Keturah was a Hebrew Wife

 

Hebron and Beersheba are shown on this map.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

All Hebrew wives were close kin to their husbands because the Hebrew ruler-priests practiced caste endogamy. Some Hebrew wives were their husband's half-sisters. That is the case with Sarah. She and Abraham had the same father but different mothers. Terah had two wives, as did many of his Hebrew forefathers. It was common for high-ranking Hebrew chiefs to have two wives. 

The half-sister was the bride of the ruler's youth, and the cousin bride was the wife of the ruler's later years. The cousin wife was sought before the Hebrew man took over the rule of his father's territory. This explains Abraham's urgency to fetch a cousin bride for Isaac before he died. Isaac was not Abraham's firstborn son, but as the only son of his half-sister wife, Isaac was Abraham's proper heir. Before he died, Abraham gave grants to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from Isaac (Gen. 25:6). The sending away of non-ascendant sons drove the Hebrew dispersion throughout the Ancient Near East.

Some Hebrew wives were their husbands' cousins. That is the case with Keturah who bore Abraham six sons (Gen. 25). Recognizing this two-wife pattern is essential to understanding the social structure and marriage customs of the early Hebrew. (4000-2000 BC).

The ancient custom of having two wives pertained only to Hebrew men who ruled over territories. The two wives resided in separate settlements that provided security along the ruler's borders. Their border settlements were served by warriors, craftsmen, herdsmen, and physicians. 

Abraham's territory extended between Sarah's settlement at Hebron and Keturah's settlement at Beersheba. These are shown on the map above. Note that Abraham's territory in ancient Edom (Idumea in Greek) does not correspond to the modern Israel.

Keturah’s settlement at Beersheba was the site of seven wells. (Be'er means well.) These wells have been identified by archaeologists. In Abraham’s time, Sarah’s settlement at Hebron had four water sources. It is likely that these wells were also places of ritual cleaning. Shrines were built at wells, and these were tended by priests and their families. The wells provided water for the herds and flocks. Though the water shrines were under the control of regional lords, visitors were welcome to the water. Wells and water shrines were neutral ground and natural gathering places. 

Some Hebrew men met their future wives at wells. Among them were Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. Abraham's servant found Issac's cousin bride at her father's well in Padan-Aram. Jacob met his cousin wife Rebekah at her father's well (Gen. 29). Moses met his cousin wife Zipporah at her father's well in Midian.

The arrangement of the narrative of Sarah's death and burial before the account of Abraham's marriage to Keturah is an artful way to imply that Abraham took a second wife only after Sarah died. However, what is implied is not supported by the biblical data. 

Related reading: Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives; Keturah was Abraham's Second Wife; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; INDEX of Topics at Just Genesis

Trees as Boundary Markers

 

Alice C. Linsley

Trees served as boundary markers for the ancient Hebrew. According to Scripture, terebinth trees marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory between Hebron and Beersheba. Sarah, Abraham's half-sister wife, resided in Hebron, and Abraham's cousin-wife resided in Beersheba. The wives' settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory in ancient Edom.

Hebron and Beersheba are in Idumea (Edom), the land of red people. 

The Horite Hebrew rulers of Edom are listed in Genesis 36. Abraham's territory was entirely in the region of Edom. It extended on a north-south axis between Hebron and Beersheba and on an east-west axis between Ein Gedi and Gerar. This region was called Idumea by the Greeks which means "land of red people."

One of the rulers of Edom was Seir the Horite. He was a contemporary of Esau the Elder. He married Adah. Esau the Younger is described as red and hairy. He married Oholibamah. Job was of the Horite Hebrew clan of Uz. Uz was a son of Dishan.

After offering Isaac at Mount Moriah, Abraham apparently did not return to Hebron. He spent his last years in Beersheba with Keturah (Genesis 22:19). There he had built an altar and planted a terebinth. A terebinth marked the northern end of Abraham's territory (Gen. 12:6) and after Abraham formed a treaty with Abimelech, he planted a terebinth at the southern end of his territory (Gen. 21:22-34).

People often were buried under oaks and terebinths (Gen. 35:8; 1 Chron. 10:12). This helped to ensure that the boundaries were observed since people stayed away from burial grounds, fearing the spirits of the dead.

Related reading: Edom and the Horite Hebrew; Trees of the Bible; The Trees of Prophets

Keturah was Abraham's Second Wife

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's Hebrew caste reveals that the rulers had two wives. Both were Hebrew women because the Hebrew selected their marriage partners exclusively from among the Hebrew lans (caste endogamy). The ruler's first usually was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife usually was a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. The wives maintained separate settlements. The settlements of Sarah and Keturah marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory. Sarah resided in Hebron, at the northern edge of ancient Edom. Keturah, of the royal line of Sheba, resided at Beersheba to the south. Both Hebron and Beersheba were in the territory that the Greeks called Idumea, which is Edom, the land of red people.

This two-wife marriage pattern for high-ranking Hebrew rulers was common. Many Hebrew rulers had two wives. Among them were Lamech the Elder, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Esau the Elder, Amram, Jesse, Elkanah, Ashur, and Joash. 

In 1 Chronicles 4:5, we read that "Ashur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah."

In 1 Chronicles 4:17-18, we read that Mered had two wives, and one was "Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah, whom Mered had married."

 
According to Genesis 25:1, Keturah is described as Abraham’s wife. The Hebrew word here is ishshah, which means woman or wife. However, according to I Chronicles 1:32, Keturah was a concubine (piylegesh or piyegesh meaning concubine). I Chronicles reflects a time long after the events described and is not consistent with the overwhelming evidence that Keturah was a wife. The confusion may be due to the Chronicles' post-exilic reading of Genesis 25:6: "To the sons of his concubines Abraham made grants during his lifetime, sending them away from his son Isaac..."  It was the custom to send away non-ascendant sons. Abraham, Moses, Jacob and Joseph are among the sent-away sons in the Hebrew Bible.

Abraham married Keturah at a late age. Analysis of the marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham’s people makes it clear that Keturah was a wife. Typically, the first wife was the bride of the Hebrew ruler's youth and usually his half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. (The sequence may shed light on the relationship of the faithful of the Old Covenant and the faithful of the New Covenant.)

Keturah resided at Beer-Sheba, which took its name from the great patriarch Sheba who controlled the well there. (Beer means well.) Keturah's firstborn son was probably Joktan, who she named after her father. This is an example of the cousin bride's naming prerogative, a distinctive feature of the Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern.

It may be that the Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia are among Joktan's descendants.  

Abraham and Keturah were both descendants of Sheba, the great grandson of Ham. They are also descendants of Shem, as the lines of Shem and Ham intermarried. Sheba was a contemporary of Eber, Shem's great grandson. Eber’s son Joktan married a daughter of Sheba. We know this because Joktan’s first-born son was named Sheba, after his cousin bride’s father. This naming prerogative of the cousin bride was already a custom in the time of Lamech (Gen. 4). Lamech’s daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their firstborn son Lamech after her father.  Lamech the Younger would ascend to the throne of his maternal grandfather.
 
 

Keturah likewise named her first-born son Joktan, after her father. Abraham had two first-born sons by his wives: Isaac and Joktan. He also had firstborn sons by his two concubines Masek and Hagar. By Masek he had Eliezar and by Hagar he had Ishmael. Contrary to common belief, Ishmael was not Abraham's firstborn. Keturah, though Abraham's second wife, would have produced a son before Sarah who was barren and did not bring forth Abraham's proper heir until very late in her life.

Keturah and Sarah were wives whose firstborn sons would rule over different territories. Isaac was Abraham's proper heir who ruled over Abraham's territory after Abraham's death. Abraham's concubines Hagar and Masek were of subordinate status to his wives. This was the case also with Jacob's concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah.


The Pattern of Keturah Parallels the Pattern of Naamah

According to Gen. 10:24-30, Keturah’s father had a brother named Peleg. The text makes much of the implications of Peleg’s name which means “division”, “because it was in his time that the earth was divided” (Gen. 10:25). There are different possible explanations for this division, but the most likely is that expressed in the pattern of genealogical information. The daughter of Sheba who married Joktan and named her firstborn son Sheba is the last bride named of Ham’s line. In this respect she parallels Naamah, the last bride named of Cain’s line.

Keturah’s father was Joktan and her paternal uncle was Peleg, who is said to be the “first” son. This means that Joktan, like Abraham, was not to receive the rights of primogeniture by which he would become chief after his father’s death. So Joktan, Abraham’s firstborn by Ketu-rah, would not be chief after his death. That would fall to Isaac, the son of Sarah. Nevertheless, the Joktanites would become a powerful presence in the Sinai and by their skills and generosity would enable the Israelites to come out of Egypt and survive in the wilderness.

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. This may be the meaning of the sites mentioned in Gen. 10:30: Mesha and Sephar, although “sephar,’ which means “numbering,” might refer to the cosmology of Abraham’s people rather than to a specific location.

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.

The Significance of the Well

Wells and oases are where boy meets girl in the Bible. There are several incidents of wives being found at wells. Abraham’s servant found Rebecca at a well. Moses met Zipporah at a well. The wells were under the control of the local ruler, often Hebrew priests, such as Jethro. Probably Abraham met Keturah at the well of Sheba, one of their common ancestors.

The Hebrew priests among Abraham's people established their shrines near rivers and wells. They needed the water to sustain their flocks, and it was from these flocks and herds that they selected animals to sacrifice. The evidence of the Bible indicates that the rulers among Abraham's Hebrew people married the daughters of Hebrew priests (caste endogamy). Moses married his cousin Zipporah, the daughter of a Hebrew priest named Jethro. He was of the Hebrew clan of Midian. Midian was another son born to Abraham by Keturah. Abraham had nine sons. Here is a list of sons:

Sarah, daughter of Terah (Gen. 20:12)
Yitzak (Issac)

Hagar the Egyptian (Sarah’s handmaid)
Yishmael (Ishmael) was Egyptian, since ethnicity was traced through the mother and Hagar was Egyptian. Tracing ethnicity through the mother rather than the father is still required to establish Jewish identity today. This pattern is recognized in Egypt as well, which is why the Egyptian government has made it illegal for Egyptian men to marry Jewish women.

Ketu-rah, daughter of Joktan (Gen. 25)
Joktan – probably Keturah’s firstborn son
Midian

Yishbak (Name means "sent away")
Zimran
Medan
Shuah

Masek (Keturah’s handmaid, mentioned only in the Septuagint.)
Eliezar 

Related reading: Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; Identifying the Status of the Two Wives; The Hebrew were a Caste; Abraham's Sons; Eliezar of Damascus; Abraham's Two Concubines; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Reading the Bible in a Different Way

God's Promise to Abraham and Sarah

 

Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.” (Genesis 18)


Alice C. Linsley

Sarah was Abraham's first wife and his half-sister. They had the same father but different mothers. Sarah was a wealthy, high-born woman whose name is derived from the Akkadian word for queen: šarratum. As Abraham's first wife and half-sister, Sarah was expected to provide him an heir.

Abraham's lament before God was that he had no proper heir. According to Horite/Hurrian family law Abraham's recourse was to appoint as his heir a son born to one of his concubines. After many years of waiting, Abraham decided to make Eliezar, son of Masek (Septuagint, Gen. 15:2) the steward of his territory. 

Eliezar was probably born to the handmaid of Keturah, Sarah's rival. This would have been salt in Sarah's wound. She attempted to avoid this by giving her handmaid Hagar to Abraham to bear him an heir "on Sarah's lap/knees" according to Horite/Hurrian family law. 

Masek and Hagar are to Abraham's household what the concubines Zilpah and Bilhah are to Jacob's household. They built up the ruling houses of these patriarchs by producing many offspring. If their kinship pattern remained consistent, we may reasonably suspect that Hagar and Masek were the servants of Sarah and Keturah, just as Zilpah was the servant of Leah, and Bilhah the servant of Rachel (Gen. 30).

Sarah's sorrow turned to joy

Sarah resided in the region of Hebron, at the northern boundary of Abraham's territory. She had many servants, craftsmen, herdsmen, shepherds, and warriors to supervise in the absence of her husband. Abraham spent some of his time in the area of Beersheba where his cousin wife, Keturah, resided. Keturah's settlement was at the southern boundary of Abraham's territory.

In the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew rulers, the proper heir to the father's territory was the first-born son of the first wife, the half-sister wife. As Sarah was barren, Abraham had no proper heir. This was a cause of great sorrow for Sarah. In her society to be barren was a heavy burden and a cause of great sorrow since she could not bear an heir for her ruler husband. Sarah had everything, except the one thing she needed to fulfill her role as the wife of a ruler.

Imagine Sarah's joy when she found that she was pregnant! Though she had initially laughed out of disbelief, when Isaac was born, her laughter expressed jubilance (Gen. 21:6). The Hebrew verb “to laugh" has the initial צְחֹק (in a rare participial form). It refers to Sara's laughter upon giving birth to the son who would rule over his father's territory.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” (Gen.21:6)

Abraham's heir was named Isaac (Yitzak) which is related to the Assyrian word zaq which means "to burst out laughing" and to the Ugaritic word for laughter: tzakhak. As Isaac would become a powerful ruler in ancient Edom, his name may also be related to the Akkadian zaqâru which means "to rise high."

Related reading: The Barren and Grieving Rejoice; The Years of Waiting for the Promised Heir; Abraham's Complaint; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Abraham the Hebrew; Isaac's Wealth; Concubinage Among the Hebrew

The Wives' Settlements Mark the Boundaries

 

Alice C. Linsley

Abraham is often portrayed as a nomad contrary to the evidence that he was a ruler over a territory in ancient Edom. His territory extended on a north-south axis between the permanent settlements of his two wives: Sarah and Keturah. Sarah resided in Hebron and Keturah in Beersheba. Both settlements are shown on this map.

The Greeks called ancient Edom Idumea, meaning "Land of Red People."

Note the location of Hebron and Beersheba on a north-south axis, 

and the water system of Engedi and the wells in Gerar on an east-west axis.

Abraham divided his time between the settlements of his two wives. Abraham appears to have spent his old age in Beersheba. Genesis 22:19 reports that after offering Isaac on Mount Moriah, Abraham did not return to Hebron. He went to live in Beersheba with his cousin-wife Keturah. There he built an altar and planted a terebinth. In other words, Beersheba was both a shrine and a border settlement. A terebinth marker grew at the north end of Abraham's territory in Mamre (Gen. 12:6) and after Abraham's formed a treaty with Abimelech at Beersheba, he planted a terebinth there at the southern end of his territory. Trees are often mentioned as territory markers in Genesis.

Abraham's settlements were guarded by trained warriors born to Abraham's household. Genesis 14:14 mentions an army of 318 warriors. The settlements included servants, herdsmen, hunters, stonemasons, tanners, potters, bakers, metal workers, physicians, and scribes. Abraham was a man of great wealth and prestige. The Hittites of Canaan recognized him as "a great prince among us" (Gen. 23:6).

Settlements required permanent water sources. The major water systems of Abraham's territory included the Well of Sheba (Beersheba), the Spring of Abraham in Hebron, Ein Gedi, and wells in Gerar. Genesis 26:18 reports that Isaac, Abraham's heir, had to reopen the wells in Gerar.

Entrance to the Spring of Abraham in Hebron

Dr. Avi Ofer of Tel Aviv University investigated the site (1984-1986) and reported that a massive thick wall inside the spring may have closed off an underground aqueduct that would have carried water from the pit to the upper level of Tel Hebron.

Abraham's Spring in Hebron

The biblical data suggests that Abraham controlled a sizeable territory that extended between Hebron and Beersheba and Ein Gedi and Gerar. This corresponds to ancient Edom, a territory associated with the Horite Hebrew (Gen. 36).

The Placement of Two Wives

The rulers of Abraham's people marked their northern and southern boundaries by their wives' settlements. Abraham's father Terah maintained two wives in separate households. One resided in Haran (to the north in southern Turkey), and the other resided in Ur of Chaldees (to the south in modern Iraq).

Terah was a powerful ruler-priest (Terah means "priest".) His territory was the fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. His son Nahor ruled after Terah died (Gen. 11:32). Nahor was Abraham's older brother.

In Akkadian, "na" is a modal prefix indicating service to, affirmation, or affiliation.The name Na-Hor indicates a servant of Hor/Horus; further evidence that Terah and his sons were Horite Hebrew rulers.

For the Horite Hebrew the Sun was the symbol of the High God. The east-west solar arc was perceived as the High God's territory. Therefore, the Horite Hebrew did not settle their wives on an east-west axis. To do so would be to pose as equal to God. 

The Bible scholar Theodore H. Gaster noted that the east-west arrangement is suggested by the names of Lamech the Elder's two wives. Gaster noted that the wives' names - Adah and Tzillah - relate to the words for dawn and dusk. Lamech the Elder is posed in Genesis 4 as a braggart.

What we should note about the two-wife pattern: The marriage and ascendancy pattern of the early Hebrew kingdom builders (4000-2000 BC), Jesus' ancestors, has relevance to the question of justification. Jesus said that he had more than one flock. Among the early Hebrew, flocks belonged to the ruler's two wives. Two wives made a kingdom. The two wives are not the Church and Israel. The two wives are the faithful justified of the Old Covenant and the faithful justified of the New Covenant. That is what the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah teaches us. For the early Hebrew, the ram was a symbol of the Son of God. They called him HR, meaning "Most High One" in proto-Egyptian.

Related reading: What Abraham Discovered on Mt. Moriah; Aaron Was Buried in Edom; The Antiquity of the Edomite Rulers; The Chiefs of Edom; The Pattern of Two Wives; Hebrew Rulers With Two Wives; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; Concubinage Among the Biblical Hebrew

Where I'm Going With JUST GENESIS

Alice C. Linsley

From a reader:

“I have a few questions about your blog. I'm a little confused about where you are going with Genesis. I see Cultural Anthropology 101, kinship stuff, the Afro-centric emphasis and literary criticism, deconstruction style, and a lot about priests and shamans (more cultural anthropology). I'm having trouble getting a coherent thread I can follow, but honestly, it's probably just me. Can you give me some hint of where you are going and the purpose of all of this?”

My Response

My concern is that Genesis be understood at the deepest possible level since the material there is foundational to the whole canon. Genesis should not be forced into a modern mold. We should make the effort to understand what this material meant to the archaic peoples for whom this divine revelation was sacred. One of the best ways to do this is to apply the tools of cultural anthropology.

At JUST GENESIS I apply standard tools and methodologies to the Biblical text to lift up anthropologically significant data. This is an investigation into the prehistoric roots of Biblical peoples using kinship analysis, comparative linguistics, climate and migration studies, molecular genetics, and archaeology. Kinship analysis of the Genesis king lists has confirmed that these are authentic lists pertaining to historical people. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of these archaic rulers is important because it points to the ascendancy of Jesus Christ. The first place we find the pattern is among the rulers listed in Genesis 4 and 5.

This is a scientific approach to Genesis, having little to do with the more speculative approach of theology in which the term "anthropology" has a different meaning. Christian anthropology is the study of humanity through the lens of Christianity and primarily focuses on the nature of humanity in reference to the Creator and to creation. In a sense, this approach places a template over the material. A scientific approach removes the template and allows us to note details and nuances that we might not see with the template.

A scientific approach lifts up the data and allows it to speak for itself without forcing a given interpretation, be it Young-Earth Creationism, Theistic Evolution, ID, literalism, or the speculation of the Biblically illiterate. Allow me to give just two examples.


Example One

The writers of Scripture refer to Adam as the first created human. Of the surface it would appear that all humans are Adam's descendants. However, the material refers to the experience of a specific group of humans from whom Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus descended. If one insists that Adam and Eve are the original first parents of humanity, then one must reconcile this with the millions of years of human existence on Earth.

While the Bible certainly speaks of Adam as the symbolic first father, there is an alternative view of Adam as the founding father of the "red" people who anthropologists today would recognize as belonging to the L and R1 haplogroups. Redness was a sign of royal blood, and this is noted in reference to rulers of this ancestry, including Esau and David. The Genesis text suggests that this is the meaning of the name Adam. Adam was a red man.

When we place the emphasis on Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all humans, we distract from the evidence that verifies what Genesis tells us about Abraham's Proto-Saharan (sometimes called "Kushite") ancestors. Noah was one of the Proto-Saharan rulers who would have been in the R1b haplogroup. On this map his homeland is marked by the deep red mark in central Africa.

The R1b Haplogroup is often presented as a European haplogroup and it has been shown that 70% of men in Britain are in this group. However, the dispersion of peoples in this haplogroup is extremely broad and among the archaic rulers there are many cultural commonalities. These include solar symbolism for the High God, shrine cities at high elevations, control of the major water systems, similar cone shaped structures, knob sticks carried by the clan chiefs, circles of standing stones, stone tombs, and burial in red ocher.

Consider also the assertion in Genesis 11:1 that the people who dispersed out of Africa in this group had common linguistic roots. That has been demonstrated in recent phoneme studies. This is what Genesis 11:1 means:“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.” This "whole world" is like the whole world that appeared to Noah to be flooded. The whole world is what was known to the people or the testimony that was received by them from their ancestors. Common sense tells us that we are not required to take this literally.

The was the understanding of the peoples who are mentioned in Genesis 10 (the "Table of Nations") and it is from them that we receive this information. Comparative linguistics has demonstrated a connection between the languages of the peoples named in the Table of Nations. To avoid abusing the Table, the best science should be used to investigate this material.

Consider the recent research connecting the Luwian hieroglyphs, Hittite hieroglyphs and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Luwian scripts took two forms: (1) Akkadian cuneiform, as with the Hittite scripts found at Hattusa, and (2) Egyptian hieroglyphic. Both writings systems are connected to the Proto-Saharan rulers who dispersed out of Africa into the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. The spoken language had properties typical of Chadic, Nilotic and ancient Sumerian languages, which like spoken Luwian, are ergative-agglutinative languages. The Luwian writing system is known from quotations in Hittite documents and from ancient scripts from Crete and Cyprus.

If in Genesis 10 a modern language or a people of recent history appeared, we would have reason to suspect that someone had tampered with the text. Instead we have reliable data that aligns with the findings of anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, and DNA studies.


Example 2 

Genesis 25:1 tells us that Abraham’s second wife was Keturah. The placement of this information after the death of Sarah creates the impression that Abraham married Keturah after Sarah died. However, Abraham, like his father and his grandfather, had two wives simultaneously. The wives maintained separate households. Sarah resided in Hebron (Kiriath-Arba) and Keturah resided in Beersheba, to the south. This means that Abraham's entire territory was in the region of Edom (Edom or Idumea means "land of red people") and suggests that he was a great Horite ruler, along with those listed in Genesis 36.

Many of the archaic rulers who were mummified and buried had red hair and red beards. The males of the Tarim Basin mummies are an example. Their DNA classifies them in Haplogroup R1a1a. Likely, this is the same Haplogroup of the redheaded man in Burial no. 79 at the ancient Horite shrine city of Nekhen along the Nile. The wavy red hair and full beard of the man in Burial no. 79 had been trimmed with a sharp blade.

In Genesis 25:5 we read, “Abraham left everything to his son Isaac. While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.” The practice of sending away sons did not begin with Abraham. Sent-away sons were kingdom builders who spread the faith of their ancestors, the Horite Habiru/Hebrew, across the ancient world.

Isaac inherited Abraham’s territory, as he was the proper heir, being the first born son of Abraham's half-sister wife. He would have relied on help from his brothers who were men with resources living in their own territories. We know that Isaac was close to his Beersheba/Negev brothers because he was living among them when Abraham’s servant returned with Rebekah (Gen. 24:62). Beersheba is also where Abraham lived out his last years.

Mummy mask of a bull

Genesis 25:5 gives priority to the line of Isaac, and in so doing, discriminates against Abraham’s other sons and their descendants. Abraham had at least eight sons: Ishmael (Yismael), Isaac (Yitzak), Zimran, Jokshan (Yaqtan), Medan, Midian, Ishbak (Yishbak) and Shuah. Likely, he also had a son by his concubine Masek, Eliezer. These were chiefs of their clans and their divine appointment was indicated by the initial Y, the long horns cradling the Sun. This was a sign that the High God had overshadowed them. Among their European kinsmen the appointed chief wore the antler headdress of the red stag. This is analogous to the circlet of bull horns worn with the Atek crown of the Pharaohs, and the Apis bull images in which the horns cradle the Sun. The Y sign is evident in the names of New Testament persons also. Yeshua (Jesus/Joshua) and Yaḥyá (John) are examples.

Anthropological investigation into the familial relations of the archaic rulers and chiefs contributes to a better understanding of the ancestry of Abraham and his ruler-priest caste. Though Abraham is often credited with introducing monotheism, it is closer to the truth that he received a tradition concerning "the Good God" and he came to trust that God with his full being. Therefore Abraham is called the "father of faith" (Genesis 17:3-6; Genesis 18:18; Exodus 3:6; Isaiah 51:2; Romans 4:11,16; Galatians 3:7; John 8:33-41).


Conclusion

My research involves tracing antecedents, looking for the older pattern from which Judaism emerged in the Axial Age. I want to know about the religion of the archaic rulers who believed in a supreme Creator, about the origin of Messianic expectation among those rulers, and how they dispersed widely, establishing kingdoms from Africa to Asia and from Southern Europe to Ireland. I am always asking the questions: Where did this culture trait comes from? When did this religious practice first appear? How does the pattern of sons ascending relate to the Son's ascension?

Related reading: Something Older; Support Research in Biblical Anthropology; Genesis in Anthropological Perspective; Abraham's Complaint; The Edomites and the Color Red; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of the Horite Habiru; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Some Marks of Prehistoric Religion; Why Biblical Anthropology?; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; The Sun and Celestial Horses; Boats and Cows of the Proto-Saharans

No, you can't take another wife!

Alice C. Linsley


Does the two-wife pattern found among Abraham's people justify the practice of polygamy? This is a concern expressed fairly regularly about the marriage pattern of the Horites. The short answer is no.

Polygamy refers to multiple spouses and is a general term. The anthropological term for multiple wives is "polygyny" and more accurately describes the Horite marriage practice.

The pattern of two wives pertained only to the Horites, a royal caste whose kings are listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11. Unless you are a Horite man, you cannot justify having multiple wives.

Today when a man takes a second wife, it is usually motivated by desire for higher social status. Originally, only rulers had two wives. Ascendancy to the throne and undisputed succession led to different rules for kings. Archaeological evidence reveals, however, that the commoner had only one wife. The average neolithic residence was constructed for a nuclear family, not with separate compartments for different wives.

The royal couple William and Kate are going to have a baby very soon. There is much ado about the birth of this royal baby. The birth of children to royal houses is not like the birth of children to common folk. It never has been.

In Abraham's time, the two wives lived in separate settlements on a north-south axis. Sarah resided in Hebron and Keturah lived in the region of Beersheba to the south. The wives' settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of the ruler's territory. The heir could not ascend to the throne of his father until he had taken a second wife. The first wife was the bride of the man's youth, but the second wife was taken much later. This explains Abraham's urgency, as he approached his death, to fetch a second wife for Isaac (Gen. 24). Rebecca was Isaac's patrilineal cousin wife. This suggests that Isaac had a first wife, a half-sister, living in Beersheba.

Two wives insured that there was a proper heir (by the sister wife) and a strong political connection between the ruler's line and that of his second wife, a patrilineal cousin. Patrilineage means that the ruler and his cousin wife are descended from a common male ancestor through male forebears. Abraham and Keturah are both descendants of the great ruler Arpachshad who is named in Genesis 10:22 and Genesis 11:10. Keturah's father was Joktan (Yaqtan) of the line of Joktan who fathered Sheba (Gen. 10:27). Abraham's father was Terah of the line of Peleg (Gen. 11:16). Joktan and Peleg were brothers, the sons of Eber (Gen. 10:25).

In the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern, the ruler's heir was the firstborn son of his half-sister wife. This means that Isaac was Abraham's proper heir. Abraham's yearning to have a proper heir is expressed in his complaint to God: "O my Lord, what would you give me seeing that I am going to die accursed [Hebrew ariri], and the one to inherit my household is Dam-Mesek [son of Mesek]" (Gen. 15:2).

The Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern points to Jesus. In providing a son, according to the divine promise, God overthrows the curse. Behold the pattern! Heirs to the throne are listed in the oldest extant king lists, reflecting the Proto-Saharan kingdom builders who united the Upper and Lower Nile at the dawn of the Bronze Age. It was from their lines that the "Seed" of God was expected to be born (Gen. 3:15). They were awaiting a righteous king who would lead the people to immortality.

The son of the patrilineal cousin ruled in the territory of his maternal grandfather. This means that Abraham's firstborn son Joktan ruled as a sort of prime minister in the territory of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named.

For a long time Abraham was not able to have a proper heir because Sarah was barren. He already had sons by his cousin wife, but Keturah's first born son was not Abraham's proper heir. Joktan/Yaqtan belonged to the house of Keturah's father, after whom he was named.

The cousin wives named their firstborn sons after their fathers, a pattern that makes it possible to trace their lines from Genesis to Jesus Christ. As Levi-Strauss noted in 1949, in a patrilineal system the mother and son do not belong to the same clan. In Genesis we have evidence that the first born son of the cousin bride belonged to the bride's father's house, not to her husband's house.


Related reading: The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; Who Were the Horites?; Sister Wives and Cousin Wives; The Genesis King Lists; Abraham's First Born Son; Cousin Brides and Their Ruler Sons; Kushite Kings and the Kingdom of God; Royal Babies; "Christian" Polygamy (Say What?)

Jacob Leaves Beersheba

Genesis 28:10-17

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the LORD stood beside him and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; , and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place-- and I did not know it!" And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Alice C. Linsley

Beersheba was the southern boundary of Abraham's territory and the territory that Isaac received as his birthright.

When Abraham was approaching his death he arranged for Isaac to take a second wife from among Nahor's clan. Nahor was Abraham's older brother. Nahor ascended to the throne of their father Terah and ruled a territory between Ur and Haran. Abraham, as the younger son, was sent away. Sent away sons receive their territories through conquest or marriage. This is a feature of the Kushite marriage and ascendancy pattern and is reflected in the Zulu word Kushwa, which means one expelled from home, cast out, or sent away.

Isaac was Abraham's first born son by his half-sister wife Sarah. As the firstborn son of the sister wife, Isaac was to rule over the territory of his father Abraham. Abraham's territory extended from Beersheba in the south to Hebron in the north. Hebron is where Sarah lived. Beersheba is where Keturah lived. Keturah was Abraham's patrilineal cousin. Her firstborn son was Joktan (Yaqtan) who ruled over holdings in the territory of his maternal grandfather in southern Arabia.  Josephus calls the descendants of Abraham by Keturah "Horites" and, quoting an ancient historian, speaks of them as "conquerors of Egypt and founders of the Assyrian Empire."

Isaac was living in Beersheba when Jacob was sent away.  Jacob was heading to the land of His mother's kin in Mesopotamia, to the "padan" of Aram in Haran. This story is laced with irony because we are told that Jacob was a "hogareño" who enjoyed staying home. He was not one who enjoyed hunting trips or other activities that took him away from his mother's settlement. We can imagine how insecure he must have felt as he crossed the Jabok into unfamiliar territory and an uncertain future.


Behold the pattern!

Jacob was returning to the homeland of his mother's people and was uncertain as to his reception. This also happened to his grandfather Abraham. Abraham left his father's territory to journey to the homeland of his mother in Canaan. Abraham’s mother was a daughter of Terah the Elder and likely the sister of Keturah’s mother. It appears that Terah the Elder and Joktan the Elder (Keturah's father) married sisters. This marriage pattern is typical of the Horite rulers. It is seen as early as Genesis 4 and 5 where we find that Cain and his brother Seth married sisters. They were the noble daughters of an African chief Nok.

The Babylonian Talmud names Abraham's maternal grandfather as Karnevo, an Akkadian form of Karnak. Karnak was a Horite temple along the Nile. Horite ruler-priests maintained shrines along all the major water systems in East Africa, Arabia, Canaan and Mesopotamia. Most of the women in Genesis are Horite wives and daughters. The Jews acknowledge their Horim or Horite ancestors.

In Haran Jacob found a cousin wife, Leah. Among the Horites, the cousin wife is the second wife, suggesting that Jacob may already have had a wife. Was Rachel is half-sister bride? In Canaan, Abraham found a second wife, Keturah, his cousin. Abraham's first wife Sarah came with him to Canaan. The manner in which Jacob came by his two wives appears to be unusual. It is blamed upon Laban's deception, but this is problematic since no kingdom is gained by deception.

On the way to his mother's people, Jacob had an encounter with God in a dream. On the way to his mother's people, Abraham had an encounter with God. Both received divine promises. God's promise to Abraham is "I shall give this country to your progeny" (Gen. 12:7) and God's promise to Jacob is "the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth."  The promise received by Jacob is essentially the same as that received by Abraham.  Abraham had 8 or 9 sons and an unknown number of daughters. His offspring became too numerous to count.  Jacob had even more sons and at least one daughter.  The offspring of both Patriarchs spread throughout the land.

At the time that Jacob received the promises in Genesis 28:10-17, he was in great need of a word from the Lord about his future. When his grandfather Abraham had been at a loss about his future, he consulted the moreh (prophet) at the great Oak between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east (Gen. 12:6). Notice that the west has priority in this list.  This cardinal direction represents the future. The promise made to Abraham is to be fulfilled in the future, west being listed first. Jacob had no prophet to consult, but instead was visited in a dream. He beheld a great ladder reaching to heaven. Above the ladder stood the Lord who said to him, "Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south." Again we note that priority is given to the west in the list of cardinal points.  Despite his attempt to deceive and usurp the birthright of his older brother Esau, Jacob would see the divine promise fulfilled in the future.

Your kingdom, O Lord, is an eternal kingdom. Your dominion endures through all the ages. Faithful is the Lord to his word and gracious in all His works. (Psalm 145:13)

Related reading: Genesis on the Ancient Kingdom Builders; Jacob's Journeys; Some Cousin Brides Were Nieces; Sent-Away Sons; Ishmael Was Not Abraham's First Born Son; Abraham's Nephews and Niece; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Terah's Territory and Legacy; Reality is Cross Shaped

The Shock of Muhammad Atta's Afterlife

Alice C. Linsley

Who are the houris mentioned in the Qur'an?

Many Muslims believe that there 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 Ramah (Gen. 10:7).  Dedan the Younger was the son of Joktan, Abraham's firstborn son (Gen. 25:3). The Dedanites were Afro-Arabian kin to the other Hebrew clans.

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."

These beings of distinction are the early Hebrew who were influential as priests, rulers over territories, prophets, seers, commercial giants, and judges whose deeds are recorded in Scripture and described in Sirach 44:1-14.

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 Hebrew of the clan of Uz:

 "Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone —
⁷ 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 Hebrew. 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 Hebrew 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 the Nile Valley where the oldest known site of Hebrew worship was at Nekhen. The Horite Hebrew were devotees of Horus, Re, and Hathor. HR in the Proto-Egyptian which means "Most High One". In Greek he was called Horus. Horus was believed to be the co-equal, co-eternal son of the High God who was said to be virginally conceived by divine overshadowing/ Jesus was born of Mary, a woman of the Horite Hebrew ancestry. She conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). She brought forth the Seed who would crush the serpent's head and restore Paradise. 

The early Messianic expectation was expressed in the 6000-year-old Pyramid Texts: "HR has shattered the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot" (Utterance 388). This came to be expressed in Genesis 3:15 where we read that the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent's head.

Belief in God Father and God Son existed among the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC). They believed that the Son would be virginally conceived by divine overshadowing (Luke 1:35). They recognized the son as being co-equal with the father, and they spoke of the son as his father's advocate (1 John 2:1). The Egyptian Book of the Dead speaks of the Son as the "advocate of his father".

Abraham the Horite Hebrew 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 Paddan-Aram.

Some of Abraham's descendants are Jews and some are Arabs. Both Arabs and Jews have Horite Hebrew ancestors because the Hebrew clans intermarried (caste endogamy). 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 intermarried, as did the lines of Cain and Seth before them. The distinctive Kohan DNA or "priest marker" is identifiable because Hebrew priests married daughters of Hebrew priests who maintained flocks and herds at wells and river shrines. They selected animals for sacrifice from these flocks and herds. Joachim, the Virgin Mary's father, was a shepherd priest.

Related reading:  Fruit, Not Females Promised in Islam Afterlife; Some Jews and Arabs have Common Horite Ancestry;  Geographic Geometry by Jim Alison; The Curious Number 72; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites

Esau in Yoruba Tradition

Alice C. Linsley

In Genesis, Esau is the victim of trickery and betrayal by his brother Jacob. When Jacob returns from Paddan-Aram, Esau greets him warmly and offers to help him settle his wives, children and flocks in the land.

In this action, Esau embodies forgiveness. It has been noted that the name Esau is also spelled Issa, which is a variant of the name Jesus.

There are two named Esau in Genesis and both represent respected leaders among their people. Esau the Elder married the daughter of Elon. Their son Eliphaz married a daughter of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36).

Esau the Younger, Jacob's brother, married a high ranking Horite woman named Oholibamah. Her name means Exalted Tent or Most High Tabernacle and she is a type of the Virgin Mary.

According to Yoruba tradition, Esau was a Ketu ruler. This connects him to the Jebusites and the royal house of Sheba.  Abraham's second wife was Ketu-ra and she lived at Beer-Sheba (the Well of Sheba).

Is it possible that Euro-Christian thinking has presented a distorted idea of Esau? Has Esau "been unfairly slandered by overzealous Christians and their sympathizers?"  That is what Remi Oyeyemi argues in this article in Sahara Reporters.


Related reading:  Who Was Oholibamah?; Two Named Esau; Keturah: Wife or Concubine?; Biblical Sheba Linked to East African Settlements; Edom and the Horites; Ido, Edom, Idumea