Architecture Links Petra and the Nilotic Hebrew

Temple of Horus at Edfu

I have shown that Abraham's Horite Hebrew caste dispersed into many territories. Nahor the Elder's territory extended virtually the length on the Euphrates. Other Horite Hebrew chiefs controlled a territory from Mt. Hor northeast of Kadesh-barnea to Mt. Harun at Petra. So ,it should not surprise us that the temple of Horus (above) resembles the architecture at Petra (below).

It can be argued that this architecture shows the influence of Egyptian culture on a non-Egyptian people, but that doesn't explain why Petra was built in that style. It is more likely that temple construction was overseen by Horite Hebrew ruler-priests who followed the tradition of their ancestors who established shrines and temples in many parts of the ancient world, including Nekhen on the Nile,the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship (4000 BC).

“Horite” does not refer to ethnicity, but to the caste's belief that the Creator God Re (meaning "father" in Ancient Egyptian) had a son named Horus/HR (HR means Most High One in Ancient Egyptian). His totem was the falcon, and he is connected to the all-seeing eye, the Sun, and Jupiter. Minutius Felix, an early Christian apologist, wrote, “Those who make Jupiter the sovereign deity, err only in name; they are one with us as to the unity of the power.”

Some Nabataean kings, such as Harithath IV, bear the Horus name. King Harithath is called King Aretas in 2 Corinthians 11:32. Coins have been found bearing the image of Aretas, and inscriptions have been found in the Nabataean town of Avdat with his name and the names of other Nabataean rulers. Aretas was called "King of the Nabatu, who loves his people" (Philopatris), and during his reign the greatest of Petra's tombs were created.

Petra is in modern day Jordan or ancient Edom. The connection to Egypt is evident in the name of Petra's central temple: Qasr al-Bint al-Faroun which means "The Fortress of the Daughter of Pharaoh." Its walls rise to over 75 feet. The temple was built between the late first century BC and the first century AD. Its precinct covers about 81,376 square feet or 7,560 square meters. A large open plaza was lined with 120 columns adorned with Asian elephant-head capitals, evidence of connections between ancient Edom and India and other lands of the ancient Near East. At its height of glory, Petra rivaled the grandeur of Herod's Jerusalem.

The word Nabataean is likely related to Naba or Nabu, the patron or guardian of scribes and prophets. This is the origin of the Hebrew word nabi, meaning prophet. Many early scribes were Hebrew priests. Babylonian kings sometimes bore the name Nabu, as with Nabu-shum-libur, Nabu-aplu-iddina, Nabo-polassar, Nebu-chadnezzar II, and Nabo-nidus.

In ancient times this region was the home of the Horite Hebrew chiefs listed in Genesis 36. The land was called "Idumea" by the Greeks which means "land of red people" because, like Esau of Edom (and King David), the people had a distinctive red skin tone.

Abraham's territory was entirely in ancient Edom. His northern and southern borders were marked by the settlements of his two wives. Sarah resided in Hebron to the north, and Keturah resided in Beersheba to the south. Those locations are shown on the map.

(Robert Bewley/APAAME) An aerial view of Baydha, north of Petra. The site

contains archaeological evidence spanning more than 10,000 years.

This region holds great interest for biblical archaeologists and biblical anthropologists. People were living in this region since Paleolithic times. Early farmers were settled here in 7000 BC.

Related reading: The Substance of Abraham's Faith; Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative, Horite and Sethite Mounds, Horite Temples

Edo, Edom, Idu and Idumea

Abraham's territory extended between Hebron and Beersheba.

Idumea means "land of red people".

Alice C. Linsley


One of the ways anthropologists trace the movements of earlier human populations is through place names (toponyms). Linguistically equivalent place names suggest a connection between places that often are a great distance apart. The movement of peoples between Africa and lands to the east and north is suggested by equivalent places names. In Nigeria there is a place called Orissa and in eastern India there is a region called Orissa (now called Odisha).

A prevalent ancient place name is Tamana which means "great place". Dr. Vamos Toth has shown that this toponym is found worldwide, and he considered this evidence for a prehistoric civilization that he called "Tamana". The ancient Tamana sites were settlements at high elevations near permanent water sources. 

The 72-foot vertical ditches of Eredo in the Nigerian rain forest go around the area for 100 miles.

Many ancient place names have the Er or Ur word which refers to a walled settlement (mound) or a fortified high place. Erido and Eredo mean "Ur of the Idu/Edo", or the "settlement of red people". There were two places with this name; one in Mesopotamia and the other in Nigeria. Many ancient place names are designated as fortified settlements: Ur of Chaldees, Urartu, Urkish, and Uruk.

Of particular interest in tracing the movement of early red peoples are the place names Idu/Ido or Edo/Edom, and Idumea. Idu is the name of a fortified settlement in northern Iraq. Edo is a place in Nigeria.

Among the Igbo of Benin, there is a legend about a founding father called Idu. He is said to be the progenitor of the Edo or Idoma. Hence the expression: “Iduh the father of Idoma.” He is said to have begotten 6 sons, each the chief of a royal clan. According to oral tradition, Ananawoogeno begot the children of Igwumale; Olinaogwu begot the people of Ugboju; Idum begot the people of Adoka; Agabi begot the people of Otukpo; Eje begot the people of Oglewu; Ebeibi begot the people of Umogidi in Adoka, and Ode begot the people of Yala. (Read more here.)

The Red People of Edom

Abraham's territory was entirely in the land of Edom which the Greeks called Idumea, meaning "land of read people". (See map above.) Sarah lived in Hebron and Keturah, Abraham's second wife, lived in Beersheba. The wives' separate settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory. This was a typical arrangement for high-status Hebrew ruler-priests.

At least two of Abraham's ancestors are identified as red: Adam and Seth. Adam's name is related to the word for blood, dam, and also refers to the color red. Genesis 5:1 describes Seth as being in the image of his father. This is verified by figurines of Seth found at the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship at Nekhen on the Nile (c.4500 BC). The figurines show Seth as a red hippo.

At least two of Abraham's descendants are also described as red: Esau of Edom (Gen. 26) and King David (1 Sam. 16:12).

Another Interesting Linguistic Connection

There is a connection between these words Obodas, Obito, and Obadiah. Obodas, the first ruler of Petra in Edom, took his title from the Edo name for ruler which is Oba. A Nabataean bronze found in Wādī Mūsā, near Petra mentions a priest and his son and is dedicated to Obodas, the "god" (deified ruler) in Gaia. Gaia was in the mountains east of Petra. The text is dated to the reign of the last Nabataean king, Rabbel II (70–106 AD).

In Japan, "obito" refers to a regional ruler. It is interesting that the earlier name for Tokyo was Edo. Until 1868, Tokyo was known as Edo, the name of the small fishing village that existed on the site for centuries.

According to the Talmud, the prophet Obadiah was from Edom, and said to have been a friend of the Horite ruler Job of the clan of Uz. Genesis 36 lists the descendants of Seir the Horite. One of these clan chiefs was Uz. Among them were two Hebrew rulers named Esau, as shown in the diagram below.

Related reading: Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs; The Edomites and the Color Red; The Historical Adam; The Sethites and the Red Hippo, Horite and Sethite Mounds; Sovereignty and Two Wives; The Obed-Edom Connection

Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs

Alice C. Linsley

Sela was the capital of Edom. It is mentioned in Isaiah 16:1 and 2 Kings 14:7. Sela probably was not a major site in Abraham's time. Petra is the later name, when it came under the control of the Nabataeans who then controlled much of modern-day Jordan until the third century BC.

Petra reflects the pillared architecture of the Horite shrines of the Nile, and the first ruler of Petra, Obodas, took his name from the Edo/Edomite name for ruler which is Oba. The linguist Helene Longpre says that Nabataean Aramaic most closely corresponds to Meroitic or Old Nubian. (H. Longpre, "Investigation of the Ancient Meroitic Writing System", Rhode Island College, 1999.)

Red mountains of Edom (BAR photo)

Petra is the Greek name, and refers to the rocky location of the Nabataean capital in the red sandstone mountains of Edom. The Greeks called the Edomites the Idumea, meaning red people. Esau of Edom was described as having a red skin tone in Genesis 25:25.

Nabataean warriors

This suggests that the Edomites of the Bible may be related to the Edo or Idu of Nigeria and Benin whose rulers dress in red. The title of their rulers is further evidence. The ruler of the Edo is called "Oba" and the first ruler of Petra was King Obodas. (Likely, there is a linguistic connection to the Turkish word for ancestor or grandfather which is oboko and the Japanese word for a regional ruler which is obito.)

Edom was controlled by the Horite Hebrew, a caste of royal priests who spread from the Nile into Mesopotamia, Babylonia and beyond. Seir the Horite is listed as one of their kings in Genesis 36.

Job was of the clan of Uz. Uz was the son of Dishan. Dishan was the son of Seir the Horite. These chiefs were horse handlers and appreciated the power and beauty of the horse. In questioning Job, God asks, “Do you give the horse it’s strength or clothe it’s neck with a flowing mane?”

The Nabataean kings, such as Harithath IV, bear the Horus name. King Harithath is called King Aretas in II Corinthians 11:32. Coins have been found bearing the image of Aretas, and inscriptions have been found in the Nabataean town of Avdat with his name and the names of other Nabataean rulers. He was called "King of the Nabatu, who loves his people" (Philopatris), and it was during his reign that the greatest of Petra's tombs were created.

The connection to the kings of Egypt is evident in the name of Petra's central temple: Qasr al-Bint al-Faroun which means "The Fortress of the Daughter of Pharaoh." Its walls rise to over 75 feet. The temple was built between the late first century BC and the first century CE. Its precinct covers about 81,376 square feet or 7,560 square meters. A large open plaza was lined with 120 columns. The columns were adorned with Asian elephant-head capitals and provide evidence of connections between ancient Edom and India and other lands of the ancient Near East. At its height of glory, Petra rivaled the grandeur of Herod's Jerusalem.

The word Nabataean is likely related to Naba or Nabu, the guardian of scribes and prophets. This is the origin of the Hebrew word nabi, meaning prophet. The earliest scribes were Horite priests. The cult of Nabu was introduced into Mesopotamia and Babylon by the Kushites. Kushite kings sometimes bore the name Nabu, as with Nabu-shum-libur, an early Kushite king in Babylon and Nabu-aplu-iddina.

The Horites traced blood line through the mother while social status was based on the father's rank and occupation. Married women could hold and bequeath property and rule over their clans. Anah is listed as a "chief" in Genesis 36. Her name is also spelled Anat and Anath. Joseph married the daughter of a Horite priest. Her name was Asenath, a variant of Anath.


A Monumental Complex

Petra is a 400-acre complex cut from the rock well before the time of Jesus. It is called the "Rose City." The city reveals a sophisticated system of water management. There were aqueducts, piping systems and channels that directed water to the city center, to the temple, and to the homes and gardens of prominent citizens. Retention dams prevented flooding.

The Treasury at Petra

Note the three-portal design. Jordan has done restoration at this and other Petra edifices.

North-facing Petra temple

The Petra temple exhibits the typical Egyptian Divine Triad of Supreme God, the Divine Son (Horus, associated with Jupiter), and the Mother Goddess (Hathor). Generally, the architecture reflects the Egyptian three-part structure. Excavations at the foot of the Treasury reveal that there were three stories, not just the two shown in photographs.

Hundreds of rock-cut tombs have been found at Petra. The Tomb of the Obelisks is distinctively Egyptian in architectural style.


Nabataeans Related to Other Biblical Peoples

The Nabataeans are mentioned in historical records such as Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheca (book 19), dating to 312 BC, and in an Egyptian papyrus dating to 259 BC. They are mistakenly classified as Arabs. However, in 1 Maccabees 5 (v. 25) we note that the Nabataeans were allied with Judas Maccabees while the Arabs are named as his enemies (v. 39).
The Nabataeans were involved in the lucrative South Arabian spice, incense and perfume trade and apparently were related to the royal House of Sheba.

The rulers of Sheba were descendants of Raamah and their territory extended from the southwestern part of Arabia northward to Beersheba (the well of Sheba). Sheba and Dedan were brothers (Gen.10:7) who ruled separate territories. The qiblahs in the oldest mosques in Cairo and in Baghdad point to Dedan, about 500 miles north-northwest of Mecca.

Dedanite Y

The largest collection of ancient Arabic texts have been found at the North Arabian oases of Tema and Dedan in the Hijaz. Tema is known by Arabs as Taima and lies about 70 miles north-east of Dedan. Tema, Dedan and Dumah were caravan stops along the trade route from Sheba to Babylon.


The Horite Hebrew Warriors and Horses

Sheba is credited with early domestication, breeding and export of Arabian horses. Likely the word "horse" is derived from Horus or Horite. The word horse appears as hors in Old English texts before the 12th century. Onager horses, (related to gur or khur?) were bred by Kushites along the Tigris before 3000 BC. Rock and cave images of horses in the Sahara predate the 1670 BC Hyksos invasion of Egypt, so the Hyksos cannot be credited with introducing horses to Egypt.

The Nabataean cavalry was camel mounted with two archers, one facing forward and one facing either front or back. The warriors wore ribbons in their long wavy hair. The camel was well suited to the desert environment in which they fought, but with their expansion into Syria, the Nabataeans adopted horses for war. They preferred fast lighter horses that could, in the words of Diodorus "… flee into the desert, using this as a stronghold."

The Nabataean warriors had long wavy hair and wore feathers. These Nabataean warriors appear to be related to the red Nubians shown below.

Petra's Last Days

The power and influence of Petra's rulers was subjugated to that of Rome when the emperor Trajan formally annexed the city in 106 A.D.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, Petra became a provincial capital under Byzantine rule.

Inn May 363 A.D., Petra sustained significant damage during an earthquake. The city sits near the boundary of the Arabian plate and has suffered from numerous quakes. The quake of 363 was especially devastating. It was reported that half the city was destroyed and the water system was disrupted. Archaeologists confirm damage to the main theater, the principal temple of Qasr al-Bint al-Faroun, and the Colonnaded Street.

Petra was in economic decline before the earthquake of A.D. 363 due to changes in trade. The flourishing land trade from East Africa and South Arabia to the Mediterranean and India had declined by the 2nd century A.D.


Related reading: Edo, Edom and Idumea Architecture Links Horites and Petra; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Who Were the Horites?; Abraham's Camels; 7000 BC Horse Burial Linked to Sheba; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; The Arabian Horse and the Nabataeans; Who Was Oholibamah?; Some Jews and Some Arabs Have Common Horite Ancestry; New Petra Monument Spotted Through Satellites

Edom and the Horites

Hebron (where Sarah lived) and Beersheba (where Keturah lived) are in Idumea.
Abraham's territory extended between the settlements of his two wives
and was entirely in the region of Edom or Idumea.

Alice C. Linsley

The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Horus and his mother Hathor, the patroness of Horite metal workers. The word "Horite" is the English variant of the word Horim, the term Jews use when speaking of their ancestors. Hathor and Horus are archetypes of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. They are the principal characters of the proto-Gospel among Abraham's Nilo-Saharan cattle-herding ancestors.

The Horite 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 Engedi and Gerar. This region was called Idumea by the Greeks which means "land of  red people."

Horite priests were attached to the rulers of many territories in the ancient world. Some are associated in ancient Egyptian records with the Shasu on Nubia and Edom. 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.

The Horites controlled a vast region from Southern Arabia to Syria. Petra reflects Horite belief and the rulers of Petra and the other Nabataean cities had Horus names. Petra is in the red sandstone mountains of Edom, a territory in modern Jordan. According to Genesis 36, Edom was ruled by the Horite clans of Seir and Esau the Elder who married Adah. Esau the Elder was a contemporary of Seir the Horite.

Esau the Younger married Oholibamah. It is possible that Esau the Younger was Jacob's half-brother, rather than his twin. Their father was Isaac, but they would have had different mothers, as Horite rulers had two wives.

The territory over which they ruled was rich in copper and within the Horite caste there were highly skilled metal workers.  The patroness of their mines and smelting operations was Hathor, the virgin mother of Hor who was called "son of God/Ra."

Edom (BAR photo)

The Horite metal workers of Edom used the same techniques as the Horite metal workers who lived in the Timna Valley in the Wilderness of Paran. Esau the Elder's son Eliphaz married Seir's daughter who was named Timna.

The soil at Timna is also reddish-brown. Some scholars believe that there must have been a Timna in Edom as well in Paran, but it is more likely that the Horites controlled the metal working industries from Egypt to Jabal Harun (Aaron's Mountain) in Jordan. Timna is a Horite name.

Timna metal working shop

Edom is a variant of the Hausa odom which mean reddish-brown and the Hebrew adam which also means reddish-brown, the color of the soil from which God made the first man. The original context of the story of Adam is Nilotic. Adam is derived from the root DM which refers to blood (dam in Hebrew; dammu in ancient Akkadian). This is a reference to the color of the soil (adamah) from which Adam was made. 

Abraham's ancestors lived where red soil washed down from the Ethiopian Highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic Cambisols have a strong brown or red color. The copper in the hills of Edom resembled the soil color of the "Red Land" (Deshret/dshrt) of the Nile Valley.

Esau is called "Edom" and the rabbis made much of how he sold his birthright for a pot of red stew, but this idea comes from a later period than when Esau lived, approximately 1980 to 1920 B.C. 

According to Yoruba oral tradition, Esau was the third king of Ketu. The kingdom of Ketu is in the present-day Republic of Benin.  Abraham's cousin wife was Keturah. The Jebusites (Ijebu) who controlled Jerusalem were divided into clans and one clan was called Ketu.

Earlier Coppersmiths

Abraham interacted with the Hivities and Hittite clans of Het who are listed in Genesis 10.  HT is the Hebrew and Arabic root for copper - nahas-het. Nahash means serpent. As an adjective it means shining bright, like burnished copper. The clans of HeT were Bronze Age coppersmiths. The serpent image was sacred for them, just as it was for Moses and the people of Israel in the wilderness.

Genesis 23:3-20 tells us that the descendants of Heth were living in the land of Canaan where Abraham lived. He bought a burial site from them. They considered Abraham “a prince of God” among them (Gen. 23:6)

The Hittites spread into Anatolia and introduced iron work there. They didn’t call themselves “Hittites” (an anachronism) but Nes or Nus (Nuzi), and their language was called Nesli. They were Afro-Asiatic metal workers, and the root of their original name is NS.

Related reading: Solving the Ainu Mystery; Edo. Edom and Idumea; The Nubian Context of YHWH; Tamar of Timnah; The Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; Petra Reflects Horite Belief

Abraham and Job: Horite Hebrew Rulers

Alice C. Linsley

Job was an historical person, as the genealogical information in the Bible makes clear. He was the great grandson of Nahor, Abraham's older brother. Job's maternal grandfather was Nahor's son, Uz the Elder. The Book of Job begins, "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job". In the ancient world, territories typically were named for the man who ruled over them.

According to I Chronicles 1:42, the elder Uz's daughter married Dishan, a Horite Hebrew chief. She named their firstborn son Uz after her father, according to the cousin bride's naming prerogative.

Uz the Younger was Seir's grandson. This diagram shows the relationship between Seir's Horite Hebrew family and that of Elon, a Hittite chief. The Hittites were descendants of Heth, a Hebrew chief named in Genesis 10:15. Heth was a grandson of Noah the Hebrew. This diagram shows that the Hebrew married only members of their Hebrew ruler-priest caste.

Job was of the Horite Hebrew clan of Uz. The Horite Hebrew and their counterpart, the Sethite Hebrew, were a caste of ruler-priests who exercised great influence in the ancient world. Their influence extended from Lake Chad (Noah's homeland) to Anatolia where the Hittites had shrines dedicated to Horus, the son of God. As devotees of Horus, the early Hebrew venerated Hathor who conceived by divine overshadowing of the Sun, the Creator's symbol.

The early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC) controlled the major waters systems at a time when the Sahara, Arabia, and Mesopotamia were wetter. They served as shrine and temple attendants, interceded for others, and offered sacrifice. Job offered sacrifice daily for the sins of his own family. At the end of the book, God tells Job to pray for his kinsmen Eliphaz, Zophar and Bildad. This is reminiscent of Abraham praying for Abimelech and his whole household (Gen. 20:17,18).

Job's clan were associated with donkeys, the beasts of burden that make trade possible across vast regions. Job 30:3-7 portrays Job's people as "donkeys braying among the bushes". According to Genesis 36:24, Anah, the son of Zibeon and grandson of Seir the Horite, pastured his father's donkeys in the wilderness.

There is a very old tradition that the God of the Hebrews "came from Teman. This is reflected in Habakkuk 3:3 which states, "God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran." This is one reason that Frank Moore Cross believes that the God of Israel is the God of the Horites.

Horite Hebrew priests shaved their heads (Jeremiah 25:23), as was the custom of Horite priests in Egypt. (See Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2007, p.37.)

Esau the Younger had a son named Korah which means shaved one. This suggests that this was a confederation of Horite priestly families. Genesis 36 confirms this, listing Uz's grandson Dedan as a Horite ruler. Here we also find reference to Huz or Husham of the land of Tema (Gen. 36:34).

The people of Uz belonged to a 3-clan Horite confederation. The confederation is identified as Uz, Huz and Buz, and also as Dedan, Tema and Buz. The Dedanites and the Temanites. were kin. The clan of Teman descended from the elder Esau's son Teman (Gen. 36:11). The Temanites were known for their wisdom. Job's friend Eliphaz was a Temanite. Jeremiah 49:7-8 speaks of the wisdom of Teman and links the Temanites with the Dedanites.

 
The largest collection of texts in the oldest Arabic script come from Tema and Dedan in the Hijaz. Tema is known by Arabs as Taima and lies about 70 miles north-east of Dedan. Tema, Dedan and Dumah were caravan stops along the trade route from Sheba to Babylon. According to Genesis 10:7, Dedan the Elder was descended from Kush, the son of Ham. According to Genesis 25:3, Dedan the Younger was a descendant of Abraham and his cousin wife, Keturah. Dedan's father was Abraham's firstborn son Joktan. Isaiah 21:13 speaks of the "caravans of Dedanites" in Arabia, and Ezekiel 27:20 speaks of Dedan as supplying Tyre with precious things. Dedan is associated with Uz in the hill country of Edom, Job's homeland. This is Uz the Elder, son of Nahor, whose grandson (by his daughter) was Uz, the son of Dishan, shown in diagram above.

NOTES

Moses had a half-brother named Korah. The diagram below shows the typical marriage pattern of high-ranking Hebrew rulers. Amram had two wives. 

Many Hebrew rulers had two wives. Among them were Lamech the Elder, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Esau the Elder, Amram, Jesse, Elkanah, Ashur, and Joash. Abraham's two wives were Sarah (his half-sister) and Keturah (his patrilineal cousin). They resided in separate settlements in Hebron and Beersheba.

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

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

Related reading: Chiefs of Edom and Seir; Righteous Job and His Hebrew Kin; The Horite Hebrew Ancestry of Jesus Christ; Job's Friends and Their Contributions to the Message of Job; The Horite Confederation of Uz, Buz and Huz