Genesis 3:15 is about the Virgin Mary

 

The Fertile Crescent was home to the widely dispersed early Hebrew ruler-priests.

Dr Alice C. Linsley

In Genesis 3:15, the first Messianic prophesy of the Bible, the Seed/Son of God is the son of the "Woman", and this is not Eve. Eve is not named until 5 verses later. The identity of the Woman becomes clear when we understand what the early Hebrew believed. They are ones who first believed in the coming of Messiah. Their belief concerning the Son of God is expressed in Genesis 3:15.

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel".

Genesis 3:15 is called the protoevangelium, or the Proto-Gospel. The early Hebrew believed in God Father and God Son and anticipated the incarnation of the Son by divine overshadowing of a virgin of their priest caste. This expectation is expressed in the promise of deliverance given to Abraham's Hebrew ancestors. Their hope was to be delivered from death by a Righteous Ruler who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality. They pinned that hope on the appearing of the Son of God.

According to the early Nilotic Hebrew, the first act of the Creator at the beginning was šw (Shu), meaning light. This is not the light of day. It is the eternal, uncreated light associated with the High God's son Y-shu (Yeshua), as proclaimed in John's Prologue.

Jesus or Yeshua is the name that was given to the son the Virgin Mary conceived by divine overshadowing. Luke 1:35 makes this clear. The Angel Gabriel explained to Mary: "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."

The early Hebrew (4200-2000 BC) lived before the emergence of Judaism. The language they used was not Hebrew because Hebrew did not yet exist. The Hebrew ruler-priests who lived in the Ancient Nile Valley (ANV) used pictographic symbols to communicate in writing. One of their shrine cities was Nekhen, the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship. Nekhen was a principal city of the Fertile Crescent. Systematic excavations at Nekhen began in 1897-1898, led by British archaeologists James Quibell and Frederick W. Green. In the early 2020s, work continued under the direction of Renée Friedman. Various areas were excavated, including elite cemeteries (HK6), industrial zones (breweries), and monumental architecture.

The written communication of the Mesopotamian Hebrew employed Akkadian cuneiform. Ancient Akkadian is the oldest known Semitic language. The oldest biblical texts contain some words of Akkadian origin. The word "Hebrew"is derived from the ancient Akkadian word abru, meaning priest. The name for Cain/Kain/Kan is a play on the Akkadian word kan, referring to blood and a field. (According to Genesis 4:8, Cain killed his brother Abel in a field and Abel's blood cried out to God from the ground). The name Lamech (Gen. 4 and Gen. 5) is an Akkadian title: lumakku, referring to a junior priest.

The early Hebrew believed that a Woman of their royal priest caste would conceive the Son of the High God by divine overshadowing, just as the Angel declared to the Virgin Mary. This expectation was depicted in images of the Son's mother overshadowed by the Sun.

The early Hebrew regarded the Sun as the symbol of the High God. This image shows Hathor overshadowed. She is the archetypal mother of the archetypal Son of God, HR/Horus.

The Son of God was to crush the serpent under his feet. This belief was expressed by the early Hebrew priests on the walls of royal tombs. One such text says, "Horus has shattered (tbb, crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot (tbw)". (Ancient Pyramid Texts, Utterance 388, p. 128.) Another states, "The sandal of Horus/HR is what tramples the snake underfoot" (Utterance 378).

Horus is the Greek for the Proto-Egyptian word HR, meaning "Most High One". The Nilotic Hebrew spoke of the Son's father as Re, meaning "father" in Proto-Egyptian.

It must be evident that the "Woman" of Genesis 3:15 cannot be Eve.

Related reading: Why the Name Jesus?; They Believed in a Messiah 6000 Years Ago; Horite and Sethite Mounds; The Hebrew were a Caste; Funerary Rites and the Hope of Resurrection; Early Resurrection Texts; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection

The Religious Symbolism of Green Malachite

 

Malachite amulet of Horus falcon, 1550-1069 BC (New Kingdom)

The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Green malachite was associated with the Son of God. He was called HR in Ancient Egyptian (Horus in Greek). HR was regarded as the patron of royal priests and kings. Green malachite pigment was used in the cosmetics that high ranking Egyptians would paint around their eyes to mimic the falcon-headed Horus.

Green malachite was associated with the falcon, the animal totem of Horus. The Book of the Dead speaks of how the deceased will become a falcon "whose wings are of green stone" (chapter 77). The protective Eye of Horus amulet was made of green stone. The Ancient Pyramid Texts speak of Horus as the "Lord of the green stone" (Utterance 301).

Malachite is a copper-based mineral, and copper was associated with the sun, the symbol of the High God and his son HR. The Nilotic Hebrew were known for their work with gold and copper. Copper and gold artifacts appeared in the region between the First and Second Cataracts in graves of the Middle A Group. These are dated 3600–3300 BC (Killick 2014).

Around 3,200 BC copper balances and weights were used at Nile shrines to determine cargo taxes and for trade.

Green malachite was placed in some graves at Nekhen on the Nile, the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship (4200 BC). A leather pouch containing chunks of malachite was found among the grave goods at Tomb 39 in Nekhen, a city dedicated to Horus.

Timna is the site of some of the world's oldest copper mines. The oldest mines are at least 6,000 years old and there are newer ones as well, totaling about 10,000 shafts. The miners at Timna venerated Hathor, the mother of Horus. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University.

This green malachite stone, a gift from the Egyptian king with whom the Hittites signed a treaty in 1258 BC, was at the center of a shrine in the Hittite capital of Hattusa (in Çorum Province in Turkey). Among the ancient Nilotic Hebrew, green malachite represented new life and the hope of resurrection. The land of the blessed dead was described as the "field of malachite."

Many of the priests of the ancient world, including some Hittite priests, were devotees of God's son Horus. Some shrine centers among the Hittites reflect this: Horoztepe (Horus Hill) and Išuwa (Yeshua/Yesu). According to the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC), the first act of the Creator at the beginning was šw (Shu), meaning light. This is not the light of day. It is the eternal, uncreated light associated with the High God's son Y-shu (Yeshua), as proclaimed in John's Prologue.

The name Jesus is related to the Hebrew word Yeshua, meaning Salvation. However, the name is older than the Hebrew language. It is found as early as 2600 BC among the Hebrew priests of the Nile Valley as Yesu or Yeshu.

A prince named Yesu is mentioned as the son of Ameny, the son of Shenwy, the son of Nakht on a memorial stela from Abydos. It speaks of Shenwy and his wife, Hedjret. One of Hedjret's grandsons is called išw, which could be an early form of the name Jesus/Yeshu (Bill Manley, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, p. 77.)

The name Yesu is attached to the roles of priest and king in ancient hieroglyphics. Reading from left to right: The feather represents judgment. The horn represents power. The staff represents royal authority, and the chick represents new life. All of these symbols speak of Jesus Christ.

Related reading: The Religious Symbolism of Gold; Malachite and The Ancient Egyptians; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Copper and Iron; Just Genesis: Why the Name Jesus?

The Religious Symbolism of Gold

 

This crescent-shaped gold collar (lunula) was found in Cornwall, England. The Penwith Lunula is dated to the Early Bronze Age (2500-1550 BC). It was worn by a ruler in England around the same time Abraham became established as a ruler in ancient Edom.

From ancient times, gold has been a highly prized commodity. Gold is mentioned over 400 times in the Bible. The word for gold is similar in these Afro-Asiatic languages: Ancient Egyptian - nub (nwb); Akkadian - dahh-ubu; Arabic - dha-hab; and Hebrew - za-hab.

There is evidence that the finest gold was named for Horus, "the Golden One." The HR root is found in the Assyrian word for gold hur-asu and in the Hebrew words for refined or purified gold - haruz. 

Gold was highly valued among the Nilotic Hebrew for whom it represented the sun, the symbol of the High God and his son HR (Horus in Greek). In the ancient world, kings and judges were believed to be appointed by the High God, and Horus was their patron.

The Egyptian word HR means "the One on high." The Turin Canon, which provides important information on Egypt's early history, describes the predynastic rulers as "Followers of Horus" and many had Horus names. The Horus name (HR, Hor, Hur, Har) is the oldest known among the Nilotic rulers, even before Egypt emerged as a political entity. 

Many early Hebrew rulers had Horus names. Hur is an example. According to Midrash, Hur was Moses’ brother-in-law, the husband of Miriam. Hur’s grandson was one of the builders of the Tabernacle. 1 Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur as the "father of Bethlehem," an early Horite Hebrew settlement.

A chief of the tribe of Asher holds the Horus name Harnepher (1 Chron. 7:36).

Another Horus name is Na-Hor, the name of Abraham's older brother. Nahor ruled over his father's territory in Paddan Aram when Terah died. In ancient Akkadian, Na is a modal prefix indicating service to, affirmation, or affiliation. Na-Hor indicates that this man was a devotee of HR, which in ancient Egyptian refers to the Most High God.

A prayer addressed to Horus says, "For you are he who oversees the gods, there is no god who oversees you!" (Ancient Pyramid Texts, Utterance 573)

One of the most famous images related to Horus was found at Nekhen. This is a gold artifact of Horus under the sign of his totem, the falcon. This great gold plumed falcon represents the son of the Father (Re in Ancient Egyptian). Nekhen was named for Horus of the Falcon: Nekheny.

Horus of Nekhen, the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship (c.4000 BC).

The Hebrew Lived in Regions Rich in Gold

Abraham was a very wealthy Hebrew. This is attested by Genesis 13:2 which states that Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. Genesis 24:22 says that Abraham's servant delivered a gold ring and two gold bracelets to Rebekah as a gift from her future husband, Isaac.

Some of Abraham's ancestors lived in regions where gold was found both on the surface and in tunnels. Genesis 2:11 designates Ha'vilah as a gold rich area. It was where the waters of the Upper Nile form a V, suggesting the branching of the White and Blue Nile. The land was later known as Nubia, which means "land of gold." Genesis 2 also mentions that the region has Bdellium, a semi-transparent oleo-gum resin extracted from Commiphora wightii and from Commiphora africana. These trees grow in Ethiopia, Eritrea and other parts of East Africa.

In 2007, archaeologists from the Oriental Institute discovered a 4000-year gold-processing center along Nile. The site is called Hosh el-Guruf and is located about 225 miles north of Khartoum. More than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss were found at the site. The ore was ground to recover the gold, and water was used to separate the flakes from the particle residue. Similar grinding stones have been found at Timnah in southern Israel.

A temple dedicated to Hathor, the mother of Horus, was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timnah by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

Another area described in the Bible as being rich in gold is Ophir. Ophir was in southwest Arabia. This is the territory of Sheba and Ramah (see map below). Every three years Solomon received tribute of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and peacocks from Ophir. Solomon's navy traveled to Ophir, taking "four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there" (1 Kgs. 9:26-28; 22:48; 2 Chron. 8:17-18; 9:10).

This gold of Ophir was mined heavily and became scarce. This is attested in Isaiah13:12, which says, "I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir."

The Religious Symbolism of Gold

In ancient times high kings, rulers, and judges were noted by some association with the sun. Many rulers among Abraham's ancestors were believed to be appointed by God as the Creator's representatives of earth. The sun symbol appears as the initial Y (a solar cradle) in the names of these Hebrew chiefs and priests: Yaqtan (Joktan); Yishmael (Ishmael); Yishbak; Yitzak (Isaac); Yacob (Jacob); Yosef (Joseph); Yetro (Jethro); Yeshai (Jesse) and Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus).

The letter Y in Ancient Egyptian is represented by two upright feathers. That symbol also designated one with authority to judge.

The Y-solar cradle also appears as bull horns. The mother of Horus is the only woman in ancient history to be shown wearing the horns to indicate her appointment by divine overshadowing.


Hathor the Overshadowed

Hathor was appointed to bear the "son"of God, Horus. In this image she is shown overshadowed by the sun, the emblem or symbol of the Creator. Hathor foreshadows the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Messiah. When Mary asked the angel how she would conceive a child, seeing that she "knew" no man, Gabriel explained, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Lk. 1:25)

Hathor's is often associated with cattle, so it is not surprising that her offspring, Horus, was sometimes portrayed as the golden calf.

Exodus 32:2 says that Aaron fashioned the golden calf from the gold rings worn by the Israelites. We note that Aaron is never criticized or chastened by God for fabricating this Messianic image.


Related reading: The Gold of Ophir; Minoan Golden Bee; Kushite Gold; Nubia in Biblical History; The Golden Calf in Anthropological Context

Hebrew at the Ancient Sun Cities

Great Hypostyle Hall in the Karnak temple aligned with the Milky Way

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The early Hebrew served as temple priests, royal scribes, physicians, and royal craftsmen. Their service at the pillared Sun temples was conditioned by a long-standing tradition received from their ancestors and preserved through a hereditary office. The hereditary transmission of their priestly occupations is a clue that the Hebrew were a caste. Their service at royal temple complexes indicates that they were held in high regard by the early rulers and kingdom builders.

The prestigious royal temple complex of Heliopolis (biblical On) had Hebrew (Abru, Hapiru, 'Apiru) priests. The Harris papyrus speaks of the 'Apriu of Re at Heliopolis. Joseph became affiliated with this royal priest line when he married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On. Heliopolis is mentioned multiple times in the Old Testament. Isaiah 19:18 says that Heliopolis was one of the five cities in Egypt that swore allegiance to the Lord of Hosts.

The earliest civilizations were established along the great rivers: the Nile, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Orontes, and the Indus. The Hebrew were dispersed throughout these major water systems well before Abraham’s time. The rulers who controlled trade on the great rivers were served by priests at river shrines and temples. Cargo taxes were assessed on ships that navigated these rivers and were collected at the ports of the various royal settlements. Weights and measurements were taken by the assessors. Taxes were levied on grains, oil, livestock, and luxury items such as linen cloth. It was difficult to avoid paying the assessments because a royal city had a twin settlement on the opposite side of the river, creating a maritime blockade. Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) and Nekheb (Elkab) are examples.

Nekhen on the Nile was one of the early Hebrew shrine cities. The temple there is dedicated to Horus. Excavations at Nekhen and Nekheb confirm that these sites had been inhabited permanently from early Predynastic times onwards. In fact, hundreds of ancient settlements existed the length of the Nile Valley. Many are visible as mounds. Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards (1831-1892) noted these during her travels in Egypt. From her ship these appeared as “sand hills” and she reported that there were hundreds of them, some quite large.

The larger settlements had pillared temples built at the higher elevations. The Horite and Sethite mounds are described in the Ancient Pyramid Texts. The temple priests collected tributes and taxes, managed grain distribution, and distributed to the needy. The temples also were places of healing, called “Houses of Life.”

The early Hebrew physicians were highly specialized in their medical practice. Each treated only one disease. They used many remedies: oil, herbs, spices, honey, minerals, vapors, moldy bread, clay, and saliva. The healings performed by Jesus show that he was not limited to curing only one ailment and he was not relying on training such as the Hebrew physician-priests received at the Houses of Life.

The Sun Cities

The early temples were "oriented" to the rising Sun, the emblem of the High God. The Sun represented the early Hebrew understanding of the Creator as the source and sustainer of life. The early solar symbolism of the Nilotic priests is evident in the stone relief (shown below). 

Baboons were observed to chatter at the crack of dawn. The shen mark appears over the heads of the baboons. It is the symbol for eternity. The baboons flank an "Imperishable Star," a symbol of eternity and immortality. The dung beetle was observed to navigate by the light of the Milky Way which the Nilotes regarded as the path to the eternal Father Ra. At the bottom is an image of the sun rays shedding light on the Earth. The sun's radiance represents it life-giving and life-sustaining power. This was a common image on ancient monuments.

The first temples appeared between 10,000 and 3000 BC. However, in ancient times the average person rarely went to the temples. These were the precincts of rulers and priests. When a commoner went to the temple, it was to seek guidance and/or healing from the priests who served as mediators between the High God and the community. Some people would go up to the High Places to celebrate important festivals and feasts. The feasts were established and upheld by the king and his royal priests.

Solemn fasts were also declared by the king's royal priests. Fasts were declared for the death of a king, member of the king's family, or a high royal official. Fasting was also an act of contrition. The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians fasted as a form of penance, and to deflect what they considered to be divine punishment. Famine, impending war, and natural disasters were regarded as signs of God's wrath.

The ancient temples were built at high elevations by kings and were under their protection. These were places of worship of the High God whose name was associated with the king's realm. Royal priests (ruler-priests) serving at the temples were organized into orders or guilds: lectors, musicians, guards, prophets/seers, sacrificing priests, physicians, purification priests, etc.

In the ancient Egyptian and Ugaritic languages, the word "piru" meant house, shrine, or temple. The O'piru were east-facing Sun temples located at the center of royal Sun Cities. The Sun was the emblem of the Creator among the servants of the Sun temples. Contrary to popular opinion, the priests did not worship the Sun.

Various castes worked at the O'piru. These included priests, metalworkers, tanners, stone masons, vintners, and guards and warriors. These occupations were in service to the deity and to the king who built the temple. The king often served as the high priest of the temple. A seated statue that shows Ramses II in the leopard skin of a priest was found at the temple that he built near Cairo. The temple was found in a suburb of Cairo called Ain Shams. Shams is the Arabic word for Sun.

There were many groups of priests in the ancient world. The deity to which the temple was dedicated was the deity the priests served. Most priests recognized a High God, though the High God was called by different names: Re (meaning "Father" in ancient Egyptian), Shamash (related to the word for Sun, the emblem of the High God), YHWH, Anu, El, etc.

The Hebrew priests were devotees of the High God and his son Horus. Their prestige derived from recognition of the caste’s great antiquity and piety. The Hebrew were known for their purity of life, sobriety, and devotion to God Father and God Son.

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.”

Devotion to Hathor

A temple dedicated to Hathor, the mother of Horus, was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. The copper mines at Timna were found at the foothills along the western fringe of the southern Arabah Valley. The smelting works, slag, and flints at this site were found to be identical to those discovered near Beersheba where Abraham spent much of his time.

The metal workers of Timna and Beersheba were kin, and the patroness of their mining and smelting operations was Hathor, the mother of Horus. She was venerated by the Horite and Sethite Hebrew. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

Thousands of ancient images show Hathor "overshadowed" by the Sun, the emblem of the High God. This narrative is proto-Gospel, a foretelling of the Virgin Mary who conceived by divine overshadowing. As the Angel Gabriel explained to her: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most-High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1)

The expectation of the early Hebrew that a woman of their ruler-priest caste would bring forth the Son of God is expressed in Genesis 3:15 and fulfilled in the person of the Virgin Mary. The Hebrew chose marriage partners from their ruler-priest families (caste endogamy). It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest caste because even those who hated her admit this in the Talmud. “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.” (Sanhedrin 106a)

Related reading: The Hebrew were a Caste; Horite and Sethite Mounds; Twin Cities of the Ancient World; Sun Cities of the Ancient World; The Dung Beetle and Heavenly Lights

The Cult of Asherah

Alice C. Linsley

The term "Asherah" appears forty times in the Hebrew Bible and yet the exact nature of this term is unclear. Sometimes the Asherah is a pole, a carved post, a pillar, a sacred grove, a goddess, or a cult object. Some biblical rulers tolerated and even encouraged the Asherah cult. Others opposed it. But what exactly were they opposing? 

Perhaps the ambiguity is purposeful and intended. The Asherah cult was not contained in Jerusalem and was not easily controlled by the Jerusalem elite who discouraged local and regional shrines. They sought to boost the prestige of the Jerusalem Temple as a symbol of Jewish identity, especially after the Babylonian captivity. 

However, earlier in Israel's history, an Asherah statue stood in Solomon's temple. When Rehoboam came to the throne, Maacah, his wife and the queen mother, became the royal patron of the cult. Asherah's statue stood within the Jerusalem Temple throughout Rehoboam's reign and throughout the short reign of his son, Abijah. 

There is a long-standing custom of royal women holding office as the protectors of sacred shrines. Sargon (reigned c. 2334–2284 BC) appointed his daughter Heduanna as the "En" of the shrine at Ur. The Akkadian term En means lord, master, royal official, priest or priestess. En-Heduanna served the Creator God Anu, at the house/shrine (pr) of Anu. As with Roman Catholic nuns, she would have been considered “married” to the deity she served. En-Heduanna is credited with a large body of cuneiform poetry.

In ancient Egypt, some royal daughters were appointed to the positions of the God’s Wife (Hemet Netjer) and the Divine Adoratrice (Duat Netjer). These offices were held by women of high social rank, like the queen’s mother, or the wife of the high priest of the most favored royal temple. 

Ahmose I (r. 1550-1525 BC) appointed his principal wife to the office of the God’s Wife of Amun, and he endowed the office with financial resources, servants, real estate, and provided a royal retinue fitting the wife of Amun.

The powerful influence of the royal mother is evident in the story of Bathsheba appearing before her son, King Solomon. When Bathsheba went to speak to Solomon on behalf of Adonijah, the king stood to greet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king's mother, and she sat down at Solomon's right hand. (1 Kings 2:19)

Different titles appear in ancient texts for women of such high status. Gebirah is a title ascribed to several queen mothers of Israel and Judah. Maacha is called gebirah (“great lady”) and she is associated with the goddess Asherah. Asherah is likely a reference to Hathor who was venerated by the Horite and Sethite Hebrew, but this practice was problematic for Jews who rejected the belief in God Son.

Ash holding the royal scepter with the Horus totem.

Some women attained high rank as royal officials (sometimes termed "priestesses") in charge of Hathor shrines. The shrines were located at sources of water such as rivers, oases, or wells in sacred groves. This suggests that the term Asherah is related to the Egyptian deity Ash, the protector of those who traveled the trade routes between the Nile and Mesopotamia. He was the guardian of oases. 

The archetypal queen mother is Hathor, called Ashratu in Mesopotmia. Ashratu and Asherah are related to Ash, the Sethite Hebrew deity of water shrines.

Another title for royal ladies who served at water shrines is rabitu. Ra-bitu is from the Akkadian words for water (raatu) and house/shrine (biitu). The emblem of the rabitu was the spindle. In the Ugaritic mythology of Elimelek the queen mother holds the title "ra-bitu" and her emblem is the spindle.

According to Tradition, the Annunciaton took place when Mary went to the Temple well. Mary is shown in some icons holding a spindle. The King's Mother is a type of the Virgin Mary, who is crowned by the Sun (Revelation 12:1-5), as a symbol of her being divinely overshadowed (Luke 1:35).

She fulfills the Horite Hebrew expectation that a woman of their ruler-priest caste would conceive the son of God by divine overshadowing as shown in ancient images of Hathor.

I propose that the Asherah cult was associated with water shrines where women sought divine help to conceive. The solar symbolism and the cow-calf imagery suggest a connection to Hathor and the religion of the Horite Hebrew. (See Hathor Veneration at Timna.)

Related reading: Steve A. Wiggins, Athirat, Asherah, Ashratu; Hebrew Rulers With Two Wives; Denying Marriage: A Cunning Royal Strategy; Wells and Brides; A Woman at a Well; Asherah and the Asherah Cult 

Midianite Potters of Edom

A tent-shrine or tabernacle was discovered at Timnaʿthat resembled the biblical description of the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness. Stone-lined post-holes were found with acacia wood fragments and numerous copper rings. There were copious fragments of copper wire knots likely used to suspend the tent curtains.

At all sites where Midianite sherds were found (B. Rothenberg and Glass 1983; Parr 1988; Knauf 1988: 21-23), their dating was of the New Kingdom period of Timna, an industrial-scale metallurgical site in and around the Wadi Arabah in ancient Edom. The region was rich in copper and the metal work done there appears to have involved religious ritual. Juan Manuel Tebes points out that the Midianite ceramic wares also appear "consistently in cultic contexts, administrative buildings, and burial offerings."

In the early 2000's, Dr. Thomas E. Levy led an archaeological survey that yielded earlier dates than had been assigned to the Edomite kingdom. The team found scarabs, painted pottery shards, metal arrowheads, hammers, grinding stones, and slag heaps. Dr. Levy stated, "Only a complex society such as a paramount chiefdom or primitive kingdom would have the organizational know-how to produce copper metal on such an industrial scale." 

An "impressive amount of Midianite ware" was found around the tent-shrine at Timna. The Midianites were related to Abraham through his son Midian, born of Abraham's cousin wife Keturah (Gen. 25). They should be considered a Horite Hebrew clan of Edom. Moses married his cousin Zipporah, a daughter of the Midianite priest Jethro. Moses' father married a Horite woman of Edom (see diagram above).

At Timna there was a shrine to Hathor, the mother of Horus. (Horus is derived from the Ancient Egyptian HR, meaning "Most High One.") Hathor was the patron of the Horite metal workers at Timna and at other metal workers sites in the region. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)

Concerning House 314 at Tel Masos near Beersheba Juan Tebes writes: “Within several of its habitations, rests of metallurgical activities were visible on the ground, possibly connected to a ritual function, as has been suggested by the appearance of ‘human’ figurines very similar to those found at the Hathor temple of Timna."

Tel Masos sits at the gateway to Hebron where Sarah resided. Keturah likely resided at or near Tel Masos or Beersheba. These sites were within Abraham's territory in Edom as shown on the map above. Note the placement of the wives on a north-south axis, a characteristic of the Horite marriage pattern involving two wives.

Horite Hebrew priests were active in metal work, as is evidence in the stories of Aaron and Moses fabricating ritual objects. They were rather widely dispersed in the ancient world. Horite Hebrew priests were found in Aram, Edom, Judah, and Moab. The Midianite potters were among them.


Related reading: The Chiefs of Edom, The Substance of Abraham's Faith, The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; A Land Whose Stones are Iron and From Whose Hill You May Mine Copper.; The Antiquity of the Edomite Rulers

Fertility Images Among Abraham's Ancestors

Alice C. Linsley

Iron was associated with the rulers of the archaic world. The iron beads that fell from the sky would have held special importance to them.  According to Joyce Tyldesley, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester, “The sky was very important to the ancient Egyptians.” Tyldesley goes on to say: “Something that falls from the sky is going to be considered as a gift from the gods.”

Diane Johnson says, "Iron was very strongly associated with royalty and power." Images from Nekhen, a 3,500 year old Horite shrine city, show ruler-priests carrying flails and crooks and wearing iron beads around their necks. Abraham's ancestors were among these archaic rulers. Their existence has been confirmed through scientific analysis of the Genesis King Lists.

Meteoric iron was prevalent on the Arabian Peninsula due to iron meteoroids which caused hypervelocity cratering. Iron meteoroids are able to pass through the atmosphere intact. The Wabar craters of the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia were caused by iron meteoroids. Fist-sized iron balls and smooth sand-blasted fragments at the site indicated a meteorite impact, as there are no iron deposits in the region.

R. F. Tylecote notes, "Around 4000 BC small items, such as the tips of spears and ornaments, were being fashioned from iron recovered from meteorites." (A History of Metallurgy, 2nd edition, 1992, p. 3)

Meteoric iron bits were viewed as seeds sown by the Creator. These iron seeds were often placed in graves as an expression of the hope of life after death. At a cemetery in Gerzeh, about 40 miles south of Cairo, archaeologist Wainwright found 3,300 year old meteoric iron beads. Gerzeh, el Badari, and Nekhen are prehistoric sites of the Naqada civilization. The meteoric iron beads found at Gerzeh are among the earliest known iron artifacts.

Iron beads were worn around the necks of by archaic chiefs. Such images have been found on prehistoric rock paintings in the Sudan. Likely the rulers believed that these iron beads provided them with powers from above. Wearing them would have been a sign of divine appointment.

Divine appointment included claims of authority as a ruler, a priest and a warrior.  For females it was expressed in the miraculous conception of rulers, priests and great warriors.


Sacred Pillars and Divine Insemination

Divine insemination also is portrayed by stone pillars or benben. Sometimes the pillar is upright and sometimes the pillar points down as in this fertility image. Hindu scholars regard this as evidence of the yoni and lingam among prehistoric peoples. The stone yoni (vagina) and stone lingam (phallus) are often shown united in Hindu temples and shrines. In Hinduism this symbol came to represent the "mother goddess" and rebirth.

Originally this symbol was a sacred pillar within the long horns of the cow. The pillar symbolizes the Creator's sun rays which were believed to inseminate the Earth. It is interesting that the yoni stone has never been found at locations where Abraham's ancestors lived. The evidence suggests that among Abraham's ancestors valleys were seen as vaginal and mountains as phallic. These were of God's creating, not objects fashioned by human hands. At a later time (1500-200 BC) the artifact with the closest symbolism to the Hindu yoni was the round grinding stone and circular threshing floors, both of which were also solar images.

Threshing floors were sacred places at high level elevations where the wind could carry away the chaff. Araunah, a Jebusite ruler, sold David a threshing floor upon which David constructed an altar. Threshing floors were places of worship in the ancient world.

Among the ancient Egyptians the pillar and yoni were represented by the sema sign (shown right). The sema sign of ancient Egyptian rulers is a type of benben, a pillar that expressed the hope of bodily resurrection. The term benben is formed by the reduplication of the root bn, meaning to arise or to swell forth as the sun swells on the eastern horizon. The ancient Egyptian word for the rising sun is wbn. Benben have been found from Nigeria to India. 

Recently discovered tombs of officials from the 4th Dynasty were surmounted by conical mounds or benben. These tombs, along with the royal tombs at Giza, indicate that the ancient rulers hoped to rise from the place of death, as the Sun rises each morning from the death of night.



Foreshadowing of the Incarnation of the Christ

Abraham's Habiru (Hebrew) ancestors were a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Ra, Horus and Hathor. This has been confirmed through many studies in Biblical Anthropology. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of these ruler speaks of the ascendancy of Christ to his eternal throne. The striking parallels between the Ra-Horus-Hathor narrative and the story of Jesus Christ are not coincidental.

Horus was regraded as the Seed of Ra, conceived by Hathor when she was overshadowed by the Sun. The Sun was the emblem of Ra, the supreme creator. For the prehistoric Nilotes, the Sun was the source of insemination and the iron beads were called beja (bija in Sanskrit), meaning seed or semen.

Hathor's totem was a cow and she is shown wearing the horns of the cattle raised by the ancient Nilo-Saharans. At some Nile shrines she is shown holding her infant in a cattle shed. Here we have elements of the Proto-Gospel, or a foreshadowing of the Christ in the Ra-Horus-Hathor narrative. It is evident then that Messianic expectation did not begin with the Jews. The antiquity of this belief is expressed in the first prophesy of the Bible based: the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15) made to Abraham's ancestors.

Aspects of this prehistoric solar symbolism are found in the Bible and in historical texts. Psalm 92:2 describes the Lord as “a sun and a shield.” The Victory Tablet of Amenhotep III describes Horus as “The Good God, Golden [Horus], Shining in the chariot, like the rising of the sun; great in strength, strong in might…” (Tablet of Victory of Amenhotep III, J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, p. 854).

The expectation arose among the Proto-Saharans (Haplogroup R1b peoples) that a Woman would conceive by divine overshadowing. This is portrayed in images of Hathor wearing the cow long horns as a sun cradle. The image portrays her as being divinely overshadowed. She is the mother of Horus, the "son" or "seed" of the Creator. Likewise, it is said of the Virgin Mary that she conceived by divine overshadowing (Luke 1:35). Jesus identified himself as the divine Seed when he foretold his death in Jerusalem. He said, "Unless a seed fall into the ground and die, it cannot give life." (John 12:24)

The worship of Horus was well established before the earliest Egyptian Dynasties. The oldest known temple (c. 5500 BC) to have association with Abraham's ancestors is the temple of Horus at Nekhen. Votive offerings at the Nekhen temple were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine city.

Horite priests faced the east and placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress at dawn. Prayers were offered at dawn and dusk. Horus was said to rise in the morning as a lamb and to set in the evening as a ram. This maturity from lamb to ram is a Messianic idea that stands behind the narrative of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah. Isaac asked where is the lamb for the sacrifice and Abraham responds that God will provide the sacrifice. On the "mountain of the Lord" a ram was provided.

Related reading: Iron Seeds From Heaven; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; Jesus: From Lamb to Ram; Threshing Floors and Solar Symbols; Peaks and Valleys in Biblical Symbolism; Sacred Mountains and Pillars; The Gourd in Biblical Symbolism

Miners Venerated Hathor

Faynan Copper mine in present-day Jordan, ancient Edom.
This site is the Jordanian counterpart of the copper works at Timna.

Mohammad Najjar and Thomas Levy have been excavating at an ancient copper mine site in the Faynan district of Jordan for more than 20 years. Copper has been mined here for 12,000 years, and the copper smelting here has been done since 4,500 years ago.

This area was part of Edom, a land ruled by the Horites listed in Genesis 36. They are described as having a red skin tone and the ancient Greeks called Edom "Idumea" which means "land of red people." Edom was part of the Nabatean kingdom and the Nabatean warriors resembled the red Nubian warriors with their long wavy hair and the wearing of feathers on their legs.

Nabataean warriors had long wavy hair and wore feathers.
They appear to be related to the red Nubian warriors shown below.

The Horites were devotees of Re, Horus and Hathor. Hathor was venerated as the patroness of miners. Petra reflects Horite beliefs.

Faynan’s twin is the site of Timna in the Negev desert of Israel. In 1934 the area was surveyed by the American archaeologist Nelson Glueck. The area was also surveyed by Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University between 1959 and 1961. Professor Rothenberg discovered a temple dedicated to Hathor at the southwest edge of Mt. Timna. The smelting works, slag and flints at Timna were found to be identical to those discovered near Beersheba where the elderly Abraham lived with his cousin wife, Keturah. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (p. 183)

Beersheba is at the southern boundary of ancient Edom. Both Edomite and Midianite pottery have been discovered at Beersheba. A four-horned brazen altar identical in structural to the altar used later by the Israelites was uncovered in 1973. This discovery was made by a team under the direction of Yohanan Aharoni and Ze'ev Herzog of Tel Aviv University. The team first encountered an ancient storage wall that contained the stones of the altar. Three of the stones still had large horns projecting from them, but the horn of the fourth stone had been broken off. Yet still another stone had the carved image of a serpent, probably indicating Kenite construction. The stones, which had been incorporated into a wall, were reassembled to assume their former shape and dated to the time of the Patriarchs. The altar may have been destroyed during Hezekiah’s attempts to eradicate all shrines outside Jerusalem.

Beersheba had strategic importance because it was the largest settlement in the Negev. It guarded the trade routes between Mesopotamia and Egypt and between the Nile Delta and Southern Arabia. Its fortifications in the late Iron Age were impressive and included a moat that encircled the city and a steeply-sloped earthen rampart. Beyond the rampart the city was surrounded by thick stone walls. The gate was a chambered type, and inside the gate archaeologists found an incense altar at the high place, just as described in II Kings 23:8.

Related reading: V. Kassianidou and A. Bernard Knapp, Archaeometallurgy in the Mediterranean: The Social Context of Mining, Technology and Trade; Red and Black Smiths; The Edomites and the Color Red; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; The Re-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Edom and the Horites

The Fig Tree in Biblical Symbolism

Luxor figs, detail from Usarhet's tomb

Usarhat, a high ranking official, was "Overseer and Scribe of the Cattle of Amun."

Alice C. Linsley

The fig tree is one of the oldest known fruit trees, as attested by the discovery of figs in an 11,400-year-old house near Jericho.

Illustrations of fig trees are found on monuments and tombs of ancient Egypt. The Sycamore Fig grew in abundance along the Nile, the region from which Abraham's cattle-herding ancestors came. This tree was the plant totem of Hathor, the mother of Horus. The oldest sycamore tree in Egypt is in Matarria and is known as the "Virgin Mary Tree".

Zohary and Hopf, authors of Domestication of Plants in the Old World (Oxford University Press), assert that Egypt was "the principal area of sycamore fig development." They note that "the fruit and the timber, and sometimes even the twigs, are richly represented in the tombs of the Egyptian Early, Middle and Late Kingdoms. In numerous cases the parched sycons bear characteristic gashing marks indicating that this art, which induces ripening, was practiced in Egypt in ancient times."

In ancient Egyptian iconography the Sycamore stands on the threshold of life and death, veiling the threshold by its abundant low-hanging foliage. The caskets of some Egyptian mummies were made from the wood of the Sycamore Fig tree. Pharaohs called the Sycamore Fig Nehet.

With one striking exception, the fig tree symbolizes life, prosperity, peace, and righteousness throughout the Bible. Micah 4:4 reads: “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one shall make them afraid.”

Jesus alludes to this image of the righteous man enjoying God's peace under his own fig tree when he said to Nathaniel, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Nathaniel said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

The fruit bearing tree is also an allusion to the crucifixion and to the third-day resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the third day, God said, “Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit.” The third day signals the exercise of divine power, or in more mystical terms, the arousal of God. In this, trees and pillars have similar symbolism. Both rise from the earth and stretch upward toward heaven. Jesus who was lifted up on the tree is the sign of God's power to draw all to Himself.

The Fig Tree's Association with Hathor

The fig tree is associated with the "Seed of God" (Gen. 3:15) in ancient Horite Hebrew symbolism. The sycamore fig was Hathor’s tree. Hathor conceived HR (Horus) by the overshadowing of the Sun. That is why she is shown with the solar image resting between the cattle horns on her head. In ancient Egyptian, Horus was called HR, meaning "Most High One". 

Hathor’s tree was regarded as a ‘tree of life.’ The drink made from the fruit was said to make one wise. This is the tradition behind Genesis 3:6:  "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desireable for gaining knowledge, she took some and ate it."

The fruit taken by Eve might have been a fig from the Sycamore Fig tree (Ficus sycomorus) which grew in abundance along rivers in the region of Eden. This tradition is represented in paintings by the fig leaves covering Adam and Eve's private parts (Gen. 3:7). G. E. Post (1902), a botanist specializing in the fauna of Syria and Palestine, believes that the leaves used by the first couple were from the common fig. It ranged from the Atlantic coast of Nigeria to the Indian Ocean and was cultivated along the Nile, the Red Sea and in Trye and Sidon.

Present range of the Sycamore Fig Tree

In Palestine and North Africa some fig trees bear a first crop in June. These are usually so ripe that they are easily shaken from the trees. Likely, this is behind the warning of Nahum 3:12, “All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.”

The edible fig was called tena in Aramaic and tin in Arabic. The Hebrew word teena signifies the fig tree near which another is planted, as the fig and the caprifig (wild fig). It also refers to the union of male and female such as results from caprification. Caprification is a technique in which flowering branches of the wild fig are hung in the orchards of cultivated fig trees. This allows wasps to carry pollen from the flowers of the caprifig to those of the edible varieties to pollinate the cultivated trees.

In Deuteronomy 8:8, Yahweh brings the Israelites into a land of olive oil, honey, wheat, barley, vines, pomegranates and fig trees. The importance of figs may be judged from the account of Abigail, who went out to meet David with an offering of two hundred fig cakes.


The Failure to Produce Fruit

In its natural habitat, the Sycamore Fig bears large yellow or red fruit year round, peaking from July to December. Jesus “cursed” the fig tree that failed to produce fruit. All fruit bearing trees were created to produce fruit, but this particular tree failed to do what it was created to do.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. (Mark 11:12-14)

Jesus uses this to instruct His disciples that they were created to bear fruit and failure to do so would mean sharing the destiny of a dead tree. What does not produce fruit is eventually cut down and thrown into the fire.

Related reading:  Theories About the Tree of Life; Trees in Genesis; Antarctica Once Had Baobab Trees; Congo Basin Tree Study; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; African Religion Predates Hinduism