The Exodus Narrative from a Different Angle

 

Alice C. Linsley

Analysis of the kinship pattern of Moses’ family reveals that Moses was Horite Hebrew. The Horites and the Sethites constituted the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. The Hebrew married only within their caste (endogamy) which explains why so many of the people in the Hebrew Scriptures are related by marriage or have common ancestry.

The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is Nekhen on the Nile (4200 BC). This settlement predates the building of the Great Pyramids at Giza and the step pyramid of King Djoser (Third Dynasty). The oldest known tomb, with painted mural on its plaster walls, is located in Nekhen and dates to c. 3500–3200 BC.

The Horite mounds and the Sethite mounds were sacred Hebrew settlements along the Nile. Though separate groups or moieties, they shared common religious practices and beliefs, and they worshiped the same God and served the same king.

It is clear in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2400-2000 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."

This diagram shows the relationship between Moses and Seir, the Horite Hebrew ruler mentioned in Genesis 36.

Moses was a sent-away son

As the son of Amram's cousin bride, Moses was not Amram's proper heir. Analysis of the social structure of the early Hebrew suggests that Moses was sent to live for a time with his maternal uncle Jethro in Midian (avuncular residence). That is the same pattern exhibited by Jacob who was sent away to live for a time with his maternal uncle Laban. In both cases, these sent-away sons struck out to establish territories of their own. That is one way to think of the "Exodus", except Moses didn't live to rule over a territory of his own.

Keep in mind also, that the biblical narrative of the Exodus is the story of only one Hebrew clan, the clan of Jacob who was called Israel. There were many other Hebrew clans and some of them were living in Canaan. The Hebrew had dispersed widely before the time of Abraham. They had already settled in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and other regions of the Ancient Near East.

Exodus 17:12 describes an event that connects Moses to an earlier Horite ruler. "But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun". 

King Hor (c. 1800 B.C.)

About 300 years before the time of Moses, there was a Horite king whose statue shows him with up-raised arms over his head. From predynastic times, this ka/kah (K3) symbol indicated divine authority, potency, and the sustaining power of the Spirit.

Related reading: Amram's Children; Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles; Horite and Sethite Mounds

Amram's Children

Alice C. Linsley

Amram fathered at least three sons and a daughter by two wives. The daughter was named Miriam/Miryam. The name is related to the Egyptian word for love - mer. The Anglicized form is Mary. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 69b; Sotah 11b) states that Miriam married Caleb and their son was called Hur, a Horite Hebrew name. Caleb and Hur are related to the Horite Hebrew of Bethlehem. Hur is called the "father of Bethlehem" in I Chronicles 4:4.

As Amram had two wives, Miriam was probably not his only daughter. One daughter born to his cousin wife Ishara might have been called Shelomith. However, 1 Chronicles 23:18 says that Shelomith was Ishara's first son. The name is problematic because there are eight people by that name in the Old Testament, 5 men and 3 females.

This two-wife marriage custom is typical of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priests. We find the custom with Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4), Terah, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Amram, Moses, Caleb, Ashur, Joash, and Elkanah.

Many Horite Hebrew rulers had two wives. Abraham's were Sarah and Keturah. Amram's wives were Jochebed and Ishara. Moses married a "Kushite" bride (his half-sister) and a Midianite bride, Zipporah (his patrilineal cousin). Samuel's father Elkanah married Penninah and Hannah.

The evidence of kinship analysis indicates that Jochebed was Amram's half-sister, not "his father's sister" as claimed by some on the basis on Exodus 6:20, Numbers 3:19). Cousin in Hebrew is בן דוד (ben-dod) for men and בת דודה (baht-doh-dah) for women. Anthropologically, dodatho and dohdah may refer to a close "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. 

It appears that Jochebed was the mother of Aaron, Miriam, and Moses, and that Aaron was the oldest of the three. It is also possible that Jochebed and Amram were half-siblings. They may have had the same father, but different mothers. This is true for Abraham and Sarah. Their father was Terah, but they had different mothers.

Amram's second wife was Ishara, the daughter of Korah the Elder. Her first-born son was named Korah, after her father, following the early Hebrew practice of the cousin bride naming her first born son after her father. Korah the Younger belonged to the household of Korah the Elder, not to the household of his biological father. This is typical of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew.

It appears that all Amram's children were born in Egypt. They were Horite Hebrew, a caste of priests dedicated to God Father and God's son called Horus (from ancient Egyptian HR, meaning Most High or Hidden One). Some of the Horite Hebrew rulers are listed in Genesis 36. They are associated with the high places in Edom. Horite high places were found in many regions of the ancient world. In the Pyramid Texts (2613-2181 BC) these elevated shrines and temples are called "Horite mounds."

Amram's means "the people are exalted"or "exalted among the people." This refers to Amram's high status and the high regard in the ancient world for the Horite Hebrew priests. They were known for their strict devotion to the High God and his son, and for their purity and sobriety. Herodotus observed II:37:

"They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard to this they have customs as follows: they drink from cups of bronze and rinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they wear garments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a special point of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake of cleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely. The priests shave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice or any other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister to the gods; and the priests wear garments of linen only and sandals of papyrus, and any other garment they may not take nor other sandals; these wash themselves in cold water twice in the day and twice again in the night; and other religious services they perform (one may almost say) of infinite number."

Likewise, Plutarch noted that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis [biblical On] 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.”

Amram's father was Kohath. He also was a priest. One of Amram's sons has the priestly name of Korah. "Korah" refers to a priest who shaves his body as part of a cleansing ritual in preparation for his time of service in the temple or shrine. Korah, a son of Ishar/Izhar, is mentioned in Numbers 16:1.

Jews pose Aaron as the founder of the Jewish priesthood, but the roots of the Hebrew priesthood are found much earlier. They are found in ancient Egypt and in Edom. In fact, Aaron was buried in Edom, one of the territories ruled by the Horite Hebrew.

Aaron's Tomb on the summit of Mount Harun in ancient Edom.

(Photo credit: Ferrell Jenkins)

Related reading: The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of the Horite Hebrew; The Social Structure of the Horite Hebrew; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Two Named Esau; Horite Mounds