Cutting Through the Textual Layers

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

A reader has asked: If there are several "layers" of "Adam", would there also be several layers of Eve, Eden, Tree, and Serpent?

The term "layers" is helpful if we imagine the growth rings of a tree. The oldest rings are near the center of the tree. The layers are visible when we cut through the tree. That is what the discipline of Biblical Anthropology does using the canonical Scriptures. It seeks to identify the oldest layers and to use that data to gain a clearer picture of the social structure of the early Hebrew.

Biblical anthropology asks about antecedents. It explores what comes before what is described in the text. What events preceded the events recounted? It seeks to understand the cultural context of the earliest persons named in Genesis: Adam, Eve, Cain and Seth, etc. It is concerned with ancestors and received traditions. From what earlier context did certain practices develop? What traces of ancient memory can be uncovered?

The biblical text always speaks of something older, some prior action that solicits a response from later generations. The later generations are enjoined to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is a thick cultural web surrounding the God of the early biblical Hebrew. 

That context is not apparent to the casual reader because it is hidden behind layers of Jewish midrash, denominational interpretations, and theological typologies. The tree in the midst of the garden is taken as a type of the Cross or as the Tree of Life. The serpent is taken as the usurper of God's authority, the Devil, or God's adversary, Satan. 

The tree of life and the serpent are ancient mythological motifs and are found in many of the world's religions. They are clues as to the riverine contexts of the early Hebrew, devotees of God Father and God's son. The early Hebrew believed that a woman of their ruler-priest caste would bring forth the Son/Seed of God who would crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15). The enemy of God bruises the foot of the Woman’s Son, but the Son crushes his head. That expectation that was expressed around 4000 years ago: "Horus has shattered (crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot" (The Pyramid Texts, Utterance 388). Horus is the Greek for the ancient Egyptian HR, meaning "Most High One".

Biblical anthropology insists that the texts be read empirically. The reader identifies data that makes the earlier contexts clearer. The mythological Adam and Eve are posed as the first parents (apical ancestors). This is consistent with many African origin stories. Among the Gikuyu, the first man and women were called Gikuyu and Mumbi. However, these are not the first humans on earth, but the founders of the Gikuyu people. Likewise, Adam and Eve are the founders of the clans that come to be identified as Horite and Sethite Hebrew. These are Abraham's ancestors. 

Abraham is the father of many peoples, an icon of faith, and a sent away son to whom God delivered a territory in ancient Edom. The sending away of non-ascendant sons is a feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the biblical Hebrew. That feature drove their dispersion out of Africa. 

The Bible designates Abraham a Hebrew, but he was not the first Hebrew. The Hebrew ruler-priest caste existed before Abraham's time (c.2100 B.C.). The term "Hebrew" comes from the ancient Akkadian word for priest, Abru. Akkadian is the oldest known Semitic language and the language of Nimrod's territory. Genesis 10 designates Nimrod as a Kushite kingdom builder. Here we have evidence for the movement of the early Hebrew out of Africa into Mesopotamia. 

The early Hebrew named in the Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11 lists were rulers over territories in Eden. The term Eden derives from the Akkadian term edinu, which refers to a fertile plain or a flood plain. In Genesis 2:11-14, Eden is described as a vast well-watered region that extended from the sources of the Nile River in Ethiopia and Uganda to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Some of the world's oldest cultures are found in this Fertile Crescent. However, the biblical description of Eden comes long after the time of Adam and Eve. It is a kindling of ancient memory.

In Genesis, Adam's wife is called Hava (חוה) which is descriptive of her role as the birther (Gen. 3:20). Adam describes Eve as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, suggesting that she and he have the same father, as did Sarah and Abraham.

As Adam's half-sister, Eve would have produced Adam's heir, which is Cain, the firstborn son. This may explain the royal affix -itti- in Genesis 4:1, where Eve claims to have acquired a man or a ruler with God's help.

E. A. Speiser (Anchor Bible Commentary on Genesis, p. 30) believes that the word qaniti (Gen. 4:1) is in assonance with "Cain" (Qayin). However, the word that appears in Genesis 4:1 is Akkadian, not Hebrew. Iti or itti is an Akkadian affix that appears with rulers’ names, and in reference to deities. For example, itti šarrim means "with the king." Another example: itti-Bel-balatu means "with Bel there is life."

Itti appears in royal names such as Nefertitti. Even today among the Oromo of the Horn of Africa the affix designates persons of high social standing: Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti, and Dimashqitti.

Eve apparently recognized her firstborn son as a ruler. Yet Cain was banished or sent away from his parents' homeland. Genesis 4:15 states that he moved "east of Eden". If his homeland was in the Nile Valley, that means Cain moved into Arabia. His descendants are found in the land of Kenan/Kenites, which is the land of Canaan, or כנען, pronounced kena'an.

His brother Seth ruled over a territory in the Nile Valley which was called the Land of Seti. Cain and Seth built cities, had musical instruments, worked stone and metal, and worshiped the High God. Their descendants intermarried (as shown in the diagram) and dispersed widely as early kingdom builders.

Lamech the Elder with his two wives (Gen. 4) and Lamech the Younger, his grandson (Gen. 5).

The biblical data identifies the historical Adam and Eve as founding parents of the early Hebrew lines descending from Cain and Seth. Because the descendants of Cain and Seth intermarried (caste endogamy), all their Hebrew descendants could claim them and their unnamed wives as their common ancestors (cognatic descent). 

The ascendant rulers took half-sisters as their first wives and later in life took patrilineal cousins as their second wives. Sarah was Abraham's half-sister wife (Gen.  Sarah enjoyed the life of a wealthy, highborn woman. Her name is derived from the Akkadian word for queen: šarratum. In Genesis 20:12, Abraha explains that he and Sarah had the same father but different mothers. Their father Terah had two wives, as did many Hebrew rulers.

Keturah was Abraham's cousin bride. She bore him six sons and an unknown number of daughters. The two wives lived in separate settlements and those settlements were instrumental in maintaining territorial boundaries. However, the birth of two firstborn sons raises the question: “Which is the ruler’s proper heir?” Among the early Hebrew the proper heir was the firstborn son of the first wife, usually a half-sister. That is why Isaac was Abraham's proper heir, and like his father, Isaac was a man of great wealth. He ruled over his father's territory in Edom (Idumea), the land of red people.

Analysis of the early Hebrew kinship pattern provides verification that these were historical persons. Their kinship pattern is authentic. If it were not so, it could not be diagrammed, and that kinship pattern would not be consistent through the biblical texts. Some have offered the proofless argument that the structure of the king lists of Genesis 4 and 5 reflects a literary device. Biblical anthropology has demonstrated that the kinship of Genesis 4 and 5 "begets" is the same pattern found with Ham and Shem, Abraham and Nahor, and many other Hebrew rulers named in the Bible.

Kinship patterns are highly resistant to change, especially among castes. The early Hebrew were a ruler-priest caste with a distinctive marriage and ascendancy pattern. That pattern can be discerned by cutting through the layers, using an empirical method.

Related reading: Genesis in Anthropological Perspective; Three Portraits of Adam; Horite and Sethite Mounds; The Father of Adam and Eve; The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study; Contextual Incongruities in Genesis

Melchizedek and Abraham Were Kinsmen

 

In this post I respond to a friend's question about Melchizedek's relationship to Abraham.


Alice, on your blog you stated, "Melchizedek's earthly father was probably Sheba the Elder whose ancient royal line rivaled the House of David (II Sam. 20). The omission of Melchizedek's ancestry in the Hebrew Scriptures is consistent with the common practice of eliminating elements of history that do not serve the Jewish narrative. Omissions about ancestry and kinship, and aspersions cast upon some of the early Hebrew rulers is motivated by political expediency."


Do you have any supporting evidence for the assertion that Melchizedek's father was probably Sheba the Elder?

The data required to understand the relationship of Melchizedek and Abraham is found in Genesis 14 and in an understanding of the social structure of the biblical Hebrew, a ruler-priest caste.


1. Melchizedek was the ruler-priest of the high place that came to be called Jerusalem. The Hebrew were a caste of ruler-priests and Melchizedek fits that description. Melchizedek means "righteous king". He is remembered because he was a high king over lesser regional rulers (vassals) such as Abraham. Abraham's relationship to Melchizedek fits the Suzerain-vassal pattern. A vassal holds land on conditions of homage and allegiance. For the Hebrew, the allegiance was based on blood ties.


2. As I show in my book The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study, the early Hebrew were widely dispersed in the service of kingdom builders who established strongholds at elevated sites near permanent water sources. That describes Jerusalem in Abraham's time.


3. The narrative about Melchizedek has as its background a battle between regional kings. After the battle Melchizedek comes to Abraham with bread and wine, and blessed Abraham in the name of the Most High God. It is likely that this activity represents a rite of cleansing from blood guilt.


4. In that narrative, Abraham presents Melchizedek with a tenth (tithe) of the booty. This suggests that Abraham was subject to Melchizedek. Melchizedek was likely the high king over many of the regional rulers such as Abraham.


5. Abraham's territory extended on a north-south axis between Hebron (Sarah's settlement) and Beersheba (Keturah's settlement). Hebron is only 19 miles south of Jerusalem. It is likely that the entire region was Hebrew territory since the early Hebrew land holdings were extensive at that time. Canaan was the crossroads by which these early Hebrew ruler-priests dispersed. 

6. The Hebrew alliances were based on endogamous marriages. Therefore, it is not far-fetched to consider that Abraham and Melchizedek were kinsmen. The relationship of Abraham and Melchizedek appears to be through the very ancient royal house of Sheba. This is my hypothesis based on the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the biblical Hebrew which I have identified using kinship analysis.

Melchizedek was probably the maternal uncle of Abraham's cousin wife, Keturah. Keturah resided at the Well of Sheba and was of the royal house of Sheba. About a 1000 years later, a man called Sheba contested David's claim to the throne (2 Samuel 20).

The Bible makes it clear that the people of Sheba were Abraham's kinsmen. Genesis 10:7 identifies Sheba as a son of the Kushite ruler Raamah, one of Abraham's ancestors. Genesis 10:28 states that Sheba was a son of Joktan, a son of Eber who was a descendant of both Ham and Shem, since their lines intermarried (caste endogamy). Genesis 25:3 notes that Abraham and Keturah had a grandson named Sheba. 

Related reading: Belief in the High God; The Genesis Rulers Through the Lens of Anthropology; The Hebrew Were a Caste; Who Was Melchizedek?; Sarah's Story

Why "The First Lords of the Earth" Matters

 

Dr. Tim Daughtry, a Christian Apologist, reviews The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study

The book of Genesis is typically read and interpreted by Christians and Jews in one of two ways. In one approach, Genesis is treated as a literal and accurate description of human origins and early human history. In this literalist view, Adam and Eve were not only real people, but they were also the first people on Earth. In the other approach, Genesis is read as a series of folk stories and myths that reveal important truths about humanity when interpreted allegorically. In this view, Adam and Even are characters in the creation story rather than real people who existed in history. The important point in this mode of interpretation is not that Adam and Eve were real historical characters but that that the story reveals important truths about human pride, disobedience, estrangement from God, and the hope of reconciliation.

In The First Lords of the Earth, Alice Linsley offers a fresh perspective through the lens of Biblical anthropology. Drawing from over forty years of research into Genesis along with scientific studies of ancient cultures, symbols, beliefs, and linguistic analysis, Linsley makes the case that the important figures of Genesis were not only real people but were members of the early Hebrew caste of ruler-priests who moved from Africa into the Fertile Crescent and Ancient Near East. As just one example, she makes the case that the Adam and Eve of Genesis were not the first humans, but neither were they mythical archetypes. Instead, Adam was a real ruler who lived in a vast area around the Nile River and whose sons Cain and Seth married the daughters of Enoch, who lived at the same time. The book’s exploration of early Hebrew kinship, marriage, and ascendancy patterns places these and later Biblical characters in an evidence-based historical context and provides rich anthropological context for the Scriptural accounts of the lives of later figures such as Abraham, Noah, and Joseph. The title of the book derives from the anthropological evidence that these and other early figures in Scripture were powerful ruler-priests with extensive domains in the lands described in the Bible.

The book offers a detailed look at a number of factors of early Hebrew culture, but one of the most interesting was the evidence that belief in God Father and God Son, along with a Messianic hope, was an important theme in Hebrew thought going back 6000 years that foreshadowed the beliefs of Christianity. Linsley makes a powerful case that the foundations of Christianity were present in early Horite and Sethite Hebrew beliefs that were present long before Abraham’s time.

The First Lords of the Earth is an excellent resource for a wide range of readers, including those interested in early Hebrew history for its own sake and for those who want to deepen their understanding of Scripture.


END

Related Reading: The First Lords and Their Authority; The First Lords and Messianic Expectation

Female Tavern Keepers

The 5,000-year-old tavern site found at Lagash in Iraq. (Lagash Archaeological Project)

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The Book of Genesis recounts numerous journeys. Cain relocated "east of Eden". Nimrod left the Nile Valley and established a territory in Mesopotamia. Abraham left Haran and established a territory between Hebron and Beersheba. Jacob left Beersheba and traveled to Padan-Aram. Travel necessitated carrying provisions of food and water, weapons for defense, medicinal herbs and ointments, and clothing. For security, people traveled in large groups. The caravans stopped at caravansaries and taverns with mud wall enclosures for the animals.

Genesis does not provide many details of the journeys. The texts are focused more on the destinations than on the means of arriving there. However, archaeologists and historians have gathered significant information about the routes that were traveled and the types of resting places along the way.

Abraham would have known the "Via Maris" that linked Egypt with ancient Syria, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia. He also would have traveled the "King's Highway" that connected the Nile Valley with Mesopotamia. It ran from Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula to Aqaba, then turned northward across Transjordan, to Damascus and the Euphrates River. Rahab's city of Jericho stood on one of the few roads connecting the Via Maris and the King's Highway. Her tavern would have been a prosperous business.

Taverns were usually near the city gates and were attached to the city walls with casemate cells as rooms. This sheds light on the probable arrangement of Rahab's tavern. In fortified towns such as Beersheba, Khirbet Qeiyafa, and Jericho, houses attached to the city walls had casemate foundations. Rahab’s tavern likely had casemates in which she stored provisions. Jericho’s casemate walls were engineered to prevent collapse in the event of an earthquake. The casemates were constructed of two parallel walls with perpendicular braces. Some of the casemate cells were filled with dirt to increase stability. An earthquake might cause an individual casemate to collapse without causing the rest of the wall to fall. This design is found in Nubian funerary architecture (3000-2000 B.C.) and in Egyptian fortifications of the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 B.C.).

Female tavern keepers such as Rahab were women of independent means. Before Abraham's time (c.2000 B.C.), women of high status owned and managed taverns. The Sumerian King Lists name Kug-Bau as a "tavern keeper". She was the single ruler of the Third Dynasty of Kish (r. 2500- 2330 B.C.) The King List refers to her as lugal (king), not as eresh (queen consort). She was deified centuries later as the protector of the city of Carchemish. She was known as Ku-Baba. The prefix Ku means “holy”.

There is a connection between female tavern keepers and high-status women who were dedicated to the temples. Highly trained temple dancers gained royal favor by performing sacred mudras and playing musical instruments before the deity. As early as 4000 B.C. beer was offered in the inner sanctum of the temple to gladden the deity’s heart. Some temple women were adept at brewing beer, a skill needed to operate taverns. These women became wealthy and established themselves in business. The tavern was the place that they could use their skills as dancers, musicians, and beer brewers. Nubian female dancers participated in ritual performances at sacred festivals in honor of Hathor, the mother of Horus. These festivals included the consumption of beer.

Related reading: Ancient Mesopotamian Tavern Located; 'Auja Foqa A Desert Fortress on Israel's Eastern Frontier

Response to a Review of "The First Lords"

Review at Amazon by "The Adawm"

I have been following Dr. Alice C. Linsley's work since 2009. Since that time I casually read some of her articles that she post on her blog. I have found her work to be fascinating, and it will take many in the Judeo-Christian worldview on a journey beyond your typical Sunday school sessions. I do admire her work but some areas are highly speculative, however, she will most likely say that her work is unfamiliar to the less astute.

An example of such speculative story telling is that Adahm (Adam) was a 'Hebrew,' suggesting that there were 'Hebrew' people in existence way before Abraham (?) I wonder how many scholars would agree with her claim? Her work also attempts to link the Hapiru with the Hebrew, her reasoning is that they are one and the same people.

Well, according to Dr. David A. Falk who is an Egyptologist, the word 'Hapiru' has a pretty messy history when you start looking in the 18th century BC text. The word, "Hapiru" isn't an ethnic identifier nor is it a tribal group. It's a class identifier and reflects a social group, so anyone can be labeled a "Hapiru" since a person's class and social status can vary with their ethnicity.

Hapiru has been linked to being an mercenary, refugee, outcast, foreigner, plunder, and raiders. Many Hapiru were Amorites as many Israelites were in fact Amorites. And there is an Amorite, Israelite and Hapiru overlap that does exist, however, not all Israelites are Amorites.

According to the Exodus narrative, a mix-multitude left Egypt (Khemet), which would have included many ethnic groups such as: Nubians, Libyans, Asiatics, Egyptians (Khemetians) and Cushites (Ethiopians).

As Dr. David A. Falk has stated: some Israelites were Amorites, and some Israelites were both Hapiru and Amorites. A Hapiru is not a tribal marker, marking one's ethnicity but it is a marker of a social class. Hapiru persons have been found as East Semitic, West Semitic, Hurrian (Horite) and Amoritic.

There is an etymological association with the word Hapiru and Hebrew. But the link is immaterial since 'Hapiru' represents a class and "Hebrew" (or Hebrew Israelite) represents a blood related ethnicity.
Linsley also claims that there were two divisions of the Hebrew caste, (1) the Horite Hebrew (2) the Sethite Hebrew which she identifies with Egyptian (Khemetian) Cosmology.

For many in the Judeo-Christian sphere this forecasting can be damaging to their theological and doctrinal creeds. My opinion of the matter is just the same as with the Hapiru and Hebrew controversy, that is, there is in fact some overlap that exists.

According to the Exodus narrative there was a mixed multitude that left. The problem with the Exodus story is the fact that there has not been any archaeological evidence that confirms this story outside of the biblical narrative. All current data points to the Ancient Hebrew Israelites as native Canaanites.

Regardless though, I still find her work to be quite fascinating. Thank you Alice C. Linsley for your 40+ years.

My response

It appears that this reviewer did not read the book very carefully. He does not address any of the main points of the book.

He clearly has read some of my blog posts where I have "speculated" (along with others) that the English word Hebrew is related to the word Habiru/Hapiru. However, in "The First Lords of the Earth" I state that the word Hebrew is derived from the ancient Akkadian word for priest which is "abru", and the caste was called "abrutu". Akkadian is the oldest known Semitic language, and it reveals that the Hebrew ruler-priest caste existed before the time of Abraham (c.2000 B.C.). Akkadian was the language of Nimrod's kingdom. Nimrod was a Kushite kingdom builder (Gen.10).

Further, the Horite and Sethite Hebrew are mentioned in the Ancient Pyramid Texts as maintaining shrines along the Nile, and some of these texts date to before the time of Abraham. The Horite and Sethite mounds were well established before Abraham's time. Abraham was NOT the first Hebrew.

My book is about the early Hebrew, long before the time of the Exodus of Jacob's clan called the "Israelites". It involves tracing the Hebrew dispersion out of the Nile Valley into many parts of the Ancient Near East. These were kingdom builders, and their marriage and ascendancy pattern drove their dispersion through the practice of sending away non-ascendant sons.

Analysis of the kinship pattern of the early Hebrew, beginning with the historical Adam and his contemporary Enoch, reveals that they had the same marriage and ascendancy pattern as Abraham and Moses.

I'm not familiar with Dr. Falk. However, reading about his work indicates that his field is Egyptology, not the biblical Hebrew. As far as I can tell, he has no knowledge of the social structure of the biblical Hebrew. Understanding their caste structure with its moieties, and their marriage and ascendancy pattern clarifies many difficult passages of the Old Testament.  

Related reading: The First Lords of the Earth is a Paradigm-Shifting Book; The First Lords of the Earth and Messianic Expectation; The Hebrew Were a Caste

Marriage Partner Selection Among the Hebrew

 

Newlywed Christian Bedouins 

Beirut, 1923

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Hebrew marriages were arranged. Matches were not based on romantic love. Deliberation about suitable partners pertained to the "father's house", and were conducted under the authority of the fathers, village elders, clan chiefs, and sometimes the king. 

The selection of marriage partners was based on consideration of political alliances, distribution of wealth, building up of the Hebrew lineages, and the necessity of heirs. There were many potential matches because there were many Hebrew clans other than Jacob’s clan (the Israelites). Priority probably was given to marriages within the 3-clan confederations such as Ham, Shem, and Japheth, or Og, Gog, and Magog, or Huz, Buz, and Uz.

In Abraham’s time, the deliberation about marriage partners likely involved a modular system of math with a cycle of between 9 and 12 choices. In this system, X represents firstborn son, and the possible matches are between 9 and 12 blood related (consanguine) females, drawn from the 3-clan confederations, and considered in a fixed order of rotation.

The Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern meant that all marriages were between Hebrew persons (caste endogamy). A bride selected from the pool of possible females would be a half-sister in the case of the ruler’s first marriage and a patrilineal cousin in the case of the second marriage. The brides for the next royal son will be considered in the rotation, beginning with the next female in the rotation after the last match was made.

The number 9 is based on the evidence that the early Hebrew were organized in groups of 3 clans: my clan, my brother’s clan, and my cousin’s clan. The deliberations would involve 3 groups of 3 Hebrew clans, which means that there were 9 clans from which a consanguine bride could be chosen. The number 12 is based on the evidence of 12-clan, with celestial animal totems related to the 12 moon phases. A similar way of selecting marriage partners is found in Hinduism with its concern for totemic origin. The most common totem names are those of animals regarded as sacred, such as the tiger, the cobra, the calf, and the elephant.

Consider the 12-hour clock, an intuitive usage of modular arithmetic. If it is 10:00 now, then in 5 hours the clock will show 3:00 instead of 15:00. 3 is the remainder of 15 with a modulus of 12.

It is possible that the account of Laban's insistence that the older sister (Leah) must marry before the younger (Rachel) alludes to a modular system. Laban insists that in his country, the younger daughter cannot marry before the older daughter (Gen. 29:16-30). Jacob, who was sent to live with his maternal uncle (avunculocal residence) agreed to work for Laban for seven years in return for marriage to his youngest daughter Rachel. However, on their wedding night, Laban switched Leah for Rachel. Later Laban claims that it is not the custom in his country to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.

Here a late hand on the text would have us believe that the marriage customs of the Hebrew in Padan-Aram were different than the customs in Jacob’s home country in Edom. However, all the early Hebrew followed the same pattern of caste endogamy regardless of where they lived.

The baby-making competition between Leah and Rachel is presented as an attempt to win Jacob’s favor. Leah felt unloved by Jacob and envied Rachel. The narrative presents Leah and Rachel as sisters, but Leah was probably Jacob’s half-sister, and Rachel was probably his cousin bride. These wives and their offspring constitute the clan of Jacob, one on many early Hebrew clans.

Another example of avunculocal residence is found in the story of Joseph who was sent to live with his maternal uncle Potiphar. Joseph fits the pattern of sent-away sons who go to serve their maternal uncles. Potiphar was a priest of On, the capital of the 15th nome of Lower Egypt. He was the high chamberlain, and a member of Pharaoh’s court. Pharaoh arranged a marriage between Joseph and Potiphar's daughter Asenath.

Related reading: Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles; Three-Clan Confederations; Why Rachel Didn't Trust Laban; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of the Early Hebrew; Genetic Risks in Cousin Marriage; Rebekah Ran to Her Mother's House

About My Book "The First Lords of the Earth"

Dear Readers,

It has been a long time coming (40 years), but my book The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study is now available to purchase on Amazon. Purchase options include Kindle, paperback, and hardcover. All are priced to accommodate the book lover on a tight budget.

This paradigm-shifting book identifies the social structure and religious beliefs of the early Hebrew ruler-priest caste (6000-4000 years ago), their dispersion out of Africa, their territorial expansion, trade routes, and influence on the populations of the Fertile Crescent and Ancient Near East.

I was able to make a rather complex subject easy to understand. I hope you will buy the book and discover answers to some perennial questions, such as:

• Who were the Horite Hebrew and the Sethite Hebrew?
• Where is the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship?
• Why did so many Hebrew men have two wives?
• What was the difference in status between wives and concubines?
• What types of authority did the biblical Hebrew recognize?
• What were some symbols of authority among the early Hebrew?
• How did their acute observation of the patterns in nature inform their reasoning?
• If Judaism is NOT the Faith of the early Hebrew, what did they believe?

It is ancient history, anthropology, and Biblical studies wrapped into one fascinating read. I hope you will find it helpful and informative.

Best wishes to you all,

Alice C. Linsley

Related reading: The First Lords and Messianic Expectation; The First Lords and Their Authority; The First Lords is a Paradigm-Shifting Book; Response to a Review of First Lords of the Earth