Territorial Ambitions of the Early Hebrew

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The early Hebrew were observant of the relationship of the sun, moon, and stars. They thought of the sun and the moon as a binary set, that is a naturally paired set of entities. They also noted that one of the entities of the set was superior to the other. This is expressed in Genesis 1:16 which describes the sun as the greater light and the moon as the lesser light. However, though one is greater than the other, both rule their domains. The sun rules the day, and the moon rules the night.

This reasoning is apparent in Joseph’s dream of his parents and siblings (Gen. 37:9-10). Joseph’s father, Jacob, is represented by the sun. Joseph’s mother, Rachel, is represented by the moon. Joseph’s siblings are represented by stars. The dream expresses the hierarchical relationship of his parents (Jacob’s authority being the greater), and it reveals that both parents had authority as the sun and the moon rule over their domains. This accurately describes the social structure of the biblical Hebrew who did not have a fully patriarchal social structure. (This is explained in my book The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study. 2023.)

Among the Nilotic Hebrew the sun-moon binary set was expressed in the way royal couples presented themselves in public. The king appeared with skin darkened by the sun. This implied that his divine appointment to rule by the overshadowing of the sun, the symbol of the High God. His royal wife appeared white as the moon, implying that the powdered queen was to her husband what the moon is to the sun.

The binary sets of light-dark and east-west expressed territorial claims. The two wives in the Song of Solomon represent the two horizons or dawn and dusk. One of Solomon’s wives is described as having sun-darkened skin ("dark as the tents of Kedar") and the other is described as having skin as pale as the moon (6:10). For the rulers of the Ancient Near East, the two wives represent a claim to a vast territory that extends from horizon to horizon.

Likewise, the claim of a territory that stretched between the separate settlements of his two wives is found in the story of Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4). Lamech’s wives were named Adah and Tzillah. The Hebrew scholar Theodor Gaster noted that the names Adah and T-Zillah correlate to the Akkadian words for dawn and dusk. This suggests that Lamech claimed to rule over a vast territory. The sun-moon binary set and the east-west solar arc are used in the Bible to speak of the authority and sovereignty of divinely appointed Hebrew rulers.

The Territorial Sovereignty of Father and Son

The early Hebrew conception of territorial sovereignty on earth was patterned on their observation of the celestial pattern. 

As a youth, HR/Horus (the Son of the High God) was associated with the rising sun, dawn, and the eastern horizon. In his maturity he was associated with the setting sun, dusk, and the western horizon. He is often pictured on the solar ship of his father Re making his daily journey from east to west. This artifact of the solar ship shows HR in the form of his animal totem, the falcon.

The Nilotic conception of HR’s journey from youth to maturity involves two vessels. The ship of the morning hours was called Mandjet (Ancient Egyptian: mꜥnḏt) and the ship of the evening hours was called Mesektet (msktt). While Horus was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form.

Abraham’s Hebrew people conceived of the eternal Son as a lamb at sunrise and a mature ram at sunset. This explains the lamb-to-ram sequence in the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah. Isaac asked his father, “The fire and wood are here, ... but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham replied that God himself will provide the lamb (Gen. 22:8). However, God provided a ram instead, and for Abraham the Hebrew that profound revelation spoke of the Father’s offering of his own son. Jesus said that Abraham saw his day and believed (Jn. 8:56).

Related reading: Orthodoxy Requires Binary Reasoning; The Authority of Queen Mothers