Dr. Alice C. Linsley
There is a common notion that religion/faith and science/reason are permanent adversaries. The idea of a constant conflict between them was advanced in the 19th century by John William Draper in his 1874 History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science, and by Andrew Dickson White in his 1896 A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom.
Both authors presented a simplistic picture of conflict between science and the Church. They were not intellectually honest in their assessment of Christianity, took quotes out of contexts, and ignored key historical facts such as the contributions of Christians in all scientific fields. Draper and White failed to recognize the sophisticated reasoning and scientific contributions of the biblical Hebrew, a ruler-priest caste, that pioneered the sciences as early as 6000 years ago.
The practical wisdom of the early Hebrew (4200-2000 B.C.) extended to architecture, astronomy, animal husbandry, commerce, geometry, medicine, water management, and navigation.
The ancients were motivated to understand celestial patterns because they believed that the order in creation was fixed by the Creator, and they were concerned about trespassing boundaries or violating the order in creation.
The Nilotic Hebrew priests were among the earliest observers to record celestial movements and astronomical events. By 4245 B.C. the priests of the Upper Nile had established a calendar based on the appearance of the star Sirius, known to the ancient Egyptians as the Sothic cycle, a span of 1,461 sidereal years (365.25 x 4) in which the heliacal rising once again “syncs up” with the solar calendar. In 3000 B.C. the heliacal rising of Sirius and the flooding of the Nile occurred around June 25th, near the summer solstice. This also marked the Egyptian New Year. The Sothic cycle from one average first sighting of Sirius to another is 365.25 days, and only 9 minutes and 8 seconds short of a sidereal year.
The Nilotic priests had been tracking the movement of Sirius and connecting it to seasonal changes and agriculture for thousands of years. The priest Manetho reported in his history (241 B.C.) that Nilotic Africans had been “stargazing” as early as 40,000 years ago. Plato claimed that the Africans had been tracking the heavens for 10,000 years. Plato defined the "perfect year" as the return of the celestial bodies (planets) and the diurnal rotation of the fixed stars to their original positions.
The ancient Nilotic astronomers observed that 36 groups of stars (small constellations) rise in a consecutive order on the eastern horizon every 24 hours. Each decan rises for 10 days. This gave them the formula of 36 X 10 = 360 days, with the calendar broken into 12 months of 30 days each.
The earliest medical texts are found among the ancient Nilotes. These include the Ebers Papyrus, the Hearst Medical Papyrus, and the Edwin Smith papyrus, the world's oldest known surgical document (c. 1600 BC). These texts, most of them based on older texts, are comparatively free of the magician’s approach to treating illness. Priests were the first to practice medicine at "Houses of Life" or the temples along the Nile.
Only members of the elite strata of society learned and practiced medicine. One of the earliest known medical practitioners was Eanach (Enoch). He served the Pharaoh as his priest-physician, a wab sxmt (wab sekhmet). Eanach lived around 3000 B.C. and is said to have "healed the pharaoh's nostrils." Likely, this means that he performed a healing ritual that involved placing the cross-like Ankh against the Pharaoh's nose and offering prayers for his healing.
The wab sekhmet appears to be a distinct role from the non-priest healer called a wabau. It may be that the wabau was a shaman. The priest and the shaman represent different approaches to healing. The priest is forbidden to consult spirits in a drug-induced state. The shaman believes that disease and illness happens when the spirits have been offended, causing disharmony. Shamans typically enter a trance state to discover the cause of the disease and attempt to learn how to appease the spirits.
It is also possible that the wabau was a priest of lesser rank who served the common people, rather than the nobility. More research is required to gain a better understanding of the different types of healers, but it is evident that the early Nilotic physicians specialized in one part of the body: head, stomach, heart, etc. This was reported by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus who wrote, "The study of medicine with them was divided between specialists; each physician attending to one kind of illness only. Every place possessed several doctors; some for diseases of the eyes, others for the head, or the teeth, or the stomach, or for internal diseases." (Diodorus Siculus, i. 91)
The Mesopotamian physicians learned their skills from the priest caste that moved into the Tigris-Euphrates from ancient Kush (Gen. 10). The Akkadian word for a physician priest is azu. Sargon was born in Azu-pir-Anu, a house of divine healing/temple of Anu, the High God. The physician priest sat beside the sick person. This suggests that the Akkadian word wasabu is related to the Egyptian word wabau, a healer-priest.
15,000 years ago, cattle were domesticated in what is today Kenya. The common term for cattle or cow in the many African languages is nag (Wolog, Fulani), nagge (Hausa), ning (Angas, Ankwe) and ninge (Susu). This corresponds to the Egyptian word ng (nag).
Cattle bones were found in elite graves at Hierakonpolis (Nekhen), the oldest known site of Hebrew worship (4000 B.C.). Cow skulls were used to mark the pan graves of the people buried in the Green Sahara. The oldest evidence of domestication of wild pigs is found at Nekhen, Maadi, Abydos, and Armant, near graves belonging to the poorer classes, indicating that the diet of the lower classes included pork. Cows were also transported on boats constructed of bundles of reeds.
The Nilotic Hebrew priests were among the earliest observers to record celestial movements and astronomical events. By 4245 B.C. the priests of the Upper Nile had established a calendar based on the appearance of the star Sirius, known to the ancient Egyptians as the Sothic cycle, a span of 1,461 sidereal years (365.25 x 4) in which the heliacal rising once again “syncs up” with the solar calendar. In 3000 B.C. the heliacal rising of Sirius and the flooding of the Nile occurred around June 25th, near the summer solstice. This also marked the Egyptian New Year. The Sothic cycle from one average first sighting of Sirius to another is 365.25 days, and only 9 minutes and 8 seconds short of a sidereal year.
The Nilotic priests had been tracking the movement of Sirius and connecting it to seasonal changes and agriculture for thousands of years. The priest Manetho reported in his history (241 B.C.) that Nilotic Africans had been “stargazing” as early as 40,000 years ago. Plato claimed that the Africans had been tracking the heavens for 10,000 years. Plato defined the "perfect year" as the return of the celestial bodies (planets) and the diurnal rotation of the fixed stars to their original positions.
The ancient Nilotic astronomers observed that 36 groups of stars (small constellations) rise in a consecutive order on the eastern horizon every 24 hours. Each decan rises for 10 days. This gave them the formula of 36 X 10 = 360 days, with the calendar broken into 12 months of 30 days each.
Medicine
Only members of the elite strata of society learned and practiced medicine. One of the earliest known medical practitioners was Eanach (Enoch). He served the Pharaoh as his priest-physician, a wab sxmt (wab sekhmet). Eanach lived around 3000 B.C. and is said to have "healed the pharaoh's nostrils." Likely, this means that he performed a healing ritual that involved placing the cross-like Ankh against the Pharaoh's nose and offering prayers for his healing.
The wab sekhmet appears to be a distinct role from the non-priest healer called a wabau. It may be that the wabau was a shaman. The priest and the shaman represent different approaches to healing. The priest is forbidden to consult spirits in a drug-induced state. The shaman believes that disease and illness happens when the spirits have been offended, causing disharmony. Shamans typically enter a trance state to discover the cause of the disease and attempt to learn how to appease the spirits.
It is also possible that the wabau was a priest of lesser rank who served the common people, rather than the nobility. More research is required to gain a better understanding of the different types of healers, but it is evident that the early Nilotic physicians specialized in one part of the body: head, stomach, heart, etc. This was reported by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus who wrote, "The study of medicine with them was divided between specialists; each physician attending to one kind of illness only. Every place possessed several doctors; some for diseases of the eyes, others for the head, or the teeth, or the stomach, or for internal diseases." (Diodorus Siculus, i. 91)
The Mesopotamian physicians learned their skills from the priest caste that moved into the Tigris-Euphrates from ancient Kush (Gen. 10). The Akkadian word for a physician priest is azu. Sargon was born in Azu-pir-Anu, a house of divine healing/temple of Anu, the High God. The physician priest sat beside the sick person. This suggests that the Akkadian word wasabu is related to the Egyptian word wabau, a healer-priest.
Animal Husbandry
15,000 years ago, cattle were domesticated in what is today Kenya. The common term for cattle or cow in the many African languages is nag (Wolog, Fulani), nagge (Hausa), ning (Angas, Ankwe) and ninge (Susu). This corresponds to the Egyptian word ng (nag).
 |
Red and black Nubian cattle herders
Cattle bones were found in elite graves at Hierakonpolis (Nekhen), the oldest known site of Hebrew worship (4000 B.C.). Cow skulls were used to mark the pan graves of the people buried in the Green Sahara. The oldest evidence of domestication of wild pigs is found at Nekhen, Maadi, Abydos, and Armant, near graves belonging to the poorer classes, indicating that the diet of the lower classes included pork. Cows were also transported on boats constructed of bundles of reeds.
Boats and cows of the ancient Proto-Saharans.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment