of these early Hebrew rulers reflects characteristics typical of ancient castes. One of those characteristics is caste endogamy. The high-ranking rulers practiced bride exchange to strengthen the caste bonds.

All of the men listed in Genesis chapters 4 and 5 are rulers with two wives. One wife was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the other was either a patrilineal niece or a cousin (as was Keturah to Abraham). The cousin bride named her first-born son after her father because this son would serve as a high official in the territory of his maternal grandfather. Lamech's daughter, Naamah, married her patrilineal cousin, Methuselah, and named their first-born son Lamech. This son of Methuselah would serve in Lamech the Elder's territory as he belonged to the household of Lamech. 

Jesus Messiah is a direct descendant of the early Hebrew ruler-priests. As they regarded the Sun as the symbol of the Creator, divine appointment was expressed by overshadowing. Hathor, the mother of Horus, is consistently shown in ancient iconography as divinely overshadowed. The Greek word Horus is derived from the ancient Egyptian HR, meaning Most High One.

When the Virgin Mary asked how she was to become the mother of the Messiah, the angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

Related reading: Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; The Story Behind Osirus; The Substance of Abraham's Faith; The Hebrew Were a Caste

Biblical Evidence of an Old Earth

Alice C. Linsley

As discussed in Evidence of an Old Earth - Part 1, the Bible reveals a gap of time between the first created humans, represented by Adam and Eve, and the first rulers listed in Genesis 4 (Cain's line) and Genesis 5 (Seth's line). If Adam and Eve were created around 4 million years ago, and Cain and Seth lived around 3500 BC, that gap involves millions of years.

The age of the Earth is estimated at 4 billion years. The first archaic humans appeared suddenly on the Earth about 3.8 million years ago. The rulers of Genesis 4 (Cains' line) and Genesis 5 (Seth's line) lived during the Holocene Wet Period (the Neolithic Subpluvial) between 7500 and 3000 BC.

In Evidence for an Old Earth - Part 2, I presented but a very small portion of the evidence from archaeology and paleontology for the presence of humans of the Earth from 160,000+ years ago. (For more on this, see "Facts About Human Origins.")

It is clear from scientific analysis of the "begats" in Genesis 4 and 5 that these lists represent established royal lines that practiced endogamy (marriage between the lines). The lines of Cain and Seth intermarried according to a distinctive pattern involving two wives, as shown in the diagram below. This pattern can be traced throughout the Bible, so that there is no doubt that Jesus is a direct descendant of these early rulers.

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

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

Note that Lamech's daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their first born son Lamech, after her father. This is called the "cousin bride's naming prerogative." This feature identifies the ruler-priests lines of the Bible, making it possible to trace the ancestry of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David and Jesus back to these earliest Biblical rulers.

The oldest named rulers were Nilo-Saharan and Sahara-Nubian. Because this is so, often it is necessary to investigate these peoples and their languages and practices to understand very old material in the Bible. Consider the first three words of the Ten Commandments are: Anochi, Havayah Elohecha, meaning "I am God, your Ruler." The Talmud (Shabbat 105a) questions the word anochi (I) because it is an unusual form of the pronoun, as opposed to the more commonly used ani. The point of origin of this unusual pronoun is the Nile Valley. In the ancient Egyptian language anochi refers to the royal first person.

Hebrew does not have the letter V (see chart.) However the letter V, which appears in other Biblical words, is found in the Nilotic languages such as ancient Egyptian and Luo. An example is Havilah (Gen. 2:11), which refers to a region in the Upper Nile Valley. This is further evidence that the words Anochi Havayah are not originally Hebrew.

The word anochi is found among other African peoples also. Among the Igbo, anochie means “a replacer” or “to replace” and among the Ashante anokyi means "Ano Junior." In both cases, one finds the idea of succession from father to son, suggesting a royal line. A Nigerian reports that "anochie means 'direct heir to a throne'." The words Anoch and Enoch are clearly associated with royal ascendancy. They may also be related to the Biblical word Anakim (Gen. 23:2).

Cain married his patrilineal cousin, a daughter of Enoch. Enoch is a royal title and means "heir to the throne." Cain married into a royal house, a family to which he was related. Adam is the representative of the whole of created humanity in the Bible, but Enoch is the representative of the oldest known line of kings in the Bible. That may be why these two are paralleled in Psalm 8:4: What is man (Enoch) that you spare a thought for him, or the son of Man (ben' adam) that you care for him?

Cain and Seth were great rulers in Africa. Cain's territory probably extended between Kano and Nok in modern Nigeria. Seth or Seti is a name found among the ancient Nilotic rulers. Ta-Seti was one of 42 administrative divisions (nomes) along the Nile and is the earliest Nubian Kingdom, dating to 5,900 BC. So Cain and Seth were African rulers whose lines intermarried.

Further, as is evident from the diagram below, both rulers married daughters of another African royal house.

Again we find the cousin bride's naming prerogative. Cain and Seth married the daughters of Enoch, a royal title. Those daughters named their first born sons after their father. Clearly, Cain and Seth are not the literal sons of Adam and Eve, but rather their distant royal descendants.

Cain is also a royal title. The following words are related to the word Cain or Kain: King, Khan, Kandake (Candance in English Bibles), and the Greek for hunter - κυνηγος (kinigos). The kings of the archaic world were great hunters, like Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Gen. 10:9). These "mighty men of old" are also called "nephilim" which comes from npyl in Aramaic, meaning "great one" and is equivalent to nfy in Arabic, meaning hunter.

By the time of Jude's epistle (c. 68 AD), Cain was solidly established as the archetype of an earthly ruler. Jude warns those who might abandon Christ because God punishes those who rebel against Him. He uses three men as examples: Cain, the ruler, Balaam, the prophet, and Korah, the priest. These were the three most sacred offices among Abraham’s people and often they were filled by people corrupted by the world.

Related reading: Theories of Creation: An Overview; The Genesis "Begats" Speak of Archaic Rulers, Jesus Christ; The Dispersion of Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Kushite and Horite Rulers Linked; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; On Gaps and Overlaps; Evidence of an Old Earth - Part 1; Evidence of an Old Earth - Part 2; Sodom, Gomorrah, and the Seismic History of the Dead Sea: Support for Biblical History – Yes! Support for a Young Earth – No!

Christ Across the Pages of the Bible

Alice C. Linsley

Genesis tends to be read either literally, as a scientific text, or as myth with little relevance for modern people. Both approaches lead to misunderstanding because they fail to note the patterns that are expressed throughout the book. These patterns speak of the mystery of divine love and the intervention of the Creator in human history. They also speak of the earliest Messianic expectation.

The patterns are discerned when we look deeply into the text with minds and hearts open to the leading of God's Spirit. We note that the pattern of the Kushite kings speaks about the Kingdom of God. Their sent-away sons delivered kingdoms to their fathers, and this was a driving factor in the scientifically verified Kushite expansion out of Africa. It is important in understanding the divine Son, Jesus Christ. He who lived immortally in communion with the Father set aside His power and right (kenosis) and became mortal that He might redeem a people and establish an eternal kingdom.

We see the pattern in the cosmology of Abraham's Horite people. God brings light into the world daily with the rising of the sun in the east. This is the pattern whereby we understand the "Seed" of Genesis 3:15 as the lamb who matures to full strength, as a ram caught in the thicket, as the perfect and ultimate holocaust.

I've noticed that more readers of Just Genesis are picking up on this approach which helps us to see Christ across all the pages of the Bible. Ramona Gordy recently commented on this post. She wrote:

I believe that Adam and Eve were at once "real" people, and their lives were set for a pattern of a people, past, present and future. The pattern of a people who chose to obey God and all that entails. They are also set forth as a sign and a beginning of the blood line of the Savior.

I am fascinated by your research on the customs of the Horite's. Adam lived to be at least 900 years old and had many children. No record of how old Eve lived, do you suppose that Adam had other wives, in that Horite type of tradition?

Here is my response:

Ramona,

Pattern is so important in proper understanding of the Genesis material. Adam and Eve are the pattern for every man and woman. We, like they, are made in the "image and likeness" of our Creator. In that respect, humans are unique among all the creatures.

They are also the First Parents of the line of Jesus Christ and we trace that line by paying attention to the marriage pattern of the kings listed in Gen. 4, 5, 10, 1, 25 and 36. Analysis of their marriage and ascendancy pattern reveals an authentic lineage of royal priests who served kingdom builders across the ancient world. The pattern remains unchanged from Cain in Genesis 4 to the lists of Hebrew ruler--priests listed in Matthew and Luke, the ancestry of Jesus. It is the Horite Hebrew pattern of Abraham's ancestors, Joktan the Elder, Seir the Horite (Gen. 36) Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Moses, and Samuel.
I believe that the years attributed to the pre-flood rulers come from a later period and reflect a Kabalistic interest in the hidden meanings of numbers. It is interesting that Noah's father, Lamech the Younger, is assigned 777 years in the Masoretic text and Noah is called "righteous" among those living on Earth.

It would be speculating beyond the biblical evidence to say that Adam had two wives, but there is a Talmudic tradition that suggests he did. The first wife was called Lilith and she was evil. However, like the Talmud, the myth of Lilith is also much later than the Genesis king lists, and the context is Babylonian, not Nilo-Saharan.


Related reading:  Jesus: From Lamb to Ram; The Myth of Lilith; The Genesis King Lists; Afro-Arabian Number Symbolism; Jacob's Ninth Son; Moses' Wives and Brothers; Joseph and Mary's Relationship; Mary's Ruler-Priestly Lineage

A Visit to Tut's Seattle Exhibit

Alice C. Linsley




I toured the Tutankhamum (Tut-ankh-amun) exhibit yesterday and I would like to share some observations about this ruler who lived about 600 years after Abraham.

King Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor was discovered in 1922 by the American archaeologist Howard Carter. It had been raided by treasure hunters, but was still relatively intact. Carter purchased artifacts which had been stolen from Tut's mummy and took the matter to the Egyptian authorities who forced the grave robbers to lead them to the tomb.

All of the grave's contents were removed from the tomb and taken to Cairo. The desert grave subsequently collapsed. The discovery and recovery had taken place just in time.

Tutankhamum became pharaoh at the age of ten in 1333 BC and ruled for only nine years. His death marked the end of the royal line from the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom. He was not a significant ruler, but his tomb has been one of the most spectacular finds of the century.

The exact cause of young Tutankhamun's death is not known. He suffered from malaria and necrosis of the left foot, and apparently walked with a cane. More than 100 canes were found in his tomb. One theory is that the young king, weakened by the bone disorder, succumbed to malaria. It is also possible that he died from sickle-cell disease.

As was typical of the Kushite-Egyptian marriage and ascendancy pattern, King Tut's parents were half-siblings. This feature characterized the kinship pattern of Abraham and Moses. Abraham's father had two wives and Sarah was Abraham's half-sister. Moses' father had two wives and Moses' Kushite wife was his half-sister.

Genesis 36: the line of Seir the Horite

At his ascent to the throne, Tut married his half-sister Ankhesenpaaten. Had he lived, he would have taken a second wife at a later age. She would have been a cousin or a niece.

Tutankhamum ascended to the throne of his father Akhenaten. This indicates that Tut was the firstborn son of Akhenaten by his half-sister wife. Tut's Y-chromosome would match his father's. His mtDNA would match his mother's, but not necessarily his father's.

Tut's father Akhenaton moved his capital from Thebes (Luxor) to Amarna, which he built in a desolate but more central region of the Nile. King Tut moved the royal court back to the old capital at Thebes, the center of Amun-Ra worship.

Tutankhamum's cartouche bears the words heqa-iunu-shema, which is usually rendered "Ruler of On of the South."

Heqa is the sceptre or shepherd's crook of the Egyptian rulers.

Iunu refers to the temple of Heliopolis (Biblical On). Herodutus reported that it took nine days to sail up river from Heliopolis to Thebes. The temple of Thebes was called "Heliopolis of the South." By relocating his court to Thebes, Tutankhamum may have been attempting to regain the glory of his forefathers at a time of Egypt's decline.

The corners of most of the 4th - 6th dynasty pyramids are aligned towards Heliopolis, the geodetic center of Egypt. The pyramid triads at Giza, Zaqqara and Abusir are examples. Baalbek in Lebanon, also called Heliopolis, aligns to Heliopolis in Egypt. 

Shema refers to ta-shema or Upper Egypt, the narrow valley extending south of Memphis to Abu on the First Cataract in Nubia. Thebes is between Memphis and Abu.

Ra, the Creator, is referred to as the "God of Manifestations." Ra's emblem is the sun. 

Tutankhamun Artefacts Still Missing

Four artefacts belonging to Tutankhamun, and missing since the January Revolution, were returned to the Cairo Museum in April 2011. One object was the gilded wooden statue of Tutankhamun standing on a skiff throwing a harpoon (JE 60710.1), which suffered damage.  A small part of the crown is missing as well as pieces of the pharaoh's legs.

One of the 10 missing shabtis of Yuya and Tjuya (JE 68984) was also returned, as was Tutankhamun's gilded bronze and wooden trumpet (JE 62008).

Tutankhamun’s fan (JE 62006) was also returned, but it was broken into 11 pieces and the stock was missing.

From the list of objects missing from the Cairo Museum, about twenty items were retrieved in March 2011.  Most were confiscated from dealers.

Some of Tutankhamun's treasures are still missing.



Related reading:  Moses' Wives and Brothers; Twin Pyramids and Sphinx of Zinder; Prehistoric Geodesy; Undiscovered Pyramids Seen From Space

Potts' Variability Hypothesis Has Biblical Support

Alice C. Linsley



Paleoanthropologist Rick Potts is the director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program and curator of anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History. His research pieces together a record of Earth’s environmental change and human adaptation to environmental instability.

In this NOVA interview Dr. Pott's explains his "climate variability hypothesis" which he sees as a significant factor in human adaptability, settlement and migration. His idea has Biblical support.

Dr. Rick Potts

Dr. Potts said:

Climate change had always been on people's minds when it came to human evolution. The idea that was around for a long time is that the establishment of a savanna environment, the grassy environment with a few trees, was critical to human evolution early on, and that and the Ice Age later on presented the challenging environment in which humans evolved.

But when I began the work here at Olorgesailie, we kept seeing layer after layer of environmental change, from soils to volcanic ashes to a lake to a drought when the lake completely evaporated. We saw this through 700,000 years, and I began to think, well, maybe it's not the particular environment of a savanna that was important, but the tendency of the environment to change, to vary in very dramatic ways. And we saw that the large grazing animals of the savanna—elephants, baboons, pigs, zebras, all of whom ate grass—disappeared in the time period when worldwide climate began to vary the most.

So it dawned on me: Rick, you're an anthropologist. Maybe this has something to do with human evolution, and it's not the survival of the fittest in any one environment but the survival of the more versatile, the more general and flexible creatures that would really persist over time. This gave me a new insight into human evolution. The origin of stone tools, the expansion of the brain, and the complexity of social life that we see with the emergence of our own species may actually be a response not to just the dry savanna or the cold Ice Age but to the wide and dramatic variability of climate over time.

In some cases the landscape change occurred within a few thousand years. But this is all within a larger cycle of changing—Earth's orbit around the sun, and changes from wet to dry in tropical Africa, and, later in time, changes that were on [a scale of] 100,000 years between ice ages and interglacial warmth.

Olorgesailie inspired our idea that climate variability was an important driving force in human evolution. But we had to look outside of Olorgesailie to many other early human sites to really test the idea. What we have found is that the most prolonged periods of climate variability early on corresponded with the origin of stone tools and of eating meat, and the origin of our own genus, Homo. Then, later on, another prolonged period of climate variability, very dramatic, corresponded with the origin of modern human behavior and our own species.

(Read more here.)

The key points of Pott's hypothesis are evident.  Life on Earth is sustained by water. Climate has an impact of the availability of water. Factors that influence water accumulation in lakes and rivers are Earth's climate cycles and plate tectonics. When water sources disappear, humans and aminals must seek other sources. Where abundant water sources exist, there is greater evidence of human habitation.




Life Depends on Water

A close reading of Genesis reveals that climate is certainly a factor in archaic human settlement and migration. Humans settled near major bodies of water. This is where they hunted large game and buthered them with stone hand tools.  During rainy periods, lakes swelled and during dry periods, lakes disappeared.  Climate cycles caused old dry basins to fill with water. This swelling and shrinking of water systems is evident from satellite photos taken of Earth's great rivers and lakes.

Neolithic peoples in the Sahara enjoyed abundant water.  The Nile connected to the Chadic and Niger water systems through a series of shallow lakes in the Sahara. This explains the common plant and animal species is found in all three river valleys. The now dry Botswanan lake was once a sea. Some of Africa's earliest human populations lived on the edges of this great lake, as evidenced by the thousands of stone tools found there. These include maceheads that date between 80,000 and 100,000 years.

Between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago all of the region between Lake Chad and the Nile was wet. The climate had changed, ushering in years of persistent, heavy rains. A briefer period of rain lasted between 3000 and 1900 B.C. This is the the time of Noah's flood. Noah was a Proto-Saharan ruler in region of Lake Chad. People living in this area, called "Bor-No" (Land of Noah), claim that this is Noah's homeland.

Lake Chad has been shrinking for centuries, but today rains are returning to the Sahara. West Africa is receiving abundant convective rainfall. At the close of "Earth's Great Year" in the summer of 1998, air and water temperatures peaked and this has affected rainfall in some of Earth's most arid regions.

Tropical temperatures (latitude 20N - 20S)

In 2010, Pakistan saw catastrophic flooding from the Indus River. These NASA photos show the striking contrast within a single year.

NASA image captured in 2009

NASA image captured in 2010

Geologic Factors

Tectonics also played a role. Rifting and continental extension creates water systems and inland seaways such as the Humer Seaway in North America.

About 150,000 years ago there was a major uplift of the Angolan ridge in equatorial Africa. This meant a permanent supply of water flowing to the Upper Nile and prompted migration to that area. Lakes formed in the basins, large enough to support fish, crocodile and hippopotamus. Early hunters camped along the lakes, as evidenced by heaps of domestic refuse at many sites along ancient lakes in Niger, Chad and Kenya.

Lake Chad filled and merged with the Mega-Chad Sea, creating a body of water comparable in size of modern Sudan. The overflow spilled southwest into the Benue Trough and flowed to the Atlantic. The Nile was transformed from a slow stream into a roaring river with mile-deep gorges. This was the beginning of the wet period that would turn the Sahara into vast grasslands able to support elephants, antelopes, gazelles, ostriches, giraffes, and hyenas.




River Civilizations Emerged

This extended wet period led to the establishment of a Nilotic civilization which appears to have climaxed in dynastic Egypt and in the Kushite expansion into Mesopotamia (Gen. 10:8-12). The Kushite expansion lead to the river-based Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations. These civilizations were dependent upon river commerce and the rulers controlled and taxed that commerce.

To understand the Kushite expansion we must consider a factor beyond climate and river commerce, namely, the custom of sent-away royal sons, a feature of human adaptation that Potts has not considered. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Proto-Saharan and Nilotic rulers drove expansion and migration out of Africa through the custom of sending away firstborn sons who were expected to establish territories for themselves.




Sent-Away Sons

Genesis 2:24 speaks of how a man is to move away after marriage. This refers to sent-away sons of the ruling lines among Abraham's ancestors. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall become one flesh.” The married son was expected to leave his parents and to establish a new household.  Most Westerners tend not to respect grown men who stay home, whether married or not. Stay-at-home sons often compete with their fathers or become "momma's boys." Jacob's stay-at-home son was Reuben and Reuben slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah (Gen. 35:22; 49:4). David's son Absalom did the same thing. Absalom ordered that a tent be set up on the palace roof where everyone could see it (ii Sam. 16:2). There Absalom went in and had sex with his father's concubines. This action represented an attempt to usurp the ruler's authority.

An anthropologist reading Genesis 2:24 finds evidence of the establishment of a new household geographically separate from the husband’s family. This is called “neolocal residence.”  However, analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham’s Horite people indicates that the neolocal pattern does not apply to the firstborn sons of the patriarch’s wives. It applies only to sent-away sons who did not ascend to the thrones of their fathers or maternal grandfathers.  Most sons of concubines also were sent away and often served as vassals of the firstborn sons of wives.

Another feature of the Horite ruler-priest marriage and ascendency structure is alluded to in Genesis 2:24 which speaks of “cleaving to the wife.”  This indicates matrilocal residence, an arrangement where the newly married couple lives with or in close proximity to the bride’s family. This pertains to the firstborn son of the patriarch’s second (cousin or niece) wife. This son was the heir to his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named, and he lived with or near his mother’s people. So Abraham's firstborn son by his second wife belonged to the household of Joktan, Keturah's father, after whom he was named.

Patrilocal residence pertained only to firstborn sons of the half-sister wife. This seems strange given the insistence of Bible scholars that ancient Hebrew society was patriarchal. This is why Isaac remained in Abraham's territory and why Abraham gave gifts to his other sons and sent them away from Isaac (Gen. 25:6).

Genesis 2:24 pertains to sons who lived away from their biological fathers. This includes “sent-away sons” and the firstborn son of the patriarch’s second wife. Jacob's case is especially interesting. He was not Isaac's firstborn son and though he attempted to rob that birthright from Esau, Jacob established his residence with his mother's people. This suggests that Jacob and Esau may not have been twins. They may have been Isaac's firstborn sons by different wives. Esau was the firstborn of Isaac's first wife who would have been Isaac's half-sister. Jacob would have been the firstborn son of Isaac's second wife. As the second wife was either a cousin or niece, as was Rebecca to Isaac, Jacob would have been Rebecca's firstborn son. As such he would belong to the household of his maternal grandfather, Bethuel. However, this doesn't mean that Jacob was heir to Bethuel's throne in Padan-Aram. Bethuel's heir appears to have been Laban.

Sent-away sons is a prominent theme in Genesis. Some see the story of Adam's expulsion from the garden as the first example.  However, Adam's historicity cannot be proven.  among verifiably historical figures we see this pattern with Cain who was banished for killing his brother. we find it at the end of Genesis in the account of Joseph who was sold into Egyptian captivity by his brothers.

The pattern continues in Exodus where Moses is forced to leave Egypt after killing a fellow Egyptian.  He travels to his Midianite kin and marries a patrilineal cousin, Zipporah. This suggests that Isha, Amram's cousin wife, was a Midianite bride. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham by his cousin wife Keturah.

Other sent-away sons include Ishmael and Yishbak, both sons of Abraham. The name Yishbak means “sent away.”


Related reading: Genesis and Climate Change; Climate Cycles Indicate a Dynamic Earth; Climate and Noah's Flood; When the Sahara Was Wet; Water Systems Connected Nile and Central Africa;
Sub-Saharan DNA of Modern Jews; Abraham's Sons

Who Did Cain Marry?

Alice C. Linsley

Figurine of a Nok Ruler

If Cain were born of Eve, the first mother, we would have to speculate that he married a sister or perhaps a daughter of his brother Seth. If Eve is the original mother of all humanity, she and her children would have lived at least 3.8 million years ago since that is the age of archaic human fossils. In this case, Cain's historicity is impossible to prove.

That said, Genesis 4 describes Cain as a city builder and his descendants as metal-workers and artisans. This indicates that he was a ruler, as only ruler's build cities, and the technologies described place him in the Neolithic period. He would have lived about 3000 B.C., well after the establishment of Nilo-Saharan settlements (70,000 years ago) and inland settlements in Southern Arabia (55,000 years ago). He was one of the "mighty men of old."

It is certain from the biblical data that Cain was not one of the first humans on earth. He was the first king of biblical history, however. The Bible tells us many details about Cain, all of them pointing to his rank as a ruler. When he was born his mother declared kan-itti. E.A. Speiser noted that Qany(ty) or Qan itti shows close affinity to the Akkadian itti, as in itti šarrim, which means "with the king". Akkadian was the language of the empire during Nimrod's time (BC 2290-2215). Genesis 10 tells us that Nimrod was a Kushite, so it is not surprising to find that Akkadian shares many words with Nilotic languages. Among the Oromo of Ethiopia and Somalia, itti is attached to names. Examples include Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti and Dimashqitti. That itti is associated with Nilotic rulers is evident in the name Nefertitti.

Cain was a tiller of the soil (Gen. 4:2). He controlled a territory as did Noah, one of his descendents, who was said to have planted a vineyard.

Cain married his cousin, the royal daughter of Enoch (Nok) as evidenced by analysis of the Genesis 4-5 kinship pattern.

He was a city builder (Gen. 4:17) as was his descendent Nimrod. These cities represent sacred centers of larger territories.

Cain is associated with metal smiths and one of his descendents – Tubal-Cain – 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.

Cain’s name is derived from the word meaning “possession” or “lot”. As the first born son, he inherited the role of ruler. We might ask if he inherited it from Adam or by marrying into the House of Enoch (Nok).

He was a religious man, offering sacrifice to God, though his sacrifice wasn’t always acceptable (Gen. 4:5).

His bride named their first-born son after her father, which was the pattern among the ruler-priests of Abraham’s people.

By the time that Jude wrote his epistle (c. 68 AD) Cain was solidly established as the archetype of an earthly ruler. Jude warns those who might abandon Christ because of their suffering and false teachers that God punishes those who rebel against Him. He uses three men as examples: Cain the ruler, Balaam the prophet, and Korah the priest. These were the three most sacred offices among Abraham’s people and they were often filled by people corrupted by the world.

Cain's cousin bride

When we consider the king lists of Genesis 4 and 5 together, we discover that the lines of Cain and Seth intermarried. This makes Cain in historical time the first ruler named in the Bible to establish a territory which he named for his son Enoch. Enoch was born to Cain by a daughter of another chief named Enoch (Ha-Nock, Nok, Anochie). In other words, Cain married a princess to whom he was related. Since she named their first born son after her father, she was likely Cain's patrilineal cousin. This is called the "cousin bride's naming prerogative."

The line of descent of Cain's princess bride is given in Genesis 4. She is not named, nor is her sister, the bride of Cain's brother Seth. The line of descent from Seth's wife is given in Genesis chapter 5. Both Cain's wife and Seth's wife names their first-born sons after their father Enoch/Nok, so we know their father's identity.

When reading the "Begets" of Genesis 4 and 5, most readers imagine that they are reading about the children of Adam and Eve. Instead they are reading King Lists that reflect a fully developed pattern of marriage and ascendancy among Abraham's Proto-Saharan ancestors.This marriage and ascendancy pattern, involving two wives and two firstborn sons, can be traced throughout the Bible by tracing the cousin bride naming prerogative.

Analysis of this material reveals that Cain and Seth married the daughters of a ruler named Nok. Nok is the Chadic form of Enoch/Hanoch/Henosh; and the Arabic Anoosha. Chadic words tend to be bi-consonantal.

The brides named their firstborn sons after their father. This indicates that Cain and Seth married patrilineal cousins or nieces, since only the cousin or niece bride named her firstborn son after her father. Were we to diagram this kinship, it would look like this:

Enoch/Nok

/  \

Wife of Cain    Wife of Seth

/   \

Enoch/Nok    Enosh/Nok

Enoch is likely derived from the Ancient Egyptian anochi which means "I" and is likely the royal first person pronoun.The word anochi is also found among peoples who migrated from the Nile westward, such as the Igbo and the Ashante. Among the Igbo, anochie means “a replacer” or “to replace”and among the Ashante the word ano kyi means "Ano Junior." In both cases, we find the idea of succession from father to son, suggesting royal descent. A Nigerian biblical anthropologist reports that "Anochie also means 'direct heir to a throne.'" Therefore the biblical name "Enoch" is associated with royal ascendancy. Likewise, Terah is not a name, but a title, meaning priest.

Genesis 4 and 5 trace descent from a Proto-Saharan ruler who lived about 4500 B.C. and not from Adam and Eve. As we see from the diagram, the wives of Cain and Seth named their firstborn sons after their father. This naming prerogative of cousin brides continues throughout the Bible. We may assume from this that Cain and Seth married patrilineal parallel cousins, as did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is also likely that Cain and Seth had second wives who would have been half-sisters, as did Nahor, Terah and Abraham.

Bloodline among Abraham's people was figured through the mother, but social status (caste) and livelihood (occupation) were inherited from the father. Tubal-Cain is said to have worked metal. He would have inherited this from his father.

The brides of Cain and Seth were of noble status. Their father was a ruler of great wealth who controlled the water systems of his region. During this time Africa was much wetter than it is today. The Chadic Sea was about 600 feet deep and sustained boating and fishing industries. The average fishermen used canoe dugouts, but nobles used boats constructed of marsh reeds lashed together and sealed with pitch.

The Nile and central Africa were once integrated. It took a long time for these water systems to shrink. The region was still wet in the time of Cain and Seth. The connection of the major water ways, controlled by rulers and chiefs, explains how the House of Nok (northern Nigeria) and the House of Set (Nubia) became the controlling houses of Kush. Ancient Kush would have included Egypt, southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania. Now there is evidence that these Proto-Saharan rulers also governed Chad and Niger where they built pyramids that are 1000 years older than the Giza pyramids in Egypt.

An Ancient River Civilization

Recent evidence suggests that the Nile floods were much more extensive than previously thought. Space photos show that they spread nearly 100 miles west of the river and created "mega-lakes" in the ancient desert. Ted Maxwell of the National Air and Space Museum believes this is how the Nile Valley and central Africa were once integrated. It took a long time for these water systems to shrink. The region was still wet in the time of Kain and Seth. The major water ways were controlled by rulers whose houses were related by marriage. This explains how the House of Nok (Nigeria) and the House of Set (Nubia) came to control such a vast region.

On the west, the Nile connected with the Chadic Sea, which in turn connected to the Benue and Niger Watershed in Nigeria (the Benue Trough). This is the region of Noah's flood. As a ruler, Noah probably had a fleet of boats constructed of reeds and pitch. The biblical flood likely took place during the late Holocene Wet Period in the only area on earth that claims to be Noah's homeland: Bor-No, meaning "the Land of Noah."

The western Nile watershed extended well into the Sudan. This explains why the Sudanese always have thought of the Nile as their river. The Sudanese-born BBC commentator, Zeinab Badawi, expresses the Sudanese view of the Nile:

"I think that the biggest source of friction and potential tension between Egypt and Sudan has been in the Nile, and how the waters of the Nile are used. The feeling that a lot of northern Sudanese might have is that the Nile actually in a sense runs much more through Sudan than it does through Egypt. Sudan is the biggest country in Africa. It's the tenth biggest in the world, the size of western Europe. It is the land of the Nile, and maybe there is a kind of brotherly resentment by the northern Sudanese that the Egyptians have in a sense claimed the Nile as their own, whereas the Sudanese in a sense feel they are the proper custodians of the Nile, because after all, most of its journey is through the territory of Sudan." (From here.)

Dr. Christopher Ehret explains how the climate caused the movement of groups of people. He writes, "The initial warming of climate in the Bølling-Allerød interstadial, 12,700-10,900 BCE, brought increased rainfall and warmer conditions in many African regions. Three sets of peoples, speaking languages of the three language families that predominate across the continent today, probably began their early expansions in this period. Nilo-Saharan peoples spread out in the areas around and east of the middle Nile River in what is today the country of Sudan. (History in Africa 3-4)

The Nilo-Saharan Ruling Houses Intermarried

It was the custom for the rulers of this region to have two wives. One was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second wife, taken later in life, was a patrilineal cousin or niece. The second wife named her firstborn son after her father. This cousin-bride naming prerogative allows biblical anthropologists to trace the lineage from the earliest rulers in Genesis to Jesus. It also explains why there are two named Esau, two named Joktan (Yaqtan), two named Sheba and two named Lamech named in Genesis.

For example, Lamech's daughter Naamah (mentioned in Gen. 4) married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their firstborn son "Lamech" after her father.

Copyright 1981 Alice C. Linsley

The intermarriage between the lines of Cain and Seth is paralled by the intermarriage between the lines of Ham and Shem and later between the lines of Eber and Sheba, and Abraham and Nahor. In fact, analysis of the Genesis genealogies reveals a consistent and unchanging marriage pattern among the Horite rulers before and after the time of Abraham.

Note that the Virgin Mary was Joseph's patrilineal cousin and that both were in the priestly lines.

Related reading: Cain's Princess Bride; Boats and Cows of the Nilo-Saharans; The Saharan Origins of the Pharaohs; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's Ancestors; Sub-Saharan DNA of Modern Jews; Are the Names Enoch and Enosh Linguistically Equivalent?

False Assumption #2 of Young-Earth Creationists

Alice C. Linsley

As I have written here, the false assumptions of Young-Earth Creationists present the greatest obstacles to understanding the book of Genesis. Their assumption that Cain's line perished in the flood contradicts what Genesis tells us. Because Young-Earthers assume that Cain's line died out they ignore the relationship between the Begats of Genesis 4 and Genesis 5. They miss that Methuselah's wife was Naamah, a descendant of Cain. She named their firstborn son Lamech after her father, according to the cousin bride's naming prerogative. This naming pattern explains why there are two rulers named Lamech, two named Esau, two named Sheba, and two named Joktan.

Analysis of the Genesis 4 and 5 King Lists reveals that these royal lines intermarried exclusively. Therefore Abraham was a descendant of both Shem and Ham.

The intermarriage between the lines of Cain and Seth is paralled by the intermarriage between the lines of Ham and Shem, between the lines of Eber and Sheba, and between the lines of Abraham and Nahor. In fact, analysis of the Genesis genealogies reveals a consistent and unchanging marriage pattern among the Horite rulers before and after Abraham.

The Young-Earth assumption that Abraham married Keturah after Sarah died overlooks the fact that all the rulers listed in Genesis had two wives. Abraham's first wife was his half-sister, Sarah.  His second wife was his patrilineal cousin, Keturah. He married Keturah before Sarah died. Likewise, Moses married Zipporah before his Kushite half-sister wife died. With two wives there were likely to be two firstborn sons. The firstborn son of the half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his father. The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather.  Marriage partners appear to have been selected using a modular formula. Because of this pattern, the Genesis King lists cannot be used to calculate the age of the Earth.

Further, there is a gap of time between the first humans and Kain and Seth. The oldest human fossils are between 165,000 and 3.6 million years, depending on whether one regards A. Afarensis as a human species (as I do).  Kain and Seth ruled territories in Africa approximately 3050 B.C., about 650 years before Noah.

As I explained here, the Young-Earth reading of Genesis as linear history produces an inaccurate picture because this is not how Abraham's Nilotic ancestors recounted historical events. Instead, their narratives employ binary tensions expressed in parallel accounts. The parallel stories sometimes highlight similarities such as the moral lapses of Noah and Lot. Noah's drunken behavior led him to blame ("curse") his grandson. Lot's drunkeness led to incest with his daughters. Sometimes the parallel stories express contrast, as in the accounts of Abraham and Isaac attempting to pass off their wives as their sisters. Sarah was Abraham's half-sister whereas Rebecca was Isaac's patrilineal cousin. In other words, Abraham did not lie and Isaac did.

This is not to say that Abraham's ancestors lacked a device for narrating linear events. This was done through recounting their ruler ancestors and their exploits. These are the kings listed in the Genesis Begats. These are authentic lists that establish that Kain lived before Noah, Noah lived before Nimrod, and Nimrod before Abraham, etc. We can imagine a Nilotic story teller elaborating on the character of various rulers as is evident in Genesis 4:23, where we are told that Lamech bragged to his two wives. Another elaboration is found in Genesis 10:8-12 concerning the Kushite kingdom-builder Nimrod.

Young Earth Creationist Assumption #2: The Genesis "Begats" list the first and only people living on Earth.

The veracity of this second assumption must be evaluated in light of relevant Bible passages and the evidence from anthropology and archaeology.

The "Begats" list the rulers of the first nations. These were kingdom builders who spread far and wide. They are the rulers of the Ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.  They originated in Africa and established themselves in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.  Some came to North America where they are called "First Nations People." Among these first people were the Nilotic Ainu who are at the center of Luigi Cavalli-Sforza's Genetic Distance Chart, as would be expected.

In Noah's time, people in Malaysia were planting rice. In Sweden and Norway people were skiing as evidenced by rock paintings and the oldest known ski found at Hoting in Sweden. Clearly, the rulers of Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11 were not the first humans, nor were they the only humans on Earth.

The Genesis genealogical material must be evaluated on the basis of its proper cultural context. These are annals of ancient royal lines which intermarried.  Only some sons could ascend to the throne. Other sons were sent away to establish territories for themselves.  These sent-away sons drove the Kushite expansion out of Africa, an expansion that has been verified by DNA studies.

The Genesis 4 and 5 king lists show an established marriage and ascendancy pattern, indicating that these ruling lines were already well established in Kain's time. Kain married his patrilineal cousin, a daughter of Enoch. Since he married a patrilineal cousin, Kain's father had a brother.  That brother is the first Enoch (Nok) found in the Bible. He is not actually named in Genesis 4, but his name is given to his grandson by his daughter.  Enoch is a royal title and means "heir to the throne."

Kain and Seth were great rulers in Africa. Kain's territory probably extended between Kano and Nok in modern Nigeria. Seth or Seti is a name found among the Nilotic rulers.

During the reigns of Kain and Seth a great fortified city was built at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) on the Upper Nile. It was a shrine city dedicated to Horus. Votive offerings at the temple were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose.

Nekhen was the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt between 3200–2686 BC and had as many as 10,000 inhabitants. The original settlement dates from the Naqada culture (4400 BC) or the late Badarian culture (5000 BC).  The oldest known zoo was in Nekhen.

Before Kain and Seth, there were numerous river populations in China between 7000-3000 B.C. In southern Africa, there were forest populations who mined red ochre from the Lebombo Mountains more than 30,000 years ago. This blood-like substance was used to bury nobles in the hope of life beyond the grave. The practice was widespread, perhaps global, long before Noah's time.

Noah lived between about 2490-2415 B.C. in the region of Lake Chad when the Sahara experienced a wet period (Karl W. Butzer1966). This is the period of the Old Kingdom, a time of great cultural and technological achievement in Egypt. The population count of Egypt under the first dynasties was between 1 and 2 million inhabitants. Edward S. Ellis put the New Kingdom population at 5 million. The author of the Royal Ontario Museum website gives an estimate of between 1.5 and 5 million Egyptians during the Pyramid Age.

Pyramid G1-c was built with an inscription to Horus, King of the Upper and Lower Nile. Devotion to Horus, who was also called "son of God", spread across the Ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. The Harappa civilization became established in the Indus River Basin during the time that Kain and Seth ruled in Africa. Har-appa means "Horus is Father." The temple city of Mohenjo-Daro was constructed about 400 years before Noah's flood and continued as a prosperous city until about B.C.1880. It was seven square miles in size and had a population of between 20,000 to 50,000.

Related reading: YEC Dogma is NOT Biblical; Calculating the Dates of the Patriarchs; Answers to High Schoolers' Questions About the Flood; Overview of Human Origins; Answers to High Schoolers' Questions About Adam and Eve; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People

The Genesis Kings and the Fall

Alice C. Linsley


The men listed in Genesis 4-6 (Cain to Noah) were rulers over territories. They had a complex and unique marriage and ascendency pattern, involving two wives.  The first wife of the ruler-to-be was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and this marriage took place at a young age.  The firstborn son of this union ascended to the throne of his biological father (as did Isaac). The second wife was either a patrilineal cousin or a niece (as was Keturah to Abraham) and was married close to the time of ascent. This is why Abraham expressed urgency concerning Isaac's marriage to Rebecca. The firstborn son of the second wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather (as did Joktan, Keturah's son).  By the time of Cain, the marriage and ascendeny pattern was well established, suggesting that this had been the pattern for more than a few generations of rulers.  The "begats" speak of archaic rulers and establish a pattern whereby Abraham's descendants would recognize the Jesus as the promised Son of God.

Analysis of the king lists in Genesis 4 and 5 reveals that this was the pattern for Abraham's royal ancestors and I believe that this is an authentic pattern. Further, this pattern is older than the Genesis 1-3 narratives and is useful in understanding those narratives.  For one thing, we can't use the regnal years to determine the age of the earth, as was tried by Bishop Ussher. By his calculations, the earth is only 6000 years old.  What are we to make of the mining operations in the Lebombo Mountains 60,000 years ago?

The span between the rulers in Genesis 4 and 5 and Noah may be 950 years, but all these men were rulers over territories that were well established and which had neolithic technologies.  In other words, these rulers lived long after the first created humans. Clearly, there is a much greater span between Adam and Cain. Adam represents either the historical or ahistorical first man created by God, fully human and in the divine image. As such, he would have lived around 3.4 million years ago, since the oldest human fossils are at least that old.

Must Adam have been historical to believe that the Fall happened? We only have to look around for evidence that we live as sinners in a sinful world. In the Eastern Church, the Fall doesn't mean that each of us inherited Adam's guilt. The prophets teach that each of us will receive that which our own lives deserve. Instead, the Fall means that we all are subject to death since by Adam's sin, death entered the world.


Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendency Pattern of Abraham's People; Cain's Father; Getting the Facts About Human Origins

Are Genealogies the "Inspired" Word?

Alice C. Linsley


A visitor from Portland, Oregon has asked whether the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 are inspired.  It is an interesting question to consider.

This visitor hasn't included the line of descent in Genesis 4, probably because he has been taught, contrary to the biblical evidence, that Cain's descendants died in the flood.  Genesis 4 and 5 are to be kept together as these two lines intermarried exclusively, as did the lines of Ham and Shem later.

In what way might be speak of ancestry as being the "inspired" word of God?  We can say that the rulers of Genesis 4, 5 and 11 represent flesh and blood aspects of God's plan whereby the Incarnate Word came into the world to save repentant sinners.

Asking whether the genealogies are inspired is like asking whether one's ancestry is inspired.  People live and have offspring that carry on after them.  In the case of the Genesis genealogies, we have something different.  These are king lists, not family trees.  The ancestors of these kings received a divine promise in Eden concerning a "Woman" of their people (Gen. 3:15).  From their ruling lines came Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. Could God have used other rulers?  Probably.  Why these rulers and their descendants?  Well, that's like asking why Israel?  Why Abraham?  There isn't any sense in asking why these rulers in particular. 

Are they part of the inspired plan of God?  Certainly.  Genesis is their story and they tell us that God made a promise to them concerning the "Seed" of the Woman (not Eve, as she isn't named until verse 20).  They apparently believed that promise because they intermarried exclusively and their wives were their own kin, half-sisters, cousins and nieces.  Mary is the Woman and Jesus is the Seed. He even speaks of his death using this metaphor in John 12:24:  "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest."

The test of a true prophet is whether his words come true.  The test of the inspiration of the Bible is that the Edenic Promise was fulfilled, because from beginning to end the Bible is about God's great Gift to the world, His only Begotten Son.


Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendency Pattern of Abraham's People; Kushite Wives; Chronology of the Genesis Rulers; Who Were the Kushites?

Abraham's Mother and Seth's Father

Alice C. Linsley

Andrew, a reader of Just Genesis, has asked two interesting questions. The first is about the identity of Abraham's mother and the second pertains to the identity of Seth's father.


Abraham's Horite Mother

The Babylonian Talmud names Abraham's maternal grandfather as Karnevo, an Akkadian form of the Nilo-Saharan word Karnak. Kar refers to an elevated shrine or "high place" and nak refers to rituals. Naak is the ritual removal of front teeth among the Nilotic Luo and the ancient Natufians. Therefore, Karnak means "place of rituals" and indicates a mountain temple or a water shrine.

Karnak on the Nie was a Horite temple. It is likely that Abraham's mother was the daughter of a Nilotic priest. She gave birth to 2 sons: Nahor and Abraham. Nahor was the older and he received his father's territory between Ur and Haran. This means that Abraham's mother was his father's half-sister, as only the firstborn sons of sister brides ruled after their fathers. This is one feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's Horim (Horite ancestors).

Abraham and his ancestors married exclusively within their Horite Hebrew caste (endogamy). This is a characteristic of ancient castes. The Horites were closely associated with the rulers of Kush, Nubia and Egypt. Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Onn (Heliopolis) on the Nile. Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian.

Since blood line and ethnicity were traced through the mothers, as with Jews today, it is surprising that the Bible does not tell us about Abraham's mother. Perhaps the final editor of Genesis (the Deuteronomist?) found this problematic because it means that Abraham was not the first Jew as is maintained by the prevailing Jewish narrative.

Andrew's second question deals with Seth's family. "Your statements that Adam and Eve lived millions of years ago as the first humans rings true to me, but Scripture wise where do you get that Enoch was Seth and Cain's father? Genesis 5:3 clearly states the Adam was Seth's father, or am I missing something?"

(Note that there are at least 3 scriptural profiles of Adam.) when Adam and Eve stand for the first humans created by God, they are meta-historical.


Who was Seth's father?

Genesis 5:3 indicates that Seth, as well as Kain, was a "son" and son can mean offspring or descendant. Here the author is connecting Seth to Adam to emphasize that Seth was made in the likeness of Adam who was made in the likeness of God.  There may be a suggestion here that Kain was not in the divine image, but the context is still about deified sons who were rulers.

The rulers listed in Genesis 4 (Cain's line) and 5 (Seth's line) lived about 4000-3000 BC, no earlier. The two ruler lines intermarried, as can be determined by scientific analysis of the kinship and ascendency pattern revealed in the genealogical segment shown below. The ruler who heads this segment was called Enoch/Enosh/Nok. If Adam and Eve were Kain's and Seth's parents they would have been contemporaries of Enoch. These are the historical Adm and Eve, the founders of the Hebrew ruler-priest lineages.

Kain and Set (Set or Seti) were probably the firstborn sons of Enoch's brother by two different wives. It was the custom of these rulers to have two wives. One was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham.  The other was a cousin or niece, as was Keturah to Abraham. Two wives meant there were two firstborn sons.  These sons ascended to different thrones. The firstborn son of the sister wife (probably Kain) was the heir of his biological father. The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife (probably Set) was the heir of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. This is why the name of a ruler is often found two generations later in the line of the ruler's fraternal confederates. Esau the Elder had a grandson by this daughter who was Esau the Younger.  This is true for Joktan, Sheba and Lamech, as shown in the diagram below.

They married their cousins and the cousin brides named their firstborn sons after their fathers. This is why Seth's firstborn son and Kain's firstborn son have essentially the same name - Enoch/Enoch/Nok. The root of that name was NK. Later we find that the lines of Ham and Shem intermarried also.

The marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham's ancestors is the same as that of Abraham and Moses. All of these people were Horites, priest devotees of Ra-Horus-Hathor. They believed that "the Woman" of Genesis 3:15 would be of their own people and she would bring forth the divine "Seed" who would crush the serpent's head and lead his people to immortality. Jesus referred to this when He told his disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to die. They refused to accept this, so He explained that unless a seed falls into the earth, it cannot live (John 12:24).


Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendency Pattern of the Horite Rulers; Abraham's Maternal Line; Abraham's Horite Mother; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons