Jesus Knew He is the Son of God

Jesus' name in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The early Hebrew believed in God Father and God Son and expected the Son of God to appear in the flesh. This is evident in the early texts of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew, some of which date to over 4000 years ago. 

Christianity emerged out of a belief that God made a promise in Eden concerning the Woman who would bring forth the Son of God (Gen. 3:15) and that He has fulfilled that promise in Jesus Christ. The Edenic Promise of Genesis 3:15 foretells how the Woman would bring forth a son who would crush the serpent's head and restore paradise. This early Hebrew expectation was expressed about 1000 years before Psalm 91 in the Pyramid Texts. "Horus has shattered (crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot" (Utterance 388).

 

A Horite Hebrew song found at the royal complex at Ugarit, speaks of HR (Horus) who descends to the place of the dead "to announce good tidings." The text reads: Hr ešeni timerri duri - "below in the dark netherworld" and has the Hittite phrase Šanizzin ḫalukan ḫalzi - "to announce good tidings". (See Note 2 on page 2012.)

The core beliefs of Christianity concerning the Incarnation by divine overshadowing (Luke 1:35), the Christ's proclamation of good tidings to the dead; the third-day resurrection, and the ascension to the Father can be traced to the beliefs of Abraham and his Hebrew ancestors. This faith predates all the world religions. Christianity's authority is rooted in the great antiquity of its central dogmas which have been preserved by divine oversight and which are found in the canonical Scriptures.

It has been said that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God. That claim is false. Jesus never prevaricated about his identity. He claimed his divine Sonship by referring to the Hebrew Scriptures.

Matthew 22:41-46 

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

This passage illustrates what the First Century Jews believed about the Messiah. When Jesus asked the Pharisees what they thought, they replied that Messiah is the son of David. They did not say Messiah (the Christ) is the Son of God because they did not believe that. Jesus, on the other hand, made that claim for himself when he referred to Daniel's vision and to various Psalms.

Daniel chapter 7 describes Daniel's vision of “one like a son of man,” that is, one who is human, yet “coming with the clouds of heaven” as only a Divine One could do. The "son of man" approached the Ancient of Days (Atik Yomin) and was led into his presence (7:13).

Clearly, Jesus identified himself as the fully human and fully divine one whose kingdom has no end. The Pharisees knew the book of Daniel. They recognized what Jesus was saying when he spoke of himself as the "Son of Man".

They also recognized that the citation is from Psalm 110:1 which reads: David says, “The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool'” and they recognized this as a Messianic reference.

Some may have known that this was taken from a text dating to nearly 1000 years before Psalm 110. In the Coffin Texts, we read:

"I am Horus [HR], 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'." (Passage 148)

Horus is the Greek for the early Horite Hebrew name HR which means "Most High One" in ancient Egyptian. HR was also called the son of the High God. The Father-Son relationship is expressed in the son's recognition of his Father in others. Horus was said to recognize his father in the deceased king. In a text dating to 2200 B.C. we read, "Horus is a soul and he recognizes his Father in you..." (The Pyramid Texts, Utterance 423)

In John 14, Jesus explains to Phillip, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."

Luke 20:41–21:4 

Then Jesus said to them, “How is it that they say the Messiah is the Son of David? David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’ David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?” While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.”

The Jewish elite were the most highly informed religious leaders of their people. It is difficult to believe that they did not understand what Jesus was claiming about himself. They knew that their Hebrew ancestors believed in God Father and God Son and that they expected the Son of God to appear in the flesh, yet they instructed the people to expect something different. They insisted that Messiah is a descendant of King David, and he would restore Israel's greatness. Their Messiah was too small and a projection of their own pride.

Jesus subdues the Father's enemies so that God's children might live and prosper. This is expressed in Psalm 2:12: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him."

John the Forerunner called the Jews to repentance so that they might receive their Messiah. The priest Simeon recognized Jesus as the Messiah and knew that his appearing meant the fall and rising of many in Israel (Luke 2:34). The prophetess Anna also recognized the child Jesus as the Messiah, and she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem (Luke 2:38). These are the three witnesses whose testimony is valid by Jewish law. 1 John 5:8 says: "And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."

Anna represents the Spirit, John the Forerunner represents the water, and Simeon the priest represents the blood.

Related reading: Signs Given That We Might Believe; Where Judaism and Christianity Part Ways; Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity; Horite and Sethite Mounds; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Jesus Messiah in the Hebrew Scriptures; Jesus' Ruler-Priest Ancestors

The Fatted Calf

"Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate..." - Luke 15:23

John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."  John knew that his cousin was born in Bethlehem, the home of an ancient and highly respected line of shepherd priests. Jesus speaks of himself as the "Good Shepherd" in John 10, but he never referred to himself as the "Lamb" of God.

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, he used the "fatted calf" to speak of Himself as the sacrifice (Θυσατε) and the feast (Eucharist) that come when the Father embraces the repentant sinner. The fatted calf is about sacrifice and the Eucharistic feast, as noted in Clark's Commentary:

The fatted calf, and kill it - Θυσατε, Sacrifice it. In ancient times the animals provided for public feasts were first sacrificed to God. The blood of the beast being poured out before God, by way of atonement for sin, the flesh was considered as consecrated, and the guests were considered as feeding on Divine food. 

Clearly the "fatted calf" is a Messianic reference. The sacrificed red cow was to have been a perpetual sacrifice for the people of Israel. The cow is sacrificed and burned outside the camp and the ashes used for "water of lustration." (Numbers 19:9)

Among Abraham's cattle-herding ancestors the fatted calf was sacrificed and eaten to solemnize covenants, upon resolving disputes over water rights, and when making reconciliation between opposing parties. Clearly, the "fatted calf" is not merely a metaphor of celebration for someone's long-awaited return.


Related reading: Who is Jesus?; Fundamentalism and Syncretism in Hebrew History; Boats and Cows of the Proto-Saharans; Why Cows Were Sacred in the Ancient World; Edo, Edom, Idumea: Land of Red People; The Red Heifer; The Edomites and the Color Red

Are Rabbinic Interpretations of the Bible Accurate?

Alice C. Linsley

A great deal of misunderstanding can result from the mechanical reproduction of previously published ideas either because those ideas are taken out of context or because they are based on factual errors. The manner in which authors sort and select data, without verifying the source or checking the facts, can lead to distorted interpretations. This problem must be anticipated in Bible interpretation where it is common to rely on what the rabbis have written.

As the Bible is viewed as a Jewish religious text, it is natural to seek rabbinic guidance. American Christians tend to read the Old Testament through rabbinic sources. Many seminaries and pastors use commentaries written by non-believing Jews. This is especially true among American Evangelicals. They appear to be unaware of the antecedents of Messianic expectation among Abraham's Nilo-Saharan and Saharo-Nubian ancestors. They also are generally unaware that Hebrew is an African language.

Rabbinic interpretations have influenced how Christians read the Old Testament from the start of the Church era. Sometimes the early Christians agreed with the rabbis' interpretations, but often they did not. The Church Fathers condemned Jewish attempts to discredit the testimony of the Apostles and many others. They also attempted, some more successfully than others, to refute rabbinic interpretations of the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, and rabbinic interpretations of Messianic passages, such as Psalm 101:1:

The Lord says to my lord:

“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”

And Psalm 110:4. The Rabbinic community has made many inflammatory accusations against the Christian interpretation of this verse.

The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”

Some rabbis insist that Christians tampered with the passage. One contemporary Rabbi has written: “Psalm 110 represents one of the New Testaments’s most stunning, yet clever mistranslations of the Jewish scriptures. Moreover, the confusion created by the Christianization of this verse was further perpetuated and promulgated by numerous Christian translators of the Bible as well…The story of the church’s tampering with Psalm 110 is so old that it begins in the Christian canon itself.” (The treatise on Jewish Objections vol.111)

Rabbi Singer said, “No Jew who had even a superficial knowledge of the Jewish scriptures would have ever found Jesus’ argument compelling, let alone a conversation stopper.”

But if David wrote the psalm, then Jesus' question is well considered: If the Messiah is merely David’s son, as was universally agreed, how can David call him his Lord? If David wrote this, what was his source? He believed in the coming of Messiah based on his Edomite heritage. Edom was where the Horite kings ruled and where Abraham's territory extended between Hebron and Beersheba. The Horites had long expected a Righteous Ruler to overcome death and lead His people to immortality. They were a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Horus and his mother Hathor-Meri, the patroness of Horite metalworkers.

It appears that David drew on the Horite Hebrew tradition. His father was a great Horite ruler whose territory extended from Bethlehem in Galilee to Ramah. Ramah was the home of Samuel's Horite father. It was Samuel who anointed David in Bethlehem and for a time the Ark rested in Bethlehem. The Bethlehem of Obed, Jesse and David is specifically associated with the Horites in I Chronicles 4:4 which names Hur (Hor) as the "father of Bethlehem." David's sons are called "priests" in II Samuel because they were of the Horite ruler-priest bloodline. This is Jesus' bloodline through Mary.

It was universally agreed that the Messiah was the "son" or descendant of David, and according to the prophet Micah He would come from Bethlehem, David's royal city. Bethlehem of Galilee was known as a fruitful place and therefore called Bethlehem "Ephratha." This is the Bethlehem of David's ancestors Ruth and Boaz. It was a region known for fruit and grain. It was connected to the royal house of Tyre. Tyre was one of the ancient seats of wisdom. Hiram I of Tyre helped David build his palace. Tyrian craftsmen also helped Solomon build the temple. The rulers of Tyre were considered to have roots in ancient Eden.

The prophet Ezekiel traces the rulers of Tyre back to Eden. "Son of Man, raise a lament over the king of Tyre and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and flawless beauty. You were in Eden, in the Garden of God; every precious stone was your adornment... and gold beautifully wrought for you, mined for you, prepared the day you were created." (Ezekiel 28:11-18)

Jesus went to Tyre and there His true identity was recognized, according to Mark's Gospel (cf. Matt. 15:21). Hiram I, David and Jesus share a common Horite ancestry that extends back to Eden. The Horites believed that the promised Seed of the Woman would be born of their ruler-priest lines and they expected Him to visit them. In Mark 7:24, this expectation was fulfilled when the Son of God visited Tyre. Mark explains that there Jesus “could not pass unrecognized.”


The Riddle Jesus Posed to the Jews

Then He said to them, "How is it that they say the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, 'The LORD said to my LORD, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."  (Luke 20:21-45; Mark 12:35,36)

How can David's son/descendant also be called David's Lord? This was the riddle that Jesus posed to his disclaimers.

“Psalm 110 represents one of the New Testament’s most stunning, yet clever mistranslations of the Jewish scriptures. Moreover, the confusion created by the Christianization of this verse was further perpetuated and promulgated by numerous Christian translators of the Bible as well…The story of the church’s tampering with Psalm 110 is so old that it begins in the Christian canon itself.” (From here.)

The ruling Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah and the division took place when our Lord was manifested at His Baptism, in His Galilean ministry, and during His passion. He fulfilled all the signs of Messiah: feeding the people, calming wind and waves, healing the lame, giving sight to the blind and raising the dead, yet the ruling Jews refused to believe. They rejected the tradition of their own Horim (Horite Hebrew ancestors) who knew that the ultimate sign of Messiah's identity would be the third-day resurrection and an empty tomb. This is why Abraham's ancestors were buried with such care and their tombs sealed. They believed that the salvation of the people depended on a Righteous Ruler, who having overcome death, could led his people to immortality. The third-day resurrection was regarded as the most definitive sign whereby Messiah would be identified. The Jews knew this and therefore took great precaution to see that Rome sealed the tomb and posted a guard.

The Jews have spun a myth that Abraham was the first Jew. This is historically, anthropologically and linguistically inaccurate. Even Shaye Cohen, the leading Jewish scholar at Harvard, admits this in his interview with NOVA. To avoid the reality of Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors, the rabbis begin Jewish history with the calling of Abraham. But it just doesn't work. Since Abraham was Habiru (Hebrew) and not a Jew, the central narrative of Judaism shifted to Moses, and we came to think of Israel as having two different origins. However, Moses's family was Horite. That has been confirmed through analysis of Amram's marriage and ascendancy, which is distinctively Horite Hebrew.

The prophets were right to condemn Egyptian polytheism. The Horites were not polytheistic. They believed in a single Creator whose son was Horus and they spoke of the Father and Son as equals. So it is that Christianity emerges from a tradition much older than Judaism. In this sense, the core of the Christian faith is the oldest known religion. It took the Apostles a while to sort this out since they were brought up in post-exilic Judaism which is very far from the faith of Abraham and his Habiru ancestors. However, after the Resurrection, the Apostles recognized Jesus as Messiah and began to insist that unless one believed that He is the Son of God one cannot be saved. From that point, the division of Christianity and Judaism was inevitable. Rabbinic animosity toward followers of the Christ intensified after the destruction of the Temple, for which Christians were blamed. The Sanhedrin relocated to Jamnia and from there the campaign to paint Jesus as a fraud began in earnest.

When we consider the Horite beliefs concerning the Righteous Ruler we find close parallels. His mother was to be overshadowed. Because her animal totem was the cow she is shown in Nile temples holding her infant child in a stable. A Horite ceremony involved the priests bringing gifts and setting them before the Child. Another ceremony involved two days of mourning for the death of Horus and on the third day the priests cast grain into the fields as a sign of new life. When telling his disciples of His impending death, Jesus identified Himself as Seed or fallen grain in John 12:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

As for Jesus' I Am designation, consider how Horus describes himself in the Coffin texts (passage 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'." (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, p. 216)

Here we find the words of David in Psalm 110:1 - The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."

Ultimately, the great divide centers on the question Who is Jesus? The rabbis have not been open-minded on this question. They have given ignominious names to Mary and her Son. In the Talmud Mary is called "Charia" which means dung or excrement. Yet they grant that she was of the ruler-priest lines. Sanhedrin 106a say, “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.” Jesus is called "Jeschu" which means May his name and memory be blotted out. His Hebrew name is Yeshua, which means Salvation. Sanhedrin 43a says that Jesus the Nazarene was executed because he practiced sorcery.


Related reading: The Substance of Abraham's Faith; Destruction of the Temple: Rabbinic Interpretations; Messianic Jews and the Antecedents of Judaism; Who Were the Levites?; The Talmud Versus the Doctrine of the Lord; Answering Rabbis Objections to Yeshua

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