Identifying the Horite Hebrew?

Horus unites the peoples.

Alice C. Linsley

The Horite Hebrew were a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of God Father and God Son. The father was called Ra or Ani, and the son was called Horus or Enki. Horus comes from the ancient Egyptian HR which refers to the Most High One.

The word Hebrew is derived from the ancient Akkadian word abru, meaning priest. Variant forms of the word appear in ancient texts including 'Apiru, Habiru, and Hapiru. The word is rendered "Hebrew" in English Bibles. These people are the oldest known caste of ruler-priests. (In the ancient Egyptian language nibit piru means "lady of the house.")

In Akkadian the word for a caste of priests was abrutu. In the ancient world, there were many castes of priests. They were identified by the deity they served, and that deity was believed to have appointed the ruler in whose realm the priests served. The Horite Hebrew served Re, which simply means "father of..." in ancient Egyptian. Re was the father of Horus who was miraculously conceived by Hathor. The name Horus is derived from the root HR, which means the One on high. Related Egyptian words include her, meaning over or above; horiwo - head, and hir - praise.

The earliest known references to this the Hebrew are found in ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablets and ancient Egyptian literature. The Habiru are mentioned in the Amarna Letters, a collection of 14th century B.C. letters. The Harris papyrus also speaks of the 'Apriu of Ra at Heliopolis (biblical On), a prestigious ancient Sun city. Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of the High Priest of On. Isaiah 19:18 says that Heliopolis was one of the five cities in Egypt that swore allegiance to the Lord of Hosts.

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 Hebrew priests were unique in the ancient world and greatly respected. Therefore, they were sought as servants of the early high kings who constructed palaces and royal temple complexes at what the Bible terms "high places."

The Hapiru served in the ancient Sun temples and shrines. These were build at high elevations near major sources of water. A temple was the mansion (hâît) or the house (pirû) of the god, so Ha'piru refers to those who served at the god's house. The ancient Dravidians referred to their East-oriented temples as Opiru, meaning "Sun House."

The Habiru priests were to meet certain requirements while on duty. They wore only linen or clothing made from plants. Clothing made from animals was not permitted. This is one of the differences between the priest and the shaman. They shaved their heads and bodies daily. Cold water baths were taken several times a day. They practiced sexual abstinence before and while serving at the temple or shrine.

Evidence of the religious devotion and ubiquitous presence of the Horite Hebrew is reflected in the many place names that are associated with Horus: Haryana means "Horus is the vehicle." Harappa means "Horus is Father" in Dravidian. In southern India, it was the custom to build temporary fire altars in the shape of a falcon, the totem of Horus. According to the Shulba Sutras, this is the sign for those who desire heaven: "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon."

Because the "piru" housed the deity, only the priest was permitted to enter the most sacred area of the temple. The people prayed at the gate or in the court. They directed their prayers toward the rising Sun, the emblem of the Creator and his Son. Their ruler-priest acted as a mediator between the people and God.

The Hebrew ruler-priest caste of was dispersed widely in the service of the Mighty Men of Old (Gen, 10) before the time of Abraham. These are the first known potentates or High Kings. Among them were the Kushite kingdom builder Nimrod who began his building projects in Sumer and then in Northern Mesopotamia under the authority of his father-in-law Asshur. (Just Genesis: Nimrod's Sumerian Wife)

The priests of Ani/Enki (Mesopotamian) or Ra/Horus (Nilotic) were identified as Horite Hebrew. They spread their devotion to the son of God across the ancient world. This is long before the emergence of Judaism as a world religion.

In the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts fascinating details are found about Horus. He was said to be co-equal with the Father, and to die and rise on the third day. Horus was conceived by the overshadowing of the Sun. That is shown in this image of his mother, Hathor. She appears to foreshadow the Virgin Mary. According to Luke 1, Mary conceived by divine overshadowing.

Hathor, the mother of HR, shown overshadowed by the Sun, the symbol of the High God.

The offspring of the Woman of Genesis 3:15 is called the "Seed." Some argue that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God. However, he identified himself as the Seed when he told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to die. "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernal/grain/seed of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." (John 12:23)

The Messianic expectation of Genesis 3:15 was expressed about 1000 years before the Psalms in the ancient Pyramid Texts. "Horus/HR has shattered the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot." (Utterance 388) Also see Utterance 378: "The sandal of Horus/HR is what tramples the snake underfoot."

Consider how Horus describes himself in the ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts (148):

I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of ‘Red Cloak’. 

Here we find the words of Psalm 110:1, a clear messianic reference: The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

Horus unites the peoples.This is why he is said to wear the double crown. "Then take silver and gold, and make crowns [ataroth], and set them on the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest..." Zechariah 6:11

The ruler-priest Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus) wears the double crown as a sign that he unites the peoples. The double crown was worn by the rulers of a united Nile Valley. The red crown (desher) represents Lower Nile (Egypt) and the white crown (nefer) represents Upper Nile (ancient Nubia). After the unification of the Upper and Lower Nile regions the two crowns were joined to represent a unified Egypt.

The early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC) were a ruler-priest caste that believed that heavenly recognition of a people depended on the righteousness of their ruler-priest. Therefore, purity of life was highly valued. The proof of heavenly recognition and acceptance was the resurrection of the dead ruler-priest on the third day.

The New Testament speaks about Jesus as the ruler-priest. He is the firstborn from the grave and by his resurrection He delivers to the Father a "peculiar people." He leads us in the ascent to the Father where we receive heavenly recognition because we belong to Him.

Heavenly recognition for the Horite Hebrew was never an individual prospect. Heavenly recognition came to the people through the righteousness of their ruler-priest. Horite Hebrew rulers took this seriously, some more than others. The best were heavenly minded 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. Therefore, none have the power to deliver captives from the grave and to lead them to the throne of heaven (Ps. 68:18; Ps. 7:7; Eph. 4:8). The evidence of a long-standing Tradition points to the Son of God, Jesus, who alone fits the pattern of Messianic expectation.

Related reading: The Hebrew Were a Caste; The Substance of Abraham's Faith; Horite and Sethite Mounds, Abraham's Habiru Ancestors; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Sun Cities of the Ancient World

Religion of the Archaic Rulers

Alice C. Linsley


Discerning students often wonder why Traditional African Religions, primitive Hinduism, and primitive Judaism have so much in common. They note that these share a religious tradition that includes ancestor veneration, henotheism, and belief in the divine appointment of rulers. Additionally, these religions have a priest caste, practice animal sacrifice, and venerate of the Sun. The commonality is due to the way these religions developed organically from the archaic religion spread by the ruler-priests who are called "the mighty men of old" in Genesis 6:4.

The "mighty men of old" were a ruler caste (clans that practiced endogamy) who spread along mountain chains (high places) of Southern Europe and the Hindu Kush, a melting pot of ancient peoples. They likely controlled commerce through the Pamir Junction. These were aggressive kingdom builders who regarded themselves as divinely appointed to disperse and subdue the earth. Later rulers held this idea as well.

Believing himself to be divinely appointed to rule the world, Alexander the Great attempted to conquer the whole of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. This was especially reinforced by the oracle of the shrine of Ammon-Ra in the Libyan Desert.

Constantine the Great appears to have had a similar self-conception. Constantine was born in Niš (pronounced Nish) on 27 February 273 AD. Nis is a very ancient city in southern Serbia. Its location made it a gateway between the East and the West. In ancient times, Nis was populated by Saka peoples. The Hindu text Matsya Purana claims that the Saka (called “Scythians” by the Greeks) ruled the ancient world for 7000 years. Another text, Mahabharata, designates “Sakadvipa” as the “land of the Sakas” in northern India. Assyrian documents speak of the Saka presence between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the time of Sargon (722-705 B.C.) The religion of the Saka corresponds to the religion of the archaic Rulers.

The rulers of the archaic world also controlled commerce on the major water systems, using these to expand their territories. Their ambitions were served by royal warriors, archers, sages and craftsmen.

The ancient high place of Meroe on the Orontes River in Turkey was built on the precipice of Mt. Silpius. The earlier name for this fortress was IO, which means “pillared place dedicated to the Creator.” The O is a solar image. This follows the Kushite practice of naming river shrines for the Sun. Heliopolis on the Nile was called “Iunu” which means "place of pillars" because it was constructed with many pillars. In ancient times, the Orontes River was called the Draco or the Asi. It was the chief river of the Levant and had sufficient depth for boats to sail up the river from the Mediterranean near modern Beirut. This was aided by the north-flowing currents.

In ancient texts the ruler-priest caste is known by various related names: Opiru, Hapiru, and Habiru (Hebrew). The number seven was sacred to them because it refered to the seven heavenly bodies which were viewed as ruling the heavens. This is evident in the Luo (Nilo-Saharan) word for seven: abiriyo. The word abir is a cognate of habiru.  The Y suffix is a solar symbol that indicated divine appointment, as in the names of these Habiru rulers: Yaktan (Joktan), Yishmael (Ishmael), Yitzak (Isaac), Yosef (Joseph), Yetro (Jethro), Yeshua (Jesus/Joshua), etc.

Within this caste of ruler-priests there were sub-castes dedicated to stone work and metal work. Tutu was a high ranked priest in the service of Akhenaten. Tutu's titles included:

Overseer of all the craftsmen of the Lord of the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Nile)
Overseer of all the works of His Majesty
Overseer of silver and gold
Chief spokesman of the entire land

The ruler-priests were responsible for the construction of great monuments such as royal tombs, palaces, shrines and temples. The Dravidian east-facing temple was termed O-piru, meaning “Sun House." Sargon I claimed to be the son of a lowly virgin who was overshadowed by the High God (cf. Luke 1:35). He was born in an O-piru. His home city was called Azu-piranu, meaning House of God (Azu in Akkadian, Asa in Chadic, Asha in Kushitic, Ashai in Hebrew).

Royal stone tombs have been discovered in Alaca Hüyük and Horoztepe in Anatolia, dating to c. 2400–2200 BC. Horoz-tepe means the "hill shrine of Horus" and his devotees, the Horite ruler-priests, who dispersed into Anatolia. They are referenced in ancient texts as the Nes. In addition to stone work, they were smiths. They called themselves the Nes (NS) and their language was called Nesli. Many magnificent artifacts have been recovered from the Anatolian royal tombs, including this exquisite sundisk from Alaca Hüyük (shown right).

In Nehemiah 3:1, we read that Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests rebuilt the Sheep Gate of Jerusalem. Both Aaron and Moses fabricated images of metal. Moses is credited with making a bronze serpent (Numbers 21:9), and Aaron made a golden bull calf like the one shown.

The priests who sacrificed animals were served by a sub-caste of tanners. Dravidian leather workers are called "Madigas" and they are recognized as one of the oldest castes. The Madiga have nucleotide diversity levels as high as those of HapMap African populations. Among Abraham's people these were the "Ta-hash." One of Abraham's nephews was Tahash (Genesis 22:24).

In addition to sacrificing animals, crafting works of metal and constructing stone monuments, the ruler-priests kept records of astronomical events. Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors were great observers of the constellations and stars. Plato records that the Nilotes had been recording astronomical information for 10,000 years. The Habiru designed their temples so that they were aligned with the solar arc. They recognized the Sun as the great light in the sky that rules over the Earth, giving light, warm and generating life.

Through archaeoastronomy scientists have come to better understand the symbolism of these ancient sky watchers. Archaeoastronomy relies on the use of historical records of astronomical events and the history of astronomy, as well as data from written sources such as ancient sacred texts and oral traditions. Together these sources establish a picture of sophisticated sidereal astronomy under the direction of the archaic rulers.

Sidereal astronomy is based on observation of the arrangement and movement of the fixed stars and planets. This science originated among Abraham's Proto-Saharan cattle-herding ancestors who had recorded information about the fixed stars and clock-like motion of the planets and constellations for thousands of years.

By 4245 BC, the priests of the Upper Nile had established a calendar based on the appearance of the star Sirius that becomes visible to the naked eye once every 1,461 years. Apparently, Nilotes had been tracking this star and connecting it to seasonal changes and agriculture for thousands of years. This is verified by the priest Manetho who reported in 241 BC that Nilotic Africans had been “star-gazing” as early as 40,000 years ago.

Celestial events were of great importance to the rulers of the ancient world because they regarded themselves as the Creator's earthly representatives and they wished to pattern their rule on earth as "it is in heaven." The priests kept records of astronomical events and enlivened the religion with rich symbolism of celestial events, alignments, convergences, etc.

The Romanian anthropologist Mircea Eliade wrote extensively on the ritual nature of archaic societies. He noted that feasts, fasts, ceremonies and the construction of monuments were patterned after celestial archetypes. Religious observances, as well as the arrangement of residences in the village and the division of labor corresponded to events in the heavens such as the daily rising of the sun, the solstices and the equinoxes. Social structures among Abraham’s ancestors developed according to the celestial archetypes that they observed in the heavens.

Anghor Wat in Cambodia is a good (though late) example of how the ruler aligned his temple-palace according to astronomical observation.  Eleanor Mannikka, a scholar of Southeast Asian Studies. notes that Angkor Wat is located at 13.41 degrees north in latitude and that the north-south axis of the central tower’s chamber is 13.43 cubits long. She does not consider this precision a coincidence.

Mannika has found that the towers of the central temple have at least a dozen lunar alignments and the temple itself is aligned to the solar arc. Mannika writes, “During the long and clear Cambodian nights, when the stars filled every inch of the black sky, the astronomer-priests stood on the long western causeway ... and recorded the movements of the moon against the towers in the top two galleries of the temple.”

The Great Pyramid of Giza and Angkor Wat are nearly 72° apart, along the circle's circumference (diagram below). It has been noted also that Angkor Wat is located 72° of longitude east of the Giza Pyramids. The word Angkor is related to the ancient Egyptian Anhk-Hor, meaning "life to Horus."


Point A represents the Angkor Wat complex of 72 shrines.

Point G represents the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Point I represents Harappa in the Indus valley. Har-appa means "Horus is Father."

  

In Mannika's best-known work, Angkor Wat: Time, Space and Kingship, she argues that the dimensions, alignment and bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat speak of Suryavarman II as the divinely appointed king.

The idea of a universal ruler is much older than Angkor Wat. It is found in the oldest layers of Hindu thought. The Sanskrit word cakravartin and the Pali word cakkavattin refer to a righteous king who rules over the entire world. His "messianic" rule is called sar-vabhauma. From Africa to Nepal the words sar and sarki refer to ruler-priests. This is the root of the royal title Sar-gon, which means High King or King of Kings. Messianic expectation appears to have originated among the priest caste that served in the temples and shrines of archaic world.

Horus was regarded as the protector by archaic rulers. That is why many had Horus names. Horus was said to rule over all the earth. This was expressed in his many epithets: Lord of the Horizon; Lord of the Sky; Horus of the Twin Horizons; Lord of Humans; Lord of Mortals and Gods; Lord of the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Nile); Heir of His Father; Great One who Dwells in Heliopolis, Living One, Divine Falcon, etc.

This bas-relief from Angkor Wat show Horus perched as a falcon on the mast of Ra's solar boat.

Angkor Wat means "shrine of the living Horus." The earliest ruling families of the region were related to the older rulers of Ra-wat in Pakistan. Ra Wat means shrine of Ra. Primitive Hindu tradition teaches that "he who desires heaven is to construct a fire-altar in the form of a falcon."

Horus the Patron of Kings

Many rulers of the ancient world had Horus names. Examples include Hur, Na-Hor, and King Arpachshad/Har-Pa-Shed. Also, some rulers whose names begin with Ar. Examples include the Sumerian king Arwium of Kish; Artama, Archelaos, Artaxerxes, Ar-Shem, Artix, Areli, Araxes, Arviragus, a Jebusite named Araunah, and Arishen, a Horite Hebrew who ruled a territory in the central Zagros between 2400-2301 B.C. Ariaramnes was the great uncle of Cyrus the Great. 

That the "Ar" is a shortened Horus name is suggested by the Nabataean King Harithath IV who bears the Horus name. However, King Harithath is called King Aretas in 2 Corinthians 11:32.

Israelites associated with the Ar patrimony include Aroch (1 Chr 7:39, Ezr 2:5, Neh 6:18, Neh 7:10) and Ariel (Ezr 8:16, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:7). Ariel means “Scribe/Messenger of God.”

The association of the Ar element with royal scribes is demonstrated by the discovery of multi-lingual scrolls from the satrap Arsames to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-Hor (A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117). The archives of Arsames offer valuable insight into the administration of Egypt at the end of Dynasty 27 (525- 404 BC).


Related reading: The Ar Rulers; Scythians Nobles Buried in Siberia; African Religion Predates Hinduism; The High Places; Stone Work of the Ancient World; The Religion of the Saka; Ancient Seats of Wisdom; Who Were the Kushites?; Plato's Debt to Ancient Egypt; Kushite Kingdom Building; Some Marks of Prehistoric Religion

Fundamentalism and Syncretism in Hebrew History

Alice C. Linsley

The Habiru/Hebrew priests were Horites, known in the ancient world for being especially fastidious in their observance of the ceremonial law and for their insistence that mankind should worship but one Creator. Other priests were dedicated to the worship of Nature or the elements, or they served a pantheon of deities to which they make offerings to gain favor from the gods. For the Habiru, God could not be appeased or satisfied by offerings of food, wine, oil, grain or by the sacrifice of an animal or a child. When man propitiates his gods, his religion becomes a form of bribery rather than an act of love. He performs a duty laden with fear, even desperation. An important distinction between the Horites and other priests rests in their recognition that God propitiates his wrath by his own action. This is the meaning of the account of Abraham's sleepless night on the mountain. God told him to cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side (Genesis 15). Once this is done, God passes between the animal carcasses and consumes the offering. Abraham observed this, and had no part to play in the action.

The Habiru priests were dispersed widely across the ancient world in the service of great kings. At times and places some Habiru allowed themselves to be influenced by peoples with an inferior moral code. This is called syncretism. Syncretism is the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought. It often occurs when there is social or political pressure to accommodate to the favored practices and beliefs.

Judges 2:11-15, Psalm 78:56-72 and Jeremiah 32:30-35 are often cited as examples of how syncretism led to apostasy and idolatry in Israel. The story of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32 is also cited, but this is not an example of syncretism. In this essay, each of these passages will be evaluated through the lens of anthropology.

Judges 2:11-15

Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreth. In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

The word “Baal” means Lord or Master. It sometimes refers to the Lord, as in Baal Shalisha, meaning the Three God. This may be an early Trinitarian reference, or it may simply refer to a deity associated with the number 3. In the Bible, the number 3 is found in connection to enlightening passages and astonishing acts of God. Jonah was 3 days in the belly of the whale. Moses was hidden for 3 months (Ex. 2:2). Job's 3 friends struggled with the mystery of why the righteous suffer. Moses asked permission to make a 3-day journey into the wilderness to worship. Abraham traveled 3 days to a mountain only God could reveal and upon which God provided His own sacrifice. The Covenant God made with Abraham involved cutting up 3 animals that were 3 years old. God in 3 Persons visited Abraham (Gen. 18). The 3 measures of flour made into cakes for Abraham's three Visitors. The 3 gifts offered them: curds, milk and a calf. Abraham prayed 3 times for Sodom. Joseph had a dream of a vine with 3 branches (Gen 40:10-12). The “Son of Man” appeared with 3 men in the fiery furnace. Jesus rose on the third day.

Ashtoreth shrines at high elevations were dedicated to the moon goddess. As the moon merely reflects the radiance of the sun, it was regarded as an inferior entity and therefore an inappropriate symbol for the Creator among the Habiru. This is why Terah, Abraham’s father, was criticized (perhaps unfairly) by the Deuteronomist in Joshua 24:2: “In olden times, your forefathers – Terah, father of Abraham and father of Nahor – lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.” The implication is that Terah fell into worshiping contrary to Horite tradition while living “beyond the Euphrates.” Joshua 24:2 should be understood as reflection the concerns of the Deuteronomist. There is a dominant theme running from Deuteronomy through II Kings. These books share a common concern with idolatry and recognize that on the side of the Euphrates where Ur and Haran were located, people worshiped the moon as equal to the sun. However, the moon was not worshiped among the Horites, and Terah was a Horite.

In the binary worldview of the Horites the sun was regarded as superior to the moon. This was not an arbitrary preference, but an affirmation of their observation that the sun is superior in strength and radiance to the moon. The sun's superiority is expressed in Genesis 1:16: "God made the two great lights: the greater to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night." It is idolatry to regard the lesser as an equal to the greater, as happens in Asian dualism.


Psalm 78:56-64

But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes. Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols. When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely. He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans. He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy. He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance. Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs; their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.

Here we find a central theme of the Deuteronomist, namely, that God rejects and abandons Israel because He is angry. He allows His chosen ones to fall before their enemies and to be taken as captives. There are references to things of old - the tabernacle at Shiloh, the Ark of the Covenant, but anthropologically significant details are entirely lacking.


Jeremiah 32:30-35

"The people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth; indeed, the people of Israel have done nothing but arouse my anger with what their hands have made, declares the Lord. From the day it was built until now, this city has so aroused my anger and wrath that I must remove it from my sight. The people of Israel and Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done—they, their kings and officials, their priests and prophets, the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem. They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. They set up their vile images in the house that bears my Name and defiled it. They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molek, though I never commanded—nor did it enter my mind—that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.”

The word Molech has a meaning similar to Baal. It means king. Molech was an Ammonite fire deity. The ancient Habiru did not associate any one element -fire, water, air, etc.- with the Creator. To do so would have been regarded as idolatry. Nor did the Habiru practice human sacrifice.

None of the examples we have considered provide much detail as to the religious practices that are being condemned. There is little anthropologically significant information, as if these accounts come from sources that have no firsthand experience of the time. In fact, some scholars believe these sources reflect the Deuteronomist historians who are the final hand on the Old Testament writings.

The Deuteronomist attempts to explain why God would allow his appointed people to be defeated by their enemies and to be carried into exile. To answer this question, they pointed to moral failures among the leaders of the people. The accusation that Aaron failed in righteousness likely comes from the Deuteronomist, the last known editor of the Old Testament material. The Deuteronomist also urged the breaking of images. "... thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire." Deuteronomy 7:5

Failure to do this served as another example of moral failure on the part of Israel's rulers and justified the terrible treatment which the Jews received at the hands of the Babylonians, far worse than they ever experienced in Egypt where their rulers were recognized by the Pharaohs.

The Deuteronomist history presents a religion quite different from that practiced by Abraham and his Nilo-Saharan ancestors. It moves the focus from the Righteous Ruler who would be conceived by divine overshadowing to the theology of the land as Israel’s rightful possession. This is the beginning of political Zionism.


Exodus 32
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us a god who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “This is your god, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

This account stands in stark contrast to the accounts considered above by virtue of the rich details. Moses is on the mountain top and God is speaking to him about the people's corrupt worship. Moses seeks God's mercy for the people. In the valley below, the people are speaking to Aaron who facilitates their corrupt worship. This is not an example of syncretism because it reflects actual Horite practices. However, if the Deuteronomist Historian is correct, the people worshiped a created thing, not the divine person or "seed" of God (Gen, 3:15) represented by the image.

The Hebrews asked the ruler-priest Aaron to create a graven image (Hebrew: pesel) for them. Aaron apparently was one of the members of the priestly caste trained in metal work. The golden image he formed incorporated the sun and would have been a representation of the divine overshadowing or appointment of the Calf of God, Horus. Below is picture of what it would have looked like.

The calf is suggestive of Horus as a child. Horus' anthropomorphic form is either as a adult male or more usually as a boy wearing the sidelock typical of royal Egyptian youth. Horus as a boy is often shown on cippi dominating crocodiles and serpents. Consider this in light of the Woman, the Child, and the Dragon in Revelation 12. Consider also the red cow of Numbers 19 that stands as a perpetual symbol of Israel's need for cleansing. The cow is sacrificed and burned outside the camp and the ashes used for "water of lustration." (Num. 19:9)

The Calf's mother was called Hathor. Her animal totem was the long-horned cow and she was often depicted with a crown of horns in which the sun rests, as a sign of her divine appointment. She appears on monument walls at Dendera holding her child in a manger. She was not to be worshiped; just as Christians are not to worship the Virgin Mary. She is venerated, but not worshiped. The distinction between worship and veneration is a difficult one for Protestants of Puritan heritage. The Puritans methodically stripped the churches of "papist" trappings such as crosses, statues, icons, stained glass windows, montrances, and vestments. Under Oliver Cromwell thousands of these sacred objects were destroyed or re-purposed. Valuable items helped to fund Cromwell's campaigns in Scotland and Ireland. The Puritans made no distinction between veneration and worship. They considered all Roman practices to be idolatrous.

The Puritans were not the first to destroy holy images. In the eighth and ninth centuries, the Eastern churches suffered a similar attack by the Iconoclasts. (Eikonoklasmos or Iconoclasm means "image-breaking.") Before the Iconoclasts, came the image-smashing Deuteronomists. In 2001, Islamic fundamentalists destroyed images regarded as world treasures in Afghanistan. These extremists also smashed three hundred of the 2,500 objects that had been painstakingly reassembled at the Kabul Museum and looted thousands of artifacts. Religious extremism eventually leads to smashing images and destroying traditions.

Iconoclasts of all eras fail to recognize that while God forbids the making and worship of idols, He commanded carvings and pictures for the Tabernacle. These included angels, trees, and fruits from the Garden of Eden (Exodus 37:1-9; 39:22-26; 1 Kings 6:14-19). God gave explicit instructions to the craftsmen concerning how objects for the Temple were to be made and what ornaments were to appear on the hems of the priestly robes (pomegranates and golden bells). He also gave specific instructions as to how all these objects were to be consecrated.

In matters pertaining to how He should be worshiped, God had been directing the Habiru rulers for a long time before Moses. He gave instructions to Abraham and Jacob on how to construct altars and how to offer animal sacrifices. He was to be their King and consented to Samuel's anointing of Saul because the Israelites wanted a king like the other nations. As Bernard M. Levinson points out the legal corpus of Deuteronomy conceptualizes the king in a way that rejects all prevailing models of monarchic power held among the ancient Hebrew. This shift causes readers of the Old Testament to lose the continuity between the ancient Messianic expectation among the Habiru and the New Testament's understanding of God as King incarnate who will be the temple, not merely fill it, and be raised on the third day.

Solomon's many pillared temple was patterned on the more ancient Horite temples found at Nekhen and Heliopolis. Archaeological evidence indicates that Horite temples, such as those found at Petra, and near the Amman airport, and at Shechem, were square with a "holy of holies." At the very center of this sacred space was a round stone platform that either served as the pedestal of a stone pillar or as the base of an altar.

Typically, the interior floor of the Horite temple was paved and the walls were made of hewn stones. In the Horite temples along the Nile there were many pillars rather than stone walls. The temple at Heliopolis or Iunu is an example. Iunu means "place of pillars" and likely refers to the temple of Heliopolis. Herodutus reported that it took nine days to sail from Heliopolis to Thebes. The temple of Thebes was called "Heliopolis of the South."

These pillars served as support for a roof and, in the case of the central area, a symbol of the Creator who generates life. Perhaps the Apostle Paul had this in mind when he wrote to Timothy that the Church of the living God is a pillar (I Tim. 3:15). Pillars in the temple also represented the righteous ones of God. Exodus 24:4 speaks of the twelve pillars in God's house as the twelve tribes upon which God has inscribed the holy Name. The Horite ruler-priests were regarded as "sons" of God. They are sometimes called "gods" (elohim) as in Exodus 22:28: "Thou shalt not revile the gods (elohim), nor curse the ruler of thy people."

The entrance to Solomon's temple was flanked by twin pillars dedicated to his Horite ancestors Joachin and Boaz. David and Solomon were of the Horite priestly lines that can be traced from Genesis 4 and 5 to Joseph who married Mary, the daughter of the shepherd-priest Joachim. Mary’s full name was "Miriam Daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther) Priest of Nathan of Bethlehem." The Horites designated the deified king ntjr. In Ancient Egyptian ntjr is a reference to god/gods. P-ntjr means "Priest of God.”


Related reading: Graven Images and Idols; Who Were the Horites?; The Sun and Moon in Genesis;
The Virgin Mary's Ancestry;  Bernard M. Levinson, The Reconceptualization of Kingship in Deuteronomy; Genesis Through the Lens of the Deuteronomist; How the Deuteronomist Changes the Genesis Narrative