Genesis to 500BC

(My original has many pictures and illustrations.  Please excuse this installment until I am able to complete it.)

          Genesis (Beginning of Man) - There are many scientific difficulties with Evolution, including any real basis for species change other than micro-evolution.  The oldest fossils, whether of a young earth or old earth, are identical to living creatures, except of course in regard to extinct species.  All dating systems are corrupt in using circular reasoning and methods that aren’t very credible for more than twenty thousand years.  Evangelical creationists believe a young earth creation.  Muslim creationists believe in an old earth, but that still the species haven’t changed.  Also, the amount of accumulated carbon can vary according to climatic conditions.  Could not these conditions have been vastly different millennia ago?  Remains attributed to human evolution are in reality either just ape and artwork or true man.  Evidence leads to a Creator.  This does separate man from animals, but doesn’t separate man from responsibility to the rest of Nature.  All mankind are brothers insofar as all are created.  Then by definition, the Creator’s goodwill is the same for all. 

The current fad for the lack of intermediary fossils is the theory of Punctuated equilibrium where two sets of mutant animal parents create a wholly different species.  How science fiction and numerically impossible is this?  Punctuated equilibrium is a complete reversal of gradual evolution.

Even when contemporary science states that man and chimpanzees share 98% of genetic material, this biased percentage is of very select areas, the majority of genetic areas are vastly different.

Earliest Man:  The ages and distinctiveness of Cromagnon or Neanderthal are debatable.  They could easily exist among us modern Homo sapiens.  In 2010, research showed that Neanderthal genes existed in modern humans.  Neanderthals were shorter, stockier and with larger cranial capacity and more aggressiveness.  They most likely came to an “end” in the same area where Askenazim or Khazars originated.  Could they be the same?   Mythology oftentimes has truth as its origin.  It has been suggested that Cro-magnon man may be the inspiration of elves, not the popular modern small ones, but more manlike elves.  Neanderthal man may be the inspiration of trolls.  In Viking history when they invaded Khazarian territory they were alert through Norse mythology that they were invading troll territory. 

perhaps just earlier ‘races’, rather than species of man

 Race is considered a fiction by current Jewish anthropology and similar sciences, but there are still huge differences in sociological and genetic make-ups.  For instance the percentages of slow or fast twitch muscle fiber.  Blacks lead in sprints, whites in distance running.  The brain is also a muscle.  Like the breeding of cows or dogs, there can be large differences between humans.  Sociological differences include traditions and culture. 

As mankind traveled the globe, geographical influences and narrowing group genetics began variety of races.  After races developed, then they migrated and joined others to develop even more races.  Linguistics is a fine science to discover these many racial family trees.

 The Creation of Adam is a section of Michelangelo's fresco Sistine Chapel ceiling painted circa 1512.

Adam – Was he the first man or first of a genealogical line?  The genealogical lists of ‘begats’ in Genesis most probably includes just well-known ancestors, not every generation and is a construct to show the different people groupings in the world.  Even if mankind is young, its population could easily build to our current levels.  “Adam” to the Jew is the first of their Mankind, Gentiles were those who lived elsewhere, such as where Cain went to dwell.

Lilith is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud.  The Jews regarded Lilith as evil.  Lilith becomes Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time and from the same earth as Adam.  This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam's ribs.  Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she mated with archangel Samael.  The resulting Lilith legend is still commonly used as source material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy, and horror.  She has become an icon of feminism.

Human intelligence:  The laws of genetics show that genes negatively mutate and disintegrate.  There are 99% negative mutations for 1% positive.  Our societal intelligence today is great because of built-up science and technology based on earlier discoveries.  Most of what man creates is tweaking a known factor or idea.   Is the individual man any brighter?  Every savant shows the capacity for all mankind.

 Göbekli Tepe is a Neolithic (stone-age) hilltop sanctuary erected at the top of a mountain ridge in southeastern Anatolia and is the oldest known human-made religious structure.  The site was most likely erected by hunter-gatherers in the 10th millennium BCE (c. 12,000 years ago) and has been under excavation since 1994 by German and Turkish archaeologists.

 Immanuel Velikovsky, Jew (6/10 1895–11/17 1979) was a Russian-born American scholar, best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950.  Earlier, he played a role in the founding of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, and was a respected psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.  His books use comparative mythology and ancient literary sources (including the Bible) to argue that Earth has suffered catastrophic close-contacts with other planets (principally Venus and Mars) in ancient times.  Velikovsky argued that electromagnetic effects play an important role in celestial mechanics.  He also proposed a revised chronology for ancient Egypt, Greece, Israel and other cultures of the ancient Near East.  The revised chronology aimed at explaining the so-called "dark age" of the eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1100 – 750 BCE) and reconciling biblical history with mainstream archaeology and Egyptian chronology.

Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope.  The dominant paradigm of modern geology, in contrast, is uniformitarianism (gradualism), in which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, create the Earth's appearance.  This view holds that the present is the key to the past, and that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world.  Recently a more inclusive and integrated view of geologic events has developed, changing the scientific consensus to accept some catastrophic events in the geologic past.  Asteroids and global pole shifts have happened to shape the earth’s history.  There have been medieval oceanic maps which have Antarctica mapped out under the ice.  These are presumed to be copies from ancient maps.

Questions:  Were the layers slowly added or quickly added as sediment from many floods were laid down?  Are coal, oil and gas developed from prehistoric vegetation or composed by the inner workings of our earth?  Pressure, heat and chemical reactions change substances in the laboratory, why not within the earth?

Weather Cycles:  There are 40 year cycles and 400 year cycles.  Greenland is a good example of having experienced warmer and colder centuries.

  Mediterranean Valley:  There are many similarities among the ancients, showing possibly one root for mankind.  Perhaps a catastrophe encouraged the migration from a central area.  There are remnants of thousands of cities under the Mediterranean with the suggestion that this was once a fertile plain with the Nile flowing all the way to the Pillars of Hercules, the Rock of Gibraltar.  Then it was flooded from the Atlantic Ocean.  Seafaring is ancient with a Phoenician civilization an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean during the period 1550 BC to 300 BC if not much earlier.  This paper is not focused on the earliest cultures of Sumer, Babylonia, Indus Valley, Chinese, Egyptian, etc. 

 Settling the Americas:  The six oldest skeletons found in North America are shown to be Caucasian and around 10,000bc.  Asians arrived at the coast of South America early by ships.  The traditional view that Asians took the land bridge from Asia is being challenged and instead they arrived in ships which hugged the coast line.  Europeans enter from the Northeast, originally hugging the coastline as well, through Iceland, Greenland.  Southern Asians enter from the Pacific Coast.  New England Indians show the largest genetic mixture with Europeans, even before Columbus.  South American Indians show the genetic mixture of the Asians.

Noah - Whether global or local, a new beginning.  1991 Joint Resolution of Congress (promulgated as Public Law 102-14) declared that "the ethical values and principles [upon which our Nation was founded] have been the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization, when they were known as the Seven Noahide Laws" and "without these ethical values and principles the edifice of civilization stands in serious peril of returning to chaos". The choice, however, remains, either God is sovereign or man.  The seven laws listed by the Tosefta and the Talmud are: Prohibition of Idolatry: You shall not have any idols before God.;  Prohibition of Murder: You shall not murder. (Genesis 9:6);  Prohibition of Theft: You shall not steal.;  Prohibition of Sexual Promiscuity: You shall not commit any of a series of sexual prohibitions, which include adultery, incest, bestiality and homosexual acts.;  Prohibition of Blasphemy: You shall not blaspheme God's name.;  Dietary Law: Do not eat flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive. (Genesis 9:4);  Requirement to have just Laws: Set up a governing body of law (eg Courts).

****The Noahide Laws are Talmudic tradition said to comprise the six laws given to Adam in the Garden of Eden, and a seventh (eating flesh from a living animal), which was added after the Flood of Noah.  Later at the Revelation at Sinai the Seven Laws of Noah were given to humanity and embedded in the 613 Laws given to the Children of Israel along with the Ten Commandments.  The Noahic Laws which are touted today for all gentiles are an addition to biblical literature.  They sound good, but depending on definition by the ruling elite, having specific beliefs about Jesus or any other belief could be considered idolatry and blasphemy and met with death.  A few years ago our Congress made a Resolution promulgating these Laws.

8000 BC The Aryan race originated from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the Dnieper River on the great Eurasian plains.  Unlike the Semites, who usually chose to live in cities, Aryan families lived together on farms.  Hundreds lived together.  Although they had no central government, independent farms maintained close contact with each other as an alliance to repel invaders.

5000 BC

As Northern and Central Europe came out of the Glacier Age, the Germans migrated.

 5000 BC  Halaf ceramics Samarra Iraq 4800 BC

 Indus Swastika

 ****Hinduism - The earliest evidence for prehistoric religion in India date back to (5500–2600 BCE).  Modern Hinduism grew out of the Vedas, the oldest of which is the Rigveda, dated to 1700–1100 BCE. The oldest Vedic traditions exhibit strong similarities to Zoroastrianism and other Indo-European religions.  Westerners tend to think of Hinduism is only polytheistic, but there is a major Trinity of gods and some sects are officially monotheistic.  Through most disciplines, Asian Indians are considered Aryan and are part of the Indo-European family of languages.  Throughout the centuries, Africans were imported as slaves and mixed with the population.

The Kshatriyan codes of war are stuff of legends and folklore in India.  Mahabharatha a Hindu epic also talks about war codes.  Conclusive archaeological evidence has not yet been obtained but more or less all sources agree that such codes of war existed and they were followed.  Some of the more important codes are listed below.: 1) War should not affect the unarmed - meaning that the civilian population should not be attacked for any reason nor should the disarmed and seriously wounded soldiers or warriors unless it is for killing them as an act of mercy.  2) Rest should be provided for both sides - meaning that the war should not continue after sunset unless or otherwise it is a guerrilla war.   3) All foes should be defeated - meaning that even if your kinsman fought against you, you should not hesitate to defeat him.   4) Raids should not be undertaken unless completely necessary - meaning that a raid should not be undertaken unless the motive is to compensate for past losses or to humiliate the enemy.  5) Women should not be looked at unless she challenges you - meaning that unless a woman is in your enemy's army as a soldier or warrior you should not attack her. If the woman is the ruler then she can be attacked or asked to surrender only after the whole army is defeated.   6) A guerrilla war should not be waged unless the objective is victory - meaning that the warriors chosen for a guerrilla war should be the best, able to defeat any large army in the given situation and such an attack should be done only to attain a political goal and not to raid the enemy's supplies.  7) A traitor should never escape death - meaning that a traitor or defector of one’s own army should be guaranteed death.

Out-of-place artifact (OOPArt) is a term for an object of historical, archaeological, or paleontological interest found in a very unusual or seemingly impossible context that could challenge conventional historical chronology.  Some are frauds.  Some are gradually understood.  Others are mysteries which lead us to:

Several ancient civilizations had tremendous talents and possibly unknown technologies to modern man.  There are suggestions that electricity was even used.  Asphalt, as an example, was lost as a technology for 2000 years.  Could not the ancients have harnessed geologic, atmospheric or solar energies in ways we have yet to discover?

Could there also not be ancient civilizations which destroyed themselves through technology or which vanished beneath the ocean surface?

Egyptian:

 By about 6000 BC the Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley.  A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia.  Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs.  The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700−2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids.

Gods are Sun- Ra;   Music- Hathor;   Destruction- Sekhmet;   Sky- Nut;   Earth- Geb;   Dead- Osiris;   Desert- Seth;   Pharoah- Horus;   Magic -Isis;   Wisdom- Thoth;   Embalming- Anubis;   Justice- Ma'at;   Creation- Amun;   Cats- Bastet.

After Christ, Egyptians adopt Christianity until the arrival of Islam, a heterodox Christianity.  The Coptic Christians continue to be at least 10% of the population and grow until the Western powers in the 21^st century betray them.

 14^th century BC Egypt racial classificationancient Indo-Europeans

  (1/10, 2010) The Great Pyramids were built by free workers.   They had their own tombs built nearby.  Graffiti on the walls from workers calling themselves "friends of Khufu" –was a  sign that they were not slaves.  Hawass said evidence had been found showing that farmers in the Delta and Upper Egypt had sent 21 buffalo and 23 sheep to the plateau every day to feed the builders, believed to number around 10,000 -- or about a tenth of Greek historian Herodotus's estimate of 100,000.  These farmers were exempted from paying taxes to the government of ancient Egypt -- evidence that he said underscored the fact they were participating in a national project.  The workers may be sub-divided into a permanent workforce of some 5,000 salaried employees who lived, together with their families and dependents, in a well-established pyramid village. There would also have been up to 20,000 temporary workers who arrived to work three- or four-month shifts, and who lived in a less sophisticated camp established alongside the pyramid village.

****Gods & Goddesses [From earliest times, ie Sumer, Indian, Asian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Germanic gods and goddesses may have stood for many ideas.  Attributes of the one God divided.  Human personalities defied.  Misunderstood natural activities defied.  Human founders defied. Yahweh began as a thunder god and Allah began as the Moon god, both became the Supreme God.  Through land and sea trade, it is easily possible for transference from one religion to another.]

Missionaries generally understand that mankind is fundamentally the same.   Don Richardson (1935-  ) is a Canadian Christian missionary, teacher, author and international speaker who worked among the tribal people of Western New Guinea, Indonesia.  He argues in his writings that, hidden among tribal cultures, there are usually some practices or understandings, which he calls "redemptive analogies", which can be used to illustrate the meaning of the Christian Gospel, contextualizing the biblical representation of the incarnation of Jesus.  Peace Child (1975), Lords of the Earth (1977), Eternity in Their Hearts: Startling Evidence of Belief in the One True God in Hundreds of Cultures Throughout the World (1984)

2000-1500 BC Two Aryan nations develop: the Greeks and the Hittites.

 ****The Silk Routes (collectively known as the 'Silk Road') were important paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from Ancient China, Ancient India, Persia and Mediterranean countries for almost 3,000 years.  Extending over 7,000 miles, the routes enabled people to transport goods, especially luxuries such as slaves, silk, satin and other fine fabrics, musk, other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware and even rhubarb, as well as serving as a conduit for the spread of knowledge, ideas, cultures and diseases between different parts of the world (Ancient China, Ancient India, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean).  Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of India, China, Egypt, Persia, Arabia and Rome, and in several respects helped lay the foundations for the modern world.  Later, Christianity (following Jewish merchants and others) spread East into China by 300 AD before it spread North into Europe, not reaching Scandinavia until 1000 AD.

 ****Habiru was the name given by various Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources (dated, roughly, from before 2000 BC to around 1200 BC) to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia and Iran to the borders of Egypt in Canaan.  Depending on the source and epoch, these Habiru are variously described as nomadic or semi-nomadic, rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, and bowmen, servants, slaves, migrant laborers, etc.  This term is considered most likely the same as the Hebrews.

Monotheism or Polytheism?  The Hebrews were not monotheistic until their sojourn in Egypt and even after that had many references to goddesses and Baal.  Elohim is a plural term.  Jahweh is possibly a term combining male and female.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) The story of the foundation of monotheism for the Habiru.  Possible fully manufactured stories to create unified story for the non-related Israelite tribes just as the United States has unifying stories (based on facts) of the Pilgrims and the founding of the nation.

Circumcision is already practiced by the Egyptians before ‘God’ commands Abraham to do it for a sign of uniqueness.

The Muslims and the Bahai through their traditions understand Abraham as taking Ishmael to be sacrificed, not Isaac.

Jacob’s brother Esau was the father of the Edomites.  The Talmud uses this term for Gentiles.  The irony is that just before Christ, the tribe of Judah conquers Edom and forcefully converts them to Judaism.

[History timelines rarely change until the evidence is overwhelming.  Secular history of Egypt has been standardized and only variates 10-20 years, yet sometimes secular history can leap centuries with new scholarship.]

~1500 BC The Hyksos invade Egypt and only recently have been (?)verified as the Hebrews.  Because of Joseph’s self-aggrandizement, his brothers sell him into slavery.  In Egypt, Joseph’s financial acumen leads to his rise as overseer of Potiphar’s household.  Potiphar’s wife claims that Joseph tries to rape her and he is thrown into prison.  Joseph rises to become the top trustee of the prison and learns more about the royal house. Joseph becomes the most powerful man in Egypt.  When drought and famine finally hit, Joseph hatches a scheme to increase his and the Pharaoh’s wealth and power.  He tells the starving Egyptians that they must pay for the grain and “gathers up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt.”  A severe depression occurs when the currency fails.  So Joseph first takes away all the money of the free Egyptians, then all their domesticated animals, then their homes and lands, and finally he puts them back on the Pharaoh’s new land as slaves with 20 percent of their crop going to the Pharaoh.  The Pharaoh is ecstatic with this arrangement, for his treasury is overflowing, and Joseph has taken away all the lands of the people and put them back on it working essentially as sharecroppers.  At the same time the Egyptians are going through this misery, Joseph sends for and brings all of his Hebrew Brethren to Egypt.  Genesis makes it quite clear that Joseph gives the Israelites bags of gold and food and that they “live off the fat of the land.”  One can imagine what the Egyptians thought about Joseph taking all their lands and possessions and reducing them to slavery while the foreign Israelites are given gold, free food, and the best land in all of Egypt.  The Egyptians had built a grand civilization with magnificent artistic and cultural achievements, and advances in mathematics, engineering, architecture, astronomy and agriculture.  They had built the most enduring architectural creations in the world: the pyramids.  How they must have chafed under the absolute power of this foreign tribe.  According to Genesis and Exodus the arrangement persisted for a long time, suggesting that the Israelites were the privileged administrators of Egypt during a long period of time.  The Pharaoh could count on them having no loyalty to the native aristocrats or merchant class of Egypt, and they might have served the Pharaoh’s purpose by directing the wrath of the people toward the Hebrews rather than toward the Pharaoh himself.  At any rate, eventually the numbers and political and economic power of the Jews grew so excessive that even the royal family felt threatened — a pattern that has often been repeated in Hebrew history.  Then are recorded dutifully the Egyptian pogroms against the Hebrews and Hebrew celebration of Egyptian infanticide and Hebrew expulsion and deliverance as represented in Passover.   The Egyptian Pharaoh was not the last who sought to expel Jews from his land.   Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann wrote the following about frequent hostile reaction to Jewish presence:  “Whenever the quantity of Jews in any country reaches the saturation point, that country reacts against them. . . . [This] reaction . . . cannot be looked upon as Anti-Semitism in the ordinary or vulgar sense of the word; it is a universal social and economic concomitant of Jewish immigration and we cannot shake it off.”

Joseph takes over as Treasurer of Egypt.  Mark Twain perceived this as “We have all read the story of the years of plenty and the years of famine in Egypt, and now Joseph with that opportunity, made a corner in broken hearts, and the crusts of the poor, and human liberty; a corner whereby he took away the nation’s money to the last penny; took a nation’s livestock all away, to the last hoof; took a nation’s land all away, to the last acre.  Then he took the nation itself, buying it for bread, man by man, woman by woman, child by child, till all were slaves; a corner which he took everything, leaving nothing, a corner so stupendous that by comparison with it, the most gigantic corners in subsequent history are but baby things; for it dealt in hundreds of millions of bushels, and its profits were reckoned by the hundreds of millions of dollars.  It was a disaster so crushing that its effects have not wholly disappeared from Egypt even today, more than 3,000 years after the event.  Was Joseph establishing a character for his race which survived long in Egypt, and in time would his name be familiarly used to express that characters; like Shylock’s?”

Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon (that is, of the First Babylonian Dynasty) from 1792 BC to 1750 BC.  His Codes as were other early nations were before Moses.  There were 282 separate codes and they are easily compared to Moses’ Commandments 5-10.  The Ten Commandments are unique as they base the Law on God and simplify the Laws.

Monotheism from the Egyptians?: Akhenaten ("living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV (meaning Amun is Satisfied), was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC.  He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, the solar deity, which is sometimes described as monotheistic or henotheistic.  After his death, traditional religious practice was gradually restored.  King Tutankhamun, who has been proved to be Akhenaten's son.  Akhenaten remains an interesting figure, as does his queen, Nefertiti.

Egyptian history states that the Hebrews were expelled.  The Jews ruled Egypt for a couple of centuries until the people rose up and enslaved them, before expelling them.

1220 B.C.E. - Earliest known reference to the Jews from non-Jewish sources, the Egyptian Mernephta stele, states "Israel is no more."

1200 B.C.E. - Lower Egypt’s remaining Jews are expelled at the end of the 19th Dynasty.

The Egyptian Papyrus. This ancient document of unknown age contains a cautionary phrase: "Beware of the Jews!" (Aegyptische Urkunden)

Israel is possibly named after Egyptian (and/or Babylonian) gods Isis, Ra and El.  It has been shortened to Is-ra-el.  The religion is possibly closer to the followers of ancient Babylonian pagan gods.

Amen: Some alternative scholars believe the word originated from the name of the Egyptian god Amun (which is sometimes also spelled Amen).  (It is this writer’s experience that Jews pronounce it ''ah-men'' and Christians ''ay-men'', until recently.)

Herodotus, the Greek "Father of History" (484 – 425 BC) said that the Egyptians were the only ancient nation that performed circumcision.  Did the Hebrews adopt this custom and then write their ‘history’.  Herodotus does not even mention Israel or the Hebrews.

The Bible itself lists several lost texts which were used in its composition.  Yet how many other ancient stories were used and adjusted to fit into the Jew’s history?  The Sumerian king Sargon myth-predates the bible by a thousand years--describes a woman putting her baby in a reed basket sealed with pitch in the euphrates river  and the baby is found and raised into royalty.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from Mesopotamia, dates to the 18th century BC.  The story centers on a friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.  Enkidu is a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh's equal to distract him from oppressing the people of Uruk. Together, they journey to the Cedar Mountain to defeat Humbaba, its monstrous guardian.  Later they kill the Bull of Heaven, which the goddess Ishtar sends to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances.  As a punishment for these actions, the gods sentence Enkidu to death.  The latter half of the epic focuses on Gilgamesh's distress at Enkidu's death, and his quest for immortality.  In order to learn the secret of eternal life, Gilgamesh undertakes a long and perilous journey to find the immortal flood hero, Utnapishtim.  He learns that "The life that you are seeking you will never find.  When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping."  His fame however lived on after his death, because of his great building projects, and his account of what Utnapishtim told him happened during the flood. 

The Vedas ("knowledge") of Hinduism date to roughly 1500–1000 BCE.

 ****1200 BC Moses -The Jewish or Supremacist conspiracy begins with Moses.  The terms Jew or Judaism are shorthand words reflecting this conspiracy.  The word Jew is medieval and had many forms and meanings.  Israel is another term with many meanings.  Judaism is based on racial separatism, deception, parasitism, crime, corruption, and violence.  It is a survival strategy of living off of non-Jewish host communities, which are considered as subhuman.    At this time in history, cities, governments, commerce, and money exist and are heavily exploited by the Jews.  The Torah, the first five books of the Bible, describes the rules of Judaism.  Note that the Jewish conspiracy is relatively consistent from the time of Moses to today due to its rules, rituals, traditions, racial unity, strong leaders, sacred books, and intolerance of dissent.  Thank God for further Israelite prophets who condemned this Supremacy and spoke a type of Golden Rule to the Jewish tribe. (Read further notes on Inerrancy and Biblical Criticism.)

The Ten Commandments:

1.        "I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me..."

2.        "Do not make an image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above..."

3.        "Do not swear falsely by the name of the LORD..."

4.        "Remember [zachor] the Sabbath day and keep it holy" (the version in Deuteronomy reads shamor, "observe")

5.        "Honor your father and your mother..."

6.        "Do not murder"

7.        "Do not commit adultery."

8.        "Do not steal."

9.        "Do not bear false witness against your neighbor"

10.     "Do not covet your neighbor's wife"

The Ten Commandments are for the practice of Jews to one another.  Their additional writings explain that their “neighbors” are fellow Jews only.  Gentiles are nothing but animals, thus the commands such as not to murder or commit adultery, does not apply to them.  There are slightly different numberings among Christian denominations.

There is already considerable trade between Palestine and Southern Arabia (Yemen).  [See theory that Old Testament Israel is in actuality in Yemen.]

Biblical Archeology – Christian identification with the Bible often leads to false preconceptions of discovered artifacts in Palestine.  Beginning strongly in the later 19th century, the new science of Archeology was led by Biblical literalists, now called Maximalists.  Within only the last few years has a new generation grown to understand artifacts within proper settings.  No discoveries of Israelite history within Palestine have actually been found prior to the Exile.  Recent discoveries hinting at David for example are hopeful misidentifications.  These new archeologists are called Minimalists.

Kamal Suleiman Salibi (born in Beirut, [1929]) is Emeritus Professor at the American University of Beirut.   A Protestant, he earned his PhD in London under the supervision of Professor Bernard Lewis.  Salibi has written three books advocating the "Israel in Arabia" theory. In this view, the place-names of the Hebrew Bible actually allude to places in southwest Arabia; many of them were later reinterpreted to refer to places in Palestine where the Hasmonean kingdom was established by Simon Maccabaeus in the second century BC.   Jerusalem was actually New Jerusalem and then the ‘new’ was dropped.  Modern examples would include New York, New Jersey, New England.  There is a severe mismatch between the Biblical narrative and the archaeological findings in Palestine.

Recent Archeological Discoveries: In the late 20th century, both real substantial discoveries and co-mingling frauds have been found.   The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves near Qumran in 1946-7 and began to be photographed and analyzed in 1948.  The interpretations and public viewing have been monopolized by Jews and only recently after fifty years are being completely (?) published.  They are a collection of 972 documents, including pictures of unicorns and dinosaurs and some biblical terms, the scrolls were found on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.  They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus.  These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE and 70 CE.  They belonged to either Essenes or Zadokites.  They are roughly 1/3 "Biblical" manuscripts, 1/3 "Apocryphal" or "Pseudepigraphical" and 1/3 "Sectarian".

The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945.  Twelve leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found.  The writings in these codices comprised fifty-two mostly Gnostic treatises, but they also include a partial translation/alteration of Plato's Republic.  They were perhaps buried after non-canonical books were condemned in 367 AD.  The best-known of these works is probably the Gospel of Thomas. 

The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1800 complete clay tablets, 4700 fragments and many thousand minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria.  The tablets were discovered in 1974–75, and date to the period between ca. 2500 BC and the destruction of the city ca. 2250 BC.  They illustrate daily life.

Oxyrhynchus is a city in Upper Egypt is an archaeological site begun in 1896 and continually excavated, yielding an enormous collection of papyrus texts dating from the time of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods of Egyptian history.  Among the texts discovered at Oxyrhynchus are plays of Menander and fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, an early Christian document.

Antiquities Fraud: There have been numerous frauds perpetuated against both casual visitors and Professional Archeologists and by the archeologists themselv es.  Just as a few skeletal finds in the Evolutionary tables have been discovered to be fraud, so it goes with historical finds and Art.  Beginning in the 1800’s, when Europeans began to visit North Africa and the Middle East, the natives learned how to make pottery which looked old.  Techniques to discover these frauds have matured as the ability to create frauds has matured.  Needless to say, most of the Creators of Fraud in Palestine, even those who portray themselves to be Archeological Scientists are Jews.

“Following 70 years of intensive excavations in the Land of Israel, archaeologists have found out: The patriarchs' acts are legendary stories, we did not sojourn in Egypt or make an exodus, we did not conquer the land.  Neither is there any mention of the empire of David and Solomon.  Those who take an interest have known these facts for years, but Israel is a stubborn people and doesn't want to hear about it.  This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel: the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel.  Perhaps even harder to swallow is that the united monarchy of David and Solomon, which is described by the Bible as a regional power, was at most a small tribal kingdom.  And it will come as an unpleasant shock to many that the God of Israel, YHWH, had a female consort and that the early Israelite religion adopted monotheism only in the waning period of the monarchy and not at Mount Sinai.”  - 10/29, 1999 from Ha'aretz Magazine

The Bible tells of Moses wandering with his people in the Wilderness for 40 years, or symbolic of a generation.  The Egyptians being traders with the Canaanites had shared the story of these Hebrew supremacists who had wrecked their society.  Taking the Biblical story as history, these Hebrews or Habiru migrated to the outlying areas of Canaan or Palestine and joined together with other rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, and bowmen, servants, slaves, migrant laborers, etc.  Their oral stories began to be written down and adopted as their national identity, this new “Israel”.  They had a generation to regroup and militarize before descending upon the villages and cities of the plain and destroying them bit by bit.  Joshua then led them to:

  ****Biblical Atrocities:

The following is a partial list of the many people that the Israelites destroyed with their Chosen People mentality.  Christians suggest that Israel needed to cleanse the land of immorality and idolatry, but the rest of the Old Testament shows the assimilation of immorality and idolatry into the people of Israel and even more, including ritual sacrifice of their own first born.

Genesis 17  Israel fought the Amalekites

Number 21:3 “…and they (Israel) utterly destroyed them (Arad Canaanites) and their cities.”

Numbers 21: 24 “Then Israel defeated him (Sihon, king of the Amorites) with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land.” v32 “they took its (Jazer) villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.”  v35 “So they (Israel) defeated him (Og, king of Basham), his sons, and all his people, until there were no survivor left him; and they took possession of his land.”

Numbers 25:1 (Israel) began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.”

Numbers 31: 7 “And they (Israel) warred against the Midianites…and killed all the males….and they took all the women of Midian captive….took spoil…and burned the cities.”

Moses commands the murder of approximately 100,000 young males and, roughly, 68,000 helpless women.

Joshua 6: 21 “And they (Israel) utterly destroyed all that was in the city (Jericho)….

Joshua 8: 25 “So it was that all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand –all the people of Ai….took spoils and burned the city.”

Joshua 10 Joshua hangs 5 kings and v37: “…but utterly destroyed it and all the people who were in it.”

Even though some Canaanites tribes join Israel, out of fear, most are slaughtered.  The Canaanites are said to have been one of seven regional ethnic divisions or "nations" driven out before the Israelites following the Exodus. Specifically, the other nations include the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (Deuteronomy 7:1).

"And Gideon said, Therefore when the Lord hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers" (Judges 8:7)  "Now Zebah and Zalmunna were Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east: for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword." (Judges 8:10)

"And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter." (I Samuel 6:19)

"Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." (I Samuel 15:2-3)

"And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under the axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem." (II Samuel 12:31)

II Chronicles 17-19 tells us that David killed 22,000 Syrians and that Abishai killed 18,000 Edomites.  In 20:3, David slaughters captives after the cessation of hostilities. "And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes..." (I Chronicles 20:3)

So the LORD smote the Ethiopians (over a million) before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. (II Chronicles 14:12)

The rest of the Old Testament continues prophesying and showing fulfillments.  "Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished." (Isaiah 13:15-16)

In the 1954 history, “Our Oriental Heritage”, Will Durrant tells us: “The conquest of Canaan was but one more instance of a hungry nomad horde falling upon a settled community.  The conquerors killed as many as they could find, and married the rest.  Slaughter was unconfined, and was divinely ordained and enjoyed.  Gideon, in capturing two cities, slew 120,000 men; only in the annals of the Assyrians do we meet again with such hearty killing. 

(Or taking Salibi’s theory, they migrated to the trading area of Asir, southwestern Arabia and established themselves there through conquest.)

Biblical ethics of political assassination: One example was Ehud of the tribe of Benjamin who assassinated Eglon, the king of Moab and won Israel eighty years of freedom (Judges 3:9-11)

“If the Jews were ever a nation with a language and traditions of their own, the place where that nation lived, in ancient times, has yet to be discovered.  Palestine was never in the possession of the Jews.  They were never masters of even the country west of the Jordan, nor of the sea coast.  Many Phoenicians and other Canaanitish cities were impregnable to Jewish strategy.  The Jews occupied portions of the country only, and even these they had to share with the Canaanites.  The sanctuaries of Palestine, such as Bethel, Beersheba, Gezer, Gibeon, Gigal, Hebron, Jerusalem, Shechem, etc., were not Jewish holy places, but ancient sanctuaries of the Canaanites “adopted” as such by the Jews, who, in most cases, “adopted” also the “hero” of the place.  Having “adopted” what they did not understand, the Jews became muddled, not only with regard to “heroes,” but also in connection with customs, histories, beliefs, and sites”.  “The Great Jewish Masque”

Their holy days are also not their own, so much of the Jewish religion was adopted and adapted from neighboring nations.

****Jew Idolatry and Worship of Pagan Gods throughout the Torah:

~1300bc Exodus 32 of Moses and the Wandering Tribe   The Two Golden Calves were the cult of Set and Horus from Egypt.

Numbers 25:1-3 The Wandering Tribe joins itself to Baalpeor.  Baalpeor (Baal) was the name of the principle male God of the Phoenicians. Baal is also identified with Molech of the Ammonites and Chemosh of the Moabites. The principle feature of the god under the latter names is that he demanded child sacrifice.  It began with miscegenation.  

The entire period of Judges shows oscillation between the worship of Baal and the worship of God.  We even know that some were willing to execute an individual for defiling a grove dedicated to Baal.  God would raise up a judge to save them.  They followed the judge and worshipped God; then the judge died and the people returned to Baal.  Samuel helped purge Baal from Israel, but there were many references until Solomon when he fully reintroduced Baal in the guise of Moloch and Chemosh.  In addition Baal now had a companion Ashtoreth the Phoenician moon goddess. 

~1000bc I Kings 12:25 Jeroboam, after Solomon, (who knew the story of Moses), built two golden calves at Bethel and Dan.  The calves stayed until the Exile in 586bc.

The divided Kingdom: In the North, worship of false gods grew greatly under Ahab influenced by Jezebel.  Elijah won some victories, but Baal worship was too entrenched.  It wasn't until the time of Jehu that Baal was once again removed from Israel.

In the South, some kings had reforms and others had a return to the worship of Baal.  The final purge came under Josiah, but it was too late, the South had become worse than the heathen it had displaced. 

Through Archeology, it has been shown that even Yahweh had a consort and many attributes of Yahweh were conditioned by these Canaanite gods.  The Theology of God evolved throughout the Torah.

 ~ 1194–1184 BC In Greek mythology, Hectōr ("holding fast") is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War.  He acts as leader of the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy.  In the European Middle Ages, Hector figures as one of the Nine Worthies noted not only for his courage but also for his noble and courtly nature.  Indeed Homer places Hector as the very noblest of all the heroes in the Iliad: he is both peace-loving and brave, thoughtful as well as bold, a good son, husband and father, and without darker motives.  When the Trojans are disputing whether the omens are favorable, he retorts:  One omen is best: defending the fatherland.  In the Middle Ages he was a member of the Nine Worthies, a group of heroes encapsulating all the ideal qualities of chivalry.

 Saul, David, Solomon are all possible minor kings in Asir, Arabia.  Archeology has not proven their existence in Palestine.  The Queen of Sheba who became an ally and lover of Solomon lived near Asir.

In the late 11th century, through biblical history only, Saul and David defeat the Edomites and Edom remained a vassal of Israel.  When Israel divided into two kingdoms Edom became a dependency of the Kingdom of Judah. 

 Story from the Tanakh of how David the king of Judah, killed all the people of Kingdom of Ammon, by putting them under saws, axes, and harrows of iron (ploughs), and then burnt them in a brick kiln. 

2 Samuel, Chapter 12: 29 And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it.  30 And he took the crown of Malcam from off his head; and the weight thereof was a talent of gold, and in it were precious stones; and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city, exceeding much.  31 And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln; and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.

 Moloch is the name of an ancient Semitic god, historically affiliated with cultures throughout the Middle East, including the Ammonite, Hebrew, Canaanite, Phoenician and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant. As a god worshipped by the Phoenicians, Moloch had associations with a particular kind of propitiatory child sacrifice by parents.  Moloch appears in the Hebrew of 1 Kings 11:7 (on Solomon's religious failings): Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and Moloch, the abomination of the Sons of Ammon.  2 Kings 21:1 (NIV)  “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.  His mother's name was Hephzibah.” “He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists.  He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.”   2 Kings 21:6

1000 BC

The Slavs, perhaps the earliest Aryans, begin migrating West into Eastern Europe.

Persia, an Aryan tribe, begins to develop and is at its greatest in 529 BC.

 Zoroaster (born between the 18th and 6th century BCE) was an Iranian/Persian prophet and philosopher.  Zarathushtra is a modern rendering.  The Jews adopt Zoroastrian Dualism while in Babylon.  The concept of Satan is first developed in their theology from this time.

 Iranian Swastika 1-3,000 BCE  Crete Coin 1000 BCE

753 BC In legend, the Aryan Romans begin.

The Aryan Celts develop and around 400 BC begin migrating from the Black Forest of Germany across to Italy.  The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.  Proto-Celtic, was the central European culture (c. 800-450 BC).  By (c450 BC up to the Roman conquest), this Celtic culture had expanded over a wide range of regions: to the British Isles (Insular Celts), the Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians, Celtici and Gallaeci), much of Central Europe, (Gauls) and following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC as far east as central Anatolia (Galatians (& Galilee)).  By mid 1st millennium AD, following the expansion of the Roman Empire and the Great Migrations (Migration Period) of Germanic peoples, Celtic culture and Insular Celtic had become restricted to Ireland and to the western and northern parts of Great Britain (Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and the Isle of Man) and northern France (Brittany).  Between the fifth and eighth centuries AD the Celtic-speaking communities of the Atlantic regions had emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity.  In language, religion, and art they shared a common heritage that distinguished them from the culture of surrounding polities.  The Continental Celtic languages ceased to be widely used by the 6th century.

 Etruscan pendant with swastika symbols, Bolsena, Italy, 700-650 BC.

Assyrian Exile: By the time of the death of Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser III in 727, most of the northern kingdom of Israel was part of his Assyrian Empire.  The hill country around Israel's capital city, Samaria, was all that was left to the people of Israel, but not for long.  The Assyrian king after fter Tiglath-pileser, Sargon II, destroyed Samaria, made Assyrians of the Israelites, and exiled them.  The Israelite exiles to Assyria are referred to as the 10 lost tribes.  This was the end of the period of the "Two Kingdoms" or "Divided Monarchy" of Israel/Judah.  Judah still existed, but the Assyrians considered it distant and inconsequential; besides, Judah paid Assyria tribute, so it was left alone.

****Bible Literacy:

Psalm 23: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”(NIV)

Ecclesiastes 3: ”There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” (NIV)

Even though the Scriptures have been edited (selected and summarized) by Jewish Scribes to promote Jewish Supremacy, many prophets with reputations of their own, are clear to read in their denunciations of Jewish (and still by extension Gentiles) selfish society.:

840 BC Obadiah “For the day of the LORD upon all the nations is near; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.”

835 BC Joel

760 BC Jonah

755 BC Amos  “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have despised the law of the LORD, And have not kept His commandments.  Their lies lead them astray, lies which their fathers followed.  But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”;  “They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks uprightly.  Therefore, because you tread down the poor and take grain taxes from him, ….For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: Afflicting the just and taking bribes; Diverting the poor from justice at the gate.”;  “Falsifying the scales by deceit, that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— even sell the bad wheat?”

740-680 BC Isaiah “Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, Who write misfortune, Which they have prescribed To rob the needy of justice, And to take what is right from the poor of My people.”; “The brood of evildoers shall never be named.”(fear of the Jews); “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me”; Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!  When you cease plundering, You will be plundered; When you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.”

710 BC Hosea “For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God.”; “Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples (racial mixing); Ephraim is a cake unturned.  Aliens have devoured his strength, (free trade) but he does not know it.”

700 BC Micah “You heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And pervert all equity, Who build up Zion with bloodshed      And Jerusalem with iniquity: Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money.”; “The prince asks for gifts, the judge seeks a bribe, and the great man utters his evil desire; So they scheme together.”

663 BC Nahum

625 BC Zephaniah: “Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city!  She has not obeyed His voice, She has not received correction; She has not trusted in the LORD, She has not drawn near to her God.  Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; Her judges are evening wolves That leave not a bone till morning.   Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, They have done violence to the law.”

627-585 BC Jeremiah: “Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!’  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.  Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’  For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.  Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.  Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?”; “but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”;  “And the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.  Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.”;  “Because they have forsaken me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents.”

Josiah (c. 649–609 BC) was a king of Judah (641–609 BC) who instituted major reforms.  Josiah is credited by most historians with having established or compiled important Jewish scriptures during the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.  Historical-critical biblical scholarship generally accept that this scroll - an early predecessor of the Torah was written by the priests driven by ideological interest to centralize power under Josiah in Jerusalem Temple, and that the core narrative from Joshua to 2 Kings up to Josiah's reign comprise a "Deuteronomistic History" (DtrH) written during Josiah's reign.  On the other hand, recent European theologians posit that most of the Torah and Deuteronomistic History was composed and its form finalized during Persian period later during the Achaemenid Empire (559–330  BC).

607 BC Habakkuk 5 “Indeed, because he transgresses by wine (wealth), He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, and he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples. “Will not all these take up a proverb against him, and a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases What is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges’?  Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you, because of men’s blood and the violence of the land and the city, and of all who dwell in it. ...Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity!”

586 BC   The Jews are forcibly taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.  There is a fascinating theory dealing primarily with linguistics and geographical place names by Professor Kamal Salibi of American University in Beirut in his 1985 book Bible Came from Arabia.  Others have agreed.  Biblical minimalism states that there is actually very little archeology of ancient Israel in Palestine.  Even some Biblical maximalists hold that it is likely that some or all of the patriarchs before Saul are better classified as fictional creations, with only the slightest relation to any real historical persons in the distant past.  First Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Babylonians.

Nebuchadnezzar moved most of the people of Jerusalem to Babylon, leaving behind only the poor.  The Babylonians then took Jerusalem.  They broke down the walls around Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and took the content of the Temple to Babylon.  This was the first Temple and what's known as the "first Temple period."  The Romans would later destroy the second Temple.  The official appointed by the Babylonians to rule the poor people remaining in Jerusalem was assassinated, as were other Babylonian representatives.  In fear of retaliation, the remaining poor of Judah, including the prophet Jeremiah, fled to Egypt.

592-570 BC Ezekiel “I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. For they are impudent and stubborn children.”; “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.”; “If he has oppressed the poor and needy, Robbed by violence,  If he has exacted usury Or taken increase— Shall he then live? He shall not live!”; “The conspiracy of her prophets [media] in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.”; ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.”

 Aesop or Esop (c. 620-564 BC), known for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition born a slave and was a contemporary of Croesus and Solon in the mid-6th century BC in ancient Greece.  In many of these stories animals speak and have human characteristics; see for example the Tortoise and the Hare or the Ant and the Grasshopper.  Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" derives), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Ant and the Grasshopper are well-known throughout the world.

 The theatre of ancient Greece, or ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BC.  Tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC), and the satyr play were the three main genres.  Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure.  From its obscure origins in Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, through the works of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Racine, or Schiller, to the recent Strindberg and Beckett, tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change.  Comedy is a representation of laughable people and involves some kind of blunder or ugliness which does not cause pain or disaster.  Satyr plays were an ancient Greek form of tragicomedy, similar in spirit to burlesque. They featured choruses of satyrs, were based on Greek mythology, and were rife with mock drunkenness, brazen sexuality (including phallic props), pranks, sight gags, and general merriment.  According to these definitions the life of Christ was a Tragedy if it ended with the Cross, but the Resurrection turns it into a Comedy.

537 BC Daniel

539 Persia captures Babylon. The Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, with an unprecedented military engagement known as the Battle of Opis.  The famed walls of Babylon were indeed impenetrable, with the only way into the city through one of its many gates or through the Euphrates, which ebbed beneath its thick walls.  Metal gates at the river's in-flow and out-flow prevented underwater intruders, if one could hold one's breath to reach them.  Cyrus (or his generals) devised a plan to use the Euphrates as the mode of entry to the city, ordering large camps of troops at each point and instructed them to wait for the signal.  Awaiting an evening of a national feast among Babylonians (generally thought to refer to the feast of Belshazzar mentioned in Daniel V), Cyrus' troops diverted the Euphrates river upstream, causing the Euphrates to drop to about 'mid thigh level on a man' or to dry up altogether.  The soldiers marched under the walls through thigh-level water or as dry as mud. The Persian Army conquered the outlying areas of the city's interior while a majority of Babylonians at the city center were oblivious to the breach. The account was elaborated upon by Herodotus, and is also mentioned by passages in the Hebrew Bible.  Cyrus claimed the city by walking through the gates of Babylon with little or no resistance from the drunken Babylonians.  For their help in selling out Babylon, Cyrus later issued a decree permitting the Jews, to return to their own land (as explained in the Old Testament), to allow their temple to be rebuilt back in Jerusalem.

Jewish Fifth Columnists: Babylon, writes Herodotus, was a well-defended city.  But the Persians came on them unawares.  The Bible talks about the suffering of the Jews in the Babylonian Captivity. But they were waxing rich and were deep in local politics, as many stayed in the city.  After the fall of Babylon Cyrus heaped great favors on the Jews. This was a reward for their assistance.  Once he took the city, Cyrus let them return to Palestine. He even donated a large sum to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Persian Empire through “imperial authorization” created a federal arrangement by which the local communities gained a degree of legal autonomy while remaining under imperial rule.  Under Ezra, the Torah was further compiled.  

****Scriptural Compilation:  Many scholars now have decided that the Jewish Scriptures were composed during the Babylonian Exile between 586 and 539 BC.  Many of the place names and contexts of the earliest patriarchs are placed in contemporary milieus.  The earliest stories are expanded and infused with theological understandings.  This was all to increase nationalism among the disparate and lowly tribes.

****Translations: 540 BC  While most Jews stayed in Babylon, some of the Jews return to (New) Jerusalem.  They take additional pagan theology infused with their own evolving theology.  Most words in Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic have been translated, but some have simply been transliterated.  An example is ‘Satan’ from proto-Zorastrianism.  ‘Satan’ means Adversary and is still used that way in Iran.  Remember “America is the Great Satan”?  Old Testament theology evolved and Satan became a competing power to Yahweh or the Lord.  Demon is similar, being transliterated from the Greek daemon, meaning outside influence, either positive or negative.  Even in Jesus’ time ‘demon’ had not yet been settled into its sole negative role. 

****Theodicy: There is Good and evil in this world.  Christianity speaks of a trio of evil influences which include the world, the flesh, and the devil.  The world includes natural consequences and man’s social systems, some of which can be changed by people acting for the good.  The flesh with its sin (sin meaning missing the mark, which includes sins of omission and those of commission) can be fought with knowledge of truth.  There is always hope.  The Kingdom of God is those who are working for God. 

There is a strong possibility that besides for redacting or editing the existing Hebrew Scriptures at this time, that many of the founding figures are actually mythological and are used as the story foundation for combined tribes uniting in Jewish Supremacy.  Others such as David and Solomon are especially exaggerated.  There were different wings of Judaism with competing visions.  Because of this, opposition voices, which seem to be contradictory were also included in the Scriptures.  For instance, many of the minor prophets seem to be denouncing Jewish intrigues and “Chosenness”.

****Inerrancy of Scripture – American Evangelicals have an understanding of Inerrancy or the Doctrine that the Scriptures have no errors, which is not in the tradition of Christianity.  With the advent of Dispensationalism in about 1830, codified with (Jew-paid and puffed) Scofield in 1909, and mass advertised with radio and television,  Evangelicalism is in the service of Judaism, as it creates a parallel ‘chosenness’ to those who call themselves Jews.  Inerrancy is the reaction of Fundamentalism to the equality of scripture and tradition within Roman Catholicism and the Biblical Criticism of European Christianity.  The Biblical Canon took centuries to standardize and some books were still questioned through Luther’s time and beyond, etc.  The Infallibility of the Roman Catholic Pope when speaking Ex Cathedra was established at Vatican I in 1870, with some bishops dissenting.  This began the argument of inerrancy among Protestants.  Infallibility of Scripture is sometimes used as a stronger and sometimes as a weaker meaning of inerrancy.  Many Evangelicals use the term in the sense that the original autographs were inerrant.  Inspiration of Scripture was the standard understanding through the centuries.  Even most Judaism treats its Scripture with a Critical interpretation.  Islam is different, it presents its Scriptures as Inerrant, and few Islamic Scholars will challenge this assumption. 

Torah (Pentateuch) - The Law: Bereshit - Genesis ; Shemot - Exodus ; VaYikra - Leviticus ; BaMidbar - Numbers ; Devarim - Deuteronomy

Neviim - The Prophets: Yehoshua - Joshua ; Shoftim - Judges ; Shmuel A - 1 Samuel ; Shmuel B - 2 Samuel ; Melachim A - 1 Kings ; Melachim B - 2 Kings ; Yisheyah - Isaiah ; Yermiyah - Jeremiah ; Yechezchial - Ezekiel

Treisar - The Minor Prophets: Hoshea - Hosea ; Yoel - Joel ; Amos - Amos ; Ovadiyah - Obadiah ; Yonah - Jonah ; Michah - Micah ; Nachum - Nahum ; Chabakuk - Habakkuk ; Tzefaniyah - Zephaniah ; Chaggi - Haggai ; Zechariyah - Zechariah ; Malachi - Malachi

Ketuvim - The Writings: Tehilim - Psalms ; Mishlei - Proverbs ; Eyov - Job ;       

Megilot: Shir HaShirim - Song of Songs ; Ruth - Ruth ; Eichah - Lamentations ; Keholet - Ecclesiastes ; Esther - Esther

Daniyel - Daniel ; Ezra - Ezra ; Nechemiyah - Nehemiah ; Divrei Yamim A - 1 Chronicles ; Divrei Yamim B - 2 Chronicles

520 BC Haggai

520 BC Zechariah “‘Execute true justice, Show mercy and compassion Everyone to his brother.  Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, The alien or the poor.  Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.’  But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear.”

456-444 BC Ezra

450 BC Malachi “Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the LORD’s holy institution which He loves: He has married the daughter of a foreign god.”; “And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans.”

In “What the Bible Really Says”, the Jewish author, R. Joseph Hoffman, says this: “The Old Testament has a great deal to say about wealth as a sign of divine favor and source of human happiness.  It is arguable that no single aspect of ancient Israelite religion stands in such obvious contrast to ancient Greek speculation concerning the immaterial nature of the good is the insistence of the Hebrew writers that the things of this world, being 'God's possession and man's ward,' are a source of delight, contentment, and blessing.  The theme is recurrent... the mythological embodiment of a fundamentally this-worldly, economic theology.” 

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 Zodiac -It is known to have been in use by the Roman era, based on concepts inherited by Hellenistic astronomy from Babylonian astronomy of the Chaldean period (mid-1st millennium BC), which, in turn, derived from an earlier system of lists of stars along the ecliptic.  The construction of the zodiac is described in Ptolemy's Almagest (2nd century AD).  The term zodiac means "circle of animals.  Although the zodiac remains the basis of the ecliptic coordinate system in use in astronomy besides the equatorial one, the term and the names of the twelve signs are today mostly associated with horoscopic astrology.

The Hindu zodiac is believed to be adopted from the Greek system and  their symbols are nearly identical.  The High Middle Ages saw a revival of Greco-Roman magic, first in Kabbalism and later continued in Renaissance magic.  This included magical uses of the zodiac.  What follows is a list of the twelve signs of the modern:  Aries The Ram,  Taurus The Bull,  Gemini The Twins,  Cancer The Crab, Leo The Lion,  Virgo The Maiden,  Libra The Scales,  Scorpio The Scorpion,  Sagittarius Centaur The Archer, Capricorn "Goat-horned" (The Sea-Goat), Aquarius The Water Bearer,  Pisces Fish.

Chinese zodiac - is a scheme that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes, according to a 12-year cycle.  Rat,   Ox,   Tiger,   Rabbit,   Dragon,  Snake,   Horse,  Ram,   Monkey,  Rooster,  Dog,  Pig.

500BC