Britain's Connection to the Messianic Faith of the Early Hebrew

An angelic being holds the Shen sign representing eternal life over the deceased king.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley


In my first presentation I spoke about the presence of Anglo-Celtic priests in Britain at least as early as 46 A.D., well before Augustine’s 596 arrival to establish a Roman mission in Britain. The planting of the priesthood in England appears to have been the work of members of the Sanhedrin who were followers of Jesus Christ. Joseph Arimathea is a prime example. With this in mind, we should not be surprised that the ordination rules for Anglicans align closely with the Sanhedrin’s ordination rules.

Ossuary of Miriam, granddaughter of the High Priest Joseph Caiaphas.

 

Last week we explored the early Hebrew beliefs concerning the Son of God and their solar symbolism. The 6-prong solar symbol (shown above) that appeared on grave markers and ossuaries indicated hope for life after death. That symbol appeared on the bone boxes of Jewish rulers, including Joseph Caiaphas, the High Priest who condemned Jesus. 

Dispersion of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b. 

Note the dark spot in the area of Lake Chad, Noah's homeland.

We also considered the DNA evidence for the wide dispersal of the early Hebrew across the Ancient Near East, parts of Europe, and especially Britain, where an estimated 70% of native British men share the same 20,000-year genetic heritage as the early Hebrew, Haplogroup R1b. (See map above.)

Coincidentally, these regions are where we find the distinctive 6-prong solar symbol.

In this presentation I hope to tie these threads together so that we may appreciate the deep roots of our Faith. Indeed, the Messianic Faith that we call “Christianity” is older than all other world religions by thousands of years.

Today we will consider what Genesis tells us about the dispersal of the early Hebrew and look at some of the earliest known Hebrew prayers that speak of their expectation that a Righteous Ruler would overcome death and lead them to immortality. Finally, we will look at the account of Abraham on Mount Moriah to better understand the nature of justification.

Let’s begin with a timeline. The oldest known site of Hebrew worship at Nekhen on the Nile dates to c. 4000 B.C. The oldest known Hebrew texts date to around the same time (4200-4000 B.C.). Abraham lived around 2000 B.C., which means that he had many Hebrew ancestors from whom he received a sacred tradition concerning a ruler-priest of his Hebrew caste who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality. Many of those Hebrew ancestors lived in the Nile Valley and were part of a very advanced ancient civilization.

The names above Asshur and Arpachsad are found in Genesis 10 and the names from Arpachsad and Asshur the Younger to Abraham are found in Genesis 11.

 

Genesis chapter 10 explains that Nimrod was a son of Cush. Cush represents the Nile Valley. Nimrod left the Nile Valley and began to build cities in the land of Shinar in Southern Mesopotamia. He married a daughter of Asshur, a Hebrew ruler in Mesopotamia. She was probably Nimrod’s cousin as suggested by the fact that she named her firstborn son after her father Asshur, a prerogative of the Hebrew cousin brides. The cousin bride’s naming prerogative is a distinctive feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the early Hebrew. We find it earlier in the “begats” of Genesis 4 and 5.

The names Adah, Zillah, and Lamech the Elder appear in Genesis 4. The names Methuselah and Lamech the Younger, his firstborn son by his cousin bride Naamah, appear in Genesis 5.

Horus Names Among the Early Hebrew

Note the royal name Ar-Pacshad (Arpaxad). The "Ar" is likely a shortened Horus name as is suggested by the Nabataean King Harithath IV who bears the Horus name. In 2 Corinthians 11:32 King Harithath is called King Aretas. Horus is the later Greek word for the earlier Proto-Egyptian HR which means “Most High One”. In the ancient world, HR was regarded as the patron of kings.

Note that Abraham was a descendant of both Ham and Shem because their lines intermarried. This is an example of caste endogamy. The Hebrew were a caste of ruler-priests. They were organized into 2 ritual groups (moieties): the Horite Hebrew and the Sethite Hebrew. Some Horite Hebrew chiefs are listed in Genesis 36.

A great deal is known about both groups from texts and prayers that they wrote on the walls of royal tombs in the Nile Valley. Those have been translated and collected in a volume titled “Ancient Pyramid Texts”. Some of the prayers date as early as 6200 years ago. Most date to around 4000 years ago, the time of Abraham.

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

Though separate groups or moieties, the Horite and Sethite Hebrew shared common religious practices and beliefs. They worshiped the same God whose symbol was the Sun, and they served the same king. However, the Horite temples and shrines were more prestigious. Utterance 470 strikes a contrast between the Horite and Sethite mounds and designates the Horite mounds as "the High Mounds."

Figurine of Seth found at Nekhen.

 

The totems of the Sethites and Horites have been found at Nekhen on the Nile, the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship (c.4000 B.C.). This figurine of Seth as a red-brown man with the head of a hippo was there. The hippo was the totem of the Sethite Hebrew, and the golden falcon was the totem of the Horite Hebrew.

A gold figure of Horus as a falcon was found at Nekhen. 

Among the early Hebrew green malachite was associated with HR and represented new life and the hope of resurrection. The Egyptian Book of the Dead speaks of how the deceased will become a falcon "whose wings are of green stone" (chapter 77). The Ancient Pyramid Texts speak of Horus as the "Lord of the green stone" (Utterance 301) and the land of the blessed dead is described as the "field of malachite." The prayers of the Nilotic Hebrew are the earliest known resurrection texts.

Note that these prayers are written in hope that the buried king might rise to new life. In his resurrection body he is to restore his settlements and cities, and open the door to the Westerners, Easterners, Northerners and Southerners (Utterance 587). He is to rule over the peoples, restore the former state of blessedness, and unite heaven and earth. The Messianic expectation found in Genesis 3:15 was expressed in Utterance 388 of The Pyramid Texts: "Horus has shattered the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot". In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, HR is called the "advocate of his father" (cf. 1 John 2: 1, "If anyone sin, we have an advocate with the Father...).

When seen from this perspective, the faith of the early Hebrew appears to be the foundation of the Messianic hope that is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, a direct descendant of the Hebrew ruler-priests.

The New Testament speaks about Jesus as the firstborn from the grave and by his resurrection He delivers to the Father a "peculiar people." He leads us to the Father where we receive heavenly recognition because we belong to Him. Here we find the language of a royal procession such as this: "When He ascended on high, He led captives in his train, and gave gifts to men.” Paul continues in Ephesians 4:8-10 - "What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the depths of the earth? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe."

A Horite Hebrew song found at the royal complex at Ugarit speaks of HR’s descent to the place of the dead "to announce good tidings." The text reads: Hr ešeni timerri duri - "below in the dark netherworld" and has the Hittite phrase Šanizzin ḫalukan ḫalzi - "to announce good tidings". (See Note 2 on page 2012.)

The early Hebrew expected the Righteous Ruler to rise on the third day. Utterance 667 says: "Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the imperishable stars."

Heavenly recognition for the early Hebrew was never an individual prospect. Heavenly recognition came to the people through the righteousness of the ruler-priest. Some early Hebrew rulers took this seriously and the worst were so earthy minded that they shed much blood enlarging their territories. All failed to be the Ruler-Priest who rose from the dead. None had the power to deliver captives from the grave and to lead them to the Father in heaven (Ps. 68:18; Ps. 7:7; Eph. 4:8). That would be fulfilled by Jesus, the Son of God, and this was revealed to Abraham on Mount Moriah.

Among the early Hebrew, the Son of God was pictured as rising with the sun as a lamb and setting in the west as a ram. As they ascended Mount Moriah, Isaac asked his father "where is the lamb" for the sacrifice? Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb, but God provided a ram instead.

Among the early Hebrew, the Son of God was shown riding with the Father on the celestial Sun boat. The boat of the morning hours was called Mandjet and the boat of the evening hours was called Mesektet. While the Son was on the Mandjet, he was depicted as a lamb. While on the Mesektet, he was a ram. Abraham would have understood the message of the ram provided by God on Mount Moriah, and he believed the promise, and believing, he was justified. We if don’t get hung up on chronological time, which does not pertain to God, we will see that the ground for justification is the same for all people throughout all human existence. Glory to God!

The Son of God was called the “Lamb” in his weaker (kenotic) state, and he was called the “Ram” in his glorified state. The solar arc spoke of the Son’s death and resurrection. This is what Jesus meant when he told the Jews, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad." (John 8:56)


Related reading: The Ram of God has been Provided; The Hebrew Were a Caste; The Oldest Known Religion; What Abraham Discovered on Mt. Moriah; Solar Symbolism of the Ancient Near East; Funerary Rites and the Hope of Resurrection; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; The Religious Symbolism of Green Malachite

Response to Cory Byrum’s Article on the Unity of Christ’s Body

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

In researching how priests were ordained in the time of Jesus Christ, I found that the rule set down by the Sanhedrin required three ruler-priests to give consent, but only one was required to be physically present for the laying on of hands. The other two could give consent in writing.

As far as we know, none of the Apostles were priests. Therefore, they were not qualified to ordain priests according to the ordination practice that they knew.

Instead, their ministry was evangelistic and pastoral. They bore witness to the long-awaited Son of God, the Messiah. This idea was developed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who wrote: 

“Of great importance for our question is the fact that Jesus gave His power to the Apostles in such a way that He made their ministry, as it were, a continuation of His own mission. 'He who receives you receives me'. He Himself says to the Twelve (Mt 10:40; cf. Lk 10:16; Jn 13:10). Many other texts in which Jesus gives His power to the disciples could here be cited: Mt 9:8: 10:1: 21:23; Mk 0:7: 13:34; Lk 4:6: 9:1; 10:19. The continuity between the mission of Jesus and that of the apostles is once again illustrated with great clarity in the Fourth Gospel: 'As the Father has sent me. even so I send you'. (On the Nature of the Priesthood 20:21)

Certainly, the Apostles commissioned missionaries, elders, and deacons by the imposition of hands. Some of those elders served as Eucharistic ministers. None is described in the New Testament as offering blood sacrifice. We may say that the need for sacrificing priests no longer existed since Christ’s blood sacrifice fulfilled all the Law. That very fact tells us that there is continuity between the Old and the New as much as there is distinction between them.

There certainly is continuity in the requirement of three to consent to ordination. The Apostolic Canons of the Eastern Orthodox require that the consecration of a bishop must be accomplished by at least three. The same applies to episcopal consecrations in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. There is a precedent for this in history. In the Sanhedrin ordination was conferred by a court of three.

Members of the Sanhedrin served under the presidency of the high priest much as priests today serve under the presidency of their bishop. The high priest bore the title nasi (ruler, king, prince) and retained this title even after the presidency was transferred to other hands. Similarly, in Anglican orders a bishop remains a bishop even after he has stepped down from serving in that office.

The doctrine of Apostolic Succession received from Rome remains problematic since none of the Apostles were priests. Apostolic succession addresses who has authority over the flock, but it does not shed light on the continuity of the rules for ordination to the priesthood.

However, when we come to ancient Britain, we find a priest among Jesus followers who was qualified to ordain according to the Sanhedrin rule: Joseph of Arimathea. After we remove the embellishments of the Middle Ages we are left with this picture: Joseph was in southern Britain where he consulted as a mining expert. He is said to have visited the Ding Dong mine in Cornwall. (Lodes from that mine were worked well before the time of Abraham.) Mining experts also excavated cave tombs such as the one Joseph provided for our Lord’s repose. It is likely that Joseph saw the need for priests among the Messiah’s followers in Britain and that he ordained a few with the consent of two other members of the Sanhedrin. If this is so, the priesthood in England predates the papacy of Linus which began in A.D. 64.

The Roman narrative has dominated the conversation for so long that the deficiencies of the account are rarely questioned. The empowering of the Apostles cannot be understood as Jesus ordaining these men to the priesthood. This may explain why there is no documentation of the chain of succession during the very earliest days of the Church. There is documentation tracing the chain of consecration from the early 2nd century, but before that none. The Vatican acknowledges this fact. The 1973 International Theological Commission on Catholic Teaching on Apostolic Succession states:

“The absence of documents makes it difficult to say precisely how these transitions came about. By the end of the first century the situation was that the apostles or their closest helpers or eventually their successors directed the local colleges of episkopoi andpresbyteroi. By the beginning of the second century the figure of a single bishop who is the head of the communities appears very clearly in the letters of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who further claims that this institution is established "unto the ends of the earth".

During the second century and after the Letter of Clement this institution is explicitly acknowledged to carry with it the apostolic succession. Ordination with imposition of hands, already witnessed to in the pastoral Epistles, appears in the process of clarification to be an important step in preserving the apostolic Tradition and guaranteeing succession in the ministry. The documents of the third century (Tradition of Hippolytus) show that this conviction was arrived at peacefully and was considered to be a necessary institution.” (INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION, Catholic Teaching on Apostolic Succession, 1973)

Rome is in error when it claims to have brought Christianity to Britain. Father Louis R. Tarsitano expressed the truth when he wrote, "…it is a simple error of fact to claim that the Anglican Church 'began' in the Reformation, or even with the late 6th century mission of St. Augustine to evangelize the newly arrived Anglo-Saxon pagans. The bishops of a five-centuries-old Christian Church met Augustine on the beach.” (Of Forms and the Anglican Way)

The preamble of a 1421 letter by Abbot Nicholas Frome to Henry V asserted that Joseph of Arimathea and his companions were sent to England in A.D. 63 by St. Philip, who was on mission to Gaul (France). It was copied from materials found in William of Malmesbury’s interpolated De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie, but the date of 63 A.D. for the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea seems too late. Gildas's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae claims that Christianity was already in Britain by A.D. 47.

The followers of Jesus Christ are divided into so many groups that it is impossible to name them all. Many yearn for visible unity, at least between the sacramental bodies. Visible unity requires a common commitment to truth regardless the cost to any single institution. In my view, Anglicans should question the Roman conception of Apostolic Succession which has been fashioned for one purpose: to justify Rome's claim to universal authority. Instead, we should claim as a ground for unity the dignity and antiquity of our Anglican patrimony which demonstrates continuity between the priesthood of the Old Covenant and the priesthood of the New Covenant. 

Concerning the validity of Anglican orders, E. J. Bicknell wrote (1919), "The Roman arguments rest upon two great assumptions. First, that Rome is at all times infallible, and therefore her teaching at any time about the meaning of the priesthood must be accepted without question. Secondly, that Rome has a divine right to implicit and universal obedience, and therefore any change in the form of service without her consent shows a contumacious spirit. Neither of these assumptions can be granted, and without them the whole argument collapses."

The only ground for visible unity is power surrendered to Truth.

Related reading: Cory Byrum, "Even As We Are One": On the Unity of Christ's Body; Joseph of Arimathea, Was King Arthur a Descendant of Nilotic Rulers?; The Priesthood in England (Part 3); Two Visions of Apostolic Continuity

The Brentford Shard: Chi Rho or Solar Symbol?

The pottery shard was found in 1970 during excavations at Brentford High Street in London. The excavations discovered the route of the Roman road heading out from Londinium to the west of Britain. Volunteers at the Museum of London's Archaeological Archive decided that the symbol on the bottom is a monogram of chi (Χ) and rho (Ρ) - the first two letters of the Greek Khristos. That may be, as there were Celtic Christians and Hebrew Christians living throughout the Isles in Roman times. Joseph of Arimathea is an example. It is likely that the early Christians appropriated an archaic solar symbol to represent Jesus Christ.

There is no reason to doubt the historicity of Joseph Arimathea's connection to Cornwall in spite of the dubious legends from the Middle Ages. He was among those early followers of Jesus in Cornwall, where He had business as a metal tradesman and a mining expert. From the time of the earliest pharaohs mining and tomb construction were the work of ruler-priests. Joseph was likely engaged in both, even as he was responsible for the tomb where the Lord Jesus was laid to rest. As a high ranking priest of the Sanhedrin, he had authority to ordain priests. As a follower of Jesus Messiah, he is the key to understanding the continuity between the ancient priesthood of the Habiru/Hebrew and the priesthood of the Church.

If the symbol is a Chi-Rho, this isn't big news. Christians lived in Roman Britain. However, I have doubts that the mark is a Chi-Rho. The symbol more closely resembles the six-prong star found on archaic rock shelters dating to the oldest period of Vinča culture (6th-5th millennia BC).

The mark was found among the Hittites who buried great warriors in their chariots. It was found among the ancient peoples of Gaul, as shown on this anthropomorphic stele that dates to the late Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age. It was discovered during an archaeological excavation on the Rocher des Doms, Avignon.

The 6-prong solar symbol was one of the images found among the Celts of the northern Iberian Peninsula (northern Portugal, Galicia, western Asturias and north western León). It is seen here on these 9th century BC artefacts found at the archaic high places.

Threshing floors were sacred sites at "high places" where the wind could carry away the chaff. Araunah, a Jebusite ruler, sold David a threshing floor upon which David constructed an altar. The threshing floors also had a solar pattern, as is seen with the threshing floor below.

The 6-prong star or rosette symbol is a merkaba, or a solar chariot, associated with the Hebrew priests. It is found on the ossuaries of many of the priests and their family members. The symbol appeared on Jewish ossuaries, often inside a circle as shown on this 2000-year ossuary of Miriam, daughter of Yeshua.

The same image appears on this ossuary of Joseph Caiaphas, the high priest (shown below).

This was the solar chariot of the Creator, the merkaba, vehicle of Light to carry the dead to the place of rest from which they hoped to rise again. In the Ethiopian Church a replica of the Ark, called ta-bot, is decorated with this 6-pointed star inside a circle at the center of the ark. The very image appears in the grave chancel of St. Magnus in Kirkwall, Orkney.

This solar rosette is also found on this marker stone at Banias in Northern Israel (shown above). The mark is found on the Magdala Stone (shown below.)

When I asked Jodi Magness, who has been studying the iconography of early synagogues, about the solar imagery on the Magdala Stone, she responded that "at least 1-2 archaeologists have suggested that the imagery on it should be understood in connection with the idea of the divine chariot."

There is an ancient association of the merkaba with trees as shown on the Magdala Stone. This is a Messianic image. This 4th century Nativity image shows the Christ resting between two trees, a pine and an oak.

In Old Church Slavonic drievo refers to a tree or wood. The Serbian drvo is from the Proto-Indo-European drew-o, with the affix O being a solar symbol. The root deru- means to be firm or solid. The word druid is a compound of two words: drvo, dervo, derevo - tree in Slavic and vid, ved - to see, to know, to teach. In Old Irish the druid was a tree-seer. The word for "ancient, primeval" in Slavic languages is drevan. The word literally means as old as a tree.

Seers or judges sat under trees in the ancient world. Deborah sat under her tamar tree (Judges 4:4-6). A tamar is a date nut palm and was associated with the female principle. This was located between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim (a north-south axis). Genesis 12 that tells us that the moreh or prophet/seer consulted by Abraham sat under an oak between Bethel and Ai (an east-west axis). The oak was associated with the male principle. The oak leaf often appears on the tops of Serbian and Irish loaves, as shown below.

On this traditional Serbia cake the solar rosette is surrounded by oak leaves. The Giving God, sometimes called Hesus (the primitive Horus archetype) was crucified on an oak tree. The hope of his third-day resurrection was enacted by the sowing of grain in the fields. In antiquity, this annual ritual was overseen by Horite priests who led the people in procession to the fields, much as Anglican priests officiate at Rogation Day ceremonies.

The ancients Celts placed a similar mark on the tops of ceremonial bread loaves. The 6-prong rosette is found to this day on Irish Maslin bread (shown below).

Maslin bread is the oldest known bread eaten by the Celts. It was the bread of common folks, containing a blend of wheat and rye flours. The rosette is a solar symbol that speaks of the Creator whose emblem was the Sun. It spoke of hope of rising from the dead as the Sun rises each morning.

All this to say that even if the mark on the Brentford shard is a Chi-Rho, that symbol itself emerged from the solar imagery of the Proto-Gospel and reflects the dispersion of the R1b Horite Habiru priests throughout the ancient world. It appears that early Christians adapted an ancient solar symbol to represent Jesus Christ and it was very fitting that they should have done so.

Related Reading: The Priesthood in England, Conclusion; Threshing Floors and Solar Symbols; Brentford High Street Excavations; Was Constantine a Saka Ruler?; Hanged on a Tree