Jesus: From Lamb to Ram

Alice C. Linsley


God works single-mindedly throughout the ages to restore lost humanity to Himself.  This is the theme from Genesis to Revelation, and it is predicated on the first promise concerning the Seed of the Woman who would crush the head of the serpent and restore Paradise.  In calling Himself "Son of Man", Jesus identified Himself as the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15). To receive Him as the Son of God, we must affirm His complete humanity. To believe that He is God with the power to save us, we must receive Him as both the Son of Man and the Son of God.

When Scripture poses binary opposites such as God-Man, it is initiating a pattern of thought that travels between 2 points, just as the Sun appears to move from east and west. In this movement there is a point in which the Sun's glory is greatest - the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, which in the northern hemisphere is June 21- 22.  Likewise, on a sunny day the sun is felt most intensely upon one's shoulders at hign noon, the point between east and west. 

The notion here is that of a shuttle moving back and forth. The weave requires redoubling to make the fabric or the web strong. The  English web is likely derived from the word keb or kab. Kab pertains to weaving with a shuttle. Weavers are called the ka, those who kab. Ka also refers to the the body which is "knit" in the womb.  Ka-ba refers to the relationship between the body and the soul. Kab also implies a doubling or redoubling to strengthen.

This movement between points corresponds to the ancients' observations of the stars and constellations.  They were adept at sidereal astronomy. Horus of the two horizons (east-west) and Horus of the two crowns (north-south) are examples of how meaning is derived by holding 2 points in view. We see this in the Passover sacrifice at twilight, what is called in  Hebrew ben ha-'arbayim, meaning "between the two settings."  Rabbinic sources take this to mean "from noon on."  According to Radak, the first "setting" occurs when the sun passes its zenith at noon and the shadows begin to lengthen, and the second "setting" is the actual sunset (p. 55, vol. 2, The Jewish Publication Society Torah Commentary, "Exodus").

On the eastern horizon Horus is the lamb, young and pure as the new day. On the western horizon, after his sacrifice at the sacred center (the Cross), he is the ram who comes to full strength.  The ram's horn (shofar) symbolized the covenant between God and the Israelites. When it was blown the veil or tehome was lifted, allowing God's Presence to be seen.  In Genesis One, tehom signifies the chaotic waters which are subdued and put into order by the Word or Wisdom (tehut) of God.  The ram's horn which lifts the veil and the Word of God which subdues chaos refer to Jesus the Christ.


From Lamb to Ram on Mount Moriah

As they ascended Mount Moriah, Isaac asked Abraham "where is the lamb" for the sacrifice.  Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb, but God didn't provide a lamb, but rather a ram. The ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah symbolized to Abraham that his offering had been accepted, because the lamb had become the ram. In his intention to offer his son, Abraham appears to have believed Isaac to be the Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15), but Isaac was spared because God would supply his own Lamb who passed from weakness (kenosis) to fullness of power (resurrection).

The sign of the Old Covenant is the blood of lambs and rams, but the lamb is weak compared to the adult ram. The blood of lambs speaks of the kenotic work of Christ, the Lamb of God. Horus was called the Lamb in his weaker (kenotic) existence and he was called the Ram in his glorified strength.  Both are associated with the death and resurrection symbolism of the vernal equinox.  This sheds light on the story of Abraham's offering of his son.  James 2:21 says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?"  Is this really about the necessity of faith and works? Or is James saying that faith is perfected or redoubled through sacrifice, death and resurrection? This understanding of redoubled strength better fits the context of Abraham's binding of Isaac.

When John pointed to Jesus and called Him the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world", he identified Him as the fulfillment of the first promise. John writes: "Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (I John 5:5)  To paraphrase: "who goes from fleshly weakness to divine strength?"  Only those who "put on Christ", the Lamb who has become the Ram. This is about resurrection of the Sacrificed One expected by the Horites; the Righteous Ruler who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality (final justification).

This is the faith of Abraham and his Horite ruler-priest ancestors.  "Har-Ur" (likely the origin of the place names Haran and Ur) refers to Horus in maturity, or the Elder Horus. In his infancy, he was depicted in ancient Egypt as either a calf or a lamb and in his maturity as a bull or a ram. Horus is the only mythological figure in ancient Egypt who was understood to be a man. And only as a man does he wear the two crowns.


Related reading:  Ram Symbolism in the Ancient World; The Lamb is Bound; Did Abraham Believe Isaac to be Messiah?; Sons and The Son; The Bosom of Abraham; The Victory of Tehut Over Tehom

What Abraham Discovered on Mt. Moriah

Alice C. Linsley

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.  (James 2:21-24)

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Romans 4:2-3)

Both James and Paul point to the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah to speak about the nature of justification. Therefore, it is important to understand what that event meant to Abraham the Hebrew.

Abraham was a Horite Hebrew, a devotee of God father and God Son. The "son" was called HR in ancient Egyptian, meaning "Most High One" or "Hidden One". 

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew were a ruler-priest caste that originated in the Nile Valley. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is Nekhen, an ancient city that stretched for two miles along the Nile. Votive offerings at the Nekhen temple were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite Hebrew priests placed invocations and prayers to Re (Father) and HR (Hur/Hor/Horus) at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. For the early Hebrew, the sun was the symbol of God Father and the co-equal Son. They viewed the solar arc as God's path through the heavens. 

"For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that He would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith." (Rom. 4:13)

As Abraham and Isaac ascended Mount Moriah, Isaac asked his father "where is the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb. However, that is not what God did. As the story goes, God provided a ram. To understand what this would have meant to Abraham, we must investigate the early Hebrew beliefs concerning the expected Righteous Ruler who would die and overcome death on the third day.

God provided a ram instead. For Abraham the Horite Hebrew, the lamb was associated with the east and the rising of the sun. The ram was associated with the west, the setting sun, and the future. This belief emerged from the solar imagery of the Proto-Gospel. Horus, the son of the High God was depicted as being one with the Father. He rode with the Father on the solar boat. The boat of the morning hours was called Mandjet (Ancient Egyptian: mꜥnḏt) and the boat of the evening hours was called Mesektet. While Horus was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form.

The ram symbolized God's acceptance of Abraham's offering at that moment (justification now) and God's acceptance of Abraham at the eschaton (future justification). The ram caught on Mount Moriah symbolized to Abraham that his offering had been accepted, because the lamb had become the ram, in mature strength. Horus was the Lamb in his weaker (kenotic) existence, and he was the Ram in his glorified strength. 

It appears that Abraham believed Isaac was the appointed son whose death would be overcome. but Isaac was spared when God provided his own sacrifice. Abraham likely believed Isaac to be the son of promise since some circumstances surrounding Isaac's birth align with the early Hebrew expectation of the Son of God.

Consider why Abraham might have believed he was to offer up Isaac:

1. Isaac was born miraculously (Gen. 21:5) as was Horus, who was said to have been conceived of a virgin when she was divinely overshadowed. Consider the Angel's words in Luke 1:35, explaining to Mary that she would conceive by overshadowing.

2. As Abraham's heir, Isaac was honored as being one with his father. From pre-dynastic times, the Creator was said to have a son, Horus. The Father and the Son are inseparable and of one essence in the theology of Abraham's Horim. Horus knows the Father and the Father knows the Son.

3. God named Isaac as the son by whom Abraham's seed would be called (Gen. 21:12). His brother Ishmael was banished. Horus was exalted after being abused by his brother Seth who was banished.

4. Isaac was sacrificed by the father (by faith) and restored to life (Gen. 22:2-9), since to Abraham he was already given up (holocaust). Horus was restored to life. This is why many ancient Egyptian funerary amulets were made in the shape of the Eye of Horus.

5. Isaac received the kingdom from his father (Gen. 25:25).  Horus receives a kingdom from Ra. In Horite Hebrew belief, Horus and Ra are frequently interchangeable - "I and my Father are one", as Jesus explained (John 10:30). The Father and the Son are inseparable and of one essence in the theology of Abraham's Horim. Horus knows the Father and the Father knows the Son. 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)

6. Isaac had two wives who lived in separate settlements with separate flocks. Together these constituted his kingdom. There were practical reasons for this practice.  In the event of attack, Isaac's line was more likely to survive if divided into two camps. This fear motivated Jacob to separate his two wives and their people into two groups when returning to Canaan (Gen. 32). Likewise, Horus is said to have two land holdings, as evidenced by one of his titles Har-pa-Neb-Taui, which means "Horus of the two lands." The Horus narrative speaks of how he unites the peoples of the Upper and Lower Nile into one people. Jesus Messiah is the one who unites all peoples.

7. The association of sheep with the Son of God is found in the Old and New Testaments. Horite Hebrew priests kept herds from which they took the best to offer as sacrifices. Jesus comes from a long line of shepherds of the priestly lines, on Joseph's side and Mary's side. Keeping sheep was not their only occupation, however. Some were metal workers, others were carpenters, but all were skilled in various enterprises. The rulers of Egypt kept flocks and acknowledged that Jacob's people were especially skilled shepherds. This is why Pharaoh asked Joseph to put the best of shepherd of Jacob's clan in charge of the royal flocks (Gen. 47:6).

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, speaks of having other sheep in another fold (John 10:16). Often the two folds are cast as dispensations: one consisting of those who lived in faithful expectation of the Son of God and the other being the witnesses of His resurrection (the Church). Together these comprise the Kingdom of God. They might also be seen as the two wives of Christ. The second wife was taken shortly before the ruler ascended to the throne. This puts the marriage feast of the Lamb in a new light.

8. The ruler-priests among Abraham's people were shepherds. The signs of their authority were the shepherd's crook and the flail. These emblems of royal authority have been found in pre-Dynastic wall paintings. Nekhen is the site of the most ancient Horite Hebrew temple (c. 4000 B.C.). Of particular interest is the tomb painting of two men who carry crooked staffs with objects that look like flails, suggesting that they might be ruler-priests.

In God's economy, which always gets the order of things right, it was the shepherds of Bethlehem, a Horite Hebrew settlement, who were the first to receive the news of the birth of the Son of God!

9. Jesus is often portrayed as the Lamb, a tender image. In His resurrection victory He is better portrayed as a ram, mighty in strength, mature, and ready to defend his flock. In the story of the binding of Isaac, the ram speaks of God's self-sacrifice and would have been confirmation for Abraham that his offering was accepted. The acceptance was justification of Abraham by faith in what he expected God to do in the future.

10. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts provide a great deal of information about Horus and the Father-Son relationship. The righteous rulers who were buried in the half dozen pyramids in question hoped for bodily resurrection and their hope rested in Horus who was pierced in the side, died, and risen from the dead on the third day. The 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. The final enemy is death. Psalm 110: The Lord says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."

In the Coffin Texts, funerary prayers dating to about 1000 years before Psalm 110, we read in 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'."

Abraham knew to expect a son who would overcome death. He likely believed that Isaac would be raised to life after the sacrifice. In other words, he acted by faith. By provision of the ram on Mount Moriah, a site that was sacred to the Horite Hebrew, Abraham received confirmation that his offering was accepted, and he also discovered that Isaac was not the anticipated Ruler foretold in Eden (Gen. 3:15). That one would be revealed in the future.

The narrative sheds light on the relationship between the justified of the Old Covenant and the justified of the New Covenant. There is only one ground for justification, as the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah reveals. That is trust in the promised Son of God.

Paul and James are perceived to be in conflict on the question of justification, yet they both argue based on this story of Abraham and Isaac. There is no conflict in their understandings of this event. Abraham obeyed God by going to Mount Moriah. There he was given the sign of the Ram by which he apprehended by faith the promised Son of God. Abraham trusted God to confirm the truth. This is the man who posed the great question: "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25) This same Abraham believed God on a very deep level.

By all appearances, Jesus fulfills of the Horite Hebrew expectation of the Divine Seed who would crush the serpent's head. 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

The early Hebrew believed that one of their virgin daughters would be divinely appointed by overshadowing to bring forth the Messiah. They lived in expectation of the fulfillment of a promise made to their Edenic ancestors that a Son (Seed) would be born who would be their Savior (Gen. 3:15).

Related reading:  Jesus: From Lamb to Ram; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Genesis on Sons and The Son; Ram Symbolism in the Ancient World

The Substance of Abraham's Faith

Abraham's territory was between Hebron and Beersheba (ancient Edom).
Aaron was buried in Edom.

Alice C. Linsley

Abraham is the central figure of the book of Genesis, and a pivotal figure throughout the Bible. He is presented as a man of faith who acted on his faith and was justified by faith.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. (James 2:21-24)

A case can be made that Abraham's Messianic Faith lives in Christianity.  This is more evident when the specific points of the Horite Hebrew beliefs are considered. What was the substance of Abraham's faith?

That question can be answered by investigating Abraham's cultural and religious context using Genesis and extra-biblical sources of information such as linguistics, kinship analysis, archaeology, anthropology, and DNA studies. When we bring the evidence of these disciplines together, we draw the following conclusions:

Abraham's people originated in Eden

Abraham's people originated in the Upper Nile region which includes western Sudan, southern Ethiopia and northern Somalia. This is the region of ancient Eden (eden is related to the Nilo-Saharan word egan, meaning garden and to the Akkadian word edinu, meaning fertile plain). It was here that the first Bible promise was made to Abraham's ancestors. The Edenic Promise of Genesis 3:15 foretells how the Woman would bring forth a son who would crush the serpent's head and restore paradise.

This early Hebrew 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)

As the sun was the symbol of the Creator and his Son, divine appointment was expressed by overshadowing. 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)

The region of Eden is where we find the oldest agricultural practices, metalwork, circumcision of priests, and the oldest Hebrew temples and shrines.

The Genesis king lists indicate that Abraham's ancestors migrated from the Nile Valley to Canaan and Mesopotamia. Abraham is a descendant of Nimrod, the son of Kush (Gen. 10:8), who built a vast kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. This Kushite migration has been confirmed by DNA studies. Nimrod's brother Ramaah settled to the southeast of Dedan in northern Arabia.


Abraham's people were Horite Hebrew

The term "Horite" pertains to Horus, who the Horite Hebrew regarded as the "son" of God. This God Father-God Son relationship is central to the Messianic Faith of Abraham and his Horite Hebrew ruler-priest caste.

The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is at Hierakonpolis (Nekhen) on the Nile (c. 4000 BC). Other Horite shrines (mounds) are mentioned in the Pyramid Texts. The Horite Hebrew and the Sethite Hebrew served the same God and the same king. However, they maintained separate shrines. Their relationship is that of a moiety. The term "moiety" refers to one people organized into two ritual groups.

The Horite Hebrew were dedicated to the Creator God and his Uniquely Begotten Son by a Chosen Woman (Gen. 3:15), and the Generative Word. A Horite song found at the royal complex at Ugarit, speaks of HR (Horus) who descends to the place of the dead "to announce good tidings." The text reads: Hr ešeni timerri duri - "below in the dark netherworld" and has the Hittite phrase Šanizzin ḫalukan ḫalzi - "to announce good tidings". (See Note 2 on page 2012.)

Horus is described as rising on the third day and ascending to the place of the immortal stars. (The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Utterance 667).

Among the Nilotic Hebrew God was called Ra (Father) and the son of the Father was called Horus, from which the words "Horites" and "Horim" are derived. Among the Horites of Mesopotamia God father was called An and the son was called Enki, meaning "Lord over all". The breath of God was perceived as a wind that refreshed or destroyed and was called Enlil. That sounds very much like the Holy Trinity!

Under Judaism, beginning around 600 BC, the Trinitarian understanding of the Godhead was rejected. This necessitated the redaction of sacred texts of the Horite Hebrew who believed in God Father and God Son. This explains the contextual incongruities found in Genesis today.

Abraham's people believed in a supreme creator God with lesser assisting semi-divine powers in a hierarchical ranking, like a pyramid. This is called henotheism. Each clan was headed by a hereditary ritual leader and had guardians from among the lesser powers (along the idea of guardian angels). In ancient Egypt these powers were represented by animal totems. Only one power was represented as a man - Horus - God's uniquely begotten son. The biblical priesthood and the Messianic Faith originate among the devotees of Horus. The priesthood of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew was restricted to males and was concerned with ritual purity, especially the avoidance of blood guilt.


Abraham's people hoped for a Righteous Ruler

The Horite Hebrew anticipated a Righteous Ruler to be born of their caste. His identity would be confirmed by his third day resurrection. The Horite Hebrew 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."

The New Testament speaks about Jesus as the ruler-priest. He is the firstborn from the grave and by his resurrection He delivers to the Father a "peculiar people." He leads us in the ascent to the Father where we receive heavenly recognition because we belong to Him.

Heavenly recognition for the Horites was never an individual prospect. Heavenly recognition came to the people through the righteousness of their ruler-priest. Horite Hebrew rulers took this seriously, some more than others. The best rulers were heavenly minded and the worst were so earthly minded that they shed much blood enlarging their territories. All failed to be the Ruler-Priest who rose from the dead. Therefore, none have the power to deliver captives from the grave and to lead them to the throne of heaven (Ps. 68:18; Ps. 7:7; Eph. 4:8). That one true ruler-priest is Jesus, the Son of God.

Abraham's people trace their lineage from common ancestors

Genesis presents two founding lineages for Abraham's people. One is traced from the historical Adam, the father of Cain and Seth. Adam. Cain and Seth married the daughters of a chief named Enoch. The name Enoch. Those brides named their first-born sons after their father. This is the earliest example in the Bible of the cousin bride's naming prerogative.

Genesis poses both Adam and Enoch as the ancestors of the rulers listed in Genesis 4, 5 and 11. This may explain why the names Adam and Enoch are parallel in Psalm 8, verse 4:

What is man (Enoch) that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him?


The Horite Hebrew ruler-priests are Jesus' ancestors

Jesus is associated with two Horite Hebrew settlements: Bethlehem and Nazareth. In these ancestral settlements there resided very ancient priestly divisions. Nazareth was the home of the eighteenth priestly division, ha·pi·TSETS (Happizzez). Bethlehem is designated as a settlement of Hur in I Chronicles 4:4 which names Hur (HR) as the "father of Bethlehem." Rahab of Jericho was the wife of Salmon, the son of Hur (a Horite Hebrew). Salmon is called the "father of Bethlehem" in 1 Chronicles 2:54. Rahab was the grandmother of Boaz who married Ruth. Salmon is a Horite name associated with Bethlehem in 1 Chronicles 2:51.

Analysis of the king lists of Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36 reveals a distinctive marriage and ascendancy pattern that is unique to the Horite Hebrew ruler-priest caste. The pattern involves two wives, as with Lamech (Genesis 4); Terah, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Amram, Moses, Elkanah, Ashur, and Joash.

The wife of the ruler-priest's youth was his half-sister. Before ascending to rule over his clan, there is a second marriage to a patrilineal cousin. The first-born son of the first wife is the proper heir of his father. The first-born son of the cousin wife served as a vizier in the territory of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. This is called the "cousin-wife's naming prerogative." This hints at a pattern that will be fulfilled when Jesus Messiah takes His second wife, the Church.

The origins of the faith of Messiah (Christ), the Son of God, came to Abraham, not as special revelation, but as a tradition received from his forefathers. The distinctive traits of this tradition align remarkable well with the key features of catholic (universal) faith and practice, suggesting that Christianity is a true expression of the Messianic Faith:

• All-male ruler-priests who were mediators between God and the defiled
• A binary (versus dualistic) worldview
• Blood sacrifice at altars whereby sin was propitiated
• Expectation of the appearing of the Son of God in the flesh
• God's will on earth as in heaven - interpreted by morehs (prophets)
• Belief in an eternal and undivided Kingdom delivered by the Father to the Son.

Because of God's promise in Eden, Abraham and his ancestors lived in expectation of the Son of God and taught their children to do so. Their priestly lines intermarried exclusively (endogamy) in expectation that the Seed of the Woman would come of their priestly lines. The Edenic Promise was a central belief of the Horite Hebrew tradition. They believed that the son would be born of the Woman of Genesis 3:15. She would conceive by being "overshadowed" just as was announced to Mary by the angel (Luke 1:35).

The Virgin Birth is one of many signs that the One born to Mary is the Son of God. This is not about the birth of the Sun at the winter solstice. This is not a reworking of the Egyptian tale of Horus. The Horus archetype provides the pattern whereby Abraham's descendants would recognize Messiah. It points us to the Virgin who gave birth to the Son of God under humble circumstances. In the Horus myth, Hathor gives birth in a cave. In Orthodoxy, icons of the Nativity show the Theotokos with the newly born Christ in a cave.

Christianity is an organic religion that emerges out of a belief that God made a promise in Eden and that He has been busy fulfilling that promise in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The core of Christianity can be traced to the beliefs of Abraham and his ancestors. It predates all the great world religions. Christianity isn't original, but what it lacks in originality it makes up for in great antiquity, and herein rests its authority.


Related reading: Early Resurrection Texts; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Appointment by Divine Overshadowing; Two Named Esau; What Abraham Discovered on Mt. Moriah; Jesus: From Lamb to Ram; The Calling of Abraham; Horite Mounds

Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity

The Cross on a wall at the Temple of Horus at Edfu.

Alice C. Linsley

There is a surprising consistency between the Horite Hebrew religion and Christianity. The earliest Christians were Jews who continued their worship practices. However, Judaism, did not preserve the faith of Abraham.

Certainly, early Christian worship was patterned on the synagogue, with scripture readings, prayers, homilies, and days of feasting and fasting. The east-facing altar is patterned on the worship places of the Hebrew, as are church furnishings such as the tabernacle and the lamp. However, Christianity alone affirms that Messiah is the Son of God.

The Apostle Paul wrote a great deal about the Messianic Faith and how it is expressed in the promises made to Abraham the Hebrew. Paul stresses that those who follow Jesus Messiah have been made partakers of those ancient promises (Galatians 3:7-9). He exposes as a false teaching the Judaizers' insistence that the Messianic Faith requires adherence to the laws of Judaism.

Paul makes it clear that the true believer is connected to Abraham the Hebrew, not to Judaism. He identifies Abraham’s Seed as Jesus Messiah. In Galatians 3:29, Paul explains, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, and heirs according to the promise” made to Abraham.

In a sense, the earliest followers of Jesus re-discovered the faith of Abraham. They came to believe that Jesus is the Son of God whose sacrifice on the mountain was prefigured in the sacrifice of the Ram on Mount Moriah. James 2 explains, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" This is what Father Abraham discovered.

Horus as the appointed ram to be sacrificed.

For Abraham the Horite Hebrew, the ram was associated with the west, the setting sun, and the future. The son of God rode with the Father on the solar boat. The boat of the morning hours was called Mandjet and the boat of the evening hours was called Mesektet. While Horus was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form.

The ram provided by God spoke of  God's acceptance of Abraham's intent to offer Isaac. The lamb that Issac had anticipated and which Abraham said God would provide became the ram. Horus was the Lamb in his weaker state and he was the Ram in his glorified sacrificed strength. 

John expresses the good news of Messiah this way:

God declares that Jesus is his Son. All who believe this know in their hearts that it is true. If anyone doesn’t believe this, he is actually calling God a liar because he doesn’t believe what God has said about his Son. And what is it that God has said? That he has given us eternal life and that this life is in his Son. So whoever has God’s Son has life; whoever does not have his Son, does not have life. (1 John 9b-12)

Christianity is an organic religion that emerges out of a belief that God made a promise in Eden and that He has been busy fulfilling that promise in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The core of Christianity can be traced to the beliefs of Abraham and his ancestors. It predates all the great world religions. Christianity isn't original, but what it lacks in originality it makes up for in great antiquity, and herein rests its authority.

Solar Symbolism

Among the Horite Hebrew the sun was the symbol of the High God. The ancient solar symbolism is very much a part of Christianity. The oldest churches in both the East and the West have the altar at the east end (ad orientem) and the priest celebrates facing the rising sun with his back to the congregation.

Timothy I, Patriarch of the Church of the East from 780 to 823, explains, "He [Christ] has taught us all the economy of the Christian religion: baptism, laws, ordinances, prayers, worship in the direction of the east, and the sacrifice that we offer. All these things He practiced in His person and taught us to practice ourselves."

In many of the great cathedrals the window above the high altar depicts the sun. Here is an example from the Duomo in Milan, Italy.

Another example is found at a church in Lugano, Switzerland. This image was adopted by the Jesuits and is found wherever they established centers of learning.

A Triune Godhead

The Messianic Faith of Abraham has spread to so many populations that it is difficult to identify a single people group with his faith. Judaism rejects the idea that God has a son, so Judaism does not represent the faith of Abraham the Hebrew. (The English word "Hebrew" is derived from the Akkadian word "abru" - priestly official. The caste of Hebrew priests was called "abrutu" - collegium of abru-priests. See The Assyrian Dictionary of the oriental institute of the university of Chicago,1964, page 64.

Abraham and his Horite Hebrew caste believed in God Father, God Son and God Spirit. Among the Nilotic Hebrew God Father was called Re, God Son was called Horus, and God Spirit was called Akh (related to the word 'ankh").

The ankh appears on ancient images related to the hope of the resurrection. It is held, often by Hathor (mother of Horus), to the mouth of the deceased in the mouth opening ritual. The image above was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun. In the Nicene Creed, the Spirit of God ("Akh" in ancient Egyptian) is called "the Lord, the giver of life."

The mouth is used to consume food and the deceased were offered the bread of life, called "the kmhw bread of Horus" in ancient Egyptian, and called " khenfu cake" in Akkadian. Khenfu cakes are mentioned in the 2500 BC Code of Ani. Ani/Anu is the Akkadian word for the High God and his son's Akkadian name is Enki. God the Spirit was called Enlil. Enlil is equivalent to the Hebrew word Ruach (Genesis 1), as it means the breath or wind of the Creator.

The image above shows a ka-priest presenting the bread of life in a basket. Note that the bread is round like the sun at the top of the image. The bread above is reflected in or replicated by the bread below. ("As in heaven, so on earth."). The sun was the emblem of God Father and God Son among the Horite Hebrew. As on Hezekiah's seal, it often appears winged and resembles the scarab or dung beetle that navigates by the Milky Way. The ancient Egyptians considered the Milky Way the path to eternity.


The Bread of Life

In The Pyramid Texts (2400 BC) 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) It appears that the "kmhw bread of Horus" is the bread of immortality prefigured in Scripture as Manna in the wilderness. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die." (John 6:48-50) 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).

Palms and Palm Sunday

Certainly some biblical populations are still extant. The Jebusites are an example. They are called Jebu or Ijebu in Africa. Jebu rulers are installed with palm branches. Jude Adebo Adeleye Ogunade writes in his memoir about growing up Ijebu. He was warned not to touch the leaves of the Igi-Ose tree, because as his Mama Eleni explained: "That tree is the tree whose leaves are used to install Chiefs and Kings of Ijebu and as your grandfather was a custodian of the rites of chieftaincy and kingship you must not play with its leaves." 

Jerusalem was a Jebusite city and a Jebusite tradition was observed when Jesus was greeted as King by people waving palm branches.

Painted ostrich egg 7th century BC found on Cyprus.

Credit: De Agostini Picture Library

Easter Eggs

Painted ostrich eggs have been found in tombs at Hierakonpolis (Nekhen), the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship. They also have been found in many graves of children in ancient Nubia. At Naqada, a decorated ostrich egg replaced the owner's missing head. This egg is now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

The eggs were placed in graves as an expression of hope for life after death. The ostrich feather was also symbolic of that hope. The personification of truth called Ma'at is shown with an ostrich feather in her hair. Using this feather, she weighed the hearts of the dead to determine who would enter eternal life and who would experience the second death (Rev. 2:11, 20:14).


(For further exploration of this topic, see this thread.)

Related reading: Understanding the Science of Biblical Anthropology; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; What Abraham Discovered on Mount Moriah; The Substance of Abraham's Faith; Ancient Words for Priests, Horite Mounds; The Sky Bull as a Messianic Symbol; Judaism is NOT the Faith of Abraham

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?

Where Ahmed Osman Goes Wrong

Alice C. Linsley

Ahmed Osman (Arabic: أحمد عثمان‎) is an Egyptian-born author and Egyptologist. Drawing on the Bible, the Qur'an, and ancient Egyptian texts, he has put forward theories about Moses and Jesus that are largely rejected by most scholars. His work has a following among the "quirky" which is discrediting to him as a scholar. Osman has much to offer, but he has ignored the anthropologically significant data of Genesis and Exodus. Though his ideas are interesting, many cannot be supported by the evidence of history, linguistics, anthropology, and molecular genetics.

Ahmed Osman

In his book "Christianity: An Ancient Egyptian Religion" Osman posits that the roots of Christianity are found in ancient Egypt. He bases this conclusion, in part, on the variants of the name Jesus which include Yeshua, Joshua, Issa, Esau and Esse. Osman focuses on the variant Esse and attempts to connect Jesus and his followers to the Essenes, a Jewish ascetic sect of the 2nd century BC–2nd century AD who lived in structured communities in Palestine and held property in common. Certainly, the Essenes were influenced by theological ideas found in ancient Egypt.

Both the Essenes and the Pharisees held expectation of Messiah as a king who would restore the Davidic dynasty and restore Israel's former glory. This hope is expressed in Psalm 110:1: The Lord (YHWH) said to my Lord (L'adoni): "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. L'adoni is an address for a human master. The Essenes believed that master was David. Their view of Messiah was as a political agent who would fulfill their nationalistic and spiritual hopes. Probably this is why Jesus avoided using the word "Messiah" when speaking of himself. He told Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. This world is passing away. His kingdom is eternal. "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations." Daniel 7:14 and Psalm 145:13

An eternal kingdom requires an immortal King. That is why Christians maintain that the bodily resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate proof of his identity as the long-awaited Son of God. Jesus' conception in the Virgin's womb by divine overshadowing is another proof of his identity. The angel explained to Mary: "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)

The oldest of these variants is likely Yeshua as it has the initial Y indicating divine appointment by overshadowing. This idea is found among Abraham's Proto-Saharan cattle-herding ancestors dating to at least 3500 BC. The Y depicted the long cattle horns that were worn as a solar crown. This Y mark appears in the names of many Horite Habiru/Hebrew rulers: Yaqtan (Joktan); Yishmael (Ishmael); Yishbak; Yitzak (Isaac); Yacob (Jacob); Yosef (Joseph); Yetro (Jethro); Yeshai (Jesse) and Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus).

However, the roots of Messianic expectation can be traced to one of the oldest known Horite temple at Nekhen (Sudan), a site of veneration of Horus that predates the first Egyptian dynasties. Discoveries at Nekhen continue to push back the dating of early civilizations. In May 2014, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim announced the discovery of a Pre-Dynastic tomb at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) that dates to about 500 years before King Narmer and the 1st Dynasty.

Nekhen is called the Falcon City as the falcon was one of the totems of Horus, the son of Ra. The Egyptian hr means "the one on high" and is a reference to the falcon that soars in the heavens. In the Coffin Texts, Horus claims, "I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning.  I am unique in my flight." (Passage 148)

Nekhen was a large city with an estimated population of 20,000. It had markets, breweries and a large fishing industry. The city stretched nearly 3 miles along the Nile floodplain. Votive offerings at the Nekhen 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.

The solar arc signified the rising of Horus from death to life. He rose as a lamb and set in mature strength as a ram. This conception is the background story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah. The 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.

Horus of Nekhen

Renée Friedman, who has direct knowledge of the excavations at Nekhen, has written that the "evidence of industrial production, temples, masks, mummies, and funerary architecture as early as 3500 B.C. is placing Nekhen at the forefront of traditions and practices that would come to typify Egyptian culture centuries later.


Osman on Moses, Monotheism, and the Ten Commandments

In his book The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt, Osman puts forth the theory that Moses and the Pharaoh Akhenaten are the same historical person. He writes that Moses “abandoned traditional Egyptian polytheism and introduced a monotheistic worship centered on the Aten… [and] erected his new temples open to the air facing eastward; in the same way as the orientation of the Heliopolis.”

Heliopolis is Biblical On (Iunu), an Annu shrine city. Osman does not seem to be aware of the Annu and their religious practices. Plato, who studied under a Horite priest of Heliopolis for thirteen years, wrote "Tell me of the God of On, which was, is and shall be." Heliopolis was the geodetic center of Egypt. The pyramid triads at Giza, Abusir and Saqqara were aligned to the obelisk at On. Baalbek (Heliopolis) in Lebanon also aligned to On.

Osman makes assumptions that should be questioned. He assumes that ancient Egyptian religion was polytheistic. However, the more we learn about the ancient Egyptians the more it appears that their religion is not a true example of polytheism. From pre-dynastic times there was only one Creator though he was identified by different names: YHWH, El, Amun, Amun-Re, Aten, Atum, Azu, Re, etc. This God has a son, Horus. The Father and the Son are inseparable and of one essence in the theology of Abraham's Horim. Horus knows the Father and the Father knows the Son. 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)

While "gods" are mentioned in the Egyptian texts and in the Bible, both maintain that the One God is above all other gods. In the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts this is explicit. In a prayer addressed to the Purified Horus of the East it is said, "For you are he who oversees the gods, There is no god who oversees you!" (Utterance 573)

Horus is the bread offered to mortals. Consider this from the Pyramid Texts, mortuary texts dating from the beginning of the 4th dynasty: "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 temple or mansion at the end of the water above. Genesis speaks of this: God made the vault [expanse above] and separated the water under the vault from the water above it (Genesis 1:7).

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).

Osman assumes that Moses was a monotheist, which is incorrect. Moses and his Horite Habiru ancestors were henotheists, that is, they believed in one supreme uncreated Creator who is served by lesser created divine powers such as angels. Angelic or celestial beings were often portrayed as birds. Henotheism is much closer to monotheism than to polytheism.

The Creator's emblem was the Sun by which the Creator gives life to the world. The Sun was also called "Bull of bulls" because it inseminates the Earth. Consider this prayer from the Pyramid Texts: "Hail to you, Bull of bulls, when you arise!... As for my corpse, it is rejuvenated." (Utterance 336) This God has the power to give life to the dead.

The Creator overshadows those He appoints. Divine appointment applied to rulers and to the Woman (Gen. 3:15) who was to conceive the divine Seed or the Si-Re, "Son" of Re. Jesus refers to himself as the Seed in John 12:24. He tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to die and when they object, he explains: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Osman notes that the Ten Commandments is clearly influenced by earlier Nilotic writings, such as Spell/Prayer 125 in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. He is correct in this. However, a much more significant influence is the Code of Ani which dates to about 2500 BC. There also is evidence of influence from the Law of Tehut which dates to about 3200 BC.

Portions of the Psalms are also found in earlier Nilotic writings. This should not surprise us since Abraham's Habiru ancestors came from the Nile Valley. The prayers of ascension in the Pyramid Texts and the Psalms of Ascent have much in common.

There are many parallels between the Psalms and the ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, a collection of funerary prayers written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period. Consider this poetic depiction of the soaring Horus from 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'." 

Here we find a Messianic reference that appears in Psalm 110: The Lord says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."


Biblical References to Horus and the Horites

Horus and the Horites are referenced throughout the Bible. The Horite rulers of Edom are listed in Genesis 36. Among them are Seir, Esau the Elder, Esau the Younger, Zibeon, Ezer, and Uz.

Biblical persons with Horus names include Hur, Moses's brother-in-law, and Aaron, Moses's brother. Aaron in Arabic is Harun.

In 1 Chronicles 7:36 we find the Horus name Har-nepher: "The sons of Zophah: Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah..." Har-nepher (HR-ntr/ntjr) means Horus is King/God. The Virgin Mary's name reveals her Horite ancestry. She is Miriam Daughter of Joachim Son of P-ntjr Priests of Nathan of Bethlehem. From predynastic times, ntjr designated the king. It is likely that p-ntjr means "King's priest" or is a reference to a member of the Horite ruler-priest caste.

Joseph's family lived in Nazareth, the home of the eighteenth division of priests. This division was called "Happizzez" (1 Chronicles 24:15). The word happi is of Egyptian origin and designates the Nile River.

I Chronicles 4:4 names Hur/Hor as a "father" of Bethlehem, and 1 Chronicles 2:54 names Salmon, the husband of Rahab of Jericho, is called a "father" of Bethlehem. Mount Hor (Numbers 20:22-29) is near Petra in Edom. Edom was Horite territory.

Related reading: Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; Who Were the Horites?; The Annu/Ainu of On (Iunu); The Giving God; The Solar Symbolism of the Proto-Gospel; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Fertility Images Among Abraham's Ancestors; Ancient Egyptian Lexicon; Genesis of Sons and "The Son"