The Faith of the Early Hebrew Delivered to Us

 

Alice C. Linsley

This green malachite stone, a gift from the Egyptian king with whom the Hittites signed a treaty in 1258 BC, was at the center of a shrine in the Hittite capital of Hattusa (in Çorum Province in Turkey). Green malachite represented new life and the hope of resurrection among the Horite Hebrew devotees of God Father and God Son. The land of the blessed dead was described as the "field of malachite."

Green stones were associated with Horus or HR in ancient Egyptian, meaning Most High One. The Book of the Dead speaks of how the deceased will become a falcon "whose wings are of green stone" (chapter 77). The Eye of Horus amulet was made of green stone. The Pyramid Texts (ca. 2400 BC) speak of Horus as the "Lord of the green stone" (Utterance 301).

The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is Nekhen on the Nile (4000 BC). It was at a high elevation (mound) to protect it from the annual floods. The Horite Hebrew were very familiar with floods.

The flood that Noah experienced in Central Africa (ca. 4000 BC) was remembered by his children Ham, Shem, and Japheth, and their descendants: Cush, Nimrod, Peleg, Terah, Abraham (ca. 2100 BC).... long before the time of Moses (ca. 1500 BC).

All these men are members of the same Horite Hebrew ruler-priest caste, as has been demonstrated by analysis of their distinctive kinship pattern. That's science!

This suggests that all the narratives in Genesis 1-12 come from the same people group, and that these details are part of a received tradition extending back at least 6000 years.

After 40 years of methodical research, God-dropped hints, the right people crossing my path at the right moment, countless pages of reading and note taking, 13 years of blogging, public speaking, etc... I have scratched the surface of what the Bible has to tell us about Jesus Messiah, the Son of God, whose expectant ancestors were justified because they believed in Him before the Incarnation. His identity was confirmed by His resurrection which they had hoped to see.

Related reading: The Substance of Abraham's Faith; Where Judaism and Christianity Part Ways; Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity; Early Resurrection Texts; Judaism is Not the Faith of Abraham; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection

The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative

The following is a conversation I had with a friend and a reader of Just Genesis. I provide a conclusion at the end which summaries some of the key ideas. There are related articles linked at the bottom also.


David Dickens: I was going to ask you about non-Biblical Horite/Proto-Saharan texts. You've talked about a lot of how Genesis lines up with the culture and some of archaeological work in Africa, but I was wondering if there are other sources of narrative. I'm looking for the Nilo-Saharan equivalent of Beowulf, I suppose.

Alice Linsley: The older Horus-Set narrative may be a close parallel. Horus, as the son of the Creator, comes to vanquish Set and claims the kingdom for the Creator God/High King. Not quite the same elements as in Beowulf. Set means bow, and the land of Nubia was called Ta-Seti, the "land of the bow." The Nubians were famous for archery. This narrative dates to around 5000 BC.

David:  At least that gives me a good place to start. I've seen a lot of anti-Horus propaganda lately whereas I'm perfectly happy with a typological interpretation of the Horus myths. (But then I'm no expert so my opinion is no better than most of the critics.)


Alice: There is much ignorance about Horus. Also, a great deal of nonsense on the internet about ancient Egyptian beliefs and magic. You might find this piece helpful: Ha'piru, Ha'biru, 'Apiru or Hebrew?


David: There's certainly all the pieces there, but the narrative is missing. I can read the first few chapters of Genesis, Ramayana, Epic of Gilgamesh, legends of the Eight Immortals, Beowulf... there are so many ancient stories (some with meticulous detail, but all with unifying themes) but there doesn't seem to be one for Horus or the Ha'biru peoples. It seems almost all we have is archeological evidence and some descriptions from ancient historians.

Alice:  The Bible is the narrative of the Horite Hebrew/Ha'biru. It is the only consistent source of the Righteous Ruler narrative. Unfortunately, there are competing narratives in Genesis that produce contextual incongruities. Nevertheless, we know which is the older tradition. It is the one which speaks of the "Seed" of God (Gen. 3:15) coming into the world and trampling down the serpent. The work published at JUST GENESIS attempts to reconnect Christianity to that older Tradition.

A late editorial hand, the Deuteronomist Historian (700-250 BC), introduced a new idea of God in YHWY. YHWY represents a rabbinic version in which there is no divine son. John's Gospel seeks to correct this. John explains that his purpose in writing is "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God." (John 20:31) Likewise, Martha professes that Jesus is Messiah, the Son of God (John 11:27), and John the Baptist bears witness that Jesus is the Son of God (John 1:34).


David:  So nothing extra-Biblical remains of the myths and legends of a people who touched three continents, spanned thousands of years and had a hand in every ancient civilization in the eastern hemisphere? I just doesn't sound right.

I'm not saying the Bible isn't the bees-knees, I'm just surprised that its all that remains (besides a few hieroglyphs on some temple wall).


Alice: Oh, there is much that pertains to the narrative outside the Bible. The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts and Pyramid Texts provide a great deal of information about Horus, the divine son of Ra. This is expressed in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. In the priest's prayer to the King, he says, "Horus is a soul and he recognizes his Father in you..." (Utterance 423)

There are Akkadian artifacts and texts that testify to the belief in a Divine Father with a Divine Son. In Akkadian texts the father is called Ani and the son is called Enki.

Also there is the evidence of burial practices among rulers who were served by Horite Hebrew priests. The righteous rulers who were buried in pyramids from the Nile to the Tarum Valley of China hoped for bodily resurrection. That is why their bodies were mummified. It appears that their hope rested in the one who was pierced in the side, and died and rose from the dead on the third day.

The Nilotic Horites held an annual a 5-day festival in which they mourned the death of the son of God. On the third day, the priests lead the people to the fields where they planted seeds of grain to symbolize his rising to life.

Jesus told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day..." (Luke 24:46) Where is it written? Scholars cannot find this in the canon. However, 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)

David: I'll have to hunt them down then. I've never seen that sort of collection.


Alice:  As an anthropologist I am aware of the dangers of constructing parallels without substantial evidence from all of these disciplines. I have no interest in exaggerating trifling resemblances. My first impulse is to regard the similarities between Horus and Jesus as yet an example of parallelomania. This is the initial reaction of most people until the evidence is set before them that Ra and Horus express the Father-Son relationship that is the basis of the Messianic Faith.

The Horite expectation that the Righteous Son would not remain in the grave is expressed in Psalm 16:10: For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

My assertion that the Ra-Horus-Hathor story from the ancient Nile Valley is a form of the Proto-Gospel has been labeled as an example of parallelomania. Such a claim reveals ignorance of what I have written. The Messiah is not a human invention patterned on the Horus myth. Horus is the pattern by which the Horite Hebrew expected a divine Son who would rule as Messiah, and Jesus is the only figure of history who fits the pattern.

Further, Jesus is a direct descendant of the Horite ruler-priests, some of whom lived in Bethlehem and others of whom lived in Nazareth, the home of the 18th priestly division, ha·pi·TSETS (Happizzez). Jesus' Horite ancestry is demonstrated by the distinctive Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern as evident in scientific analysis of the Genesis King Lists. He is the "Seed" of the Woman, the long-expected Immortal Mortal who tramples down death and receives the eternal kingdom.

Hathor conceived Horus by divine overshadowing of the Sun, the emblem of Re.

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

Hathor is shown at the Dendura Temple holding her newborn son in a manger or stable. The stable was constructed by the Horite priest Har-si-Atef. Atef was the crown worn by deified rulers. The Arabic word atef or atif means “kind.” The ruler who wore the atef crown was to embody kindness and he was to unite the peoples, as Horus unites the peoples of the Upper and Lower Nile.

The rulers of the two regions wore different crowns, but Horus was called "Horus of the Two Crowns" because he wore both. This is what stands behind the account of Yeshua/Joshua, the priest, receiving the "crowns" in Zechariah 6:11: "Take the silver and gold, and make crowns, and set it upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest..."

Of course, "Yeshua" is the Hebrew for Jesus. Horus is the only mythological figure in ancient Egypt who was understood to be a man, and as a man he wears the two crowns.

Christianity is not an invented religion based on the Horus myth. It is a faith that emerges organically from a received tradition. A closer look at the details of that sacred and very ancient Tradition speak of life beyond the grave through the agency of a divine ruler, the Son of God, who overcomes death and leads his people to immortality. The details of the narrative are extremely important. One such detail is the third-day resurrection described in Pyramid Texts Utterance 667: 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.

Consider how Horus describes himself in the Coffin Texts (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’.

This text is at least 800 years older than the words of Psalm 110:1, a clear messianic reference: The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

The reference to the cloak reminds me of this from Proverbs 30:4:

Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son--surely you know!

Conclusion

The expectation of a Righteous Ruler who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality has been found to be a wide spread and rooted in deep antiquity. It can be traced to the Nilotic belief in the bodily resurrection. In the Coffin Texts, the king is to be immortal in his flesh, expressed by his eating and drinking. Egyptologist Louis Vico Žabkar argues that the Nilotic concept of the "ba" is not a part of the person but is the person himself. The idea of a purely immaterial existence was entirely foreign to the Horite Hebrew. They were confident that the body and spirit could be united after death and thus the "second death" could be avoided.

This reality is lost in translation. The Septuagint borrowed the Greek word ψυχή psychē to describe the soul instead of the term ba to describe body. Žabkar concludes that the concept of the ba is so essential to ancient Egyptian thought that it would be better to used the exact term or explain the distinction in a footnote or parenthetically.

According to St. Augustine "the Egyptians alone believe in the resurrection, as they carefully preserved their dead bodies." ("Death, burial, and rebirth in the religions of antiquity", Jon Davies, Routledge, 1999, p. 27)

In The Pyramid Texts, dating from the beginning of the 4th dynasty, we read: "O Hunger, do not come for me; go to the Abyss, depart to the flood! I am satisfied, I am not hungry because of this kmhw bread of Horus which I have eaten." (Utterance 338) The Egyptian word km means to bring to an end, to complete, or fulfill, and hw refers to the heavenly temple or mansion of the firmament above. The Akkadian variant is khenfu cakes which are mentioned in the ancient Code of Ani.

It appears that the "kmhw bread of Horus" is what the Church Fathers call "the bread of immortality." Concerning himself, Jesus said that "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:53-54).

Certainly, there are messianic elements found among peoples who were not Horite Hebrew. In Hrothgar's view Beowulf is divinely appointed to save his people and he "was led like a lamb to the slaughter" (Is. 53), being betrayed by one of his own inner circle. There are other messiah-like figures in history and literature. The American mythologist, Joseph Campbell, called this the "Monomyth." In his fourth "Eclogue" (written between 42 and 27 BC) Virgil prophesied that a child would be born who would bring peace to the whole world.

These are relatively recent, however. The hope of a righteous ruler who overcomes death and leads his people to immortality can be traced to at least 5000 BC. Messianic expectation predates Abraham and appears to have originated among the Horite Hebrew priest caste that served in the Sun shrines that were found from ancient Nubia to Anatolia and from Edom to the Indus Valley.

The Horus narrative is a form of the Proto-Gospel. Here we find a central truth of the Messianic Faith: that the divine Father has a divine Son. Allusions to the Father-Son relationship appear in ancient Nilotic texts and in the Psalms.

Here is another Messianic passage that speaks of Him trampling the serpent:

"They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down." (Psalm 91:12,13)

This expectation was expressed about 1000 years before Psalm 91 in the Pyramid Texts.

"Horus has shattered (tbb, crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot (tbw)" Utterance 388 (681)

Jesus’ Horite ancestry is attested by analysis of his ancestry using the king lists of Genesis and the genealogical data of the Matthew and Luke. These reflect the Horite Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern. We are not speaking here of trifling resemblances between the myth of Horus and the historic Jesus. Scripture itself indicates that Abraham and his people were a caste of ruler-priest devotees of Horus. The Horus name appears among many Hebrew figures. Hathor was venerated among the Horite Hebrew metal workers. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timnah by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. This is the site of some of the world's oldest copper mines.

Some of the Horite Hebrew rulers are listed in Genesis 36. They ruled in Edom, the same territory that God gave to Abraham. The Horite Hebrew expected a woman of their blood lines to bring forth the "Seed" of God in accordance with the biblical promise in Genesis 3:15. The Proto-Gospel upholds the Father-Son relationship, but this theme is later suppressed by the YHWH cult. YHWH has no son.

Messianic expectation involves the crushing of cosmic forces that oppose the Creator. He who crushes receives in His divine and sinless person the suffering that sinners deserve. He was pierced, scourged, and crowned with thorns. Four centuries before Jesus was born, Plato describes an ancient belief concerned the "Just One"who would be "scourged, bound and crucified." (Republic ii, Chapters 4 and 5). He did not learn this from the Jews. Rather, it was an expectation held among the Nilotic priests, one of which was Sechnuphis, under whom Plato studied for 13 years at Memphis.

The ancient accounts surrounding Horus have many parallels to the story of Jesus. Some skeptics claim that the early Christians borrowed the idea of a dying-rising deity from the ancient Egyptians or from the Roman Dionysus cult. That claim has no historical substantiation, however. It fails to take into consideration that the New Testament writers were biological descendants of and the heirs of the Horite Hebrew, and they saw Jesus as the fulfillment and embodiment of the descriptions of the long-expected Son, born miraculously by divine overshadowing. This is how the Virgin Mary conceived the Son, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:35).

The word “Serapis” is a fusion of the names Osiris/Horus and the long-horn Apis bull. The Apis bull was the totem of Hathor, Horus’ mother. Her crown of horns cradles the Sun as a sign of her appointment by divine overshadowing.

Though the main library in Alexandria was destroyed, ancient scholars were still able to access a "daughter library" at the Serapis temple located in another part of the city. Around AD 197, Tertullian wrote: "To this day, at the temple of Serapis, the libraries of Ptolemy are to be seen, with the identical Hebrew originals [the Septuagint] in them" (Apology, XVIII).

In a 134 AD letter to his brother-in-law, Emperor Hadrian wrote, “Egypt, which you commended to me, my dearest Servianus, I have found to be wholly fickle and inconsistent, and continually wafted about by every breath of fame. The worshipers of Serapis (here) are called Christians, and those who are devoted to the god Serapis, call themselves Bishops of Christ.” It is evident that the early Nilotic Christians recognized the Messianic symbolism of the Ra-Horus-Hathor narrative.


Related reading: The Social Structure of the Biblical Hebrew (Part 1 of 7); Who is Jesus?; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Fundamentalism and Syncretism in Hebrew History; Ha'piru, Ha'biru, 'Apiru or Hebrew?; The Priests of Nazareth; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; The Virgin Mary's Horite Ancestry; Was the Virgin Mary a Dedicated Royal Woman?

Why Does Genesis Speak of Gods?

Alice C. Linsley


The plural form for God in Arabic and Hausa is Allohi, the equivalent of the Hebrew Elohiym. El and Al are very ancient names for God. The plural form appears in Genesis 1: In the beginning eloh-iym (the gods) created the heavens and the earth. It also appears in Genesis 6:2, which speaks of the "sons of the eloh-iym" who took wives from the daughters of men. The plural form reflects a mythical view of the world and relates to the ancient Horites from whom we receive this material. They are the origin of Israel's priesthood and why Jews call their ancestors "horim."

The Horite ruler-priests were regarded as deified "sons" of God. They are often called "gods" (elohiym) as in Exodus 22:28: "Thou shalt not revile the gods (elohiym), nor curse the ruler of thy people."

Rulers are appointed by God's authority to restrain evil, to establish justice and to reward those who do what is good. They act not only on God's behalf; they act as “gods” on earth. Horite rulers were to be pure and to embody the qualities of righteousness, mercy, goodness, justice, etc. Some were good rulers who tried to live as God desired.  These are remembered in the Bible. Job, Abraham, Moses and Joseph are examples. All were Horite rulers.

Horite priests were known for their sobriety and purity.  Heliopolis (Biblical Onn) was one of their most important shrine cities. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

Joseph married Asenath, the chaste daughter of a priest of Heliopolis, a shrine city of Horus and his father Ra. The Heliopolitan cosmogony can be investigated by study of the Pyramid and Coffin Texts. From these texts, it is apparent that Heliopolis was both the city of the Sun and the sacred center of the primeval ocean, Nun. The many pillars that comprised the temple complex symbolized the connection between the waters below and the waters above (Gen. 1:7). Joshua, son (bin) of Nun, likely was of a ruler-priest family associated with this prestigious complex. This is supported by the fact that Joshua (Yeshua) is the only spy in Numbers 14:4-16 for whom the Arabic bin is used for son, instead of the Hebrew ben.



Horite Priests and Purity

In 2010, the tomb of a Horite priest was discovered south of the cemetery of the pyramid builders at Giza. It belongs to a priest named Rudj-Ka (or Rwd-Ka). Rwd-Ka was a purification priest serving the house of Khafre (BC 2520-2494), the pharaoh who built the second-largest pyramid at Giza which was aligned to the obelisk of Heliopolis. This was the tomb of an important priest and scribe of the Egyptian royal court as evidenced by his several titles. Rwd-Ka means "deified ruler of the sphere or realm."  Rwd means sphere, globe or realm and the royal ka is a Horus name indicating that Horus, the son of Ra, dwells in the priest. (In Hausa, kai means head or ruler.)

Horite priests served in the temple on a rotating schedule. It is from the Horite priesthood that the priesthood of Israel developed. Moses' brothers Korah and Aaron were Horite priests before the nation of Israel existed.

The Horites worshiped the Creator who emblem was the Sun when other peoples were worshiping idols of false gods. They anticipated the coming of the Seed of God (Gen. 3:15) and believed that He would be born of their royal-priest bloodlines. That is why the lines of priests intermarrried exclusively and why unchaste daughters of priests were burned alive (Lev. 21:9). Sexual impurity was not tolerated.

Horite priest

The Horite priest was purified before entering the temple. His purification involved fasting, abstinence from sexual relations and alcohol, ritual bathing, and an intense period of prayer. Korah, Moses' half-brother, was a priest according to Numbers 16:17,18. His name means "shaved one."  Horite priests shaved their heads and bodies as part of the purification ritual.

The ruler-priest's reward for righteousness was life after death. This is why great pains were taken in their burial. In pre-dynastic times and in the earliest dynasties the people were believed to follow their deified ruler from this world to the next. Their immortality depended on that of their ruler. This is why the ruler was to be righteous and undefiled by contact with blood or corpses.

The procession to the ruler's 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 in Ephesians 4:8: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." The same idea is reflected in Psalm 68:18: "When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious--that you, O Lord God, might dwell there."

As far as we know, none of the ruler-priests rose from the grave to ascend on high, except Jesus Christ. This was the ultimate test of authenticity.



The Son of God in Horite Belief

The Horites called Hor (Greek Horus) the "son of God" as he was conceived of a virgin queen who was overshadowed by the Sun, the emblem of the Creator Re. Hor's mother was called Hathor-Meri (later Isis) and her animal totem was a cow. She is shown at the Dendura Temple holding her newborn son in a manger or stable. The stable was constructed by the Horite priest Har-si-Atef. Atef was the crown worn by deified rulers. The Arabic word atef or atif means "kind."  The ruler who wore the atef crown was to embody kindness and he was to unite the peoples.

Horite belief in a deified son who would embody kindness and unite the peoples found fulfillment in Jesus Christ, a descendant of the Horite ruler-priests, the divine son of the Virgin Mary, daughter of the priest Joachim of the line of Nathan. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham's Horite ancestors in Eden (Gen. 3:15). This is why Frank Moore Cross cannot avoid the conclusion that the God of Israel is the God of the Horites.

Consider how Horus, the mythical archetype of Christ, describes himself 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)

Here we find the words of Psalm 110:1, a messianic reference: The Lord says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."

Likewise, Psalm 2:7,8 declares:  "I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession."

The thrust of the message is clear: One lives who is far greater than the other gods, be they mythical or deified rulers on earth. He is the unique Son of the Father and all things will be made subject to him. The language is ancient, as is the conception, but clearly the Christian understanding of Jesus Christ is found here in kernel form.

The correspondence between the Horus Myth and the story of Jesus can be explained in two ways. Either Christians borrowed the Horus myth or Christianity emerges in an organic way from the belief system of Abraham and his Horite people. If we decide that Christians borrowed the Horus myth, we must explain why they should have selected this particular myth. In reality, no other religions prefigure Jesus Christ, the Son of God, other than the faith of Israel as it emerges out of the faith of Abraham's Horite ancestors.



The Horites of Exodus

The book of Exodus provides further evidence that the term elohyim relates to Horite belief. Moses and his family were Horites as is evidenced by the unique Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern of Moses' family.

The diagram shows that Moses' father Amram married a descendant of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36). She was his cousin or niece bride and Jochebed was Amram's half-sister wife.


The term elohiym is used in reference to Horite rulers who served as priests at water shrines along the Nile and at wells. These Horite rulers and judges are called "elohiym" because they reflected the divine majesty and power. Numerous passages in Exodus use elohiym in this sense:

Exodus 4:16 -“Moreover, he [Aaron] shall speak for you [Moses] to the people; and it shall come about that he shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be as God [elohiym] to him.”

Exodus 7:1 - Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you as God [elohiym] to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.”

Exodus 21: 6 - “Then his master shall bring him to God [elohiym], or the rulers who act in God’s name], then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.”

Exodus 22:8,9 -“If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house shall appear before the judges [elohiym], to determine whether he laid his hands on his neighbor’s property. For every breach of trust, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any lost thing about which one says, ‘This is it,’ the case of both parties shall come before the judges [elohiym]; he whom the judges [elohiym] condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.”



Elohiym as Idols

The use of elohiym in Genesis and Exodus stands apart from its use in other parts of the Old Testament.  For example, in Deuteronomy 4:35, elohiym refers to Israel's one and only God.  The elohiym in Deuteronomy, in some Psalms, and in Jeremiah refers to idols, not to rulers. Consider these examples:

Psalm 96:5 – “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”

Jeremiah 10:11 – “"Tell them this: 'These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’”

Jeremiah is speaking of the false gods or idols condemned in Judges 11:24, 1 Kings 18:24 and in the first Commandment. Michael Heiser, who has written extensively on this subject here and here, notes, “Even the Shema and the first commandment do not consign the other gods to fantasy, since the demand is made that no other gods should be worshipped.”

Elohiym as Ruler-Priests

The term elohyim or gods refers to the ruler-priests, a caste which was widely dispersed even before Abraham's time. They were expected to reflect the divine image more than any other people. The “gods” referred to in Psalm 82:1-6 are the rulers of Israel, who have failed to reflect the divine image as God's earthly representatives. Consider these references:

Psalm 82:6 -  "I said, 'You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.”

Psalm 82:1-2 -  "God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the gods [rulers]. How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? Selah.”  

Here God judges the rulers in the midst of the rulers, the elohyim/gods who comprise the divine council. Verse 2 identifies the rulers as those to be judged. In Psalm 72 they are called shaphat, a name associated with the Horites in Numbers 14:5. One of the spies sent into Canaan was Shaphat ben Hori. Note also that the New American Standard Bible renders elohiym here as rulers.

Psalm 58:1,2 - "Do you indeed speak righteousness, O gods? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men? No, in heart you work unrighteousness; on earth you weigh out the violence of your hands."

A similar condemnation is found in II Chronicles 19:6,7: "And he said to the judges, “Consider what you are doing, for you do not judge for man but for the Lord who is with you when you render judgment. Now then let the fear of the Lord be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the Lord our God will have no part in unrighteousness, or partiality, or the taking of a bribe."

This condemnation is directed against the elders and rulers of the people. Consider this from Isaiah 3:13-15: "The Lord arises to contend, and stands to judge the people. The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing My people, and grinding the face of the poor?” (cf. Ezek. 34:1-6).

The rulers failed to vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute, rescue the weak and needy; and deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. Because they failed to do this, God declares His judgment in Psalm 82:5-7: "They do not know nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are gods, And all of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless you will die like men, And fall like any one of the princes.”

Only one of the ruler-priests of the Horite lines would succeed in being fully righteous: Jesus Christ. In the future He will rule the earth (Ps. 72:12-15; 96:13; Isa. 11:1-5) and under His rule "the world is firmly established, it will not be moved." (Ps. 93:1) and "He will judge the peoples with equity." (Ps. 96:10)



Hierarchy of Elohiym

Among the Horites there was a hierarchy of ruler-priests. The king was the Creator's representative on earth and the ruler-priests were his lesser assisting authorities. Together these comprised the earthly council, a reflection of the henotheistic heavenly council. The archaic principle "as in heaven so on earth" is clear in the pattern.

The King as the highest power was expected to be the most pure.  That is why his person could not be touched by ordinary citizens. Under the king were his counselors who spent much of their time at court in the king's presence. Under the royal counselors were those who served in the temples or shrines as assistants to the higher ranks of priests. A similar order existed among the priests in Jerusalem.

Above all the kings and priests of the earth is God, the Creator of all.  It is remarkable that God should stoop to call his servants "sons" which is what we find in the Bible. Consider the relationship between God and David: “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.” (II Sam. 7:14-15)

Hierarchy is not a popular word in our time, but it is a characteristic of the ancient world and of the Biblical worldview. The king-subject hierarchy, the master-slave hierarchy, the father-son hierarchy and the husband-wife hierarchy are ideally expressed in love and mutual devotion. So wives are to submit to their husbands as “to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22), and slaves are to submit to their masters as “to Christ” (Ephesians 6:5).

Rulers, priests, husbands and masters all fail in righteousness. None is able to bring the kingdom of God on earth. That is why we await Christ's return and the fulfillment of the promise that He shall establish an eternal kingdom of peace. The citizens of His eternal kingdom must themselves be eternal beings. That is why Jesus offers eternal life to all who believe that He is the Son of God who has come into the world to save repentant sinners. John gave this witness: "This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him." (1 John 4:9)

Related reading:  Abraham and Job: Horite Rulers; The Myth of Israel's Dual Origins; Moses' Horite Family; Purity Seal from Herod's Temple; The Enigma of Joseph; Righteous Job and His Kin; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Was Abraham an Idol Worshiper?; God and the Gods, by Ron Hendel

Osiris and Dionysus Foreshadow Christ

Alice C. Linsley


C.S. Lewis accepted that the pagan myths of Osiris and Dionysus foreshadowed Christianity and spoke of spiritual realities. J.R.R. Tolkien expected Christ-figures to appear in myths, because from the beginning, the human has longed for a great ruler with the power to defeat death. Both understood the lasting power of myth compared to historical accounts.  Were I to interview random persons, most if not all, would be able to tell me about Adam and Eve. However, few if any, would be able to recount key events of 1520 or 1880. Myths have staying power.

All myths about a dying deity who returns from the grave are really the same myth with variations on the theme. As Joseph Campbell noted this myth has a wide global dispersion, indicating that it is very old. He called it the "monomyth" of the hero's journey.

The Greeks, who were much infatuated with ancient Egyptian religion, borrowed Osiris for their Dionysian cult. To understand how this myth is about Jesus Christ, we must investigate the religion of Abraham's Horite people. The expectation of a Righteous Ruler who would destroy death originated among them.

The Horites were devotees of the high God (Ra) whose emblem was the Sun. Ra's son was Hor (Horus) whose emblem or totem was the falcon.  Hor is sometimes shown flying above the Sun on Ra's solar boat.  This is important because it is Hor who dies and rises, not Osiris.  Osiris was murdered and his body dismembered and scattered. The pieces of his body were rejoined and he became the lord of the dead. Osiris did not rise from the grave.  He descended to the shadow land of Sheol.

The ancient Egyptian priests taught that the dead person continues as a shadow and they considered the blessed dead “the living ones.” [1] The word Sheol is derived from the Egyptian word Sheut (šwt), meaning shadow. Statues or ancestor figurines of deified rulers were painted black to convey their continued existence as shadows. On the final day, some in shadowland will be granted eternal life and others will die the second death.

Genesis 25:8 says, “Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.” The phrase “gathered to his people” or “gathered to his fathers” applies to the Horite ruler-priest caste to which Abraham, Job, Moses, Aaron and David belonged, and from whom Jesus Christ came as a direct descendant. Abraham, Job, Moses Aaron and David all died and remained in the grave, but Jesus Christ rose. As Hebrews attests, He is our great High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek.

This phrase "gathered to his people" should not be generalized. It does not apply to all people, but is specific to the unbroken line from Abraham to Christ our Lord. This is why I believe the phrase relates specifically to the Horites or Horim who were a priestly caste. This is evidenced again in Numbers 20:26: “Remove Aaron's garments and put them on his son Eleazar, for Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will die there.”

In Predynastic times, the whole people was embodied by the ruler who was expected to intercede in life and death for his people. Great pains were taken to bury the ruler so that he would rise from the grave. Likely, Abraham's beliefs about resurrection would have corresponded to those of his Horite ancestors who were called "gods" (elohiym).

The rulers of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death. Osiris controlled the shadowlands and rose daily from the deep as the Sun rises. His death is symbolized by the setting of the sun in the west.  There his son, Hor/Horus reigned for him as his heir. The Egyptian word hr (her, hor, har) means "the one on high." The Turin Canon, which provides important information on Egypt's early history, describes the Predynastic rulers of Egypt as "Followers of Horus" and Horus as the "Ruler of the Two Horizons."

Horus was identified with ruler-priests in ancient Egypt. His identification with the king was shown on early decorated monuments from Nekhen (Hierakonpolis). The Horites believed that heavenly recognition of a people depended on the righteousness of their ruler-priest.  If God turned His face away from the ruler, the people suffered from want and war. If the ruler found favor with God, the people experienced abundance and peace. The ruler's resurrection meant that he could lead his people beyond the grave to new life. This is why great pains were taken to insure that the ruler not come into contact with dead bodies, avoid sexual impurity, and be properly preserved after death. The ruler's burial was attended by prayers, sacrifices and a grand procession to the royal tomb.

Heavenly recognition for the Horites was never an individual prospect. Heavenly recognition came to the people through the righteousness of their ruler-priest. This is the context for the Christian understanding of Jesus as the risen ruler who leads his people from the grave to the throne of heaven.

Horite rulers hoped to rise from the grave in union with Osiris and inherit eternal life. They were a caste of ruler-priests whose origins are veiled in great antiquity.  They were honored in 4400 B.C. at Nekhen, the oldest known center of worship of Horus of Nekhen.  His totem was the falcon.

As the priests became more ambitious, the idea that heavenly recognition depended upon the Righteous Ruler who could defeat death shifted.  The cult of Osirus became very powerful and very profitable for the priests. Costly initiation rites were encouraged by priests willing to change the tradition of their Horim to line their pockets.This shift began about 500 years after Abraham and is reflected in the Vedic Age. People sought to be initiated into an emerging Osiris/Horus cult.[2] They hoped that ritual association with Horus' death and resurrection would bring them resurrection. They no longer expected a Righteous Ruler to actually rise from the dead.

Expectation of life beyond the grave came to depend, not on the appearance of a Righteous Ruler, but on the agency of priests and sacrifice. This happened among the Vedic and Pagan priests who encouraged animal sacrifice to such extreme proportions that blood flowed from their altars. A Vedic proverb states that "Sacrifice is the navel of the world." The priests taught that the merit of the sacrifice depended on its costliness. Sacrifices of twelve and three victims (trittues) were the most common, but hundreds of animals might be sacrificed at a time.

The priests of Israel distanced themselves from the Pagan and Vedic priests. They taught that sacrifice was for the atonement of sin, but they also looked for the coming of the Righteous Ruler.  Many had hoped that David would be that ruler, but he too died and was gathered to his fathers. He did not rise from the grave.  In all of history, there is but one Righteous Ruler who rose from the dead, even Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

1. Conceptions of God In Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many", Erik Hornung (translated by John Baines), p. 233, Cornell University Press, 1996, ISBN 10-8014-8384-0

2. “Man, Myth and Magic", Osiris, vol. 5, p. 2087-2088, S.G.F. Brandon, BPC Publishing, 1971.

Related reading: Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Resurrection as Mirrored Reality; "Gathered to His People"; Horite Expectation and the Star of Bethlehem; The Eyes of Horus Speak of Jesus; The Double Crown of Horus; Jesus Christ of the Two Crowns; Why Does Genesis Speak of Gods?

Sheol and the Second Death

Alice C. Linsley

It is significant that the Medieval view of Purgatory is not required to be believed. The concept of a holding place for the dead is very ancient, going back to the Nilotic Hebrew as early as 2000 BC. It is found in the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin texts. The Hebrew word Sheol comes from the ancient Egyptian word Sheut (šwt), meaning shadow. The Egyptians believed that something of the dead person continues as a shadow beyond death. Small figurines called "Shabti" were painted black and placed in the graves to portray the continued existence of the deceased in shadow. Each figurine was inscribed with a prayer. A famous example is Utterance 472 from the Coffin Texts which dates from c. 2143-2040 BC.

The Egyptians also believed in bodily resurrection. St. Augustine noted that the Egyptians took great care in the burial of their dead and never practiced cremation, as in the religions that seek to escape material existence. Their greatest fear was the "second death" which apparently occurs when the body and the spirit as a unit are not restored to life in the resurrection. On Holy Saturday did Jesus descend to Hell, Hades, or Sheol? If to Sheol, He would have greeted the penitent thief "this day."

What is the difference between the Nilotic and Hellenistic views of death and the state of the dead? The Greek understanding is Hades, often translated "hell" in the Bible. Hades is the land of the dead, the underworld beyond the river Styx. It takes its name from the deity "Hades" who was believed to rule there.

 
In the Septuagint, the Greek term "ᾅδης" (Hades) is used for the Hebrew "שׁאול" (Sheol), but the concepts represent different cultural contexts. This contributes to the difficulty of translation, as demonstrated in these renderings of Isaiah 38:18.

New International Version
For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.

Here the word "grave" doesn't convey a state of existence beyond the grave.

Douay-Rheims Version
For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth.

The word "hell" is laden with Hellenistic notions about the underworld and evokes mental images from Dante's Inferno. Dante's hell represents beliefs typical of the Middle Ages, but his works do not align closely with biblical teaching on existence after death.

New American Standard
For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

Here the word "sheol" is preserved and the meaning aligns more closely with what Jesus taught about the dead in the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man. Lazarus rested in "the bosom of Abraham" and between Lazarus and the Rich Man there was a great fixed gulf which none could overcome (Matthew 5:29, 30; 18:9; Mark 9:42). Therefore, Sheol has two regions: the bosom of Abraham where the righteous dead rest in peace, and the region of fire (gehenna) were there is no peace. 

The word "hell" appeared 77 times in Jerome's Vulgate Old Testament and 24 times in his New Testament. The commission that worked on the Authorized Bible (King James Version) recognized a cultural difference between the Semitic Sheol and the Hellenistic Hades. This is evident in the way that the King James Version uses the word "hell" in the Old Testament only 31 times, compared to Jerome's 77 times.

Another explanation links adēs, hades to the root aeidēs, meaning invisible. This explanation of the Venerable Theophylact (Commentary on Luke's Gospel, see footnote on p. 213) aligns more closely with the original concept found among the early Hebrew priests (long before Judaism).

Etymology of Sheol

The word Sheol, as it relates to the ancient Egyptian word Sheut (šwt), means place of shadows. This is the origin of the idea that the underworld is a place of shadows. More research needs to be done on the burial practices of the Horite Hebrew, an ancient ruler-priest caste.

In Pre-dynastic times, rulers were buried in the sand in circular pan graves which were marked with decorated skulls of bulls, gazelles and goats. These have been found in cemeteries of Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia beginning in the Second Intermediate Period. (Source: Sudan, 2000–1000 B.C., Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art). The sand leached the moisture from the body in a natural process of mummification.

Because the desert was a place of burial, people feared to be there after dark when the shadows of the dead were believed to roam.

Egyptian, Hebrew, and Kushite rulers were never cremated, though this practice would prevail in some of the territories over which they ruled. Around 2600 BC, the priests of the Nile began to mummify the bodies of their deceased rulers and placed them in elaborate tombs.

Among the early Hebrew, the whole population was represented by the ruler, so great pains were taken to bury the ruler so that he would rise with the Sun, the emblem of the Creator. Being raised to life was reserved for royal persons who were expected to make intercessions for their people. The deified ancestors were venerated, not worshiped, an important distinction. The kings listed in the "begats" (Gen. 4 and 5) were venerated rulers. 

Abraham's beliefs about resurrection would have corresponded to those of his ancestors. He lived long before the rabbis began speculating about the existence of the dead. By Jesus' time, a faction had arisen among the Jews that rejected belief in the resurrection of the dead, but according to St. Augustine "the Egyptians alone believe in the resurrection, as they carefully preserved their dead bodies." ("Death, burial, and rebirth in the religions of antiquity", Jon Davies, Routledge, 1999, p. 27)

The Egyptians were not alone in this belief.  It was also the belief of the ancient Horite Hebrew from whom Abraham descended. The Sadducees were far from the belief of their Hebrew ancestors because they expected one of their rulers to rise from the dead.

This belief is central to Messianic expectation and was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the dead on the third day. He is the Sun that rises with healing in His wings.  Here we have a very ancient allusion to Horus as a falcon flying above the Sun, the emblem of his Father, as it makes its westward journey.

Horus (top right) flying above Ra's solar boat
Relief found at Angkor Wat (ancient Siam)

The Apostle Paul explains that those who die with Christ in baptism will rise in Him on the Last Day. These will not die the "second death" of which John speaks in Revelation 2:11 - "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death."


Related reading: The Bosom of Abraham; Did Abraham Believe Isaac to be Messiah?; Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; When the Church Speaks of Death

The Empty Tomb: Yeshua is Risen

Artist:  Dale R. Molnar
© South Light Studio, Inc., 2008

http://www.southlightstudio.net/

Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen.

Hallelujah!


Thy Resurrection, Oh Christ My Savior, the angels in Heaven sing!

Enable us on Earth to Glorify Thee in purity of heart!

Many are embracing Jesus Messiah in faith, recognizing Him as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise. He is the "Seed" of Genesis 3:15 who came into the world to crush the serpent's head and to restore Paradise. He accomplished this through His Incarnation, Death, Resurrection and Ascension.

By His death He trampled down death! He is the long expected Righteous Ruler whose identity is confirmed by His third day resurrection.

When Jesus told his Disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to die, he referred to Genesis 3:15.  He explained, "I tell you, unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it will only be a seed. If it dies, it bears much fruit."  John 12:24

When Rabbi Kaduri died at age 108, he left a signed note indicating Messiah's identity: Yeshua - Jesus. His manuscripts, written in his own hand, have crosses painted all over the pages. Jews argue that the great Rabbi Kaduri was not a Christian. Whether he believed in the Incarnate Son of God who died and rose from the grave to save sinners, only God knows. Suffice it to say that, as one of the world's leading authorities on Jewish mysticism,

Rabbi Kaduri knew the traditions of Abraham's people expressed in symbols and patterns and those pointed him to the truth about Jesus Christ. Watch this YouTube video on Rabbi Kaduri.

Related reading: Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Matthew's Testimony Concerning the Empty Tomb; The Significance of Galilee in Matthew's Gospel; Christ's Resurrection in Genesis; Ostrich Eggshells: Paleolithic Easter Eggs?