Who is Jesus?

“One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.”--Alexander Solzhenitsyn 

"I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do."--Jesus Christ

Alice C. Linsley

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully human and fully divine, light from light, and true God from true God. Yet He has been made so "meek and mild" that his eternal nature and divine power are hardly apparent. Is it any wonder that many find him little more than an interesting historical figure?

Study of Jesus' Horite Hebrew ancestry and the Horite Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern verifies certain historical facts about Jesus of Nazareth. First, he was born of the priest lines that can be traced back to Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors.  Second, his priest caste were known to be shepherds, and third, he was of royal blood going back to Eden. Jesus' royal blood is traced through the Horite kings of Tyre. God told Ezekiel to "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)

When we describe Jesus as the "Good Shepherd" or "our Great High Priest" or "the King of Kings" we are not speaking figuratively. He was indeed all of these.


The Seed of the Woman

Jesus is the "Seed" of Genesis 3:15. This first promise of the Bible foretells how the Seed of the Woman will trample the serpent under foot. This is a reference to the defeat of death and the restoration of Paradise. The serpent often symbolized the worm of death. The Apocalypse of St. John (Revelation) identifies the dragon as "that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray" (Rev. 12:9, 20:2). In John's vision the serpent is associated with the serpent of Eden.

In the resurrection, Jesus Christ trampled down death by death and bestowed life on those in the tombs, as recited in the ancient Liturgy. Jesus is the Seed of the Woman, the long-expected Immortal Mortal, the Sent-Away Son who defeats the serpent, subdues all God's enemies, and establishes an eternal kingdom. Jesus' mission involves all these tasks and more.

This Messianic hope started small and grew over many centuries among Jesus' Horite Hebrew ancestors. It is based upon the promise that a Woman of the Horite Hebrew lines would bring forth the "Seed" who would crush the serpent's head and restore Paradise (Gen. 3:15). Jesus identified himself as that Seed in John 12:24. He tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to die and when they object, he explains: "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." The purpose of a seed is to die and be buried in the ground. Unless this happens, it cannot bring forth life.  Here the ordinary expresses something most extraordinary!

The Seed of Genesis 3:15 was to die and rise again in order to defeat the worm/serpent, and to give life to the world. As C.S. Lewis noted, even the pagans of Europe and the Hindus of India had dreams of the god who dies and rises again. This idea appears in their sacred writings. In Mere Christianity, Lewis writes that God "sent the human race what I call good dreams: I mean ... about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men." As Stephen Freeman has written, "Jesus did not come to make bad men good, but to make dead men live."

The Ancient of Days

The Ancient of Days in Aramaic is Atik Yomin and this title appears in the book of Daniel.

"I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire." (Daniel 7:9)

Variations include the Ancient of Ancients and the Ancient Man. Consider these references:

"Whenever Judgment looms and the forehead of the Impatient One is revealed, the Forehead of the Ancient of Ancients is revealed; Judgment subsides and is not executed." (Idra Rabba, Zohar 3:136b)

"The Ancient Man danced on the serpent, who still spewed poison from his eyes and hissed loudly in his anger, and he trampled down with his feet whatever head the serpent raised, subduing him calmly as if he were being worshipped with flowers. Kaliya, his umbrella of hoods shattered by the gay dance of death, his limbs broken, vomiting blood copiously from his mouths, remembered the Guru of all who move and are still, the Ancient Man, Narayana, and he surrendered to him in his heart." (Srimad Bhagavatam 10:6, from Andrew Wilson, Ed. World Scriptures, p. 449)  This is a reference to "Hari Krishna" or  the ruler-priest "Christ"

The Bhagavata Purana is a sacred text of Hinduism. It draws on ancient oral sources but was not inscribed until around 500 A.D, about 1000 years after the book of Daniel.

The oldest of all these references is found in Daniel 7 and continues with this description of the Christ coming to the Ancient of Days.

13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.

14 And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:14 parallels Psalm 145:13: "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations."

He Subdues God's Enemies

Jesus Christ is the mighty warrior of God and he will be victorious over all the enemies of God. Psalm 110, recognized as a reference to the Messiah, says: The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

Messianic passages such as this have parallels in ancient Horite texts. Remember that Abraham and his ancestors were Horites who expected a woman of their ruler-priest lines to bring forth the Seed. The Horites were devotees of Horus, Son of Ra. 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’. (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, p. 216)

Job 39:27-30 presents another image of the one who devours enemies and feeds her young with bloody bits of flesh from the carcasses of the fallen. Does the vulture (nesher) mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwells and abides on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From there she seeks the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck-up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.

In Exodus 19:4, we read: Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and, how I bare you on vulture's (nesherim) wings, and brought you unto myself.

The Hebrews (Habiru) grasped the force of this metaphor since the vulture was an emblem of power and protection in ancient Egypt. Images of the vulture mother of Nekhbet of Elkab are shown with outspread wings on Egyptian monuments and temples. Jesus looking at the Holy City said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." (Matt.  23:37)

The vulture represented Hathor's devoted care of Horus, the son of Ra. Horus is the pattern by which some of Abraham's Jewish descendants recognized Jesus as the promised Son of God. Jesus subdues the enemies of God in order 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."


The Lamb/Ram of God

Horus of the two horizons (east-west) and Horus of the two crowns (north-south) are examples of how meaning is derived by holding two points in view. We see this in the Passover sacrifice at twilight, what is called in Hebrew ben ha-'arbayim, meaning "between the two settings." Rabbinic sources take this to mean "from noon on." According to Radak, the first "setting" occurs when the sun passes its zenith at noon and the shadows begin to lengthen, and the second "setting" is the actual sunset (p. 55, vol. 2, The Jewish Publication Society Torah Commentary, "Exodus").

In the Horite Hebrew tradition, Horus rises with the sun as the lamb on the eastern horizon. After his sacrifice at the sacred center (high noon), he grows to full strength as the ram on the western horizon. Now we understand the story of the binding of Isaac. As they ascended Mount Moriah, Isaac asked his father "where is the lamb" for the sacrifice? Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb, but God did not provide a lamb. God provided a ram. The ram caught in the thicket proved that Abraham's act of faith had been acknowledged by God. It appears that Abraham believed Isaac to be the Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15). Isaac did meet several of the expected conditions, but God would supply his own Lamb who passed from weakness (kenosis) to fullness of power (resurrection). Jesus is symbolized here. He is the Lamb of God who comes to full strength as the Ram of God.

Horus was called the Lamb in his weaker (kenotic) existence and he was called the Ram in his glorified strength. Both are associated with the death and resurrection symbolism of the vernal equinox. This sheds light on the story of Abraham's offering of his son. James 2:21 says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?"

When John pointed to Jesus and called Him the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world", he identified Him as the fulfillment of the first promise. John writes: "Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." (I John 5:5) Who passes from fleshly weakness through death to divine strength? Only those who are in the Lamb who has become the Ram.

To be in the strength of the Ram, that is the resurrected strength, one must believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Christianity is not an inclusive religion. There is no free pass to the eternal kingdom.


The Calf of God

Among Abraham's Proto-Saharan ancestors the lamb of God was instead the calf or the red heifer. They were cattle-herding people.

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. Instead he posed himself as the fatted calf in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Here Jesus speaks 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.


The Fixer of Boundaries

The wisdom of the Horites extended to medicine, astronomy, writing, commerce, navigation, natural sciences, and architecture. They were the inventors of the earliest known writing systems. They were the early scribes and wise men or prophets. Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors were dedicated to observation of the planets and constellations. They observed that the planets and the constellations have an orderly clock-like movement. They conceived of this order as fixed and established by the generative force which makes existence possible (logos, nous, ruach, etc.)

Horite wisdom was unrivaled in the ancient world and much of the wisdom ascribed to the ancient Greeks was borrowed from the Horites. Iamblichus wrote that Thales of Miletus insisted that Pythagoras go to Memphis to study because the priests there were esteemed for their knowledge and wisdom. Plato studied for 13 years in Egypt under the priest Sechnuphis and his conception of the eternal Forms was based on Horite metaphysics.

In the works of Plato and Aristotle horos or horismos refers to landmarks, boundaries and categorical limits. The Greek word for boundaries in creation is oros or horos, a reference to the celestial archetype of Horus who who marked the cosmic boundaries and established the "kinds" (essences). He guarded the four directional points and controlled the waves/currents and the winds. This is illustrated in the account of Jesus calming the winds and the waves in Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25 and Matthew 8:23-27. The veteran fisherman are terrified and cry out to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" The Gospel of Mark then states that: He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt, 1632

The Harmattan trade wind that blows across the Sahara was named for Horus. The word is comprised of the biradicals HR for Horus and MT, meaning order. Horus was invoked to send favorable winds for sailing. The four winds appeared as birds at the four quarters of the heavens. On the walls of Amenemhat's burial chamber at Hawara Horus is depicted at the cardinal points and associated with the resurrection of the ruler. The canopic jars that hold the ruler's organs are topped with the four images of Horus.

For Abraham's Horite ancestors, the Sun spoke to them of their deity, HR (Horus in Greek). He was regarded with his father Ra as the marker of boundaries. Horos (oros in Greek) refers to the boundaries of an area, or a landmark, or a term. From horos come the English words hour, horizon and horoscope. The association of Horus with the horizon is seen in the word Har-ma-khet, meaning Horus of the Horizon.

Horus' mother was Hathor. She conceived miraculously by the overshadowing of the Sun and she is shown on Egyptian monuments holding her child in a manger. Horus is the archetype by which Abraham's descendants would recognize Jesus as the promised Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15). His authentication was His rising from the dead on the third day, in accordance with Horite expectation.

In a 5 day ceremony, the Nilotic peoples fasted as a sign of grief for the death of Horus at the hand of his brother. On the third day the priests led processions to the fields where grain was sowed as a sign of Horus' rising to life. Jesus described his death as a seed of grain falling into he ground and dying (John 12:20-26). He foretold his rising on the third day. St. Augustine noted that the Egyptians took great care in the burial of their dead and never practiced cremation. Abraham's ancestors believed in the resurrection of the body and awaited a deified king who would rise from the grave and deliver his people from death to life eternal.

Related reading:  Nicky Gumbel on "Who is Jesus?"; Jesus Christ in Genesis; Who Were the Horites?; Which Bethlehem was Jesus' Birthplace?; Why Jesus Visited Tyre; Theories of Change and Constancy; The Ostrich in Biblical Symbolism; Eden: A Well Watered Region; The Priests of Nazareth; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; The Re-Horus-Hathor Narrative

The Priests of Nazareth

Alice C. Linsley


Jesus grew up in Nazareth in Galilee. He was brought here as a child from Egypt. Nazareth is on an ancient trade route that goes north from Egypt through Galilee. In Roman times it was called the "Via Maris" but the route was traveled for many centuries before the Roman presence in Palestine. Another ancient road went from Nazareth to Jerusalem and it was along this road that the priests of Nazareth traveled to the temple to perform their sacred duties when it was their appointed time of service.

In Nazareth, Jesus preached his first recorded sermon (Luke 4:16). He read Isaiah 61:1-3, a Messianic prophesy, and then declared, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." His hearers understood that he claimed to be the fulfillment of the prophesy and this aroused their anger. Because of their unbelief "He did not many mighty works there" (Matthew 13:58).

When Nathaniel was told that the Messiah was from Nazareth, he wondered, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46)  From Nathaniel's perspective, there was nothing remarkable about this town in the heart of an agricultural area in Galilee.

Jesus' closest followers were from Galilee, and it was to Galilee that He returned and met with His disciples after His resurrection. At the Last Supper, He informed his disciples: "After I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.” (Matt. 26:32)

In 1962 excavators discovered a small 3-4th century marble fragment with a list of the twenty-four priestly divisions in the ruins of a Caesarea synagogue. This list names the places where four of the divisions resided, including Nazareth. Until the discovery of this fragment, there was no extra-biblical record of Nazareth's existence before the sixth century A.D and no identification of a priestly division at that town.

There were twenty-four priestly divisions after the construction of the Second Temple. Nineteen of these divisions are listed in Nehemiah 12:10-22. In the Nehemiah list we find these names of particular interest: Joachim, Joseph, and Mattenai (also spelled Mattai/Mattan/Matthew). These are the names of priests who married the daughters of priests and from these lines came John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary and Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God. This was the line of Joseph of Hari-mathea, a voting member of the Sanhedrin. He and Nicodemus, another member of the Sanhedrin, buried Jesus’ body in a cave tomb similar to those used by their Horite ancestors in Bethlehem and Hebron. Joseph and Nicodemus experienced first-hand Jesus' death. They buried him and sealed the tomb. They believed that He rose from the grave, and at great personal risk, they testified to His resurrection.

Writing in the third century, Hippolytus records that Mary’s mother was a daughter of a priest named Matthan. Mary's father was the Horite shepherd-priest Yaochim (Joachim). Therefore, Mary was of the Horite ruler-priest lines that can be traed back to Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors. Even those who hated Mary acknowledged her ruler status, as it is written in the Talmud: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.” (Sanhedrin 106a)

According to 1 Chronicles 24:15, Nazareth was the home of the eighteenth priestly division, hapiTSETS (Happizzez). The name is related to the ancient Egyptian word for the life-sustaining Nile which was called Hapi. Again we have evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was of the Horite ruler-priest lines that can be traced back to the Nile Valley.


Related reading:  The Priestly Divisions; Which Bethlehem is Jesus' Birthplace?; Who Were the Horites?; Jesus' Horite Ancestry; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Mary's Ruler-Priest Lineage; Jesus' Hidden Years at Nazareth

Which Bethlehem is Jesus' Birthplace?

Alice C. Linsley


Bethlehem (Bēt Lahm) means "house of meat" and indicates a settlement known for sheep and cattle. There are two places called Bethlehem, one in Galilee and the other near Jerusalem. The name indicates a place where shepherd-priests took animals from their flocks to sacrifice. The meat was distributed to the needy.

In Christian belief, Jesus is the Lamb of God who gave his flesh for the life of the world. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His nativity was announced first to the shepherds of Bethlehem, the very descendants of the people in Eden to whom the promise of Messiah's appearing was first given (Gen. 3:15).

David came from Bethlehem. He tended the sheep of his father, just as Moses tended the sheep of his priest father-in-law, Jethro. Jesus comes from a long line of shepherd-priests. His maternal grandfather was Yoakim (Joachim), a priest who kept flocks.

Bethlehem was a Horite settlement according to I Chronicles 4:4 which names Hur (Hor) as the "father of Bethlehem."  I Chronicles 2:54 gives Salmon as "the father of Bethlehem," but there is no contradiction here since Salmon was also a Horite. The names Salmon, Salma and Solomon were common names among the Horites, also know as Habiru (Hebrew). A leader named Salmon married Rahab of Jericho. He is listed as the son of Hur, another common Horite name.

The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests whose origins can be traced back to the Nile Valley.  The oldest know Horite shrine city was Nekhen in Sudan (4500 BC). The temple there was dedicated to Horus, the son of Ra. He was said to be born of Hathor-Meri by the overshadowing of the sun, the emblem of the Creator Ra. She is shown in ancient images with a crown of horns - Y - a solar symbol. 

From the Nile Valley, the Horites moved into Arabia, Canaan, and Mesopotamia, taking their religious beliefs and practices with them. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David and the Virgin Mary were of the Horite lines. David was from Bethlehem and Joseph went to Bethlehem to register for the census (Luke 1:26) because he and Mary were descendants of Horite ancestors who lived in Bethlehem. One of those ancestors was the righteous Boaz who married Ruth.

The Bethlehem of Boaz was an agricultural area where grain was grown in extensive fields. This describes Galilee, not the hill country around Jerusalem.

Bethlehem is where Ruth gave birth to Obed, King David's grandfather. Ruth is praised by the women of Bethlehem (the chorus) as being worth seven sons, and she is likened to Tamar who “built up” Judah by giving him twin sons Perez and Zerah. Judah gained these righteous sons after losing unrighteous sons.

Throughout the book of Ruth there is a subtle play on the theme of replacement. Naomi is the female counterpart of Job. Both lost everything and came to despair, but the Lord restored their fortunes and made them great in Israel.


Textual clues as to Jesse’s high standing in Israel

David was anointed first in Bethlehem and later he was anointed in Hebron (II Samuel 2:1-4). It is possible that these two settlements marked the northern and the southern boundaries of Jesse’s territory. Jesse would have had a wife in Bethlehem and another in Hebron, following the practice of his Horite shepherd-priests ancestors who maintained two wives in separate households on a north-south axis. If David's Bethlehem was in Galilee, Jesse's territory would have extended about 118 miles (190 kilometers) from Bethlehem in Galilee to Hebron in the south, and all would have been regarded as a holding of Judah.

Another possibility is that Jesse's two wives were located in Bethlehem of Galilee and Ramah in the hill country to the south. These are linked in Matthew's Gospel (Matt. 2:13-23); suggesting that Jesse's territory extended from Bethlehem "Ephratha" to Ramah. Throughout much of the Bible, Ephratha is a reference to Judah. This north-south extension would have been called "Judah" in Jesse's time. If David's city was the Bethlehem in Galilee, Jesse ruled over a territory extending from Galilee to Ramah of Judah.

Though it is clear that the ruler's wives lived in separate settlements on a north-south axis, it is difficult to determine the extent of the ruler's territory because of multiple located with the same name. There several settlements named Ramah and at least two named Bethlehem. Regardless, it is evident that Jesse of Bethlehem was a great ruler of Judah.


Jesse's solar designation

Jesse’s name in Hebrew is Yesai and designates a great ruler. The initial Y is a solar cradle which indicates someone who has been overshadowed by the Creator. This overshadowing means the person is appointed for some special purpose. Remember that the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive by the overshadowing of the Spirit and bring forth the Holy One who would rule and save his people.

Many other Biblical rulers are indicated by the Y symbol: Yitzak (Issac); Yishmael (Ishmael), Yaqtan (Joktan); Yisbak; Yacob (Jacob); Yosef (Joseph); Yetro (Jethro) and Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus). The men listed in Ruth 4 are royal persons and descendants of Abraham and his Horite ruler-priest ancestors. David was born into a family of very high standing and this prepared him for the years when he would serve King Saul and rule over Israel.

It is evident that David was born into a family of very high standing and this prepared him for the years ahead when he would serve King Saul and rule over Israel.


Connections to Egypt and Tyre

Rachel was buried at Bethlehem. She gave birth to Joseph who married the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis in Egypt. Heliopolis (called Onn in Genesis 41:45) was a Horite shrine city of great prominence in the ancient world. The great pyramids of Giza, Saqqara and Abusir were aligned to the obelisk at this Ainu shrine city.

If we draw a line from Heliopolis in Egypt to the shrine at Baalbek ("God of Beka") in Lebanon, we have a fairly straight diagonal line that extends from Abusir in Sudan to Baalbek.  Tyre was the main shrine city between Heliopolis and Baalbek. The earliest structure at Baalbek dates to at least 2900-2300 BC, corresponding to the Old Kingdom in Egypt. The builders were great stone masons and builders of temples and monuments.

The kings of Tyre were Horites and kin to David.  Bethlehem of Galilee was part of ancient Tyre. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus' true identity is recognized in the ancient island city of Tyre, not in Jerusalem.

Tyre was the home of Hiram I, the father of the Tyrian king who helped to build Solomon’s temple. Hiram I was kin to David and sent skilled artisans to help David build a palace in Jerusalem, “the city of the Great King” (Matt. 5:35). Hiram is also known as "Huram" and "Horam", variations of the names Hur, Hor and Harun (Aaron). According to Midrash, Hur was Moses’ brother-in-law. Hur’s grandson was one of the builders of the Tabernacle.

In other words, the common ancestors of Hiram I and David were Horites who anticipated the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. They believed that the promised Seed of the Woman (the Son of God) would be born of their blood lines and they expected Him to visit them. Mark 7:24 gives an account of when the Son of God visited Tyre, and here we are told that Jesus “could not pass unrecognized.”

Caste-based Industries of Bethlehem

Beside keeping sheep and priestly duties, another occupation in ancient Bethlehem was leather work. Leather workers were called Tahash. One of Nahor's sons was Tahash (Gen. 22:24). Tahash refers to a tanner of animal skins. Exodus 25:5 links "five ram skins dyed red" with "tahash skins" and "acacia wood." The Tahash appear to be those who ritually prepared the skins of sacrificed animals for use in solemn oath, such as the passing of leather sandals.

Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel. (Ruth 4:7)

The exchange of the leather sandal was a blood oath since it involved taking the life of an animal The practice was to confirm the exchange property after a death. Aben Ezra says that the giving of the leather shoe was "to confirm all things" whether by sale or barter.

The exchange of a leather shoe represents a solemn oath like that signaled by the exchange of a linen cloth, called "sudar." According to the Medieval rabbi Rashi, a linen cloth was used to make purchases and the cloth was called "sudar." 

Rashi is speaking of a related custom. The term "sudar" pertains to "Sudra" which is a reference to the peoples of Sudan. Linen originated in the Nile Valley and was carried from there to India. Among Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors wounds were treated with raw meat and bandaged with linen. Dead domesticated animals, such as dogs and donkeys, were wrapped in white linen and buried outside the towns.

In Genesis 3:21, God acts as the first tahash when He sacrifices animals to make coverings for the man and the woman. In doing so, God covers them by a blood oath, wraps the newly dead, and sends them out of the Garden.

Sudar is also a reference to the Dravidians. Dravidian leather workers are called "Madigas" and they are recognized as one of the world's oldest castes. The Madiga have nucleotide diversity levels as high as those of HapMap African populations. The Tahash and Madigas represent a very ancient practice of leather work associated with animal sacrifice and solemn oaths.

The Tahash were also known as "sarki" in Africa and parts of Asia. The sarki sacrificed animals and tanned the hides. Today Sarki live in the Orissa province of India and in Orisha, Nigeria. They also live in the Tarai region of Nepal. Sometimes they are called “Harwa” which is the ancient Egyptian word for priest.

Archaeology of Bethlehem

Speaking about the discovery of a clay seal dating to the First Temple period, Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority said, "This is the first time the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible, in an inscription from the First Temple period (1006-586 B.C.), which proves that Bethlehem was indeed a city in the Kingdom of Judah, and possibly also in earlier periods."

2700 year seal bears the name of Bethlehem

The coin-sized artifact was found during archaeological excavations in the oldest part of Jerusalem. The seal (called a "bulla") bears the name of the city of Bethlehem in ancient Hebrew script. A bulla is a piece of clay used as an official seal on a document or object. The seal was impressed with the mark of the sender, and an intact bulla was proof that a document had been delivered unopened.

The seal indicates that a shipment was sent from Bethlehem to Jerusalem in the seventh year of a king's reign. Possibly the king was Hezekiah or Josiah.

The bulla makes it clear that a town called Bethlehem was inhabited by Hebrews in the time of Solomon's temple, but it doesn't specify which Bethlehem. There are two; one in Judah near Jerusalem, and the other in Galilee near Nazareth. Today there is growing consensus that Jesus' birthplace was the Bethlehem near Nazareth because the Bethlehem near Jerusalem was not inhabited during the first century when Jesus would have been born.

When the Magi appeared before Herod they were told that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. Herod’s wise men found this in the book of Micah: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."  This indicates two things about Jesus's birthplace: it belongs to the tribe of Judah and it was also associated with Caleb's wife Ephrath. There is no contradiction here, as Bethlehem belonged to Caleb, whose son was Salma. Salma is called the father of Bethlehem in Chronicles 2:54.

Bethlehem is mentioned in Matthew 2:16-18 as the place where Herod ordered all the baby boys to be slaughtered, and Jesus would have been among "the Innocents" had Joseph not been warned by an angel to take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. From Bethlehem in Galilee and nearby Nazareth the road to Egypt was a direct one.  From Bethlehem on the West bank there was no direct route into Egypt.

As Jews traced their blood lines through their mothers, it was necessary for Joseph to register both he and Mary in Bethlehem. So they left Nazareth and went to Bethlehem, a distance of about 5.5 miles (9 kilometers). The distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem near Jerusalem is 93 miles (150 kilometers). Would Joseph have taken Mary, in the last stage of pregnancy, on a journey of 93 miles on a donkey?

Mary’s full name was "Miriam Daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther) Priest of Nathan of Bethlehem." Long before the time of the Pharaohs the Horites designated the king ntjr. The name p-ntjr means "God is King."

Nathan is the name of the prophet who called King David to repentance and saved his kingdom. Likely this Nathan was one of David's kinsmen from Bethlehem in Galilee.


Bethlehem of the West Bank

The Church of the Nativity in the Bethlehem near Jerusalem was commissioned in 327 AD by Constantine and his mother Helena and was built over the site that was believed to be the cave where Jesus was born. There are caves under the church and one was used by St. Jerome for about 30 years. This is where he translated the Bible into Latin (Vulgate). Some of the caves were used for burial.

Such a cave tomb was discovered in "Bethlehem South" in 2009. It contained burial items such as pottery, plates and beads, along with the remains of two individuals. The tomb dates to the Middle Bronze period (2200-1550 BC) when there was no permanent settlement in that place. Many tombs from this period have been found throughout Israel. In fact, this period is primarily known from the study of its cemeteries, with relatively few settlements discovered in the region of Judah.

A 3100 year arrowhead found near Bethlehem South bears the inscription bn 'nt, meaning "son of Anat." In ancient Egyptian mythology, Anat and Ashtart were daughters of the Creator Ra. They became the wives of Set/Seth, the deified ruler on earth.


The great antiquity of Bethlehem

Evidence of human habitation in the area of Bethlehem between 100,000-10,000 BC is well-attested along the north side of Wadi Khareitun where there are three caves: Iraq al-Ahmar, Umm Qal’a, and Umm Qatafa. These caves were homes in a wooded landscape overlooking a river. At Umm Qatafa archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of the domestic use of fire in Palestine. There are 40 Paleolithic sites in the hills surrounding Jerusalem, many of them near Bethlehem.

Related reading: David's Royal City; The Significance of Galilee in Matthew's Gospel; The Priests of Nazareth; Evidence of Castes in the Book of Ruth; Dig Finds Evidence of Another Bethlehem; Why Jesus Visited Tyre; Israeli Archaeologist Aviram Oshri on Jesus' Birthplace