Using the Bible to Test Hypotheses

Alice C. Linsley

In the July-August 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review Hershel Shanks speaks about the prejudice and suspicion that one encounters in academic circles and among professional archaeologists toward those who maintain that the Bible is a source of reliable information for scientists. I have had this experience as a Biblical Anthropologist and I've written about my experience here and here.

Here is what Hershel has to say:

In the highest, most sophisticated levels of professional Biblical archaeology, there is a certain prejudice against the Bible.

I take as my text a passage from a new book of which (full disclosure) the Biblical Archaeology Society, publisher of BAR, is a copublisher with the Israel Exploration Society. The book, written by my good friend Ronny Reich of Haifa University and excavator of the City of David,1 is titled Excavating the City of David (reviewed in this issue). It is a magnum opus that will be read and studied a hundred years from now; but it does treat dismissively the excavation of another good friend, Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University. (Ronny even accuses Eilat of acting “unethically,” but that is another matter.2)

One of Eilat’s crimes, according to Ronny, is using the Bible as a guide to where to excavate. Let me unpack this: As Eilat read the Bible, it seemed to indicate just where King David’s palace might be buried in the City of David—at least, it did to her. On this basis, she decided to dig there. (Read it all here.)

In my 35 years of research, the Bible has proved to be a reliable source of information. Kinship analysis of the Genesis King lists has made it possible to reconstruct a clear picture of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew rulers listed in the Genesis King lists. This data has also been confirmed by findings in various other disciplines, including DNA studies, climate studies, migration studies, linguistics and archaeology.

In particular, the Biblical data has explained how the royal marriage pattern drove Kushite expansion out of Africa. It has also served to identify an earlier migration of the Ainu from the Nile to Northern Japan and the Eastern seaboard of Canada.

Related reading:  What Does a Biblical Anthropologist Do?; The African Cultural Context of Genesis 1-11; Biblical Anthropology and the Question of Common Ancestry; Is Biblical Anthropology an Oxymoron?; Biblical Anthropology is Science

The Peoples of Canaan

Alice C. Linsley

The term "Canaanite" can refer to many different peoples, some of whom were ethnically Nilotic. Most of the high places of the Judean hills, for example, were under Egyptian control from about 2000 to 1178 BC. Through biblical archaeology and biblical anthropology, we have come to know a great deal about the peoples who lived in the land of Canaan. Their shrines were built at high elevations near water systems and they were later fortified. They were masters of stone work and left behind standing stones of monumental proportions.

Photo: Dennis Cole

These standing stone at Tell Gezer date to the period of the standing stones erected on Salisbury Plain in England around 2500 BC.

The high places and fortified mounds are called "ophel" (Hebrew עֹ֫פֶל). The root of the word ophel is OP and pertains to a complex of interrelated ideas: seeing (optic); armed guards (opiltes); walled towns (oppida), and sun shrines (O'piru) served by a caste of priests known in the ancient world as Ha'piru, Ha'biru (Hebrew) and 'Apiru.

The oldest elevated settlements were near water sources. The oldest ophel in Jerusalem is near the Gihon Spring. Similar sites include Deir Tasi in Egypt; Jarmo in Iraq, and Tell Hassuna in Iraq. Of particular interest is the Paleolithic population that lived near the ravine or wadi known as Wadi-en-Natuf near Jerusalem. The Natufian population employed micro-flints, weapons, stone tools, and primitive agriculture. Artistic expressions included rock drawings and wall paintings, and they were sea travelers between 12,000 and 10,000 B.C. There are about 40 Paleolithic sites in the hills surrounding Jerusalem, many of them near Bethlehem. Surrounding Jerusalem, there are at least 28 Neolithic sites that fit the same description: elevated shelters near a water source.

Evidence of human habitation in the area of Bethlehem between 100,000-10,000 BC is well-attested along the north side of Wadi Khareitun where there are three caves: Iraq al-Ahmar, Umm Qal’a, and Umm Qatafa. These caves were homes in a wooded landscape overlooking a river. At Umm Qatafa archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of the domestic use of fire in Palestine.

The Canaanites in retrospect

Bible passages that speak about “the Canaanites” reflect authors who lived well after the time of the Patriarchs. The Canaanites are viewed by these later write, especially the Deuteronomist Historian, as decadent, idolatrous and deserving of being displaced from the land, even exterminated.

In Genesis 10 the peoples who descend from Noah through his grandsons Sidon and Het (Heth) are said to be the original inhabitants. This is supported by evidence from many disciples, including linguistics, archaeology, anthropology and genetics.

In II Chronicles 8:7 and I Kings 9:20 the term “Canaanite” is used to distinguish the Israelites from the other clans living in the land. However, it is clear from Genesis 10 that the Israelites were related to these Canaanite clans. The so-called Canaanites were blood-related Afro-Arabian peoples whose ancestry can be traced back to the Nile Valley and ancient Kush.

It is clear from analysis of the Genesis genealogical data that the ruling lines descending from Noah intermarried. This was the custom among the ancient Kushite rulers.  This means that it is impossible to say that the descendants of Ham and the descendants of Shem are different and unrelated peoples. Genesis 10 acknowledges this fact by listing the people as descendants of the same Patriarch, Noah and by designating the lines of descent as “clans.”  We are not talking about different ethnic groups.

Further, the Genesis 10 record tells a story of dispersal across the ancient Afro-Asiatic world. This too is fully supported by findings in linguistics, archaeology, anthropology and genetics. The Kushite migration has been well established. Nimrod (Sargon the Great) ruled over a great empire in Mesopotamia yet Genesis 10:8 states that he was one of Kush’s sons.

The list of “Canaanite” peoples in Genesis 10 attempts to reconstruct the confederation of peoples living in Palestine before the Israelites arrived after wandering in the wilderness. The difference between the lists is telling. Genesis 10 is much longer and more descriptive. Genesis 10: 15-19, traces the Canaanite peoples to an otherwise unknown descendant of Noah named "Canaan."

Canaan fathered the Sidon his first-born, then Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later Canaanite clans spread out.  The Canaanite frontier stretched from Sidon all the way to Gerar near Gaza and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim near Lehsa.

In II Chronicles and I Kings 9:20 only the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites are identified as still living in the land, and they are identified as non-Israelite. So what happened to all the other clans? Many intermarried with the Israelites, though the priestly lines of Israel intermarried exclusively with other priestly lines (not all of which were Israelite).

Genesis tells us that these are clans, not ethnic groups. That’s important because all the clans listed in Genesis 10 are blood related. They are classified linguistically as Afro-Asiatics and their ethnicity is Kushite. They spread across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion, taking their language and religious practices with them.

Confusion has arisen because in Genesis 10 the Hebrew word goy has been translated “nation” and goyim as “nations.” The Greek Septuagint renders goy as “ethnos” and goyim as “ethne” in the plural. Both translations are misleading. Genesis 10 says that all these peoples are descendants of the same Patriarch, Noah, and are therefore related. They do not represent different nations in the modern sense. Nor do they represent different ethnic groups. They are related clans which recognized their blood ties and which performed work which was expected of their caste. Some of the occupations involved metal work and scribal expertise.

Once we set aside the misconception that Genesis 10 is a “Table of Nations” we are able to explore the relationship of the clans and to reconstruct the confederations based on what is known about the Proto-Saharan languages spoken by Abraham's ancestors.

Reconstruction of the Kushite Confederations

Confederations of peoples listed in Genesis 10 are based on kinship and occupation, which indicates a caste structure. Castes are characterized by endogamy. Priestly lines intermarried exclusively. Metalworkers intermarried exclusively. Scribes intermarried exclusively. Merchants of purple dye (murex) intermarried exclusively. This was the caste structure of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

It is possible to reconstruct the Genesis 10 confederations using what is known about the Proto-Saharan languages spoken by Abraham's ancestors. These languages were characterized by two-consonant roots (a “biconsonantal” system).  So we begin by eliminating the vowels and searching for the most basic consonantal unit in each of the names. To illustrate the method we will use the names Hittite and Hivite. The most basic root for these names is HT and is the same as the name Het (Heth). Genesis 10 tells us that these two clans are of Heth and a confederation. The name HT appears in the Hebrew and Arabic world for copper - nahas-het. Nahash means serpent. As an adjective it means shining bright, like burnished copper. So the evidence suggests that the clans of HT 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. It was as they looked upon the bronze coiled serpent (a solar image) that the people were saved.

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. As the letter N remains unchanged in the older Proto-Saharan languages we can be fairly certain that this was the name of the Anatolian Hittites. They are the likely source of over 5000 Horite texts found in Nuzi in Mesopotamia. These are written using the Akkadian script.

The Clans of Het and the Clans of Ar were related 

The Arkites and the Arvadites were another two-clan confederation. The word “Arvadites” refers to residents of the Mediterranean island-city of Arvad (Arpah or Arphad in other ancient sources). Arvad is an extremely ancient city. Before the Phoenicians, it was populated seasonally by peoples passing from north Africa to Asia. Some of these were Netufians.

The Arvadites had close ties the Egyptians, and paid tribute to the Kushite Pharaohs for protection from the Assyrians. The Kushite Pharaoh Tahar-qo called the land of Canaan and Syria “Khor” which is a compound of K for Kush and Hor for Horus. (Kash, Kwash, Akwanski and Kush are cognates referring to the First People, who were considered deified ancestors.)  In 2010, the 4400 year old tomb of a Kushite priest was found at Giza. The tomb belongs to a priest named Rudj-Ka (or Rwd-Ka) and dates to the 5th Dynasty, between 2465 and 2323 B.C.

In a message sent to the King of Tyre Tahar-qo wrote, “Oh Amun, what I did in the land of Nubia, let [ … … ], let me do it with your tribute (inw) of Khor (Syria-Palestine) which has been turned aside from you.” (http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/gdc/ssea/vol31/kahn%20article.pdf, p. 115)

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

The Egyptian Asa-ar means the Serpent of Asa (Deity). The peoples living in Arvad, Tyre and Sidon employed serpent imagery in their temples.

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

Related reading: The Religion of Archaic Rulers; Some Marks of Prehistoric Religion; The Gezer Calendar Reflects Nilotic Farming Practices; Who Were the Canaanites?; The Genesis King Lists; The Origins of Written Communications; The World's Oldest Books

What Language Did Abraham Speak?

The world known to the early Hebrew.

Alice C. Linsley

The best evidence to date suggests that Abraham and his Hebrew ancestors spoke the languages of the peoples among whom they lived. Some of Abraham's ancestors spoke early Nilo-Saharan languages, some of which are now extinct. Abraham and his immediate family would have spoken Ancient Akkadian, the oldest known Semitic language. This explains why Akkadian roots are found in the oldest layers of the Genesis material. 

Abraham probably spoke more than one language and had men in his household who were scribes and translators. He would have known the Akkadian of Mesopotamia where he grew up, and he would have been familiar with the related languages of his Hebrew kinsmen living in Anatolia, Canaan, Arabia, and the Nile Valley.

The evidence of linguistics, history, archaeology, anthropology, and the Book of Genesis suggests that Abraham's Hebrew ancestors were widely dispersed in the Fertile Crescent and the Ancient Near East. Much is known about these ruler-priests. They are called the "mighty men of old" because they were kingdom builders who regarded themselves as divinely appointed to disperse and populate the earth. They spread out of Africa along major water systems and mountain ranges. They built fortifications at high elevations near permanent water systems. These royal complexes included palaces, temples, treasuries and housing for priests and warriors. They established trade, married only within their caste (caste endogamy), spread belief in the High God though he was known by different names. 

The Hebrew were a ruler-priest caste in the service of kingdom builders such as Nimrod (Gen. 10), a son of Kush. Nimrod left his homeland in the Nile Valley and established a territory in Mesopotamia. Abraham is one of his descendants.

Common roots found among many Ancient Near Eastern and East African languages.

Genesis 11:1 says that the peoples of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion spoke “one language” and the dispersal suggested by the Tower of Babel story did not change this. This explains the linguistic similarity between names and titles found in Genesis and in among populations among who the early Hebrew scribes lived. Examples include Jochi (biblical Joktan/Yaqtan), Malik, and Khan (biblical Kain or Kayan). Khan means king, and in the Bible, Kain is the archetypal earthly ruler (see Book of Jude). Today Khan is a common surname in Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Mongolia. Some Pashtun tribes adopted Malik as the title for ruler instead of Khan. Malik is equivalent to the Hebrew Melek, meaning king.

Consider the following correspondences:

The Hebrew rison adam = ancestral man is adamu orisa = ancestral Adam in Hahm/Hausa languages of Nigeria and Niger. The Hausa word for human being is dan adam. Related is the Babylonian word for blood: dhama. The Sanskrit word for male human is manu which resembles the African word adamu.

The Hebrew bara = to begin, is related to the Yoruba/Hahm word bere = to begin. There is a relationship between the verb "to begin" and the Hebrew word for Creator which is Bore and the African Twi dialect is Borebore (a reduplication) indicating the Most High God. The Sanskrit kr = ‘to create/to make is related to the Igbo kere = created.

The Hebrew hay = “living being” is related to the Hausa/Hahm word aye = life, created world. Likewise, the Hebrew iya = mother, corresponds to the Dravidian ka ayi = mother, and the Hausa/Hahm eyi = gave birth.

The Hebrew hayah = "Let there be…" is related to the Igbo haa ya = "Let it be…/let there be"

The Hebrew amar = "commanded" is related to the Igbo hamara = "commanded"

The Hebrew abba = father, corresponds to the Hausa/Hahm baba = father, to the Dravidian appa/appan = father, and to the Mundari apu = father. The original root is likely AP.

The Hebrew ha’nock = the chief, corresponds to the Hahm word nok = “first ancestral chief”. The original root is likely NK and suggests the royal title Enoch.

The Semitic word wadi = river, corresponds to the Sanskrit nadi = river. The original root is likely AD.

The Semitic root mgn = to give, is the same as the Sanskrit mgn = to give.

The Hausa word for hunter is maharba. Compare this to the Hebrew word that appears in the Targum nah shirkan = hunter. Note the similarity to the Hausa word sarkin maharba = lead hunter.

The Sanskrit svah = sky or heaven, corresponds to the Semitic svam or samyim = sky or heavens. The Semitic resembles the Proto-Dravidian word van = heaven. The Arabo-Spanish desvan (attic or upper room) is likely related to the root SVN.

The Hebrew yasuah = salvation, corresponds to the Sanskrit words asvah, asuah or yasuah = salvation. Yashua means salvation in the Urdu language also.

The Hebrew root thr = to be pure, corresponds to the Hausa/Hahm toro = clean, to the Amarigna (Ethiopia) anatara = pure, and to the Tamil tiru = holy. All are related to the proto-Dravidian tor = blood. In some Kushitic languages mtoro means rain and toro refers to God. The Egyptian ntr = deity may be related.

The Hebrew echad or ehat = one, corresponds to the Nilotic Luo achiel, the Syrian eka, the Sanskrit eca, and to the Ethiopian Gonga ikka. In the Proto-Saharan, ikki is a directional element, meaning toward or to. In the ancient world, primacy or the first position or number one was reserved for the deity. This is evident in the Luo word for one: achi-el. El is a very ancient reference to God.

The number six in Proto-Dravidian is caru. This correlates to koro in Proto-Saharan, a directional element; to karkia in some Chadic Languages; and to korci in Meidob (a language of eastern Sudan). The most striking similarity is between the Kanembu (another language of Sudan) araku and the Dravido-Tamil aarru.

We can verify the connection between the Nile and Indus Valley by comparing the ancient Egyptian and Indus pottery inscriptions in which 17 figures are virtually identical (see below).

(Found on p. 330 in The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study, available at Amazon.)

Hebrew is a relatively recent language.

Abraham did not speak Hebrew. Hebrew emerged as a distinct language about 1000 years after Abraham's time. 

Hebrew is largely triconsonantal and, as with the older Arabic, has no vowels. This is why a word may appear with various spellings: hur, heru, hor, har. The root is HR which in ancient Egyptian refers to Horus and means "Most High One".

The Hebrew triconsonantal root system consists of only about two hundred roots. When a certain vowel pattern is placed over these roots, a wide range of related meanings can be assumed (polysemic). Over the centuries translators have guessed at some of these vowels, but rarely has this affected the meanings. Where accuracy has been compromised it is often means that the translators have not cross-checked the Hebrew or Aramaic against the older cognate languages such as Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, and Old Arabic.

The Danish linguist Holger Pedersen (1867-1953) explained in The Discovery of Language that “Hebrew, Aramaic and Akkadian languages had all undergone significant linguistic degeneration. Only Old Arabic, due to its relative isolation in the Arabian Peninsula, remained closer to the old stratum of the ‘Semitic’ form of the language.”

There are various textual clues that enable us to determine the general nature of the language spoken by Abraham. These involve words that reference shrines, temples, and place names associated with numbers and water systems.

Houses of God

In the ancient Egyptian and Ugaritic languages, the word piru meant house, shrine, or temple. These were Sun temples in royal complexes at the Sun cities such as Heliopolis. The Sun temples were served by priests, among them the Hebrew ruler-priests caste, called abrutu, from the Ancient Akkadian word abru, meaning priest.

The Hebrew were devotees of God Father and God son. The oldest known site of Horite and Sethite Hebrew worship was at Nekhen on the Nile (4200 B.C.). At the Horus temple of Nekhen votive instruments were ten times larger than the mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite Hebrew priests placed invocations to the HIgh God and his son HR at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. This is the likely origin of the sun blessings in Hinduism (the Agnihotra morning ritual) and in Judaism (the Birka Hachama, or “Sun Blessing” ritual performed every 28 years).

Another Horite shrine was at Heliopolis (biblical On). The Harris papyrus speaks of 'apriu of Re at Heliopolis, the shrine of the Sun. Joseph married into this royal priest line when he married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On. Asenath was probably Joseph's cousin.

The Horite Hebrew priests of Heliopolis were known for their meticulous devotion to the Creator and his son, and for their sobriety and purity of life. 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.”

Abraham's Hebrew ancestors believed in the High God and his son HR who Hathor conceived miraculously by divine overshadowing. This is the probable origin of Messianic expectation. This very ancient narrative is the proto-Gospel, the foretelling of Jesus Christ's conception by Virgin Mary's who conceived by divine overshadowing, as the Angel Gabriel explained.

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."

Related reading: Belief in the High God; Horite and Sethite Mounds; The Hebrew Were a Caste; Hebrew Names and Titles; Joseph and Asenath; Sun Cities of the Ancient World

Identifying King Tut's Father

Alice C. Linsley

Amenhotep III, a Kushite Pharaoh

Researchers in Egypt have identified that King Tut is paternally related to a "mystery mummy" from Tomb KV55. This mummy is believed to be Akhenaten who Dr. Hawass, the head of the Egyptian Antiquities Department, believes was King Tut's father.

So far, we have lots of speculation. We don't know the identity of the Mummy buried in Tomb 55.  Originally the body was believed to be that of a woman. Then it was decided that it was the body of a young man. The question of who is buried in Tomb 55 is still open.

It is interesting that the report doesn't say whether Tut's DNA aligned with Amenhotep III's DNA.

The scientists working on this project compared the Y chromosome samples of Amenhotep III and the Mystery Mummy using DNA finger printing. They found that the panels aligned perfectly. So it is clear that Amenhotep III and Mystery Mummy have a common paternal ancestor, but it doesn't mean that the Mystery Mummy is King Tut's father, nor does it identify the mummy from Tomb KV55 as Akhenaten.

Tomb KV55 near Luxor
The 4th Nome of Upper Egypt

Amenhotep III was the father of Akhenaten the Younger who was named by Amenhotep's cousin wife after her father. This means that Akhenaten the Younger ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named.

So, what does this DNA study prove?  It proves that Amenhotep III and the mummy in Tomb 55 had a common male ancestor; not surprising since intermarriage between patrilineal lines was a characteristic of the Kushites rulers. It does not prove that the Mystery Mummy was King Tut's father.

A more interesting study would involve comparing mitochrondrial samples since these are received from our mothers. This would be a way to discover the relationship of King Tut to Mystery Mummy. If the mitchondrial samples align we know that Tut's mother and Mystery Mummy had the same mother. This would prove that Tut was the nephew of Mystery Mummy. However, it doesn't prove that Tut was the grandson of Amenhotep III.

Among the Kushite rulers it was the firstborn son of the sister-wife who ascended to the throne of his biological father. The firstborn sons of cousin wives ascended to the thrones of their maternal grandfathers, after whom they were named.

Related Reading:  King Tut and the Dispersion of R1b; Who Were the Kushites?; Who Were the Horites?; The Kushite Marriage Pattern Drove Kushite Expansion; The Afro-Asiatic Dominion; The Empire of Amenhotep III

Their Royal Marriage Pattern Drove the Kushite Expansion

Alice C. Linsley

In reference to an earlier essay on the Kushite migration out of Africa, Maximus asked, "Did the city of Mohenjo Daro belong to the Kushite Sudras? Are Dravidians the indigenous peoples of the Indian subcontinent?"

Answering that question is difficult because there is still much to discover about the Dravidians. However, it does appear that they had a dark skin tone and that their language and religious practices resemble some peoples of the Nilotic Sudan. They appear to be part of the ethnically complex Afro-Asiatic Dominion that extended from central Africa to the Nile to Mesopotamia and southern Pakistan and India.

The Dravidians are associated with the Sudra, a word that means black and is also the name of the Sudan, which was part of ancient Kush. Mohenjo Daro is one of about six identified settlements in southern Pakistan that share a cultural pattern that is essentially Kushite and specifically Horite. The temples and shrines of the region reflect the religion of Horus. Har-appa means "Horus is father" in Dravidian. Appa is the Dravidian word for father. Perhaps the Dravidians originated in the Nile region or perhaps there were Horite priests living among them. There were O-piru/'Apiru living among them. They are also known in ancient texts as Hapiru or Habiru (Hebrew). The Akkadian word for the Hebrew caste was Abrutu. They were devotees of the High God and his son Horus, and their religion took the sun as the emblem of the Creator.

The book of Genesis indicates that the Kushites, and the early Hebrew ruler-priest caste moved "eastward" out of the Nile Valley. They settled in Mesopotamia and Central Asia. They brought their religious practices with them. Kushite rulers, such as Nimrod and their priests spread a common religion from ancient Kush/Nubia to southern India and beyond. Horite Hebrew religious practices are found in Cambodia, as evidenced from this stone relief at Anghor Wat which shows the solar boat of Re with Horus flying as a falcon above the sun. The etiology of Anghor Wat is also telling. Wat means village, town, settlement or shrine. Anghor is ankh-Hor which means something like "Long live Horus!"

Ra's solar boat with Horus perched as falcon upon the mast
Image found at Anghor Wat

The Nilotic or Kushitic religious life spread through the agency of ruler-priests who controlled water systems at a time when the Sahara, Mesopotamia, southern Pakistan and southern India were wetter. These ruler-priests, called Horites in the Bible, were devotees of Horus, who was called "son of Ra." Both Horus and Ra are represented by the swelling of the sun. The Arabic yakburu means “he is getting big” and with the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru means "he is enlarging." This is a reference to the morning ritual of Horite priests who greeted the rising sun with prayers and watched as it expanded across the horizon.

The Egyptians called the temple priestly attendants ‘pr.w, the w being the plural suffix. This has been rendered '*wap'er' by the Afro-Asiatic linguist Christopher Ehret. The *wap'er had significant political authority alongside the ruler. He presided over the rituals directed toward the High God and acted as the intercessor and prophet.

The Dravidian east-facing temple was termed O-piru, meaning "Sun House." Sar-gon the Great is said to have been the son of a virgin queen who was born in an O-piru. His home city was called Azu-piranu, meaning House of God (Azu). (Azu in Akkadian, Asa in Chadic, Asha in Kushitic, Ashai in Hebrew; a Jerusalem priest was named Am-ashai in Neh. 11:13).


Kushite expansion out of Africa

The Kushite diffusion across the Levant, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Central Asia and beyond has been documented by independent research in various fields including genetics, migration studies, linguistics, archaeology and anthropology. The Kushite conquest of the Sumerian city-states is well-documented in ancient Near Eastern Studies.

Sargon the Elder conquered Nippur in 2340 B.C. and established his capital in Akkad. His grandson was Sargon the Great, who some believe may ne Nimrod of Genesis 10. Sar-gon is a title meaning High King or King of Kings. The Elamite word for king is sunki, a cognate of the Hahm/Hamitic sarki, meaning king. The Sumerian word for king is sar/śarrum and the Chadic word for ruler is gon. In ancient Akkadian  śar-ru-dan means “the king is powerful”.

Nim-rod is his Egyptian name that was borrowed from the Kushites. Nim-lot was governor of Nekhen. He controlled Middle Egypt and the nomes of Upper Egypt. Nekhen, in modern Sudan, is the earliest known site of Horus worship.

The late Dr. Catherine Acholonu reports that in Nigerian lore Nimrod is known as Sharru-Kin which is interpreted to mean “the righteous King.” Nimrod's Akkadian name was Šarru-kīnu, which is usually translated “the true king.”

Many of the place names of Sar-gon’s kingdom match places names in ancient Kush.  For example, Accad is Agade, which is the original name of a river settlement in Odukpani, Nigeria. (Its geographical coordinates are 5° 29' 0" North, 7° 58' 0" East.) The name Akkad is also related to the name Agades, a city in Niger which is famous for metalwork. Sargon’s territory was called Kish, which is Kush. One of the cities of his territory was Mari which is the Egyptian word for Mary. Another was Yar-muti (Old Arabic) which means Obedient (muti) Friend (yar). A seventh century Assyrian text says that his city on the bank of the Euphrates was called Azu-piranu. It was a Horite shrine as evidenced by the word piranu, related to O-piru. Azu is a variant of the East African name for God - Asa. Azu-piranu means “House of God” and is equivalent to the Hebrew word Bethel.

The Kushites were kingdom builders who moved out of Africa. As the younger son of Kush, Nimrod was probably the "sent away" son, as were Cain (Kahn - king), Abraham, Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. Sent-away sons moved away from their fathers and established new territories. They did so with their fathers' blessing and gifts. By building a kingdom they brought honor to their fathers and extended their influence.

Abraham gave gifts to all his sons and sent them away from Isaac who inherited Abraham's territory. Likewise, Kush gave gifts to Nimrod and sent him away from his older brother Ramah whose territory was in northern Arabia. As with all sent-away sons found in the Bible, there was struggle and hardship, but ultimately these sons prospered. Nimrod’s territory was even greater than his brother’s. It extended the length of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, and within this territory there were three principal cities: Babel, Erech and Akkad (Gen.10:10). The script used to communicate across Nimrod’s empire was “Akkadian” and it represents sounds that are found in the Nilo-Saharan languages.

Diffusion of the Horite belief system was driven by four historically identified factors: Kushite migration out of Africa, commerce, conquests, and marriage alliances between the Horite ruler-priests. The Kushite migration out of Africa has been well documented. Commerce between the Horn of Africa, Arabia and Central Asia in the second and third millennia B.C. has also been well documented. Sar-gon's conquests of the Sumerian city-states have been well documented.

My research into the genealogical material in Genesis involves analysis of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew kinship pattern whereby the rulers had two wives and at least two concubines. The first wife was a half-sister and the second wife was a patrilineal cousin or niece. The marriages of firstborn sons contributed to the diffusion of Horite religion. The firstborn son of the half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. The firstborn son of the patrilineal cousin bride ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather. Other sons were given gifts of servants, jewelry, flocks, herds and skilled craftsmen and sent away. The importance of this marriage and ascendancy pattern as a driving factor in Kushite expansion should not be overlooked.

Related reading: The Kushite Origins of Sumer and Elam; The Saharan Origins of the Pharaohs; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Sub-Saharan DNA of Modern Jews; Who Were the Horites?; Genesis on the Ancient Kingdom Builders; The Myth of Israel's Dual Origins; Afro-Asiatic Metalworkers; "History in Africa" by Dr. Christopher Ehret; Ashkenazi Represent Judeo-Khazar Admixture; The Nubian Context of YHWH

Moses's Horite Hebrew Family

Serpent in shape of the sun, an archaic symbol of the Creator among Moses's Horite Hebrew people. Did his rod look like this bishop's crozier?

Alice C. Linsley

The Horite Hebrew were part of the larger archaic Kushite civilization that extended from Lake Chad to India and from southern Arabia to ancient Bactria and Anatolia. The Kushite territories are called Kush and Kish, and included the Upper Nile Valley and archaic settlements of the Kushan.

Beginning in Nubia about 10,000 years ago, the Kushites spread into the interior of Africa along the Shari and the Benue rivers, establishing kingdoms and chieftains as far at Lagos in Nigeria and into the southern Kordafan. They also went west. The Ashante of Ghana were Kushites. Nte means "people of" and Asha is a proper name. The Ashante are the people of Asha, a Kushite ruler who established a kingdom in West Africa. Asha is also an ancient name for their God.

Variant spellings of Asha include Ashai, Asi and Asa. It is a priestly name in the Bible. One of Jesse's grandsons was named Asahel, which means "made by God." The priest Elkanah had a son named Am-asi (I Chron. 2:25, 35), and a Jerusalem priest was named Am-ashai (Neh. 11:13). This suggests that the priesthood of Israel is linked to the Horite Hebrew who Jews claim as their ancestors. They call these ancestors "Horim," which is rendered Horite in English Bibles.

The Horites Hebrew originated in the NIle Valley, ancient Kush so Moses's marriage to a Kushite woman was consistent with the endogamous marriage pattern of the Horite Hebrew rulers. His second wife, Zipporah, was a cousin. She was the daughter of the priest of Midian. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham by his cousin wife, Keturah.

Abraham and his people were Horite Hebrew (Abru/Habiru), a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of the Creator and his son "Horus of the Two Crowns." The Horite conception of the priesthood is the antecedent of the Jewish and Christian conceptions of the sacrificing priesthood. The Horite worldview is distinctly Nilotic, though the Horites spread across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion in the service of the kingdom building "mighty men of old." 

The men named in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36 are Horite Hebrew rulers. As has been the custom among royal families, these biblical rulers married within their ruler-priest clans (endogamy). Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of these rulers indicates that two wives. The first wife was a half-sister and the second was a patrilineal cousin. There are numerous examples of this pattern in Genesis and Exodus. This is the pattern of Abraham's family, Moses’s family, and Samuel's family, suggesting continuity of the practice over a very long period.

Moses’s Family

Amram, Moses's father, had two wives, following the pattern of his Horite Hebrew forefathers. By Jochebed he had Moses, Aaron and presumably Miriam. Exodus 6:20 indicates that Jochebed was probably his patrilineal cousin, that is the daughter of his paternal uncle. The Hebrew דדתו dodatho in Exodus 6:20 is sometimes translated "his father's sister." That is how they perceived the relationship, since father could also be the father's brother, and sister could also apply to a patrilineal cousin. Anthropologically, dodatho is more accurately defined as a "patrilineal cousin."

In 1 Samuel 10:14 and Leviticus 10:4, דוד dod signifies an uncle. It can also signify an uncle's son: compare Jeremiah 32:8 with Exodus 6:12, where the Vulgate renders דדי dodi as patruelis mei, my paternal cousin. In Amos 6:10, for דודו dodo, the Targum has קריביה karibiah, meaning a near relation. The evidence supports the view that Jochebed was Amram's patrilineal cousin, and not his aunt. Her name is sometimes spelled Jacquebeth which refers to a homeland in Africa, probably ancient Kush. She was Amram's first wife and also a Kushite bride.

Amram's second wife was Ishar/Izhar (Is-Har/Horus). Her name is related to Isis and Hathor, the mother of Horus who was called "son of God" in the ancient Coffin Texts and Pyramid Texts. Korah son of Izhar, is mentioned in Numbers 16:1. It is generally held that Ishar is a male, but the name indicates a female as it is related to the Hebrew isha, meaning "woman." Other females are listed as clan chiefs in the Old Testament. An example is Anah in Genesis 36 (shown on the diagram below).

Ishar was a descendant of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36). By Ishar, Moses had Korah the Younger (Numbers 26:59). Korah the Younger opposed Moses' authority in the wilderness. Korah's claim to be the rightful ruler was supported by the Hanochites (descendants of Hanock, the first-born son of Jacob's first-born son, Reuben). As the first-born son of the cousin bride Korah was to rule in the territory of his maternal grandfather. That territory was in the region of Edom, Abraham's territory.

“Korah” means shaved head, a custom for priests preparing for their terms of service in the temples. (See Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2007, p.37.)

Amram's cousin wife is Ishar, a Horite Hebrew bride. Isaac's son Esau also married a Horite Hebrew bride, Oholibamah (meaning "most high tabernacle"). Since ethnicity was traced through the mother, it is evident that Moses' half brother Korah was also Horite. Here is a diagram of the pertinent segment of Seir's genealogy from Genesis 36:

Moses and his family were ethically Kushite and were Horite Hebrew who practiced endogamy. (For more on the "The Social Structure of the Biblical Hebrew" see the 7-part series, beginning here.


The Pattern of Two Wives

Following the custom of his Horite Hebrew ancestors, Moses had two wives. The first wife would have been a half-sister, the wife of Moses' youth. It is likely that he married her while in Egypt. She is said to be Kushite (Numbers 12) and for some reason Moses' siblings didn't approve of the marriage, although the marriage was likely arranged by Amram.

Criticism of Moses's marriage to the first wife appears to be based on political objections. This marriage appears to have positioned Moses to become the chief of the clans.

“When they were in Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Kushite woman he had married: “He married a Kushite woman!” They said, “Has the Lord God spoken only through Moses? Has God not spoken through us as well?” (Numbers 11:35-12:2)

The name of "Kushite wife" is not found in the Bible, but she would have been a woman of high rank, a member of the upper classes in Egypt. If Moses married according to the Horite Hebrew custom, she would have been his half-sister. That would make her the sister of Korah. Moses may have had children by his first wife when he fled to Midian. In Midian he contacted Yetro (Jethro), a patrilineal uncle Jethro and it was arranged for Moses to marry Zipporah, his patrilineal cousin bride.

Zipporah is mentioned in Exodus 2:15-16 and Exodus 18:1-6. Moses met her while she at a well where she was drawing water for her father’s flocks. Many of the brides of Genesis and Exodus were met at wells. Priests, like Jethro, maintained shrines near wells, springs, or other permanent bodies of water. Zipporah was one of Jethro's daughters. He was the "priest of Midian."

Moses’s siblings may have been angry that he asserted authority over them by marrying Korah's sister and then marrying a Midianite wife. His marriage to Korah's sister strengthened the alliance with the Kushites in Egypt and his marriage to Zipporah strengthened the alliance with the Horite Hebrew of Midian. This led to a powerful alliance of clans related by blood and marriage, and it strengthened Moses's position as ruler.


Related reading: Moses's Wives and Brothers; Samuel's Horite Family; Hebrew, Israelite or Jew?; Who were the Horites?; Who Were the Kushites?; Jesus Christ's Kushite Ancestors; The Serpent of Moses's Staff