The Script of Abraham's Territory

Alice C. Linsley


Readers have asked about the language Abraham spoke. Before we can answer that, we must identify Abraham as Hebrew (Habiru) and a Horite ruler. Some Horite rulers are listed in Genesis 36. They ruled over ancient Edom, called "Idumea" by the Greeks.

Abraham's territory was in this region. His territory extended between the settlements of this two wives, Sarah and Keturah. Sarah resided in Hebron and Keturah in the region of Beersheba to the south. The settlements mark the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory.

The Horites were a caste of royal priests in the service of the ancient kingdom builders (the "mighty men of old"). Horite Hebrew (Habiru) were in Africa, Arabia, India, southern Europe, and other parts of the Levant. Some Horite clans were skilled in medicine and some were known for astronomy. Others made a name for themselves as stone masons or metal workers. Some served as purification priests and some offered sacrifices. Some served as scribes who kept royal accounts of tribute owed and payed. Horite priests served at temples along the water ways. They boarded ships to measure cargo and collect taxes. These royal scribes were well versed in the different scripts of the ruler's realm.

One such script was Akkadian, though this was a relatively archaic script by 2000 BC. Here is a timeline that we need to consider. Note that Akkadian was probably not spoken by Abraham though he or his wise men may have read ancient Akkadian texts. Some languages continue to be read long after they are no longer spoken. Biblical Hebrew and Latin are examples.

B.C. 3800-3000 - Nekhen flourished on the Nile, the oldest known site of Horite worship
B.C. 2490-2415 - Noah, lived in the region of Lake Chad when the Sahara experienced a wet period.
B.C. 2438-2363 - Ham, son of Noah
B.C. 2417-2342 - Kush, son of Ham; father of Nimrod and Ramah
B.C. 2290-2215 - Nimrod, ruler in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley
B.C. 2238-2163 - Arpacshad, son by Asshur's daughter
B.C. 2217-2042 - Salah, likely Arpacshad's son by his sister-wife.
B.C. 2196-2121 - Eber, likely Salah's son by his sister-wife.
B.C. 2175-2100 - Peleg, Eber's son. Peleg's brother was Joktan
B.C. 2154-2079 - Reu
B.C. 2133-2058 - Serug, Reu's son.
B.C. 2112-2037 - Nahor, Serug's son
B.C. 2091-2016 - Terah, Nahor's son
B.C. 2039-1964 - Abraham, Terah's son
B.C. 1987-1912 - Joktan, Abraham's firstborn son by his cousin bride, Keturah.

In Abraham's time (c. 2050) and territory between Hebron and Beersheba, the script used resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics. Many Hebrew letters - dating to about 500 years later - closely resemble the Middle Egyptian signs.

This aligns with Sir Alan H. Gardiner's findings. He concluded in 1916 that the Sinaitic signs were derived from Egyptian Hieroglyphic signs based upon their acrophonic value. Gardiner’s research established a relationship between the Sinaitic signs and the North Semitic alphabet. So it appears that the Egyptian signs were the basis of a variety of related scripts used from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates valley.

Related reading: What Language Did Abraham Speak?; Thamudic Scripts; Proto-Elamite Script; Horite Priests and the Habiru; Gardiner's Signs (Middle Egyptian)

Sub-Saharan DNA of Modern Jews

Alice C. Linsley

A DNA study that compared the genetic makeup of Jewish populations from around the world with African populations has found that modern Jews can attribute about 3 to 5 percent of their ancestry to sub-Saharan Africans. Researchers from the Harvard Medical School estimate that the exchange of genes occurred approximately 72 generations ago (or about 2,000 years). Lawrence Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at Yeshiva University, believes the intermixing may have occurred during the Hellenistic period (c. 320–30 B.C.E.), when Jewish communities were resident in many North African coastal cities, or during the First Temple period (c. 950–600 B.C.E.) (Read more here: DNA Suggests Early Jewish Links with Africa - Biblical Archaeology Society)

Dr. Harry Ostrer, director of the human genetics program at the New York University School of Medicine, led a study that compared the genetic makeup of Jewish populations from around the world with African populations. Ostrer found that modern Jewish populations have "African" ancestry. Of course, the term "African" lacks definition. Some Jews have married African Jews. Jews who have preserved ethnic purity where possible will have inherited genetic material from the early Hebrew who were mainly a Nilotic population.

David Reich, associate professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues decided to explore further and found that modern Jews can attribute about 3 to 5 percent of their ancestry to sub-Saharan Africans.

Lawrence Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at Yeshiva University, believes the intermixing may have occurred during the Hellenistic period (c. 320–30 BC), when Jewish communities were resident in many North African coastal cities, or during the First Temple period (c. 950–600 BC), when the Israelite kings, including Solomon, had trade relationships with Africa. (Read more here.)

The Lemba are a Bantu-speaking population in southern Africa with claims of Jewish ancestry. They have a high frequency of the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH), especially in their Buba clan which is the senior, priestly clan among the Lemba people of Zimbabwe and South Africa. The CMH Y-chromosome signature is associated with Jewish priestly descent. CMH has been traced back roughly 100 to 106 generations, or approximately 3,000 years ago.

The Hebrew dispersed widely before Judaism

Before Abraham's time (c. 4000 years ago), the Hebrew ruler-priest caste had already dispersed widely. Noah established his territory in the region of Lake Chad. The words Borno and Benue mean "Land of Noah". The local Kanari people refer to Lake Chad as Buhar Nuhu, meaning "Sea of Noah".

Some descendants of Cain, the Kenites, lived in the land of Canaan in the time of King David. Some descendants of the Hebrew ruler Het (Gen. 10) also lived in Canaan in the time of Abraham. They are identified in Genesis 23 as Hittites.

The Nilotic Hebrew Nimrod built cities for his father-in-father Asshur in Mesopotamia.

There is considerable archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic evidence that Jews who have preserved their ethnicity by marrying only Jews from the ruler priest lineages are descendants of the early Hebrew ruler-priest caste. That caste was organized into 2 ritual groups (moieties): the Horites and the Sethites. The earliest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is at Nekhen on the Nile.

The language of Abraham in Mesopotamia was Akkadian, the oldest known Semitic language. It appears to be a linguistic bridge between some of the older Afroasiatic languages and the Indo-European languages.

The Indian scholar Malati J. Shendge has concluded that the language of the Harappans of the Indus Valley was Akkadian. The Indian linguist Ajay Pratap Singh explains, "Comparisons of Akkadian and Sanskrit words yielded at least 400 words in both languages with comparable phonetic and semantic similarities. Thus Sanskrit has, in fact, descended from Akkadian."

Reformed Jewish Magazine reported in 2008 that "DNA research of male and female lineages has shown, for example, that certain tribes in Africa and India have Jewish roots."  (See Religious and Cultural Exchanges Between Africa and India.)

There have been multiple movements of people out of Africa as has been confirmed by various studies. One study indicates that the ancestral population of India separated from sub-Saharan African populations only around 54,000 years ago. (Deep history from the genomes of India - John Hawks)

Related reading: More East Africa-Asia Connections; King Tut and the Dispersion of R1b; DNA Studies Confirm Mixed Ancestry of Modern Jews; Horite and Sethite Mounds; Competition Between the Horites and the Sethites; Ashkenazi Represent Judeo-Khazar Admixture

Christ as Alpha and Omega

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Revelation 1:8

"He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life." Rev. 21:6

"And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." Rev. 22:12

The alpha and the omega, the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, do not correspond to the Phoenician exactly and do not resemble Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, the alpha and the omega are used to describe Jesus Christ because the Apostles recognized in Him the fulfillment of an ancient conception that is traced back to Egypt through the Canannite Phoenician language, from which Hebrew emerged.  The prophet Isaiah tells us that Hebrew is a “language of Canaan” (Isaiah 19:18), which has been confirmed the study of ancient inscriptions.


The Greeks recognized that hieroglyphs were symbolic and depicted the esoteric theology of the ancient Egyptian priests. In fact, the word hiero is derived from the word hiereus, meaning priest. The priests were wise in astronomy, geometry, animal behavior, medicine and metaphysics. That Helioplois was a center of astronomical knowledge is reflected in the high priest's title, “Chief of Observers” or “Greatest of Seers."

When Herodotus visited the priests at Heliopolis (449-440 B.C.) he praised them for their wisdom. When Strabo visited in 25 B.C., he wrote "At Heliopolis we saw large buildings in which the priests lived. For it was said that anciently this was the principal residence of the priests, who studied philosophy and astronomy." This suggests that the esoteric knowledge of the ancient Heliopolitan priests was by Herodotus' time lost or obscured by the prevalent Hellenistic worldview.

Plotinus, a 4th-century A.D. Egyptian-born philosopher, interpreted hieroglyphic writing from the viewpoint of his priestly training under Ammonius Saccas, a priest of Heliopolis.[1] It is not clear how well Ammonius understood the meaning of the hieroglyphic writings, but his association with Heliopolis and his name, which means Teacher, suggest that he was recognized as a learned man.

Heliopolis is the Greek name for the ancient Nile shrine which was dedicated to Horus. The Egyptian name was lunu, which means "place of pillars" because the temples were constructed with many wooden pillars. Arabs call the place Ain Shams, which means "the well of the Sun." The well was the Nile and when the Sun rested over the waters at noon, it was midway between the mountains on the east of the Nile and the mountains on the west.

According to Egyptologist Maspero, King Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, investigated the earlier sources of the Pyramid Texts. Maspero notes that “the likeness between what was copied in the various Pyramid Texts suggests that some of their information were directly derived from old written sources." Those sources are represented by the pictographs found at Hierakonpolis (Nekhen).

There is evidence that Horus was regarded as the beginning (alpha) and the end (omega). The beginning and the end of each day was symbolized by a double lion (Aker). In the New Kingdom, the lion was sometimes pictured as a falcon and called Hor-em-akhet ("Horus in the Horizon") because Horus' emblem is the Sun. At the earlier Horus shrine in Hierakonpolis Horus was also known as "Nekheny", meaning falcon.

Hor-em-akhet (Horus) was represented as a child, a falcon, or as the leonine sphinx. The great east-facing Sphinx of Giza was viewed as "Horus in the Horizon" and it lay between the twin peaks of the giant akhet (horizon/mountain) formed by the pyramid of Khufu and the horizon/mountain of the pyramid of Khafre). In the relief scene carved on the "Sphinx Stele" at Giza, Tuthmosis IV is shown making offerings to twin sphinxes which represent the aspects of Horus in the Horizons. Horus' name appears above the animals' heads. These sphinxes are placed back to back with the winged sun disk above and between them, depicting Horus at the sacred center.Horus who is the beginning (east) and the end (west) is also present at the center (the eternal).

The Jews who affirmed Jesus as the Son of God thought in the language and symbols of the Phoenician Canannites. John McClintock observes, "The Hebrews adopted Phoenician as their own language, or, in otherwords, that which is called [ancient] Hebrew language was in fact "the language of Canaan." It is not merely poetic but literal and in the philological truth. One of the proofs for this is taken from the Bible itself: Isaiah 19:18 says "In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of Destruction -- City of the Sun (that is, Heliopolis). --John McClintock, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature