The Trees of Prophets

 

Alice C. Linsley

In the Old Testament trees are associated with gender, cardinal directions, and with wise counselors known as morehs, prophets, or judges. Many of the early Hebrew were known to be judges. This was indicated by the initial Y in their names: Yacob, Yosef, Yishmael, Yonah, Yeshua, etc. The Y is derived from the hieroglyph of two upright feathers, representing one who judges.

The word "Torah" refers to instruction and is associated with a prophet, seer or judge sitting under a tree. Often these persons were consulted far from the cities. People seeking their counsel or judgement had to make an effort to see them, just as people of Jerusalem had to go out into the wilderness to see John the Forerunner. The giver on torah could be found sitting under a tree. These trees were important landmarks.

Women prophets, like Deborah, sat under the date nut palms and male prophets sat under oak trees. In Judges 4:4-6 we read that “Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment."

Deborah under her date nut palm (tamar)

Deborah's duties included settling disputes, instructing leaders, providing guidance to people, and rallying the people to defend themselves in battle. According to Judges 4 and 5 the people of Israel had peace for forty years under Deborah’s rule.

Deborah judged from her palm tree (tamar) between Bethel to the north and Ramah to the south. Deborah's tree was between two important settlements. It marked the "sacred center" between Ramah to and Bethel. Ramah means high or lifted up, and Bethel means house of God. As as the case with John the Forerunner, people seeking counsel from the prophet had to journey into the wild. 

Abraham pitched his tent at the “Oak of Moreh” (Gen. 13), between Ai to the east and Bethel to the west. The Oak of Moreh, or the Oak of the Seer, is described as “the navel of the earth” in Judges 9:37. Here we find a parallel to Deborah's palm tree at the sacred center. The oak was an important landmark. It is likely that Abraham went there seeking divine guidance. Sacred oaks were known elsewhere, according to Deuteronomy 11:30.

Deborah's tree was at the center of a north-south axis between Ramah and Bethel. The oak where Abraham camped was at the center of the east-west axis between Ai and Bethel. It appears that among the ancient Hebrew, the date nut palm and the north-south axis were associated with the feminine while the oak and the east-west axis of the solar arc were associated with the masculine. The pillar-like oak resembles the male reproductive organ and represented masculine virtues. The date nut when cut in half resembles the female reproductive organ and feminine virtues.

The association of the physical appearance of a plant and a human organ was further developed in the Middle Ages and is known as the “Doctrine of Signatures.”

Related reading: Samuel's Horite Hebrew Family; The Judges Deborah, Samuel and Huldah; Trees of the Bible; Trees as Boundary Markers

Nilotic-Kushitic Celestial Archetypes

Alice C. Linsley


According to the linguistic historian Christopher Ehret, traditional Afro-Asiatic religion was originally henotheistic. Henotheism is belief in a supreme creator God or High God (Tengri, Tien, El, Yahweh) with lesser assisting created powers  with some divine power. According to Talmudic texts these powers of angelic beings have a hierarchical ranking, like a pyramid.

In ancient Egypt these powers were represented by animals and insect totems and/or plants. Only one power was represented as a man - Horus (Enki in Akkadian). He was called the "son of God" and he was served by a caste of royal priests called "Horite" Habiru/Hebrew.

Ehret refers to the ritual priests among the Kushites as the '*wap'er'. They were accorded significant political authority alongside the ruler. The *wap'er presided over the rituals directed toward the High God and acted as the intercessor and prophet of the God. These are the ruler-priests, called har-wa and sarki in ancient Egypt.

A seventh century Assyrian text says that Sargon's birthplace was a city on the banks of the Euphrates called Azu-piranu. It was a Horite shrine as evidenced by the word piranu. The Hapiru devotees of Horus called a temple O-piru, meaning "House of the Sun." Azu is the East African name for God - Asa. So Azu-piranu means “House of God” and is equivalent to the Hebrew word Beth-el. Horite ruler-priests were called Hapiru in Akkadian and Habiru in the Kushitic languages. The Egyptians called these temple attendants ˁpr.w, the w being the plural suffix. This has been rendered '*wap'er' by Christopher Ehret.

Dr. Dan Kashagam, General Secretary of the African Unification Front, explains that, "Africans had various terms that referred to the different offices of government. A king in ancient Kush titled 'Ko' or 'Nesu Biti', a female Head of State was Gore, a female Head of Government was Kandake, a diplomat was Akiki, a governor was Peshto etc. These institutions were fully developed and already in use by 3,800 BCE... along with very sophisticated state and parliamentary protocols that defined responsibilities of the leaders and the citizens towards each other.

The most famous name for a parliament in Africa is the word 'Pharaoh'. The word actually translates 'great house', a common African expression for a senate or national parliament. Variants of the phrase might be Lesser House - to indicate a provincial parliament. The term pharaoh does not refer merely to a physical building, or a dynastic line, although it may have had dual meaning in later centuries. The actual term for king in ancient Egyptian is nesu biti."

It is to Ko for "king" and sa for "great" that we must turn now. In the following list of cognates, we note how the K and Sa frequently appear in the Afro-Asiatic languages.

malku - king (Ugaritic)
melek - king (Hebrew)
bo kor - king (Kushitic) Ko or qo was an honorific suffix for rulers, as in the rulers Sheba-ko and Tahar-ko.
kan or khan - male leader, derived from the word Kain, the first ruler in the Bible.
kandake - female leader, spelled Candace in English Bibles.
ko/ka - king (Kushite/Egyptian)
ko-Re (qore) - Re's appointed ruler/son
sar - king (Sumerian/Accadian) Sargon is related to the Chadic word for king - gon lere.
sara - son of Ra or Ra is great (Egyptian)
sarru - king (Babylonian/Assyrian)
sarki - ruler-priest (Chadic and Sudra/Sudanese of India and Nepal)

Dr. Kashagam mentions the term Nesu biti, another reference to king. However, it refers specifically to the ruler of a united kingdom comprising the Upper Nile and the Lower Nile. Nesu biti contains the signs for papyrus sedge and bee. Sedge was the symbol of the Upper Nile and the bee was the symbol of the Lower Nile. The titles Nesu biti and Sa Ra ("Son of Ra" or "Ra is great") appear together in cartouches that have been found in the tombs of Egyptian and Kushite rulers.  These rulers were believed to be the "sons of God" on earth (Gen. 6:1,2).  The Ko was the deified ruler who ruled over two lands, which is why he wore a double crown. The Kushite rulers united the peoples of the Upper and Lower Nile to one another and united the peoples to the deity Ra (Ani in Akkadian).

Christians will note that the celestial archetype applies to Jesus Christ, and is manifested in a pronounced way at his baptism at an ancient Kushite river shrine called Nim-Ra on the Jordan. Nim-Ra means the "waters of Ra" and this location is between Mannaseh/Ephraim (west) and Mannaseh/Gad (east). There the river became the sacred center when Jesus was manifested as the Son of God.

Rivers among Abraham's Kushite ancestors represent numerous archetypes, including the serpent and the place of connection, and the sacred center. The ancient Egyptians and Kushites were great sky watchers. They observed that the Pole Star (Vega or Wa'gi in Arabic) and the Sun were sometimes visible at the same time on opposite sides of the Nile. This was an auspicious connection. The Nile would have been considered the place of meeting, a sacred center.

Likewise, the clan of Manasseh held land on opposite sides of the Jordan. On the west side Manasseh and Ephraim were considered of the "house of Joseph." On the east side, Manasseh (M-nasheh) and Gad (Gd)were a confederation of the "house of Jacob." Joseph represents the Kushitic/Egyptian heritage of the people. As the Biblical anthropologist Susan Burns points out, "Joseph is the patriarch of the ceph tribes. Ceph is suph (papyrus)." Jacob symbolizes the Semitic/Aramaic/Mesopotamian heritage of the people, symbolized the gd ha-nasheh, the sinew which was touched by the angel of the Lord.

Susan Burns writes at her blog, "This sinew is called gid ha'nasheh in Hebrew. The sciatic nerve begins at the heel of the foot and travels up the back of each leg to the base of the spine. This nerve is enclosed in a protective sinew that is common to all mammals. When the angel touched his own thigh, the thigh of Jacob was damaged. The connection Jacob had with his angel was located in the gid or sciatic nerve."

There is a relationship between nasheh and nahushtan, the bronze serpent on Moses' rod. Reeds, sinews, veins, lightening and rivers are like serpents. It is easy to see how prehistoric man might have thought of lightening as God's serpent. Where it struck there was a connection between heaven and earth. That place would be considered the sacred center, just as the Nile was the sacred center between the Pole Star and the rising sun, and the Jordan was the sacred center between M-nasheh/Ephraim and M-nasheh/Gad.

In the older Proto-Saharan languages spoken by Abraham's Kushite ancestors N at the end of the word designates 2. In Dravidian appa is father, but appan means fathers. Har-appa in Dravidian means Horus is father.

At the beginning of the word N designates 1 and refers to the deity, as in the Egyptian ntr - god/deity, a compound of N and TR, meaning pure. The original root for vein, river, tongue, serpent, sinew and lightening was NS. The S originally would have been a pictograph representing a serpent or anything serpentine. It also indicates "great" and can mean "Man" (Egyptian - sa), and throne (Proto-Saharan es or is). NS suggests connection between heaven and earth, and between deity and man. The serpent was a sacred symbol to the Kushites, especially to the metalworking clans such as the Hittites who called themselves NS (Nes).

Manasseh was divided because Joseph's other son was of the House of Potiphar and probably stayed in Heliopolis, Egypt. This is consistent with the marriage and ascendancy pattern of firstborn sons among Abraham's Horite people. The firstborn of the ruler's half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. So Isaac ascended to the throne of Abraham. The firstborn son of the ruler's cousin/niece wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. So Joktan, Abraham's firstborn son by Keturah, ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. Joktan the Younger was the progenitor of the Joktanite Tribes of Arabia (shown above).


Related reading: Pepinakht-Heqaib: Upholding the Rights of Two Sons; The Peoples of Canaan; The Sacred Center in Biblical Theology; The Kushite Marriage Pattern Drove Kushite Expansion; Sister Wives and Cousin Wives; Recovering the African Background of Genesis

The Significance of Galilee in Matthew's Gospel

Alice C. Linsley


In John’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene is the only women at the tomb and she arrives while it is dark. When she arrived the stone was already rolled away and the angels were not there. She met Jesus in the garden and Jesus told her to go and tell the Disciples.

There is a wonderful symmetry here with angels declaring the birth of Jesus to Bethlehem shepherds and angels announcing the resurrection of Jesus to a woman who missed the Passover because she had handled the Lord's dead body. Perhaps this is why Jesus, observant of purity, instructed Mary not to touch Him. After His ascension, such a concern would not exist.

In Luke’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene is accompanied by Joanna, Mary the mother of James, “and the others” (Luke 24:9). They came very early. By this account, the stone was rolled away when the women arrived and there were two angels. The angels reminded them that Jesus had spoken of His resurrection on the third day. In this account, the angels didn’t tell the women to report to the Disciples.

In Mark’s account, Mary Magdalene is accompanied by Mary the mother of James and Salome. They came very early in the morning and when they arrived the stone was rolled away. They entered the tomb and found it empty except for a young man clothed in a long white robe on the right side. The “young man” told the women to go and tell the Disciples and Peter that He was going before them to Galilee. Mark tells us that the women were so terrified that they said nothing to anyone (Mark 16:7-9).

Matthew’s account is the only one that speaks of an earthquake “for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it” (Matt 28:2). The guards were present and they trembled with fear and became like dead men. The angel spoke to the women and told them to go quickly and tell the Disciples. They were filled with joy and ran quickly to tell the Disciples. On their way Jesus met them, saying “Rejoice!” and they fell at his feet and worshiped Him. Jesus told them that He would see the Disciples in Galilee at a certain mountain about which He had spoken before His crucifixion. In the cosmology of Abraham's people the mountain is where men encounter God.  It is the spatial sacred center between heaven and earth.

While the women were reporting to the Disciples some of the guards were reporting to the chief priests. The guards' report of the events so troubled the chief priests that they immediately assembled the elders to consult. Their decision was to bribe the soldiers and to concoct a lie which they set about to circulate among the Jews.

Matthew was privy to this and his testimony is true. He went with the others into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them and Jesus came to them and said, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.”

In Mark’s Gospel, the Great Commission is given while the disciples were gathered at table (Mark 16:14). There is no mention of Galilee at all.

Luke’s Gospel has the story of Jesus meeting Cleopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus. Jesus tells the Disciples to stay in Jerusalem until the “power from on high” comes upon them. He departs from them in Bethany.

John tells us that the Risen Lord appeared to the Disciples (minus Thomas) while they were gathered behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Later He appeared to Thomas. John ends his Gospel (chapter 20) with these words: “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

John has a second ending which places Jesus and the Disciples in Galilee. This is a fishing story in which the tired fishermen catch a huge harvest. After that, Peter is asked three times if he loves Jesus. Jesus also tells him, “Feed my sheep.” Finally, there is a foretelling of Peter’s death and an explanation about a rumor that the “disciple whom Jesus loved” would not experience death. Chapter 21 is believed to have been added later and represents a tradition surrounding Peter. This chapter closes with these words to Peter, spoken by Jesus in Galilee: “If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.”

According to Matthew, Jesus unquestionably wanted to meet with His disciples in Galilee following His resurrection. Galilee was Jesus' home. Archaeological evidence indicates that he was born in the royal city of Bethlehem of Galilee which was only about 5 miles from where he grew up in Nazareth. The entire region was under the royal house of Tyre that is traced back to Eden (Ezekiel 28:11-18).

Jesus speaks three places in his Gospel of where his disciples were to meet Him after His resurrection. During the Last Supper Jesus informed His disciples: “After I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee” (Matt. 26:32). Three days later, Mary Magdalene and the other women were told by an angel to notify the Disciples: “He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him” (Matt. 28:7). Only three verses later, as the women were on their way to inform the disciples of Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus appeared to them and said: “Rejoice!… Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (28:9-10). Sometime after, “the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them,” and “worshipped Him” (Matt. 28:16).

Jordan River entering the Sea of Galilee
Photo by Todd Bolen

Why the emphasis on Galilee? It was far from the Jewish center of power at the Temple, which was the sacred center for Jews. It was a place where Gentiles lived and the Jewish establishment regarded Jews who lived there with distain. But it was where Jesus’ followers lived. The Risen Christ came to His followers there and His presence with them marked the new sacred center. He also comes to us who are His followers today. From the tomb He rises with these words: I’ll meet you where you live. Where you live in Me is sacred space.

Related reading:  Matthew's Testimony Concerning the Empty Tomb; The Sacred Center in Biblical Theology; Why Jesus Visited Tyre; Bethlehem in the Time of Abraham; The Ark Rested in Bethlehem; The Nazareth-Egypt Connection; Shepherd Priests

Horus, King of the Universe

Many ancient monuments along the Nile were aligned with the solar arc or aligned to a symbol of the High God such as the obelisk at Heliopolis (Biblical On).

Alice C. Linsley

Horus and his father Ra ruled over the cosmos in ancient Nilotic mythology. Together their rule is symbolized by the sun and the solar arc. In ancient Egyptian Ra comes from the word re, meaning father and the Greek word Horus comes from the ancient Egyptian word HR, meaning Most High One.

HR was believed to rise in the morning as a lamb and to set in the evening as a ram. The ram was a Messianic symbol of the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC). That sets the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah in context. 

HR is the only celestial figure portrayed as a Man in the ancient Egyptian pantheon and he was called the "son of God." His mother Hathor conceived by divine overshadowing (cf. Luke 1:35). This is why she is shown where the solar orb between the bull's horns.

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew were devotees of the High God, his Son, and Hathor. Wherever they dispersed, they shared their religious beliefs with the populations among whom they settled. 

Horus was believed to be with his father Ra from the beginning (cf. John 1). He is the one who set the boundaries of the winds, seas, and dry land. He fixed the cardinal points and the clock like movements of the constellations. This is reflected in the many words that pertain to boundaries and measurements which have the hr root - hour, horotely, horizon, horologion (a wind tower) and horoscope.

The axis of the Dendera temple on the Upper Nile aligns with the figure of a Horus falcon perched on a papyrus stem (sema sign) on the Dendera zodiac. While sky watching on the summer solstice in 1728 BC (July 7), the priests of Dendera observed that the Sun and Mercury were in Leo on opposite sides of the king star Regulus. This is a Trinitarian alignment – The Father (Sun) and Spirit (Mercury) surrounded the King in the constellation of Leo, the lion totem of the tribe of Judah. This was observed 728 years before the time of King David.

The Sun continues to be a significant symbol of the Creator in Judaism. The Birkat Hachama ("Blessing of the Sun") is recited every twenty-eight years when the vernal equinox, as calculated by tradition, falls on a Tuesday at sundown. Observant Jews recite a blessing to the Creator on the exact day every 28 years. Most recently, the blessing was recited on April 8, 2009. Before that, it was recited on April 8, 1981, and on April 8, 1953. The next date of the blessing of the Sun will be April 8, 2037.

We find the idea of the Sun as the symbol of the High God in Luke's Gospel. Here the priest Zechariah prophesies concerning the Forerunner of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist. He declares: “And you, little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for Him, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, because of the faithful love of our God in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us…” (Luke 1:76-78). 

The image is especially strong in Malachi’s description of the Day of the Lord, “glowing like a furnace”. On the day God will purify the priesthood, consume the wicked, and preserve and justify the righteous. These will be God’s “most prized possession” upon whom the “Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his rays.” (Malachi 3:16-20) 

Temple of Dendera with the face of Hathor on the pillars

Dendera is on the west bank of the Nile River opposite the modern town of Qena. It was called Iunet or Tantere by the ancient Egyptians and was the capital of the 6th nome of Upper Egypt. In antiquity, the population of Dendera moved to Qena on the east bank of the Nile and the ancient temple now lies isolated on the edge of the Sahara.

Related reading: The Hebrew Were a Caste, Jesus Fulfills the Horus Myth; The Double Crown of Horus; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Competition Between the Horites and the Sethites; The Substance of Abraham's Faith

The Tree in the Middle of the Garden

Alice C. Linsley


The Church Fathers agree that Humans were created originally to enjoy perfect communion with God. That would be possible only without sin. So the first humans were innocent, but something happened to cause them to sin. What happened involved a serpent and a tree and humans making the wrong choice, which is called disobedience.

The Church Fathers don't agree on the question of original mortality. As the original humans were flesh, and therefore finite, they would experience death. If you follow this line of reasoning, St. Paul is speaking of spiritual death, not physical death, when he speaks of sin entering the world by Adam and by sin, death.

St. John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.) held that the first humans were created midway between corruption and incorruption and were free to choose. It is like the story (Deut. 27:11-26) of the Israelites gathered in the valley between Mount Gerizim (of blessing) and the Mount Ebal (of cursing) and God telling them to "Choose life!"

The Fathers speak of the tree in the middle of the Garden as having both a material and geographical presence and as representing a state of being. Adam stretched out his hand and took of the fruit of that tree. Christ stretched out his arms on the Tree (Cross) and broke the curse of Adam. The Cross, like the tree in Paradise, had a material and geographical presence but is also a state of being. As Christians we take up the cross and in doing so we choose life.


Related reading:  Trees in Genesis; The Sacred Center in Biblical Theology

Genesis and Jacques Derrida

Alice C. Linsley


Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) focused on the ontological status of criticism and he established himself as a leading figure in deconstructionism. His analysis of the Western philosophical project employs important descriptors such as: logocentrism, phallogocentrism, the metaphysics of presence, ontotheoloy and metaphysics. “Logocentrism” emphasizes the primacy of logos or speech in the Western tradition.

“Phallogocentrism” points to the patriarchal sources of this primacy. Derrida's “metaphysics of presence” borrows from the work of the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger. Heidegger maintains that Western philosophy has always granted primacy or “privilege” to presence itself. That is to say, something is because it can be and something can be because it is.

We might add that "something isn't" is also about metaphysical presence. Derrida is familiar with the apophaticism of eastern thought. (For more on this, go here.)

While Derrida loved to play with words and poke fun at conventional interpretations of texts, he was never very far from Plato's essentialism when he spoke of ontological presence. He regarded the center as absolute, eternal and immutable and believed that the philosophical project in the West has reached a dead end because of the abandonment of essentialism. (In reference to this, I recommend J. Jeremy Wisnewski's essay "An Antirealist Essentialism?" which is available to read online.)

His understanding of the mystery of gender reversal comes from his recognition of the fixed nature of binary oppositions. In subordinating the dominate entity to the subordinate entity we discover not only a different perspective, but also extended meaning derived from the relationship of the opposites.

“Ontotheology” was one of my favorite Derrida terms because it speaks of “the center” to which we inevitably must return and there we find different names, including “God” and “Logos”. As Derrida said, “It would be possible to show that all the terms related to fundamentals, to principles, or to the center have always designated the constant of a presence, ... essence, existence, substance, subject, ... transcendentality, consciousness or conscience, god, man, and so forth.” Derrida demonstrates that language is unstable and plays havoc with the concept of a transcendental, self-evident logos. That said, it is important to remember that Derrida never denies the existence of “the center”, or that there is something there. He regards the center as a function, not a being, but to which we must return in search of being.

Deconstruction dismantles the underlying assumptions upon which a metaphysical argument is based. It requires detailed reading of a text, parsing of terminology, and language “freeplay” on the part of the critic. Derrida’s method involves exploration of contradictions, oppositions and reversals and hangs on a binary framework. He sees that Western metaphysics rather consistently grants privilege to one side of an opposition and marginalizes the opposition. Studying Western philosophy, one would have to agree with him. Aristotle has won the day and Plato has been exiled from the picture.

Derrida ascribes to objects a less substantial existence than the shadow they cast, or their trace. His reversals are a strategic intervention within the bounded Western philosophical system whereby he attempts to break out of that system.

As Derrida suggested: "Deconstruction cannot limit itself or proceed immediately to neutralization: it must, by means of a double gesture, a double science, a double writing, practice an overturning of the classical opposition, and a general displacement of the system. It is on that condition alone that deconstruction will provide the means of intervening in the field of oppositions it criticizes" (Metaphysics).

This reversal of the subordinated term of an opposition is no small aspect of deconstruction's strategy. Derrida's argument is that in examining a binary opposition and reversals, deconstruction brings to light traces of meaning that cannot be said to be present, but which must have metaphysical existence. This is not a new idea or even a new approach to meaning. As I will demonstrate in this essay, it is consistent with the mystical approaches of the Semitic peoples and we must remember that Derrida was a North African Arabic-speaking Jew. In a real sense, Derrida’s contribution to Western Philosophy has been to re-introduce the Semitic interpretive approach to meaning.

Let us now examine a case in point to understand the value of Derrida’s method.

Genesis 12: 8 says that Abraham proceeded “to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.”

This sentence is full of meaning because of the reversal that it represents. Bethel means “House of God” and is associated with the east, the direction of the sunrise. Yet we are told that Abraham pitched his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. This orientation represents a reversal and point to a mystery. The word Ai in Jewish mysticism is great Mother. The feminine principle has moved to the positon of priority in the east, signaling a gender reversal.

In Jewish mysticism Ain soph is associated with north and the number 1 and represents the Hidden God, the Cause of all causes. Aima is associated with south and the number 3. Because the house of Ain (Bethel) has moved to the west, south has moved to the position of north. We have a reversal of directional poles that places south in the position of priority. South also presents marriage and reproduction. Then in Genesis 12:9 we are told that Abraham’s next journey takes him to the south, to the Negev. It appears that this was when he took Keturah to be his second wife. Now with Sarah in Hebron and Keturah in Beersheba, Abraham was able to establish control over a territory on a north-south axis, following the pattern of his forefathers.

We have further confirmation of the association of 1 with north and 3 with south in I Kings 7:23-26 and II Chronicles 4:1-4. Here we read that the altar in Solomon’s temple was to rest on 12 oxen: 3 facing north, 3 facing west, 3 facing south and 3 facing east. We note that north heads the list, having the position of priority. Then comes west (associated with the numbers 9 and 10) and then in the third position we have south.

The logic of “supplementarity” (Derrida’s term) shows that what is conceived as the marginal object does in fact define the central object of consideration. We have seen this in the complementarity and supplementarity of gender roles. So the binary polarities of the Afro-Asiatic worldview that assigned priority to north and east (those being associated with God) are reversible, bringing south and west to the position of priority. This reversal of south and north interpreted for Abraham the direction he was to go.

With south at the position of priority, Abraham knew to head in that direction. There, at the well of Sheba, he took his second wife, Keturah, his patrilineal parallel cousin. Just as he had worshiped between Bethel and Ai (Genesis 12:7), so Abraham worshiped in Beersheba. Genesis 21:33 tells us that, “Abraham planted a tamar tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.” The tamar is a date palm that was a symbol of fertility among the peoples of ancient Arabia and was used in the installation of priests and kings.


Related reading:  Levi-Strauss and Derrida on Binary Oppositions; Binary Sets in the Ancient World; Binary Distinctions and Kenosis; Blood and Binary Distinctions; Circumcision and Binary Distinctions