The Hebrew were a Caste

 

This smith in Niger performs a mock attack with bellows on the house of a man who attempted to do metal work, thus threatening the metal worker's job security. National Geographic, Aug. 1979 (p. 289)

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Castes are a strict social stratification that made it impossible to change one’s status in the ancient world. Castes were viewed as having been established by God in the beginning. This belief is expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, a first century A.D. Hindu text. Krishna declares that he has become incarnate, and that “The four castes were created by me.” In the Laws of Manu (ca. 250 B.C.) the castes are elaborated as the primeval divine creation. 

In the Rig Veda, dating to about 3000 years ago, four castes are mentioned. The most prestigious are the Brahmans (priestly and intellectual class); then the Kshatriyas (ruler and warrior class); then the Vaisyas (farmers and artisans) and the lowest caste are the Sudras (the “untouchables”). Many sub-castes exist under these, making it difficult to identify one’s equal or one superior.

Today castes are regarded as negative forms of social segregation and discrimination. However, in the ancient world the caste system protected each group's identity and provided job security. Only potters were allowed to make and sell pots. Only tanners were allowed to skin and sell hides. Only priests were allowed to perform sacred temple duties. The later temple guilds reflect the earlier caste organization.

Why the Hebrew are not named in the Table of Nations (Gen. 10)

It has been noted that the Hebrew are not listed among the peoples named in the Genesis 10 ethnography. The most obvious explanation is that the Hebrew were not an ethnic group, but rather a caste. The Table of Nations does not recognize any castes because it comes from a late source and a time when Jews were widely dispersed among the nations.

Some argue that the Hebrew are the descendants of Eber, but that is not the origin of the term Hebrew. The term comes from the ancient Akkadian word for priest - abru, and the Akkadian term for the caste was abrutu. These priests were dispersed in the service of the early kingdom builders such as Nimrod the Kushite.

The earliest Hebrew ruler-priests named in the Bible are listed in Genesis 4 and 5. These are the descendants of Cain and Seth, whose descendants intermarried (endogamy). This diagram shows that Lamech the Elder's daughter married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their first-born son Lamech after her father according to the cousin bride's naming prerogative. 

The Hebrew ruler-priests married two wives. The cousin bride was usually the second wife, and she often named her first-born son after her father. In the diagram we find Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4), father of Naamah, and Lamech the Younger (Gen.5), son of Naamah. The cousin bride’s naming prerogative makes it possible to trace descent through the maternal line in the Bible.

The Traits of a Caste

Anthropological study of the biblical Hebrew indicates that the early Hebrew were a caste. Their social structure is characterized by these traits of castes: endogamy, membership by birth, hierarchical status, inherited occupation, appearance such as shaved bodies, distinctive clothing, circumcision, and restraints on eating with persons outside the caste.

The term “commensality” refers to the positive social interactions that are associated with people eating together. Communal meals encourage conversation, increase familiarity, and can lead to closer social, familial, and marital relations.

Commensality is discouraged in castes for various reasons. The ancient Egyptian rulers observed restrictions on eating with those regarded as ritually impure (Gen. 43). The practice of not eating with Gentiles continues today among strict Orthodox Jews. The prohibition is meant to discourage social mingling that can lead to marriage outside the caste.

Exceptions were made in diplomatic relations. Hebrew rulers feasted with non-Hebrew rulers to formalize treaties and covenants. The feasts usually took place at sacred high places and were accompanied by animal sacrifice. Scholars have learned much about ancient treaties through the study of the Mari Tablets (Mesopotamia), the Pact of Esarhaddon (Assyrian), the Amarna Texts (Egyptian), and the Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty.

Some of these pacts are not between equals. Many represent covenants between high kings and vassals. That is the case with the covenant made by God in Genesis 15. It is the Lord God himself who passes between the animal halves while Abraham beholds this miraculous vision. The LORD reminds Abraham of all his faithfulness to him: "I am the Lord who brought you here from Ur.” (Gen. 15:7) “I am your Shield; your reward shall be very great." (Gen. 15:1)

 

The Antiquity of the Hebrew caste

The Hebrew are probably the oldest known caste. They served at shrines, temples, and mortuary sites at least 1000 years before the caste system of India emerged. The Nilotic Hebrew had a moiety system. The Horite and Sethite Hebrew maintained separate shrines and temples. They were one caste organized into two ritual groups.

During the pre-dynastic period and the Old Kingdom (ca. 2575-2130 BC) the Hebrew priests were organized in groups called "phyles." Each phyle served a two-week duration before returning home. The later organization of priests in Israel appears to have developed from the phyle system.

There were twenty-four divisions or “courses” of priests in Israel. These are listed in 1 Chronicles 24:7-18. Each course served in rotation twice a year for a duration of one week. The priests lived in Jerusalem and throughout the land of Israel. When it came time for the division to go up to Jerusalem, the priests left their homes and returned after their term of service. When not functioning as a priest, these individuals went about their normal routines, tending to their various occupations: stone masons, miners, tomb builders, carpenters, potters, tent makers, shepherds, goatherds, farmers, merchants, and smiths.

Two priestly divisions are of special interest: the eight division of Abijah, and the eighteenth division of Happizzez (1 Chron. 24:15). According to Luke 1:39, Abijah lived near Jerusalem in the "hill country” in a city of Judah. Zacharias, the father of John the Forerunner, belonged to the division of Abijah (Luke 1:5-7). Rabbinic literature claims that at age thirty, “John the Immerser” was commissioned as a priest to serve in the same division as his father.

The division of Happizzez was based in Nazareth. This was the division to which Joseph belonged. Joseph, the husband of Mary, was named for his ancestor Joseph, the son of Mattathias (Luke 3:24-25). Mary, the mother of Jesus, was Joseph’s cousin bride. She was of a priestly division also. Her father Joachim was a priest of Nazareth. He married Anna, the daughter of Matthan, a priest of Bethlehem. Matthan had three daughters: Mary, Zoia, and Anna. Mary and Zoia resided in Bethlehem. Zoia was the mother of Elizabeth, and the grandmother of John the Forerunner. Anna miraculously conceived in her old age and gave birth to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Matthan is related to the names Mattatha, Matthat, Mattathias, Mattaniah, Mattai, and Matthew. The name, with its variant spellings, appears five times in Luke’s list of Jesus’ ancestors (Luke 3:23-38). The name derives from the word for “gift.” Mattaniah means “gift of God” and is a name found among priests in I Chronicles 25:3-4. The name also may refer to the giving of wisdom which is “Maat” in ancient Egyptian. A priest named Maath is listed in Luke 3:26.

All these ancestors of Jesus were high-ranking individuals in their communities and heirs to the customs of their ruler-priest forebearers. The earliest of those ancestors are named in the king lists of Genesis 4 and 5. Their historicity has been demonstrated through kinship analysis.

Related reading: Abraham the Hebrew; Hebrew, Israelite, or Jew?; Hebrew Rulers With Two Wives; Horite and Sethite Mounds; Hebrew at Ancient Sun Cities

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

Moses the Horite Hebrew Priest

Alice C. Linsley


The Horite Hebrew were a caste of royal priests who served at the most prestigious shrines and temples of the ancient world. In some ancient texts they are called Abru (Akkadian), 'Apiru or Habiru, which is rendered "Hebrew" in English Bibles.

The term Horite takes many forms: Hor, Hur, Horonaim, Horoni, Horowitz, and Hori. Hori was the son of Lotan son of Seir whose descendants were the "lords of the Horites in the land of Seir" (Gen. 36:20-29 and 1 Chronicles 1:38-42). Lot, Lotan, and Nimlot are Egyptian titles. Nimlot C was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during the latter part of the reign of his father Osorkon II. Horite Hebrew does not refer to the ethnicity of the people, but to their caste.

A variant spelling of Horite is Horim, which is what Jews call their ancestors.

According to Strabo, Moses was educated at Heliopolis (Strabo, 17:1) as a priest under his personal name Osorsiph. This was the name given at birth and was preceded by the title "Son of Ra", written with the hieroglyph of a duck (za), a homonym for the word meaning "son" (za). With this hieroglyph there appears an image of the sun, the emblem of the Creator and his son.

Manetho reports that Moses was born at Heliopolis B.C. 1738 (Josephus, Ap. 1:26; 2:2). Heliopolis was a shrine of such great prestige that the great pyramids of Giza, Saqqara and Abusir were aligned to the obelisk of Heliopolis.

The Harris papyrus speaks of the 'apriu of Ra 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 (Heliopolis). This appears to be evidence of endogamy within the Hebrew clans.

The people who lived at On called it Iunu, which means "place of pillars." There were many pillars bearing inscriptions to the high king, prayers to the Creator and to his son. Some pillars depicted great victories in war, the details of treaties, and dedications. It was common for pillars to be inscribed in memory of righteous ancestors, as stained glass windows in churches are dedicated to "pillars" of the congregation. The entrance pillars of Solomon's temple were called Boaz and Joktan. Boaz was Solomon's holy ancestor on his father's side and Joktan was a holy ancestor on his mother's side.

The priests of Heliopolis were known for their meticulous devotion to the Creator (Ra/Ani) and his son (Horus/Enki), 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.”

The Habiru priest purified himself before he entered the temple. His purification involved fasting, abstinence from sexual relations and alcohol, ritual bathing, and an intense period of prayer. Korah, Moses' half-brother, also was a priest according to Numbers 16:17,18. His name means "shaved one." Habiru priests shaved their heads and bodies as part of the purification ritual (Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2007, p.37).

Heliopolis was conceived as the sacred center of the primeval ocean, called Nun. The many pillars of the temple symbolized the connection between the waters below and the waters above (Gen. 1:7). Numbers 11:28 says that Joshua was the "son of Nun" suggesting that he belonged to a Horite Hebrew clan associated with On.

The marriage pattern of the Horite Hebrew

As with other Horite Hebrew (Lamech, Terah, Abraham, Amram, Jacob, Elkanah), Moses had two wives. Moses' first wife may have been named Tharbis. She is designated a "Kushite" in Numbers 12:1. However, that is a general term that applied to many groups of Nilotes. His second wife was a cousin named Zipporah. Zipporah was the daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham by his cousin wife Keturah. Again, we have evidence of endogamy within the Hebrew clans.

Moses was a kinsman of the Horite Hebrew ruler, Seir (Gen. 36). Seir ruled over what had been Abraham's territory in ancient Edom (called "Idumea" by the Greeks). Amram's cousin wife, Ishar had a son named Korah (Numbers 26:59). That son was named after his maternal grandfather Korah the Elder.

Abraham's territory was in ancient Edom, or what the Greeks called Idumea, meaning "land of red people." It extended on a north-south axis between the settlements of his two wives. Sarah resided in Hebron and Keturah resided in Beersheba. His territory extended on an east-west axis between Ein-Gedi and Gerar. These places are shown on the map below.

Kings ruled in Edom long before there were any kings in Israel. "These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before a king ruled the children of Israel." (Gen. 36:1)

This brief sketch of Moses the Horite Hebrew priest is supported by the biblical data. A different view of Moses is found in the work of the Deuteronomist Historian who is responsible for the book of Exodus (written c. 600 BC).

Many of the incongruities surrounding the person of Moses are contextual; posing a contrast between the earlier context of the Horite Hebrew of Heliopolis and the latter context of the Deuteronomist whose narrative provides Israel with a revisionist history. 

In Exodus, God self-reveals on the "high places" or the tops of sacred mountains.Yet the Deuteronomist seeks the destruction of all high places, insisting that worship should be centralized at the Jerusalem temple. 

Rather than representing a priesthood that extends deep into antiquity, the Deuteronomist poses Moses as the founder of a new people and Aaron as the founder of the Jewish priesthood.

The Deuteronomist would have us believe that only priests living is Israel are the rightful heirs of the Messianic Faith of the Hebrew, yet Horite Hebrew priests had dispersed into Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon, and Crete long before the time of Moses.

The Deuteronomist stresses rejection of images that were regarded as sacred among the Horite Hebrew, in particular the solar symbolism of the Proto-Gospel. 

The Deuteronomist advocates exclusive devotion to the God called Yahweh (YHWH), though the Horite Hebrew knew God by many names: Ra, Ani, El, Yah, Adonai, El Elyon, etc.

The Deuteronomist requires strict obedience to Moses and THE prophet of YHWH and yet most of the religious laws attributed to Moses have a precedent in more ancient laws of the Nilotic priests among whom we find the practices of circumcision, animal sacrifice, and ritual purity before the time of Moses.

The Deuteronomist writes from the context of the Neo-Babylonian Period (700-300 BC), long after the time of Moses, and his perspective does not align well with the historical, archaeological, linguistic, and anthropological data concerning Moses and his Horite Hebrew ancestors.

Some interpreters believe that the disparate narratives reflect a conflict between priestly families. However, Moses's family is descended from Abraham's family and their marriage and ascendancy customs are exactly the same. Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Moses's family reveals the distinctive pattern of the Horite Hebrew ruler-priest caste. Moses is the half-brother of the ruler-priest Korah, a descendant of the Horite ruler, Seir of Edom, and the Horite Hebrew clans practiced endogamy. All are related in some way.

There is great continuity in Genesis and Exodus on the level of kinship patterns, and perhaps the greatest contribution of Biblical Anthropology (the science) is the identification of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew. The Messianic Faith began with them and they are the main source behind the Old and New Testaments. The continuity of the Bible exists thanks to their steadfast adherence to the sacred Tradition of their ancestors. They believed they had a responsibility to preserve that Tradition. As it says in Proverbs 8:33, "Listen to my instruction and become wise. Don't change the order."

Related reading: The Substance of Abraham's Faith, The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Sun Cities of the Ancient World; The Pattern of Two Wives; How the Deuteronomist Changes the Genesis Narrative; The Edomites and the Color Red; Moses's Wives and Brothers, Contextual Incongruities in Genesis; Aaron Was Buried in Edom

Intermarriage between the Dedanites and the Edomites

Alice C. Linsley

The oldest known name for the Creator in the Bible is El (ʾēl) which corresponds to the Proto-Semitic ʔ-L. The L likely was a symbol of a throne or chief’s seat and indicated power and authority. The Northwest Semitic ʾēl is cognate to the Proto-Arabic ʾIlāh and the Akkadian ilum. Akkadian was the language of Nimrod’s kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. Nimrod was a Kushite kingdom builder according to Genesis 10:8: “Kush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth.”

In Nigeria, the Hausa translation of the Bible uses Allah (Arabic: الله) to designate the Creator and the God and Father of Jesus Christ. Allah is also used in Syrian Bibles. As a designation for God, Allah corresponds to the archaic El in the Hebrew Bible, as Dios in Spanish corresponds to Dieu in French. The name was used among Arabian and Syrian peoples long before the time of Mohammad. Allah is the compressed expression of al-ilah, meaning THE God.

Among Abraham’s ancestors there were many names for the Creator. These included YHWH, Yah, El, and Ilum. Another ancient name for God is Ausa, sometimes spelled Asa.The Egyptian word Asa refers to God as father.  The Asante tribe bears this name. Asa-nte means "people of Asa." The word "Hausa" probably has a similar meaning: ha-Ausa, meaning "the people of Ausa."

The older names for God can be identified by their simple roots, such as L, or by their bi-consonantal forms, such as YH or LM. The more recent Arabic and Hebrew words can be identified by a shift to bi-consonantal forms (called bilaterals) and triliterals. There are also a small number of quadriliterals in Hebrew and Arabic.

Old Arabic, also known as Dedanite, is closer to the archaic stratum of the Semitic roots due to its relative isolation in the Arabian Peninsula. Most Bible commentaries explain that the terms Dedan and Dedanite are from ded'-a-nim/dedhan/dedhanim, meaning "low." This is an odd interpretation since the Dedanites were known to dwell in elevated rock shelters. Genesis 10:7 provides the more accurate explanation that the Afro-Arabian Dedanites are related to the Kushite ruler Dedan. The original context is Kushite. In this context the word Dedan refers to the color red and is cognate to the Egyptian didi (red fruit) and the Yoruba diden (red). The Dedanites, along with the ancient Edomites, were known to have a distinctive red skin tone, like Esau and David.

It has been noted that the prayer alignments of the oldest mosques in Iraq and Cairo originally pointed to the region of Dedan, not to Mecca. The prayer orientation of Mohammad’s original mosque in Medina was said to be toward Jerusalem, but could easily have been pointing to this same region in Dedan. Imagine another blue line extending from Medina to Jerusalem.

The blue lines intersect in the region of ancient Dedan.

Dedan is where the largest collection of the oldest Arabic texts have been found at the oases of Teman and Dedan, present day Al-`Ula in Saudi Arabia. Jeremiah 49 links the Dedanites with the people of Teman (TMN). Eliphaz, the son of Esau and Adah (Genesis 36), is called a "Temanite" in Job 4:1. Eliphaz married a daughter of Seir, the Horite ruler of Edom. Her name was Timna (TMN) according to Genesis 36.

The Dedanite alphabet consisted of 28 letters and resembled other scripts used in the Arabian Peninsula and in Syria, though Dedanite was distinctive in its use of the definite article h- or O (a sun symbol) whereas Southern Arabic and the Arabic spoken today uses the definite article al-. Not surprisingly, Dedanite and Hebrew have many common features, including the use of h- as the definite article “the” and the use of matres lectionis to mark long vowels.


Related reading: Edo, Edom, Idumea; Two Named Esau; The Edomites and the Color Red; The Nubian Context of YHWH