Kingdom Come

In the mid-fifth century BCE, the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus visited Tyre, spoke to a priest, and learned that the town and the temple of Melqart were, at that time, believed to be 2,300 years old. In other words, the city was founded in the twenty-eighth century BC, prior to the biblical date of the Flood.

Herodotus doesn’t mention the Flood, but he would have known of the prevalence of Flood accounts as he systematically gathered history from multiple cultures. It is likely he saw no reason to report what was already documented and well known.

Likewise, he had no reason to recount the history of mankind from the beginning of time. The histories and wisdom of “the world that then was” was preserved through the Flood in vaults or on the ark, then gathered in libraries available to Herodotus and other sages. It is only “in the last days” that scoffers deny the Flood and associated history.

While roughing out Assyria, Herodotus does not give an account of its origin or of the history of Mesopotamia. It’s as if he consigns these records to the same category as known history in the collected works of the sages. This suggests that the records used by Moses to compose the books of Genesis and Job were in circulation in his day. Instead, Herodotus’ account most evidently picks up world history where the holy scriptures drops it to focus on the Hebrew nation, after the dispersal of nations from Babel.

Herodotus’ history starts with his account of the Trojan War fought between the early Greeks / Europeans and Phoenecians / Easterners.

Herodotus gets his information from the Persians and the Greeks, specifically Homer’s epic poem written four centuries earlier about the war at Troy, called Ilium in the old days. “’The Iliad’ is usually considered to be the earliest work in the whole Western literary tradition, and one of the best known and loved stories of all time.”

So without further ado, the study notes to Herodotus, Book 1.

The Phoenicians started it. 

These, they say, came from that which is called the Erythraian Sea to this of ours [Mediterranean]and having settled in the land [of Canaan] where they continue even now to dwell, set themselves forthwith to make long voyages by sea.

This account provides a reliable “absolute” vs “relative” date for this event. It occurred during early emigration from the Mesopotamian / Land between Two Rivers and development into distinct people groups.

And conveying merchandise of Egypt and of Assyria they arrived at other places and also at…the first of the States within that land which is now called Hellas…

This confirms the above date, after Asshur separated from Nimrod at Babylon and started his Assyrian Empire.

Even today, the country…known abroad as Greece…is The Hellenic Republic.

The word Hellene was mentioned for the first time by Homer in the Iliad as a territory…still known by that name. It is also used to refer to the companions of [the demigod] Achilles from this place…a vigorous [read terrifying] group of people…

Grecos comes from a [demigod] son of Pandora and Zeus, from whom the Greeks are named…

Note that Herodotus’ history of the Trojan war includes the pre-flood peoples, their gods and hybrid demigods as a matter of natural history. If this part of his history can’t be taken at face value, can any of the rest of his history?

It is more common than not for sequential battles to be fought at the same strategic site in pursuit of the same resources. This pattern at Troy is confirmed by archeology.

Troy, is the first area where the prehistoric period excavations is done and turned into a science...The ancient city of Troy…has been continuously inhabited between the years 3.000 BC [500 years before the Flood] and 500 AC…10 different city layers and more than 50 building phases were identified. These cities in short:

• Troia I – III (Littoral Troia Culture): 3000 BC and ends in 2500 BC [date of the Flood].
• Troia IV – V begins in 2100 BC [after sufficient population and dispersal from Babel] and continues until the 1700’s BC.

We can assign Herodotus’ account to Troia IV in the neolithic reconstruction of civilization.

—and on the fifth or sixth day after they [the Phoenicians had arrived, when their goods had been almost all sold, there came down to the sea a great company of women, and among them the daughter of the king; and her name, as the Hellenes also agree, was Io the daughter of Inachos. These standing near to the stern of the ship were buying of the wares such as pleased them most, when of a sudden the Phenicians, passing the word from one to another, made a rush upon them…put them on board their ship, and forthwith departed, sailing away to Egypt.

Human trafficking is one part of the “oldest profession” of prostitution.

UNODC report on human trafficking exposes modern form of slavery [2009]

Based on data gathered from 155 countries, it offers the first global assessment of the scope of human trafficking…

the most common form of human trafficking (79%) is sexual exploitation…The victims of sexual exploitation are predominantly women and girls…almost 20% of all trafficking victims are children. However, in some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority (up to 100% in parts of West Africa).

2. The Hellenes settle the score against the Phoenicians.

Then after this, they say, certain Hellenes (but the name of the people [tribe] they are not able to report) put in to the city of Tyre in Phenicia and carried off the king’s daughter Europa;—these would doubtless be Cretans;—and so they were quits for the former injury.

“One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts.” (Titus 1:12)

3. The Hellenes escalate from harassing to declared war.

After this however the Hellenes, they say, were the authors of the second wrong; for they sailed in to Aia of Colchis and to the river Phasis…

This was northeastern-most reach of Jason and the Argonauts.

 So recently after the Flood – still in the grip of an ice age – this would be the frontier of the habitable world. These peoples, like the Free Folk in Game of Thrones, struggled for existence in wilderness ecosystems too cold and inhospitable to provide more than survival of the fittest of hunters. Like the Norsemen in the Middle Ages, they traded natural commodities like wood and furs for produced goods like grain and metal pots and weapons, or they raided. Hence they were called Barbarians.

and from thence, after they had done the other business for which they came, they carried off the king’s daughter Medea: and the king of Colchis sent a herald to the land of Hellas and demanded satisfaction for the rape / abduction and to have his daughter back; but they answered that, as the Barbarians had given them no satisfaction for the rape of Io the Argive, so neither would they give satisfaction to the Barbarians for this.

By calling the Phoenicians “Barbarians”, Herodotus is informing us that the Phoenicians were the first to colonize this northernmost reach of their contested world.

This clues us in the to real purpose of the post-Flood Trojan War. It’s the same into our time – control of valuable real estate and resources. Shorelines are the most valuable for seafaring peoples – and women for growing the population.

And Herodotus confirms this conclusion.

Up to this point, they say, nothing more happened than the carrying away of women on both sides; but after this the Hellenes were very greatly to blame; for they set the first example of war, making an expedition [from Europe] into Asia before the [Phoenicians, Asians] Barbarians made any into Europe.

Now they say that in their judgment, though it is an act of wrong to carry away women by force, it is a folly to set one’s heart on taking vengeance for their rape / abduction, and the wise course is to pay no regard when they have been carried away; for it is evident that they would never be carried away if they were not themselves willing to go.

We find that the kidnapping of women to produce higher quality unions, including physically and intellectually superior children, than those produced within close family members in small tribes, has been a standard practice in pagan societies.

“And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her..” (Genesis 34)

“And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah…[And as he was traveling back to his home in the tribe of Ephraim]…[they spent the night in] Gibeah [of the tribe of Benjamin]…And the old man said…brought him into his house… the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

This town is turning into vicious Sodom.

Male-on-male rape has been heavily stigmatized. According to psychologist Sarah Crome, fewer than 1 in 10 male-on-male rapes are reported...

Wartime sexual violence…particularly in ethnic conflict…has broader sociological motives…may also include gang rape… frequently used as a means of psychological warfare in order to humiliate the enemy.

The response by the master of the house indicates that there was indeed gang warfare going on.

^“And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you…unto this man do not so vile a thing.

Within the context of the extensive three-chapter-account, there is certainly a fight for a highly prized resource – women for breeding purposes. And the master of the house expressly states this.

“Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.”

The ancient Greeks considered war rape of women “socially acceptable behavior well within the rules of warfare”, and warriors considered the conquered women “legitimate booty, useful as wives, concubines, slave labor, or battle-camp trophy“…Conquering the…property of an enemy was regarded as legitimate reason for war in itself. Women were included with “property”…In this context, the rape of a woman was considered a property crime committed against the man who owned the woman.

The detail in the biblical account is there for a reason. Note that the concubine was from Bethlehem of Judah. The Benjamites within the territory of Judah would be tapping this source of extra-tribal woman. The Levite’s response suggests that he understood their territorial right and acceded to it.

“so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go…And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way:

Note – “his way”. Sounds like he had relinquished his rights to her.

and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And…none answered.

Raping and abducting is OK, but not the utter destruction of a valued resource, so this 6th generation descendant of Levi (Judges 20:28) reacts like Levi, with utter destruction.

“Then the man took her up upon an ass…And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

Then congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan [in the north] even to Beersheba [in the south], with the land of Gilead [east of the Jordan River], unto the LORD in Mizpeh [center of worship before Jesus was taken by David]. And the chief of all the people…presented themselves…400,000 footmen that drew sword.

This is a reprise of Moses calling “Who is on the LORD’s side!” to slay the idolaters at Mount Sinai. Can we not recognize the high value the LORD placed on this one concubine, despite the fact that she “played the whore” against the Levite? He is calling for the same response as when he himself was abused.

People who reject the Bible by claiming it subjects women to subjugation are ignoring the context of society. Its guidelines are for protection of women in cultures that exploit and enslave and dehumanize and kill women, most of whom world-wide are left defenseless at home while men leave to farm, hunt and make war.

And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying…deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel…But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves…to go out to battle against the children of Israel…[there] fell that day of Benjamin 25,000 men that drew the sword….But 600 men [of Benjamin] turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock [mountain] Rimmon.

And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives? 

1st solution: Make War.

And the congregation sent thither 12,000 men…utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man. And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead 400 young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male…And the whole congregation sent some to speak / parley to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them…and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.

2nd solution: Kidnap.

Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place…Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards…if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes…And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 19-21)

The death penalty, like quarantine, masks, and restriction of normal social interaction by healthy people is a safeguard against exponential spread of evil in society which is written into the Melchizedekian Code of Law.

Abduction of women is not. What was right in the Israelite’s eyes – that one time – was a common practice they picked up from their surrounding neighbors.

the people of Asia, when their women were carried away by force, had made it a matter of no account.

but the Hellenes on account of a woman of Lacedemon gathered together a great armament, and then came to Asia and destroyed the dominion of Priam; and that from this time forward they [the Semitic / Eastern peoples, including the Persians referenced at the beginning of this account] had always considered the Hellenic race / Japhethites / Westerners to be their enemy: 

Note that the “dominion” of Priam consisted not primarily of the seafaring Phoenicians who were stretched thin founding seaports all around the Mediterranean but included the peoples who settled into this territory.

This territory north of the Promised Land was seized as quickly by the sons of Canaan as was the central land by Canaan himself, for the same reason. – they held the pre-Flood cities ruled by the ancient gods and their giant children determined to seize control over the world.  This is only some hundreds of years after these cities were engulfed by the Flood. Just as San Francisco and New Orleans were rebuilt as soon as possible to restore their former glory, so were the abodes of these gods of war.

Pergamum in Asia Minor strategically located on a naturally defensible mountain top and still surrounded by defensive high walls.

“Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country…they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea…set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.” (Jeremiah 6:22-23)

“thus saith the LORD God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people…And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers…he shall slay thy people by the sword” (Ezekiel 26:7-11)

Beginning at the southern boundary of Troy’s allied peoples were the Lycians (yellow), Carians (pink), the Maionians from a settlement near Sardis located in what became known as the territory of Lydia (yellow). the Mysians from Troy’s (pale peach) surrounding territory, Phrygians (blue) to the southeast of Mysia, Paphlagonians (blue) northeast of Troy, Thracians holding the land (white) gateway from Asia into Europe, Maionians from a city-state in Lydia, reputed to be the birthplace of Homer, and Pelasgians “the Old Ones”, the first settlers spread around the entire Aegean region.

the son of Priam / the Semitic Phoenician king of Troy, currently Turkey]  having heard of these things [the Westerners stealing Eastern women], desired to get a wife for himself by violence from Hellas, being fully assured that he would not be compelled to give any satisfaction for this wrong, inasmuch as the Hellenes gave none for theirs. So he carried off Helen [most likely named for her national identification as cause for the ensuing war – as in “That Woman” rather than any personal name], and the Hellenes resolved to send messengers first and to demand her back with satisfaction for the rape [primarily abduction with afterwards the logical conclusion of the matter]…