The following is an abridged excerpt from an unpublished book manuscript written by Brian Desborough. Biblical history, in the form it has been presented to us, is not an accurate depiction of Middle Eastern antiquity, but is largely a synthetic creation by biblical scholars whose interpretations of ancient events are often influenced by their own ideologies, and those of their academic overlords.
As an example, we have to look no further than the claim made by countless scholars that Qumran was the site of a monastery, occupied by Essenes diligently writing their scrolls. Such a claim is ludicrous when we consider that the Essenes were "zealous for the Law". Why then, would the Essenes violate their sacred Law by residing at Qumran, adjacent to latrines and a large cemetery not to mention a lack of water acceptable for ritual bathing? If the Dead Sea Scrolls were intended for posterity why were so many of them mutilated by slashing or burning at one end, and how do we explain the absence of calcium carbonate in the cisterns used for laundry purposes? And what were ancient perfume bottles doing in a monastery? (1)
The notion that Qumran was an Essene monastery was promoted by Father Roland de Vaux, who supervised The Qumran research until his death in 1971. As a Dominican priest, he was well acquainted with monasticism, and this presumably contributed to his myopic view that Qumran had been a monastery, despite archaeological evidence to the contrary. An in-depth analysis of the Qumran site is presented in the author's book manuscript.
What we perceive as biblical and more recent history, is largely propaganda disseminated in order to legitimize the actions of the victors of bloody conflicts or coups. The vilification of King Richard III stems primarily from the pen of Sir Thomas More, who conveys the impression that he was a contemporary of Richard. In actuality, he was less than six years old at the time of Richard's death. His writings were an attempt to legitimize the usurpation of the throne by the Tudors. This vilification was extended in the Shakespearean play in which the hapless monarch is portrayed as a hunchback with a withered arm. This inaccurate portrayal was perpetrated because in that era, it was popularly believed that a deformed person was evil
During the past century, archaeological excavations in The Holy Land have revealed a more realistic portrayal of life in ancient Israel than that presented by successive generations of theologians, who have elected to obfuscate the true patterns of the past in order to elevate their own importance in the overall scheme of things.
A great deal of innocent blood has been spilled in recent years in defense of Israeli claims that Israel belongs to the Jews by virtue of divine right, as depicted in the Old Testament. Does it not behoove us, therefore, to ascertain whether or not the Old Testament is accurate in this matter? (2)
The theocratic institution of Judaism has exerted a major geopolitical, spiritual and occult influence upon humankind, in part because it modified and popularized the Cabala and the infamous Babylonian Talmud.(3) It is important to remember, dear reader, that the Old Testament was not written until after the end of the Babylonian captivity period, which means that many events were not committed to writing until several centuries had elapsed. This is why claims such as the Israelite occupation of Canaan by means of conquest, as described in the Book of Joshua, lack credibility; in fact, it we delve deeply into the patterns of the past, it would appear that the genocidal activities of the psychopathic Joshua and Moses, as depicted in the Bible, never occurred.
Although the Bible displays many inaccuracies, therefore invalidating any pretence to being a divinely-inspired work, we should not ignore the Bible as a historical source, for it contains many nuggets of historical truth: it therefore behooves us not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
According to the Old Testament, the patriarch Abraham led his band of proto-Israelites from the Mesopotamian city of Haran, to the land of Canaan. Several generations later, starvation forced the tribe to migrate to the land of Goshen. Goshen was an exceedingly fertile region located in the Nile Delta, where the Israelites coexisted peaceably with the Egyptians for a period of 430 years, before being forced to flee, in order to escape enslavement ordered by a new monarch.
In attempting to reconstruct the historical origins of the Israelites and their religion, it is well to note that Judaism as we know it today, is derived from a rabbinic system only dating back to the second century of the present era. It is claimed to be a continuation of Pharisaic teachings which were formulated during the aftermath of the Maccabean revolt (168-164 B.C.).
Archaeological evidence is indicative that Judaism, during its formative period, assimilated cultic beliefs acquired from neighboring peoples, and is, therefore, not the uniquely original religion that religious purists would have us believe.
In ancient times, the manner in which a civilization evolved was largely determined by the nature of the local terrain and environment. Thus, the great civilizations of antiquity, such as those of Egypt and the Indus Valley, all possessed navigable rivers, replete with very wide flood plains that provided the basis for extensive agriculture. Egypt is typical of a nation which evolved as an hydraulic civilization; each year between August and November, the level of the mighty Nile used to rise some 15 to 25 feet above normal, resulting in a floodplain up to seven miles in width. When the floodwaters receded, rich, fertile silt was deposited, which was then planted with barley, flax and wheat (conditions have changed since the construction of the Aswan Dam).
The Tigris and the Euphrates rivers similarly enabled the inhabitants of Mesopotamia to develop an hydraulic civilization) particularly since the Mesopotamian Valley is even wider than the corresponding Nile Valley. With the passage of time, a complex network of canals and dikes were built, in order to control the distribution of floodwaters. These in turn required the establishment of a centralized government, in order to provide effective water management.
Possession of a navigable river which provides easy transportation, also enabled such nations to develop national tax collection and military intelligence systems, which in turn facilitated the creation of large armies. Conversely, countries lacking in navigable rivers, were dependent upon rainfall-based agricultural economies. These tended to foster the establishment of city-states instead of nations.
In perusing the Bible, one is given the impression that the River Jordan is a geographical feature of major importance, particularly in view of the fact that it is mentioned no fewer than 196 times! In actuality, the Jordan is little more than a wide stream, and the appellation "river" (nhr) is never assigned to it in the scriptures.
Located in the Great Rift Valley - a massive rupture of the earth's crust extending from Turkey to North Africa, the Jordan, fed by melting snows, rises in the foothills of lofty Mount Hermon, which is situated at the boundary between Israel and Syria. (4) It plunges through a narrow gorge before entering the Sea of Galilee, some 25 miles to the south. Exiting Galilee, the river placidly meanders a sinuous path before discharging into the Dead Sea, for an overall distance of 90 miles, as the crow flies, which pales in comparison with the more than 4000 mile length of the Nile.
Unlike the Nile, the floor of the Jordan Valley is devoid of vegetation, except for an almost impenetrable thicket of poplars, tamarisks and thorn bushes lining the river banks. To make matters worse, the Jordan floods in the spring, which is harvest time in the arid Middle East. In consequence, the Jordan was incapable of sustaining an agricultural economy during the biblical era; this is why the geopolitical structure of Canaan developed in the form of independent city-states, devoid of a unifying central government.
Despite being independently ruled, the Cities of Canaan during the Bronze Age (which was superceded by the Iron Age circa 1200 B.C.) developed an integrated trading system which dealt in spices, gold, bronze implements and agricultural produce. Even the farmers and nomadic pastoralists appear to have entered into a symbiotic relationship, wherein the sheep and goats of the nomadic tribes grazed and fertilized the farmland, following the harvest.
Perhaps this is an opportune time to pause in our narrative, to inquire of ourselves exactly how the art of copper and bronze smelting evolved. The popular belief that it originated by chance when a campfire was built over an exposed ore deposit is clearly fallacious; it is not possible to attain the requisite smelting temperature (1200 degrees Centigrade) by means of a campfire. Moreover, copper-smelting is a 'very complex technology since little copper occurs in its native (metallic) form. Accordingly, the commonly-found copper ores, such as azurite or malachite, have to undergo a reduction process in order to obtain metallic copper from them.
A clearer perspective of the problem is, perhaps presented, if we imagine that the populace of a modern city suddenly found themselves transported back to the pre-Bronze Age. Among them would probably be a few metallurgists capable of smelting ore, if they had access to a suitable furnace and appropriate fluxes, but how many of them would recognize copper ore if they saw it, and how many would possess the degree of prospecting expertise to locate a substantial ore body in the first place?
Since it is highly improbable that early copper smelters had stumbled upon such a complex process accidentally, it is quite likely that the process was reintroduced by high-tech survivors of the global flood.
It was the development of smelting that provided the impetus for the growth of international trade between the hierarchical nations during the Bronze Age. Thus, Egypt, rich in gold, but lacking a local source of silver ore, established a maritime trade with the silver-smelting cities of the Aegean region.
Until the present century, archaeologists believed that the European bronze industry was developed by Mycenean prospectors searching for new ore bodies; this belief was dashed in 1907, when four laborers began digging a drainage ditch in the Carpathian Basin - a region where the countries of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania meet at the headwaters of the Tisza river.
Approximately two feet beneath the surface of the sandy soil, the laborers discovered a hoard of bronze weaponry, consisting of a sword and twelve battle axes. That these weapons had been buried as part of a formal offering to a deity, and not hastily abandoned during the heat of battle, was evident from the fact that the sword was aligned north-south, and the axes were laid across it with their blades facing toward the west.
The weapons were richly decorated with the curvilinear scrollwork normally associated with Celtic and Mycenean jewelry. Bronze artifacts and fragments of the molds in which they were cast, discovered in the same region several decades later, are demonstrative that they were the products of a local bronze industry, not Mycenean imports. These artifacts, produced by a group known as the Otomani, were, in fact, manufactured prior to the Celtic and Mycenean periods.
The Otomani, with their substantial fortresses, chariots and cultic centers, such as the one at Salacea, in Romania, appear to have established a commonwealth, governed by an oligarchical hierarchy. A striking parallel exists between the cultures of the Otomani people and the Celts: curvilinear decoration, ritual dedication of expensive artifacts and a commonwealth type of government, all of which suggests that the Otomani were the precursors of the Celtic civilization of temperate Europe, which developed more than a millenium later.
The Otomani established an initial trading route to Scandinavia, prior to focussing their marketing expertise on the Aegean area, with particular emphasis upon Mycenea. Bronze artifacts bearing the curvilinear decorative style of the Carpathian Basin have been unearthed at Mycenea, while a Mycenean lathe-turned gold cup, circa 1600 B.C., was discovered in Romania.
In all probability, it was the unique geographical location of Mycenea, enabling it to control the maritime trade routes through the Gulf of Corinth to the North (to Italy and the Black Sea region) and through the Gulf of Argus to the south (to Crete, Canaan and Egypt) that permitted Mycenea to function as middleman in this widespread trading network. This allowed Mycenea to evolve into a prosperous city-state and a leader in the establishment of Greece as a political power center.
We appear to be getting off the subject of the proto-Israelites, but one of the southern trading routes of the Otomani during the period 2000-1500 B.C., terminated at the Black Sea, where it intersected with an eastern Mycenean route established for the purpose of trade with Mesopotamia. This was during the period in which the patriarch Abraham resided at the city of Haran, in the kingdom of Mari.
Located between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, Haran in the era of Abraham (which is believed by most biblical scholars to be 1800 - 1900 B.C.) was the seat of the Mari government; it was also one of the great wonders of its day, primarily due to the gigantic dimensions and splendor of its palace. This was sufficiently large to accommodate the entire administrative staff of the monarch.
The almost 24,000 texts unearthed at Mari reveal that the nation worshipped 24 deities and possessed a superb administrative system. Of masonic interest is the textual discovery that some 2000 of the nation's craftspeople were members of guilds.
Some of the texts cautioned about the necessity of protecting their farmlands from incursions by Semitic nomadic pastoralists and their herds, who disturbed the peaceful lives of the Mari populace, whose principal interests appeared to be commerce and religion
Thanks to the sterling efforts of archaeologists such as Professor Parrot of Paris, Mari has revealed itself to us as a kingdom of considerable sophistication. It is highly unlikely, therefore, that Abraham was an itinerant pastoralist as the Bible would have us believe, particularly since he employed servants; this implies that he was a man of means.(5)
A disturbing parallel exists between events occurring in the lives of Abraham and his kinfolk and the laws of the kingdom of Mittani - a nation-state sharing the northern border of the kingdom of Mari. According to texts discovered at Nuzi, a Mittani city located near the present-day Kirkut ollfield in Iraq, a childless couple could legally arrange for a surrogate mother to provide an heir. The Bible states that Abraham's wife Sarah, being barren, procured the services of Hagar to fulfill this role.(6) In a similar manner, Jacob's wife Rachel, arranged for her maid Bilhah to be a surrogate mother.(7) Mittani law also awarded inheritance rights to a person who possessed statues (teraphim) of the deceased; we are told that Rachel stole the teraphim of her father Laban.(8)
The Nuzi texts were written circa 1500 B.C., in other words, some four centuries after the purported time of Abraham. This suggests that either the Mari were the precursors of the Mitanni people, or that the biblical chronology is incorrect and that Abraham was born at a later period. Abraham allegedly left Haran 645 years before the Exodus.
Be that as it may, the Mitanni nobility, known as Marya, were an Indo-Aryan warrior caste, referred to in the Bible as Horites; the Horites worshipped the Indian deities Mithra, the god of light, who was claimed to be the intermediary between the Creator and humanity, and Varuna, the god of cosmological order.
In view of the preoccupation of the Marya with horses and chariots, they were probably descended from a migratory group of the previously-mentioned Otomani people of the Carpathian Basin, who not only possessed superior smelting technology, but appear to have used chariots at a much earlier period than their Middle-Eastern neighbors.
In consideration of the fact that Abraham possessed servants, he was obviously a person of influence, and quite possibly a member of the nobility. This supposition is reinforced by the fact that textual evidence claims that the Mari populace were hostile toward Semitic pastoralists. Emerging from the past, the excavated ruins are indicative that Haran was a very substantial city, even by today's standards. The image of Abraham and his kindred pastoralists dwelling in tents amidst the palaces, temples and related splendors of this majestic city of antiquity, stretches one's credulity to the limit. Either the Patriarch was a tent-dwelling nomad living in a sparsely-populated pastoral region, or an affluent city dweller, but not both, as the Bible claims.
Nearing the end of his life, Abraham, reluctant to see his son Isaac take a Canaanite for a bride, instructed his eldest servant to "go into my country, and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son Isaac... and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor."(9)
From this statement, we can ascertain that Abraham's original home was not Haran, or even Ur, but Nahor; moreover, it was the domicile of his relatives. Nahor was a city located in the Balikh Valley of northern Mesopotamia, in the region that later became the kingdom of Mitanni. This is of great historical importance for it suggests that Abraham was an Inda-Aryan Horite, not a Semite, as claimed by Jew and Arab alike.
We are informed in the Bible that Abraham and some of his relatives relocated in Canaan.(10) That this was not merely a visit is emphasized by the fact that they took all of their possessions with them. The 600 mile trek would have taken them down the fertile Balikh Valley to Palmyra, then via the famous caravan route that extended all the way from Mesopotamia to Egypt. Along the way they would have passed the site where Damascus, renowned for its spring blossoms, would later develop, and past the towering snow-clad peak of Mount Hermon and the hills of Galilee, before traversing the arid countryside of Canaan.
Canaan, in the era of Abraham, extended from Mount Hermon in the north, to the arid wilderness of the Negev region in the south, an overall distance of 150 miles. At its narrowest point, the width of Canaan was only 25 miles. The Canaanite aristocracy lived in small towns of only 20 acres or less in area; these were heavily fortified with massive walls for protection against marauding Bedouin tribesmen.
The inevitable question arises as to why Abraham would leave the sophisticated city of Haran, with all its creature comforts, and undertake a hazardous journey to a primitive country of petty city-states and hostile nomads. Even if he were an aristocrat on a diplomatic mission, he would not have taken all his worldly possessions with him.
The author therefore suggests that Abraham lived at a later time period than the 18th or 19th centuries B.C., as claimed by a consensus of biblical scholars. The most probable reasons for Abraham to undertake such an arduous journey, particularly since his wife was advanced in years, were either that his relatives were fugitives from justice, or that a major disaster had befallen the Kingdom of Mari.
Such a cataclysmic event did, indeed, occur circa 1700 B.C., when the Babylonian monarch Hammurabi conquered the kingdom of Mari, and left the magnificent city in ruins. Throughout history, it has been the custom or invading despots to massacre the hierarchy and intelligentsia of conquered nations, in order to minimize the possibility of a rebellion. Accordingly, it would be perfectly natural for the Patriarch and his relatives to flee for their lives if they were members of the Haran aristocracy, living during this later time period.
Now that we have constructed a more realistic picture of Abraham, let us rationalize why he would choose to relocate in the arid country of Canaan, instead of a more fertile region of the Middle-East. The answer to this problem may be found in Egyptian texts discovered at Tel el Amarna, in 1887. This major archaeological find comprises 377 diplomatic letters dating from the 15th century B.C., written by the rulers of Canaanite city-states. Canaan, during the second millenium B.C. was an Egyptian satrapy; amazingly, the Tel el Amarna letters bore such signatures as Prince Indaruta and Prince Suwarduta. In other words, the Canaanite cities were administered by Indo-Aryan Horites!
Interestingly, some of the correspondence dealt with attacks on Canaanite cities launched by nomadic Semitic tribes. If Abraham were a nomadic Semite, clearly he would not be welcome in Canaan; if, however, he was an aristocratic Indo-Aryan refugee, his presence in Canaan would not present a problem to the Horite princes.
Our only problem with this scenario is that Abraham supposedly possessed camels, according to the Bible. Camels were not domesticated until several centuries later. It is well to bear in mind, however, that early biblical history did not appear in written form until the Solomonic era at the earliest. With the passage of time, incorrect chronologies and embellishments occurred in the oral narratives. The possession of camels is almost certainly a false interpolation added to the narrative centuries later.
When his wife Sarah died, Abraham purchased a burial site in Hebron from some Hittites.(11) Again we are faced with a problem if the event occurred in the 19th century B.C., as claimed by many biblical scholars, for the Hittite kingdom had not been established at that time period. The Hittites were in existence, however, during the 16th century, the period in which Abraham lived, according to the author's hypothesis. The term "Hittite" is a Hebrew derivation of "Khatti" - the Aryan race we know as the Phoenicians, some of whom colonized India, where they were known as Khattiyo Arrio, meaning "ruler".
Since the Hittites' immediate neighbors were Canaan and the kingdom of Mitanni, both of whom, as we have seen, were administrated by Indo-Aryans, it explains why the Hittites were able to own land in Canaan.
The Bible does not make it clear whether or not Abraham journeyed to Egypt, but there is archaeological evidence supportive of such a contention; the Bible does categorically state, however, that his trek took him to Gerar, which is located in southwestern Canaan, in the region known as the Negev.
Mention of the Negev has an immense bearing on our narrative, for it is in this region of Canaan that the genesis of the future Israelite nation occurred, according to the author's hypothesis. Not surprisingly, this hypothesis is at variance with those of many biblical scholars, who believe that the earliest Israelite domain was in the hill country of upper Galilee. In order to provide the reader with a balanced perspective, of suggested Israelite origins, it behooves us to briefly examine some of these hypotheses.
It is the consensus of contemporary biblical scholars that the Exodus, if it ever occurred at all, and the resultant bloody conquest of Canaanite cities, is an unacceptable historical construct for the dawning of the Israelite nation, since there are too many archaeological and chronological discrepancies: the destruction of individual Canaanite cities spanned too great a lime period to have been the result of Joshua's purported genocidal military campaign. An alternate model was proposed during the 1920's by the German scholars Alt and Noth, who deduced from the previously-mentioned Tel el Amarna texts that the proto-Israelites were the people known as the Apiru, whom they theorized were hostile nomadic pastoralists who eventually destroyed the Canaanite city-states. They suggested that the appellation "Hebrew" was, in fact, derived from "Apiru."
The major problem with this theory is that the Apiru were primarily troublesome renegades from affluent Canaanite and Syrian families, who hired themselves out as mercenaries; they were never pastoralists. The term "Apiru" is not linguistically associated with the term "Ibri" (Hebrew).(12)
During the 1960's, University of Michigan scholar George Mendenhall, hypothesized that Apiru mercenaries instigated a revolt by peasants, who had become unified by monotheism after fleeing from the plains to the hills. Unfortunately, there is no archaeological evidence to verify such a major demographic shift from the plains to the hills during that particular period.
The latest theory, advanced by Israel Finkelstein, of Tel Aviv University, proposes that an international recession diminished the market demand for the sheep and goats raised by the pastoralists. The economic setback accordingly forced the pastoralists to modify their lifestyle and become farmers.(13)
To be successful, a militant peasant revolt has to be well-funded and professionally directed. This was the case in the French Revolution, for example, where trained foreign mercenaries bore the brunt of the fighting, under the direction of the Illuminati. Similarly, the Angolan revolution was funded by the petroleum cartel, in order to oust small independent oil companies from the Angolan oilfields. It is unlikely that the Cuban revolution would have succeeded, had not Castro received CIA funding. There is no historical evidence that a well-funded and highly-trained peasant army ever attacked and conquered any of the heavily-fortified Cannanite cities.
For a fledgling civilization to successfully develop, it must possess a strong market economy, as was the case with the coastal cities of Canaan, where Egyptian gold and spices were traded for copper and the unique purple dye that the Canaanites obtained from the murex shellfish. The Canaanite peasants, eking out a living on their arid hill-top farms, clearly lacked the necessary product diversification to establish such a strong economy, and sustain an affluent temple-oriented priesthood.
In summation, the presently-advanced theories lack too many important facets to be tenable, which is why it is advisable to research important subjects ourselves, instead of accepting the all too often incorrect dogma of the academic mafia.
In order to develop a realistic construct for the origin of the Israelites, we must search for a clan, or closely related group of people, who possessed manufacturing as well as farming skills, and were also adept at marketing their wares. They must have lived in the southern region of Canaan, in the Negev and the surrounding hill country. They must also be acquainted with a monarchical system of government. We must also search for archaeological evidence of early Judaic temple relics, such as a brazen serpent or the remains of a tabernacle; if we can find biblical and archaeological references to such a society, we can be reasonably certain that we have discovered who were the Proto-Israelites.
Such a clan did, in fact exist during the time of Abraham: known as the Kenites. they were a clan of the Midianites - a federation of semi-nomadic clans whose territory extended from the Arabian Desert to the Negev. Unlike other Palestinian tribes who were ruled by chieftains, the Midianites possessed a monarchy which is referred to in the bible.(14) They were also called the Ishmaelites.(15) The Bible informs us that they were both shepherds and traders.(16) In addition, they were known to perform as middlemen in the gold and frankincense markets.
The Kenite branch of the Midianites were primarily metal workers, as is evidenced by their name, which is derived from the root "qvn",; meaning "metalsmith" in Aramaic (qvny). The Kenites probably developed their metalworking industry after they, or the Egyptians, discovered the large copper and iron deposits in the Wadi el Arabah, which is located in southern Canaan.
Being skilled in both metalworking and animal husbandry, the only missing element needed to enable the clan to become a formidable marketing entity, was a person with vision and strong leadership qualities such as Abraham. Abraham had exhibited such skills in undertaking the arduous trek to Canaan. We therefore need to seek biblical verification that Abraham knew the Midianites.
Abraham not only knew the Midianites, he married one named Keturah!(17) Kenites feature prominently in the Old Testament: Moses married the daughter of a Kenite priest, also Jethro, who purportedly aided Moses in the wilderness and introduced the cult of the brazen serpent. Enoch was also associated with the Midianites, and the house of Rechab were Kenite relatives, some of whom resided at the copper-mining center of Ge-Harashim.(18)
Some scholars hold that the Israelite deity Yahwey was originally the Kenite god Yahu. This is a most important claim, for ancient Chinese folklore states that Emperor Yahu ruled shortly after the last global flood. Unfortunately, most ancient Chinese records and classital works were destroyed by order of Emperor Tsin-Khin-Hong (246-209 B.C.). From mythologies and history that was rewritten at a later date, we are given to understand that a Chinese scholar by the name of Fu-hsi survived the flood and re-introduced the Tao (the way of the universe and nature, which begets all phenomena and creation).
Chinese folklore states that Emperor Yahu was named in memory of a terrible groaning noise which permeated the sky and sounded like the word "yahu", during the time of the flood. The writer suggests that the global deluge was caused by the earth temporarily capturing a comet, which changed the topography of the planet and resulted in the Noahic flood. The comet finally adopted a stable orbit, becoming the planet Venus.
According to Sumerian texts, the flood occurred during the reign of the Sumerian ruler King Zuisudra, who was advised to construct an ark, according to the ancient historian Sanchuniathon. The awesome groaning noise heard in the heavens during the cataclysm, was probably an enormous capacitor discharge of electricity passing between the comet and planet earth. So terrifying would the cataclysm have been to the flood survivors, that archetypal memories of the event have been handed down to the present day; the dazzlingly-bright comet with its writhing luminous tail being remembered generations later as the Morning Star, Lucifer the Light-bringer, and the plumed serpent Quetzalcoatl.
So far, we have determined that the Kenites possessed the means for establishing an international market economy strong enough for them to create a nation-state. All we have to do now is find archaeological evidence of early religious artifacts possessing Judaic characteristics, and discovered in known Kenite territory.
During the past century, many biblical scholars have expressed doubt as to whether the legendary Tabernacle of the Israelites ever existed. These doubts were refuted in 1959, when Professor Benno Rothenberg, an Israeli of German birth, discovered a Midianite shrine at a copper mine in Wadi-el Arabah, which forms part of the Great Rift Valley.
At the shrine were the remains of a tabernacle very similar to the one described in the Old Testament. Also found at the shrine was a gold-decorated brass serpent, the symbol of the Mother-Goddess Astarte, who was identified with Queen Semiramis of Babylon, according to Athenagoras.
A brazen serpent purportedly was installed in the pre-Solomonic temple at Jerusalem; other brass serpents of later date were also discovered at various shrines near Jerusalem, suggestive of the serpent's importance in early Israelite worship. According to ancient African lore, the serpent did not symbolize the planetary telluric currents, but was used as a symbol to covertly represent the shape-shifting dragons, who were known to Africans as the chitauri (the dragon overlords of the human race allegedly forbade images of themselves to be made, hence the adoption of the serpent as a symbol).
In the north-eastern sector of the Negev, at an elevation of 610 meters, and overlooking the Dead Sea, lies the modern city of Arad, which was constructed in 1961 for the production of petrochemicals and fertilizer. A few miles away, in former Kenite territory, are the remains of a fortress known to have been constructed during the Hyksos period (1730-1580 B.C.). If the author's contention that Abraham vacated Haran in 1700 B.C. is accurate, it is quite feasible that the fortress, known as Tel el Milh, was constructed after the Patriarch had made contact with the Kenites. The township appears to have been settled by the Jerameelite family.(19)
The Bible claims that the offspring of Moses settled in the vicinity of Arad, which was mentioned by Eusebius in the 4th century A.D., and is situated about 30 kilometers to the north-east of Beersheba. Tel Arad was a large Early Bronze Age city that was fortified by a massive wall replete with semi-circular towers.
This ancient city was destroyed circa 2700 B.C., and remained abandoned until the 11th century B.C., when a new settlement arose on the site. A century later, a temple was added. This temple is of extreme importance to authentic Judaic history, for it is the oldest Israelite temple yet discovered.
Continue to Part 2
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