Alice C. Linsley
About one-quarter of Genesis is the story of God’s dealings with Abraham and his ancestors (chapter 1-12). The other chapters deal with Abraham's descendants before the establishment of Israel. Because this is so, we must recognize that the promise concerning the coming of the Seed of God by the Woman (Gen. 3:15) does not originate with the Jews. It is much older. The expectation was preserved by Abraham's ancestors to whom the promise was first made in Eden, a well-watered region that extended from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley.
The bulk of my research focuses on the first quarter of the book, material that is often dismissed as non-historical or simply ignored. However, archaeological, linguistic, genetic, climate and migration studies have begun to present a unified picture of these peoples and their consanguine ties.
Abraham's mother was a daughter of Na' Hor, a Horite name. The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who originated in the Nile region. Exclusive intermarriage (endogamy) is a characteristic of castes. This means that Abraham's mother was Horite. Because ethnicity was traced through the mother, we must conclude that Abraham was Horite. As David is a descendant of Abraham, David also had Horite blood. This explains why all of David's sons are called "priests" in II Samuel.
David's Kenite-Horite Blood
According to the Talmud, David's maternal grandfather was Adael. Adael is the masculine equivalent of the name Adah. Adah was the wife of Lamech the Elder and the mother of Jubal and Jabal (Gen. 4). This is also the name of one of Esau the Elder’s wives. So Adah and Adael is a family name traced back to the lines of Cain and Seth. Both versions of the name are traceable to the Kenites, the descendants of Cain who intermarried with Seth's line. So David had Kenite blood. This means that he is a descendant of Cain/Kain and since the lines of Kain and Seth exclusively intermarried, he was also a descendant of Seth. This explains why David sent the spoils of war to the cities of Judah and to the Kenites (1 Samuel 30:29).
David's ancestry is traced through Tamar, the daughter of a Horite priest. She was probably at her father's shrine when she tricked Judah into impregnating her. When Judah discovered that she was pregnant, he ordered that she be burned to death. This was the Levitical punishment for daughters of priests who committed adultery or harlotry. Chastity was of the first order among the priestly lines, both for males and females. Horite ruler-priests married only the daughters of priests. Some of those priests were metal-working descendants of Kain, called Kenites.
Jethro, Moses' fathers-in-law, may have been a Kenite. He is called the "priest of Midian." Jethro was not his name but rather his title. He was a Yatir that proclaimed the laws of YHWH as they pertained to the husbandry of sheep and goats. Yatir is from the Hebrew YTR which is the 3-letter root of Jethro. According to Biblical Anthropologist Susan Burns, the Yatir was a priest of nomadic sheep herders. Although not all the priestly clans were metalworkers, all the priestly clans kept herds.
Midian was one of the Abraham's sons by his cousin-wife Keturah. Likely, Aaron was skilled in metal work which explains why the Israelites appealed to him to build the golden calf.
Rahab of Jericho was the wife of Salmon the Horite, the Son of Hur (Hor). Salmon is called the "father of Bethlehem" in 1 Chronicles 2:54. Rahab became the grandmother of Boaz who married Ruth. Salmon (also Salma or Solomon) is a Horite name and is associated with Bethlehem (1 Chronicles 2:51). This connection of the Jews to the ancient Horites is why Jews call their parents horim.
Hiram I of Tyre was kin to David and sent skilled artisans to help David build a palace in Jerusalem, “the city of the Great King” (Matt. 5:35). Hiram is also known as "Huram" and "Horam", which are versions of the names Hur, Hor and Harun (Aaron), as in Jabal Harun, the Mountain of Aaron. According to Midrash, Hur was Moses’ brother-in-law, Miriam’s husband. Hur’s grandson was one of the builders of the Tabernacle. I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur as the "father of Bethlehem", a settlement in the heartland of Horite territory and the birthplace of King David and his "son" Jesus, the Christ.
The evidence concerning David's ethnicity points to Kenites and Horites who intermarried according to a unique pattern that is like a cultural signature. The pattern involves exclusive intermarriage between priestly lines. Each ruler had 2 wives. One was his half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the other was a cousin or niece (as was Keturah to Abraham). The cousin/niece bride named their firstborn son after her father. So Abraham's firstborn son by Keturah was Joktan, named after Keturah's ruler-priest father. This Joktan the Younger is probably the founder of the Joktanite tribes of Arabia. Going back further, Methuselah's Kenite bride Naamah named their firstborn son Lamech after her father (see diagram below).
Related reading: Shepherd Priests; The Ethnicity of David and Abraham; Who Were the Horites?; Abraham's Horite Mother; Why Jesus Visited Tyre; Afro-Asiatic Metalworkers
Happy Easter Alice.
ReplyDeleteI understand the blood connection with the priesthood. I think the nuptial imagery in the liturgy in equally important.
Jesus is enclosed in the sanctuary of the church, like he was enclosed in the womb of his mother Mary.
At the time of consecration, the Word once gain becomes flesh and is born from the womb of the woman church.
A woman priest would turn the liturgy into a lesbian event.
I would also add that in the Christian world view we are equal because we are human beings. Our equality does not depend on what we can do.
Feminists place equality with utility.
Savvy
A blessed Easter to you, dear Savia.
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