Monuments of the Ancient Kushites

Alice C. Linsley

The King Lists of Genesis tell a fascinating story of the succession of rulers from their Proto-Saharan ancestors to the time of Abraham. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of these ruling families drove dispersion into Syria, Anatolia, India and beyond. Some sons were sent away to establish territories of their own. These rulers are ethnically Kushite.

The connection of these rulers to ancient Kush is confirmed by Genesis 10:6-8 which tells us that Ham's son Kush had two first-born sons: Ramah and Nimrod. Ramah's territory was in Arabia. His two first-born sons were Dedan and Sheba. These ruling houses intermarried. The ruling houses of Dedan and Sheba were aligned with the Horite rulers of Edom. The Dedanite and Edomite ruling lines intermarried.

Nimrod's territory was in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. His first-born son by his cousin bride was Asshur the Younger, named after Shem's son, Asshur the Elder. To understand how Abraham is a descendant of Nimrod, study the diagram below.

Nimrod is a Nilotic title. It means "ruler over all the waters." His Akkadian name was Šarru-kīnu, which is usually translated “the true king.” He is described as a warrior-hunter or a mighty hunter. The term is related to the Hausa sarkin maharba, meaning chief or lead hunter. Sar means king in Sumerian. Sar-gon means high king or king of kings.  In the Targum nah shirkan refers to a great hunter.

The "mighty men of old" (Gen. 6:4) are called "nephilim" which comes from npyl in Aramaic, meaning "great one" and is equivalent to nfy in Arabic, meaning hunter.

The archaic rulers controlled the major water systems such as Lake Chad, the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates. A shrine associated with Seth (Kain's brother) called Ka-ta-seti (Sanam) connected Gebel Barkal and Meroe, and was one of the important ports of the river trade that extended from ancient Nubia to the Orontes in Turkey. That is why there are two sites named "Meroe." The best known is Meroe of Nubia. The lesser known was built on the precipice of Mt. Silpius. This is Meroe overlooking the Orontes.

Genesis refers to these rulers as the "mighty men of old" because they controlled the major water systems and the high places. They dispersed into Southern Europe and the Hindu Kush, a melting pot of ancient peoples. They likely controlled commerce through the Pamir Junction. These were aggressive kingdom builders who regarded themselves as divinely appointed to disperse and subdue the earth. Later rulers, such as Alexander the Great, sought the same divine legitimacy.

Alexander the Great sought such validation for this conquests from the oracle of Amun-Ra at the Siwa shrine in the Libyan Desert. This coin shows his image with the ram horns associated with Amun-Ra.

Monuments and pyramids

The archaic rulers built monuments throughout the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion like these at Jebel Barkal in ancient Nubia (Upper Nile Valley). 

Standing stones at the temple of Amun at Mount Barkal

The ancient Nilo-Saharan kings built fortified shrine cities and pyramids. Pyramids built near the city of Karima in Sudan date to the eighth century BC.  The word "Karima" refers to a rock shelter or fortified elevated shrine city. Likewise, the word "Karnak" (spelled "Carnak" in Brittany) refers to a rock shelter or enclosure of standing stones where religious rites were performed such as circumcision and the removal of teeth - naak. Similar standing stones have been found in the Judean higher elevations.

At Mount Barkal the rulers constructed a shrine city with a temple dedicated to the Creator Amun-Ra. Other Amun sanctuaries were constructed at Kawa (Gematen) and at Sanam.

Relief of Amun-Ra, temple of Amun at Kawa, in Ancient Nubia

Amun-Ra is the Creator whose solar emblem rises and sets each day. This speaks of the resurrection of the dead ruler, an expectation of Abraham's Habiru (Hebrew) people. This is the meaning behind the narrative of Abraham with his son on Mount Moriah. The son of Ra was Horus. Horus was called the Lamb in his weaker (kenotic) existence and he was called the Ram in his glorified strength. Both lamb and ram are associated with the resurrection symbolism of the vernal equinox.

The oldest known temple (c. 5000 BC) to have association with Abraham's ancestors is the predynastic temple at Nekhen (Greek Hierakonpolis). The temple was located on the Nile, making it easier for temple officials to weigh and measure goods and assess tolls on the vessels that docked there. Many artifacts of great importance have been found at Nekhen. These include funeral masks, statues, jewelry, beer vats, large flint knives, and the pillared halls characteristic of later Egyptian monuments and temples. Nekhen is where the oldest life-sized human statue was found: a priest from the temple of Horus, c.3000 BC.

An intriguing discovery at Nekhen involves the recovery of a beard associated with the redheaded man in Burial no. 79. The presence of long wavy natural red hair and a full beard suggests that this ruler was in Haplogroup R1b. It appears that the "red" features were found widely among archaic rulers. The Bible associates the red feature with the Horite rulers of Edom, like Esau, and with David who had Edomite blood.

Noah controlled the region around Lake Chad - the "Land of Noah" or "Bor-no" - which is also one of the hot spots of the R1b rulers as shown on this map at the southernmost dark red dot.

The ancient stone monuments and sacred circles of the British Isles were likely the work of the R1b stone workers and mining experts who arrived there between 8000 and 4000 BC.  Genetic research indicates that about 70% of British men are in Haplogroup R1b.

Related reading: Kushite Shrines; The High Places; The Nubian Context of YHWH; Stone Work of the Ancient World; The Religion of the Archaic Rulers; Sent-Away Sons; Dispersion of the Archaic Rulers; Abraham and the Hittites; Circumcision and Standing Stones in the Judean Hills; INDEX of Topics at Just Genesis

Huge Nubian City

A large Nile temple was found in this ancient Nubian city in Sudan. This Kushite temple was dedicated to the Creator God.

Related reading: The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; The Nubian Context of YHWY

Were the Shasu related to Moses?

Alice C. Linsley


It is evident from study of the tetragrammaton YHWH in Biblical references that the giving of the Divine Name at the burning bush does not represent a new development. It represents reaffirmation of received tradition from the Horim or Horites. Hagar the Egyptian recognizes her angelic helper as the angel of YHWH (Gen. 16:7). In Genesis 12:7, Abraham builds the altar at Shechem and offers sacrifice there. This was dedicated to YHWH. He bargains with YHWH over the fate of Sodom (Gen.18:1).  Abraham utters the Divine Name twice, in Genesis 24:3 and 24:7. In the latter instance he recognizes "YHWH Elohim" as the one who called him out of Mesopotamia. In Genesis Abraham's servant invokes the help of YHWH no less than ten times in his quest for Isaac's cousin bride.

Two hieroglyphic references dating to the New Kingdom (1550 BC–c. 1069) refer to “the land of the Shasu of YHWH.” These are the oldest references to YHWH outside the Bible. The "Shasu of Yhw" is found on inscriptions from the Nubian temples of Soleb and Amara West, and corresponds precisely to the tetragrammaton.

Reproduction of the hieroglyphic inscription of YHWH dated to 1400 BC.
Discovered in the temple at Soleb (Nubia) built by the Pharaoh Amenhotep III.
Credit: Benny Bonte

The Horites originated in the Nile Valley. One of the oldest Horite temples was built at Nekhen in modern Sudan. At that time, around 4000 BC, the city set on the banks of the Nile. Originally the shrine was probably at water's edge, but later it was moved to high ground. The Horites are the oldest known caste of priests. They are later identified as ethnically Kushite.

Shasu may be a variant of Saka, another word for Horite royal priests among the Kushites. As they dispersed out of Africa, they spread the Proto-Gospel across the vast Afro-Asiatic Dominion. The Matsya Purana claims that the Saka ruled the ancient world for 7000 years.

The Shasu are definitively connected to the Horites of Seir in Edom (modern Jordan). The Horites occupied Edom at least as early as 2000 BC. Lists of place names in Nubian temples of Soleb and Amara West record six toponyms located in “the land of Shasu.” A monument of Ramesses II claims that he “has plundered the Shasu-land, captured the mountain of Seir” in Edom; a 19th Dynasty letter mentions “the Shasu-tribes of Edom” and Ramesses III declares that he has “destroyed the Seirites among the tribes of the Shasu.” Clearly, the Egyptians regarded the Shasu as a prominent part of the Edomite population which is described in Genesis 36.

Association with Moses the Horite

The Divine Name is given at Mount Horeb, a mountain sacred to the Midianites. The narrative starts with Moses shepherding the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and ends with the theophany of the burning bush (Ex. 3:14) in which God declares from the bush, "I am that I am" (Ehye aser ehye). The entire narrative is limited to the location of this mountain sacred to the Horites living in that region, one of them being Moses' father-in-law Jethro. His ruler-priest status is designated by the spelling of his name with the initial solar symbol: Yetro. Jethro is a descendant of Abraham by his cousin wife Keturah.

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Moses' family reveals the distinctive pattern of the Horite ruler-priest caste. Moses is a direct descendant of Seir the Horite who ruled in Edom.

It is evident that the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern characterizes the great men of the Bible, including Samuel, Methuselah, Abraham, and Moses. The oldest layers of the Hebrew Scriptures appear to be a record of Horite rule in the ancient world.

Related reading:  The Nubian Context of YHWH; Moses' Wives and Brothers; The Mighty Men of Old; The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; Egypt in its African Context

Is Nehesi Related to the Name Nahor?

Alice C. Linsley


A reader from Torrence, California has asked if the name Nehesi might be the same as the Biblical name Nahor. On the surface this seems a possibility since the vowels are not certain and the root is the same. Removing the vowels, we have NH as a common root. Na-Hor means the Na of Horus, that is to say "One who serves Horus." In the Akkadian, Na is a modal prefix indicating service to, affirmation, or affiliation. Nahor was apparently a Horite ruler-priest, as was his father Terah. Terah means priest. Terah and Nahor are not names. They are titles.

Nehesi is also a title. It means One who serves Hesi.  Hesi refers to wisdom. There is a relationship between the Nehesi and Nahor in that both appear to be dedicated to Horus and his mother Hathor-Meri, the patroness of smiths and an ancient symbol of wisdom (sophia). Shrines were dedicated to both Horus and Hathor throughout ancient Canaan, Syria and Lebanon. These were mound cities with water sources. Tell-Hesi is an example. Other mound shrines included Hazor and Beersheba.

Nahor was Abraham's older brother. He was named after his maternal grandfather. Nahor the Younger ascended to the throne of his father Terah in the region of Aram Naharaim, between the western Tigris and the Euphrates. This territory was ruled by Nimrod, one of Nahor's ancestors (Gen. 10:8-12).

Nehesi refers to people of the Upper Nile, a region called Ta-Nehesi, meaning "Land of Nehesi." This was earlier called Wawat. The Upper Nile appears to be the point of origin of the features of religion that are associated with Moses and his people. This includes animal sacrifice, the burning of incense, circumcision, ruler-priests, the Holy Name YHWH, and the solar imagery of the Habiru/Hebrews.

Red and black Nubians

Terah is a title found among the ancient Nubians. Tera-neter designated a nobleman of the Ainu people, pre-dynastic inhabitants of the Upper Nile. Neter refers to ruler or a deified king. Neter was retained in the Coptic language as Nuti.


The Line of Nahor the Elder

Nahor the Elder was Abraham's maternal grandfather. He was a descendant of Nimrod, the great Kushite kingdom builder. Erech (Uruk), Accad (Akkad or Agade) and Calneh were centers of Nimrod's initial territory. From there he went north and conquered or founded Asshur, Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen. All these city-states were united by a common script, the Akkadian cuneiform. The language of Nimrod's territory was related to Elamite, Dravidian, Chadic and Kushite languages. This should not surprise us since Nimrod was a son of Kush (Gen. 10:8-12).


Related reading:  God's African Ancestors; Issues in the Historical Phonology of Chadic Languages; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Tomb of Nubian Priest Found; Terah's Nubian Ancestors

Amenhotep III's Empire

Today the Egyptian Antiquities Authority announced the excavation of a colossal statue of Amenhotep III who ruled Nubia, Libya, Gaza and Syria in the 18th Dynasty.  The 42-foot tall statue was excavated in Thebes (modern Luxor) on the west bank of the Nile.

Amenhotep III ruled between about 1382 and 1350 B.C. (about 600 years after Abraham's son, Jok-tan). His name means "peace of Amen" and indicates a date when Amen, a name for God favored in Nubia, was used instead of the name Seth, which was favored in the Delta.

It was during the 18th dynasty that the title 'King's Son of Cush' was first used. The earlier known Kushite ruler was called K-ash-ta which means something like The Throne of Kush.

Amenhotep III was the father of Akhenaten the Younger who was named by Amenhotep's cousin wife after her father. This means that Akhenaten the Younger ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. Amenhotep's sister wife was probably Tiye.  As the Pharaoh's first wife she held a very high rank.

Amenhotep III's Nubian wife, Tiye

In a 5,000 year old text, an Egyptian scribe by the name Ptah Hotep states: "Don’t modify anything from your father’s (ancestor’s) teachings/instructions—not even a single word. And let this principle be the cornerstone for teachings to future generations." 

This scribe's name means "peace of Ptah."  Ptah is the ancient Egyptian name for the Creator about whom it was said: "He who set all the gods in their places and gave all things the breath of life". Ptah was worshipped throughout all of Egypt, but primarily in Memphis and Heliopolis (biblical On).

Scribes were attached to the thrones of great Kings throughout the anceint Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Two scribal clans are listed in Genesis 10: the Ar-vadites and the Ar-ka-ites. The word “Arvadites” refers to residents of the Mediterranean island-city of Arvad (Arpah or Arphad in other ancient sources). Arvad is an extremely ancient city. Before the Phoenicians, it was populated seasonally by peoples passing from north Africa to Asia. Some of these were Netufians.

The Arvadites had close ties the Egyptians, and paid tribute to the Kushite Pharaohs for protection from the Assyrians. The Kushite Pharaoh Tahar-qo called the land of Canaan and Syria “Khor” which is a compound of K for Kush and Hor for Horus. (Kash, Kwash, Akwanski and Kush are cognates referring to the First People, who were considered deified ancestors.)

The older root of the names Arkaite and Arvadite is AR and its origin is likely Proto-Saharan. Among the Igbo of Nigeria, the scribe clans were called Ar or Aro. The word Ar-ab means “father is scribe.” The earliest known writing originated in Canaan among the coastline peoples of the Red Sea and Phoenicia. The Arabic word for throne is aarsh and likely related to the scribal function attached to rulers.

There are Israelites who were associated by their names with the Ar patrimony. They are Aroch (1 Chr 7:39, Ezr 2:5, Neh 6:18, Neh 7:10) and Ariel (Ezr 8:16, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:7). Ariel means “Scribe/Messenger of God.” So it appears that the Ar clans were scribes or messengers. This is further suggested by the name Ar-vad. Vad means “to speak” in Sanskrit. The association of the name Ar with the scribal caste is further demonstrated by the discovery of Aramaic scrolls from Arsames, the satrap, to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-hor. (A.T.Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117) Some variations of the name Ar include Ar-Shem, Arsames, Artix, and Araxes, and all of these are figures named in historical texts.



Related reading:  Identifying King Tut's Father

Tomb of Nubian Priest Found

Archaeologists have rediscovered the 'lost' tomb an ancient Egyptian priest at the Theban Necropolis in Egypt. It was announced today by Egypt's Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny, that the team excavating and conservating the tomb has now cleared the burial shaft of tomb and reached its burial chamber.

The tomb is located at Qurnet Murai, south Assasif, on the west bank of the Nile opposite to Luxor, and belonged to a priest named Karakhamun. It dates to the 25th Dynasty (the Reign of Shabaqo, circa 700BC) and is referenced as TT223 (Theban Tomb 223). The el-Assasif area is a well known archaeological site, containing nobles’ tombs from the New Kingdom, as well as the 25-26th Dynasties.

Read it all here.
 
As this tomb dates to the reign of Sheba-qo, the priest would more accurately be designated as Kushite.

There appears to be an attempt to minimize the importance of this find, yet it is admitted that the tomb is one of the most beautifully decorated. The writer states: " His priestly title, First 'k Priest, does not signify any particular importance." 
 
I find this an extraordinary remark since Ka is widely associated with ancient Nubian and Sudanese rulers and priests.  Ka is the life that animates the body. It represents the hope of life after death. The ka and the ba were to be united in order for the deceased to avoid "the second death". The unification of Ba and Ka happened after death by means of the proper offerings, prayers, and mummification. There was a risk of dying the second death if the unified soul and life force were condemned in the afterlife. Dying the second death meant not becoming an "akh." Only as an akh could one enjoy the resurrection life. The term "Ka-ba-lah" is derived from ancient Egyptian/Nubian mystical thought.

K also refers to "Khamit", the original Nubian culture of the Nile Valley. Pepi II, who reigned from about 2278 BC–2184 BC, held the throne name Nefer-ka-Re, meaning "Beautiful is the Ka of Re.” Ka is linguistically related to the first ruler named in Genesis - Kain. It is also found in the Nubian name for queen - Kandace.


Related reading:  Tomb of Purification Priest; Origins of the Priesthood; Who Were the Horites?

God's African Ancestors

Monument of Nehesi in Nubia/Kush.
Kush was also called Ta-Nuhusi. 

Alice C. Linsley


Religious belief is conditioned by the faith tradition which we receive from our parents, grandparents and, if we are to believe Jung’s theory of the collective consciousness, from our ancient ancestors. The Bible articulates this notion in this phrase: “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” And the expectation of the coming Christ was preserved through a long line of priests who were kin to Abraham, the "father of faith."

In as much as Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and He was born of a long line of ruler-priests whose point of origin was Africa, we may speak of Him as having African ancestors.

The ancestry of Jesus Christ our God is not a matter of private revelation. His coming was foretold from the beginning of time. Those to whom God declared that He should be born of their bloodline, lived in expectation of His coming for many millennia. His appearance on earth was announced by the unique conjunction of the king planet (Jupiter) and the king star (Regulus). Indeed all of the created order speaks of the God-Man Jesus Christ, so we should not be surprised when we find signs pointing to Christ in God’s handiwork. St. Paul recognized that all creation makes God’s nature known to us so that all are without excuse when they deny or ignore Him.

An anthropological study of the ancestors of Christ our God reveals that great attention has been paid to the matter of His coming. Most people have not attempted to deny or ignore Him. Almost universally, people have yearned for the benefits of His Incarnation and his shed blood.

It is fitting that attention should be paid to Christ's ancestors and to the evidence that His ancestors included Africans. It is interesting how consistently Africa is ignored when investigating the etiology of biblical practices such as circumcision and the linguistic connections between biblical words and the African languages.

Consider the names Nim and Lot, both Egyptian names, yet neither has been identified as such by biblical scholars. Rulers in Egypt with the name Lot include Iuwelot, Nimlot and Takelot. Egypt is the origin of the biblical names Nim-rod and Lot. Nimlot C was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during the latter part of the reign of his father Osorkon II. He died before the end of his father's reign since his son Takelot F (king Takelot II) succeeded him as High Priest of Amun towards the end of Osorkon II's reign. This secession is established from the reliefs of Temple J at Karnak which depicts Takelot F as the priest-dedicant at a ceremony and mentions the ruling pharaoh as Osorkon II. Temple J has been dated to the final years of Osorkon II's reign in Tanis (which ended in 837 BC).

The Egyptian word nakh means "the powerful." Ha-Noch, the name of Reuben's first-born son is more a title than a proper name. It should be rendered something like "the Chief." Likewise, the Egyptian anoch can be rendered both Ha-Noch and Enoch. Nakh can also be rendered simply as Nok.

The biblical names Seth and Noah are equivalent to the Egyptian names Set and Nu and there are Egyptian stories in which the principal characters have these names.

Jesus Christ's ancestors were Afro-Asiatics. They spoke Afro-Asiatic languages which include Akkadian, Amharic, ancient Egyptian, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, Babylonian, Berber, Chadic, Ethiopic, Hahm, Hausa, Hebrew, Kushitic, Meroitic, Omotic, Phoenician, and Ugaritic. Twelve of these language groups are spoken by populations in Africa. Christ our God spoke Aramaic, a language that shares many roots with the African languages Tigrina, Tigre, Amharic and the older Ge’ez.

Places associated with clans and rulers in Genesis are found only in Africa - Nok (Enoch), Kano (Cain), Ham, Bor' nu (Land of Noah), Terah, and the Jebu tribe (biblical Jebusites). Elephantine, at the border between Egypt and Sudan, was known to the ancient Egyptians as Yebu, the linguistic equivalent of Jebu. Some of these names appear also in Canaan: Terah, Jebu, Sheba, and Hor are among them. Jerusalem was a Jebusite city in the time of Abraham and Abraham paid tribute to that city’s ruler-priest, Melchizedek. Abraham’s Horite people apparently had kin-based alliances with the Jebusites. Both Horites and Jebusites were closely allied with the ancient Egyptians. Abdi-hepa ruled Jerusalem three centuries before its conquest by David. His name is Egyptian. (Hepa, Hap, or Hapi was a predynastic name for the Nile.) The first mention of Jerusalem, not surprisingly, is found in ancient Egyptian texts.

We also have the evidence of the four rivers mentioned as being at the heart of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion: the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Pishon and the Gihon. The last two are in Africa. Clearly there are two distinct traditions concerning the location of the garden, one African and the other Asiatic. The view that Eden was at the western border of Iran is based on the location of the Tigris and Euphrates. Yet we are explicitly told in Genesis 2:10-14 that the Gihon flowed through all the land of Ethiopia and the Pishon "skirts the whole land of Havilah". Havilah was a son of Kush (Gen. 10:7) and the "Kushites" lived in the upper Nile region and Sudan. So two rivers are in Mesopotamia and represent the Asiatic tradition while the other two rivers are in Africa and represent the African tradition. Both traditions are preserved in Genesis, but obviously the garden can't have been in both places. So where was it? If we accept that God drove the man out of the garden toward the east and the garden was west of Noah's homeland near Lake Chad, we must consider Nigeria as the likely location of the garden. So, we may speculate that some of Christ's ancestors came out of Nigeria.

Institutions and practices that characterize Abraham’s people are also distinctively African. These include the practice of circumcision (both male and female). To understand the cultural context of male and female circumcision we must recognize that Africans assign firm structure to males and softness and fluidity to females. It is important that women be less like men and men less like women (one reason that homosex is abhorred in traditional African societies.) In Africa, a family's honor is vested in the conduct of its women. Femininity is stressed and Pharaonic circumcision is seen as an enhancement of the woman’s femininity, potential fertility and purity. Likewise male circumcision was seen as an enhancement of maleness, potency and purity. The complement to the circumcised male is a circumcised female. The practice of female circumcision is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, but that may be because the female aspect is often hidden.

The African view is different from the binary exhibit of Hinduism in which both the lingam (male organ) and the yoni (female organ) are displayed. In the African tradition, phallic pillars (show right) are never displayed with the female organ. The female organ is always covered or hidden, pointing to the biblical distinction between revealed and hidden.

The institution of priest is distinctively African also. Sheba-qo’s son Hori-makhet, was high priest in Thebes. Hori is related to the Egyptian word harwa (priest) and is the linguistic equivalent of Horus and Horite. (Horus represented the power of kingship.) The term Horite can't be taken anachronistically when speaking of Abraham's ancestors, who were devotees of Horus, who they regarded as the “Son of God.” In African caste systems priests are always in the higher caste. Among the Mande of western Africa the highest caste are called the Horon, although few in this caste are priests. Most are warriors, farmers, animal breeders and fishermen.

As is evident today in traditional African religion, there are orders of priests, each assigned specific duties at the shrines. The Khar (Egyptian word for Horite) order of priests was responsible for providing fuel for the burnt offerings/sacrifices. Joseph's family lived in Nazareth which was the home of the eighteenth division of priests, that of Happizzez (1 Chronicles 24:15). The idea that only the Levites were priests simply isn't supported by the evidence of Scripture.

Rulers married the daughters of priests who served them. Joseph, Jacob's first-born son by Rachel, married Asenath, daughter of a priest of the Egyptian shrine at Heliopolis. Likewise, Moses married the daughter of a priest of Midian and his second wife was likely the daughter of a Kushite priest. Kush was known by many names, including Ta-Kash, Ta-Seti, Ta-Nuhusi and Ta-Kensat. In 747 B.C., a ruler named Kash united Lower Nubia as far as the Egyptian border at Aswan.

There were twenty-four priestly divisions after the construction of the Second Temple. Nineteen of these divisions are listed in Nehemiah 12:10-22. In the Nehemiah list we find these names of particular interest: Joachim, Joseph, and Mattenai. These are the names of priests who married the daughters of priests and from these lines came John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary and Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God.

Joachim is the name of Mary’s father, which is one reason that scholars believe that Mary was the virgin daughter of a priest. Hippolytus writing in the early third century, records that Mary’s mother was a daughter of a priest named Matthan. This means that Mary was of a priestly line. According to the custom of her noble African ancestors, Mary married into a priestly line when she became Joseph’s wife. According to Matthew 1:16, Joseph was the grandson of the priest Mattenai (sometimes spelled Mattai, Mattan or Matthew).


In the Masoretic Text the name of Samuel's city is hara-matatyim zophim. (See The Anchor Bible Commentary on I Samuel by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., p. 51.)  Zuph was a Horite priest of the line of Matthew/Mattai/Mattan. Hara-matatyim is the same priestly line as that of Joseph of Hara-mathea, one of Jesus' relatives and the member of the Sanhedrin who requested the Lord's body in order to bury Him.


Related reading: Recovering the African Background of Genesis; Abraham's Ainu Ancestors; Terah's Nubian Ancestors; Samuel's Horite Family; Abraham's Saharan Ancestry; Is Nehesi the Same Name as Nahor?; Tomb of Nubian Priest Found