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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Nile and Tigris Linguistically Connected


Alice C. Linsley

Numerous linguistic connections between the Nile Valley and the Tigris-Euphrates Valley have been demonstrated here. Today another connection was called to my attention by an Oromo speaker living in the Horn of Africa. In the Nilotic Oromo language the word gurguru means "sell" and gurguraa means "seller." The word gurgur refers to metal workers who sold their wares in the city market places. Likely this is the root of the Japanese (Ainu) word guruma, meaning wheel. The Ainu originated in the Nile.

The Akkadian name Dûr-gurgurri (Bad-tibiri) means Wall of Copper Smiths or Fortress of Smiths. The Akkadian prefix Dûr- means "fortress of" as in Dûr-Sharrukin, “Sargon’s fortress.” According to the Sumerian King List, Dûr-gurgurri was the second city to "exercise kingship" in Sumer, following Eridu (City of Idu). The word Eridu is related to Eredo, a sacred site in Nigeria protected by 70-foot barrier wall that runs for about 100 miles. Eredo appears to be associated with the royal House of Sheba in later times and with the Ido of Benin.

The building of Dûr-Sharrukin at the confluence of the Tigris and the Greater Zab rivers was undertaken by Sargon II in 717 BC. It was to be the new capital of Assyria, replacing Nineveh. The royal court relocated in 706 to Dûr-Sharrukin, although the city was not completed. The building project was abandoned after Sargon died in 705.

The fortress walls of Dûr-Sharrukin were huge, with 157 guard towers and 7 gates. The central temple was dedicated to Nabu, the guardian of scribe-priests. Nabu was the son of Marduk. A ziggurat was built within the confines of the royal palace.


Shedu from Khorsabad
University of Chicago Oriental Institute

The French consul, Paul-Émile Botta, began excavations at Dûr-Sharrukin in 1843. Botta painstakingly copied the cuneiform script he found etched on the palace walls. The subsequent translation by Rawlinson and Hinks revealed information that enabled historians to confirm Biblical information.

Finds at Dûr-Sharrukin include ivories encrusted with lapis lazuli, cuneiform inscriptions, bas-reliefs showing slaves yoked together, and monumental shedu, human-headed winged bulls. This is where the Assyrian King List was discovered which records kings from ca. 1700 BC until the middle of the 11th century BC.


Related reading: Hittite Religion; 70,000 year old settlement discovered in Sudan; Water Systems Connected Nile and Central Africa; The Genetic Unity of Black African Elamite, Dravidian and Sumerian Languages by Clyde A. Winters; Biblical Sheba and East African Settlements Linked; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; The Kushite-Kushan Connection

Monday, June 25, 2012

The Evolution of Darwinian Evolution


Can the essence (ousia) of an entity change over time so that it is no more? That is the central question to be addressed and the crux of the debate between Essentialists (such as Plato, Aristotle and Kripe) and Non-Essentialists (Heraclitus and Darwinian Materialists such as Dawkins).



Alice C. Linsley

Darwin's theory of evolution presumes the emergence of species over time by a naturalistic mechanism of "descent with modification."  Better adapted specimens survive as random genetic mutations occur within an organism's genetic code.  Beneficial mutations are preserved and passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and produce well adapted species. Presumably the same mechanism can lead to the emergence of creatures that have little or no resemblance to their ancient ancestors. So Darwinians feel justified in proposing that camels and sharks had a common ancestor because they share an antigen receptor protein.

Evolutionary branching from a common ancestor attempts to explain the anatomical differences between humans, apes and prosimians, but the material evidence simply is not there.

The 47 million year old fossil (Darwinius masillae) found in Germany is touted as the transition between flying lemurs and humans. The fossil of the lemur-like creature named Ida is believed to offer evidence of evolutionary changes that led to primates standing upright - "a breakthrough that could finally confirm Charles Darwin's theory of evolution." It was dubbed the "missing link" by the media. However, as Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist, explains, "From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there. So you can't say a whole lot of what that [type of fossil] represents in terms of evolutionary history or biology."

Darwin admitted that aspects of his theory seemed implausible when considering specific features, such as the human eye.  He wrote, "To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree." (Charles Darwin, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life," 1859, p. 155)

Darwin also conceeded the fragility of his theory. He wrote, "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down." (Ibid., p. 158)

Of course Darwin's theory does break down when it comes to the most complex of organisms: the human being. The earliest human fossils show a range of anatomical features yet all these features are found among humans today. The nearly complete skulls of people who lived 160,000 years ago are, in the words of paleontologist Tim White, "like modern-day humans in almost every feature." (See report here.)

When Jeremy DeSilva, an anthropologist at Worcester State College in Massachusetts, compared the ankle joint, the tibia and the talus of fossil "hominins" between 4.12 million to 1.53 million years old, he discovered that all of the hominin ankle joints resembled those of modern humans. His research has shown that Australopithecus lacked the grasping toe typical of tree climbers, and its spine, pelvis, knees, and ankles were made for walking on two legs and not designed for tree climbing.

The claim of universality of the DNA code as a prediction of common descent does not align with known variations that violate this prediction. There appear to be specific fixed boundaries within the DNA code. It is ludicrous to assume that because nurse sharks and camels share an antigen receptor protein they are descended from a common ancestor. The DNA sequences that code for the proteins are different between sharks and camels. (Roux et al. 1998. The identification of a unusual antigen receptor protein structure found in camels and nurse sharks is not evidence of a common ancestor.)

Though images of humans emerging from apes appear in biology texts, no such image of camels emerging from sharks appears. If they did, the dullest of students would laugh and the brightest would express skepticism.


Doubts About the Veracity of Darwin's Theory

Despite Darwin's own doubts, Darwinism rules the day in schools, universities and the media. It has tentacles that stretch into government, education, medicine, ethics, economics and the social sciences. The Darwinian claim of universal common descent is ideologically-driven, not evidence-driven. The effect of this view is to blur the distinction between humans and other created species. Further, it perpetuates an idea that has no material support. Even evolutionary scientists question Darwin's theory of common descent. Jeremy DeSilva and Tim White are examples.

Initial resistance to Darwin's The Origin of Species came from scientists such as the naturalist William H. Hudson who wrote in his 1905 essay “Wasps”:

“One day an elder brother, on return from travel in distant lands, put a copy of the famous Origin of Species in my hands and advised me to read it. When I had done so, he asked me what I thought of it. 'It's false!' I exclaimed in a passion, and he laughed, little knowing how important a matter this was to me, and told me I could have the book if I liked. I took it without thanks and read it again and thought a good deal about it, and was nevertheless able to resist it teachings for years, solely because I could not endure to part with a philosophy of life, if I may so describe it, which could not logically be held, if Darwin was right, and without which life would not be worth having.

It is curious to see now that Darwin himself gave the first comfort to those who, convinced against their will, were anxious to discover some way of escape which would not involve the total abandonment of their cherished beliefs. At all events, he suggested the idea, which religious minds were quick to seize upon, that the new explanation of the origin of the innumerable forms of life which people on earth from one or a few primordial organisms afforded us a nobler conception of the creative mind than the traditional one. It does not bear examination, probably it originated in the author's kindly and compassionate feelings rather than in his reasoning faculties; but it gave temporary relief and served its purpose. Indeed, to some, to very many perhaps, it still serves as a refuge - this poor, hastily made straw shelter, which lets in rain and wind, but seems better to them than no shelter at all.”


Darwin's mentor at Cambridge, Adam Sedgwick, wrote to Darwin in 1859 and stated, "Passages in your book...greatly shocked my moral taste.'" Sedgwick added that "humanity, in my mind, would suffer a damage that might brutalize it, and sink the human race into a lower grade of degradation than any into which it has fallen since its written records tell us of its history" (from Richard Weikart's From Darwin to Hitler, 2004, p. 1).


An Excuse to Reject Conventional Morality

Many evolutionists have used Darwin to support their atheism. They reject the Biblical assertion that humans were not specially created and fully human from the beginning. Humans are merely another animal, not a creature in the divine image, deserving of no greater dignity than any other creature. Darwin could not have foreseen how his theory would stimulate unhealthy attitudes about life and human dignity. Eugenics, abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, euthanasia are advocated today by a variety of Darwinist writers and scientists. Darwinism provided the theoretical basis upon which Hitler and his collaborators were able to convince many that the atrocities they were committing were for a higher good and therefore justifed.

Darwin's theory that all living things are engaged in a ruthless struggle for survival can be used to justify selfishness and brutality. Social Darwinism alleges a scientific basis for policies that demean the value of human life. Social Darwinists assert that progress is made when superior groups outcompete inferior ones for resources and territory, but who is to decide what constitutes superior and inferior?

In more recent years we have seen Darwinism play out in the slaughter of innocent children in Norway. A review of Anders Behring Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto reveals a mind deluded by neo-fascist and Darwinian precepts. Breivik confessed to a bombing and shooting massacre that left 77 dead in Norway

Breivik wrote in his manifesto that he is not religious, doubts God's existence, and does not pray.  Breivik hailed Darwinism, and wrote: "As for the Church and science, it is essential that science takes an undisputed precedence over biblical teachings. Europe has always been the cradle of science, and it must always continue to be that way. Regarding my personal relationship with God, I guess I'm not an excessively religious man. I am first and foremost a man of logic. However, I am a supporter of a monocultural Christian Europe."

Many have used Darwinism to justify their rejection of conventional morality and the Judeo-Christian worldview. The Huxley brothers are another example. Aldous Huxley wrote: "Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their [purpose] that the world should be meaningless ... For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was ... liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom ..." (Ends and Means, 1938, pp. 270, 273).

Julian Huxley wrote, "The sense of spiritual relief which comes from rejecting the idea of God as a superhuman being is enormous" (Essays of a Humanist, 1966, p. 223).

The atheistic trend in Darwinism has a popular spokesman in Dawkins whose books have influenced the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowam Williams. We hear the Darwinian nuances in his speeches and writings.  Here is an example:

...in a world where exploitative and aggressive behaviour is commonplace, one of the "providential" tasks of human beings must be to limit damage and to secure space for the natural order to exist unharmed.

...the human task is to draw out potential treasures in the powers of nature and so to realise the convergent process of humanity and nature discovering in collaboration what they can become.
 
Darwin himself did not resonate with the atheism of the Huxleys and Dawkins. In a letter to John Fordyce in 1879, he wrote, “In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.”


Fuel for Utopian Ideologies

The evolutionary view of human progress over time contributed to the utopian dreams of many Enlightenment thinkers and their disciples.  Such optimism was expressed by the French philosopher Condorcet (1743-1794) who saw "the human race, emancipated from its shackles, released from the empire of fate and from that of the enemies of its progress, advancing with a firm and sure step along the path of truth, virtue and happiness."

The atrocities committed by the Nazi regime and Stalin and by colonists in Africa and the Americas is sufficient evidence that humanity has not progressed toward Utopia.

If humans progress steadily in knowledge, why did Europeans in the Middle Ages believe that the earth is flat when people in Abraham's time knew it was a sphere? Why were Londoners living in darkness and filth when the people of Southern Spain had gas-lit streets and plumbing? If we are progressing in happiness and fulfillment why are many primitive peoples more content that peoples living in advanced techological societies? Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) argued that advances in the sciences and civilization can corrupt rather than improve humanity.


Forcing Scientific Disciplines into a Darwinian Mold

Cultural evolution is a recent application of Darwinism to human societies and behavior. Alex Mesoudi's book Cultural Evolution: How Darwinian Theory Can Explain Human Culture and Synthesize the Social Sciences represents this approach.  It is less about anthropology than about how anthropology can be made to evolve along the lines that Darwinians think it should. Mesoudi oversimplifies to demonstrate that human culture represents an evolutionary process that exhibits the Darwinian mechanisms of variation, competition, and inheritance. His book does not lead to a better understanding of the diverse expressions of human culture. Rather it is a manual for obfuscation; a thought experiment that breaks down when doing practical anthropology.

Darwin's theory seems plausible to people who have not investigated the data. If it were true, there would be no need to force the sciences into a Darwinian mold. The sciences would converge. However, the sciences do not converge on aspects of Darwin's theory. Astronomers recognize a clocklike pattern in the skies. Geneticists recognize certain unchanging patterns which form the basis of their research. Physicists recognize unchanging physical laws. Anthropologists find that humans are essentially the same regardless of their environments.

We can agree that species change over time. We can agree that mutation, environmental adaptation and isolation produce diversity, but lacking the material evidence, we cannot agree that camels emerged from sharks or that humans emerged from simians. Many hundreds of scientists would agree with Dr Colin Reeves, Professor of Mathematical Studies at Coventry University, who has said, “Darwinism was an interesting idea in the 19th century, when handwaving explanations gave a plausible, if not properly scientific, framework into which we could fit biological facts. However, what we have learned since the days of Darwin throws doubt on natural selection’s ability to create complex biological systems - and we still have little more than handwaving as an argument in its favor.”


Related reading: An Scientific Timeline of GenesisTheories of Change and ConstancyBiblical Anthropologists Discuss Darwin; Evolutionists Ignorant of Culture; Science Teachers and Creationism; Getting the Facts About Human Origins; The Battle Over Genesis; Among Many Peoples, Little Genomic Variety; Is Genesis Really About Human Origins?; Kansas Science Bill Defeated

Saturday, June 23, 2012

El Castillo Rock Art in Perspective

Alice C. Linsley



The debate over whether the cave paintings in Spain and France were done by "modern humans" or "Neanderthals" has sprung up again. As usual, the media filters the data through a Darwinian sieve and the public is left in confusion.

The BBC news reports that the oldest cave painting is a red sphere at El Castillo. In fact there are many red spheres or dots on the walls at El Castillo.  The spherical motif is probably the oldest produced by humans and likely represents the sun, moon, stars and constellations. The image below could represent lunar phases. Compare the two images below.





Prehistoric antlar bone found in Southwest France





Other caves include the images of hands and animals. About 25 handprints, made by blowing red ochre dust over a hand pressed against the wall, date to about 37,300 years old. An image of a bison overlays the hands and was painted later. Other cave paintings include horses, though these were painted somewhat later.

The El Castillo cave paintings date to when human populations moved from Africa into Europe about 41,000 to 45,000 years ago. By comparison, the oldest known cave paintings at Gilf Kebir in the Sahara date to about 6000 BC.  Before the Sahara became arid, a sizeable community lived on this vast sandstone plateau near the Egyptian-Libyan border, about 400 miles from the Nile. When the climate changed, people migrated north into Europe and east to the Nile Valley.

Rock paintings in the Sudan, dating to 3000 BC have been exposed to the elements, unlike the paintings at El Castillo and France's Chauvet cave (32,000 and 37,000 years). The Sudan rock paintings indicate fishing, such as evidenced at the Khormusan sites of ancient Nubia (65,000 and 55,000 years) where an abundance of fish and wild game bones were found.

It is likely that humans were making such paintings in Africa, but the art has not survived or yet been discovered. The continuing discovery of African monuments such as Eredo and many ancient pyramids contributes to the picture of archaic human industry and imagination. The vertical sided ditches of Eredo go around the area for 100 miles and rise 70 feet. The recently discovered pyramids of Zinder (Niger) are believed to date to the time of the pyramids of Egypt.

Aboriginal rock art at Narwal Gabarnmang in northern Australia dates to 28,000 years old, but a stone axe found at the site is 35,000 years old. University of Southern Queensland archaeologist Bryce Barker says there is evidence that the cave had first been in human use about 45,000 years ago.


Narwal Gabarnmang rock shelter



Carolyn Moynihan, deputy editor of MercatorNet, has written:

"Exactly how humanity expressed itself is less important in the end than the fact that there is a human mind and soul behind the decorated tools or rock paintings. Writing about the bad press “cavemen” were getting nearly a century ago (in his 1921 short story, "The Grisly Folk," H G Wells had portrayed them as savage and barbaric creatures who deserved their fate of extinction) G K Chesterton observed that, deep as the explorer had to go to find the pictures of reindeer drawn on cave walls by ancient man, he would have to go a long way further to find a picture of man drawn by a reindeer."

Arguing about whether the El Castillo cave paintings were done by "modern humans" or Neanderthals is a waste of time and energy. Neanderthals were human and they bred with other human populations. The Neanderthal genome has been sequenced. Early comparisons indicate that humans and Neanderthals are practically identical at the protein level.


Related reading: 3000 BC Sudan Rock Paintings; Getting the Facts About Human Origins; DNA Studies and Ancient Rock Paintings of Horses

Thursday, June 21, 2012

A Visit to Tut's Seattle Exhibit


Alice C. Linsley




I toured the Tutankhamum (Tut-ankh-amun) exhibit yesterday and I would like to share some observations about this ruler who lived about 600 years after Abraham.

King Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor was discovered in 1922 by the American archaeologist Howard Carter. It had been raided by treasure hunters, but was still relatively intact. Carter purchased artifacts which had been stolen from Tut's mummy and took the matter to the Egyptian authorities who forced the grave robbers to lead them to the tomb.

All of the grave's contents were removed from the tomb and taken to Cairo. The desert grave subsequently collapsed. The discovery and recovery had taken place just in time.

Tutankhamum became pharaoh at the age of ten in 1333 BC and ruled for only nine years. His death marked the end of the royal line from the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom. He was not a significant ruler, but his tomb has been one of the most spectacular finds of the century.

The exact cause of young Tutankhamun's death is not known. He suffered from malaria and necrosis of the left foot, and apparently walked with a cane. More than 100 canes were found in his tomb. One theory is that the young king, weakened by the bone disorder, succumbed to malaria. It is also possible that he died from sickle-cell disease.

As was typical of the Kushite-Egyptian marriage and ascendancy pattern, King Tut's parents were half-siblings. This feature characterized the kinship pattern of Abraham and Moses. Abraham's father had two wives and Sarah was Abraham's half-sister. Moses' father had two wives and Moses' Kushite wife was his half-sister.



Genesis 36: the line of Seir the Horite


At his ascent to the throne, Tut married his half-sister Ankhesenpaaten. Had he lived, he would have taken a second wife at a later age. She would have been a cousin or a niece.

Tutankhamum ascended to the throne of his father Akhenaten. This indicates that Tut was the firstborn son of Akhenaten by his half-sister wife. Tut's Y-chromosome would match his father's. His mtDNA would match his mother's, but not necessarily his father's.




Tut's father Akhenaton moved his capital from Thebes (Luxor) to Amarna, which he built in a desolate but more central region of the Nile. King Tut moved the royal court back to the old capital at Thebes, the center of Amun-Ra worship.

Tutankhamum's cartouche bears the words heqa-iunu-shema, which is usually rendered "Ruler of On of the South."

Heqa is the sceptre or shepherd's crook of the Egyptian rulers.

Iunu refers to the temple of Heliopolis (Biblical On). Herodutus reported that it took nine days to sail up river from Heliopolis to Thebes. The temple of Thebes was called "Heliopolis of the South." By relocating his court to Thebes, Tutankhamum may have been attempting to regain the glory of his forefathers at a time of Egypt's decline.



The corners of most of the 4th - 6th dynasty pyramids are aligned towards Heliopolis, the geodetic center of Egypt. The pyramid triads at Giza, Zaqqara and Abusir are examples. Baalbek in Lebanon, also called Heliopolis, aligns to Heliopolis in Egypt. 

Shema refers to ta-shema or Upper Egypt, the narrow valley extending south of Memphis to Abu on the First Cataract in Nubia. Thebes is between Memphis and Abu.

Ra, the Creator, is referred to as the "God of Manifestations." Ra's emblem is the sun. 


Tutankhamun Artefacts Still Missing

Four artefacts belonging to Tutankhamun, and missing since the January Revolution, were returned to the Cairo Museum in April 2011. One object was the gilded wooden statue of Tutankhamun standing on a skiff throwing a harpoon (JE 60710.1), which suffered damage.  A small part of the crown is missing as well as pieces of the pharaoh's legs.

One of the 10 missing shabtis of Yuya and Tjuya (JE 68984) was also returned, as was Tutankhamun's gilded bronze and wooden trumpet (JE 62008).

Tutankhamun’s fan (JE 62006) was also returned, but it was broken into 11 pieces and the stock was missing.

From the list of objects missing from the Cairo Museum, about twenty items were retrieved in March 2011.  Most were confiscated from dealers.

Some of Tutankhamun's treasures are still missing.



Related reading:  Moses' Wives and Brothers; Twin Pyramids and Sphinx of Zinder; Prehistoric Geodesy; Undiscovered Pyramids Seen From Space



Tuesday, June 19, 2012

About Race, Human Populations, and the Purpose of Mankind

Alice C. Linsley


Part 7: Answers to Questions about Race and Population
This continues the series "Answers to Hign Schoolers' Questions About Genesis."

Part 1: About God
Part 2: About Adam and Eve
Part 3: About the Serpent
Part 4: About the Flood
Part 5: About the Earth
Part 6: High Schoolers Wonder "Why Abraham?"



Q:  How did the different races come about?

A:  The modern conception of race is not biblical. This explains why the term "race" does not appear in the Bible. All humans share common ancestry and our point of origin is Africa millions of years ago.

Instead of race, the Bible speaks of ethnicities. In fact it mentions many ancient populations and cultures.

In Genesis 25, we find the words goyim and leumim (peoples) to describe two peoples who descend from Jacob by Rebekah. 

In the New Testament, the Greek word ethnos is used for peoples or nations. The Hebrew goyim is used to distinguish non-Jews from Jews. Both goyim and ethnos refer to peoples or nations, not to races.

The term "race" is misleading. Today molecular genetics classifies populations by "haplogroups" and people who look very different can be in the same haplogroup.

Haplogroups characterize the early migrations of human populations and can be used to connect ancestry with a geographical region or regions. A haplogroup identifies the descendants of a single individual who first showed a particular single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP. An SNP is a point on the DNA where a single base changes. This SNP change is passed through generations of the family, clan or caste, and can be used to genetically define populations. Individuals with the same genetic SNP mutation or "marker" can be linked back to the population where the marker first made an appearance. 

Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups have different haplogroup designations. The Y-chromosome traces paternal ancestry and the mt-DNA traces maternal ancestry.

Genesis does not tell us about all the haplogroups. It tells us about the peoples in Y-DNA haplogroup A, the lineage of all human males. 



It also tells us about the dispersion of the Y-DNA R1 populations out of Africa, shown on this map.


The dark red spot in central Africa is Noah's homeland, the region of Bor-No.


Mitochondrial Eve




"Mitochondrial Eve" lived about 200,000 years ago. She is the most recent female common ancestor. Found in the energy-producing centers of cells, mitochondrial DNA is passed down the maternal line, and can be traced back to one woman. Both males and females inherit the Mt-DNA from their mothers, but only females pass it on to their children. The people of Genesis are grouped according to their clan mothers: J1, N, X and L1, L2 and L3. 

In these haplogroups we find every "racial" feature: black, white, yellow, and red skin tones; brown, blue, and green eyes; woolly, wavy, and straight hair; facial hair and no facial hair; slanted almond-shaped eyes, round eyes, heavy lids; high foreheads and low foreheads, thick lips and thin lips, prominent noses and flat noses, and every head shape.

The fact that the lines of Ham and Shem cannot be separated linguistically or genetically underscores that their lines intermarried. It also testifies to the biblical assertion of Genesis 11:1 that all the peoples listed in the Table of Nations were one people with common ancestry. The lines of Ham and Shem intermarried as demonstrated by analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's ancestors.



Q:  If Adam and Eve's children married each other, isn't that the sin of incest?

A:  Incest is universally defined as sexual relations between parent and child, not between siblings. In the culture of Abraham's Horite Hebew people, the preferred marriage arrangement for the first wife was a half-sister. Sarah was Abraham's first wife and his half-sister. Jochebed was Amram's half-sister and his first wife. However, sex between parent and child was taboo and forbidden. Such perversion was regarded as so despicable that it was used to slander Lot's Ammonite and Moabite descendants (Gen. 19: 30-38).



Q:  How did the whole earth's population come from just Adam and Eve?

A:  The Bible does not say that all human populations came from Adam and Eve. It does state that all who live today are of "one blood." 

It also is not possible to say that the whole earth's population came from Noah's descendants after the flood. Noah lived about 3490-2800 BC when the Sahara experienced a wet period (the African Aqualithic). He lived at the same time as the Horite Hebrew shrine city of Nekhen.



Q:  Did other families exist on earth at the same time that Adam and Eve lived?

A: In the Bible, Adam and Eve are present different ways. Adam is posed as the archetypal first father and Adam and Eve as the original couple. This is an archetype, not to be taken as historical.

However, Adam and Eve are also presented as historical in the Bible. They are the parents of Cain and Seth who married the daughters of Enoch, a contemporary of Adam. The data of Genesis suggests that Adam and Enoch are 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 8:4:

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




The Apostle Paul speaks of Adam analogically. He draws and analogy between Adam by whom sin and death entered and Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, who overturns the curse, defeats death and restores paradise.



Q:  Did all the peoples of the earth come from Noah's three sons after the flood?

A:  No. Humans were already dispersed into Europe and Asia by 100,000 years ago, long before Noah's time. They were in the New World by 11,000 years ago.



Q:  How many generations are from Adam and Eve to Abraham?

A:  That is impossible to answer this because we cannot know when Adam and Eve existed. We also cannot say exactly how many generations from Cain to Abraham since the Genesis Kings lists do not correspond to generations, but to the reign and succession of the Horite Hebrew rulers.

Between 100,000 and 500 BC the average man lived less than 40 years and the average woman lived less than 38 years. These life spans would have been longer for rulers due to their superior diets and access to medical resources. So it is conceivable that the rulers named in Genesis lived relatively long lives, with the exception of those who died by assassination or in battle. We might estimate their life spans to be between 60 and 80 years (average would be 70). This would mean that a dynastic line of a depth of 10 rulers would represent between 300 and 400 years. 

One factor that must be considered is whether a ruler is the firstborn of the sister-bride or the cousin/niece bride. The sister-bride was the first wife and the wife of the ruler's youth. The cousin/niece bride was the wife that the heir married before ascending the throne. For the sister-wife's firstborn son, the father's age would be between 18 and 25 (median would be 21). So we can estimate that generally the firstborn son of the sister-wife would have been born when his father was about 21. For the cousin/niece bride's firstborn son the father's age would be between 45 and 60 (median would be 52). So we can estimate that the cousin-bride produced an heir or priest (for her father, not her husband) when her husband was about age 52.

We do not know how long the rulers of Genesis lived. Noah is said to have lived 950 years. Methuselah lived 969 years. Methuselah's son, Lamech the Younger, lived 777 years. Abraham's father, Terah, lived longer than Jacob by 58 years. The numbers assigned to the Genesis rulers are symbolic and some are linked to astronomical observations. Clearly, symbolic numbers cannot be used to determine actual life spans. 


Q:  Why were the men in Genesis so old?

A. The life spans assigned to the kings of Genesis are symbolic. Ancient clay tablets have been discovered that recount the greatness ofassign as much as a thousand years to some Sumerian and Akkadian rulers. However, all these lived normal live spans for rulers of the time. The average life span for rulers was between 73 and 75 years.

Paleontology indicates that the average lifespan of commoners was shorter. The life span of peoples living in the Nile Valley, Turkey and Mesopotamia during the time of the Genesis rulers was about 35 years for males and 30 years for females. This data corresponds to peoples in the Late Paleolithic (BC 30,000 to 9,000) when males lived about 34 years and females about 30 years. During the Mesolithic (BC 9,000 to 7,000) males lived about 33 years and females about 31 years. During the Early Neolithic (BC 7,000 to 5,000) males lived about 34 years and females about 30 years.

St. Jerome notes: "I am reviewing carefully the places in Scripture where I might find old age mentioned for the first time. Adam lived for 930 years, yet he is not called an old man. Methuselah's life was 969 years, and he is not called an old man. I am coming down all the way to the flood, and after the flood for almost three thousand years, and I find no one who has been called old. Abraham is the first, and certainly he was much younger than Methuselah." (Homilies on the Psalms 21)

Jerome observes that Abraham is the first man described as "old" in Genesis. Those who lived before him are not called old because the numbers assigned to them are symbolic. 



Q:  Why did God create Mankind?

A: The answer to this question varies from religion to religion. Islam teaches that Mankind was created to live in submission to Allah and for the purpose of worshipping Allah. Qur'an 51:56 states, "I have created the jinn and humankind only for My worship."

The Jinn are divided into followers of Islam and followers of the abased Iblis (a sort of fallen angel). The Jinn were commanded to bow down before Adam, but Iblis refused. God said, "What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?" He replied, "I am better than him. You created me from fire and You created him from clay." God said, "Descend from heaven. It is not for you to be arrogant in it. So get out! You are one of the abased." Surah 7 (al-A`raf), 11-13.

In Judaism, Man exists at God's pleasure and has liberty to obey or not to obey God's commands. The rabbis say that "Adam was created from the dust of the place where the sanctuary was to rise for the atonement of all human sin," and this means that sin should not be a permanent or inherent part of man's nature. 

Genesis 1 claims that humans are a special creation, fashioned in the image of the God. Christians believe that Mankind was created to enjoy perfect fellowship with God in Three Persons (the Trinity), in whose image and likeness we were made. When we seek God, we are renewed in our intended nature through Jesus Christ, and grow more like Him by the in-dwelling Holy Spirit. 


Related reading: Three Portraits of Adam; The Historicity of Noah's FloodThe Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; Thoughts on Calculating the Dates of the PatriarchsLifespans of Archaic Peoples: John Calvin on God's Motive in Creation


Saturday, June 16, 2012

The Shock of Muhammad Atta's Afterlife


Alice C. Linsley

Who are the houris mentioned in the Qur'an?

Many Muslims believe they are buxom maidens to be enjoyed by martyrs in the afterlife. In a note to his fellow hijackers, September 11 ringleader Muhammad Atta reminded them of their impending "marriage in Paradise" to the 72 virgins mentioned in the Quran. Islamic extremists refer to suicide bombing as a "wedding to the black-eyed in eternal Paradise."

The German scholar Christoph Luxenberg says the "houris" with "swelling breasts" refers instead to "white raisins" and "juicy fruits" and are symbolic of the restoration of the lushness of Paradise. Luxenberg's research was featured in a Newsweek article titled "Challenging the Quran" on July 28, 2003.

However, Luxenberg mistakenly argues that Arabic was not a written language until 150 years after Muhammad's death. In reality, Arabic is older than Hebrew and both languages have common roots in the Proto-Afro-Arabian languages. Many of those ancient roots are found in Aramaic and ancient Akkadian.

The Danish linguist Holger Pedersen (1867-1953) explained in The Discovery of Language that “Hebrew, Aramaic and Accadian languages had all undergone significant linguistic degeneration. Only Old Arabic, due to its relative isolation in the Arabian peninsula, remained closer to the old stratum of the ‘Semitic’ form of the language.” Old Arabic is sometimes called "Dedanite" because that is where the largest concentration of old Arabic scripts has been found. Further, the oldest mosques were aligned to a site in Dedan.

Dedan the Elder was a grandson of Kush by his son Raamah (Gen. 10:7).  Dedan the Younger was the son of Joktan, Abraham's first-born son (Gen. 25:3).

Dr. Maher Hathout argues that Luxenberg is wrong about the Houris being raisins and fruits. Hathout explains, "It is his [Luxenberg's] prerogative but this does not provide anything supernatural to look forward to the life of eternity. It seems that what he was referring to as raisins is 'kawaib.' Dr. Hathout argues that the Arabic meaning of "beings with swollen breasts" refers to "beings of distinction."

Dr. Hathout is Correct

The Houris are Horite beings of distinction or deified ruler-priests and the number 72 further establishes the connection to the Horites. The ancient ruler-priests were aware of the precession of the equinoxes. The number 72 represents the number of years it takes for the constellations to move one degree due to precession. The Great Pyramid and Angkor Wat are nearly 72° apart, along the circle's circumference (diagram below).  It has been noted also that Angkor Wat is located 72° of longitude east of the Pyramids of Giza. The name Angkor correlates with the ancient Egyptian Anhk-Hor, meaning "Long live Horus."

Point A represents the Angkor Wat complex of 72 shrines and G represents the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
Point I represents Har-Appa in the Indus valley. Har-Appa means "Horus is Father." 

Point M is the pyramid at Machupicchu with 72 steps. Point E is Easter Island.
Credit: Jim Alison

Apparently the Horites believed that each year of the precession is represented by a deified ruler and the Heavenly Council is comprised of these 72 rulers. To enter heaven is to come before this Council.

The Egyptians marked time by 36 ten-day increments (half of 72) and each increment was ruled by a different righteous ruler or rising star. This is based on the number of "decan" stars which were seen to rise during summer nights in Ancient Egypt. A "decan" star was a star that rose just before sunrise at the beginning of a 10-day "decade" in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptian year was marked by 36 decan stars or 36 ten-day periods. During summer nights, 12 decan stars rose; one for each hour. This is the apparent basis for the appointment of the 12 Apostles as rulers. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt.19:28)

The coincidence of celestial events and deified rulers is evident in Job 38:4-7, where God asks Job the Horite:

 "Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone
while the morning stars sang together
    and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

This appears to be a reference to January 2, 2900 BC when Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn visibly aligned within a few degrees of one another and appeared as morning "stars." This event is described from the point of reference of a surveyor at the Great Pyramid, and the Pyramid's structure serves as a memorial to this celestial event. As Bernard I. Pietsch had written, "Its shape, dimensions, and internal design communicate very specific information about where it is located on the earth and in the cosmos as well in one single moment."

In ancient Egypt, the superior planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were associated with Horus. Mars was named "Horus of the Horizon" or "Horus the Red." Jupiter was called "Horus Who Illuminates the Two Lands" and Saturn was named "Horus, Bull of the Sky." These three planets were always depicted with the falcon-head of Horus (Krupp 1979).

Messianic texts speaks of the Son of God, a title given to Horus, the archetype of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is called the Messiah eleven times in the Qur'an. It is not a coincidence that Psalm 72 is a Messianic text.

Psalm 72

1 Endow the king with your justice, O God,
the royal son with your righteousness.
2 He will judge your people in righteousness,
your afflicted ones with justice.
3 The mountains will bring prosperity to the people,
the hills the fruit of righteousness.
4 He will defend the afflicted among the people
and save the children of the needy;
he will crush the oppressor.

5 He will endure as long as the sun,
as long as the moon, through all generations.
6 He will be like rain falling on a mown field,
like showers watering the earth.
7 In his days the righteous will flourish;
prosperity will abound till the moon is no more.

8 He will rule from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9 The desert tribes will bow before him
and his enemies will lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores
will bring tribute to him;
the kings of Sheba and Seba
will present him gifts.
11 All kings will bow down to him
and all nations will serve him.

12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no one to help.
13 He will take pity on the weak and the needy
and save the needy from death.
14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
for precious is their blood in his sight.

15 Long may he live!
May gold from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray for him
and bless him all day long.
16 Let grain abound throughout the land;
on the tops of the hills may it sway.
Let its fruit flourish like Lebanon;
let it thrive like the grass of the field.
17 May his name endure forever;
may it continue as long as the sun.

All nations will be blessed through him,
and they will call him blessed.



The Common Horite Ancestry of Some Jews and Arabs

As many Arab Muslims and Jews have a common Horite ancestry, it seems more likely that the houris are their Horite ancestors who have entered into Paradise or the "lap of the Houris." This appears to be equivalent to the Bosom of Abraham, the Horite. This is suggested by the fact that Abraham's bosom in the Greek text is kolpos, which means lap. So righteous Arabs and righteous Jews will be in the same lap in the afterlife where they will await judgment.

Jews call their ancestors "horim" and the Arab Kohanan recognize Aram, Shem and Noah as their ancestors. The Horim of Jews and Arabs are traced differently in the Torah and the Qur'an, but there are clear connections showing their common Horite ancestors.  Consider ʿĀd, who according to Arab tradition was the son of Uz. Uz the Elder is mentioned in Genesis 10:23. His grandson was Uz, the son of Dishan (I Chron. 1:42). Dishan was a son of Seir the Horite and the brother-in-law of Esau the Younger. Uz the Younger was Seir's grandson.





Abraham's ruler-priest caste is traced back to ancient Kush where the oldest known shrine to Horus is located at Nehken. The Horites spread their devotion to Horus, Re and Hathor across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Horus was the archetype by which Abraham’s descendants would recognize Jesus as the Messiah and the fulfillment of the Edenic promise (Gen. 3:15). Jesus was born of Mary, a woman of the Horite bloodline. She brought forth the Seed who would crush the serpent's head and restore the faithful to Paradise, just as God promised to Abraham's ancestors in Eden.

Abraham the Horite had 9 sons. The firstborn sons ruled among Abraham’s people. However the first-born sons of wives were ranked above the firstborn sons of concubines. This means that Joktan (Qahtan in Arabic) ranked over Eliezar, and Yitzak ranked over Yishmael. Joktan ruled over the southern settlements of his maternal grandfather (Dedan, Ramaah and Beersheba) and Yitzak ruled the northern settlements of his father Abraham (Hebron, Bethel and Shechem). To this day the Joktanite tribes live in southern Arabia.


The Joktanite tribes of Southern Arabia are descendants of Abraham by Keturah

Genesis 10: 26 tells us that Joktan had 13 sons. Almodad appears to be the first-born, as his name is listed first. If Joktan followed the pattern of his fathers, his two wives would have maintained separate households on a north-south axis. The sons of his concubines would have been sent away to the east and to the west. This may be the meaning of Gen. 10:30 which describes the Joktanite territory as extending "from Mesha [Mecca?] all the way to Sephar in the eastern mountains [Mount Zafari on the Indian Ocean?]."

Some of the descendants of Joktan and Sheba hold an annual autumn feast at an oasis in the wilderness to celebrate the date harvest. This is the one time of the year that women and men may dance together. The date palm (“tamar”) is a symbol of prosperity and fertility. The ‘Id el-Tamar is a festival when the unmarried check out the pool of available matches. As is the custom from time immemorial, wife selection takes place at a well or an oasis. Abraham met Keturah at the well of Sheba (Beersheba). Moses met Zipporah at the well of her father, the priest of Midian. Midian was another of Abraham's sons, born to Abraham by his second wife Keturah. Jacob met Rebekah at a well in Padan-Aram.

Some of Abraham's descendants are Jews and some are Arabs. Both Arabs and Jews have Horite ancestors because the Horite clans intermarried. Mt-DNA studies confirm that the Horite ancestors of the priests among Abraham's people did marry exclusively within the priestly lines. This is why the Kohan genetic marker is found among Arabs and Jews. Both Arabs and Jews are descendants of Ham and Shem whose lines exclusively intermarried, as did the lines of Cain and Seth before them.  The distinctive Kohan DNA or "priest marker" is identifiable because Horite priests married daughters of priests who maintained flocks and herds at wells or river shrines. They selected animals for sacrifice from these flocks and herds. Joachim, the Virgin Mary's father, was a shepherd priest.


Friday, June 15, 2012

Rowan Williams' Confusion


Rowan Williams on the Christian Duty to the Environment


It is a rather different reading of the biblical tradition to that often (lazily) assumed to be the orthodoxy of Judeo-Christian belief. We hear regularly that this tradition authorises the exploitation of the earth through the language in Genesis about "having dominion" over the non-human creation. As has been argued elsewhere, this is a very clumsy reading of what Genesis actually says; but set alongside the Levitical code and (as Ellen Davis argues) many other aspects of the theology of Jewish Scripture, the malign interpretation that has latterly been taken for granted by critics of Judaism and Christianity appears profoundly mistaken. But what remains to be teased out is more about the nature of the human calling to further the "redemption" of persons and world. If liberating action is allowing things and persons to stand before God free from claims to possession, is the responsibility of human agents only to stand back and let natural processes unfold?

In Genesis, humanity is given the task of "cultivating" the garden of Eden: we are not left simply to observe or stand back, but are endowed with the responsibility to preserve and direct the powers of nature. In this process, we become more fully and joyfully who and what we are – as St Augustine memorably says, commenting on this passage: there is a joy, he says, in the "experiencing of the powers of nature". Our own fulfilment is bound up with the work of conserving and focusing those powers, and the exercise of this work is meant to be one of the things that holds us in Paradise and makes it possible to resist temptation. The implication is that an attitude to work which regards the powers of nature as simply a threat to be overcome is best seen as an effect of the Fall, a sign of alienation. And, as the monastic scholar Aelred Squire, points out (Asking the Fathers, p.92), this insight of Augustine, quoted by Thomas Aquinas, is echoed by Aquinas himself in another passage where he describes humanity as having a share in the working of divine Providence because it has the task of using its reasoning powers to provide for self and others (aliis, which can mean both persons and things). In other words, the human task is to draw out potential treasures in the powers of nature and so to realise the convergent process of humanity and nature discovering in collaboration what they can become. The "redemption" of people and material life in general is not a matter of resigning from the business of labour and of transformation – as if we could – but the search for a form of action that will preserve and nourish an interconnected development of humanity and its environment. In some contexts, this will be the deliberate protection of the environment from harm: in a world where exploitative and aggressive behaviour is commonplace, one of the "providential" tasks of human beings must be to limit damage and to secure space for the natural order to exist unharmed. In others, the question is rather how to use the natural order for the sake of human nourishment and security without pillaging its resources and so damaging its inner mechanisms for self-healing or self-correction. In both, the fundamental requirement is to discern enough of what the processes of nature truly are to be able to engage intelligently with them.

From here.


What I find interesting is this sentence:

in a world where exploitative and aggressive behaviour is commonplace, one of the "providential" tasks of human beings must be to limit damage and to secure space for the natural order to exist unharmed.

If we apply this to the divinely established order of male-female relations, we are faced with the providential task of defending marriage between a man and a woman and opposing homosex as against the natural order. Had Rowan Williams taken this step the Anglican Communion would have been spared a great deal of pain and suffering during his beleaguered term. However, the Archbishop fails to make this logical connection because of his consent to convergent evolution. He appears to be influenced more by Richard Dawkins (as in his The Blind Watchmaker) than by the book of Genesis. Either the Bible is right in asserting a fixed order with fixed genetic boundaries, or it is wrong.  Apparently, Rowan believes it is wrong because he makes this contrary statement:

the human task is to draw out potential treasures in the powers of nature and so to realise the convergent process of humanity and nature discovering in collaboration what they can become.

Clearly the Archbishop is spinning a "Christian" viewpoint on creation that is not a Biblical viewpoint.  He is committed to green action, but not to the divinely-established order of creation.




What does the Bible teach?


The Bible teaches a fixed binary order in creation, not a convergent process of becoming. Obviously, Rowan Williams cannot have both a fixed order and a convergent process of becoming, so which is it, Sir?

Homosex was in the same category as onanism. Both were regarded as grievous violations of the fixed boundaries in the order of creation. The seed that should fall to the earth is the seed of plants, which spring forth from the earth. The seed of man should fall on his own type (the womb), from which man comes forth.

In our pleasure-consumed society, sex has become a comodity. The more orgiastic and pornographic, the better the comodity. Sex as comodity misses the mark of God's righteousness by so far that it isn't even proper to discuss the two together.

There is much we do not understand about sexual attraction. There is also much false information about homosexuality, much of it built upon the discredited Kinsey Report. The issue is not homosexuality or even heterosexuality, but the use of the body, which is to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Sex within marriage is the only approved sex in the Bible and in Holy Tradition, and both understand marriage as between a man and a woman.


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Why Does Genesis Speak of Gods?


Alice C. Linsley


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

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

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

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

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



Horite Priests and Purity

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

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

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

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

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

The procession to the ruler's tomb was the earthly journey that would be continued beyond the grave at the deified ruler's resurrection. This stands behind Paul’s description of Jesus Christ leading captives from the grave to the throne of heaven in Ephesians 4:8: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." The same idea is reflected in Psalm 68:18: "When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious--that you, O Lord God, might dwell there."

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



The Son of God in Horite Belief

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

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

Consider how Horus, the mythical archetype of Christ, describes himself in the Coffin texts (passage 148):

"I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, p. 216)

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

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

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

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



The Horites of Exodus

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



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


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

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

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

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

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



Elohiym as Idols

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

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

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

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



Elohiym as Ruler-Priests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Hierarchy of Elohiym

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

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

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

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

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


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