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

Seated with Christ

The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever.
Psalm 29:10

Alice C. Linsley

Many years of anthropological investigation using Biblical data has convinced me that Messianic expectation is one of the earliest religious beliefs. It is expressed in the burial practices of Abraham's archaic ancestors who believed in bodily resurrection and anticipated the coming of a Righteous Ruler who would overcome death and lead His people to immortality.

Through Biblical Anthropology some principles have been established to identify and authenticate material of great antiquity. On such principle states: "The more broadly dispersed throughout the canonical books a verse, quotation, or allusion is, the older it is." That means that Psalm 110:1 is one of the oldest Messianic references in the Bible. It appears in various forms in the Old Testament [Ps. 145:13; Isaiah 9; Daniel 4:34 and 7:27]  and at least 20 references are made to this in the New Testament.

Psalm 110: 1 reads, The Lord says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."

It is generally assumed that David wrote these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. However, that is not the case.  David received these words from his Horite Hebrew/Habiru ancestors. This belief was stated in these exact words at least 1000 years before David in the Coffin Texts. Consider how Horus, the archetype of Christ, 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'."

Here we find the words of Psalm 110:1, a Messianic reference, and the context for Paul's words: "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:6)

Therefore, let us live and pray as ones seated with Christ! Let us take hold of the promise of Christ: "To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne." (Revelation 3:21)


Horus and the Proto-Gospel

Horus, the Seed or "Son" of the Creator, was the embodiment of divine kingship and the protector of the reigning pharaoh. Ra and Horus shared the same emblem, the Sun, and were regarded as one, as Jesus confirmed when he said, "I and my Father are one." (John 10:30; John 17)

In Utterance 699 of the Pyramid Texts, Horus ascends aloft like a heron and is exalted at his Father's side. The prayer reads: "Be young, be young beside your Father."

Horus was conceived when Hathor was overshadowed by the Sun. Likewise, the angel told the Virgin 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." (Luke 1:35)

Hathor is shown wearing the sun within the horns of the cow. The Y image came to designate divinely appointed rulers among Abraham's people: Yitzak, Yacob, Yaqtan, Yishmael, Yeshua, Yishbak, etc. One of the signs of divine kingship was that the new born child was swaddled in a red cloak.

The Nilotic Rulers and Messianic Expectation

Saint Augustine wrote, "that the Egyptians alone believe in the resurrection, as they carefully preserved their dead bodies." (Jon Davies, "Death, burial, and rebirth in the religions of antiquity", Routledge, 1999, p. 27) However, the peoples of the Upper and Lower Nile shared this belief which they received from their Proto-Saharan ancestors. Royal tombs were built at the Horite Hebrew/Habiru shrine city of Nekhen before the first Egyptian Dynasty. The oldest section of Nekhen dates to 3800 BC. At Nekhen, Proto-Saharan nobles were buried with red ocher as early as 3500 BC.

One intriguing discovery at Nekhen was the recovery of an almost complete beard in association with the redheaded man in Burial 79. Consider how the descendants of these ruler-priests are often described in Genesis as red an hairy. Esau and David are examples, and the people who live in Abraham's territory of Edom was known to have a distinctive red tone. Edom or "Idumea" means land of red people.

Embalming of royal mummies was already a science by 2800 BC. Reference to a Righteous Ruler-Priest who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality is found in the Pyramid Texts (2400 BC) and in the Coffin Texts (2100 BC). These texts express the desire of the Kushites and Egyptians for immortality. The offices of ruler and priest were connected. They believed they would receive eternal life through the agency of their ruler-priest and they yearned for his appearing.

They ancient Kushites and Egyptians made a great ceremony of the burial of their dead kings. The construction of the royal tomb took many years. Upon completion of the tomb, there was as consecration ceremony. When the ruler died, the embalmer priests carefully prepared the body. There was a procession to the tomb, lead by the priests and royal family, the people in their train.  After prayers and animal sacrifice, the tomb was sealed. The grieving people returned to their homes. It was believed that the Righteous Ruler would rise on the third day just as the sun broke on the eastern horizon. At his rising the Righteous Ruler would gather his people to himself and lead them to immortality.

This is pictured in Psalm 68:18:  "You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there."

This is what the Apostle Paul refers to when he wrote, "This is why it says: 'When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.'" (Ephesians 4:8)


Related reading: Who Were the Horites?; Who Were the Kushites?; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Mining Blood; The Edomites and the Color Red; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; The Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel