113) The Biblical Perspective Of Virgil’s Aeneid

Troy having been destroyed beyond repair and the Greeks having been decimated, the survivors on both sides, led by their respective heroes Trojan Aeneas and Greek Odysseus, sail west over the same sea.

Accordingly the much later Roman account, the Aeneid, has both groups visiting some of the same locations, experienced the same difficulties and encountered the same strange creatures such as the Cyclops. Academics account for this by claiming Virgil plagiarized Homer’s epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, but the sea between Troy and Greece isn’t so large so the shipping lanes so numerous as to assume out of hand that the two groups wouldn’t run into the same remarkable circumstances. 

Gathering scattered auspicious lines from Roman Virgil’s Aeneid:

The Trojan chief [Aeneas] appear’d in open sight,
August [godly] in visage, and serenely bright.
His mother goddess, with her hands divine
Had form’d his curling locks, and made his temples…
Like polish’d ivory…Or Parian marble, when enchas’d in gold [anticipating Caesar’s statues]…
goddess-born…the great Aeneas…from celestial seed your lineage‘

“O hospitable Jove / Jupiter / Zeus! we thus invoke,
With solemn rites, thy sacred name and pow’r…

To the Cumaean coast at length he came,

Where there is a resident prophetess of Apollo,

Continue reading “113) The Biblical Perspective Of Virgil’s Aeneid”

117) YHVH’s God-Man Hybrid Is Melchizedek

The Hebrew word for a human acting as the incarnation of the invisible holy God to his flesh and blood people is a Melchi-zedek / king-priest with the dual responsibility to ensure 1) spiritually as a priest that the kingdom’s subjects know God’s laws to avoid divine wrath coming down upon them and 2) politically as a king keep earthly law and order.

Likewise, the writer of the book of Hebrews makes this obviously exasperated remark that nationalistic believers in YHVH’s Savior Messiah King of Israel didn’t understand his higher position as King and Priest over All Creation.

“Christ / Messiah / Anointed / Chosen One glorified not himself…but he that said unto him,

  1. Thou art my Son –declared submissive to me through living out my commands instead of your wishes: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42)
  2. to day have I begotten thee – declared thee my heir on a certain date with a confirming event: “his soul was not left in hell,” (Acts 2:31)
  3. Thou art a priest / intermediary forever – died as a mortal but “neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up” immortal (Acts 2:31-32) 
  4. after the order of Melchi-sedec – …first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also [resulting in] King of Salem, which is, King of peace / priestly reconciliation with God; (Hebrews 7:1-2) 

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For…ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God.” (Hebrews 5)

So let’s go back to the first principles.

From Genesis 17:

“When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said…I will make my covenant between me and thee.”

This covenant can only be the only one so far detailed in the previous record – Genesis chapters 1-16. 

my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

27 And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him…thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.” (Genesis 17:1-5)

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The father of “many” nations does not fit with typical Christianity that, at most, acknowledges “Jewish roots” of Christianity while equating Jews with Hebrews despite the biblical distinction between the two groups.

The broader interfaith view of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as the Abrahamic faiths. still leave out much of the world, as well as the “melchi” / king / political role essential to the biblical Melchizedek to which Abram was promoted, and which the Catholic Pope/Father frankly holds in addition to his spiritual authority.

As refugees flee oppressive Canaanite culture and warfare and migrate in search of living space, finding salvation in Eber’s world-wide evangelistic meetings, they develop into new nations characterized by ecological differences while some maintain the essentials of Shem’s monotheism. 

One of the first examples of this process is a hybrid giant nations.  Who knew they could be saved?

“…Abram the Hebrew…dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite [a giant nation], brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.” (Genesis 14:13-24)

These men had to have had enough faith in Abram’s God and Abram’s leadership to follow him into what was otherwise a suicide mission in the War of Four Kings Against Five and the God of Abraham inscribes their names on a war memorial: Mamre is forever identified as the gracious seller of the first plot of promised land, Eshcol is forever identified with the luscious first fruits of the promised land.

As you read the following account, fit the correct interpretation into certain words and phrases:

  1. “Abi Melech” means “My father / authority is Melech [zadok]”, i.e. he defines himself as a Hebrew. See previous post for details on “Shem, the father of all the children of Eber.”
  2. He refers to YHVH as “God”, not as “my” or “your” God but the one and only monotheistic God of Shem.
  3. He followed the baseline Melchizedekian law of righteous, “Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 25:17)

“And Abraham journeyed from [Chaldea through Padan-Aram [into the land of Canaan and]…sojourned…in Gerar [where]…Abi-melech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah [into his harem.] But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD / YHVH, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? …in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this…Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him…what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?…What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake…

Abi-melech spake unto Abraham, saying, [au contraire! I recognize that my] God is with thee in all that thou doest: Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear.” (Genesis 20:21:22-27)

Hundreds of years later Abraham’s vow to treat Abimelech’s people as allies was honored by the Israelites. The land of Gerar is not among Israelite conquests listed in Joshua 15. Located in what came to be Philistine territory, but not named as one of the Philistine cities, Gerar would be rescued from the Philistines by first the Philistine Samson, then Saul, and finally King David. 

“do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.” (Leviticus 25:18)

Other examples of the nations within the Hebrew Commonwealth include Abraham’s children the Ishmaelites / Arabs, the Midianites, the nation of Sheba whose rulers acknowledge an all-powerful Creator who is therefore, unequivocally, “the Boss”, identify with his standards of right behavior which are “production” NOT “destruction” and trust whatever revelation has been received that This Eternal One has a vested interest in humanity as his Creation and will empower his people to overcome destructive forces in this life and after.

“For there is no respect of persons with God. 

  • For as many as have sinned without law [AKA the Torah, the Bible] shall also perish without law:
  • and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified)…Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” (Romans 1-2)

Do you remember the deliberate cruelties done to you and your children, or the blessings? God does. 

  1. “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…
  2. And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt.” (I Samuel 16:1-6)

There are also the Egyptians who took in Abram’s and Jacob’s households during famines, the Philistines who took in Isaac’s household, 

Surprised? Some individuals in Israel’s worst enemy nations are members of the Hebrew Commonwealth.

“In that day shall there be

  • an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt,
  •  a highway [indicating commerce] out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
  • shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: 

Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance…every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD / YHVH / Creator.” (Zechariah 14:16)

 

 
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114) The True God-Man Alliance Defeats Giants

The Book of Eli [Hebrew for My God] is a great movie – a religious man is attempting to keep the word of the Bible alive, following a world-wide apocalypse by fire equivalent to Noah’s flood. There’s action, but it’s not mindless action being shoved down the audience’s throat at every turn. There’s violence, but it’s calculated violence. Reciting the Bible word for word would have been a satisfying enough ending, but seeing Kunis as Solara become the new Eli following his death added another dimension to the paralle.

Watching this movie adds action and drama to the minimalistic biblical accounts of the battles fought by a handful of YHVH’s righteous followers to keep the knowledge of the One True God alive in the same post-apocalyptic era through their actions by faith in God’s word.

The Book of Jasher is quoted as an authoritative source by Holy Scripture, and its details of supernatural feats of victory are consistent with later biblical accounts of the same Spirit-empowered feats of valor and are therefore credible as the pre-existing basis for later warriors’ faith that the same God will likewise supernaturally empower their actions on his behalf.

The following has been condensed from the original, beginning with Jacob’s return from Harran to claim his inheritance of the Promised Land from his father Isaac. Keep in the mind the big picture (haha). The land of Canaan is occupied by nations of giants who can squash Jacob’s little and purely human family like bugs.

Continue reading “114) The True God-Man Alliance Defeats Giants”

125) Melchizedeks Share God’s Blessings: Isaac

At the time of the Land Grant to unnamed seed in chapter 13, Abram had no seed.

His first seed is Ishmael, whose mother was Egyptian, i.e. from the line of Cush.

“And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife…I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her…And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!” (Genesis 17)

Understand what Abraham is requesting when he uses the formulaic phrase “live before thee / be accepted permanently in thy presence as a ruler of your kingdom.”

live-long-and-prosper-gif-10Many of the old Babylonian letters…include a greetings formula in which one or two deities are invoked and the hope is expressed that they will give long life to the recipient.

Abraham is clearly following the same formula, also used towards kings in expressing good wishes for the extension of their life / genetics / ongoing rule over the kingdom through their heirs. The contrary condition helps define this blessing. 

“whosoever, whether man or women, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live:” (Esther 4:11)

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory…Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:” (Matthew 25:31,34)

Abram is asking that his descent / dynasty also be counted from Ishmael who would therefore also be an heir of the land grant made 15 years earlier.

And God grants Abram’s request.

Continue reading “125) Melchizedeks Share God’s Blessings: Isaac”

126) Melchizedeks Are Cursed And Broken: Jacob

    Archaeological evidence shows a plethora of ancient curses…such beliefs and practices have continued to the present day…sometimes called jinx, hex, or black magic…The aim is to see harm befall the recipient – bad luck may dog them, death may take them, or any number of dire (or annoying) fates may plague them. In antiquity a curse was a powerful phenomenon, the presence of evil forces.

    Jacob wins the sibling tug of war for the appointment because he values it so much he risks multiple curses on his life, beginning with the risk of being severely cursed by his own father,

    Then Jacob was forced to flee his home and inheritance when he was cursed by his brother.

    “And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and…he lighted upon a certain place…And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth,  and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep / guard / provide for thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land…

    And Jacob vowed a vow, saying,

    • If [this] God [of the many gods known to men at that time] will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace;
    • then shall the LORD be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” (Genesis 28)

    Jacob is being rational, checking out the faithfulness of the other party before committing to a disaster of being bound to a cruel master. And Jacob was living in highly unreliable and dangerous Wild West times.

    And YHVH obliges Jacob by providing proof after proof of his faithfulness to rescue Jacob from curse after curse. Will Jacob prove to be faithful to YHVH?

    Continue reading “126) Melchizedeks Are Cursed And Broken: Jacob”

    127) Melchizedeks Are Converted: Judah

    Jacob / Israel chose Judah as his Melchizedekian heir.

    “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise… thy father’s children shall bow down before thee [as they had to Joseph]…The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” (Genesis 49:8-11)

    We recognize Judah’s legacy in the name of the Jews. But what on earth did Judah do to inherit the right to rule? We would expect Melchizedek Joseph’s son Ephraim, whom Israel had adopted as his own, to be next in line. Especially in view of the fact that when Judah joined himself and his sons to Canaanite women he appears to be rejecting his identity as a son of Jacob. East of Eden all over again. Judah was far more Cain than Abel.

    Six chapters out of a total of 50  – over 1/10th of the entire book of Genesis – devoted to the backstory of Judah’s inheritance of the right to rule.

    Due to their sexual and violent nature, these were not put there for use in children’s Sunday School.

    Continue reading “127) Melchizedeks Are Converted: Judah”

    128) Melchizedeks Are Made Men in Brutal Organizations: Joseph

    “Now Israel loved [in the sense of marriage, joined identies with] Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his [maturity, wisdom] old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.”

    Undoubtedly the sign of his choice of Joseph being his Melchizedekian heir, confirmed by the dreams God had given Joseph. 

    And when his brethren saw that their father loved / felt one with him more than all his brethren [i.e. as the LORD God had when he made Jacob his heir over Esau] they hated / repudiated identity with him.” (Genesis 37)

    And it was into this exact dangerous and lawless condition that Jacob sent Joseph to check on his erratic older brothers.

    “And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them.”

    Jacob was acting on his appointment, providing leadership training, especially trust in Almighty God. Jacob had no idea just how much leadership training Joseph would be getting when his brothers human trafficked him into Egypt.

    If you’ve ever been assigned leadership responsibility you understand that it’s lonely at the top.

    And when they saw him afar off…they conspired against him…Come, and let us sell him…Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.” (Genesis 37:13-28)

    Continue reading “128) Melchizedeks Are Made Men in Brutal Organizations: Joseph”

    129) Melchizedeks Overcome Curses: Reuel

          “And [YHVH] said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years…But in the fourth generation [counting from the one entering Egypt] they shall come hither again.” (Genesis 15:12-16)

          “And Joseph [1st generation of immigrants] said unto his brethren [including his son Ephraim’s children to the 3rd generation, i.e. his 4th generation, predicted to return], I die: and God will surely visit YOU / the fourth generation, and bring YOU out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” (Genesis 15:15, 50:24-26)

          And young Moses [4th generation], son of Amram [3rd generation], grandson of Kohath [2nd generation], great-grandson of Levi [1st generation of immigrants], filled with vigor and zeal, was up for it.

          “When Moses was grown…he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And…he slew the Egyptian. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian.”

          Catch that – the “face” of Pharoah is anyone “representing” him as his “agent”, such as a bounty hunter. Midian had to be fortified against Pharoah’s military, not some dusty backwater Appalachian-like cluster of villages.

          “Now the priest of Midian…”

          Once again, we are presented with evidence that Midian was a significant nation, since at that time the priest was also the king.

          Continue reading “129) Melchizedeks Overcome Curses: Reuel”

          SECTION XXV: How To Be A Mensch Like Moses

          Mensch (Yiddish: מענטש, mentsh, from Middle High German Mensch, from Old High German mennisco; akin to Old English human being, man) means “a person of integrity and honor”,[1]  a decent human being…a caring, ethical human being.” The term is used as a high compliment, implying the rarity and value of that individual’s qualities.

          It seems to me that the Yiddish word mensch, intentionally or not, blends the Old English “man” with the Hebrew word for man “ish”, identifying not maleness but “another one like him”, describing a human who is one with the Father.

          God created humans to be partners in the completion of the world. Who better than human, who are of this world and yet created in God’s likeness, to finish the work of creation?

          • “if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
            • then…ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6)
          • “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
            • And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Revelation 1:5-7)

          Are these two entirely separate means of achieving the same goal?

          Or has Christianity skipped over the first pages in the instruction manual on how to be kings and priests to God the Father / Absolute Authority under the Great High Priest?

          Most of us are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, AKA The Our Father, but are we as familiar with the introduction, which lists the qualifications for calling the Lord God our Father?

          Continue reading “SECTION XXV: How To Be A Mensch Like Moses”

          130) Show The Way To An Unapproachably Holy God:

          And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me.

          Yet thou hast said:

          1. I know / define THEE by name / way – i.e. exactly as Moses’ mother had defined him as belonging to her by identifying him by her attributes of rescuing him from certain death by her way of drawing him out of the water, safeguarding him from all of Pharoah’s subjects who would have thrown him back in.
            • Now therefore…shew me now THY way, that I may know THEE: “He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.” (Psalm 18:16-17)
          2. AND thou [Moses] hast also found grace in my [YHVH’s] sight – exactly as Moses had found grace in Pharaoh’s daughter’s eyes when she raised him up as a prince of Egypt. 
            • that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that THIS [my] nation is THY people: “Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God…Esteeming the reproach of The Promised Savior greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.” (Hebrews 11:24-26)

          For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that THOU goest with US?  

          Exactly as his mother accompanied him into a Hebrew’s most dangerous place on earth – Pharaoh’s presence.

          And YHVH responds in the affirmative:

          • I will make all my goodness pass before thee,
          • and I will proclaim the name / attributes / way of the LORD / YHVH / Infinite Power before thee;

          [But, by the way] Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live… 

          Continue reading “130) Show The Way To An Unapproachably Holy God:”