GENESIS through the lens of Anthropology (Founded 21 March 2007)
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
The Hebrew rulers who controlled territories and water systems had two wives. The separate settlements of the wives marked territorial boundaries of the ruler’s kingdom. This feature of the Hebrew social structure sheds light on the relationship of the faithful among the Hebrew (before Judaism) and the faithful among the people who identify as Christians.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
Recent posts and videos by Anglican evangelicals such as Allison Barr have presented flawed arguments for the ordination of women to the priesthood. Their views represent a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the priesthood. The priesthood is and always has been about the Blood.
Blood is essential for life. Blood bonds are the strongest of all kinship bonds. Blood purifies. It is the basis of all biblical covenants. It redeems. In other words, the priesthood speaks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as no other sacred or secular office can.
Anthropologists have noted that almost universally blood is gendered. That is, the blood work of males and the blood work of females is distinct. The blood work of males pertains to war, hunting and execution. The blood work of females pertains to the monthly cycle and childbirth. The two can never be in the same space. They are never to be confused or mixed. Men were never allowed in the birthing chambers and women were never allowed in the place of animal sacrifice.
God wants us to think clearly about life and death. "Choose this day life or death" (Deut. 30:19) is a powerful exhortation to think about the distinction between life and death. That is why the people were commanded never to boil a baby goat in its mother's sustaining milk (Ex. 23:19, Ex. 34:26, and Deut. 14:21). This action blurs the distinction between life and death.
The priesthood is uniquely about the Blood of Jesus Messiah. No wonder it is constantly under attack.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
Genesis, the first book of the Bible, provides the data shown in the diagram. The science of Biblical Anthropology draws its data from the 66 canonical books of the Bible and regards books such as Jasher to be of secondary importance because of their late dates. Jasher (Sefer haYashar) belongs to the Jewish literature known as Midrash and dates to the Middle Ages. Such late rabbinic writings reflect the theology and historical narrative of Judaism which did not exist when Abraham and his ancestors lived. The people shown in the diagram above were all Hebrew. None were Jewish.
Abraham's father was Tera (Terah). The word means "priest", and it is found among Abraham's Hebrew ancestors, some of whom lived in the Nile Valley. The word is found among the rulers of the Nilotic Anu. The title "Tera-netjer" is shown on this tile found by the famous archaeologist Flinders Petrie. Tera-netjer means "priest of God/King".
.jpg)
Among the Nilotic Luo, Ja'ter refers to the priest who performs the widow cleansing rituals. Among the Dinka of East Africa, the word for priest is tier. The root of these words is TR, the same as appears in the original Hebrew which had no vowels.
In Joshua 24:2 we read: "In olden times, your forefathers – Terah, father of Abraham and father of Nahor – lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods...".
Because of this, many assume that Abraham was the first of his family to turn from idol worship to iconoclastic monotheism. However, all of the men named in the diagram above worshipped the same God. They were a priest caste, and castes are united in their religion as well as by blood and marriage ties.
The Joshua passage also is from a much latter time than the persons about which it speaks. The Joshua narrative rejects the model of monarchic and priestly power held among the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC). That model defines Messiah's authority. This shift causes readers of the Old Testament to lose sight of the continuity between the Messianic expectation of Abraham's Hebrew ancestors and the later Messianic prophesies of the Old Testament.
Related reading: Abraham was a Descendant of Nimrod; Why So Many Names For God?; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The Hebrew were a Caste; Ancient Words for Priests
Hebron and Beersheba are shown on this map.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
All Hebrew wives were close kin to their husbands because the Hebrew ruler-priests practiced caste endogamy. Some Hebrew wives were their husband's half-sisters. That is the case with Sarah. She and Abraham had the same father but different mothers. Terah had two wives, as did many of his Hebrew forefathers. It was common for high-ranking Hebrew chiefs to have two wives.
The half-sister was the bride of the ruler's youth, and the cousin bride was the wife of the ruler's later years. The cousin wife was sought before the Hebrew man took over the rule of his father's territory. This explains Abraham's urgency to fetch a cousin bride for Isaac before he died. Isaac was not Abraham's firstborn son, but as the only son of his half-sister wife, Isaac was Abraham's proper heir. Before he died, Abraham gave grants to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from Isaac (Gen. 25:6). The sending away of non-ascendant sons drove the Hebrew dispersion throughout the Ancient Near East.
Some Hebrew wives were their husbands' cousins. That is the case with Keturah who bore Abraham six sons (Gen. 25). Recognizing this two-wife pattern is essential to understanding the social structure and marriage customs of the early Hebrew. (4000-2000 BC).Dr. Alice C. Linsley
The Tarim Basin of Xinjiang, China, with its fertile rim of oases, was home to a homogeneous population living in two settlements about 600 kilometers apart. It is likely that marriage partners were exchanged between the settlements.
The physical features of the Tarim mummies initially suggested that they were Indo-European migrants. Many had high cheekbones and red or blonde hair. However, DNA analysis revealed they were a genetically isolated population descended from Ancient North Eurasians (ANE) who had not mixed with other groups for thousands of years.
Investigation of their genomic origins found that this isolated population practiced endogamy. Scientists analyzed genome-wide data from thirteen of the earliest known Tarim Basin mummies, dating to between 2,100 and 1,700 B.C., together with five individuals dating to 3,000 - 2,800 B.C. in the neighboring Dzungarian Basin. This first genomic study of prehistoric populations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Region included the earliest yet discovered human remains from the region. The researchers found that the Tarim Basin mummies were direct descendants of a once widespread Pleistocene population that had largely disappeared by the end of the last Ice Age.
Hundreds of mummified bodies have been found in the Tarim Basin. The oldest mummified remains date to about 2000 B.C., the time of Abraham. They are well preserved due to the dry conditions of the Taklamakan Desert. The process of desiccation dramatically slowed decomposition of the bodies and clothing. Some of the burial sites held boat-shaped coffins covered with cattle hides, woven textiles, cheese, grains, and death masks.
“Despite being genetically isolated, the Bronze Age peoples of the Tarim Basin were remarkably culturally cosmopolitan – they built their cuisine around wheat and dairy from the West Asia, millet from East Asia, and medicinal plants like Ephedra from Central Asia,” says Christina Warinner, a senior author of the study, a professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, and a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
The diagram shows another example of the cousin bride's naming prerogative, a distinctive feature of the early Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern. Nimrod's Mesopotamian wife was a cousin and a princess. She named their firstborn son Asshur after her father.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
Just Genesis presents the latest research on the book of Genesis drawing on the disciplines of cultural anthropology, archaeology, ...
.jpg)
