Samuel's Horite Hebrew Family

Alice C. Linsley

Samuel's father was a Horite Hebrew priest with two wives. His name means "God's provision" and the name Elkanah appears in different generations of Horite Hebrew ruler-priests (1 Chron. 6:23-34; 1 Chron. 9:16; 2 Chron. 28:7). In Exodus 6:24 we find that a man named Elkanah is the grandson of Korah, the half-brother of Moses and Aaron. This diagram shows that Korah is a descendant of Seir the Horite ruler of Edom (Gen. 36).

In the narrative of Samuel's birth we read that his father Elkanah was a Zuphite, meaning he was a descendant of Zuph and lived in Ramathaim-zophim, "the land of Zuph." Ramathaim-zophim is described as "hill country" and it is known that the Horites preferred the high country. Ramathaim is simply Ramah elsewhere in the story of Samuel's family.

Hill country of Edom, ruled by the Horites (Gen. 36)

Ramah has a long association with prophets; Samuel being one of the greatest. Deborah, “the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet” who judged from her palm tree between “Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim." (Judges 4:4-6) Ephraim refers to the region around Bethlehem.

The Horite Hebrew were a caste of rulers who served as priests, prophets, scribes, warriors and metal workers. They were ethnically Kushite. Ramah was a son of Kush according to Genesis 10:7.

In the Masoretic Text the name of Samuel's city is hara-matatyim zophim. (See The Anchor Bible Commentary on I Samuel by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., p. 51) This means that Samuel's father was a priest of the line of Matthew (or Mattai/Mattan). Hara-matatyim is the priestly line of Joseph of Arimathea, one of Jesus' relatives, and the member of the Sanhedrin who buried the Lord's body in a tomb he has excavated for himself. Samuel's father and Jesus had common Horite Hebrew ancestors.

David and his father Jesse were of this Horite lineage also. Matthew's Gospel links Bethlehem and Ramah (Matt. 2:13-23); suggesting that Jesse's territory extended from Bethlehem to Ramah. All of this would have been called "Judah" in Jesse's time. If David's city was the Bethlehem in Galilee, Jesse was indeed a great ruler. This is further supported by the Y solar cradle in his name - Yishai. Many of the great Horite rulers are designated by this symbol of divine appointment: Yismael, Yitzak, Yacob/Yisrael, Yetro, Yisbak, Yaqtan, and Yeshua.

Samuel's Horite ancestry, and his kinship to Jesse, is further supported by the distinctive Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern that they shared. Samuel's father was a priest with two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. It was the custom for Horite Hebrew ruler-priests to have two wives. One was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the other was a patrilineal cousin or niece (as was Keturah to Abraham).

The first wife was the sister bride, married at a fairly young age. She was the wife of the man's youth. The second wife was taken close to the time of the heir's coming to the throne. The two wives lived in separate households, usually on a north-south axis.

The firstborn son of the sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. So Isaac ruled over Abraham's territory. The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. Abraham's cousin wife was Keturah. Her firstborn son was Joktan (Yaqtan). Joktan the Younger ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, Joktan the elder, the progenitor of the Joktanite clans of Arabia. This pattern of two wives and the cousin bride's naming prerogative, makes it possible to trace the Horite line of descent from Genesis 4 to Jesus, the Son of God.

Samuel dwelt in Ramah. This suggests that he ascended to the throne of his father. This means that his mother Hannah was Elkanah's half-sister wife, as the rabbis attest. Peninnah was Elkanah's cousin wife. Her first born son ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, not as the high priest but as a vassal to the high priest with a land holding in the territory of his maternal grandfather.

I Sam.1:4 states that when Elkanah offered a sacrifice, it was his custom to give portions to Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. We do not know how many children Peninnah had, but we are told that after Hannah gave birth to Samuel, she had two more sons and two daughters.

If Samuel followed the marriage and ascendancy pattern of his Horim, he married one of Peninnah's daughters at a fairly early age. Nazirites did marry, as is evident from the story of Samson.

Here is a diagram showing Samuel's Horite family.

Related reading: The Judges Samuel, Deborah and Huldah; The Chiefs of Edom; The Antiquity of the Edomite Rulers; The Extent of Edomite Territory; Aaron Was Buried in Edom; The Horite Hebrew Wisdom of Elihu; The Horite High Places

Africans in Abel Beth Maacah

Alice C. Linsley

There is more and more evidence that the territory where ancient Israel, Aram, and Phoenicia met was an ethnic melting pot.

Abel Beth Maacah (shown in red on the map) is in the region. There are references to the city in 2 Samuel 20:14; 1 Kings 15:20, and 2 Kings 15:29.

The wise woman of Abel Beth Maacah saved her town from destruction when she surrendered the head of Sheba to David’s general (2 Sam. 20:17-22). Sheba contested David's claim to the throne. Indeed, the royal House of Sheba was very old and had roots in Africa and Southern Arabia. Sheba may have sought refuge with Afro-Arabian kinsmen living in Abel Beth Maacah.

Tel Abel Beth Maacah is a large archaeological site consisting of a mound with a small upper northern section and a large lower southern section. These sections are connected by a saddle. Excavations at Tel Abel Beth Maacah have been conducted since 2012 under the direction of Robert Mullins (Azusa Pacific University) and Nava Panitz-Cohen (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Ruhama Bonfil was the surveyor.

A Hebrew inscription on a jar unearthed at Abel Beth Macaah may resolve a long-running dispute about the extent of Israelite territory in the 9th-century B.C.E. Written in Hebrew, the inscription reads Ibnayo: “belonging to Benaiyo.” Ibn and ben mean "son" so this should be read as "son of Aiyo." Aiyo is an African name with the variant spelling Ayo.

Also found at Able Beth Maccah was a 13th century ceramic jug with a cache of 12 silver coins. The coins were fused together by corrosion. However, Miriam Lavi used a diluted acid solution to separate the silver pieces. The hoard included earrings and an ingot in the shape of the continent of Africa (shown below).

Related reading: 3000-Year Inscription found at Abel Beth Maacah; Silver Hoard Found at Abel Beth Macaah; Hebrew Priests in Aram, Edom, Judah, and Moab; 2012 Survey Report of Abel Beth Maacah

Midianite Potters of Edom

A tent-shrine or tabernacle was discovered at Timnaʿthat resembled the biblical description of the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness. Stone-lined post-holes were found with acacia wood fragments and numerous copper rings. There were copious fragments of copper wire knots likely used to suspend the tent curtains.

Timna was an industrial-scale metallurgical site in and around the Wadi Arabah in ancient Edom, Abraham's territory. The region was rich in copper and the metal work done there appears to have involved religious ritual. Juan Manuel Tebes points out that the Midianite ceramic wares also appear "consistently in cultic contexts, administrative buildings, and burial offerings."

In the early 2000's, Dr. Thomas E. Levy led an archaeological survey that yielded earlier dates than had been assigned to the Edomite kingdom. The team found scarabs, painted pottery shards, metal arrowheads, hammers, grinding stones, and slag heaps. Dr. Levy stated, "Only a complex society such as a paramount chiefdom or primitive kingdom would have the organizational know-how to produce copper metal on such an industrial scale." 

An "impressive amount of Midianite ware" was found around the tent-shrine at Timna. The Midianites were related to Abraham through his son Midian, born of Abraham's cousin wife Keturah (Gen. 25). They should be considered a Horite Hebrew clan of Edom. Moses married his cousin Zipporah, a daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro. Moses' father married a Horite woman of Edom (see diagram above).

At Timna there was a shrine to Hathor, the mother of Horus. (Horus is derived from the Ancient Egyptian HR, meaning "Most High One.") Hathor was the patron of the Horite metal workers at Timna and at other metal workers sites in the region. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

Concerning House 314 at Tel Masos near Beersheba Juan Tebes writes: “Within several of its habitations, rests of metallurgical activities were visible on the ground, possibly connected to a ritual function, as has been suggested by the appearance of ‘human’ figurines very similar to those found at the Hathor temple of Timna."

Tel Masos sits at the gateway to Hebron where Sarah resided. Keturah likely resided at or near Tel Masos or Beersheba. These sites were within Abraham's territory in Edom as shown on the map above. Note the placement of the wives on a north-south axis, a characteristic of the Horite marriage pattern involving two wives.

Horite Hebrew priests were active in metal work, as is evidence in the stories of Aaron and Moses fabricating ritual objects. They were rather widely dispersed in the ancient world. Horite Hebrew priests were found in Aram, Edom, Judah, and Moab. The Midianite potters were among them.


Related reading: The Chiefs of Edom, The Substance of Abraham's Faith, The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; A Land Whose Stones are Iron and From Whose Hill You May Mine Copper.; The Antiquity of the Edomite Rulers

The Fiction of Racial Types

Alice C. Linsley

Racial stereotyping hinders reconciliation efforts. Instead of focusing on our common origins and common humanity, it focuses on the distinction Black-White.This problematic approach cannot be corrected as long as Evangelicals deny the great antiquity of human existence on earth. The dogma of Young Earth Creationism is contrary to the data of Scripture and to the data of good science.

Modern genetics has forced scientists to rethink the popular notion of racial types. The idea of races based on stereotypical physical features misrepresents the great genetic diversity of humans. It tends to reinforce racism when, in reality, all humans have common ancestry in Africa. Anyone who has received a report on their DNA ancestry will have noted that they have a genetic heritage from MtDNA Macro-haplogroup L, at the root of the human phylogenetic tree. This map shows the point of origin of that genetic heritage.

Anthropologists and geneticists recognize that the greatest genetic diversity is and always has been found in African populations. Populations farther from Africa tend to have the least genetic diversity.

Anthropological evidence suggests that the range of skin and eye color existed from the beginning in Africa. Even today it is not uncommon for babies born from the same parents to show different features associated with "racial" types. Here are images of unusual, but not rare, features associated with "African" stereotypes.

San (Bushmen) of Botswana

Petrie's study of images on ancient Egyptian monuments suggested that the Egyptians and other Nilotes were genetically mixed. This confirmed what had been discovered by the 1828 Franco-Italian expedition to Egypt led by Jean-Francois Champollion and Ippolito Rosellini.

Above is a detail from one of Rosellini's drawings showing both black and red Nubian warriors who were taken captive by the Egyptians under Rameses II (1279-1213 BC).

The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship was at Nekhen on the Nile (3800 BC). The Nekhen News (p. 7) reports, "The vast majority of hair samples discovered at Nekhen were cynotrichous (Caucasian) in type as opposed to heliotrichous (Negroid)."

One of the more intriguing discoveries at http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2014/05/why-nekhen-is-anthropologically.htmlNekhen was the recovery of an almost complete beard in association with the redheaded man in Burial no. 79. The presence of long wavy natural red hair and a full beard suggests that this individual may be of the same ethnicity as the red haired ruler known as Ur-David (shown right) buried in a pyramid in the Tarim Valley of China.

Related reading: The Bible and the Question of Race; King Tut and the Dispersion of Haplogroup R1b; Seligman's Legacy; Kushites in Mindanao; The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Haplogroups of Interest to Biblical Anthropologists; The Sub-Saharan DNA of Modern Jews

Horus, the Patron of Kings

Alice C. Linsley

Before the emergence of Buddhism, temples in Cambodia were Hindu shrines dedicated to different deities. Most of the temples had an east orientation, but one at Angkor Wat had a west orientation, suggesting a connection to Horus on the Horizon. The term "Wat" means village, town, settlement, or shrine. Very likely "Anghor" is a variant of "ankh-Hor" which means "Long live Horus!"

Hinduism has many layers that developed over time. As a religion, Hinduism reached its zenith in the Axial Age (900-200 BC). The earliest civilization of the Indus Valley is that of Harappa (2500–1700 BC). In Dravidian, Harappa means "Horus is father." Among many ancient populations, Horus was the patron of kings.

The stone relief (shown above) is at Agkhor Wat. It shows Horus in the form of his falcon totem perched on the mast of Ra's solar boat. 

Parts of the Vedic Samhitas constitute the oldest layer of Hindu tradition and include material that resembles Horite Hebrew concepts. The oldest site of Horite Hebrew worship is at Nekhen on the Nile and dates to around 3800 BC.

Evidently, the Horites spread their religious from ancient Kush to Mesopotamia and beyond. The old fire altars in Hinduism were falcon shaped. The falcon was the totem of Horus. This is why the Shulba Sutras state that "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon."

Statue found outside the walls of Angkor Thom in Cambodia. 

(Photo taken around 1958.)

Describing his 1912 visit to Bayon Temple, the French novelist Pierre Loti wrote:

“I looked up at all those towers, rising above me, overgrown in the greenery and suddenly shivered with fear as I saw a giant frozen smile looming down at me … and then another smile, over there in another tower … and then three, and then five, and then ten.”

Khmer Empire was an absolute monarchy that thrived from the 9th to the 15th century. Chou Ta-Kwan was a Chinese envoy to Angkor in the thirteenth century AD. He wrote about the daily life of the Khmer.

"When the king comes out, the troops are at the head of the procession. Their bodies and feet are bare. They hold a lance in their right hands and shields in the left. Then come the standards, the flags and the music. The king and the ministers are all mounted on elephants. In front of them many red parasols can be seen even from far off. Next come the wives and concubines of the king riding in palanquins, carts or on horses and elephants. They carry more than one hundred parasols heavily decorated with gold..." (Horizon: A Magazine of the Arts, January 1959, p. 71)

The Khmer civilization produced the famous Temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and the Bayon Temple. The Bayon Temple served as the temple of Jayavarman’s new capital, Angkor Thom, and it was originally a Mahayana shrine. Jayavarman VII (shown right) ruled the Khmer from 1181–1218.

Ta Prohm is the modern name of the temple at Angkor, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. Construction on Ta Prohm began in 1186 AD. A rare inscription at Ta Prohm provides statistics on the temple's workers. The inscription reports around 80,000 workers, including 2700 officials and 615 dancers. It speaks of 66,000 farmers who provided 3,000 tons of rice annually to support the temple workers, priests, and dancers. Imagine this also happening at Anghor Thom and the Bayon Temple. The burden would have been enormous and this explains why the more egalitarian approach of Buddhism took hold, ultimately supplanting Hinduism in that region.

The deification of the Asian rulers finds precedent among the ancient Nilotes, especially the Egyptians. The ruler-priests of the Khmer look like the priests of the Nile. Compare this image of an Egyptian "Harwa" to the image of Jayavarman VII. In Eleanor Mannika's work, "Angkor Wat: Time, Space and Kingship" she argues that the dimensions, alignment, and bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat speak of Suryavarman II as the divinely appointed king.


Related reading: Elements of the Messianic Faith in Early Hinduism; African Religion Predates Hinduism

Horite Mounds

Alice C. Linsley


The Horite mounds and the Sethite mounds were sacred Hebrew shrines. Though separate, they shared common religious practices and beliefs.

It is clear in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2000 BC) that the Horites and the Sethites maintained separate settlements. Utterance 308 addresses them as separate entities: "Hail to you, Horus in the Horite Mounds! Hail to you, Horus in the Sethite Mounds!"

PT Utterance 470 contrasts the Horite mounds with the mounds of Seth, designating the Horite Mounds "the High Mounds."

The two groups appear to be separate yet related, suggesting a moiety, such as that of the Red and Black Nubians. The term "moiety" refers to two social or ritual groups into which a people is divided. The distinction between the two groups is evident in PT Utterance 424: "O King, a boon which the King grants, that you occupy the Mounds of Horus, that you travel about the Mounds of Seth..." Here we find a suggestion that the Horite Hebrew were named for their devotion to Horus.

PT Utterance 424 continues, "that you [King] sit on your iron throne and judge their affairs at the head of the Great Ennead which is in On." Though separate, the Horites and the Sethites are judged by a common king.

That both groups serve the same king is evident from PT Utterance 213: "O King, you have not departed dead, you have departed alive...The Mounds of Horus serve you, the Mounds of Seth serve you."

The extent of the King's reign is considerable. In his resurrection body he is to "traverse the Mound of Horus of the Southerners" and "traverse the Mound of Horus of the Northerners." (PT Utterances 536 and 553) The risen king restores his settlements and cities, and opens doors to the Westerners, Easterners, Northerners and Southerners (Pt Utterance 587). He is to "betake himself to the Mansion of Horus which is in the firmament" (PT Utterance 539).

The risen king unites the peoples, restores the former state of blessedness, and unites heaven and earth. When seen from this perspective, the Horite Hebrew religion appears to be the foundation of the Messianic hope that is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

Related reading: Mt. Nebo Was a Horite Shrine; The Horite High Places; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Egyptian Shrines on the Horus Way

Identifying the Status of the Two Wives

Alice C. Linsley

A reader has asked for a list detailing the "patriarchs" and their wives in a simple format like this.

1. husband
a. wife 1
b. wife 2

The term "patriarch" does not appear in the Bible. The men with two wives were rulers and chiefs over their clans. These rulers were related as it was their practice to marry within and between the Hebrew clans (endogamy).

The pattern of two wives is found throughout the Bible among the Hebrew people. However, we are not always provided with the data we need to identify which wife is the first and which is the second. Some wives are not named. Moses' Kushite wife is an example, as are King Joash's two wives,  chosen for him by the priest Jehoiada.

In the case of sent-away sons there may be disruption of the usual pattern of marrying a half-sister in the man's youth and marrying a patrilineal cousin in later life. Jacob is an example. Leah is the first wife and her sister Rachel is the second wife. According to the biblical data, both women were Jacob's cousins.

In some cases, we are not told the names of the bride's father, which makes it difficult to identify her clan and whether she is the first or second wife. The second wife can be identified by "the cousin bride's naming prerogative." She is the cousin bride if her first born son is named after her father. The cousin bride is the second wife. The chief's first wife is usually a half sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. They had the same father but different mothers.

Examples of the cousin bride include Lamech's daughter Naamah, Abraham's wife Keturah, and Amram's wife Ishar. In this diagram we see that Lamech's daughter Naamah (mentioned in Genesis 4) married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah (Genesis 5) and named their first born son Lamech after her father. This is why it is necessary to speak of "Lamech the Elder" and "Lamech the Younger."

Here is a list, as requested. When no data is available about the marriage order, I assume that the order of the women's names in the Bible represents their status. The first wife is the principal wife as her first born son is her husband's proper heir. The first born son of the cousin wife belongs to the household of his maternal grandfather after whom he is named.

Lamech (Genesis 4)

1. Adah

2. Zillah

Terah (Genesis 11)

1. unnamed sister wife was a daughter of Nahor the elder

2. unnamed cousin wife was a daughter of Haran the elder. Her brother Haran died in Ur.

Abraham

1. Sarai/Sarah, half-sister wife (Genesis 12, Genesis 20:12)

2. Keturah, cousin wife of the royal house of Sheba (cf. Genesis 10:7)

Jacob

1. Leah, posed as a cousin wife, but she may have been a half-sister

2. Rachel, cousin wife

Amram, father of Moses

1. Jochebed

2. Ishar

Moses

1. unnamed "Kushite" or Nilotic wife

2. Zipporah

Elkanah, priest father of Samuel

Two wives, Penninah and Hannah. No data as to which was the first.

Ashur 

Two wives (1 Chronicles 4:5)

1. Helah is probably the half-sister wife

2. Naarah is probably the patrilineal cousin wife.

Joash

Two wives chosen for him by the High Priest Jehoiada. Joash's mother was Zibiah of Beersheba. Here we again see a connection between the royal house of David and the royal house of Sheba.

Related reading: Hebrew Rulers With Two Wives; The Pattern of Two Wives; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of the Biblical Hebrew; The Social Structure of the Biblical Hebrew; Lamech Segment Analysis