Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse




A query from France:

Dear Damien,

Do you know “The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse” by Patrick Heron (Kensington Publishing Corp., 2004).? It offers many interesting views on mythologies and Egypt.
I read it because I am writing an article on “the days of Noah” (Mt24:36-38 or Lc17:26) . Transhumanism looks terribly similar, if not much worse, to the deeds of the Nephilim before and after the Flood.
So I am just curious to know if you, perchance, have any opinion on this author and his theses.
I wish you a holy and merry Christmas !

....


Damien Mackey replies:

....

I once went to a lecture where it was even suggested that the Egyptians may originally have come from the Moon.
As I see it, the Nephilim came into being when the originally good Sethite line (the children of God) began to mingle with the corrupt Cain-ites. Their progeny were the Nephilim hybrids.
This was all pre-Flood (c. 2300 BC), of course, well before the Pyramids of Giza were built.
There were also giants after the Flood. Children of Ham, perhaps. Some think that Naamah was Noah's second wife, a Cain-ite, and that Ham procreated with her - the cursed Caanan being the outcome.
Surely the giants are archaeologically available to us still in the Neanderthal 'brutes', who could nonetheless be highly intelligent and capable of great deeds.
In any case, none of this has anything to do with fallen angels copulating with earth women, I believe. That is a ridiculous notion.
Almost a millennium later than the Flood, when Moses was young, the Hebrew slaves (amongst others) were the labour for the pyramids to be built (according to Josephus). This was Egypt's 4th dynasty.
Khufu, in my opinion, was the father of the Egyptian foster-mother of Moses, Merris (= Meresankh). Chephren (Greek Chenephres), Khufu's successor, was the husband of Merris.
The Hebrews did far more than that, they also laboured in mighty agricultural and irrigation works.
Obviously the overseers of all this labour were highly skilled men. But they were not non-humans, or demi-gods, or even UFO people.

Have a very happy and blessed Christmas yourself.
Damien M.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Amazing New Satellite Archaeology





Egypt's lost pyramids: Spied from space by satellite, 17 tombs buried by sands of time


By Fiona Macrae



  • More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements found
  • Findings are a major boost to relatively new science of space archaeology
Indiana Jones found success with little more than a bullwhip and a fedora. These days however, if you want to make your mark as an archaeologist, a bit of space technology works wonders.
Satellites have helped locate 17 pyramids and 3,000 ancient settlements hidden underground in Egypt.
More than 1,000 burial sites were also discovered thanks to infra-red technology capable of probing beneath the desert sands from 450 miles above the Earth.
[For maps and images, see original article]

Pyramid of Djoser: Many more are thought to be buried underground. The cameras on the satellites are so powerful that they can precisely image objects on Earth that are less than one metre in diameter
Astounded researchers on the ground have already confirmed that two of the pyramids exist - and they believe there are thousands more unknown sites in the region.
NASA-funded archaeologist Sarah Parcak said: ‘I couldn’t believe we could locate so many sites. To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist.’
The finds are hugely significant. Until the latest discoveries there were thought to have been almost 140 pyramids across Egypt.
But experts have long argued that there must be many more that remain undiscovered, buried by the sands of time. Dr Parcak, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, analysed images from satellites equipped with cameras so powerful they can zoom in on objects less than three feet in diameter on the Earth’s surface.

The amazing satellite images have revealed pyramids and ancient homes

Ancient streetmap: A satellite image shows Tanis to be a city littered with underground tombs. Buildings in ancient Egypt were constructed out of mud brick - the material is dense, allowing satellites orbiting above Earth to photograph the outlines of structures invisible to the human eye

Hidden history: This image of Tanis shows the difference between what the naked eye can see and the underground details that the high-powered satellite camera can pick up


THE LOST ARK IN A LOST CITY?

HARRISON FORD AS INDIAN JONES

In Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tanis is named as the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

The film chronicles the archaeologist adventurer's race against the Nazis to recover the Ark - which they want as they believe it will make them invincible.

With the help of his dead mentor's daughter Marion - an old girlfriend of his - tracks down the Well of Souls, the secret chamber in which the Ark is buried, before they do.

From the Well of Souls he recovers the Ark, but the Nazis steal it off them.

But when they open it to unleash its power, it releases a stream of demonic apparitions which destroy those who look at them.
Dr Parcak told the BBC: 'I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the "a-ha" moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we'd found.'
The mud bricks used by ancient Egyptians are much denser than the sand and soil that surrounds them, allowing the shapes of homes, temples, tombs and other structures built thousands of years ago to be seen by satellites orbiting 435miles above Earth to photograph the outlines of structures invisible to the human eye.

The cameras on the satellites are so powerful that they can precisely image objects on Earth that are less than one metre in diameter.
The researchers' findings are a major boost to the relatively new science of space archaeology.
Their most promising excavations are taking place in Tanis, the hiding place of the Ark of the Covenant in the 1981 Indiana Jones blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they are uncovering a 3,000-year-old house.
Excitingly, the outline of the house exactly matches the shape seen on the satellite images.
Two pyramids at Saqqara – the burial ground for the ancient capital of Memphis – have already been confirmed by excavations and the site is being hailed as one of the most important in Egyptian archaeology. The oldest pyramids ever discovered were built in Saqqara around 2,600BC.



Only the beginning: Archaeologist Dr Sarah Parcak points out the site of a buried pyramid on a satellite image
The camera's high level of accuracy has impressed the Egyptian government, which now plans to use the technology to identify and protect its colossal heritage in the future.
Dr Parcak, whose work will feature in the BBC documentary Egypt’s Lost Cities on Monday, believes that there are many more buildings buried deeper than those already spotted, the most likely location being under the banks of the River Nile.
She said: 'These are just the sites close to the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt.
'This is just the beginning of this kind of work.'


Digging deep: The archaeologists' most promising excavations are taking place in the ancient city of Tanis
She told the BBC: ‘It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements.
‘These are just the sites [close to] the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt. This is just the beginning of this kind of work.’
She said the technology could be used to monitor the looting of antiquities, as well as to engage young people around the world in science and help archaeologists in their quest to uncover the secrets of the past.
The archaeologist said, ‘We have to think bigger and that’s what the satellites allow us to do. Indiana Jones is old school. We’ve moved on from Indy, sorry Harrison Ford.’
A hidden chamber unseen for 4,500 years may have been discovered inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. A robotic probe designed by British engineers found hieroglyphs inside a tunnel that leads from the pyramid’s Queen’s chamber, New Scientist magazine reports. Cameras have also sent back images of a stone door which it is thought could lead to a hidden chamber.

The comments below have not been moderated.
The Giza Pyramid is housing to sheild the radiation from the ark of the covenant, the whole structure is used for some kind of power apparatus, water is involved somehow, probably a cooling purpose for the ark which is theorised to be atomic, the marble/granite box in the Kings chamber for the Ark and not Khufus burial monument, the capstone gold, a conductor. The hidden room found recently points to the likely discovery in the future that the pyramid descends under the ground in a network of tunnels, possibly for bringing water up to the upper chambers and I'd hazard a guess that it links up with the sphinx as well, under the sphinx is another room, one is for operational purpose, ie water direction a bit like train tracks being switched to a new line. The shafts have copper ropes fed into them and also a quartz or diamond wand in the other one to power a laser type beam. If we use the process of elimination as science does then this hypothesis would be worth ironing out a bit.
Click to rate Rating 2
This is just amazing! I hate that this is taking from "real Archaeologiet work." You have to keep in mind also that these people spend 15 plus years and learning new languages just to learn from the books that teach them this line of work. But out with the old and in with the new? Anyway this is big news. I was glad to read that a pyramid was found at Saqqara and Memphis. The 12 dynasty was said to be the Goldin years of Egypt yet we can't found the capital temple of this dynasty. You can read about it on stelas around Egypt. During the 12th dynasty Egypt was brought together and united as one. In honor of this come about a place called It-tawy (ruler of two lands) It is thought that this place would be located somewhere around Saqqara to Lake Moeris. This would be one of the biggest discoveries to find this place to see Egypt at it's best. And with this new technology were just one step closer.
Click to rate Rating 15
I'll bet that this can be used to find hidden (buried) WMD's or Nuclear Sites. If not? WhyNot? ~Rick Magee, Fl
Click to rate Rating 14
I bet this is also used to pinpoint hidden or burried Weaponage and Nucklear Sites as well. If not? Why Not? ~Rick Magee, Fl
Click to rate Rating 2
oh another discovery i see?well it was about time the ''british'' museum got a new exhibition about egyptian (eer sorry i meant british somehow) history...after all nobody can handle antiquities better than the proud english?isn't that so mr head of ''british''(facepalm) museum?
Click to rate Rating 107
dannyboy71, brick, nj usa, 26/5/2011 11:05 wrote "where did the native Americans come from their ancestors weren't born in America they migrated from somewhere. It is all very interesting" they came across the Beringia, a land bridge between Alaskia and Siberia. The most recient time this could have happend is approx 12,000 years ago alsthough there are many scientific hypothesis that state it was earlier.
Click to rate Rating 22
As an archaeology student, things like this make me wonder if I should specialise in this... - Megan, Bournemouth, Britain, 25/5/2011 18:15 Gosh, I am genuinely surprised that this is not part of your course! Or not offered as an accompanying qualification. Many, many years ago, some of us used to spend far too long (after completing tasking of course!) ,looking for Roman marching camps etc on UK aircraft imagery. I would have loved a career that combined history with such technology.
Click to rate Rating 29
Will someone please tell Tony Robinson and the Time Team crew about this......they may actually find something in future programs then.....
Click to rate Rating 56
Mankind has just been on the planet far longer than what we think. Buried settlements, Iheard the sphinx has water erosion on it. Carbon dating isn't accurate. The creation stories of religion are true they just happened a long, long, long time ago and were passed on and changed over time. The Europeans came to America in the early 1000's (viking), where did the native Americans come from their ancestors weren't born in America they migrated from somewhere. It is all very interesting.
Click to rate Rating 7
This is an exciting development in how archeologists will be able to uncover hidden artifacts, lost civilisations and solve some of the all consuming mysteries such as the whereabouts of Atlantis if it ever really existed. Being an avid reader of the works of Erik von Däniken, albeit with a certain amount of trepidation as to what his theory of Earth once having been visited by beings from the stars will do to how we view the universe if proven correct, I will be very interested to see if this new 'tool' will reveal signs or even proof that his theory bears any real substance. We may be in for quite an eye opening experience - as long as the findings are not suppressed and withheld from the general public.
Click to rate Rating 30


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1390667/Seventeen-lost-pyramids-thousands-buried-Egyptian-settlements-pinpointed-infrared-satellite-images.html#ixzz2Eb4z0h7s

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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Zipporah, Wife of Moses, was a Descendant of Abraham




Taken from:



MOSES MARRIED AN ETHIOPIAN (Cushite) WOMAN

As I listen to various Bible documentaries and some other teachings, the point is made that Moses married an Ethiopian woman.
Although I don't see how this is a large issue, in the interest of clarifying whom Moses' wife was I have gathered several Bible verses, necessary Strong's definitions and some comments from The Companion Bible by E. W. Bullinger to make the point that even though Zipporah was Ethiopian, this was only by residence just as you are called the the location name of your residential location.
You will see enough evidence here to show that Zipporah was of Abraham. Even though Moses' father in law was called a Kenite (son of Cain) this title also was because he lived in a provence of the Kenites. Jethro/Reuel was of Abraham, not of the line of Cain (Kenites).
Genesis 25:1-6
25:1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
2 And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
3 And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.
4 And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.
Median: OT:4080
Midyan (mid-yawn'); the same as OT:4079; Midjan, a son of Abraham; also his country and (collectively) his descendants:
KJV - Midian, Midianite.
Median - A descendant of Abraham. (Bullinger)
Exodus 2:15-22
15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
17 And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
Reuel: OT:7467
Re` uw'el (reh-oo-ale'); from the same as OT:7466 and OT:410; friend of God; Reuel, the name of Moses' father-in-law, also of an Edomite and an Israelite:
KJV - Raguel, Reuel.
"priest of Midian": Priest : or chieftain exercising priestly functions, as Job and Melchizedec. Jethro (3. 1) is called Reuel (v. 18) Bullinger Obviously not a pagan priest.
Numbers 12:1
12:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Introduced here because Jethro, though he lived among the Amalekites, yet was not under their curse (17: 14-16) (Bullinger)
Jethrow: OT:3503
Yithrow (yith-ro'); from OT:3499 with pron. suffix; his excellence; Jethro, Moses' father-in-law:
KJV - Jethro. Compare OT:3500.
Exodus 18:1-6
18:1 When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt;
2 Then Jethro, Moses' father in law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back,
3 And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:
4 And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:
5 And Jethro, Moses' father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:
6 And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.
Exodus 17:14-16
14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi:
16 For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
Jethro's counsel was given, and taken, when Israel was ready to depart from Sinai (Deut. 1. 7-14). (Bullinger)
Deuteronomy 1:7-14
7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
9 And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone:
10 The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.
11(The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)
12 How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
13 Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.
14 And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do.
Jethro. Cp. 3. 1. Probably a descendant of Abraham by Keturah, and not, therefore, an idolater. Cp. v. 12 and context. (Bullinger)
Exodus 3:1
3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
Exodus 18:12
12 And Jethro, Moses' father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father in law before God.

Friday, November 23, 2012

The Historical Nimrod

 
 

[The AMAIC accepts this historical ID of Nimrod,
and would agree with this article in substance, though not in every detail]


....

The book of Genesis states that Nimrod's kingdom began with "Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." On the ancient Sumerian King List Nimrod appears as the second king who ruled the Dynasty of Uruk (Erech) a short time after the Flood:

The First Dynasty of Uruk
- Mesh-ki-ang-gasher of E-ana, "the son of Utu": 324 years. "Mesh-ki-ang-gasher entered the sea and disappeared."
- Enmerkar, "the son of Mesh-ki-ang-gasher, the king of Unug, who built Unug (Uruk)": 420 years
- Lugalbanda, "the shepherd": 1200 years
- Dumuzid (Dumuzi), "the fisherman whose city was Kuara." ("He captured En-me-barage-si single-handed."): 100 years.
- Gilgamesh, "whose father was a phantom (?), the lord of Kulaba": 126 years. ...

British author David Rohl has written extensively about Enmerkar and his connections with the Biblical Nimrod. Rohl cites German scholar Werner Papke who translates the suffix 'kar' as "hunter" thus translating Enmer-kar as "Enmer the Hunter." The correlation with "Nimrod the Hunter" then becomes self-evident. However, as another Semitic languages scholar has pointed out to me, this translation is probably flawed. The cuneiform sign for "kar" can have a meaning of "to take away by force," yet this is as close as it gets. The truth is that the final sign used in the name En-me-er-kar is actually "kar2", and this sign is translated as either "to blow; to light up, shine; to rise," or "to insult, slander." Either of these meanings may in fact be be related to Nimrod, yet neither of them has anything to do with the designation of "hunter." [1]

In any case the connection between Enmerkar and Nimrod is evidenced by the fact that both are directly associated with the origins of ancient Sumer. The Bible says that Nimrod's kingdom began at Babel and Uruk, while the historical King Enmerkar built Uruk and was also involved in a particular building project at Eridug the original city of Babel.

The origins of the city of Eridug date back to a time long before the Flood. In fact, the Sumerians believed that Eridug was the first city ever built and that it was the place where "kingship descended from heaven" for the very first time [2]. Given the fact that "kingship" was always associated with the "gods" and a divine right to rule, it becomes even more clear why the Babylonian historian Berossos translated Eridug into Greek as Babylon, which is itself derived from Bab-ilani which means "the gate of the gods." Eridug was the original "gate of god" or "gate of the gods," and when Nimrod rebuilt Eridug after the Flood he was attempting to re-establish physical contact with the "gods" once again.

Enmerkar the Builder

Enmerkar was the very first semi-divine Sumerian warrior-hero and the stories of his life can be found in several narratives that have survived from ancient times as hard-baked cuneiform tablets. The Epic of Gilgamesh is very famous, but Gilgamesh was only an heir to the legacy that Enmerkar left behind. The most important narrative of the life of Enmerkar is found in the epic tale Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. In this story Enmerkar demands tribute and raw materials from the mountainous region of Aratta for the purpose of building a temple in Uruk for the goddess Inana, whom he refers to as his "sister." In addition to this project Enmerkar also puts forth his plans to build a "great shrine" in Eridug. It will be the "abode of the gods" that will be built high and covered in gold and silver so that it gleams like a snow-capped mountain in the distance!

At that time, the lord chosen by Inana in her heart, chosen by Inana in her holy heart from the bright mountain, Enmerkar, the son of Utu, made a plea to his sister, the lady who grants desires, holy Inana:
"My sister, let Aratta fashion gold and silver skilfully on my behalf for Unug. Let them cut the flawless lapis lazuli from the blocks, let them …… the translucence of the flawless lapis lazuli ……. …… build a holy mountain in Unug. Let Aratta build a temple brought down from heaven -- your place of worship, the Shrine E-ana; let Aratta skilfully fashion the interior of the holy ĝipar, your abode; may I, the radiant youth, may I be embraced there by you. Let Aratta submit beneath the yoke of Unug on my behalf. Let the people of Aratta bring down for me the mountain stones from their mountain, build the great shrine for me, erect the great abode for me, make the great abode, the abode of the gods, famous for me, make my me prosper in Kulaba, make the abzu grow for me like a holy mountain, make Eridug gleam for me like the mountain range, cause the abzu shrine to shine forth for me like the silver in the lode. When in the abzu I utter praise, when I bring the me from Eridug, when, in lordship, I am adorned with the crown like a purified shrine, when I place on my head the holy crown in Unug Kulaba, then may the …… of the great shrine bring me into the ĝipar, and may the …… of the ĝipar bring me into the great shrine. May the people marvel admiringly, and may Utu witness it in joy." (Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, lines 33-64)

In the passage above the city of Unug is simply Uruk, and Kulaba is another name for Uruk. The shrine of the abzu is the E-abzu, or Temple of the Abyss, also known as the E-Nun or Nun.ki, which means "Mighty Place." What we learn from this passage is that Enmerkar intended to build a temple for the goddess Inana in Uruk, and he also wanted to rebuild the shrine of the abzu located at Eridug that had been destroyed in the Flood. He says, "Build the great shrine for me... the abode of the gods... make the abzu grow for me like a holy mountain..." We know that this "great shrine" is located at Eridug because of what we read at the end of lines 470-499:

"...let them take the mountain stones, and rebuild for me the great shrine Eridug, the abzu, the E-nun; let them adorn its architrave for me ……. Let them make its protection spread over the Land for me."

It would be a "great shrine," an "abode of the gods", that was to be re-built in order to spread its protection over the Land on behalf of Enmerkar. Now some may notice that in the text above we are told that "mountain stones" were to be used to rebuild this "great shrine," yet aren't we told in Genesis 11:3-4 that the Tower of Babel was built with brick? The truth is that Nimrod's people built both a city and a tower, and both structures used a good deal of brick. In fact, within the story of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta there are seven references to "brick-built Kulaba." The city of Uruk was built with brick, but for the "great shrine" at Eridu it seems that Enmerkar also used stone that was quarried and brought down from Aratta. Here are some further words on the subject of Enmerkar and his Tower from British scholar David Rohl:

"The conquest of resource-rich Aratta was the culmination of Enmer's expansionist policy. By the end of his long reign the king of Uruk controlled much of Mesopotamia and had greatly enriched the cult centres of Sumer. He also controlled the donkey trade routes through the Zagros mountains and sea trade via the Persian Gulf. To the north, large heavily fortified colonies were established close to the main waterways and therefore connected the heart of the empire by means of fast-moving ships. Exotic goods and metals were pouring into the capital city of Uruk and, of course, Enmer's palace coffers. This really does make him the first potentate on Earth, just as the Genesis tradition states. In his guise of warrior-hero Enmer/Nimrod is remembered as the founder of the mightiest cities in Assyria and Babylonia, as well as a great builder in the old religious centres of Sumer." [3]
"[Nun.ki] is otherwise known as Eridu – the very first royal capital in Sumer and the residence of the god of the abyss, Enki. Indeed, it seems that the sacred precinct at Babylon was named after that original Nun.ki, even going so far as to call the temple dedicated to Marduk, E-sagila or the 'lofty house' and also known as the 'mooring post of heaven and earth', after the original tower temple at Eridu. So, the biblical Tower of Babel/Nun.ki was not the second millennium Old Babylonian ziggurat at Babylon but rather the prototype third millennium ziggurat built at Eridu/Nun.ki in the Late Uruk period." [4]

Enki, Lord of Eridu

Enmerkar's source of inspiration was the god Enki whom we have identified as the Sumerian representation of Satan, the leader of the fallen angels who defected from the family of God and descended to earth as part of their rebellion. In the story of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta Enki is the god who imparts his "wisdom" to Enmerkar while he is engaged in his building projects. This myth also seems to make a reference to the confusion that resulted from the creation of the different languages that took place at this time because of the Tower of Babel as told in the book of Genesis:

Once, then, there was no snake, there was no scorpion,
there was no hyena, there was no lion,
there was no wild dog, no wolf,
there was no fear, no terror:
human had no rival
Once, then, the lands of Shubur-Hamazi, polyglot Sumer,
that land great with the me [5] of overlordship,
Uri, the land with everything just so,
the land Martu, resting securely,
the whole world
the people as one
to Enlil in one tongue gave voice.
Then did the contender—the en (Lord)
the contender—the master
the contender—the king
the contender—the en
the contender—the master
the contender—the king
Enki, en of hegal (Lord of Abundance),

the one with the unfailing words,
en of cunning, the shrewd one of the land,
sage of the gods, gifted in thinking,
the en of Eridu, (Lord of Eridug)

change the speech of their mouths,
he having set up contention in it,
in the human speech that had been one.
[6]

The god Enki is a very suspicious character. He is the Lord of Eridug and the Lord of the Abyss, and throughout Sumerian myths he is described as the great friend and champion of mankind. He is the god of wisdom and the god of magic, and all of the Sumerian heroes relied upon him as their guide to bring them through their trials. The late great Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer referred to Enki as "the crafty god" in his hard-to-find study of Enki, which I believe is an intentional allusion to Genesis 3:1. In the final lines quoted above we see that it is Enki who claims responsibility for "changing the speech" and bringing "contention" to a human family that had once been "as one." The parallels with the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel are obvious and unmistakable.

....
 
 

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Ancient Chinese History in Light of the Book of Genesis




 



By Hieromonk Damascene



Note: This is a three- part article submitted by Hieromonk Damascene. Fr. Damascene, from the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California, recently completed a trip to China. (Please see “OMHKSEA News” later in the June 2004 issue.)


1. The Chinese Border Sacrifice:
The Earliest Chinese
Theology and Worship of God


In looking at the Chinese history in light of the Book of Genesis, it will be helpful to look first at the earliest known religion in China. Later, we will see how this ancient religion fits in with the Biblical account of ancient history.
The earliest account of religious worship in China is found in the Shu Jing (Book of History of Book of Documents), the oldest Chinese historical source. This book records that in the year 2230 B.C., the Emperor Shun “sacrificed to Shangdi.” That is, he sacrificed to the supreme God of the ancient Chinese, Shangdi meaning Supreme Ruler. This ceremony came to be known as the “Border Sacrifice,” because at the summer solstice and Emperor took part in ceremonies to the earth on the northern border of the country, and at the winter solstice he offered a sacrifice to heaven on the southern border.
The Chinese have been called one of the most history-conscious and tradition-conscious peoples of the world. This is seen in many aspects of Chinese culture. Perhaps it is seen most of all in this very Border Sacrifice which the Emperor performed twice a year. This ceremony, which goes back at least to 2230 B.C. was continued in China for over four thousand years, up until the fall of the Manchus in A. D. 1911. Even though the people gradually lost an understanding of what the ceremony was all about, and Shangdi was obscured behind all kinds of pagan deities in China, nevertheless the worship of the one God, Shangdi, was continued faithfully by the Emperor up into modern times.
The oldest text of the Border Sacrifice that we have dates from the Ming Dynasty. It is the exact text of the ceremony that was performed in A. D. 1538, which was based on the existing ancient records of the original rituals. Let us look at portions of the recitation script that the Emperor used
Above: The Circular Mound Altar of the Temple of Heaven
in Beijing, built in A. D. 1420, where the Emperor
would offer sacrifice. Temple of Heaven Photo and caption
courtesy of Hieromonk Damascene
The Emperor, as the high priest, was the only one to participate in the service. The ceremony began: “Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The five elements [planets] had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and the moon to shine. In the midst thereof there existed neither forms for sound. Thou, O spiritual Sovereign, camest forth in Thy presidency, and first didst divide the grosser parts from the purer. Thou madest heaven; Thou madest earth; Thou madest man. All things with their reproductive power got their being.” This recitation praising Shangdi as Creator of heaven and earth sounds surprisingly like the first chapter of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1: 1- 2).
So, in the earliest records of Chinese religion, we see that the people worshiped One God, Who was Creator of all. We also see that the original people of China looked at Shangdi with a sense of love and a filial feeling. The Emperor continued his prayer: “Thou hast vouchsafed, O Di, to hear us, for Thou regardest us as a Father. I, Thy child, dull and unenlightened, am unable to show forth my dutiful feelings.”
As the ceremony concludes, Shangdi is praised for His loving kindness: “Thy sovereign goodness is infinite. As a potter, Thou hast made all living things. Thy sovereign goodness is infinite. Great and small are sheltered [by Thee]. As engraven on the heart of Thy poor servant is the sense of Thy goodness, so that my feeling cannot be fully displayed. With great kindness Thou dost bear us, and not withstanding our shortcomings, dost grant us life and prosperity.”
These last two recitations, taken together, bear the same simile as found in the Prophecy of Isaiah in the Bible: “But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter and we all are the work of Thy hand” (Isaiah 64: 8).
In general, reading the text of the Border Sacrifice reminds one strongly of the prayers of the ancient Hebrews as found in the Old Testament: the same reverent awe before God, the same selfabasement, humility and gratitude before His greatness. For us Christians, these most ancient of Chinese prayers to God are strangely familiar. Why is this? It seems that the most ancient Chinese religion and the ancient Hebrew religion are drawn from the same source. And that is indeed the case, as we will see.

2. The Book of Genesis and the Beginnings of China

Let us begin at the beginning. Adam and Eve, as we know from the book of Genesis, were cast out of Paradise, and Cherubim with flaming swords guarded the East Gate of Eden so that Adam and Eve could not return to it. Paradise, according to tradition, was on a high place, like a mountain. Adam and Eve remained near to Paradise, “over against” it according to the Greek (Septuagint) version. They remained on a high place, viewed Paradise from afar, and lamented what they had lost.
God placed it into the minds of Adam’s sons Cain and Abel (and, we assume, Adam himself) to offer sacrifice. They would have done this near to the border of Eden. The sacrifice, of course, was not enough to save mankind, or open to him the Paradise and the access to heaven which he lost. However, God placed in man the idea of sacrifice in order to prepare man to understand the Sacrifice that would save man: the Sacrifice of the Son of God on the Cross. Adam lived to be 930 years old. According to the Hebrew genealogy, Adam lived at the same time as Noah’s father Lamech: Lamech was 56 years old when Noah died. According to the genealogy in the Greek version of the Old Testament, there about a thousand years more time between Adam and Noah, so there would have been another generation. But, at any rate, Noah would have heard about the creation and the Fall from his father Lamech, who was only one, and perhaps two, generations removed from Adam himself. This gives us an idea of how direct the knowledge was that Noah had.
The Great Flood occurred, according to the Biblical reckoning, in approximately 2348 B.C. It was a global Flood which wiped out the entire earth and all human beings except for Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives (8 people in all).
The Bible says that, when Noah got off the Ark after the Flood, the first thing he did was to offer sacrifice to God, just as his forefather Adam had once done. In fact, before the Flood Noah had brought on the Ark with him some animals which were specifically meant to be offered in sacrifice, in addition to all the other animals that were on the Ark. So, the religion of Noah, which he had received from his forefather Adam, included the sacrifice of animals.
Only 101 years after the Flood, evil abounded again; and therefore, as the Bible tells us, “the earth was divided.” This occurred at the Tower of Babel, when God confounded the languages, and people began to be scattered about the earth. The Tower of Babel incident occurred at about 2247 B. C . And it is soon after this point that Chinese history begins.
The original people of China were undoubtedly a group of people (of unknown number) who traveled to China from Babel. It is probable that most of the people living in China today have descended from this original group.
Many Christians who have looked into this question have suggested that, in the Genesis “table of nations” chronicling the language groups migrating from Babel, the “Sinite people” (Genesis 10: 17) could refer to the group that became the Asian peoples.
Whether or not this is the case, here is a very interesting fact to consider: According to the Chinese records, the establishment of China’s first dynasty, the Hsia (Xia) dynasty, occurred in 2205 B.C. Modern scholars ascribe a somewhat later date of between 2100 and 2000 B.C. Therefore, depending on which reckoning one accepts, the establishment of China’s first dynasty occurred anywhere from 42 to 205 years after the approximate date of the Tower of Babel incident. That was the time it took for the protoChinese to migrate to China from present- day Iraq (the site of the Tower of Babel) and already begin their dynastic civilization.
From the Bible we know that Noah lived 350 years after the Flood. So the founding of China’s first dynasty occurred while Noah was still alive.
The first people of China could have heard about the creation, the Fall, and life before the Flood from Noah himself. And Noah, as we have said, could have learned about these things, through one or at most two intermediaries, from Adam himself. This gives us an idea of how close were the first Chinese people to the first man, Adam.
We know that when the original settlers of China came to their new land, they brought the religion of Noah with them. We know this from the Border Sacrifice of which we spoke earlier. The Border Sacrifice was like the sacrifices of Noah, which were like the sacrifices of Adam. And, as we have seen, the God that was invoked at the Border Sacrifices was the One God, the Creator of universe, that both Noah and Adam worshiped. The prayers that were at the Chinese Border Sacrifice bear remarkable similarity to the prayers of the ancient Hebrews because both come from the same source: the religion of Noah.
An interesting point to ponder is why the Chinese called their sacrifices “Border Sacrifices,” and why the Emperor traditionally performed them at the border of the Empire. We know that Adam would have performed his sacrifices outside the borders of Paradise, probably as close as possible to Paradise, outside the Gate that was guarded by the Cherubim. It is possible that the Chinese Border Sacrifice were based on the tradition of a “border sacrifice” from the time of Adam.
As we have said, the Sacrifices— whether of Adam, Noah, or the Chinese Emperors— could not save mankind from the consequences of the Fall: death, and eternal separation from God. They could not get man back into Paradise. For this, a totally pure and unblemished sacrifice had to be offered, by a totally pure and sinless human being: one who would be the Second Adam and set aright what Adam had ruined. This sacrifice was offered for all time by Jesus Christ, the “Second Adam.” And another interesting point: Just as the first Adam had offered his sacrifice outside the Gates of Eden, the Second Adam offered His Sacrifice outside the Gates of the Holy City of Jerusalem, when He was taken outside the city to be crucified.
Christ fulfilled what was prefigured by the sacrifices of Adam and Noah, and by the Border Sacrifices that were offered by the Chinese from the very beginning of their history.

3. Chinese Recorded History in Light of the Bible

Let us go back now and look at the recorded history of China in light of what we’ve just been talking about, that is, in light of the Biblical history of the world.
We’ve already mentioned the oldest book of Chinese recorded history: the Shu Jing, or Book of Documents. This book was written in about 1000 B.C. and was based on material from the Shang Dynasty, which began in 1700 B.C. (1700 B.C., by the way, is 200 years before the time of Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis.) Even if we assume that the original materials for the Shu Jing came from the beginning of the Shang Dynasty in 1700 B.C., this means that at least 500 years would have passed from the beginning of China to the first written record of its history.
The first thing that students of Chinese history learn is that Chinese history began with a Flood. This is not surprising, since we know that ancient peoples from all the continents of the world have a story of a Great Flood which covered all the earth as a judgment on man’s sin. In many cases, the details are remarkably like the details recorded in the book of Genesis. The Aboriginal peoples of Australia, for example, speak of a global flood and how only eight people escaped it in a canoe.

Above: Noah with his family, having come out of the Ark,
offer a sacrifice upon an altar. 16th- century Russian icon.
Icon image and caption courtesy of Hieromonk Damascene
The flood story was the most pervasive of all the other legends in ancient China. The Shu Jing records: “The flood waters are everywhere, destroying everything as they rise above the hills and swell up to heaven.”
Since the Shu Jing only begins with Chinese history, however, this statement does not refer to the global Flood, but rather to the local flooding that was caused in China by the remnants of the Great Flood. The Shu Jing speaks of how, after the Great Flood, some of the land was not yet habitable because the flood waters were still inundating the land. This was certainly possible. The time between the Flood and the founding of the first Chinese dynasty was as little as 143 years, and we would expect that huge pockets of water would have been on the land at that time, which are not there today. This phenomenon of post- Flood water- pockets is described in the book Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe, written by a geologist, Steven Austin. Dr. Austin is a believer in the Biblical account of the Flood, and in this book he posits that Grand Canyon was formed by a huge pocket of water that was left over from the Flood, and which broke loose over the land. Since the layers of sediments had recently formed during the Flood and the land was still soft, the leftover Flood waters were able to carve out the magnificent Grand Canyon.
Going back to ancient China: These leftover Flood waters made parts of the land uninhabitable. At that time, according to Chinese history, there were the first righteous Chinese Emperors, Yao and Shun: the first emperors to offer the Border Sacrifices to Shangdi. To a man named Kun given the task of ridding the land of the flood waters, but he was not able to do so. It was not until Kun’s son, Yu, devised a new technique to channel the waters out to sea that the land was eventually made habitable.
Yu the Great
It took nine years for Yu to channel the waters out to sea. He became a hero because of this amazing feat. As a result, Shun turned the rulership over to Yu. Yu became emperor, thus beginning China’s first dynasty, the Xia. After that, China’s dynastic culture lasted almost another four thousand years.
There do exist legends about dynasties in China before the Xia dynasty, but these dynasties are of a different sort, with questionable details attributed to them and very long lives ascribed to their people. The Xia dynasty is the first precisely documented dynasty. Christian geologist Dr. John Morris suggests that the welldocumented dynasties date to dispersion from Babel, “while the prior dynasties were faded memories of pre- Flood patriarchs, preserved as legends.” Emperor Yu of the Xia dynasty “evidently gained prominence when he engineered the draining of swampy land left saturated by leftover flood waters. His following dynasty commenced about the time of Abraham or so, and the memories of long- lived patriarchs of pre- Flood days became legends of early dynasties.”

4. Indications of Ancient Chinese Knowledge of the Creation and the Global Flood

So, now we have looked at Chinese history in relation to the Bible. If we start with the most ancient record of Chinese history, the Shu Jing, we find that the history of ancient China matches very well with the history of mankind as recorded in the Bible. (The Shu Jing, by the way, was the source of Chinese history used by Confucius, considered by him to be the most authentic source of Chinese history.)
Since the Shu Jing begins with specifically with Chinese history, however, it does not refer to Noah, or to what occurred before the Great Flood. Is there anything in ancient Chinese history that refers to the Great Flood or to what occurred before it? Yes, there is, but unfortunately it was written much later than the Shu Jing, and thus filled with legendary material. In the Huainan- tzu, written in the 2nd century B.C., we read the story of Nu- wa (also pronounced Nu- kua), whose name sounds a lot like “Noah.” The story says that, in very ancient times, the habitable world was split apart, waters inundated the earth without being stopped, and fires flamed without being extinguished. “Therefore,” the text reads, “Nu- kua fused together stones of the five colors with which to patch together the azure heaven.” This is perhaps a distorted retelling of the Flood story, over 2,000 years after it happened. The stones of Five Colors by which Nukua patched the heavens may be a legendary retelling of the rainbow that Noah saw in the sky after the Flood, which was to be a covenant between God and the earth that God would never again destroy the earth by water.
Whether or not the Nu- kua legend was based on actual history of the Noahic Flood, we know that the original people of China knew the basic facts concerning the creation of the world. We know this because these facts are laid out in the text of the Border Sacrifice which we have quoted earlier. As we have shown, the Border Sacrifice describes the creation in a way remarkably similar to the book of Genesis.
Dr. John Morris points out that many of the language groups migrating from Babel “took with them technological knowledge which they put to use in their new homelands. History documents the fact that several major cultures sprang into existence seemingly from nowhere at about the same time— the Egyptians, the Sumerians, the Phoenecians, the Indians, as well as the Chinese— and each possessed a curious mixture of truth and pagan thought, as would be expected from peoples only briefly separated from Noah and his teachings as well as the star- worshipping, pyramid- building heresy of Nimrod at Babel.”

5. About the Evolutionary Explanation of the Origin of the Chinese People

Now that we have gone this far in our examination of Chinese history in the light of Genesis, a few questions may remain. First of all, it may be objected that, according to secular scientists, the first inhabitants of China were actually hominid ancestors of man. About thirty years ago, it was generally believed by evolutionists that the hominid ancestor of Chinese man was the Asian Homo erectus, otherwise known as “Peking Man” or Sinanthropus (meaning China Man). Sinanthropus was supposed to have lived from a million or two million years ago in China. Today, however, some scientists disagree that this Sinanthropus is really an evolutionary ancestor of today’s Chinese people. In fact, the whole field of paleoanthropology is becoming more and more confused as time goes on. The paleoanthropologists can’t agree on the evolutionary tree of man, and different parties among them have heated fights over this question. Now it is generally thought that there is not an evolutionary tree at all in relation to man, but rather a confused “bush.”
If we look at the so- called ancestors of man, we can see that, in some cases they are extinct apes, and in some cases they are human beings. Sinanthropus, whose skulls have been found in China, is a case in point. What is this Sinanthropus? Clearly, he is a human being, probably one of the early settlers in China after the dispersion at Babel. He did not live two million years ago, which is an inconceivable amount of time. All over the world, recorded human history begins no earlier than about 2,400 B.C., which is the approximate date of the Flood. The radiometric dating methods that are used to get ages of a million or a billion years are based on untestable and unprovable assumptions, as the scientists who believe in them will admit themselves. (As an indication of hypothetical nature of these methods, rocks known to have been formed in volcanic eruptions within the last 200 years have yielded radiometric dates of up to 3.5 billion years.)
Many secular and even evolutionist scientists today say that the distinction between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens (human beings) is an artificial one: Homo erectus, including Sinanthropus, is nothing else than a human being. This claim has been made by paleoanthropologists both in the West and in China (such as Wu Xin Zhi at the Institute of Paleoanthropology in Beijing).
Professor William S. Laughlin (University of Connecticut), in studying the Eskimos and the Aleuts, noted many similarities between these peoples and the Asian Homo erectus people, specifically Sinanthropus (Peking Man). He concludes his study with a very logical statement:
“When we find that significant differences have developed, over a short time span, between closely related and contiguous peoples, as in Alaska and Greenland, and when we consider the vast differences that exist between remote groups such as Eskimos and Bushmen, who are known to belong within the single species of Homo sapiens, it seems justifiable to conclude that Sinanthropus belongs within this same diverse species.”

6. Chinese Dragons

Another question arises: If, as we believe from the Biblical account, the earth is only several thousands and not billions of years old, and if Adam lived only two or three thousand years before the first Chinese dynasty, then how do we account for the dinosaurs, which supposedly became extinct seventy million years before the first man appeared on earth?
This is a very fascinating subject to discuss, especially in relation to China. What about dinosaurs? Were there dinosaurs in China? The Censer Dragons, of course, are depicted everywhere in Chinese culture. But these are only legendary creatures, some will say. No, not at all. Later depictions of dragons, to be sure, contained fanciful elements, because they were drawn by people who did not see dragons themselves but had only heard about them from others or from historical sources. But dragons did live contemporaneously with humans in the history of ancient China. Dragons are written about in ancient Chinese annals, and not as imaginary creatures, but as real live animals. It is known from Chinese history that certain parts and fluids of dragons were used for medicines. And one historical account even mentions a Chinese family that bred dragons to be used to pull the Royal Chariot during Imperial processions!
What the ancient Chinese wrote about dragons fits in with what ancient people all over the world had to say about them. In all the ancient cultures of the world, people wrote about seeing dragons or killing dragons. They painted pictures of them or, in the case of some Central American cultures, made statues of them. Many of the historical descriptions and depictions of dragons match precisely with the physical features of known dinosaurs such as Triceratops or Tyrannosaurus Rex. They were not called dinosaurs then, because the word “dinosaur” was not invented until 1841 (by the way, it was invented by a Christian scientist who believed the Biblical account of origins).
When the army of Alexander the Great (356- 323 B.C.) went through India, they went to see a dragon living in a cave, which the Indians worshiped as a god, bringing it sacrificial food. This is only one of many historical accounts of dragons from places in the world other than China. One of the Holy Fathers of the Church, St. John Damascene (A. D. 674- 750), wrote of dragons as actual creatures that still existed in his time in small numbers. When people with an evolutionary frame of mind read of such things, they automatically think of them as legends. But it is very hard to explain why peoples from all over the world have spoken of dragons as real, living creatures. From these accounts from all over the world, we know that some dinosaurs went onto the Ark with Noah (probably as babies). There is much evidence that, after the Flood, the climate and conditions of the earth became harsher; and thus the dinosaurs had a more difficult time surviving (hence Alexander the Great’s army saw one living in a cave). They did spread all over the earth, since people from China to South America tell of seeing them. But they were much more rare than other creatures, and they eventually died out due to the new conditions of earth and also, undoubtedly, to the fact that people killed them because they saw them as a threat.
To the ancient Chinese, dinosaurs or dragons were a symbol of power. It was natural that they would be fascinated with them and make them such a frequent subject of their art, because of all the land creatures that ever lived, what was greater and more powerful than a dinosaur?
In the book of Job, chapter 40, God calls Job’s attention to his greatness by reminding him that He created the great and powerful creatures of the earth. And the land creature that God mentions is the behemoth, which has a tail like a cedar tree. The Biblical description of the behemoth matches no other creature than a sauropod dinosaur. Not only Chinese history, but even Chinese sayings and the Chinese lunar calendar, make it clear that the Chinese have traditionally regarded dragons as real creatures.
Here’s an interesting story, which indicates that a few winged dinosaurs may have survived in China into relatively recent times. At the end of the 19th century, a Russian Orthodox saint named St. Barsanuphius was stationed in Manchuria to pastor the Russian soldiers during the RussianJapanese War. From there he wrote in his journal: “I happened to hear from soldiers that stand at the posts at the Hantaza station, forty miles from Mullin, that two years ago they often saw an enormous winged dragon creep out from one of the mountain caves. It terrified them, and would again conceal itself in the depths of the cave. They have not seen it since that time, but this proves that the tales of the Chinese and Japanese about the existence of dragons are not at all fantasies or fables, although the learned European naturalists, and ours along with them, deny the existence of these monsters. But after all, anything can be denied, simply because it does not measure up to our understanding.”
As mentioned earlier, the Chinese people are one of the most tradition- conscious and history- conscious peoples. So it should not be surprising that they, of all peoples, should be the ones to have retained such a strong cultural memory of dinosaurs. Their records showing that dinosaurs lived alongside man, and not in an “age of dinosaurs” ending 70 million years earlier, further supports the Biblical account of the world’s history.

7. Conclusion

When the world was inhabited by people groups coming out of Babel, some groups retained more awareness of the original religion Adam and Noah, and some retained less awareness. The Chinese, as we have seen, retained more than most other cultures. They have retained it up until modern times in the Imperial Border Sacrifice. Also, with the great value they place on history, they have preserved a knowledge of their own past which matches in its essentials the history of the world which is given in the Holy Bible.

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Taken from: http://www.orthodox.cn/localchurch/200406ancientcnhist_en.htm