Number Symbolism in the Bible

Alice C. Linsley


Most numbers in the Bible are symbolic and not to be taken literally. The account in Numbers of over 600,000 men of arms, plus women, children, and flocks leaving Egypt is hyperbole. This would be estimated at a population of between 1 million to 2.5 million persons. Indeed, the number 600,000 is highly symbolic. The 6 comes immediately before 7 and 7 symbolized fulfillment or perfection. There are 5 lunar cycles; the ancients didn’t have a zero/zed. The five lunar cycles total 60 (5 X 12 cycles). Add 60 and 6 = 66 men of arms, probably accompanying a group of between 200 and 500.

Keep in mind that the highly polished Exodus narrative was told long after the time of Joseph. In Joseph’s time the Hebrew chiefs moved back and forth between Egypt and Canaan rather freely. Judah's tryst with Tamar is an example.

The number 40 appears in narratives in both the Old and New Testaments. It has a Nilotic context, as the Nile flood lasted forty days. The number 40 does not appear in books that have a Babylonian context, such as Esther and Daniel.

Sometimes numbers are avoided entirely because the writer did not know the exact figure. Here is an example from Exodus 18:12: Jethro (Yitro) offered a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God and “Aaron and all the elders of Israel came and ate with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God." The phrase “all the elders” is vague because the writer did not know the number of elders. He could as easily have said 70 elders, 40 elders or 12 elders. Or, had he written 23 or 71, it would reflect knowledge of the number of men appointed as elders in the Sanhedrin.

John’s Revelation speaks of 24 elders in 19:4 and 12 foundations to the New Jerusalem. The text tells us that the foundation stones represent the 12 apostles. Are we to take this literally? It is clear that the meaning pertains to how the New Jerusalem is founded upon the Apostles or the Apostolic Witness.

In Revelation we read about 7 churches, 7 seals, and 7 bowls. Most readers recognize the connection between the number 7 and divine acts of creation, remembering the 7 days of Genesis 1. The Masoretic text of Genesis 5 assigns Lamech the Younger 777 years. He was Noah’s father. However, the Septuagint assigns Lamech the Younger 753 years, and the Samaritan Pentateuch assigns him only 653 years.

In his extraordinary Commentary on Genesis (Volume 1), Umberto Cassuto wrote, "What is the cause of the divergences between the three texts, and which recension has preserved the original figures? Much has been written on this subject, and the answer remains in dispute" (p. 265). Cassuto believed that the original figures are preserved in the Masoretic chronology. Those are the numbers I will use here to demonstrate how numbers are sometimes used in Scripture to show patterns.

Cain murdered his brother and tried to hide his crime from God. Cain deserved to die, yet God showed him grace by sparing his life. Cain was marked with a protective sign and was banished. Reflecting on this grace shown to his ancestor, Lamech the Elder brags to his wives and challenges God to show him greater grace than was shown to Cain (7). He claims a greater measure of grace (77). Lamech the Younger, son of Methuselah (Genesis 5) is assigned even greater grace because he is said to have lived 777 years. This Lamech is the son of Methuselah and his cousin bride Naamah, and he is the father of righteous Noah.

Regarding the ages of men named in Genesis, St. Jerome notes: "I am reviewing carefully the places in Scripture where I might find old age mentioned for the first time. Adam lived for 930 years, yet he is not called an old man. Methuselah's life was 969 years, and he is not called an old man. I am coming down all the way to the flood, and after the flood for almost three thousand years, and I find no one who has been called old. Abraham is the first, and certainly he was much younger than Methuselah." (Homilies on the Psalms 21)

Jerome's observation is significant. Those who lived before the flood are not old because the numbers assigned to them are symbolic.

Related reading: The Symbolism of Numbers in the Bible; Seven Planets and Seven Bowls; Longevity in the Genesis King Lists; Methuselah's Real Age; 40 Days and 40 Nights; St. John Chrysostom on Lamech's Speech

Burial Practices of the Rulers of Old

Alice C. Linsley

The burial practices and funerary imagery of the ancient rulers expresses hope for immortality and bodily resurrection. Job, a Horite Hebrew, wanted those who came after him to know that he believed in a Redeemer. He wanted it set in stone. "Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron stylus and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see..." (Job 19:24-26)

Likewise, Ezekiel was to prophesy, saying "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 37:4-6)

Unlike the religions that seek to escape the material world, Christianity and Judaism value the body and believe it is not to be destroyed beyond the processes that are natural to death. Jews do not cremate. The early Christians did not cremate. Both Jews and Christians practice primary and sometimes secondary burial. It is common for Christian monastic communities to gather the bones of the deceased monks for secondary burial in a charnel house. Here are the skulls of monks who lived at St.Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

None of the ancient rulers in the R1b haplogroup were cremated. All their stone tumuli represent secondary burial. This involved gathering the ruler's bones and placing them in the tumulus. The primary burial was underground and was covered with stones. Here is an image of a primary and secondary burial site (Bronze Age) found near Hamburg, Germany.

Cremation was not the practice among the Hebrew ruler-priests. They practiced secondary burial. The bones were placed in ossuary boxes. Researchers from Bar-Ilan and Tel Aviv universities confirmed the authenticity of an ancient ossuary that was plundered from a tomb in the Valley of Elah (where David defeated the Philistine warrior Goliath).

The 2,000-year-old ossuary belonged to a daughter of the Caiaphas family of priests. It is marked with the 6 pointed star associated with the Horite ruling caste, and an Aramaic inscription that says, “Miriam Daughter of Yeshua Son of Caiaphas, Priests of Ma’aziah from Beth Imri.” The inscription dates to the time of the Second Temple. Here is a photo of Miriam's ossuary.

The six prong star symbolizes the rising sun and the hope of resurrection. It is also found on the ossuary of Joseph Caiaphas, the high priest (below).

The image is called mer-ka-ba, a word of ancient Egyptian origin. Merkaba means "love of the body and spirit." In the worldview of the R1b peoples, immortality required that the body and spirit be together to avoid the "second death." Therefore, great precautions were taken in the burial of the ruler, so that the body and spirit did not became separated. This is why the bodies of the Egyptian rulers were mummified. The R1b rulers buried in the Tarum Valley in China were also mummified.

The merkaba appears on tomb stones in many parts of the world where the R1b peoples lived. The motif is found on this grave stone at Banais, Israel, near the source of the Jordan River.

The merkaba appears on artifacts throughout the regions populated by R1b peoples. It symbolizes the rising of the Sun, the emblem of the Creator among the R1b peoples. The same image is seen on some of these carvings from the oppida (a "high place") of the Castro culture in Galicia, Spain.

Related reading: The Ancient Tumuli of Rulers; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; The Question of Immortality; Genesis in Anthropological Perspective

The Ancient Tumuli of Nobles

Alice C. Linsley


From the dawn of human existence stone has been a primary material, and humans have refined techniques for working stone on both a small and large scale. The oldest known stone tools date to about 800,000 years. These were found in South Africa. Similar stone tools have also been found on Crete. These date to about 130,000 years.

Beginning about 10,000 years ago, we find huge stone structures. Some served ceremonial purposes involving observation of the heavens and others were used for the burial of high status persons. These stone tombs are called tumuli or dolmens. In the Breton language the word dolmen means table of stones or stone table.

In 1870, Conrad Engelhardt (1825-1881), a Danish archaeologist, wrote,

"Megalith graves extend in one almost unbroken chain from the Gulf of Riga along the south coast of the Baltic and the North Sea, through Scandinavia and Britain, along the eastern shores of the Atlantic Ocean and the southern shores of the Mediterranean as far as Tripoli; also in scattered groups covering Palestine, Syria, Seleucia, Tartary and Persia as far as India, where they again appear in large numbers. They are on the whole confined to the coastal stretches, to the lowlands and the river valleys. Considered as a whole, they are all of identical ground plan and mode of construction, and their monumental character appears to have originated in one and the same culture."

A spectacular example of a dolmen in Brittany is La Roche aux Fees or Fairy Rock. It dates to between 3000 and 4800 BC. The builders of this huge structure were skilled stone masons. They were attached to nobles in the R1b haplogroup. People in this group had dispersed throughout much of the ancient world by 10,000 years ago.

"Fairy Rock" tumulus in Brittany 

Tumuli have been found across a wide range of Europe and the Near East. Some have been found in Korea, China, and Japan. The geographical range of these communal graves corresponds to the range of dispersion of R1b peoples. The Nilotic Anu moved into Korea and Northern Japan, and it is likely that the 2000 year Ur-David mummy found in China is in the R1b genetic group also.

According to tradition, the ruler-priest Joseph Arimathea went to Cornwall in connection with mining operations there. Because mining and tomb construction involve the same skills, these were the work of a select group. Along the Nile, priests were involved in the construction of the royal tombs. From the time of the earliest pharaohs, mining and tomb construction were the work of priests.

Some of the oldest examples of stone work have been found in the areas inhabited by the R1b peoples. This includes the 100,000 to 130,000 year old stone hand axes found on Crete.

Early stone tools include sharp-edged flakes, flake fragments, and cobbles dated to between 2.5 and 2.6 million years. These were discovered at three sites along the Gona River in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Similar stone tools, known as Oldowan, have been found at Omo in southern Ethiopia, at Lokalalei in northern Kenya, and at Hadar, five miles east of the Gona River study area.

It appears that the dispersed R1b rulers are to be credited with building stone monuments and tombs wherever they moved. This is called "diffusion" of a culture trait or artifact.

One of the early proponents of the theory of diffusion was Oscar Montelius (1843-1921) of Sweden. In 1894, he expressed his belief that the form of the megalithic graves corresponds to the "tholos tombs" of Greece, Malta, the Balearic Islands and Asia Minor. However, there is a significant difference. The tholos tombs have a beehive shape (called girna in Malta). The stones are laid in horizontal courses and this structure was used for housing and sheep cotes. The beehive structure represents a more common architecture and should be considered apart from the stone tombs constructed for communal burial of high status families.

Sheep cote in Zanuta, West Bank
Photo: Emil Salman

Some of the beehive tombs contained objects of Egyptian origin dating between 3700 and 2500 years. The evidence of Nilotic influences was noted by Sir Grafton Elliot Smith (1871-1937) and William James Perry (1868-1949), both of whom concluded in their books that the stone working practices of the ancient Near East and European civilizations seem to have originated among the ancient Nilotes. They noted that the stone tumuli found in Brittany and elsewhere resemble the stone mastabas of the earlier Pharaohs in Sudan and the rock-cut tombs of Egyptian nobility.

Today we have reason, by virtue of molecular genetics, linguistics, and archaeological discoveries, to suspect that peoples had spread out of Africa long before Egypt was a kingdom. Among them were stone workers of considerable expertise. It appears that they moved northward, following the current of the Nile and continued on to Crete and Malta. Thomas Strasser and his team found hundreds of tools of African origin on Crete dating to between 100,000 and 130,000 years.

These are identical to hand axes fashioned in Africa about 800,000 years ago. The image (right) is of such a stone tool found at Kathu in South Africa. Similar stone tools have been found on the Iranian plateaus. Ancient African artifacts also have been found in China. There is considerable material evidence of prehistoric movements out of the Central Africa and the Nile Valley. DNA studies of Haplogroup R1B indicate settlements outside of Africa 10,000 years ago. Molecular genetics confirms the movement. R1b-M73 dispersed both to the West, reaching Spain and to the East, reaching China.


Related reading: Sun Cities of the Ancient World; Genesis and the Stone Age; Stone Work of the Ancient World; Sheep Cotes as Sacred Spaces; The Tool Makers of Kathu; Megalithic Culture in Indonesia by W.J. Perry; Primary and Secondary Burial of the Rulers of Old

Facts and Theories About the Philistines

Alice C. Linsley

The Philistines were the 12^th century B.C. peoples whose principal cities were Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath. A famous citizen of Gath was Goliath, who David defeated in the valley of Elah. Gath sat on the border between Judah and Philistia in Gaza. The people of Gath would have been glad to take possession of the fertile Elah Valley. Philistine control of the valley also would have given them access to the interior of Judah.

Archaeologists call this Iron Age I population "the Sea Peoples" and there is little doubt that they, like the Egyptians, were adept at seafaring. The Philistines dominated the agriculturally rich coastal strip from Gaza in the south to Tell Qasile in the north, near modern Tel Aviv.

According to Genesis 10:14, the Philistines were related to the Nilotic Mizraim clans and the descendants of the Casluchim and the Caphtorim. Deuteronomy 2:23 claims that the Avvim lived in villages of Gaza before the Caphtorim came from Caphtor (Crete?) and displaced them or intermarried with them.

Scholars are uncertain about the original location of Caphtor, but R. A. Stewart Macalister’s excavations at Gezer suggest that they may have come from Crete. The artistic work found by Macalister at Gezer reflects the Minoan style. That peoples from Africa had migrated to Crete thousands of years before has been shown by Thomas Strasser. He and his team found hundreds of tools of African origin on Crete dating to between 100,000 and 130,000 years.

The Avvim of Gaza may be the descendants of the Natufians who inhabited this region between 15,000 and 9,000 years ago. Dorothy Garrod coined the term "Natufian" based on her excavations at Shuqba cave in the western Judean Mountains.The Natufians populated parts of Western Egypt (Fayoum Oasis), the area of Mount Carmel, and parts of Syria. They built the original settlement at Jericho. Confirmed Natufian settlements in Gaza are shown on the map below.

The Natufian physiology indicates a Mediterranean type with some features typical of Nubians. (See Marcellin Boule, Henri Vallois, and René Verneau, Les Grottes Palaeolithiques de Beni Séghoual, pp. 212-214.)

British Archaeologist, Graeme Barker, notes "the similarities in the respective archaeological records of the Natufian culture of the Levant and of contemporary foragers in coastal North Africa across the late Pleistocene and early Holocene boundary."

Harvard Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, Ofer Bar-Yosef, notes that microlithic forms such as arched backed bladelets and La Mouillah points, as well as the parthenocarpic figs found in Natufian territory, originated in the Sudan.

Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA, Christopher Ehret, notes that the intensive use of plants among the Natufians was first found in Africa, as a precursor to the development of farming in the Fertile Crescent.

Portraits of captured Philistines on the walls of the Madinet Habu temple. 

A Philistine prisoner is shown with his hands bound. 

The Egyptian-Philistine Connection

At the time of King Saul and David, Gezer was under Egyptian political control and cultural influence. The Philistines had a long standing relationship with the rulers of Egypt. This explains Exodus 13:17, which states: “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

The main coastal route northward from Egypt is called "the road/way through the Philistines' land" in Exodus 13.17. The Egyptians had fortified settlements at many locations along the major trade routes. During the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2200–1500 BC) as much as 70% of the population of Canaan lived in these fortified towns. Examples include Tell el-‘Ajjul and Gezer with its gate, tower, and protected water system. These high places were under the control of Egypt from about 2000 to 1178 BC. They were stops along the major routes from Egypt to Syria and the Orontes. The Egyptians build one of their most remote fortification at Meroe on the Orontes in Modern Turkey.

One route, the Horus Way, was the southern section of the Way of the Sea (derek hayyam) mentioned in Isaiah 9:1. This road joined the Nile Valley to the area that came to be occupied by the Philistines. There were numerous Egyptian fortifications along the Horus Way and it appears that Philistines served in the garrisons of these fortifications. The American archaeologist William F. Albright believed that "The Philistines were evidently settled in the Coastal Plain by permission of the Pharaoh, as becomes clear from his [Ramesses III's] inscriptions [at Medinet Habu]." (William F. Albright, The Excavation of Tell Beir Mirsim in Palestine, vol. 1: The Pottery of the First Three Campaigns, Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) 12 (New Haven, CT: ASOR, 1932), p. 58.)

After about 1000 BC, Israel's power and status had increased, overshadowing the power of the Philistines. The new king of Israel was Solomon, David's son. He married the daughter of the king of Egypt. The pharaoh took Gezer and gave it as a wedding dowry to King Solomon (1 Kings 9:16).

Saul had been chosen in hopes that he would strengthen Israel against the Philistines, but that did not happen. When the young man David proved to be the greater warrior, Saul turned against David. David fled for his life and grew strong in his reliance on the LORD.

Israel and Philistia meet for battle

I Samuel 17:19-51 tells the story of the confrontation between the forces of King Saul and the Philistines in the valley of Elah. The Philistine champion in this encounter was Goliath. According to the Biblical account, Goliath cursed the true God and made fun of David and his Hebrew people.

Elah refers to the Valley of the Terebinth (Emek HaElah in Hebrew: עמק האלה‎). Terebinth trees (Pistacia atlantica) and oaks grew in the place where the Israelite army camped.

To enter the territory of Judah, the Philistines had to come through the Elah Valley. It is likely that they had in their sights the fortified city at Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Elah Valley, discovered by Yosef Garfinkel, and excavated under his direction from 2007 to 2013. The city is dated between 1050 and 915 BC and sat on the summit of a hill that borders the Elah Valley on the north. This is on the main road from the coastal plain of Philistia to Jerusalem.

Another city in the area is Adullam. It was on an elevated site and near the well-traveled route which later became a Roman road through the Elah Valley. Judah’s friend, Hirah, was from Adullam. While Judah was visiting Hiram, arrangements were made for Judah to take his second wife. If Judah followed the marriage pattern of his Horim, this bride would have been Judah’s patrilineal cousin. The Hebrew text shows evidence of emendation. This bride is said to be a daughter of Shua, but it is more likely that Shua was one of Hirah's daughters because Shua is a woman's name. An earlier Shua is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:32 as the daughter of Eber. She lived seven generations before Judah.

King David sought refuge in the area of Adullam after being expelled from Gath by King Achish. David hid from Saul in a cave near Adullam (1 Sam. 22:1). David’s father, Jesse, came to him there. Jesse was in danger also, so David sought refuge for his family in Moab. “David brought them before the king of Moab; and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.” (1 Sam. 22:4). This appears to be a case of calling on the aid of kin. Jesse was a descendant of Boaz and his Moabite wife, Ruth.

Related reading: Gezer Calendar; Who Were The Philistines?; The Peoples of Canaan; Pulp Fiction: The Sea Peoples and the Study of 'Mycenaean' Archaeology in Philistia by Louise A. Hitchcock and Eren M. Maeir

Anthropological Evidence for the Exodus

Beja metal-working chief in Sudan

Alice C. Linsley

The Exodus is one of the most dramatic events in the Hebrew Bible and a central narrative for modern Jews. The dominant narrative comes from the Deuteronomist, about 1000 years after the time of Moses. According to this narrative, the enslaved Horim were forced to endure hard labor in Egypt. Moses was appointed by God to lead the people out of bondage and there was a miraculous escape across the Red Sea. Under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites received the Law and this marked the birth of a new people.

Many scholars question this narrative because there is little archaeological data to support it, and what evidence we have suggests that the slaves were not as oppressed by the Egyptians as the Jews were later by the Babylonians. It appears, for example, that Judah came and went between Egypt and the ancient metal-working site of Timnah. On one of those excursions he had relations with Tamar (Gen. 38).

James K. Hoffmeier questions the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt. The outstanding Jewish scholar Abraham Malamat (1922–2010) questioned the historicity of the Exodus narrative. He believed the event was more prolonged. The story of Israel in Egypt and the Exodus should be viewed as dispersed over time.

An inscription by the ancient Egyptian ruler Merneptah, discovered in 1896 by Flinders Petrie at Thebes, is an early reference to Israel outside of the Bible. An earlier reference found with the name “Israel" pushes the Israelite presence in Egypt back 200 years earlier to about BC 1400. That is only about 600 years after Abraham the Hebrew had a personal audience with the Egyptian king. The ruler with whom he met was likely Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II who reigned c. BC 2061-2010.  Only persons of high rank were permitted a personal audience with the King of Egypt.

A question asked about the Exodus concerns the metal work done by Aaron and Moses. Moses is credited with making a bronze serpent (Numbers 21:9) and Aaron made a golden bull calf like the one shown below. How is it that these refugees out in the desert had the technology to make bronze and gold castings?

Anthropological studies provide a clear answer to that question. Most fine metal work was done in the wilderness, away from the spying eyes of city dwellers. This is why Moses sought royal permission to go 3-days journey into the wilderness to worship according to the pattern of his Horite Hebrew ancestors.

In the ancient world, metal work was a secret art and done only by certain castes. Moses and Aaron belonged to the caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of the Creator and his son Horus. The golden bull calf with the sun resting in its horns was an ancient symbol of Horus as the divinely appointed sacrifice. They were of the Horite Hebrew caste, the same caste to which Abraham belonged.

The Horite Hebrew priests were but one metal working caste. The Beja (Medjayu) are another. These metalworking nomads from the eastern Nubian desert were devotees of Horus and his mother Hathor until the 6th century A.D. They were associated with different Horite temples, especially on the island of Philak, and at Thebes. Today many Beja are Christians and some are Sufi Muslims. 

The Inadan are another caste of metalworkers who forge beautiful figurines and crosses out in the desert. If a Taureg overlord attempts to do metal work, the Inadan launch a fake attack on his house to warn him not to transgress against their caste. The Inadan are a sub-caste of the Taureg of Sudan and Niger. Inadan males are the only persons permitted to work with metals. The Inadan claim to be related to King David. The Inadan chief maintains 2 wives in separate households on a north-south axis. The pattern of two wives characterizes the marriage system of the Horite Hebrew kings. (Read more about the Inadan in National Geographic, Aug. 1979, p. 389.)

The bull's horns appear on images of Hathor, the mother of Horus. Hathor was the patroness of metal workers. A Canaanite temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timnah by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. Timnah is the site of the oldest copper mines in the ancient Near East.

Related reading: The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Why Cows Were Venerated in the Ancient World; Contextual Incongruities in Genesis; Archaic Nes Peoples; Moses's Wives and Brothers

Sun Cities of the Ancient World

Great Hypostyle Hall within the Karnak temple complex

Alice C. Linsley

Shrine cities of the ancient world were built near rivers and lakes and on elevated sites to avoid flooding. At the center of these royal cities were the temple, the palace, housing for priests, and quarters for the royal guard. The temple typically was aligned to the solar arc and was called O'piru, which means "house of the Sun."

The priests who served at the ancient shrine cities were called 'apiru, ha'piru or Ha'biru. The English word Hebrew is a variant of Ha'biru. Abraham is called "Hebrew" (Ha'biru) in Genesis 14:13. The Harris papyrus speaks of 'apriu of Re at Heliopolis, the shrine of the Sun. Plato, who studied under a Horite priest at Memphis for thirteen years, wrote "Tell me of the God of On, which was, is and shall be.

The people who lived at On called it Iunu, which means "place of pillars." There were many pillars bearing inscriptions to the high king, to the Creator Re, and to his son Horus. Some pillars depicted great victories in war and details of treaties. 

It was common for pillars to be inscribed in memory of holy ancestors, as stained glass windows in churches are dedicated to "pillars" of the congregation. The entrance pillars of Solomon's temple were called Boaz and Joktan. Boaz was Solomon's holy ancestor on his father's side and Joktan was a holy ancestor on his mother's side.

John Ogutu notes that in his Nilotic language of Luo, "O'mbiru, obiru refers to a small house built like a shrine or as a symbol among the Luo. A man who died before he could built his house would have the mourners erect one before his burial." The O'piru was a place where loved ones were memorialized.

According to Genesis 41:45, Joseph married into the royal priest family of Heliopolis. Study of the Heliopolitan cosmogony makes it apparent that Heliopolis was conceived as the sacred center of the primeval ocean, called Nun. The many pillars of the temple symbolized the connection between the waters below and the waters above (Gen. 1:7). Being a "he was a son of Nun (Numbers 11:28), Joshua likely belonged to a Ha'biru clan associated with On. 

The Prestige of Biblical On

Biblical On was perhaps the most prestigious shrine city of the ancient world. It was the geodetic center of Egypt. On was known for the purity of life of its priests. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.” 

The Habiru priest purified himself before he entered the temple. His purification involved fasting, abstinence from sexual relations and alcohol, ritual bathing, and an intense period of prayer. Korah, Moses' half-brother, was a priest according to Numbers 16:17,18. His name means "shaved one." Habiru priests shaved their heads and bodies as part of the purification ritual.

Note that Jerusalem is near the center of the triangle of shrine cities.

Heliopolis means "city of the Sun" and there were other such cities dedicated to the Creator whose emblem was the sun. The shrine city of Baalbek in Lebanon, with its massive stones, aligned to On (see map above). The pyramids at Giza, Abusir and Saqqara were aligned to the obelisk at On. 

King Tut established another Heliopolis at Thebes. The temple of Thebes was called "Heliopolis of the South." Thebes was the spiritual center of  Upper Egypt, and rivaled the importance of Heliopolis in the North.

Tutankhamun's cartouche bears the words heqa-iunu-shema, which is usually rendered "Ruler of On of the South." Heqa refers to the sceptre or shepherd's crook of the Egyptian rulers. Shema or ta-shema refers to Upper Egypt, the narrow valley extending south of Memphis to Abu on the First Cataract in Nubia. King Tut's sacred center was Thebes, between Memphis and Abu.

Herodutus reported that it took nine days to sail from Heliopolis to Thebes, Tutankhamun's shrine city. By relocating his court to Thebes, Tutankhamun was attempting to regain the glory of his forefathers at a time of Egypt's decline.

Related reading: Ancient Sun Temple Discovered in Cairo Suburb; The Unveiling of Joseph; The Shrine City of Nekhen; The High Places; Solar Symbolism of the Proto-Gospel

The Script of Abraham's Territory

Alice C. Linsley


Readers have asked about the language Abraham spoke. Before we can answer that, we must identify Abraham as Hebrew (Habiru) and a Horite ruler. Some Horite rulers are listed in Genesis 36. They ruled over ancient Edom, called "Idumea" by the Greeks.

Abraham's territory was in this region. His territory extended between the settlements of this two wives, Sarah and Keturah. Sarah resided in Hebron and Keturah in the region of Beersheba to the south. The settlements mark the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory.

The Horites were a caste of royal priests in the service of the ancient kingdom builders (the "mighty men of old"). Horite Hebrew (Habiru) were in Africa, Arabia, India, southern Europe, and other parts of the Levant. Some Horite clans were skilled in medicine and some were known for astronomy. Others made a name for themselves as stone masons or metal workers. Some served as purification priests and some offered sacrifices. Some served as scribes who kept royal accounts of tribute owed and payed. Horite priests served at temples along the water ways. They boarded ships to measure cargo and collect taxes. These royal scribes were well versed in the different scripts of the ruler's realm.

One such script was Akkadian, though this was a relatively archaic script by 2000 BC. Here is a timeline that we need to consider. Note that Akkadian was probably not spoken by Abraham though he or his wise men may have read ancient Akkadian texts. Some languages continue to be read long after they are no longer spoken. Biblical Hebrew and Latin are examples.

B.C. 3800-3000 - Nekhen flourished on the Nile, the oldest known site of Horite worship
B.C. 2490-2415 - Noah, lived in the region of Lake Chad when the Sahara experienced a wet period.
B.C. 2438-2363 - Ham, son of Noah
B.C. 2417-2342 - Kush, son of Ham; father of Nimrod and Ramah
B.C. 2290-2215 - Nimrod, ruler in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley
B.C. 2238-2163 - Arpacshad, son by Asshur's daughter
B.C. 2217-2042 - Salah, likely Arpacshad's son by his sister-wife.
B.C. 2196-2121 - Eber, likely Salah's son by his sister-wife.
B.C. 2175-2100 - Peleg, Eber's son. Peleg's brother was Joktan
B.C. 2154-2079 - Reu
B.C. 2133-2058 - Serug, Reu's son.
B.C. 2112-2037 - Nahor, Serug's son
B.C. 2091-2016 - Terah, Nahor's son
B.C. 2039-1964 - Abraham, Terah's son
B.C. 1987-1912 - Joktan, Abraham's firstborn son by his cousin bride, Keturah.

In Abraham's time (c. 2050) and territory between Hebron and Beersheba, the script used resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics. Many Hebrew letters - dating to about 500 years later - closely resemble the Middle Egyptian signs.

This aligns with Sir Alan H. Gardiner's findings. He concluded in 1916 that the Sinaitic signs were derived from Egyptian Hieroglyphic signs based upon their acrophonic value. Gardiner’s research established a relationship between the Sinaitic signs and the North Semitic alphabet. So it appears that the Egyptian signs were the basis of a variety of related scripts used from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates valley.

Related reading: What Language Did Abraham Speak?; Thamudic Scripts; Proto-Elamite Script; Horite Priests and the Habiru; Gardiner's Signs (Middle Egyptian)