God's Hand in History (Part 2) The following is a miniature history course -- "His Story 101" -- the way it should have been taught in grade school to every child growing up. But historical evidence to support God's hand in history has been LEFT OUT of our history classes. MIRACULOUS intervention and circumstances with PRECISE TIMING at crucial dates in the story of nations and empires point unmistakably to the GUIDING HAND of God. But God has been "kicked out" of school text books. "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge (persona non-grata), God gave them over to a reprobate mind" (void of judgment) (Romans 1:28). "For the material man rejects spiritual things, for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
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"Full oft, while piety was yet revered By pristine man, the gods on earth appeared, And, entering oft some hero's pure abode, To human crowds immortal beauty showed." -- Catullus Carm. 64:387 "Enter, my noble guest! and you shall find, If not a costly welcome, yet a kind; For I myself, like you, have been distressed, Till heaven afforded me this place of rest. Like you, an alien in a land unknown, I learn to pity woes so like my own." -- Virgil Aen. 1:631 |
"Miltiades ... offered them the use of his house and the rites of hospitality." (Herodotus 6:35) "Every man receives every comer and treats him with repasts as long as his ability can possibly furnish them." -- Tacitus Germ. 21 "Hardened with woes, a statue of despair, To every breath of wind unmoved her hair; Action and life from every part are gone; And even her entrails turn to solid stone." -- Ovid Metam. 6:301 "That great adept, who knew each stellar way, And could each planetary course display" (Orphic Hymn probably about Abraham) |
"The good ... are God's peculiar care, And such as honour him shall heavenly honour share." -- Ovid Metam. 8:724 "The neighborhood, said he, Shall justly perish for impiety: You stand alone exempted; but obey With speed, and follow where we lead the way: Leave these accursed, and to the mountain's height Ascend; nor once look backward in your flight. An arrow's flight they wanted to the top, And there secure, but spent with travel, stop; Then turn their now no more forbidden eyes; Lost in a lake the floated level lies." -- Ovid. Metam. 8:626-697 |
Secular History Confirms Joseph's Seven-Year Famine Which Ended in 1656 BC
Manetho's king lists were CONTEMPORANEOUS as well as SUCCESSIVE. "There were many kings in Egypt at the SAME TIME... some of them were kings of Thinis, some of Memphis, some of Sais, and some of Ethiopia; and there were yet others in other places ... It is very unlikely that they ruled in SUCCESSION to eachother. Rather, some of them ruled in one place, and others in another place" (p.137-138, Eusebius' Chronicon). The framework of all history, which now originated from Egypt, was distorted: “In the arrangement of …Egyptian materials within a framework of consecutive dynasties, all modern historians are dependant upon an ancient predecessor. This was an Egyptian priest and writer Manetho who lived under Ptolemy II Philadelphius (285-246 B.C.). Much of his material has been preserved by Josephus. It is found in "Against Apion" book 1 chapter 14, parts 73-92. Manetho was born at Sebennytus (now Samannud) in the Delta. He rose to be high priest in the temple at Heliopolis. Berossos of Babylon was practically a contemporary, and the two priests became RIVALS in the proclamation of the ANTIQUITY and greatness of their respective lands.” (Jack Finegan, Light for the Ancient Past, pages 65-66). Manetho summarized the history of Egypt under the rule of 30 dynasties, or ruling houses, from the royal cities of Thinis, Thebes, Memphis, Tanis, Elephantine, Heracleopolis, Abydos, Xois, Bubastis, and Sais. It was made to appear that each city and family dominated all Egypt, and each ruler governed a unified Egypt at any given time. This teaching FALSELY established the antiquity of Egypt, but DISTORTED the dating of historical events, and implied a unity in Egyptian political affairs that did not in reality exist. Isaiah warned against trusting in Egypt for help (Isa. 31:1). Just as throughout the history of man in other nations, Egypt was a confederation of several dynastic families from different cities. In any given time, only one being the supreme Pharaoh or several engaged in struggles for balances of power. In biblical accounts, many lands and empires had not one king, but several: “Lo the king of Israel hath hired against us the KINGS of the Hittites and the KINGS of the Egyptians.” (2 Kings 7:6). “At that time did king Ahaz send unto the KINGS of Assyria to help him.” (2 Chronicles 28:16).
According to Jasher, Joseph was about "seventeen years old" (Jasher 41:9) when he was sold and spent "a year" in Potiphar's house (44:73) and "twelve years" in prison (44:76). Therefore "Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh" (Gen. 41:46) in 1670 B.C. at the beginning of the seven years of plenty.
Justin says, "Joseph was very dear to the king himself: for he was most sagacious in explaining prodigies, and first framed the interpretation of dreams, and nothing in divine and human jurisprudence, seemed to be unknown to him. Insomuch that he even foresaw a barrenness of the grounds, many years before it happened; and all Egypt would have perished with famine, had not the king, by his counsel, ordered the fruits to be preserved for several years. And so excellent were his regulations, that they seemed rather to be oracular responses not given by man, but by God." (Justin General History 36:2)
Artapanus relates that Joseph, being hated by his brethren, and dreading the plots which they were daily contriving against him, besought the neighboring Arabs to carry him into Egypt. Here he gained so much upon the favor of the king, that he was appointed governor of the whole country; which from previously lying in an uncultivated state, soon assumed under his management a very different aspect. He divided it into inclosures, assigned to the priests their own portion, and became the inventor of standard measures. In this elevated situation, he married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis. Afterwards he entertained his father and all his brethren upon their emigration into Egypt, and assigned to them for their place of residence the city Cefan, the Goshen of Scripture (Eusebius Praep. Evang. 9:23).
Historians tell us
Imhotep was a non-royal, second-in-charge visier who saved Egypt from a 7-year famine by interpreting Pharaoh's dreams (by the power of God) (cp. Gen. 41:9-19), imposed a 20% tax (cp. 41:34), built grain silos (cp. 41:56), bought up all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh (except for the priests' land) (cp. 47:20-22), lived to the age of 110 and was embalmed when he died (cp. 50:26) -- just like Joseph. Imhotep was also the High Priest of Heliopolis paralleling Joseph who married the daughter of the high priest of On (the capital of Heliopolis) (cp. 41:45). We believe the visier Imhotep (Suphis) WAS Joseph and Pharaoh Netjerikhet or Djoser ("the wise") was Joseph's pharaoh. In 1 Kings 6:1 we read that the Exodus took place 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon in 966 BC, which brings us to 1446 BC. Also the covenant made with Abraham was 430 years before the Exodus (Gal. 3:17) in 1876 BC. Isaac was born 25 years later when Abraham was 100 (Gen. 21:5) in 1851 B.C. Isaac was age 60 when Jacob was born (Gen. 25:26) in 1791 B.C. When Jacob was 130, he entered Egypt (Gen. 47:28) in the second year of the famine (45:6) when Joseph was 39 in 1661 B.C. Therefore "Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh" (41:46) in 1670 B.C. at the beginning of the seven years of plenty. The end of a seven-year's famine occurred at the close of year 18 of Djoser I (end of winter 1656).
An account of the calamity is to be found on the rocks of the island of Sihiel, at the First Cataract. No other seven-years' famine is reported during the entire history of the Pharaohs. This is the Biblical seven-years' famine under Joseph. It is at the right time. A modern translation of it may be found in "Biblical Archaeology" by G. Ernest Wright, page 56. The account reads: "Year 18 .... I was in distress on the Great Throne, and those who are in the palace were in Heart's affliction from a very great evil, since the Nile had not come in my time for a space of SEVEN YEARS. Grain was scant, fruits were dried up, and everything which they eat was short .... The infant was wailing; the youth was waiting; the heart of the old man was in sorrow .... The courtiers were in need. The temples were shut up .... Everything was found empty." (Translation by J. A. Wilson in "Ancient Near Eastern Texts", edited by J. B. Pritchard, page 31.) The same inscription goes on: "Pharaoh Djoser asks Imhotep to help him with the COMING SEVEN YEARS of famine" ("Joseph in Egypt" by G. Drake). How did this pharaoh know about the COMING SEVEN YEARS yet in the future if they had not been predicted?
Dynasty III and Dynasty IV of Manetho mention Joseph under the name Suphis (or Souphis or Saophis) -- different Greek spellings from Manetho's commentators. Joseph in Hebrew, is not pronounced with an English "J" sound, but with a "Y" sound. In Manetho's Egyptian transcription of the name only the consonents "s" and "ph" appear -- hence the Greek Souphis or its variant forms. Eratosthenes wrote that the Egyptians had designated Suphis as a "money-getter" or "trafficker" (Fragment 17, "Manetho", by W. G. Waddell, page 219). Dynasty III in Manetho is made up of many rulers which do not appear in the Turin Papyrus. Only the two Djosers appear in each list, and in each case the full length of reign is preserved in Manetho. In Dynasty IV Suphis or Joseph is given 66 years by Manetho. This makes it clear that Dynasty IV -- a foreign dynasty -- parallels Dynasty III. The two records together tell the full story. Only the latter portion of Joseph's reign is preserved in the list of rulers in Dynasty III. The entire period of Joseph's public service is contained in the parallel account. The 66 years of Joseph's public service cover the years 1670-1604. The famine ended in 1656 after the rise in Upper Egypt of the new Nile during the summer of 1657 in Djoser's 18th year. He thus served till 96 years of age, and died at 110 (50:26). Sanchoniathon quotes Manetho as saying that Suphis built the Great Pyramid and also wrote a sacred book (Job) (p.443).
Albert Shultens in his Monumenta Vetustiora Arabiae, quotes from the 'Cosmography' of Al-Kaswini, an Arab writer of the 14th century, an inscription in Himyaritic characters, which he reports as having been discovered over the gateway of a castle near Hisn Ghorab, about 20 miles east of Aden, in Southern Arabia, by Abderrahman, Viceroy of Yemen, seven centuries before his time, i.e. about 660 AD. In English, the inscription reads: "We dwelt at ease in this castle for a long period of time, nor had we any desire save for the luscious region of the vine; hundreds of camels came to us each day at eve; twice the number of our camels were our sheep: We dwelt in this castle DURING THE SEVEN YEARS OF PLENTY; then came THE YEARS OF FAMINE, barren and burnt up; when one evil year had passed another succeeded, and we became as though we had never seen a glimpse of food. They died, and neither foot nor hoof remained (cp. Ex. 10:26). Thus fares it with him who renders not thanks to God; his footsteps fail not to be blotted out from his dwelling."
Pocock cites the Arabian writer named Firazabandi who corroborates the seven years. "Ebn Hesham relates that a flood of rain laid bare to view a sepulchre in Yemen (Arabia), in which lay a woman having on her neck seven collars of pearls, and on her hands and feet bracelets, and ankle rings, and armlets seven on each, and on every finger a ring, in which was set a jewel of great price, and at her head a coffer filled with treasure with this inscription" in Himyaritic characters: "In thy name, O God, the god of Himyar, I, Tajah, the daughter of Dzu Shefar, SENT MY STEWARD TO JOSEPH, and he delaying to return to me, I sent my handmaid with a measure of silver, to bring me back a measure of FLOUR; and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of gold; and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of pearls; and not being able to procure it, I commanded them to be ground; and finding no profit in them, I am shut up here: Whoever may hear of me, let him commiserate me; and should any woman adorn herself with an ornament from my ornaments, may she die no other than my death." Yes, "all countries came into Egypt to JOSEPH to buy CORN" (Gen. 41:57).
In the archives of the Chinese Empire it is recorded that "in the beginning of the reign of Ching-tang there happened a drought and famine all over the empire WHICH LASTED SEVEN YEARS, during which time no rain fell." (History of China collected out of Martinus, Couplet, and Du Halde, in Jackson's Chronological Antiquities 2:455) According to the Chinese chronology the Emperor Kie, the immediate predecessor of Ching-tang died 1758 BC. Then a long civil war ensued. The Biblical seven years of famine began in 1663 BC. "and the famine was in ALL LANDS" (Gen. 41:54) including China. It is very probable that to this seven years' drought in Egypt Ovid refers, which he makes to be nine ("Dicitur Aegyptus caruisse juvantibus arva Imbribus, atque annis sicca fuisse novem." -- Ovid de Artc Amandi, 1:647) as does also Apollodorus (De Deor Orig. 2:104).
Alexander Polyhistor from Demetrius says it was in the third year of the famine that Jacob came into Egypt (Euseb. Praep. Ev. 9:21).
Joseph also lived in the reign of Maris, the Maro and Mendes of Diodorus, Strabo's Maindes and Memnon; for the great canal, from the Nile to this king's famous lake, is named Joseph's Canal to this day. LakeMoeris was an ancient freshwater lake located in the Faiyum Oasis, 50 miles southwest of Cairo, Egypt.
Job Was a King (Job 3:11-14; 29:21-25) Who Built the Great Pyramid in c.1656 BC; Are the Pyramids Just Tombs "Kings ... Built (as) Desolate Places (Mausoleums) for Themselves" (Job 3:14)? "Shall the Rock (Monument) Be Moved Out of its Place" (Job 18:4) When you Die?
Herodotus says that the builders of the Great Pyramid were SHEPHERDS (2:128). Job was the son of Issachar (Gen. 46:13). He was "perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and shunned evil" (Job 1:1). His age can be figured out by simple addition of 140 years after his afflictions (Job 42:16-17) plus about 40 more years before his afflictions to account for ten grown-up children settled in their own houses (Job 1:2-4,13) making his full life to be at least 180 years long. Yet compared to his fathers, his days are "but a shadow" (8:8-9). He must have lived around the time of Jacob since Job used pieces of money called "keshitah" (Job 42:11) and Jacob also bought a parcel of a field from the children of Hamor and paid for it, not by weight, but gave a hundred "keshitahs" (Gen. 33:19). This money wasn't in use in Abraham's day since he paid for the field of Ephron by weight in silver, not number of pieces (Gen. 23:16). Therefore, Job was not as ancient as Abraham, but his long life will not permit us to suppose him much younger than Jacob. According to Manetho, "Suphis reigned 63 years: he built the largest pyramid, which Herodotus says, was constructed by Cheops. He was arrogant toward the gods, and wrote the sacred book, which is regarded by the Egyptians as a work of great importance" (Cory's Fragments, p.102). The name "Suphis" is derived from 1 Chron. 7:1 where Job, the son of Issachar, is called "Jashub". Since the "J" sound is not in Hebrew, Manetho derived the name "Shub" and then "Suph". The "f" sound is very commonly interchanged for "b" and the "is" ending is simply a Greek addition since Greeks didn't like to end a name without an "s" sound. Suphis lived in the 4th Dynasty. Job's friends were Eliphaz ha-Temani (from Ishmael's son Teman -- Gen. 25:15), Bildad ha-Shuachi (from Keturah's son Shuah -- Gen. 25:2) and Elihu the son of Barachel ha-Buzi (from Nahor's son Buz -- Gen. 22:21). In the case of Joseph, Manetho also dropped the first non-consonant syllable, making Joseph into Suph. Both Job and Joseph therefore were given the name "Suphis" or "Souf". "Souf" (Joseph) was "Chief of the works of Khufu" (Job) (Rawlinson's Egypt, ch. 14). The name given Joseph by Pharaoh was "Zaph-nathpaaneah" (Gen. 41:45). Now we can understand why Manetho lists two rulers named "Suph" or "Suphis" in Dynasty IV. Both of these men were contemporary and could be called the "wizard of Uz" (Job 1:1).
In the book of Job, there is a reference to the stars which some scholars believe may pinpoint the time when Job lived. Aben Ezra said that Chima and Chesil were opposite constellations. Supposing the principal stars here mentioned to be those of Taurus (Pleiades) and Scorpio (Antares) (Job 38:31-32; cp. Job 9:9), and that these were the cardinal constellations of spring and autumn equinoxes in the time of Job (Kimah = Aldebaran, the Bull's eye; Kesil [Arabic "frigid"] = Antares, the Scorpion's heart), and calculating from today their positions by the precession of the equinoxes (one degree every 71.5 years), dating the book of Job would become easy. But the result is well over 4000 years into the past -- too much time; and the proof that the constellations referred to are Taurus (spring equinox) and Scorpio (autumn equinox), is too uncertain to give much weight to the argument. The other two references may be, "Wilt thou bring forth Egypt's star-signal in its season? -- solstice signal of the Nile's rising Leo (with Sirius rising). Mazouroth. It is expressed in Job 9:9 by "the chambers of the south wind," the hottest quarter. "Or avenge the man (Ish or Aquarius -- winter solstice) upon the sons of men?" These four answer to the four faces of the cherub in Ezekiel's vision: Ox, Eagle, Lion, and Man. One possible translation of Job 38:31 says, "Canst thou shut up the delightful teemings of Kimah? Or the contractions of Kesil, canst thou open?"
Several of Egypt's pyramids have been opened, and SARCOPHAGI discovered in their inner chambers, thus proving their SEPULCHRAL character. Diodorus tells us that Chemmis and Cephren designed those built by them for their SEPULCHRES (Diodorus Siculus 1:58). Strabo also judges all those pyramids near Memphis to have been royal SEPULCHRES (Strabo 17) to which the writings of the Arabs agree. The Gizeh pyramid of Cheops, rises from a base covering thirteen acres to a height of 480 feet. According to Herodotus, Cheops employed 100,000 men for twenty years in its construction. Also ten years preparatory work having been expended upon the great causeway over which the stones were dragged from the Nile. The Egyptians believed in a resurrection and that as long as the body endured, the immortal soul continued with it. And hence the need for excessive care and cost to preserve the corpse from corruption. Stoics also believed this (Virgil's Aeneid 3). The Egyptians EMBALMED the body into a MUMMY. They believed that when the body rotted and decayed, the soul entered into some other animal. Egyptians believed preservation of the body was necessary for it to unite in the future with the "soul". Therefore they spared no labor or cost in building SEPULCHRES which they termed ETERNAL MANSIONS while their houses were mere INNS where they lived only a short time.
The first historical reference to a book is "The book of the geneology" of the antediluvian patriarchs (Gen. 5:1). Is it probable that thirty large and unconnected numbers in Genesis 5 would be left to oral tradition to be handed down to the days of Moses? No. They were written in this book. Berosus shows that letters were in use among the Antediluvians. Peter, Jude, Polyhistor and Eupolemus quote a book attributed to Enoch: it was not genuine in their time, yet probably contained passages of antediluvian original. The first historical reference to writing is Josephus who mentions that in order "that their inventions and discoveries (in astronomy) might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, -- upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed, at one time by water, and at another by fire, they (the Sethites) made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone; they inscribed the discoveries upon them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day." (Ant. 1:2:3) After the Flood, Plutarch and Gellius inform us that Mercury (Osiris or Misor), a primitive god of Egypt, discovered letters. Misor or Osiris invented three letters or three alphabets. The three sorts of characters were epistolary, sacerdotal and Hieroglyphic (Clement of Alexandria). Varro, in Augustine says, "the Egyptians were taught letters by Isis not much more than two thousand years before my time" (City of God book 18, ch. 40). Isis was Misor's wife. The next historical reference to writing is when Job exclaimed "Oh that my words were now written (or drawn) ... imprinted in a book (or any memorial in writing). That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever" (Job 19:23). "Oh that mine adversary had written a book" (Job 31:35). "My days are swifter than a post" (Job 9:25) implies transmission from place to place of written messages by appointed messengers? Then "the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book" (Ex. 17:14; 19:1-2). Then the ten commandments were written on tables of stone in the time of Moses. We notice that the transfers of property before his day, instead of being made by written deeds placed on town records, were made by verbal acknowledgement before witnesses; as in the case of the purchase of the field and cave of Machpelah by Abraham (Gen. 23:17). One of the places conquered by the Israelites after they entered Canaan was Debir, the original name of which was was Kirjath-sepher meaning "City of books"; or Kirjath-sannah, the City of Letters (Josh. 15:49; Judges 1:1). The earliest writings were probably made on tables of wood, brass, or stone. It was in the Hebrew language. From the Hebrew alphabet came the Phoenician; from that the Greek; the Greek letters being evidently the Phoenician turned from right to left; thence came the Roman; and from them, the letters now in use among civilized nations. Afterward the wooden tablet was spread over with wax, so that it could be used over and over again by being exposed to heat. Prepared skins were also used or papyrus or sheep or goat skins. In Ceylon talipat tree leaves are still used. The inner bark of trees, or liber, was anciently used by Romans as paper to write on. Hence in the Latin tongue, liber still means book, and our word library is derived from it. Ink is mentioned by Jeremiah (36:18).The better material discovered was papyrus, the stem of an Egyptian water plant, which the Greeks called byblus. We take our word Bible from the Greek biblos, which they used to signify book, after adopting the byblus plant for book-making. From the papyrus comes our word paper. Papyrus stalks grew from eight to sixteen feet high, and from two to four inches thick. The pith of the stalk was cut in very thin slices, which were laid side by side, slightly overlapping one another; these were moistened with gum-water, and another layer of strips was laid across them. Both layers were then pressed, dried and polished. In the third century B.C., differences arose between the king of Pergamos and the king of Egypt, so the latter cut off the supply of papyrus from Pergamos. This resulted in the invention of pergamena, and is now known as parchment. Herodotus says that parchment grew into use through a scarcity of paper of Biblos (5:50). Paul desired Timothy to bring him the books which he left at Troas, "but especially the parchments" (2 Tim. 4:13). Our Saxon forefathers wrote on the bark of the bocco, their name for the beech-tree; and from that we get our word book. The word translated pen (Psalm 45:1) probably meant a reed, which is the rendering in the Greek and Latin versions. Our word Pen is derived from the Latin penna, a feather.
Secular History Confirms The Plagues, The Red Sea Crossing and The Identity of the Pharaoh of the Exodus in 1446 BC -- Amenhotep II
The Exodus in 1446 B.C. was 430 years after Abraham entered Canaan in 1876 B.C. "Now the sojourning (in Canaan and Egypt -- 215 years each) of the children of Israel (which here includes Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- see footnotes in both the Companion Bible and Jerusalem Bible), who dwelt in Egypt (and Canaan), was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt" (Ex.12:40-41). Josephus says the same thing: "They left Egypt ... on the fifteenth day of the lunar month (Num. 33:3), four hundred and thirty years after our forefather Abraham came into Canaan" (Ant.2:15:2). Both the Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint add "and in Canaan" in verse 40. The Septuagint, quoted by Paul in Galatians, says "the sojourning of the sons of Israel who dwelt in the land of Egypt and Canaan was 430 years" because they dwelt in Canaan before they dwelt in Egypt. They left Egypt "harnessed" (Ex. 13:18) meaning "in five bodies" rather than "in ranks of five". An advance guard, the right wing, the left wing, the rear guard and the main body (in the midst of which the women and cattle were conducted). Five in a rank is much too small a number to suppose an army of 600,000 men (Ex. 12:37) could possibly march in. For at that rate, if we allow three feet between ranks, and a mile to consist of 2000 yards, the front and the rear of the army would be 60 miles apart. The total population was approximately 2,400,000 Israelites.
The Book of Jasher mentions "Balaam the magician and ... Jannes and Jambres his sons" (Jasher 79:27). Paul also mentions "Jannes and Jambres" (2 Tim. 3:8) as two magicians who withstood Moses. Numenius Apamaeus, a Pythagorean philosopher, in his 3rd book, says: "Jannes and Jambres, interpreters of the mysteries of Egypt, were in great repute at the time when the Jews were sent out of Egypt. It was the opinion of all men that these were inferior to none in the art of magic. For by the common opinion of the Egyptians, these two were chosen to oppose Moses, the ring leader of the Jews. Moses prayers were most prevalent with God. They only were able to undo and frustrate all those most grievous calamities that Moses brought upon all the Egyptians" (cited by Eusebius Prepar. Evang. 9:8) See also Pliny Hist. Nat. 30:1. By the third plague of LICE, the Egyptian magicians were forced to admit it was "the finger of God". LICE were particularly offensive to these superstitiously clean Egyptians. Their priests "used to shave their whole body every third day, that neither LOUSE, nor any other vermin might be found upon them, while they were employed in serving their gods" (Herodotus 2:37).
The daughter of Pharaoh found the baby Moses in the Nile. After presenting him to many foreign women, she found that he rejected them all (Ex. 2:5-12; Jub. 47:5-8; Ant. 2:224-6). Then on the advice of his sister Miriam (who was accompanying her in order to ascertain the fate of the baby boy cast in into the river), Jochebed, his rightful mother, was ordered to nurse the child as if it were her own, and promised the wages due a wet nurse (Kedr. i. 75.14-16) since she was a foreigner. Philo, Josephus and Clemens Alexandrinus choose to derive the word Moses from the Egyptian word Mo (water) and Ises (preserved) meaning "Saved from the water" which agrees with calling him Moses "Because I drew him out of the water" (Ex. 2:10). As a baby, Moses was "exceedingly fair" (Acts 7:20) and "a beautiful child" (Heb. 11:23). Even the heathen historian Justin mentions his extraordinary beauty, from Trogus Pompeius (Justin 36:2).
Just before Moses was born, "One of those sacred Scribes, who are very sagacious in foretelling future events truly, told the King, that about this time there would a child be born to the Israelites, who, if he were reared, would bring the Egyptian dominion low; and would raise the Israelites: that he would excel all men in virtue; and obtain a glory that would be remembered through all ages. Which thing was so feared by the King, that, according to this man’s opinion, he commanded that they should cast every male child, which was born to the Israelites, into the river, and destroy it ... Thermuthis adopted him for her son ... she put the infant in her father's hands: so he took him and hugged him close to his breast: and, on his daughter’s account, in a pleasant way, put his diadem upon his head: but Moses threw it down to the ground; and, in a puerile mood, he wreathed it round, and tread upon it with his feet; which seemed to bring along with it an evil presage concerning the Kingdom of Egypt. But when the sacred Scribe (2 Tim 3:8 -- Jannes or Jambres) saw this, (he was the person who foretold that his nativity would bring the dominion of that Kingdom low,) he made a violent attempt to kill him; and crying out in a frightful manner, he said, 'This, O King! this child is he of whom God foretold, that if we kill him we shall be in no danger: he himself affords an attestation to the prediction of the same thing, by his trampling upon thy government, and treading upon thy diadem. Take him therefore out of thy way, and deliver the Egyptians from the fear they are in about him; and deprive the Hebrews of the hope they have of being encouraged by him.' But Thermuthis prevented him, and snatched the child away. And the King was not hasty to slay him; God himself, whose providence protected Moses, inclining the King to spare him. He was therefore educated with great care: so the Hebrews depended on him, and were of good hopes that great things would be done by him. But the Egyptians were suspicious of what would follow such his education. Yet because if Moses had been slain, there was no one, neither akin or adopted, that had any oracle on his side, for pretending to the crown of Egypt, and likely to be of greater advantage to them, they abstained from killing him." (Josephus Ant. 2:9:2-7)
"And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22). What wisdom? The great virtue of the Egyptians was GRATITUDE which they concluded was the only encouragement to kind actions. They constantly endeavored to voice their GRATITUDE to every person from which they received benefit (Diodorus p.81). They chose thirty men of the best reputation for judges. The plaintiff submitted his complaint in writing to the judges and gave a copy to the defendant. The defendant then gave an answer in writing to the judges and plaintiff. To this the plaintiff replied, and then the defendant had the last say. Each party had handed in two writings. Then the court consulted the law and gave their sentence. No clamorous harangues of lawyers. No public oratory or rhetoric. Nothing but the MERITS OF THE CASE had any weight in the outcome. Murderers were sentenced to death. "False accusers were, by the laws of Egypt, to suffer the SAME PUNISHMENT AS THOSE WHOM THEY FALSELY ACCUSED would have undergone, if they had been convicted of the offense" (Diod. Sic. 1:77; cp. Deut. 19:16-21). If an Egyptian saw a crime taking place, he was OBLIGED TO TESTIFY against the criminal and to prosecute him (cp. Lev. 5:1). Furthermore, "USURY could not exceed the principal sum." According to Herodotus 2:160, Egyptian fairness required that the "home team" be excluded from competing in Olympic games and only allow visitors to compete (Job 34:19; Lev. 19:15) because of "VESTED INTEREST" or "CONFLICT OF INTEREST" serving "two masters" (Matt. 6:24). No man is a judge in his own case, nor may he take the law into his own hands (Deut. 24:16). Also, there are 42 negative confessions in the Egyptian Book of the Dead which can be briefly summarized as "I haven't committed robbery, murder, adultery, slander, blasphemy, witchcraft, fornication, or masturbation. I haven't lied, been a drunkard, hypocrite, eavesdropped, been angry without cause, shut my ears to the truth, pried into matters, been arrogant, added weight to the scales or known worthless men, etcetera. Solomon's wisdom "excelled all the wisdom of Egypt" (1 Ki. 4:30). Egyptian religious schools taught the mysteries of Isis and the unity of God. They gave to this Supreme Being the very SAME NAME by which he was known to the Hebrews -- Nuk Pu Nuk -- "I will be whom I will be" (Ex. 3:14). So the highest Egyptian Deity was also the God of the Hebrews. The case is parallel to that of Paul at Athens. Egyptian youth were taught to RISE UP FROM THEIR SEATS and to retire at the approach of the elderly. This custom was also practised at Sparta (Herodotus; Lev. 19:32). The Egyptians abstained from different types of animals, in different parts of the kingdom, according to the different deities they worshipped; but they all agreed in AVOIDING SWINE'S FLESH, which was considered by them so impure, that if a man even touched a pig by accident, he went immediately and plunged himself in the river with his clothes on (Lev. 11:7-8). And for this reason hogherds alone were not allowed to enter any of their temples; neither would any man give his daughter in marriage to anyone of that profession, or take a wife born of such parents; so hogherders were forced to intermarry among themselves. Egyptians CIRCUMCISED themselves from time immemorial (Herodotus; Diodorus Siculus; cp. Lev. 12:3). Pythagoras, in order to have the liberty of conversing with the Egyptian priests, and entering into their temples, was obliged to submit to being CIRCUMCISED (Clem. Alex. Stromat. 1:30). The clothing of this nation was a linen vest, FRINGED at the bottom (cp. Deut. 22:12), which they called calasiris, and over that they wore a white mantle of woollen cloth. But to enter any of their temples in that outer garment, or to bury their dead in woollen, was considered profane. Physicians were to use TRIED AND TESTED REMEDIES on patients, not experimentation, lest they become liable and answerable for the patient's death (vol.1, pp.462-474, Universal History ... From Original Authors). Egyptians FASTED on a monthly basis and Herodotus described them as the healthiest of men.
The "new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph" (Ex. 1:8) was Pharaoh Ahmose (1580-1546 B.C.), who began dynasty 18, who liberated it from the Hyksos. Hebrew hardships came during the rule of Amenhotep I (1546-1525 B.C.) or Thutmose I (1525-1508 B.C.) as the Egyptians remembered Hebrew friendship with the Hyksos. (Manetho attributes 511 years to the Hycsos -- Josephus.) "Moses they say was tall and ruddy" (p.388, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel). The extraordinary beauty of Moses is also mentioned by Justin, an heathen historian, from Trogus Pompeius (Just. 36:2). Now Moses was born "fourscore" years before the Exodus (Ex.7:7) or 1527 B.C. He was raised by "the daughter of Pharaoh" (Ex.2:5), who was known as "Queen Hatshepsut" who married her brother named Thutmose II. But when Hatshepsut couldn't produce a male heir to the throne, her brother/husband chose a non-royal mistress named Isis to produce a male heir and named their son Thutmose III. Hatshepsut raised the boy as her own son even though Isis was his real birth mother. She was the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I, the grand son-in-law of Ahmose. Moses fled from Thutmose III (1504-1450 B.C.), the pharaoh of the oppression (Ex. 2:23), who had been pushed aside by his aunt and step-mother Hatshepsut. Once pharaoh, he organized military campaigns and fought the enemies of the Hyksos who had settled in Canaan. After his famous battle of Megiddo in Canaan in 1479 B.C., he installed district governors in garrison cities throughout Canaan. Amenhotep II (c.1450-1423 B.C.) was the arrogant and haughty pharaoh of the Exodus (Ex.7). The suffix "MOSE" means "SON" (p.115, Keller's Bible As History). Thutmose and Ahmose were sons of Thut (scribal god) and Ah (moon god). But nobody knew who the father of MOSE was, so he was just called MOSES. Or perhaps Moses' name had a prefix like the others (Hatshepsutmose) but Moses "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (Heb.11:24). The treasure cities of Pithom and Raamses (Ex. 1:11) are identified as the Patamos of Herodotus and the name of one of the sons of Amosis which reads Ra-MSS.
Why do we think Amenhotep II (1453-1426 BC) was the pharaoh of the Exodus? Because 1.) Josephus (first century AD) quotes Manetho (third century BC Egyptian priest and historian) as quoting earlier Egyptian records saying that the Israelites took their journey out of Egypt during the reign of "Amenophis the king of Egypt" which is the Ptolemaic Greek form of the Egyptian name Amenhotep. Chaeremon, another Egyptian priest and historian, agrees also that it was Amenophis who was pharaoh of the Exodus. 2.) He was cruel ("hardened heart") as the monuments testify at Karnak and Memphis (Ex. 5:5-9). In his year 3 campaign, he transported enemy leaders tied upside down to the bow of his royal ship, before nailing them to the walls of Thebes and Napata after their hands were cut off. On his year 9 campaign Amenhotep II ordered trenches to be dug. He then filled the trenches with prisoners and then set fire to them. 3.) He hated Hatshepsut (1504-1483 BC) ("pharaoh's daughter") who was co-ruler for 22 years with Thutmose III (his father) (1504-1451 BC). Thutmose III was just 2 years old when his father died and so needed Hatshepsut to guide him. Amenhotep II defaced her images, and had her name removed from all monuments (see Lintel of Hatshepsut & Thutmosis III at Penn State Museum). When she didn't have a male heir from Thutmose II, she may have prayed to the Nile god Hapi for a son and then found Moses in a floating basket and became foster mother to Moses, hoping that Moses would be the next heir rather than Thutmose III's son Amenhotep II. She was "inclined toward foreign people" according to the inscription on the facade of her temple at Speos Artemidos. Did Amenhotep II blame Hatshepsut for raising Moses and thereby causing the destruction of Egypt? 4.) Amenhotep II's oldest son died in youth (Ex. 4:22). According to the Dream Stele found between the paws of the sphinx (Ex. 12:29), Thutmose IV (1426-1416 BC) had divine justification for his reign. Why did he need that? Because he was not the firstborn heir to the throne. He has to justify his kingship by means of a dream. What happened to the firstborn? He was killed in the tenth plague (Ex. 12:29). His father also was not a firstborn or else he too would have been slain. 5.) Avaris, a Hebrew city, with Hebrew-style buildings, was abandoned during Amenhotep II's reign indicating a mass Exodus.
6.) Pharaoh 's army, "all the host of pharaoh", was drowned (Ex. 14:28) and their bodies washed up "upon the seashore" (Ex. 14:30) but the pharaoh himself survived 20 years after the Exodus in 1446 BC and was later mummified and today we see it covered in tubercules indicating some sort of plague afflicted him (Ex. 7-11). God "overthrew pharaoh" ( (Ps. 136:15) which means he was "shaken off" (Ps. 136:15) like a locust in Ps. 109:23 where the same word is used. Not drowned. 7.) During the latter half of Amenhotep II's reign nothing is mentioned since the Egyptians didn't talk about their defeats. 8.) Thutmose III reigned for 54 years just as Moses was absent from Egypt for 40 years (Acts 7:23, 30). After "the king of Egypt died" (Ex. 2:23), notice that Exodus 4:19 says, "Go, return into Egypt; for all the men are dead who sought thy life." The pharaoh who preceded the pharaoh of the Exodus had to have reigned more than 40 years therefore, and Thutmose III is the only candidate who does that (1504-1451 BC). 9.) Amenhotep II's second campaign in November of 1446 BC was for the purpose of restocking his slave base lost in April of that same year during the Exodus. So he took 101,000 slaves back to Egypt (highly unusual). He did this because Egypt's army had just been wiped out and the firstborn had all died and Israelite slaves had left. 10.) "Heliopolis", a treasure city, was built in his reign (Ex. 1:11 LXX). Not all copies include it. Exodus 1:11 says the Israelite slaves constructed "treasure cities" (KJV) and an inscription in Rekhmire's tomb (one of Amenhotep's foremost officials) reads: "Rejoice, O prince, all your affairs are flourishing. The treasure stores are overflowing". Several ancient inscriptions refer to the pharaoh as "Amenhotep, the god who rules in Heliopolis." 11.) "And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign (967 BC) ... he began to build the house of the Lord" (1 Ki. 6:1). This puts the Exodus at 1446 BC when Amenhotep II was pharaoh (1453-1426 BC). Judges 11:26 confirms this date by saying that at the time of Jephthah (1100 BC), the Israelites had dwelt in the land of Israel about "three hundred years" putting their entrance at about 1400 BC. Also the Aaronic geneology in 1 Chronicles 5 lists 19 generations from the Exodus to Solomon's Temple which fits best with a 480-year time frame. 12.) Pharaoh Akhenaton (1377-1360 BC) ruled about 69 years after the Exodus plagues which were directed "against the gods of Egypt" (Ex. 12:12). He completely removed Egypt's polytheistic religion and replaced it with the worship of the sun-god Aten probably as a direct result of those ten plagues which showed how powerless the Egyptian gods were. His reign was also marked by Amarna Letters where Canaan was being invaded by Habiru (Hebrew) people.
"The Lord overwhelms their army with the waves; And the whole host entombs in watery graves. But Israel's sons a wonderous passage found; Dry at the ocean's bottom was the ground." "When the Egyptians pursued the Israelites, tempests compelled them to retreat" (Trogus Pompeius). "Zipporah ... was ... one of the descendants of Keturah, of the stock of Abraham" (p.390, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel). |
"The Lord God also in the heavens did thunder in his ire; And there the Highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. Yea, he his arrows sent abroad, and them he scattered; His lightnings also he shot out, and them discomfitted. The water's channels then were seen, the world's foundations vast At thy rebuke discovered were, and at thy nostrils' blast" (Ps. 18:13-15; 77:16-17) |
Artapanus relates that though the Memphites attributed the fortunate passage of the Israelites to the skill of Moses in the ebb and flood-tides, yet the Heliopolites who lived near the scene) affirmed that Moses divinely inspired struck the sea with a rod; on which, the water accumulating on each side, he led his people dry across the channel: but the Egyptians attempting to pursue them, lightnings flashed in their faces, and the recoiling sea overwhelmed them totally. (Eusebius) "At that time died Latinus king of the children of Chittim ... the fourteenth year of ... Israel's departure from Egypt" (Jasher 84:9) |
Berosus says that he compiled his book out of the ancient records of Chaldea. In it he attributes the drowning of the Egyptians to the power of art-magic. Strabo says "An Egyptian priest named Moses, who possessed a portion of the country called the lower Egypt, being dissatisfied with the established institutions there, left it and came to Judaea, with a large body of people who worshipped the Divinity." (Strabo 16:2). Strabo praises Moses for saying "that the Aegyptians were mistaken in representing the Divine Being by the images of beasts and cattle, as were also the Libyans; and that the Greeks were also wrong in modelling gods in human form ... for who shall dare to make any representation of the Most High?" (16:2:35-37). Pliny says, "There is a sect of adepts in the magic art who derive their origin from Moses, Jamres, and Lotopea, Jews by birth, but many thousand years posterior to Zoroastre" (Nat. Hist. 30:2).
"In ancient times there happened a great plague in Egypt, and many ascribed the cause of it to God, who was offended with them because there were many strangers in the land, by whom foreign rites and ceremonies were employed in their worship of the deity. The Egyptians concluded, therefore, that unless all strangers were driven out of the country, they should never be freed from their miseries. Upon this, as some writers tell us, the most eminent and enterprising of those foreigners who were in Egypt, and obliged to leave the country, betook themselves to the coast of Greece, and also to other regions; having put themselves under the command of proper leaders for that purpose. Some of them were conducted by Danaus and Cadmus, who were the most illustrious of the whole. There were besides these a large but less noble body of people, who retired into the province called now Judaea, which was not far from Egypt, and in those times uninhabited. These emigrants were led by Moses, who was superior to all in wisdom and prowess. He gave them laws, and ordained that they should have no images of the gods; because there was only one deity, the Heaven, which surrounds all things, and is Lord of the whole." (Diodorus Sic. 40 apud Photium.).
Tacitus says, "Most authors agree, that a cutaneous disorder spreading through Egypt, king Bocchoris consulted the oracle of Hammon how to obtain relief; the answer was, that he should purge his kingdom, by expelling that race of men who were so hateful to the gods" (Tacitus History 5:3). Tacitus adds that in the reign of Isis a multitude of Jews left Egypt, and were conducted into the neighboring country, under the command of Hierosolymus and Judeus: But that others said, they were driven out for being lepers, and were conducted in their journey by Moses who was one of the exiles. (Tacitus History 5) Justin says, "the Egyptians had the leprosy amongst them; that upon consulting their oracle for a cure, they were directed to send away all the infected persons out of the land, under the conduct of Moses. Moses undertook the command of them, and at his leaving Egypt stole away (asked not borrowed) the Egyptian sacra (jewels of silver and gold -- Ex. 12:35). The Egyptians pursued them in order to recover their sacra, but were compelled by storms to return home again. Moses in seven days passed the desert of Arabia, and brought the people to Sinai." (Justin History 36:2) Eupolemus says Moses was the first wise man, and the inventor of letters; which the Phoenicians received from the Jews, and the Greeks from the Phoenicians (Euseb. Praep. Evang. 9:26). Eusebius also mentions that "Moses threw down the rod which he held and turned it into a serpent ... Then he ... smote the Nile with the rod, and the river became flooded ... and the water became stagnant and stank ... Then Moses ... smote the earth with his rod, and brought up a kind of winged animal to harrass the Egyptians, and all their bodies broke out in boils.... Again Moses by his rod brought up frogs, and besides them locusts and lice.... But as the king still persisted in his folly, Moses caused hail and earthquakes by night ... At last after having incurred such calamities the king let the Jews go: and they ... came on the third day to the Red Sea. Now the people of Memphis (who lived on the other side of the Nile -- a considerable distance away -- comment mine) say, that Moses being acquainted with the country, waited for the ebb, and took the people across the sea when dry. But the people of Heliopolis (who were located near the event -- comment mine) say, that the king hastened after them with a great force ... when Moses ... touched the water with the rod, and so the stream divided, and the force passed over by a dry path. But when the Egyptians went in ... pursuing them ... the sea overflowed the path again, and the Egyptians were all destroyed by the fire and the flood." (Eusebius Praep. Evang. 9:27).
Diodorus, who travelled in Egypt in 40 BC says, "It is an ancient report among the Ichthyophagi, who inhabit the shores of the Red Sea, that by a mighty reflux of the sea which happened in former days, the whole gulf became dry land, and appeared green all over: and that the water overflowed the opposite shore, and that all the ground continued bare to the very lowest depth of the gulf, until the water, by an extraordinary high tide, returned to its former channel." (Diodorus Sic. 3:40) This could not possibly have been due to natural causes because of the great depth of the sea in those parts.
"Moses, to ensure the subjection of the nation to himself for ever, established religious ordinances altogether new, and opposite to those of all other men and countries. The Jews solemnly immolated a ram, in contumely to Jupiter Hammon. The ox, too, is what they sacrifice, a creature which the Egyptians worship for the god Apis." (Tacitus Hist. 5:4). Josephus quotes from a heathen writer named Lysimachus who says "That in the time of Bocharis there were a number of impure and impious people in Egypt, and that the king was advised by the oracle of Jupiter Ammon to expel these persons, and drive them into desert places. That these people thus ordered to destruction, assembled themselves together; and took counsel what they should do, and determined that as the night was coming on, they would kindle fires and lamps and keep watch. That on the next day there was one Moses who advised them, that they should venture upon a journey; and go along a certain road till they should come to a place fit for habitation. That he advised them to have no kind regards for any man; nor give good counsel to any; but always to advise them for the worst; and to overturn all those temples and altars of the gods they should meet with." (Josephus Contra Apion 1:34) Aaron was born 83 years before the Exodus from Egypt. For he lived 123 years, and died 40 years after the Exodus (Nu. 33:38,39). This agrees exactly with the account given by Alexander Polyhistor from Demetrius of the birth of Aaron; for he says, that Levi at 60 years of age begat Clath or Corath; that Clath when 40 years old begat Amram; and that Amram when 75 years old begat Aaron.
Secular History Confirms Joshua's Long Day in 1406 BC
The Earth's pole axis tilted till it lay in the plane of Earth's orbit and pointed toward ther sun. Gibeon became Earth's rotational north pole for a day, making the sun appear to stand still. The poles then reversed. As Sophocles said, "Zeus ... changed the course of the sun, causing it to rise in the east and not in the west." (Fragments, III, 5, 738). Plato said, "At certain periods the universe has its present circular motion, and at other periods it revolves in the reverse direction" (Politicus, p.53). Herodotus added, "the Egyptians asserted that the sun had four times deviated from his ordinary course -- twice rising where now he sets, and twice setting where he now rises." (Hist. 2:142). Joshua would not have ordered the sun to stand still early in the morning with ten hours of sunlight left. The sun was going down EAST of the battle scene (Joshua 10:11-13). "When a man fights against him whom God honours and assists, a great and sudden destruction comeds upon him." (Homer's Iliad 17:98) According to Gerardus Bouw's book Geocentricity, Joshua stopped the sun moving for 24 hours (Joshua 10:12-14). If due to human imagination, we would expect such folk stories to be randomly distributed around the earth. But we don't find that. They fit within the the curved shape of the night shadow that passes around the earth each day, as shown on the diagram. This can be positioned so that ALL the "long night" stories can be covered by the night shadow, and ALL the "long day" stories are in the daylight section. This proves that all these stories were correctly positioned according to the location of the nation relative to the day and night parts of the shadow. It could not be a coincidence.
1. Herodotus was told by an Egyptian priest of a day when "The sun ... had remained low on the horizon ... Two days had been rolled into one. The sun ... instead of crossing the sky, stayed where it was. Whilst the moon ... reduced its speed and climbed slowly, the sun stopped moving" (Fernand Crombette's Verdique Historique de l'Egypte Antique). He translated some Egyptian hieroglyphics. Egyptians had accurate water clocks to determine such things. The moon stopped its faster apparent daily motion but kept its orbital speed. "And the moon stayed" (Josh. 10:13). It only moved 13.2° in 24 hours since it has a period of 27.3 days. The sun "stopped" (Hebrew damam = to be still, die ) but the moon "stayed" (amad = to tarry, delay) which allows some movement. The rest of the account records an exceptionally high tide that washed boats into piles of wreckage, drowned fisherman, flooded much of the land, etc.
2. Phaethon wanted to drive the chariot of the sun for a day. "The celebrated son of Hyperion (Helios -- the sun) stopped, for a long time, his swift-footed horses." (Homer Hymn. in Pallad. 13) "When Sol himself leans downward from the sky, Beholds the virgins with enraptured eye, Detains his chariot, whence new glories pour, Prolongs the day, and stops the flying hour." (Callimachus H. in Dian. 180) "The lazy god of day forgets to rise, And everlasting night pollutes the skies" (Lucan. Phars. 6:462). "Detained by Jove, nor ever did the day, So long, before, survive his setting ray." (Stat. Theb. 5:177)
3. West African story of a long night where the owl overslept and did not awaken the sun (Aardema, V. 1975. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears [NY: Dial Press]).
4. Chinese History reports that at the time of their seventh emperor, Yao, the sun did not set for ten days (should have been translated ten hours?) in the year of the world 2554 (Martinii. Sinic. Histor. 1:25). Therefore, 3960 BC - 2554 = 1406 BC.
5. The Ojibways tell of a long night without any light (Olcott, W.T., 1914, Sun Lore of All Ages: A Collection of Myths and Legends Concerning the Sun and its Worship, p.212).
6. The Wyandot Indians told missionary Paul Le Jeune of a long night (ibid. p.215).
7. The Bungee Indians from Lake Winnipeg area of Canada also tell of a long night (ibid. p.218). Obviously the "Joshua's Long Day" story didn't migrate all around the world or it would everywhere be called a "long day."
8. The Omahas say that once the sun was caught in a trap by a rabbit who checked his traps at the break of dawn, presumably before sunrise (ibid. p.217).
9. The Dogrib Indians of the northwest tell of a day when the sun was caught at noon and it instantly became dark (ibid. p.216).
10. "At long last, the sun burst forth ... But the sun, despite his brilliant light, did not move; he hung on the edge of the sky, apparently unwilling to begin his appointed task" (Caso A. 1937. The Religion of the Aztecs, pp. 15-16).
11. "They did not sleep; they remained standing and great was the anxiety of their hearts and their stomachs for the coming of the dawn and the day ... 'Oh,... if we only could see the rising of the sun! What shall we do now?' ... They talked, but they could not calm their hearts which were anxious for the coming of the dawn" (Goetz and Morley, 1972. Popul Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Quiche Maya, pp. 172-190).
12. In Peru, the sun was hidden for nearly 20 hours in the third year of the reign of Titu Yupanqui Pachacuti II because of sin in the land. (Z. Stichin, The Lost Realms [NY: Avon Books]) Titu ruled about 1400 BC.
13. On the island of Lacomba in the eastern Fiji Islands, J.G. Frazer tells of a tradition of a long sunset at one time (Frazer, Golden Bough 1:316). On a hillside on an eastern island of Fiji the natives tie the weeds together "to stop the sun going down" as it is said that it once did. This places the edge of the shadow at this point, giving a more accurate position for where the sun stood still. There is a small correlation with the West African story. The owl is said to have failed to wake up the sun. This suggests that dawn was about to break but stayed like that for a whole day longer. This would place it near the edge of the dark shadow which is its position in the chart.
Secular History Confirms That Canaan Fled From "Joshua the Robber" to Libya in 1406 BC
Canaan "did not go into the land of his inheritance to the west of the sea, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon on the coast of the sea. And Ham, his father ... said to him: 'Thou hast settled in a land which is not thine and did not fall to us by lot, thou shouldst not do thus ... thou wilt be rooted out to eternity. Do not dwell in the dwelling place of Shem" (Jubilees 10:22-23).
From Procopius of Caesarea, "History of the Wars" Book IV, "The Vandalic War," Capt.X, 12ff (Loeb Class, London, 1916) we read, "it is necessary to tell from the beginning whence the nations of the MOORS came to Libya, and how they settled there. When the Hebrews had withdrawn from Egypt, and had come near the boundaries of Palestine, Moses, a wise man, who was their leader on the journey, died, and the leadership was passed on to Joshua, the son of Nun, who led this people into Palestine, and, by displaying a valour in war greater than that natural to a man, gained possession of the land. And after overthrowing all the nations he easily won the cities, and he seemed to be altogether invincible. Now at that time the whole country along the sea from Sidon as far as the boundaries of Egypt was called PHOENICIA. And one king in ancient times held sway over it, as is agreed by all who have written the earliest accounts of the PHOENICIANS. In the country there dwelt very populous tribes, the GERGESITES and the JEBUSITES and some others with other names by which they are called in the history of the Hebrews. Now when these nations saw that the invading general was an irresistible prodigy, they emigrated from their ancestral homes and made their way to Egypt, which adjoined their country. And finding there no place sufficient for them to dwell in, since there has been a great population in Egypt from ancient times, they proceeded to Libya. And they established numerous cities and took possession of the whole of Libya as far as the Pillars of Heracles, and there they have lived even up to my time, using the PHOENICIAN tongue. They also built a fortress in Numidia, where now is the city called Tigisis. In that place are two columns made of white stone near by the great spring, having PHOENICIAN letters cut in them which say in the PHOENICIAN tongue: 'We are they who fled from before the face of Joshua, the robber, the son of Nun.' There were also other nations settled in Libya before the MOORS, who on account of having been established there from of old were said to be children of the soil. And because of this they said that Antaeus, their king, who wrestled with Heracles in Clipea (i.e. Clypea, or Aspis, now Kalibia, on the Carthaginian coast) was a son of the earth. And in later times those who removed from PHOENICIA with Dido came to the inhabitants of Libya as to kinsmen. And they willingly allowed them to found and hold Carthage. But as time went on, Carthage became a powerful and populous city. And a battle took place between them and their neighbors, who, as has been said, had come from Palestine before them and are called MOORS at the present time, and the Carthaginians defeated them and compelled them to live a very great distance away from Carthage. Later on the Romans gained the supremacy over all of them in war, and settled the MOORS at the extremity of the inhabited land of Libya, and made the Carthaginians and the other Libyans subject and tributary to themselves. And after this the MOORS won many victories over the Vandals and gained possession of the land now called Mauretania, extending from Gadira as far as the boundaries of the Caesarea (i.e. from Tangier, opposite Cadiz, to Algiers....) as well as the most of Libya which remained. Such, then, is the story of the settlement of the MOORS in Libya."
The famous Augustine of Hippo, in North Africa, called himself a Canaanite and stated that the inhabitants of Carthage called themselves Canaanites even in the fifth century A.D. (The Phoenicians and the West by Aubet, p.10).
Since the Phoenicians were acquainted with the Britannic Isles, and probably gave them the name of Baratanac, signifying "Tinland", they may have retired in great numbers to Britain ; for Sammes teaches us that many British words are allied to the Phoenician tongue: as Dun, a hill; whence downs: Ceren, Cornu. Pen, Pinna, a summit. Careg, Carac, a rock: Caer, Car, a fort ; Cum, Cum, low ; Get, Gwith, a separation; Gwith, Get, a breach; Katurfa, Katerva. Meath, Mawath, a plain or mead. Ara, Ahar, flow : Garaw, Garaf, swift : Bro, Bare, Regio ; hence Allo-broges, Aha Regio. Taran, Tarem, thunder : Hesus, Haziz, fortis. Golva akin to the British Galvus is from Cheleb, fat. Rheda a chariot is Phoenician. Essedum a British waggon is from Hassedan. Breeches is from Brachyn Knees. Bard from Parat (hence Parrot) to chaunt : their Nablia or Dodecachords, from Nabal ; the Cinyra was a Decachord. Dwr, Udwr, water. Rhyd, Vadum, is the Phenician Rid. Magon, Manfio. From Keven, a ridge, Les Cevennes. Laith is the Phoenician Laiith, humidity; Dale, Daula. Gamulus, Camol, a prince. Sorb in Phenician is Aridity ; hence absorb. Uchel, high, Uhel. Aber is a conflux of waters in Welsh and Phoenician. Cetra, a British shield is Cetera, the Moorish Citura. Rich, strong, Ric. Apollo's Augurs Paterae from Patar to interpret. The Samolus cut with the left hand is from Samol, Sinistra. The Parti-coloured Bardiacus is the Phoenician Bardes, the Arab Borda. The Javelin Matara signifies to dart: from the Median Dart Palta comes Pelt. Spade is Spatha; Carnon a trumpet Carno in Syriac.
The story of Samson placing firebrands between the tails of foxes, and turning them into the grain fields of the Philistines (Judges 15) has been confirmed by an archaeological discovery made in London about four centuries ago. In Leland's Collectanea, p.70, is a copper plate representing a Roman brick, found 28 feet below the pavement of the metropolis in 1575 AD. On this brick was inscribed, in basso-relievo, the figure of a man driving into a field of grain two foxes with firebrands fastened to their tails. This Roman custom was evidently borrowed from the Phoenicians, who probably perpetuated the memory of Samson's strategem with the Philistines by one of a similar kind. Ovid mentions the same thing as an annual custom amongst the Romans at the feast of the Vulpinalia in the spring, when they were accustomed to let go foxes in the circus with firebrands tied to their tails, of which he asks the origin (Fasti, 4:681).
Joshua pronounced the man accursed who should ever attempt to rebuild Jericho, and prophesied that such a builder would lay the foundation when his firstborn died and set up the gates with the death of his youngest son (Josh. 6:26). This prophecy was fulfilled about 500 years later in the days of Ahab when Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho, and his eldest son Abiram died when he laid the foundations, and his youngest son Serug died when he set up the gates of the city (1 Ki. 16:34).
Greek Civilization Parallelled Hebrew Civilization
Gillies' Greece and Manual of Ancient History both mention colonies being established in Greece from Egypt, one headed by Danaus and the other by Cecrops. They landed in Greece between 1500 and 1466 BC. The Danai of the Tribe of Dan came from Tanis (in the land of Goshen) and settled in Argos District and Cecrops came from Sais and settled around Athens. According to Euripides, the people of the Peloponesian peninsula were quite willing to accept the name of Danai from Danus who landed near Argos and demanded sovereignty from King Gelanor who then reigned. Because these emigrants came from the land of Egypt and probably wore Egyptian dress, they were spoken of as Egyptian colonists by Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus, Aristotle, and others. But Grote, in his History of Greece, utterly denies that these colonists that settled in Argos and Athens were of the Egyptian race, for he compares the nature and character of the Greeks and Egyptian people, and finds that they were different. These Israelites brought about the Mycenaean Age of art and civilization into Greece. Furthermore, Josephus12:5 and 1 Macc. 12 claim that the Lacedemonians (Spartans) were descendands of Abraham and that the High Priest of Jerusalem acknowledged their claims to kinship.
Greek civilization parallelled Hebrew civilization in many ways. (1.) The ALPHABETS are similar in letter names and appearance: Aleph - Alpha, Beth - Beta, Gimel - Gamma, Daleth - Delta. etcetera (2.) HERCULES (Herod. 2:44) was SAMSON who slew a lion with his bare hands (Judges 13:6; 15:4). From the story of Samson originated the embellishments or fictions of Greek profane history, such as the story of the Sabine rape; the story of Scylla cutting her father's (King Nisus') hair while he slept, thus removing his invincibility so that he could be captured by King Minos of Crete, and the Golden Lock given to Pterelaus by Neptune; that of Hercules and Omphale; of the Pillars of Hercules; of the death of Cleomedes and Astypalaeus; and of Agamemnon and Iphigenia. These stories were given to Greece by the Danai emigrants, thus confirming that the Danai were Israelites of the tribe of Dan. (3.) The Greek SEVEN-HEADED HYDRA slain corresponds to the heads of LEVIATHAN crushed (Ps. 74:14; Rev. 12,17,18). (4.) Colchians practiced CIRCUMCISION (Diod. Sic. 1:55) just like Israelites (Gen. 17:10-14). (5.) Greeks "CUT a TRUCE" (Eurip. Hel. 1235; Her. 7:39) "DIVIDING the faithful COVENANTS" (Homer's Iliad 2:124; Odyss. 24:483; Livy 40:6) just as in Abraham's day, "a burning lamp passed between those pieces" (Gen. 15:17; 1 Ki. 2:23). (6.) "Abram gave him a TENTH of everything" (Gen. 14:20) just as "Each man received his share of the money that had been raised by the sale of the captives, the TENTH PART of which they consecrated to Apollo, and to Diana of Ephesus." (Xen. Anab. 5:3; Xen. Hist. Graec. 4:3). Jove is wroth with men who "rob the orphan of his dues" (Hesiod Oper. et dies 328). (7.) Hesiod says "the SEVENTH DAY a HOLY DAY" (Works & Days 770). Hesiod also said, "The SEVENTH DAY is SACRED" (Hes. apud Euseb. Praep. Evan. 13) just as the Bible does (Ex. 20:8). "it was SATURN'S DAY, and therefore I delayed" (Latins thought it improper for business because unpropitious). (Tibul. 1: Eleg. 3:18) "Diogenes, the grammarian, used to hold public disquisitions (discussions) at Rhodes every SABBATH DAY." (Suet. Tiber. 32) Yes Greeks "got ... benefit ... from the Hebrews" (p.420, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel). "For what is Plato, but Moses speaking in Attic Greek?" (p. 367, Eusebius, Prep. For Gospel) Homer says "Then came the SEVENTH DAY, which is SACRED or HOLY." (Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 5:600) (Eusebius Prep. Evang. 13:12) Callimachus gives it the same title. Theophilus of Antioch, speaking of it, says, "The day which all mankind celebrate." Porphyry says, "The Phoenicians consecrate one day in seven as HOLY." (Cox Bibl. Ant.) Linus says, "The SEVENTH DAY is given to schoolboys, as a HOLYDAY." Eusebius says, "Almost all philosophers and poets acknowledge the SEVENTH DAY as HOLY." Clemens Alexandrinus says, "The Greeks, as well as the Hebrews, observe the SEVENTH DAY as HOLY." Josephus says, "No city of Greeks or Barbarians can be found, which does not acknowledge a SEVENTH-DAY'S REST from labor." (Contra Apion 2) Philo says, "The seventh day is a festival to every nation." (Grotius, De Veritate 1:16) Tibullus says, "The seventh day, which is kept holy by the Jews, is also a festival of the Roman women," etcetera. Sunday was the first day of the week in the east from all antiquity (Jus Nat et Gent. 3:22).(8.) "The gods, pitying the naturally laborious race of man, have ordained for it as remissions from labor, the returns of FEAST DAYS in honour of the gods." (Plat. de leg. 2:1) "Let servants enjoy the SACRED FESTIVALS, their toils being remitted, for therefore they were appointed at certain seasons." (Cic. de leg. 2:8) paralleling the biblical FEAST DAYS (Lev. 23). (9.) A great HOST is compared with the SAND of the sea (Iliad 2:800; 9:385; Gen. 32:12; Judges 7:12). (10.) Furthermore, Judges 1:6-7 tells of MUTILATING or cutting off the thumbs and big toes of captured heroes so as to render them unfit for warfare. Plutarch, Life of Lysander: 9 tells us that the Athenians cut off the right thumb of prisoners so that they could no longer wield the spear but only ply the oar. (11.) King Agamemnon disliked Calchas "a PROPHET of EVIL" (Iliad 1:106) just as King Ahab said, "I hate him (Micaiah) because he PROPHESIES NOT GOOD but evil concerning me" (1 Ki. 22:8). (12.) Odysseus CONSULTED his departed SPIRIT in Hades (Odyssey 10:490-5; 11:89-137) just as Saul had the ghost of Samuel called up from Sheol (1 Sam. 28:3-20). (13.) Paris suggested that Hector set himself "in the midst" to engage in SINGLE COMBAT with Menelaus (Iliad 3:69) to settle the war paralleling Goliath who was the "man in the midst" in 1 Samuel 17:4,23 as the two armies watched. (14.) God told Gideon by vision to penetrate and SPY the enemy camp with his attendant at night (Judges 7:9) much like Agamemnon who rises at night (Iliad 10:1) and takes two able men penetrates the enemies' defenses in the dark for information prior to the assault on the morrow (Iliad 10:254). (15.) Conquerors ripped open pregnant women KILLING their UNBORN FETUSES (2 Ki. 8:12; 15:16; Amos 1:13; Hos. 13:16) just as Agamemnon advised Menelaus to not spare any male Trojan fetus in the womb (Iliad 6:55-62). (16.) Death by STONING was common to both cultures (Ex. 17:4; 19:13; 21:28). This is what "donning a coat of stones" refers to in Iliad 3:57 (cf. Aeschylus, Agamemnon: 872). (17.) Those grief-stricken Israelites WALLOW in the DUST (Jer. 6:26; 25:34; Ez. 27:30; Micah 1:10) just as Priam "grovels in the filth" for the slain Hector (Iliad 22:414). (18.) Just as King Jehu said, "Tend to this cursed one (Jezebel) and BURY her, for she is the daughter of a king" (2 Ki. 9:34), so also burial after one day of weeping is advocated by Homer (Iliad 19:228:-9; see also Antigone: 205-6, 697-8, 1017, 1081-2; Odyssey 11:72-78). (19.) Just as Melchizedek was both KING and PRIEST (Gen. 14:18), so also "In old times, kings themselves performed the most and the greatest of the sacred rites." (Plutarch Quaest. Rom. 63). (20.) "Come not near your wives" (Ex. 19:15) parallels PURITY through WASHING and avoiding sex using "separate couches" (Ovid Fasti 2:328). Also "first dip yourself in a running stream" (Livy 1:45) and "in running water PURIFY your hands" (Tibul. 2:1) parallel "the doctrine of baptisms" (Heb. 6:2). (21.) Both the horse and mule were UNCLEAN in both societies (Tacitus History 4:60; Lev. 11 & Deut. 14). In Pontus they abstained "from SWINE'S FLESH" in the city of Comana (Strabo 12:8). "Numa ordered that FISH WITHOUT SCALES should not be served up at the festivals of the gods." (Pliny Hist. 32:10). Aeschylus asked, "How can BIRD THAT PREYS on bird be pure?" (Suppl. 226). Herodotus mentions that the Nasamones EAT LOCUSTS (4:172). (22.). FIRSTFRUITS of the harvest given to God (Ex. 23:19) parallels "Every year to thee (Delos) are sent tithes and FIRSTFRUITS." (Callim. H. in Delon. 278) (23.) The streams of IARDANUS in Crete (Odyssey 3:291-2) and the streams of IARDANUS in Elis (Iliad 7:135) correspond to the river "Jordan" in Palestine (Heb. yarden; Sept. Iordanes) which merely means "the river." (24.) DESCENT from a TREE or ROCK is found in Odyssey 19:163 as well as Jeremiah 2:27 where people "say to the tree, 'You are my father' and to the stone, 'You have borne me.'" (25.) A prostitute was known as a "STRANGE" woman in Israel (Judges 11:2) and also at Athens where Pamphilus was married to a STRANGER woman (Ter. Andr. 1:1). (26.) Jephthah accidentally VOWED to sacrifice his daughter (Judges 11:36) just as "Agamemnon, when he had VOWED to Diana the loveliest thing that should be born that year in his kingdom, sacrificed Iphigenia." (Cicero de off. 3:25). Iphigenia even sounds like Jephthagenia. (27.) The Lacedemonians GET UP from their seats when older men come in (Her. 2:81) which reminds us of the scripture, "STAND UP in the presence of the aged; respect the elderly" (Lev. 19:32). (28.) Lacedemonians, like the Egyptians, wear "a linen tunic with a FRINGE hanging round the legs (called in their language calasiris)" (Her. 2:81)
Why this common background? Because they were the SAME PEOPLE.
After Troy Was Destroyed (1184 BC), the Trojans Sailed to England and Built a New Troy (London) in 1100 BC
After the Trojan War, Phrygia was utterly devastated by Cimmerians. The Phrygians migrated into Europe. The Greek name Phryges was gradually changed to Phraggoi. When the Romans encountered them, they applied the Roman word for Freemen -- Franci -- Franks in English. Procopius, in his Roman history, called the Franks Phraggoi (III, 3, 1). They finally settled in France. Is it only a coincidence that the capital of their new land is called Paris -- the name of the famous Trojan or Phrygian hero Paris, son of Priam? Just as we find the city of TROY in PHRYGIA next to GALATIA, so also we find TROYES in France. Just as PARIS was a Trojan war hero, so also we find PARIS, France. The Greeks called the Franks FRAGGOI. "GOI" means "People" in Hebrew and "FROEG" means "Hebraic" in Saxon (p.24, Senior's British Israelites). Hence the slang term "FROG" for a Frenchman. The Greeks would pronounce FRAGGOI as "FRANCI" today since they put an "n" before a double "g."
Archbishop Ussher supposes the Parian Chronicon to have been composed 263 BC; and the Arundelian marble tells us that Danaus's coming into Greece was 1247 years earlier -- in 1510 BC. (p.163, Shuckford's Sacred and Profane History) In 1510 BC Danaus seized upon the kingdom of ARGOS. Petavius in his "History of the World" says, "Danaus was the son of Bela, a sojourner in Egypt. Bilhah was a wife of Israel, and the mother of Dan, who was directed to say to Pharaoh, "for to sojourn in the land (of Egypt) are we come.'" Hecatoeus of Abdera says, "The most distinguished of the expelled foreigners followed Danaus and Cadmus into Greece from Egypt; but the greater number were led by Moses into Judaea." All writers agree in making Danaus the tenth king of Argos (Tatian. Orat. ad Graec. 59, p.131; Eusebius in Chron., p.24; Pausanias in Corinthiacis, p.112). W.E. Gladstone says, "The Danai of Greece, and the Dardanai of Troy were originally one family." According to Homer's Odyssey, the Danites were in Britain in 1200 BC. Perseus who was descended from Danaus, formed the kingdom of MYCENE.Israelite Phoenicians? |
The Phoenicians also taught the Greeks and Romans letters and writing. Gesenius has shown, from numerous coins and inscriptions, the intimate connection between the Phoenician and other languages of the Semitic nations. The letters of the Phoenician alphabet closely resemble those of the Samaritan. Also Jerome represents the Phoenician language as allied to the Hebrew, and he says the same of the Punic, which, however, he observes was more remote from the mother tongue. Greeks learned writing from Phoenicians who learned from Israelites who learned from God. Exodus 31:18 says, "He gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." Then Exodus 32:16 says, "the writing was the writing of God." Then Moses broke the tables and "The Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first; and I will write upon these tables the words which were in the first tables which thou breakest." After giving Moses more instructions, the Lord said to him "Write thou these words" (Ex. 34:27).
Therefore, the Phoenicians were Israelites of the tribes of Asher and Dan who owed their success in trade skills and writing to Aholiab and Moses who were taught by God. Jacob thereby "supplants" Canaan with superior technology just as his name "Jacob" means "supplanter." Canaan was the first in a long line of evil nations that God wanted to be "supplanted" by Israel.
Israel and Phoenicia spoke different dialects of the same Hebrew language and so could understand eachother. Inscriptions of Phoenicia and Carthage from about the 9th century B.C. onwards were written in a Semitic dialect and inscribed in the reversed or retrograde direction, from right to left, with reversed letters, as adopted by Semitic tribes. The Phoenician alphabet was also "Semitic." Herodotus specially records that while the residents in Phoenicia, who were mainly Semites, practiced circumcision, the Phoenician mariners, who were mainly the Hamitic true Phoenicians, were uncircumcised (Her.2:104). Therefore, we see that the alphabet and writings were probably Israelite inventions which the Phoenicians borrowed. This is why historians think the Phoenicians were Shemite rather than Hamite. The monuments and coins of the Mediterranean Phoenicians show them to be of fine Caucasian Aryan physical type so these are portrayals of purebred Israelites. Hiram and David had conversations (2 Sam. 5:11). Solomon hired many workers from Phoenicia (1 Ki.5:6). Elijah and the Sidonian widow conversed (1 Ki.17:9-16) and the two navies had a joint expedition (1 Ki.9:26-28). Some scholars have speculated that the friendship and alliance between Hiram and David and later with Solomon (2 Sam.5:11; 1 Ki.5) implies that many Phoenician colonies were actually Israelite colonies such as "Gades" Spain where the tribe of GAD had a colony and MARSEILLE and BRITAIN, named after Brutus-the-Trojan who was from Zarah Judah (see p.155 of Waddell's Phoenician Origin of Britons). Even up to the first century, Phoenicia was at peace with and dependent upon Palestine for food (Acts 12:20). Perhaps many Israelites escaped Assyrian captivity in 721 B.C. by sailing to GADES, MARSEILLE and BRITAIN since Sargon II only led away captive a mere 27,290 Israelites from Samaria (p.263. Bible As History).
Thus Israelites became known as Phoenicians and gave them their Shemitic language and alphabet. Many Phoenician coins have the consonants "B-R-T" on them, meaning "Covenant" (People) in Hebrew. From BEIRUT Lebanon (Ptolemy 5:14) they sailed to Cappadocia where we find the town of "Barattha" (Ptolemy 5:6). Their next stop was probably "Bruttium, the southernmost point of Italy" (Pliny 3:38). From this Phoenician colony these Israelite Phoenicians finally settled in BRITAIN which later expanded into the BRITISH Empire and the UNITED STATES.
"The unhappy queen with talk prolonged the night, And drank large draughts of love with vast delight; Of Priam much inquired, of Hector more; Then asked what arms swarthy Memnon wore, What troops he landed on the Trojan shore." (-- Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil 1:749) The iron age followed the destruction of Troy: "Hard steel succeeded then: And stubborn as the metal were the men. Truth, modesty, and shame, the world forsook: Fraud, avarice, and force, their places took." -- Ovid Meta. 1:125 "Now sunk the sun from his aerial height, And over the shaded billows rushed the night: When lo! we reached old Ocean's utmost bounds, Where rocks control his waves with ever-during mounds. There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells, The obscure nation of Cimmeria dwells." -- Odyssey of Homer "Poets are liars, and for verses' sake Will make the gods of human crimes partake" -- Virgil |
"Our fathers, viler than our grandfathers, begot us who are even viler, and we shall bring forth a progeny more degenerate still" -- Horace's Odes (3.6) Brutus, the son of Aeneas, sailed from Troy with a fleet of 332 ships, and arrived at Malta. He enquired of the oracle of Diana the fate of his nation and family. The question and answer, which was written in archaic Greek in the temple of Diana in Caer Troia (London) has been versified by Pope as follows: "Goddess of woods! Look upon us on earth! unfold our fate, And say what region is our destined seat, When shall we next thy lasting temples raise, And choirs of virgins celebrate thy praise?" The oracle's reply was: "Brutus! there lies beyond the Gallic bounds An Island, which the western sea surrounds, By ancient giants held, now few remain To bar thy entrance or obstruct thy reign, To reach that happy shore thy sails employ, There fate decrees to build a second Troy, And found an empire in thy royal line Which time shall ne'er destroy nor bounds confine." Brutus landed in Britain in 1100 BC and built Caer Troia which later was corrupted to Trinovantum, then Caer Lud (Geoffrey's British History). |
There was a remarkable festival among the Babylonians and Persians where they took one of their prisoners condemned to death, seated him on the king's throne, clothed him in royal raiment, and surrounding him for several days with all the attendants and luxury of a sovereign, and suffered no one during that time to hinder him from doing whatever he wished; but after all this, they stripped him, scourged him, and then fastened him to a cross. This ceremony was called the Festival of the Sacae (Dio Chrysostom Orat. iv. de Regno. Athenaeusx iv. 10, and the notes of Casaubon; Bryant's Analys. Anc. Mythol. vol. 6:333). The Athenians "kept some very mean and useless persons, and in the time of any general calamity, sacrificed them, in order to purify themselves from pollution." (Plut. 453) The same custom prevailed among the Romans; and even at Marseilles; where, as often as they were afflicted with the pestilence, they took a poor person, who offered himself willingly, and kept him a whole year on the choicest food at public expense. This man was afterwards dressed up with vervain, and in the sacred vestments; when being thus led through the city, where he was loaded with execrations, that all the misfortunes of the state might rest on him, he was thrown headlong into the sea to remove guilt. (Anc. Univ. Hist. 6:103). |
Carthage Built in 883 BC, So Hiram Began to Reign in 1039 BC |
Carthage was taken and destroyed by Scipio at the close of the third Punic war in 146 BC. Solinus and Cato both affirm that it had been built 737 years before -- in 883 BC. Menander, the Syrian historian, allows 156 years from the beginning of the reign of Hiram to the foundation of Carthage. Therefore, 883 + 156 = 1039 BC for the commencement of Hiram's reign. Hiram was contemporary with both David and Solomon (1 Ki. 5) and assisted Solomon in building the Temple. King David reigned 1010-970 BC because there were 480 years between the Exodus in 1446 BC and the Temple foundation built in 966 BC in Solomon's 4th year of reign (1 Ki. 6:1). Why did King David "prosper in all that" he did (1 Ki. 2:1-4)? Because he walked "in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments" (1 Ki. 3:14).
Spanning the Gap of History Until We Arrive At Ptolemy's Canon in 747 BC
What caused this large gap in ancient history? Certainly one cause was the burning of the Library of Alexandria during the civil wars of Julius Caesar in 48 BC. It was burned again by Saracens in the seventh century. The books were used for common fuel in fires. Therefore we will span the gap:
1. Varro reckons the interval between the Flood (2304 BC) and the first Olympiad (776 BC) to be about 1600 years (p.84, Sanchoniathon). Varro also says that Egyptian Thebes, whose founder and builder was Menes (Misor -- Sanchoniatho) their first king was built 2100 years before his time (De Rustica book 3). Varro began de Rustica at the age of 80 in 36 BC, and therefore was born in 116 BC. That is 116 +2100 = 2216 BC for the building of Thebes.
2.
Josephus also says that "more than one thousand three hundred years" elapsed from when Menes (Misraim) founded Memphis (Menephis) until Solomon (Ant. 8:6:2). If Solomon was born in 990 BC, then more than 1300 years before that, brings us to at least 2290 BC for Mizraim founding Memphis (probably closer to 2240 BC) and Misraim reigned 62 years making Nimrod's accession at least 2228 BC.
3.
More precisely, several independent methods of reckoning place the beginning of Nimrod's reign at 2234-2233 B.C. (Garnier's Worship of the Dead, pp. 280-285; see also Pliny NH 7:56 and Rawlinson's Herodotus vol. 1, essay 6, pp.434-435; Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," p. 149).
4.
Simplicius says that Callisthenes, a relation and disciple of Aristotle, who accompanied Alexander the Great on his eastern expedition, was told by the priests of the temple of Belus in Babylon, that they had preserved a series of Chaldean astronomical calculations, which extended over a space of 1903 years before that time. Alexander conquered Babylon in 330 BC. These records therefore must have begun 2233 BC.
5.
Diodorus says that from Ninyas (son of Nimrod and Semiramus) to Sardanapalus, the Assyrian Empire continued 1360 years (Diodorus Siculus 2:77). Since Sardanapalus died in 745 BC, that would place Ninyas reign at 2105 BC. (There were in fact two Assyrian Empires: Ninyas to Sardanapalus was the first. It was divided between Arbaces of Media and Belesis of Babylon; and from then till the destruction of Nineveh in 612 BC by Nabopolassar was the second.) Diodorus Siculus and Cephalion and Ctesias affirm that the Assyrian Empire commenced 1000 years before the fall of Troy (1184 BC). That would be 2184 BC. Auctor Barbarus makes the foundation of the Assyrian Empire in the twenty-third century BC. Diodorus Siculus says that Sardanapalus was the thirtieth king from Ninus, founder of the Assyrian monarchy; and that Teutamus, the king at the time of the Trojan war, was the 20th from Ninyas, son of Semiramis (p.248, Primitive History by Williams).
6.
Diodorus Siculus 1:29 says that after the time of Menes (Misraim) 52 (Egyptian) kings reigned a space of over 1400 years (actually 1370 years from Menes to Sesostris according to Sir John Marsham's tables of the Theban Kings) where nothing historically noteworthy occurred. That time period ended with Sesostris or Shishak raiding Jerusalem (2 Chr. 12:9) in the fifth year of Rehoboam (926 BC) since Diodorus says Sesostris performed the most illustrious actions, far exceeding all before him (1:34). For Herodotus says "the other kings, they gave no account of their deeds, nor ... were in any degree of renown, except one, the last of them, Moeris" (2:100-104) -- who constructed a lake. Moeris was the immediate predecessor of Sesostris. Then Herodotus talks in detail about the conquests of Sesostris. Josephus agrees that Sesostris was Shishak (Antiq. 8:4 p.368).
7. Constantinus Manasses wrote that the Egyptian state lasted 1,663 years until Cambyses’ conquest (Apolon. Rhod 4:268; Ussher 2003, 22, §50). Cambyses’ conquest of Egypt is well established to have occurred in the year 526/525 BC; therefore, this duration sets the foundation of the Egyptian state at 2189 BC/2188 BC. Manasses lived in Alexandria, Egypt, and compiled his chronicle in the twelfth century AD. His source confirms other sources precisely, which suggests that accurate data was available to him, possibly from knowledge preserved in the Library of Alexandria.
8. Emilius Sura (in Paterculus) counted 1995 years from the fall of Antiochus the Great (190 BC) up to Ninus, the founder of Nineveh as Dicearchus calls him; who was not the Titan Ninus, but Nimrod (2185 BC).
Remarkably, Alexander Polyhistor from Berosus affirms that the first dynasty of kings at Babylon began 163 years after the Deluge (2304 BC - 163 =2141 BC)
9. Menes may have begun his reign in Thebais Egypt. Therefore, Eratosthenes counts about 1008 years from the first king of Thebais to Phuron, when Troy was taken (1184 BC). That is 2192 BC. Diodorus Siculus counts 23000 lunar months from Osiris (Misor) to Alexander's conquest of Egypt 332 BC (1860 years). This sets the commencement of the Egyptian empire 112 years after the flood (2304 BC) in 2192 BC. Eudoxus in Plato says, the Egyptians counted a month for a year: this Pliny confirms ; and tells us the British Druids counted time by the moon: which argues their Eastern derivation to have been of a very early date. At this day to express a year we say a twelvemonth. Alex, ab Alexandro says, the lunar years were 30 days. The Chaldeans at first had years of days; and called years and days, Jomin ; the Hebrews, Jamin: in Scripture, prophetic days were years.
10. "The SCYTHIANS state their origin to be one of the youngest of the nations, and that their national existence had only lasted one thousand years up to the time when Darius (the Persian) invaded their territory" (Herod. 4:5). This would be from 1446 B.C. when Israel became a nation at Sinai to 508 B.C., When Darius Hystaspes invaded, a total of 938 years. Herodotus tells us that the Israelites in Media -- the SCYTHIANS in "Upper Asia" (4:1) -- lived "beyond the Araxes" (1:201,209,216; 4:11) and came from "across the Araxes into Cimmeria" (Her.4:11), Cimmeria being the Crimea area.
11. Herodotus states that "the Assyrians held the sovereignty of all upper Asia not more than 520 years before the defection of the Medes" (1:95). But the Medes revolted in 710 BC. Counting backwards from 710 BC, 520 years, we get the commencement of the Assyrian dominion, 1230 BC. In confirmation of this, Appian says that the Assyrians, Medes and Persians successively ruled Asia 900 years (Proem. 9). But the Persian empire ended with the death of the last Darius, 330 BC, from which, counting backward 900 years, we get the commencement of the Assyrian dominion, 1230 BC, as before. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says "The Assyrians empire, though ancient indeed, and carried up to the fabulous times, yet held the dominion of Asia but a short while" (Antiq. Rom. Lib. 1:2) -- evidently referring to the shorter 520-year period rather than the 1360 years from Ctesias.
12. Philo-biblius, according to Stephen, said, "Babylon was founded 1002 years before Semiramis" and the Trojan war (1184 BC), which is 2186 BC.
13. Berosus and Critodemus are said by Pliny to have made the inscribed stellar observations reach to 480 years before the era of Phoroneus (middle eighteenth century BC) = 2330 BC.
14. Eratosthenes gives 986 years from Menes to Pharaoh Nilus, whom Herodotus (2:3) calls the son and successor of Ramessu the Great. Dicaearchus, a Greek historian of the fourth century B.C., says, "From the time of Pharaoh Nilus (1212 BC) to the first Olympiad (776 BC) there were 436 years. Therefore, Menes became pharaoh of Egypt in 2198 BC -- five years after the Tower of Babel (2203 BC). The Turin Papyrus says there were 355 years from the time of Menes to the close of the sixth Dynasty (1843 BC).
The Septuagint translators added a round century to each person's age: which makes an excess in all above two, if not three, centuries. This opinion is confirmed by Abraham's ridiculing the idea of his being a parent at 99, or Sarah at 89 ; for why so, if their immediate ancestors were much older at paedogony? Augustin (Civit. Dei) suspects such an addition in the Greek chronology.
There could hardly be any transition from Biblical to secular history without Ptolemy's Canon (Almagest) which unintentionally confirms the metallic statue of Daniel 2. It begins with the reign of Nabonassar: 26 Feb. 747 BC. and is the starting point of the "SEVEN TIMES" of Daniel 4. It is the most ancient verifiable secular history we have available today.
The (Seven) "Times of the Gentiles" (2520 Years) (Lev. 26:28; Luke 21:24) Begins With Babylon -- Feb. 26, 747 BC
"Of all nations, the Assyrians first possessed the sovereignty; then the Medes, afterwards the Persians, next the Macedonians; afterwards ... not long after the conquest of Carthage, the supreme power descended to the Romans." (Patercul. 1:6). All ancient nations began to reckon their separate histories from the Tower of Babel when mankind was divided into linguistic groups around 2203 BC (Gen. 10:25;11:10-16,32). Ptolemy's Canon only goes back as far as the king of Babylon known as Nabonassar who ascended the throne Feb. 26, 747 B.C. (Ptolemy's Almagest). If we add 1222.5 solar years (1260 lunar years x 354.37/365.24 = 1222.48), we arrive at the fall of Romulus Augustulus, Aug. 22nd, 476 A.D. Adding 1260 lunar years more brings us to 1698 when the two treaties that limit the two "little horns" are bisected: the completion of the Protestant Revolution at the Peace of Ryswick Sept. 20, 1697 and the Peace of Carlowitz Jan. 26th, 1699 A.D. If we add 1260 solar years to 747 B.C., we arrive at the accession of Hormisdas in 514 A.D., the first dope to speak of papal supremacy. Adding 1260 solar years more brings us to 1774 -- the royal accession of Louis XVI who lost his life in the French Revolution. Also the defeat of the Turkish army by Russia resulting in the Peace of Kainarge occurred in 1774; and the Roman Catholic Jesuits were banished by Clement in 1774.
The 2520 years is the "(seven) Times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24) or "seven times" punishment (Lev. 26:28) or "Mene [1000 gerahs], Mene [1000 gerahs], Tekel [20 gerahs], U Pharsin [500 gerahs]" (Dan. 5:25; Ez. 45:12) divided in half by a "deadly wound" in 476 A.D. (Rev. 13:4-5) symbolized by an angel dividing a river at mid-point (Dan. 12:5-7). The four Gentile Empires of Daniel 2 have possessed the Holy Land for a combined total of "42 MONTHS" or 1260 days which symbolize 1260 years (Num. 14:34; Ez. 4:6). Babylon possessed Palestine for 90 years, from 624 to 534 B.C. Medo-Persia for 200 years, from 534 to 334 B.C. Greece for 304 years from 334 to 30 B.C. and Rome for 666 years from the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C. to the Saracen conquest in 636 A.D. Now 90 + 200 + 304 + 666 = 1260 years. Just as the Gentiles "tread under foot" the physical Jerusalem for 42 months (1260 days), so also they "shall" "tread under foot" the "New Jerusalem" or all TRUE CHRISTIANS for 1260 YEARS because "HEAVENLY JERUSALEM" is the "ASSEMBLY and CHURCH of the FIRSTBORN" wherever they may dwell (Heb. 12:22-23). From when Omar the Turk took Jerusalem in 637 A.D., add 1260 more years to get 1897 when the Zionist Movement was founded in Basel, Switzerland by Jews of all nations desiring to settle in the Holy Land. The fig tree represents the Jewish people (Matt. 24:32-33). When they became a nation, Christ's return is imminent. From 606 AD when Emperor Phocas decreed the Dope "Universal Bishop" till 1866 AD when the last two Protestants were burned at the stake by papal decree at Barletta, Italy is exactly 1260 years. From 610 AD when Emperor Phocas died till 1870 when the city of Rome was captured and the Dope lost his temporal power is exactly 1260 years. Constantine ascended the throne in 312 AD. Claiming to be Christian, but really Catholic, he persecuted "heretics." Exactly 1260 years later, Huguenots were massacred in 1572.
"The gods know all things and foreshow them to whom they please by auguries, by omens, and in dreams." (Xen. Hipparch. 9.). "For dreams descend from Jove" (Pope's Iliad 1:86).
"It is related by the Chaldeans, that Nebuchadnezzar, as he mounted to the roof of his palace, was possessed by some god, and cried out, saying, 'Oh! Babylonians, I foretell you of a calamity which must shortly come to pass, which neither Bel my ancestor, nor his queen Beltis can persuade the Fates to avert. A Persian mule (Cyrus) will come assisted by your gods, and will impose on you the yoke of slavery, the author of which shall be a Mede (Darius), the vainglory of Assyria. Before he should lay his yoke upon my countrymen, would that some flood might engulf him, and his memory be blotted out for ever! Or that he might be doomed to wander through some desert, where is neither city nor trace of men, a solitary exile among rocks and caverns, where beasts and birds alone dwell! Would that I, before these thoughts had entered my mind, had closed my life in peace!' Thus having prophesied, Nebuchadnezzar suddenly disappeared from sight." (Abydenus ap. Eusebius, Praep. Evangel. 9:41)
God's laws ("GOLD") were acknowledged at the height of the Babylonian Empire (Dan. 2:47; 3:29); but only at the beginning ("SILVER") of the Medo-Persian Empire (Dan. 6:26).
Secular History Confirms Assyrian King Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus of Greeks & Romans or Osnapper of Ezra 4:10) Defeated in 747 BC (Nahum 1-3; Zeph. 2:13-14)
Diodorus Siculus Says that Sardanapalus Was the Thirtieth King From Ninus, Founder of the Assyrian Monarchy
The Assyrian Empire was founded when Nimrod (Ninus) built Nineveh and continued till the reign of Sardanapalus, the 31st sovereign in 747 BC. a period of about 1300 years. Diodorus counts 30 kings from Ninus (2172-2120 BC). The duration according to this historian is now, in one place, 1400 years; in another, 1360: but Syncellus says, he reckoned somewhat above 1300, Justin says 1300. Agathias, at the end of the annals of Glycas, 1306. However, Diodorus and Cephalion count 1000 years from the commencement of the empire to the Trojan war.
Diodorus gives a particular account of the taking of Nineveh by Arbaces, assisted by the Bactrians, and of its subsequent destruction. Arbaces was incited to this by a famous Babylonian priest named Belesis (perhapsd the Beladan of 2 Kings 2:12), who pretended by interpreting the stars to promise a successful issue to the adventure. Arbaces was thrice defeated by the king Sardanapalus; but afterwards, intercepting an army of Bactrians who were on their way to reinforce the city, he persuaded the leaders to join him in his revolt, and by their help his next attempt was successful.
"It happened that the king of Assyria, not knowing anything of the revolt of the Bactrians, and elated by his former successes, was indulging in idleness and revelling; and had prepared wine and other things necessary for feasting his soldiers. While his whole army was now feasting and revelling, Arbaces, receiving intelligence from some deserters of the carelessness and intemperance of the enemy, fell upon them, easily broke into their camp, slew great numbers of them, and drove the remainder back into the city." (Diodorus Siculus 2:26) As Nahum 1:10 says, "For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry."
"The rebels twice defeated the king's forces, once in the open field, and the second time before the walls of the city; in which last engagement Salaimenes was killed, and almost all his army destroyed, some being cut off in the retreat, and the rest, with few exceptions, being driven headlong into the river Euphrates; the number of the slain was so great that the river was dyed over with blood, and retained that colour for a great distance afterwards." (Diodorus Siculus 2:26) As Nahum 2:3 says, "The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall bed with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and thy fir trees shall be terribly shaken."
"The king being afterwards besieged, many of the nations revolted to the confederates, so that Sardanapalus perceiving that the kingdom was in great peril, sent away his three sons and two daughters, with a great deal of treasure, into Paphlagonia, to Cotta the governor there, who was his friend: he also sent posts into all the provinces of the kingdom in order to raise soldiers, and made every other preparation to enable him to endure a siege. He was encouraged in this by an ancient prophecy that 'Nineveh could never be taken until the river should become the enemy of the city.' The king was also very careful to furnish the inhabitants with everything necessary, and neglected nothing that could be done for the defense of the city. The siege continued two years, during which time the enemy gained no advantage against it." (Diodorus Siculus 2:26) As Nahum 2:5 says, "He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared."
"In the third year of the siege the Euphrates, overflowing with continual rains, rose above its banks, and entering the city carried away a portion of the wall, making a breach twenty furlongs in length. The revolters entered through the breach and took the city." (Diodorus Siculus 2:27) As Nahum 2:6 says, "The gates of the river shall be opened".
"The king, that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies, caused a huge fire of wood to be made in the court of his palace, and having heaped upon it all his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and enclosed his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment within the pile, caused it to be set on fire, and burnt himself and them together." (Diodorus Siculus 2:27) As Nahum 2:6 says, "the palace shall be dissolved."
"Belesis pretended that he had made a vow to Belus that when Sardanapalus should be conquered and his palace consumed, he would carry the ashes to Babylon and there raise a mound near to his temple; but his true reason for desiring to do this was that he had heard of the gold and silver which lay hidden among the ruins. Arbaces being ignorant of the plot, granted him permission to carry away the ashes: upon which Belesis prepared shipping and took away great treasures of gold and silver to Babylon." (Diodorus Siculcu 2:28) As Nahum 2:9 says, "Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.
"Notwithstanding the immense strength of Nineveh, whose walls, according to Diodorus, were 100 feet high and broad enough for three chariots to go abreast upon them, with fifteen hundred towers at proper distances in the walls, each 200 feet in height, Nineveh was so totally destroyed that the very site of it is hardly to be recognized. Lucian, who was a native of Samosata, on the Euphrates, must have known whether there were any remains of Nineveh or not, and he wrote as folllows: 'Nineveh is so completely destroyed, that it is not even possible to say where it stood." (Lucian, Contempl. 23) As Nahum 3:17 says, "their place is not known where they (are)."
Zephaniah 2:13-14 says, "He will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations."
Ezekiel 31 says, "Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set him on high with her rivers running round about his plants ... Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height ... I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen ... I have driven him out for his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him ... Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches ... I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall."
Israel Taken Captive to Cities of the Medes (721-718 BC) And Then Migrated to Arsareth
Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, transplanted the captive Israelites into the cities of the Medes circa 721-718 BC (2 Ki. 17:6) where they revolted from Assyria circa 710 BC. The Medes consisted of the "Busians, Paratacenians, Struchates, Arizantines, Budians, and Mages" (Herodotus 1:101). Herodotus says the Medians were ARII (7:68). Reuben, Gad and half-Manasseh were placed by Tiglath-Pileser in the mountain district of Great Media, a region expressly called HARA (1 Chr. 5:26; Ar being a mountain). In fact all ten tribes of Israel were placed in the "cities of the Medes" (2 Ki. 17:6). Also the Arian language is Hebraic, and like Hebrew, has three sibillants (Moore, Lost Tribes, pp.288-290, 299). HARA was named ARIA, ARIANA and ARACHOSIA by the Greeks (see Ptolemy). It contains the city of HARAT. According to the black obelisk discovered in the ruins of the palace of Nimrod which is now in the British Museum, the people or leader of the ARIANS was called ESAKSKA (Isaac) and their principal cities were "Beth-Telabon, Beth-Everak and Beth-Tsida" in 670 B.C. These ARIANS must have migrated to Thrace because, according to Stephanus, Thrace was called ARIA. Diodorus Siculus says, "many conquered peoples were removed to other homes, and two of these became very great colonies: the one was composed of Assyrians and was removed to the land between Paphlagonia and Pontus, and the other was drawn from MEDIA and planted along theTanais (the River Don in ancient Scythia -- the modern Ukraine, north of the Black Sea, in southern Russia)." (2:43) Notice the areas from which these colonies came -- Assyria and MEDIA. The very areas to which the House of Israel was taken captive! "So was Israel carried away out of their own land TO ASSYRIA unto this day" (2 Kings 17:23). "The king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away INTO ASSYRIA and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the River of Gozan, and in the CITIES OF THE MEDES" (2 Ki. 17:6). Herodotus also mentions a people "north of Thrace" "who dress in the MEDIAN fashion" and "claim to be colonists from MEDIA" (5:9). From Thrace they migrated to Germany since Tacitus mentions the HARII there in SE Germany (Ger.43). The Thracian SCYTHIANS pricked and stained their bodies (Herod. 5); so did the ARII of Germany (Tacitus); the BELGAE of Britain (Caesar de Bell. Gall.), and the PIKS of Norway and Scotland (Herodian; Claudian). We believe that ARIANS or Nordic peoples are found primarily in NW Europe today. Their mission is to BLESS all nations of the earth (Gen. 22:18; Micah 5:7). Rawlinson (in "Herodotus", essay iii, p.325) says, "that the Medes were a branch of the great ARIAN family, closely allied both in language and religion to the Persians (Keturah's descendants?), another ARIAN tribe, seems now to be generally admitted....Darius Hystaspes, in the inscription upon his tomb, declares himself to be a Persian, the son of a Persian, an ARIAN of ARIAN descent." (p.77. Who Are We? By Harrison) The word aristocrateia meant primarily the rule of the Arii (nobility). The Gothic Her is a cognate. These Arians did not spring from Japheth.
Then was fulfilled the divine promise, "when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isa. 43:2). Going north, they passed through the Caucasus Mts. and province of Azerbijan -- named by the Persians "Land of Fire" in consequence of the oil springs which were frequently on fire.
"Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmaneser the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt. That they might there KEEP their STATUTES, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river. For the Most High then showed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over (Isa. 43:2). For through that country there was a great way to go, namely for a year and a half: and the same region is called Arsareth (The river Siret is still in Romania (23:826, A1) and the prefix "Ar" means "city" in Hebrew. SCYTHIA used to be situated where Romania is today.) Then dwelt they there until the latter time" (2 Esdras 13:40-46). This word Arsareth is almost identical with the words rendered "another land" in Deut. 29:28.
Both 2 Esdras 13:39-45 and Herodotus 4:11 place Israel NW of the Black Sea. From the capital of Media we travel 1500 miles in a straight line to the north of Moldavia. Here is still the river Sereth, with a town of the same name, almost at its source. Herodotus 4:11 says, "the nomadic tribes of SCYTHIANS, who lived in Asia, being hard pressed by the Massagetae, were forced across the Araxes (Called Aras today which separated Armenia from Media) into Cimmeria (Crimea area and NW in Russia) (what is now SCYTHIA is said to have been once inhabited by Cimmerians.)" Therefore, the SCYTHS must have originally dwelt south of the Araxes in Media -- exactly where the Israelites dwelt. The Massagetae in 450 B.C. when Herodotus wrote, were living on the northern bank of the Araxes because Cyrus in 530 B.C. had to cross the Araxes to invade their country and the Massagetae ate the fish from the Araxes (Her. 1:201-215)
Media was the "cradle of Arianism" (Israel) and passing through the Caucasus Gate this white race became known as Caucasian. The Roman Empire halted at the Black Forest. This forest , stretching 500 miles in breadth formed a natural barrier wall separating southern Europe (Japheth) from northern Europe (Shemite Israel). Hyperboreans were Hebrews. As Goths, Vandals, Sueves, Heruli, Lombards, Franks and Huns, they migrated south to Gaul, Spain and Italy, etcetera. As Angles, Saxons, Normans, Jutes and Danes they migrated westward. South of the Black Forest line in Italy, France and Spain, religion was tainted with relics of heathen worship (pope, virgin & saints are idolized). In the Teutonic north, Luther, Zwingli, Melancthon, Calvin, Knox, Huss and Wesley were all born and educated. France, Spain and Italy (Japheth) aligned with Rome. England, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Norway and Sweden (Shemite Israelite) became Protestant. the Reformation was fought along this line. Roman versus Teuton. Gentile versus Jew. Japheth versus Shem. In the south, Rome secured religious unity by crushing out individuality of character and reducing all to a monotonous level of servitude and dark superstition and gross ignorance. In the north, liberty was achieved by the printing press. As Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Jephthah and David had driven the Hittite, Amorite, Hivite, Jebusite out of Palestine, so also Charles Martel drove Moslems out and Drake and Napoleon drove the Roman Catholics out of Europe.
Links in the chain of evidence proving that the lost ten tribes migrated to Britain are as follows: First link, the black obelisk of Shalmaneser states, "The tribute of Yahua (Jehu), son of Khumri, I received." It is universally believed that the word Khumri denotes the northern kingdom of Israel because King Omri built the capital city of Samaria. Hebrew scholars say that Omri in Hebrew had the letter (pronounced Ayin) at the beginning, and this was originally pronounced Ghain. So Ghomri stands for Omri, but by Egyptians as well as Assyrians it was pronounced Khumri.
(The Welsh still call themselves Cymri -- Pronounced Kumri. Samaria = Cimmeria or Kimmeria. In ancient Greek this word would be written with a C. thus Simon was written Cimon. If the C is hardened it would be pronounced K. So the Crimea may have been called after Samaria from the Greek Kimmeria.) Second link, the Behistun Rock in Persia where Darius Hystaspes records the same account of the provinces of his empire and of his triumphs over various rebels, etc., in three different languages, Persian, Babylonian, and Elamite. In column V of the Persian, Darius gives an account of the revolts against him, and says of the second, "the other by Sakuka the Chief of the Sacae who dwelt upon the Tigris." In the corresponding Babylonian translation of the Persian column the word Sacae is translated as Ghimri. Therefore the Ghimri or Khimri and the Sacae are one and the same as the House of Israel. The third link is supplied by the historians Herodotus 7:64, Pomponius Mela 3.59 and Pliny 6:19, who all say that the Scythians were known to the Persians as Sacae, Sakai or Sagae. The fourth link is supplied by Herodotus who tells us that the Scythians called themselves Getae (1:201). The fifth link is supplied by Pliny 4:12, Pausanias, Dion Cassius, Appian, and Justin that prove that the Getae were were the same as the Goths and Daci. The sixth link is supplied by other historians like Jordanes, the very early Gothic historian, who shows how the word Getae comes from the word Guta: the region called by the Assyrians Gutiam in northern Assyria and Media where the House of Israel was exiled. The seventh link is supplied by Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy who say that the Sacasani were a branch of the Sacae. Sharon Turner says, "Of the various Scythian nations which have been recorded, the Sakai or Sacae are the people from whom the descent of the Saxons may be inferred with the least violation of probability.... the Sakaisuna, or the sons of Sakai, abbreviated into Sak-sun, is the same sound as Saxon."
Secular History Confirms the Destruction of 185,000 Assyrians in Sennacherib's Army in One Night By Plague-Carrying Rodents in c. 701 BC
(2 Ki. 19:35; Isa. 37:36; 2 Chr. 32:21)
The Biblical account of Hezekiah (701 BC) is confirmed by Herodotus 2:141 where Sennacherib's Assyrian army is defeated by field mice with Bubonic Plague. "When Sennacherib, king of Arabia and Assyria, attacked Egypt with a mighty army, the soldiers of Sethos (or Sethon) (having been ill-treated by him) refused to assist him. In this perplexity the priest retired to the shrine of his god, before which he lamented his danger and misfortunes. Here he sunk into a profound sleep, and his deity promised him in a dream, that if he marched to meet the Assyrians, he should experience no injury, for that he would furnish him with assistance: the vision inspired him with confidence: he put himself at the head of his adherents and marched to Pelusium, the entrance of Egypt. Not a soldier accompanied the party, which was composed entirely of tradesmen and artisans. On their arrival at Pelusium, so immense a number of mice infested by night the enemy's camp, that their quivers and bowstrings, together with what secured their arms to their shields (shield straps), were gnawed in pieces. In the morning, the Arabians finding themselves without arms, fled in confusion and lost great numbers of their men." Sethon pursued the disarmed Assyrians with great slaughter. Thus 185,000 Assyrians were killed either by Egyptian tradesmen, rodents who disarmed them or plague-carrying rodents. In memory of this miraculous event, a statue of stone was erected to this king, in the temple Vulcan, holding a rat in one hand, and delivering these words: "Whosoever beholdeth me, let him be pious" (Herod. 2:141).
"Lo, I will send a BLAST upon him, and he shall hear a RUMOR, and shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the SWORD in his own land" (2 Ki. 19:7). The RUMOR which Sennacherib, was that Tirhakah, king of Cush, or Arabian Ethiopia, was come out to fight against him, and to intercept him on his passage homewards (Isa. 37:9; 2 Chr. 32:20-22). The BLAST was probably the HOT, PESTILENTIAL SOUTH WIND blowing from the deserts of Libya, called the Samum, or Simoon. It is preceded by an extreme redness in the air and a purple haze. To survive it, each person must fall upon his face with his mouth close to the ground, and hold his breath as long as he can to avoid inhaling. It moves very rapidly and is about 20 yards in breadth, and about 12 feet high from the ground. When it passes, it is followed by a light hot suffocating air which can last as long as three hours. It leaves people exhausted, labouring under asthmatic sensations, weakness of stomach, and violent headaches. (See Hales' New Analysis, vol. 2, p.429) Fifty-five days after his return to Nineveh, Sennacherib was ASSASSINATED by his two eldest sons, (Adrammelech and Sharezer) as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroc, his god. This was the SWORD. They escaped into the land of Armenia, while his third son, Esarhaddon, reigned in his stead (2 Ki. 19:9-37; Tobit 1:18-21)
Hezekiah had entered into an alliance with Egypt against Assyria. Sennacherib therefore led a powerful army of at least 200,000 men into Judea, and devastated the land on every side, taking and destroying many cities (2 Ki. 18:13-16; Isa. 22:24,29; 2 Chr. 32:1-8). His own account of this invasion, as given in the Assyrian annals, is the following: "Because Hezekiah, king of Judah, would not submit to my yoke, I came up against him, and by force of arms and by the might of my power I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities; and of the smaller towns which were scattered about, I took and plundered a countless number. From these places I took and carried off 200,156 persons, old and young, male and female, together with horses and mules, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude; and Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape...Then upon Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem with 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver, and divers treasures, a rich and immense booty...All these things were brought to me at Nineveh, the seat of my government." (cp. Isaiah 22:1-13)
Secular History Confirms Egyptian "Kingdom Against (Egyptian) Kingdom" "And They Shall Seek ... Familiar Spirits" (Isa. 19:2-3) (664-610 BC)
"After the abdication of Sabacon (the Ethiopian king of Egypt -- the "So" of 2 Ki. 17:4) there was anarchy in Egypt for two years; but the people falling into broils and tumults and SLAUGHTER one of another, twelve of the chief nobility took upon them the regal power and authority. Psammeticus, one of the kings, whose province was upon the seas coast, being envied by the others on account of the wealth which he derived from commerce, made WAR upon him; but he, having hired soldiers from Arabia, gained a victory over them." (Diod. Sic. 1:5) "At the death of their sovereign (Sethon) the priest of Vulcan, the Egyptian priests, who could not live without kings, chose twelve, among whom they divided the different districts of Egypt. These twelve kings were offering sacrifice, on a certain occasion, in the temple of Vulcan, and on the last day of the festival were about to make the accustomed libation; for this purpose the chief priest handed to them the golden cups used on these solemnities; but he mistook the number, and instead of twelve gave only eleven. Psammiticus, who was the last of them, not having a cup, took off his helmet, which happened to be of BRASS, and from this poured his libation. The other kings, observing this action remembered the prediction of the ORACLE 'that he among them who should pour a libation from a BRAZEN vessel should be sole monarch of Egypt.' They therefore confined him to the marshy parts of the country, and forbade him to leave it or to communicate with the rest of Egypt.... Psammeticus when in exile among the fens, being resolved to AVENGE himself upon the eleven kings, his persecutors, sent to the ORACLE of Latona, at Butos, which has among the Egyptians the highest character for veracity (Isa. 19:3 says they seek them that have familiar spirits). He was informed that the sea should AVENGE his cause by producing BRAZEN figures of men; and soon afterwards a body of Ionians and Carians, who had been engaged in a voyage of plunder, were compelled by distress to touch at Egypt: they landed in BRAZEN armour. Psammeticus, having formed alliance with these, OVERTHREW the eleven kings (Isa. 19:2), and became sole sovereign of Egypt." (Herodotus 2:147-153; also Diod. Sic 1:5) This was Dynasty XXVI (c. 660-529 BC)
Judith Slew Assyrian General Holofernes Around 612 or 502 BC (Judith 9:12-19; 13:8)
Assuming the events of the Book of Judith, in the Apocrypha, are historical, they must have occurred within Nebuchadnezzar's lifetime (634-562 BC). He sent Holofernes and his Assyrian army (cp. Her. 1:178; 3:153,155: "Assyrians of Babylon" and Ezra 6:22 where king of Persia is called king of Assyria) to punish Judaea, but Holofernes was confronted by ISRAELITES, from the Ten Tribes, who were newly RETURNED from the Captivity. The place where Holofernes pitched, was between Geba and SCYTHOPOLIS -- the city recently built by the Scythians -- the RETURNED ISRAELITES. Judith risked her life and slew Holofernes. The Assyrians fled. Then good King Josiah (648-609 BC) kept a very memorable Passover "and all Judah AND ISRAEL that were present" (2 Ki. 23:22; 2 Chr. 35:18) about 612 BC. This then led to the destruction of Nineveh itself in 612 BC (Tobit 14:15). However Syncellus thinks Nebuchadnezzar is another name for Xerxes (486-465 BC) (p.345, Syncellus) since Joakim began his service as High Priest in 502 BC -- 20 years after the death of Cambyses (522 BC) (Judith 4:8). Hales' Chronology, page 62, puts Judith slaying Holofernes at 640 BC.
"Seven Shepherds and Eight Principal Men" (Micah 5:5)
"When the Assyrian shall come into our land (701 B.C.): and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men" (612 B.C.) And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof (612 B.C.) : thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders (701 B.C.) (Micah 5:5-6).
The seven shepherds (counsellors) are mentioned in Ezra 7:14 ("the king and ... his seven counsellors") and Esther 1:14 ("seven princes of Persia and Media"). Darius Hystaspes admitted the seven nobles, who had united with him against Smerdis (a Magian), into close friendship, and hence probably arose the custom of having seven princes as counsellors, which was common with his successors (Esther 1:14).
Also, the Babylonian Berosus, writing soon after Alexander the Great, states that at a very early time (734-510 BC?), the Medes conquered Babylonia, and that EIGHT MEDIAN KINGS reigned thereafter in Babylonia for a space of 224 years. This information is preserved by Eusebius, who took it from Alexander Polyhistor.
Pharaoh-Nechoh (611- 595 BC) Slew King Josiah in 609 BC
Pharaoh-Nechoh marched into Syria for the purpose of capturing Carchemish on the Euphrates, when Josiah, disregarding the friendly remonstrances of Nechoh, ventured to oppose him in the valley of Megiddo. "King Josiah went against Pharaoh-Nechoh, who slew him at Megiddo when he had seen him." (2 Ki. 23:29). This is probably the same event described by Herodotus, who says that Necho "routed the Syrians at Magdolus (Megiddo) and afterwards took the sacred Cadytis (Jerusalem) a large city of Syria." (2:159)
Cyaxares and the Medes invited the greater number of Scythian Manda to a banquet (c.606 BC), at which they made them drunk and murdered them, and in this way recovered their former power (Her. 1:73). Jeremiah 25:27 says, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you.”’ (See also Nahum 1:10)
Secular History Confirms Pharaoh Apries (Hophra -- Jer. 44:30) (589-570 BC) Was A Proud "Broken Reed" Who Sealed the Doom of Egypt
Pharaoh is compared to a crocodile (Ez. 29:3). Phiraon, in Arabic, means "a crocodile."
In 588 BC, Apries sent an army to protect Jerusalem from Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 37:5; 34:21). His forces quickly withdrew to avoid a major battle and in 586 BC Jerusalem was taken by Babylon. God said "because they (Egyptians) have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they (Israelites) took hold of thee ...thou didst break ... I will bring a sword upon thee" (Ez. 29:6-7).
"Apries is said to have believed that his power was so firmly established, that not even a god could have brought him down." (Herodotus 2:169) But God foretold that "I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand" (Ez. 30:22) and "there shall be no more a (native -- cf. Ez. 26:17) PRINCE of the land of Egypt" (Ez. 30:13), "neither shall it (Egypt) exalt itself anymore" (Ez. 29:15).
Then Pharaoh Apries sent his army against Cyrene (Libya) against Dorian Greek invaders. It ended disastrously for the Egyptians. The survivors returned and rebelled, thinking they had been deliberately sacrificed. Apries sent Amasis his general to quell the rebellion. But the people put a crown on the head of Amasis and offered him the throne instead of Pharaoh Apries. Therefore, he led them against Apries whose palace was at Sais. Nebuchadnezzar, taking advantage of the chaos, subdued it with little difficulty. As Jeremiah said, "He shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment, and he shall go forth unscathed". The treasures he obtained recompensed his soldiers for their hard service in taking Tyre. Nebuchadnezzar marched his army into Egypt and replaced Apries with Amasis as a vassal of the king of Babylon after Apries lost the battle (570 BC). Apries was taken prisoner for a time and then strangled (Herodotus 2:160-169) in 564 BC. This fulfilled the prophecy of doom: "I will give Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life." (Jer. 44:30; Ez. 32:32). The well-known 2520-year punishment may apply to Egypt here since we know Egypt was made a republic 18 June, 1953; and 2520 years before that date brings us to 568 BC when this downfall of Egypt occurred.
The restoration of Egypt under Amasis seems to have been foretold in Ezekiel 29:11: "At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the nations whither they were scattered." These forty years of captivity, counted from Nebuchadnezzar's invasion, 570 BC, expired 530 BC, when Cyrus, by a wise and liberal policy, released the Egyptians, as he had before released the Jews. This act of grace took place five years before the death of Amasis.
But Egypt became a province of the Persian Empire, to which its native kings had to pay tribute. And after the death of Nectanebus, 350 BC, the last of these, Egypt was always governed by foreigners (Ez. 30:13). Isaiah 19:4 says, "The Egyptians will I give over into the hands of a cruel Lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them." Two centuries later the cruel Cambyses conquered Egypt and fulfilled this verse (Herodotus 3:14, etc.). "Memphis should be waste and desolate without an inhabitant ... I will destroy the idols, and will cause the images to cease out of Memphis" (Jer. 46:19) was fulfilled by Cambyses in Herodotus 3:26-39; Cambyses placed in front of his ranks animals held sacred by the Egyptians who, through fear of injuring them, dared not strike a blow. Cambyses took Memphis by siege in 525 BC. Cambyses slew "the princes of Memphis," insulted the dead body of Pharaoh Amosis, killed the sacred bull Apis, and scourged the priests. He went to the temple of Ptah and made great sport of the image. He went to the temple of the Cabiri, and made great sport of the idols and even burned them (Her. 3:37). Memphis, the ancient capital, fell into utter desolation under the Saracens.
God foretold that Egypt "shall be the BASEST of the KINGDOMS" (Ez. 29:14-15) and "there shall BE NO MORE A (native -- cf. Ez. 26:17) PRINCE of the land of Egypt" (Ez. 30:13). This undoubtedly refers to the future government of Egypt by FOREIGNERS, or to the general destruction of the Egyptian princes by Nebuchadnezzar and Amasis. All men know, says Josephus against Apion, 50. 2. sec. 11, “That the Egyptians were subject to the Persians, differing nothing from SLAVES, and after them to the Macedonians, who ruled over Asia.” Egypt never recovered its former glory; and indeed, after Nectanebus was driven out of it by Ochus, king of Persia, it never after had a native king.
1. Egypt became tributary to the Babylonians under Amasis.
2. After the ruin of the Babylonish empire, it became subject to the Persians.
3. After the Persians, it came into the hands of the Macedonians. With the Ptolemies it rose again to something like eminence, but that, it must be remembered, was an alien dynasty. The nationality of Egypt was suppressed, and Alexandria, practically a Greek city, took the place of Memphis, Sais, and Thebes.
4. After the Macedonians it fell into the hands of the Romans.
5. After the division of the Roman empire it was subdued by the Saracens. Moslem Arabs conquered Egypt in 639-640 AD.
6. About 1250 A.D., it came into the hands of the Mameluke slaves.
7. Selim, the ninth emperor of the Turks, conquered the Mamelukes, 1517 A.D., and annexed Egypt to the Ottoman empire.
8. Napoleon's French conquest of Egypt from 1798-1801
9. British Protectorate (1882-1956)
10. Made a republic 18 June, 1953. Ex-king Farouk was the king until Egypt became a republic. But King Farouk was not descended from Egyptian Blood. He was an Albanian. He was descended from Mohammed Ali. The Egyptian rulers since 1953 have not been PRINCES and most were not Egyptian. They were Arab. For instance President Anwar Sadat descends from Moslem Arabs who dominate Egypt and Sudan -- not from Copts (ancient Egyptians) who are a small persecuted minority.
The captivity of the Egyptians (Ez. 29:14), though not taken notice of by Herodotus, is mentioned by Berosus, in one of the fragments of his history, quoted by Josephus, Antiq., 50. 10. chap. 11, and published with notes by Scaliger, at the end of his books, De Emendatione Temporum, whose remark upon the place is very observable, namely, “The calamities that befell the Egyptians are passed over by Herodotus, because the Egyptian priests would not inform him of any thing that tended to the disgrace of their nation.”
Today, is not Egypt the most heavily populated nation in the Middle East? Yet Ezekiel 29:15 says God would diminish the Egyptians and make Egypt a base kingdom. Has this prophecy been broken? The Bible means what it says. Today, Egypt is populated mainly by Arabs, not Egyptians. The Egyptians, upon whom God pronounced this curse, are called COPTS today. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Copts in Egypt -- not the Arabs -- are the racial representatives of the ancient Egyptians. In the article "COPTS" the Encyclopedia acknowledges: "the COPTS have undoubtedly preserved the race of the Egyptians as it existed at the time of the Arab conquest in remarkable purity." Further proof of this is found in the book The Nile by E. A. Wallis Budge. On page 331, he States: "The COPTS are direct descendants from the ancient Egyptians." He further admits, on page 333: "The COPTIC language is, at base, ancient Egyptian. Many of the nouns and verbs found in the Hieroglyphic texts remain unchanged in COPTIC ..." Notice how this ties in with the prophecy of Ezekiel 29:15. First of all, God said be would diminish the Egyptians -- not the Arabs who later invaded the country. When this prophecy was written by Ezekiel there were approximately 7,000,000 Egyptians or COPTS. Today, there remain only one million. There are seven times fewer Egyptians today than there were when this curse was pronounced. And not only that! Only one out of every twenty-four inhabitants of Egypt is a true Egyptian! The rest are Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael, Abram's son. In their own country the descendants of the ancient Egyptians are outnumbered twenty-three to one by Arab foreigners who have corne in and taken over the country. This prophecy further states that the Egyptians shall no more rule over the nations. This has been strikingly fulfilled! Almost every political office in Egypt is filled by an Arab. Gamal Abdel Nasser, ruler of Egypt, was an Arab. The COPTS not only do not rule over the nations -- they don't even rule in their own country. They were prophesied to be a base kingdom, a low, subservient people. Most of the COPTS are scribes or handicraftsmen and in those capacities they serve the Arabs. They are low in every sense of tile word -- even in their work.
Most of the COPTS have adopted a form of the "Christian" religion. In a country thar is almost entirely Moslem, this has caused them constant persecution. They are sneered at because of their religion. They are looked down upon because of their occupations. They have become a people cursed by God. As a final clincher, Ezekiel prophesied that the Egyptians would return, after being led into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, into the land of Pathros (verse 4). Pathros is in Upper Middle Egypt. The majority of the COPTS live in UPPER MIDDLE EGYPT! There is even a village named COPTOS located 25 miles northeast of Thebes.
This prophecy has been fulfilled, point by point-exactly as Ezekiel prophesied!
Isaiah Foretold Cyrus Conquering Babylon -- 539 B.C.
The "Chaldeans say" Nebuchadnezzar "went up to his palace, and being possessed by some god or other" said, "There will come a Persian mule, aided by the alliance of your own deities, and will bring you into slavery. And the joint author of this will be a Mede, in whom the Assyrians glory." (Eusebius, Preparation For Gospel, p.405) Cicero relates, on the authority of Dino, a Persian writer, [whom he calls Dionysius] a remarkable "dream of Cyrus, in which he thrice attempted to catch the Sun in his hands, which thrice eluded his grasp, in its revolution. This the Magi expounded, to denote a reign of [three sari, or decades] thirty years. Which so happened; for he lived till his seventieth year, and began to reign when he was forty years of age." (De Divin. 1:23) (559 - 529 BC)
Isaiah predicted the Babylonian Empire would fall to the Medes and the Persians (Isaiah 13; 21:1-10). He also called Cyrus by name (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1-5), and said the protective waters of the Euphrates would "dry up" (Isa. 44:27; Jer. 51:36) (Herodotus 1:185–191) and Babylon's "two-leaved gates" would "not be shut" (Isa. 45:1). "That I may open before him the valves; and the gates shall not be shut" - The gates of Babylon within the city descending from the streets to the river, were providentially left open, when Cyrus's forces entered the city in the night through the channel of the river, in the general disorder occasioned by the great feast which was then celebrated. Otherwise, says Herodotus, 1:191, the Persians would have been shut up in the bed of the river, and taken as in a net, and all destroyed. And the gates of the palace were opened imprudently by the king's orders, to inquire what was the cause of the tumult without; when the two parties under Gobrias and Gadatas rushed in, got possession of the palace, and slew the king (Xenophen's Cyropedia. 7:22-23 p. 528). Herodotus 1:179 says, "In the wall all round there are a hundred gates, all of brass; and so in like manner are the sides and the lintels." "The gates likewise within the city, opening to the river from the several streets, were of brass; as were those also of the temple of Belus" (Herod. 1:180, 181).The Chaldean scribe who recorded the story on a clay tablet (which was secured by the British Museum in 1879) closed his record with these words: "On the sixteenth day, Gobryas, pasha of the land of Gutium, and the troops of Cyrus, without a battle, entered Babylon." -- From tablet "Annals of Nabonidus" quoted by C.J. Ball in "Light From the East."
Cyrus said, "The river, my friends, has yielded us a passage into the city, let us boldly enter and not fear any thing within, considering that these people are the same we defeated when they were awake, sober, armed and in order. But now we march against them at a time when many of them are asleep, many drunk, and all in confusion." (Cyropedia 7:5)
This may be why "The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds" (Jer. 51:30). Due to the immense size of the city, Herodotus says many residents didn't know Babylon had fallen till days later (Herod. 1:191). "One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end" (Jer. 51:31). A warning hand appeared against the wall of the palace and wrote, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, U Parsin" which Daniel interpreted as "God has NUMBERED thy kingdom and finished it. Thou art WEIGHED in the balanced, and art found wanting; thy kingdom is DIVIDED, and given to the Medes and Persians."
The Lord will "subdue nations before him" and "loose the loins of kings" (Isa. 45:1). Xenophon gives the following list of the nations conquered by Cyrus: "the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both countries of the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians. He moreover reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacae, Paphlagones, ldariandyni or Megadinians; likewise the Greeks that inhabit Asia, Cyprians and Egyptians." (- Cyrop.1:4), All these kingdoms he acknowledges, in his decree for the restoration of the Jews, to have been given to him by Jehovah, the God of heaven (Ezra 1:2). He was obliged to acknowledge this because Josephus says that Cyrus read this prophecy himself, which Isaiah had delivered: "This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his Prophecies. For this Prophet said, that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision: 'My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be King over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple.' This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished. Accordingly when Cyrus read this, and admired the divine power, an earnest desire and an ambition seized upon him, to fulfil what was so written." (Antiquities 11:1:2) Although Xenophen, a polytheist himself, represents Cyrus praying to the gods plural, Cyrus really prayed to only one, the patriarchal God, worshipped by his venerable ancestors, the Pischdadians. As proof of this fact, before the great battle in which Evil Merodach was slain, he said to his soldiers "Jove, our Savior and Leader" (Cyroopaedia p. 367). Also in his famous proclamation permitting the Jews to return from the Babylonian captivity: "The Lord, the God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem" (Ezra 1:1-2). Herodotus says, that Cyrus ruled over all Asia (Clio, sive 1:130.). To "loose the loins of kings" such as Croesus king of Lydia, and Belshazzar king of Babylon, by divesting them of their dignity, power, and government" was not the full meaning. Belshazzar was thrown into such a panic that "the joints of his loins were loosed" literally (Daniel 5:6).
Amazingly, Isaiah’s prophecy was made roughly 150 years before Cyrus was born (Isaiah prophesied in about 700 B.C.; Cyrus took the city of Babylon in 539 B.C.). To add to Cyrus’ significance, Isaiah predicted that Cyrus would act as the Lord’s “shepherd” (44:28) to return Israel to their land a second time (Isa. 11:11-12; Isa. 51:9-11). The Exodus from Egypt was the first. Justin (Hist. ex Trogo 1:5) says, he had this name given him, while he was among the shepherds, by whom he was brought up, having been exposed in his infancy. Shepherd was an epithet which Cyrus took to himself. Cyrus himself compares a king to a shepherd, and observes a likeness between them (Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 8:18). In fact, Isaiah recorded these words of the Lord concerning Cyrus: “And he shall perform all My pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built; and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid" (44:28). This is said with great exactness since only the foundation was laid in Cyrus's time; the Jews being discouraged and hindered by their enemies from going on with the building in his reign, until the times of Darius, king of Persia. (See Ezra 1:1).
Then Isaiah 45:5-7 says, "I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me ... I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." Why did our Lord explain this truth to Cyrus? Because Cyrus was educated in the Magian Religion, and it was the great principle of the Magian religion, which prevailed in Persia in the time of Cyrus, that there are two supreme, co-eternal, and independent causes always acting in opposition one to the other; one the author of all good (Oromazes), the other of all evil (Arimanius). The good being they called Light; the evil being, Darkness. That when Light had the ascendant, then good and happiness prevailed among men; when Darkness had the superiority, then eviI and misery abounded. It does not appear that Cyrus left the Pagan idolatry; for Xenophon relates, that when he found his end was near, he took sacrifices, and offered them to Jupiter, and the sun, and the rest of the gods; and gave them thanks for the care they had taken of him; and prayed them to grant happiness to his wife, children, friends, and country (Cyropaedia, 8:45).
"Lo, I will raise up against them the Medes, who shall not regard silver, nor shall they delight in gold" (Isa. 13:17). It is remarkable that Xenophen represents Cyrus, when setting out, as praising the Medes and his army, for their disregard of riches. "Ye Medes, and all here present, I well know that ye accompany me on this expedition, not coveting wealth." (Cyropedia 5) "their bows shall dash to pieces the young men" because the Persian bows were three cubits long, according to Xenophen Anab. 4 and therefore when used as clubs, in the sack of a city, were powerful weapons of destruction.
"Darius the Mede", to whom Cyrus entrusted the rulership of Babylon on its capture in 539 BC, was not the chief, but only the SECOND RULER in the kingdom. Darius was "MADE KING" (Dan. 9:1) by Cyrus. Thus Daniel was not only "the THIRD RULER"
(Dan. 5:25,31) in the Babylonian dynasty of Nabonidus and his viceroy Belshazzar (Nabonidus' eldest son was called Bel-shar-ezer on a cylinder discovered by Henry Rawlinson.In the ruins of Mugbeir, Ur, an inscription asserting that "near the end of his reign Nabonidus associated Belsharsizzar his eldest son with him on the throne." There are parallel instances in which King Jehoram was associated with his father Jehoshaphat for seven years before Jehoshaphat died, and of Jotham being calledKing before Uzziah died), but in the Medo-Persian dynasty as well. Nabonidus is portrayed as the ROYAL SEED of Nebuchadnezzar by Daniel (5:11) and Isaiah (14:22) whereas Berosus says Nabonidus was a usurper and conspirator. How do we explain this? In the same political terminology that King Saul called David his son (1 Sam. 26:21) even though David was the son of Jesse. Also Salathiel was called the son of Jeconiah (Matt. 1:12), yet Jeconiah died childless (Jer. 20:30) and Salathiel was son of Neri (Luke 3:27).
After being defeated by Cyrus, Croesus, the king of Lydia was ordered to be burned alive. At the last minute, Cyrus relented, when the flames were out of control. But a shower of rain miraculously extinguished the flames. (Herod. 1:86-87). When Cyrus launched his campaign against the Massagetai on his NE bounds, he was killed by a woman named Tomyris, their queen in 530 BC (Herodotus 1:214). "Thou (Israel -- Massagetai) art my battle-axe and weapons of war; for with thee will I break in pieces the nations ... the shepherd (Cyrus) and his flock" (Jer. 51:20-23; Isa. 44:28). Herodotus 1:209 relates that Cyrus had a dream in which Darius son of Hystaspes succeeded to the Persian throne. He had wings overshadowing Asia and Europe.
Cambyses' 50,000-Man Army Buried by a Sandstorm in 523-522 B.C.
"I will also gather all nations (c. 523-522 B.C.), and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat" (Joel 3:2). Figuratively, this valley can be anywhere "the Lord Judges." According to Herodotus 3:26, Cambyses sent an army to threaten the Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis. The army of 50,000 men was halfway across the Kushite (Sudan) desert when a massive sandstorm sprang up, burying them all. This was their valley where "the Lord Judges" in 523-522 B.C. People of almost "all nations" (3:2) composed Cambyses' army. This army probably travelled a route from Thebes (Luxor) to Kharga to Gilf El Kebir and then north toward Siwa but never arrived. Human bones and Persian artifacts have been found in this area. Those that weren't buried by the sand storm suffered from hunger and fed on their beasts of burden. Then they agreed that every tenth man should be killed for food. At this same time, the king in his wicked selfishness, kept a number of camels for his own use loaded with every delicacy. "The harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great" (3:13). At last he returned to Thebes, having lost the greater part of his army. There news reached him that Smerdis had been proclaimed king of Persia in his absence. Since he knew his own brother by that name had been murdered, he determined to return home to expose the usurper. However, in mounting his horse in Ecbatana Syria, his own sword slipped out of its scabbard, and wounded him so severely that he died, just as the oracle at Buto had prophesied (Her. 3:64-66).
"Lo, where our wide Numidian wastes extend, Sudden the impetuous hurricanes descend; Which through the air incircling eddies play, Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away. The helpless traveller, with wild surprise, Sees the dry desert all around him rise, And, smothered in the dusty whirlwind, dies." -- Addison |
Thus when Cambyses led his barbarous host From Persia's rocks to Egypt's trembling coasts Defiled each hallowed fane and sacred wood, And, drunk with fury, swelled the Nile with blood Waved his proud banner over the Theban states, And poured destruction through her hundred gates In dread divisions marched the marshalled bands And swarming armies blackened all the sands By Memphis these to Ethiop's sultry plains And those to Hammon's sand-encircled fanes: Slow as they passed the indignant temples frowned Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground; Long aisles of cypress waved their deepened glooms, And quivering spectres grinned amid the tombs; |
Day after day their dreadful route they steer Lust in their van, and rapine in their rear: In red arcades the billowy plain surround, And whirling turrets stalk along the ground Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend; To demon gods their knees unhallowed bend; Wheel in wide circles, form in hollow square; And now they front, and now they fly the war, Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries, Press their parched lips, and close their blood-shot eyes, Wheeling in air, the winged islands fall, And one great earthy ocean covers all. (-- Darwin abridged) |
Darius Retook Babylon With Help from Zopyrus (Isa. 47:9)(514 BC)
After the Persian fleet had sailed for Samos, the Babylonians revolted, having taken advantage of the confusion of the times during the Magian usurpation, to provide, without being noticed, or opposed, against a siege. And in order to prevent famine they took the strange and unnnatural resolution of strangling all their women and children, except their mothers and one female of each man's family, whom he liked best, to bake their bread, which was anciently the woman's employment (Herodotus 3:150 & 7:187) As Isaiah said, "These two things shall suddenly come upon thee in one day, childlessness and widowhood (the men were widowers Ps. 78:64); they shall fully come upon thee, notwithstanding the multitude of thy services, and the strength of thy enchantments" (Isa. 47:9). This is why the Jews were warned two years before the siege began"to fly from the land of the north, from the daughter of Babylon" (Zech. 2:6-7).
Darius, in the fifth year of his reign (516 BC), besieged Babylon one year and seven months. Zopyrus, his general, thought up the strategem to voluntarily mutilate himself. He had his own nose and ears cut off. Then he deserted to the Babylonians, gaining their confidence by a pityful tale of the cruelty of Darius, and after a few staged successes over some devoted detachments of the Persian army, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Babylonian troops, and entrusted with the care of the city, which on a favorable opportunity, he betrayed to the Persians (Herodotus book 3:159). After the Babylonians were slain without mercy, Darius heaped upon him all the honours he could bestow on a subject. This instance of self devotion for an earthly master, may put to shame many servants of Christ, who shrink from suffering for his sake who has promised they shall be glorified and reign with him.
Zoroaster, who is supposed to have lived as a contemporary with Darius Hystaspes, delivered the following prediction: "In the last days a JUST and RIGHTEOUS man will appear, who would adorn the world with religion, who would revive JUSTICE among the inhabitants of the world, SUPPRESS WRONGS, and RESTORE ANCIENT CUSTOMS which had fallen to decay; kings would follow and serve him; he would establish TRUE RELIGION, and in his time PEACE and TRANQUILITY would prevail, dissensions be forgotten, and troubles pass away." (Hyde, De Historia Veterum Persarum) Was Zoroaster a prophet like Daniel?
Artaxerxes was surnamed Longimanus, on account of his arms: for it is said his hands touched hius knees when he was standing upright. The Persian historians call their king Ardeshir (which seems to resemble Ahasuerus) Dirazdest, or Long-handed; and say he married a beautiful damsel named Esther, whom he found among the Jewish captives. This record leads us to believe Artaxerxes Longimanus is king Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. The extent of his dominions also agrees with the Scripture account. Cyrus possessed 120 provinces. Then the conquests of Cambyses reached the borders of Ethiopia. then Darius extended his dominions to India. Thus 129 provinces by the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus is not unreasonable (Esther 1:1).
Since he married Esther in the seventh year of his reign, it is possible Mordecai might have been encouraged to present her to the king on account of the favor he had showed to the Jews just before: for in that same year Ezra was permitted to depart from Babylon, which was again a quiet settlement, with a few hundred brethren (Esther 2:16; Ezra 7:8). In the twelfth, the danger and deliverance of the Jews took place (Esther 3:3). Then at the close of this episode, "Mordecai the Jew was next unto King Ahasuerus; and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed." It can then be easily understood that Nehemiah a Jew, shoiuld have been cup-bearer, which was a high office at the Persian court (Esther 1:2-8; Neh. 1:1).
Daniel's Seventy-Weeks Prophecy
Daniel 9:24 -27 says, "Seventy weeks (or 490 years) are determined upon thy people (the Jews) and upon thy holy city (Jerusalem), to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up (or end) the vision and the prophecy (or prophet), and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks (69 weeks or 483 years): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for his own sins; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the temple, and the end of it shall be with a flood (or army), and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many (Jews) for one week (7 years): and in the midst of the week shall he cause the sacrifice and offering to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolator."
The temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed in 586 B.C. by Babylonians (2 Ki. 24:17-25:21). Then for seventy years Jerusalem was desolate (Jer. 25:11) from 609 B.C. when the Egyptians were defeated by Nabopolaser till Cyrus destroyed Babylon in 539 B.C. and from 586 B.C. when the Temple was destroyed till 515 B.C. when it was completely rebuilt.
Then there were FOUR decrees to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem. They are mentioned in Ezra 6:14 "And they builded, and finished it ... according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia" (who gave two decrees). The question is which decree of which Persian king fulfills the prophecy? Cyrus issued the FIRST decree for the TEMPLE to be rebuilt (2 Chr. 36:23 in 539 B.C.). The altar was set up (Ezra 3:3) and the TEMPLE foundations were laid out (Ezra 3:8-11). But the building project was annulled by Cambyses in 536 B.C. (in Ezra 4:21, Artaxerxes or Ahasuerus) thus fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah 44:28 (c.710 B.C.) that only the foundations of the TEMPLE should be laid at this time (Ezra 3:10): "Who saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the TEMPLE, Thy foundation shall be laid." Darius then issued a SECOND decree to advance the building of the TEMPLE (Ezra 4:24 to 6:1-12 in 520 B.C.), which was completed in the sixth year of his reign (515 B.C.) (Ezra 6:15). Therefore the decrees of Cyrus and Darius concerned the TEMPLE. But the city of Jerusalem still remained ruinous.
Then Artaxerxes Longimanus gave the THIRD decree in 457 B.C. "to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a WALL in Judah and in JERUSALEM" (Ezra 7:11;9:9). Ezra 7:6-9 shows that the decree went out in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes. Next we come to the FOURTH decree which Artaxerxes made in 445-4 B.C. and this decree involving Nehemiah specifically mentions rebuilding the WALLS of JERUSALEM (Neh. 2) in the 20th year of Artaxerxes' reign. See the Astronomical Canon of Ptolemy (Almagest) to confirm these dates. The years of Persian kings' reigns started in the autumn or September.
Incidentally, 2,300 LUNAR years from 444 B.C. gives 1789 A.D. (when French Revolution commenced) and 2,300 SOLAR years from 457 B.C. gives 1844 A.D. (when Turkey abolished execution for apostasy. This was also when the Sultan of Turkey granted permission to erect on Mount Zion the first English Church.). These two measurements cross one another at the central solar-lunar date of 29-30 A.D.
What happened after the first 49 years?
This prophecy is split into three sections. Seven weeks (49 years, which is the time it took to rebuild JERUSALEM), 62 weeks (434 years) till Messiah the Prince which takes us to the year A.D. 27, the year that Jesus was "anointed" and began His ministry in the autumn, and finally there is another week of 7 years. If the midst of this seven year period is Passover (March-April) when he died, then the beginning of this seven-year period was in the autumn (July-August).
The first seven weeks or 49 years on the solar scale from 457 B.C. bring us to 408 B.C. which witnessed the rebuilding of JERUSALEM, its walls and streets (Neh. 6:15,16; 7:4). The last act of Nehemiah occurred in the fifteenth year of of the reign of Darius Nothus which was the year 408 B.C., exactly 49 years from 457 B.C. Barnes and several other trustworthy Bible commentators mention the historian Prideaux who declared Nehemiah's last action in rebuilding the CITY occurred in the 15th year of the Persian ruler Darius Nothus (423 - 404 B.C.). Josephus seems to support this idea in his remarks about the death of Nehemiah. The solar 49 year period witnessed the rebuilding of JERUSALEM in "troublous times" (Ezra 4:4-5 and Nehemiah 4 & 6).
Did Messiah the Prince come after "Sixty-Nine Weeks" (or 483 years)?
Ezra left Babylon with his royal decree on the 1st of Nisan (March-April) and reached Jerusalem four months later on the 1st of Ab (July-August) in 457 B.C. (Ezra 7:9). Nehemiah received his royal decree in Nisan (March-April) of 444 B.C. and we assume he also took four months to arrive at Jerusalem. Both decrees actually took effect in July-August of 457 or July-August of 444 B.C.
In Bible prophecy we use the day for a year system. Ezekiel 4:6 says, “...I have appointed thee each day for a year” (cp. Num. 14:34) so that 70 weeks or 490 days becomes 490 years. The first calculation is SOLAR years using 365.25 days while the second is LUNAR years using 354.33 days. A third calculation uses PROPHETIC years of 360 days each. "At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established" (Deut. 19:15). Two or three witnesses are required to prove any point according the Bible. The LUNAR year is 10.876 days short of the SOLAR year so an extra month was added to the LUNAR calendar about every three years to keep the seasons from moving through the LUNAR year. This meant some years contained thirteen months.
"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks (483 years)" (Dan. 9:25).
Adding 483 SOLAR years to 457 B.C. brings us to the first of July-August, 27 A.D. which was the beginning of Christ's public ministry and his baptism. Adding 490 SOLAR years to 457 B.C. brings us to the martyrdom of Stephen in 34 A.D. Adding 483 LUNAR years to 444 B.C. brings us to February-March 2nd, 26 A.D. (Because 483 LUNAR years are equivalent to 469 SOLAR years: 365.2422 days - 354.366 days = 10.8762 days difference x 483 years = 5253.2046 days / 365.2422 = 14.38 SOLAR years difference.), the year of John the Baptist's preparatory ministry, when he revealed the Messiah at his baptism. Adding 483 PROPHETIC years to 444 B.C. brings us to 33 A.D. (because 483 PROPHETIC years are equivalent to 476.07 SOLAR years: 483 x 360 = 173880 days /365.24 = 476.07) which was the last year of Stephen's witness to the Jews before his martyrdom. Messiah was crucified in A.D. 31. Most scholars have tried to place the crucifixion in either 30 or 33 A.D. because these are the only two years in the time frame of Jesus' death when Passover fell on Friday. In the year 31 A.D. Passover fell on Wednesday -- the "midst" of a literal "week" as well as the midst of a seven-year Sabbatic period. According to the translator of Josephus, the Jewish new year that began in the fall of 27 A.D. marked the beginning of the last Jubilee Year that the Jews enjoyed in the land before their worldwide dispersal by the Romans in 70 A.D. This is most likely the year that Jesus began His public ministry. This is hinted at in Luke 4 where it says that when Jesus launched His ministry at the synagogue in Nazareth, He did so by reading a passage from Isaiah 61 about the way in which the Messiah would fulfill the spiritual essence of the Jubilee. After finishing the reading, Jesus proclaimed, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).
Remember that a mathematical error of one year is accounted for by the fact that 1 B.C. and 1 A.D. are both part of the same year. To be even more precise, Jesus "being about 30 years of age" at his baptism by John in the Jordan (Luke 3:23) must have been born about 4 B.C. because 27 A.D. - 30 = 4 B.C. When Christ was born, Herod the Great was still alive, and Herod died in 4 B.C. (see Matt. 2:13-20). Jesus may have been born on the Festival of Sukkot -- fifteenth day of the seventh month. Herod died about 6 months later just before Passover (Ant. 17:8:1; Wars 1:33:8). "The fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius" (Luke 3:1) can be independently established as 26-27 A.D., because Tiberius' reign began two years before the death of Augustus -- 12 A.D., and it was at the Passover of 28 A.D. that the Jews said to Christ, "Forty and six years was this temple being built " (John 2:20) and it was also Herod's eighteenth year (Ant. 15:11) which can be independently established. "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4) and Jesus preached that "the time was fulfilled" (Mark 1:15), both scriptures referring to the "sixty-nine weeks" unto Messiah. Also, if the SOLAR reckoning provides the beginning of his public ministry, perhaps the LUNAR reckoning provides the date of his private return to Palestine (Matt. 25:19). He died on Wednesday, 14th day of the first month Nisan, 31 A.D. as the Passover lambs were being slain in the temple (Wars 6:9:3).
Daniel 9:26 says that in the midst of the final seven years the Messiah will be "cut off, ("He was cut off out of the land of the living" -- Isa. 53:8) but not for himself." "He was wounded for our transgressions" (Isa. 53:5) (showing that Jesus would die after 3 1/2 years of ministry) and "in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease." On the tenth of Nisan our Lord fulfilled Zechariah 9:9 "thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass." This is recorded in Luke 19:38 when his disciples sang Psalm 118: "Blessed be the King who cometh in the name of the Lord." But they were accused of blaspheming because the Pharisees "knewest not the time of thy visitation" (Luke 19:44) -- the sixty-nine weeks plus half a week more.
"A certain NOBLEMAN (Jesus) went into a FAR COUNTRY (Britain) to receive for himself a kingdom, and to RETURN (to Palestine after 18 years). And he called his TEN SERVANTS (lost ten tribes in Britain, Parthia, Scythia, Greece, etc.), and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy (my kingdom) till I come. But his CITIZENS (the Shammai Jews) hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:12-14). When he returned, his ministry which began in the autumn of 27 A.D. lasted for exactly three-and-one-half years (Luke 13:32-33). That is why He could confidently say, "My time is not yet fully come" (John 7:8) prior to the midst of the week, Passover in the spring of 31 A.D.. Jesus' one time perfect sacrifice offered up by the murderous "priests" of Judah put an end to the penalty of sin which is the death of mankind and the need for animal sacrifices once and for all.
Daniel 9:27 says, "And he shall confirm the covenant with many (i.e. Jews) for one week: and in the midst of the week shall he cause the sacrifice and offering to cease."
According to Josephus (37-100 A.D.), Tacitus (55-120 A.D.) and Suetonius (69-130 A.D.), Jews were expecting the fulfillment of a prophecy of a ruler to arise in the first century A.D. from Daniel's prophecy. During this 70th week, the gospel was preached only to Israel (Acts 11:19). "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers" (Rom. 15:8). What happened in the final 3 1/2 years of this prophecy? The gospel message was still preached exclusively to the Jews (Acts 2), but at the end of this period in 34 A.D. , Stephen was stoned, marking the final decision of the Jewish leaders to reject Christ as the Messiah and from this time on the New Covenant was taken to gentile Israel. (cp. Rom. 15:8). Saul was present at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58) and he later became Paul, the apostle to Gentile Israel. This shows us that the martyrdom of Stephen terminated the New Covenant to Jews and began the New Covenant to Gentile Israel. In Acts 9 Saul becomes the apostle to the Gentile Israel. In Acts 10 the gospel is given to the gentile house of Cornelius. (See also Acts 10:45, 11:18, 13:46, 14:27, 15:9, 18:6). In the parable of Luke 20:9 the original husbandmen (the Jews) of the vineyard are rejected and replaced. The "vineyard" was "let out ... unto other husbandmen" (Matt. 21:41; Isa. 5:1-7). "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you (Jews of Palestine who reject me as Messiah), and given to a nation (Christians of Britain) bringing forth the fruits of it" (Matt. 21:43).
Notice also that Bel-Marduk of the Babylonians, Osiris of the Egyptians, Mithras of the Persians, Bacchus of the Greeks, Dionysius of the Fraternity of the Artificers and Atys of the Phrygians all fail the Daniel 9 test telling us who the real Messiah is. All these "saviors" supposedly suffered, died and were resurrected. They were celebrated by their respective peoples. But none fulfill the requirements when we count Daniel's 70 weeks.
Xerxes Disastrous Invasion of Greece (480 BC) Foretold By An Eclipse
Herodotus mentions a TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE when Xerxes left Sardis in spring 480 BC (Herodotus 7:5-20). Xerxes was alarmed but was reassured by the Magi that it meant failure to the Greeks, not Persians. "The Lord frustrateth the SIGNS of the liars, and maketh the diviners mad; he turneth wise men backwards, and maketh their wisdom foolishness" (Isa. 44:25). Xerxes reached Thermopylae (7:184, 201, 206). At this time a furious wind, blowing from ENE for three days together, raised such a hurricane that it wrecked or sunk 400 ships of war besides many transports and supply vessels. at the promontory of Sepias (7:188-191). Leonidas with 6,200 men went to guard the straits of Thermopylae against the Persian host. He delayed them three days. On the fourth day, they were being surrounded and so all but 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians retreated. These 1000 Greeks gave their lives that day while killing 20,000 Persians. Next came the sea battle of Artemisium where for three days the Persians fought and lost several of their vessels to the rocks because of midsummer gales. "All this was done by God that the Persian fleet might be rendered equal, or not greatly superior, to the Grecian fleet" (8:1-13). The Greek fleet sailed for Salamis, trusting in their "wooden walls" in obedience to the oracle (7:140-143). They had a total of 380 ships (8:82). Themistocles urged them to fight in the narrow seas rather than the open ocean. The Grecians lost 40 ships; the Persians 200, besides several that were taken. Then Xerxes retreated to the Hellespont with a mere pittance of his former army and suffering from famine and pestilence (8:107). His bridge of ships had been broken and destroyed by storms, but his fleet conveyed him back to Asia. He left Mardonius to command a Persian army of 300,000 remaining in Thessaly. Then came the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. Greek army numbered 110,000. Persians numbered 300,000 plus 50,000 Grecians (9:28-32). Mardonius was slain. No more than 3000 Persians escaped, except for 40,000 under the command of Artabazus who had advised a retreat. Many of these died of hunger or fatigue while escaping to Asia. The loss to the Grecians was 91 Lacedemonians, 16 Tegeatae, and 52 Athenians (9:41-89). The same day, the Grecians obtained another victory at Mycale in Ionia, over the Persian fleet. The Greeks killed most of the Persians, burned their ships and got an immense booty. Xerxes on his retreat home, rifled the temples of Babylon taking spoil from the golden images alone to the extent of $40,000,000 dollars, but as Arrian relates, he utterly destroyed the temple of Bel, or Belus, of which Herodotus had given such a glowing description, in accordance with the prediction of Jeremiah 51:44,52 which says, "I will punish Bel in Babylon; I will do judgment upon her graven images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan." Xerxes himself was murdered while he slept in 465BC.
Mordecai Saw a Vision in the Reign of Xerxes (485–465 BC) (Ahasuerus) Who Ruled "From India even unto Ethiopia" (Esther 1:1)
and Herodotus Says Ethiopia Paid Tribute to Xerxes (3:97).
The name Ahasuerus, mentioned in the Book of Esther, is, in one of its Greek forms, Xerxes, which is explained by Herodotus (6:98) to mean a warrior. But the LXX wrongly calls him Artaxerxes: "In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the Great, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai ... of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream. He was a Jew and lived in the city of Susa, an important man, in attendance at the royal court; he was one of the captives that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had brought from Jerusalem, with Jeconiah, king of Judah. And this was his dream: behold, noise and tumult, thunders and earthquake, uproar on the earth. And here came two great DRAGONS, both ready to wrestle (Mordecai and Haman -- 10:7), and they uttered a great roar. And at their roar every nation made ready for war, to fight against the nation of the UPRIGHT ("Israel" -- 10:9). And behold, a day of darkness and gloom, affliction and anguish, distress and great tumult, upon the earth. And the whole upright nation was troubled, fearing their own hurt, and they prepared to perish; and they cried out to God. And at their cry there arose as though from a tiny spring, a great RIVER, with abundant water ("the river was Esther" -- 10:6); light came, and the sun rose, and the humble were exalted and consumed the glorious." (Esther 11:2-11 LXX)
"Amalek" shall "perish forever" (Num. 24:20) was a prophecy fulfilled when Haman and his ten sons were destroyed.
"Cambyses, and afterwards Xerxes, from good shepherds became base wolves, fleecing the flock." (Max. Tyr. diss. 40)
Sidon Destroyed By Ochus in 351 BC |
Ezekiel says, "I will send into her (Sidon) pestilence, and blood into her streets, and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the Lord. And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn" (28:23-24). This was fulfilled when Tennes became king of Sidon. At first he rose up in arms against the tyranny of Darius Ochus, king of Persia, by confederating with Nectanebus king of Egypt, to shake off the Persian yoke and regain Sidon's liberty. Egypt sent four thousand Greek mercenaries under the command of Mentor the Rhodian to their assistance. Together with this help from Egypt, Tennes defeated the governors of Syria and Cilicia, whom Ochus had sent to crush him. Ochus was provoked to revenge and marched at the head of an army of 300,000 foot and 30,000 horse against Sidon. Tennes, having received assurances from the king of Persia through Mentor, then committed treason against his own Phoenicians. Tennes no sooner heard that the Persian army was drawing near, than he feigned to go assemble with the general body of Phoenicians, and marched out with a body of five hundred men and one hundred of the chief citizens of Sidon. He went straight to the enemy camp and delivered them up to Ochus, who then killed the one hundred chief citizens. The severity of Ochus,combined with the treachery of Tennes, struck such terror into the Sidonians, that five hundred more of the citizerns, all men of rank, went out and surrendered, imploring the mercy of Ochus. But upon learning from Tennes that he could take possession of Sidon, Ochus had the five hundred citizens shot with darts, even though they had come out with olive branches in their hands, as badges of submission. After this, Ochus and Tennes marched at the head of the Persian army towards the city; and were admitted without the least opposition, by Mentor and the Greek mercenaries. The Sidonians, finding themselves betrayed, and the enemy within the walls, shut themselves up with their wives and children in their houses, and setting fire to them, consumed themselves to the number of forty thousand, and the most valuable things they had, in the flames. Tennes met no better fate than his subjects; for Ochus, seeing he could do him no further service, and detesting the treachery of the man, caused his throat to be cut. "Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). Other cities of Phoenicia were so terrified that they all submitted voluntarily to the conqueror. Thus all Phoenicia was again brought under Persian yoke (Diod. Sic. 16:531-533).
Jaddua the High Priest Showed Alexander the Book of Daniel Before the Battle of Arbela in 331 B.C.
Plutarch records that the temple of Diana at Ephesus was maliciously burnt by Erostratus the same day that Alexander the Great was born (July 1st, 356 BC). All the Magi who were then at Ephesus looked upon the fire as a sign which forecast a much greater misfortune: they ran through the city, beating their faces, and crying, "This day hath brought forth the great scourge and destroyer of Asia." Due to Daniel, the arch-Magus, they were aware of the ram and goat prophecy.
Daniel was given a vision regarding a goat that ran from the west and attacked a ram coming from the east. "The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king" (Dan. 8:20-21) -- Alexander the Great. King Darius was defeated three times -- from 334-331 B.C. -- at the Battles of Granicus, Issus and Gaugemela (Arbela). This vision was given about 538 B.C.
Two hundred years later Alexander of Macedonia, the "first king" of united Grecia, was coming swiftly from the west against Medo-Persia. Already he had won the decisive victories of the Granicus and Issus, and Persia lay prostrate. Between these two victories, while in Phrygia, he cut the famous Gordian knot; a feat which an oracle had reserved for the conqueror of Asia.
As Alexander approached Jerusalem, he was determined to punish the city. It had refused him supplies during the siege of Tyre and had been slow to transfer its allegiance from Persia to Grecia. But Josephus says that as Alexander drew near the city, the gates were flung open, and a procession of priests and citizens moved out to meet the great conqueror. The priests bore in their hands the books of the prophet Daniel
According to Antiquities 11:8:5: "And when he understood that he was not far from the city, he went out in procession, with the priests, and the multitude of the citizens. The procession was venerable, and the manner of it different from that of other nations. It reached to a place called Sapha: which name translated into Greek signifies a prospect, for you have thence a prospect both of Jerusalem and of the temple: and when the Phenecians, and the Chaldeans that followed him thought they should have liberty to plunder the city, and torment the High Priest to death: which the King’s displeasure fairly promised them: the very reverse of it happened. For Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the High Priest in purple and scarlet clothing; with his miter on his head; having the golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that name, and first saluted the High Priest. The Jews also did all together, with one voice, salute Alexander; and encompass him about. Whereupon the Kings of Syria, and the rest were surprized at what Alexander had done; and supposed him disordered in his mind. However, Parmenio alone went up to him, and asked him, “How it came to pass, that when all others adored him, he should adore the High Priest of the Jews?” To whom he replied, “I did not adore him, but that God who hath honoured him with his High Priesthood. For I saw this very person, in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dios in Macedonia. Who, when I was considering with my self how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay; but boldly to pass over the sea thither: for that he would conduct my army, and would give me the dominion over the Persians. Whence it is that having seen no other in that habit, and now seeing this person in it, and remembring that vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army under the divine conduct, and shall therewith conquer Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians; and that all things will succeed according to what is in my own mind.” And when he had said this to Parmenio, and had given the High Priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him; and he came into the city. And when he went up into the temple, he offered sacrifice to God, according to the High Priest’s direction: and magnificently treated both the High Priest, and the priests. And when the book of Daniel was shewed him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended. And as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present: but the next day he called them to him, and bid them ask what favours they pleased of him. Whereupon the High Priest desired, that they might enjoy the laws of their forefathers: and might pay no tribute on the seventh year. He granted all they desired. And when they intreated him that he would permit the Jews in Babylon and Media to enjoy their own laws also, he willingly promised to do hereafter what they desired. And when he said to the multitude, that if any of them would list themselves in his army, on this condition that they should continue under the laws of their forefathers, and live according to them, he was willing to take them with him; many were ready to accompany him in his wars."
The fall of the House of Israel and its capital, Samaria, was in 721 BC. Adding 390 years (Ez. 4:5) brings us to 331 BC. when Alexander the Great conquered Persia at the Battle of Arbela or Gaugamela on October 1, 331 B.C. King Darius III of Persia had offered Alexander half the Persian kingdom if he would sign a peace agreement, but the offer was refused. Alexander's general, Parmenion, told him "If I were you, I would accept Darius' very generous offer." Alexander replied, "I would too if I were Parmenion!" Nothing would stand in the way of the complete and total conquest of Persia. Alexander overslept on the morning of battle, and was awakened by his concerned generals. He told them not to worry because the battle was already won! Alexander was inspired with the belief that he had a Divinely-ordained mission to overthrow Persia. He was correct! This conquest was predicted in Daniel chapter 8 and Ezekiel Chapter 4 long before. This large Persian force of over 250,000 soldiers was defeated by only 47,000 Greeks, who were outnumbered over 5 to 1.
The lost ten tribes of Israel were largely held captive by Assyria, Babylon and Medo-Persia till the alotted time of punishment ended with the conquest of the Persian Empire in 331 B.C. (exactly 390 years after their kingdom collapsed -- Ez. 4:5). Still, it was the Scythian Massagetae (who were Israelites), ranging free on the Asian steppes west of the Caspian Sea, who killed the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great when he tried to conquer them. It should also be mentioned that there were still Israelites dwelling under the dominion of Alexander and then of his successors, the Seleucids. These would gain their independence the next century as the Parthians. "Your seed shall be as the dust of the earth. You shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north and to the south. In you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 28:14). "Israel wandered like a flock" (Zechariah 10:2).
When Alexander invaded India, and Porus was about to engage with him in battle, the elephant on which Porus rode "Spoke with a human voice, and said, O king, attempt nothing against Alexander." (Plutarch de Fluv. 1)
Alexander was correctly described as a "leopard" with "WINGS" (Dan. 7:6). In 326 BC, Alexander set out on his Indian expedition. Seeing his army much burdened with baggage, he set fire to his own baggage and that of his friend, and then ordered all the baggage of his army to be destroyed likewise. In sixteen days he marched from the Oxus to the Indus. In 328 BC, in Sogdiana, when an enemy mountain garrison was told to surrender, they asked in derision if he had WINGED soldiers, for they feared no other. Alexander provided rope and iron tent pegs to those soldiers who first scaled the steep, unguarded, rock cliff. They attempted this climb at night and reached the summit by morning. Then Alexander sent a herald to summon the besieged to surrender without delay to the WINGED soldiers on the top of the rock. Terrified at the sight of these few Macedonians, they surrendered (Arrian 4:18-19). Alexander died at Babylon of Malaria while trying to rebuild the temple of Belus (Arrian 7:17; Against Apion 1:22). He was unaware of the prophecy that the goat horn would be "broken" when "strong" (Dan. 8:8) or that Babylon would not be rebuilt (Isa. 13:20; Jer. 51:64). Then the young prince Aegus, and Roxana were murdered by Cassander; the just reward of her wickedness, in putting to death Statira, the daughter of Darius, the wife of Alexander, shortly after his death, for fear Statira might be with child. The remaining son of Alexander by Barsine was called Hercules who was murdered by Polysperchon in 309 BC. Thus, the kingdom of Alexander was "plucked up, and given to others" (Dan. 11:4). This was righteous retaliation since Alexander's sword had made many parents childless. At the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, his empire was divided among his four generals (Dan. 8:8; 11:4): Ptolemy in Egypt, Cassander in Macedon; Lysimachus in Thrace and Seleucus in Syria and Babylonia.
“He will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the altar] he will set up an ABOMINATION that causes DESOLATION, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him”(Dan. 9:27; 11:31) "two thousand and three hundred" (8:14) "evenings and mornings" (8:26) later from 168-165 B.C. |
Then Antiochus IV Epiphanes (meaning "god manifest" but called Epimanes or "madman" by Jews to avoid blasphemy) interrupted the Temple sacrifices and set up a statue of Jupiter Olympus bearing his own image upon one of the four horns of the brass altar of burnt offerings, in the Second Temple in Jerusalem and sacrificed swine on it around the year 168 BC. (1 Maccabees 1:62; Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). This was one fulfillment of the abomination of desolation. He compelled the nation to Hellenize and to put an end to the Biblical system of laws (2 Macc. 6:1-2); and to shred and burn the books of the law; to put to death those who were being circumcised, and to hang the corpses of the babies from the necks of their mothers; and many in Jerusalem gave up their lives on behalf of their Biblical customs (1 Macc. 1:54-64). He ordered them to treat the Sabbaths and festivals as ordinary work days. He came before Christ's first coming just as the Anti-Christ will come before Christ's second coming (Matt.24:15). The last true daily sacrifice took place on the 24th of Chislev. The pagan sacrifices began the next day on the "five and twentieth day of the ninth month" (1 Macc.4:54) just as December 25th is when most of the world gives presents to an idolatrous tree. "On the twenty-fifth of the month, these same evil people offered sacrifices on the pagan altar erected on top of the altar in the Temple" (1 Maccabees 1:55-59, TEV). "But many in Israel stood firm" (1 Macc. 1:62-63). This refers to the rise of the Hasmonean priestly family of Mattathias, including his son and successor Judas Maccabeus, who would not compromise with paganism. They eventually pushed out the Syrian Greeks.
First Maccabees 1:54 says: "On the 15th day of the 9th month of the 145th year [of the kingdom of the Greeks] king Antiochus set up the abominable idol of desolation upon the altar of God." The termination is established in the same book I Maccabees 4:52,53 "And they arose before the morning of the 25th day of the 9th month of the 148th year, and they offered sacrifices according to the law upon the new altar." A Greek year was considered as 360 days (Herodotus 1:32 written in 445 BC). Thus we come up with the following calculation: 9-15-145 to 9-25-148, the dates given in Maccabees from the desecration to the cleansing, is three years and ten days. Thus, the equation would be: 1080 days (3 X 360) + 60 days (2 X 30 intercalary months) + 10 days (from the 15th to 25th) = 1150 days total. This was the "Great Tribulation" which lasted for three and one half years, and which the faithful Jews went through from 168 to 165 B.C. The 2300 "days" that the sanctuary was defiled actually refer to "evenings and mornings" (Dan. 8:14,26). In most Bibles, Daniel 8:14 says "days" but the margin reads "evening-mornings" because the daily sacrifices were offered evenings and mornings (see Lev. 6:9,12). The Revised Standard Version correctly reads, "For two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings." In other words, here is a prophecy that 2,300 evening and morning sacrifices would cease to be offered, or a period of 1,150 days.
From Babylon to Egypt to Greece
The similar religious rites and beliefs of different nations so widely separated from eachother indicate "they must have all sprung from some COMMON ORIGIN" (Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry 1:59). "The rites of (Egyptian) Osiris and (Greek) Bacchus are the same: those of (Egyptian) Isis and (Greek) Ceres exactly resemble eachother EXCEPT IN NAME" (Diodor. 1:96; cp. Herodotus 2:4,42-43). Josephus says Abraham told the Egyptians about "arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy; for before Abram came into Egypt, they were unacquainted with those parts of learning; for that science came from the CHALDEANS into EGYPT, and from thence to the GREEKS also" (Ant. 1:8:2). This is also confirmed by Scripture, which likens the effect of the idolatry to drunkenness, and states: "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord to make all the earth drunken. The nations have drunken of her wine, therefore are the nations mad" (Jer. 51:7). Zonares writes, "It is said that these (arithmetic and astronomy) came from the CHALDEES to the EGYPTIANS and thence to the GREEKS" (1:6:34). Bunsen concludes that "the religious system of EGYPT was derived from Asia and the primitive ermpire in BABEL." (Bunsen's Egypt 1:444). Layard also says, "Of the great antiquity of this primitive worship, there is abundant evidence ... having preceded that of EGYPT. The identity of many of the ASSYRIAN doctrines with those of EGYPT is alluded to by Porphyry and Clemens" (Layard's Nineveh and It's Remains, 2:440). Birch says concerning the Babylonian inscriptions: "The Zodiacal signs show unequivocally that the GREEKS derived their notions and arrangements of the Zodiac, and consequently their mythology, which was intertwined with it, from the CHALDEES." (Layard's Nineveh, 2:439, 440). Ouwaroff says that "the EGYPTIANS claimed the honour of having transmitted to the GREEKS the first elements of Polytheism" (Ouwaroff's Eleusinian Mysteries, sect. 2, p.20). Herodotus also says that the names of almost all the gods came from EGYPT to GREECE (Herodotus Hist. 2:50). Professor Rawlinson remarks, "In the Pantheons of GREECE and ROME and in that of CHALDEA the same general grouping is to be recognized; the same geneological succession is not unfrequently to be traced; and in some cases even the familiar names and titles of classical divinities admit of the most curious illustration and explanation from CHALDEAN sources. We can scarcely doubt but that, in some way or other, there was a communication of beliefs, -- a passage in very early times from the shores of the Persian Gulf to lands washed by the Mediterranean, of mythological notions and ideas" (Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchies 1:7:111-112). Yes, "it was from the East ... that GREECE derived her architecture, her sculpture, her science, her philosophy, her mathematical knowledge -- in a word, her intellectual life." (Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," 3:76).
Brief Outline of Daniel 11 Prophecy Given in 538 BC
Verse 1: "Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him" (538 BC)
Verse 2: "And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia." The four kings were Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius I and Xerxes, who was far richer than all and attacked Greece (480-479 BC). (p.114, Rawlinson's Manual of Ancient History)
Verse 3: "And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will". Alexander defeated the Persians at the Battle of Issus (333) and Arbella (331).(p.237 Rawlinson)
Verse 4: "And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those." Alexander died at age 33, in the thirteenth year of his reign, 324 BC. Alexander's Empire divided to his four generals: Ptolemy took Egypt; Antipater took Macedonia; Laomedon took Syria; Seleucus Nicator took Babylon. (Dan. 7:6; 8:8)(p. 245, Rawlinson; pp.36,61,63,65 Mahaffy's Empire of the Ptolemies)
Verse 5: "And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion." King of South was Ptolemy Soter; his prince was Seleucus Nicator who finally seized Syria in 301 BC. (pp. 65-66, 69, 87, 101-102, 106 Mahaffy)
Verse 6: "And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm (because he died): but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times." Marriage between Antiochus II of Syria and Bernice, the daughter of the king of the South. Antiochus' first wife, Laodice, took vengeance by having Bernice slain, the Egyptians who attended her killed, her son murdered (not the father of Bernice as implied by the KJV mistranslation) and Antiochus poisoned (250 BC).(pp.171-172, 196,198, Mahaffy) (pp. 251-252, Rawlinson)
Verse 7: "But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail:" Ptolemy III (Euergetes), brother of Bernice, conquered Syria and destroyed Laodice. (p. 196, Mahaffy) (pp.252,272 Rawlinson)
Verse 8: "And shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north." (247 BC) Ptolemy (Euergetes) carried 2400 idols into Egypt as spoil which Cambyses had formerly stolen, and 40,000 talents of silver. King of South outlived his rival and peace existed for a time.(p.197, 200, 205 Mahaffy)
Verse 9: "So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, and shall return into his own land." (240 BC) This is a summary verse. King of South attacked Syria (verses 7 & 8) and because of sedition in Egypt returned home. (p.252, Rawlinson) (p. 2884 History for Ready Reference, vol.4)
Verse 10: "But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress." Of two sons of Seleucus II, one -- Antiochus the Great -- invaded Syria, Palestine and concluded a treaty. Renewed war in 217 BC and attacked Raphia, near Gaza, a fortress on the border of Egypt.(pp.220,223,243,250, Mahaffy)
Verse 11: "And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand." Philopater of Egypt defeated the king of the North at Raphia. (pp.253,261, Mahaffy)
Verse 12: "And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened by it." (217 BC) Egyptians annexed Palestine to Egypt, but made rash treaty with Syria which dissipated victory. Philopater persecuted thousands of Jews in the city of Alexandria Egypt because he was struck with paralysis when trying to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple at Jerusalem (pp.262,264, Mahaffy). The Jews were shut up in a vast Hippodrome or amphitheater. Philopater sentenced them to be trodden to death by elephants, made furious by wine and frankincense, as a public spectacle. When after two days the animals were set upon them, they turned upon the spectators and soldiers, without harming the Jews, who had prayed to the living God and were protected by him. The king was so terrified by this proof of the Divine protection, that he liberated them, and changed all his decrees. He even allowed the faithful Jews to execute hundreds of apostate Jews (Deut. 13:6-11).
Verse 13: "For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches." (205-203 BC) King of North -- Antiochus III (the Great) after 14 years assembled great army to conquer Egypt which had a weak king. (pp.265,291-292 Mahaffy) (p. 254 Rawlinson)
Verse 14: "And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall." Syrians made treaty with Philip of Macedon against Egypt. Wealthy Jews who fled to Egypt to build a temple there rebelled against Egypt when Syria commenced its invasion. Jews suffered. Vision is found in Isaiah 19:18-25. (p.292, Mahaffy)
Verse 15: "So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand." Antiochus, momentarily occupied by attack from Pergamum, again attacked Egypt in 198 BC and defeated Egyptian ally Scopas at Paneas and retook Palestine.(p.292, Mahaffy)
Verse 16: "But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed." (198 BC) All of Palestine was in power of Syrians under Antiochus the Great.(p.292, Mahaffy)
Verse 17: "He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him." (198-195 BC) Antiochus planned to conquer Egypt by trickery. His daughter Cleopatra was given in marriage to Ptolemy Epiphanes. This "deal" had the appearance of uprightness or equal conditions, but it failed. Cleopatra aided her husband against her father. (pp.298,305,306, Mahaffy) (p.254, Rawlinson)
Verse 18: "After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him." Antiochus invaded Asia Minor and took Aegean Islands. Roman general Scipio, 190 BC, caused Syrian reproach to Rome to return on his own -- Antiochus overwhelmingly defeated.(pp.307,310, Mahaffy) (pp.2883-2885 History for Ready Reference, vol.4)
Verse 19: "Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found." (175 BC) Antiochus, after returning to Antioch -- a fort -- was murdered at Elymais by people for plundering temple to pay Roman indemnity. Circumstances of death are controversial. (p.310, Mahaffy) (p.254 Rawlinson)
Verse 20: "Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle." (187-186 BC) Heliodorus was sent by Seleucus IV as tax collector. When the Syrian entered the Temple to rob it, he was seized with faintness and terror. Heliodorus saw a terrible vision, and was smitten to the ground. He recovered and reurned to his master (176 BC). He poisoned the King a few years later. King James Version is mistranslated -- there shall arise one who shall send a tax collector. (pp.310,332, Mahaffy) (p. 255, Rawlinson)
Verse 21: "And in his (Philopator's) estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries." (175 BC) The vile person was Antiochus Epiphanes.(p.332, Mahaffy) (p.255 Rawlinson). Syrians flattered Antiochus with the surname of Epiphanes ("god manifest") when he first came to the throne. But the Jews called him Epimanes, or the madman. Often drunk. Associating with wicked companions. Forced his subjects to worship Jupiter. Replaced a righteous High Priest with an apostate. Slew 40,000 Jews. Looted the Temple of gold and silver. Caused swine to be sacrificed on the altar. Outlawed circumcision and Sabbath-keeping.
Verse 22: "And with the arms of a flood shall they (who opposed him) be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant." (the high priest of the Jews) Collected armies who quelled foes. Onias, high priest, replaced by Jason. (p.255, Rawlinson)
Verse 23: "And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people." Antiochus Epiphanes dealt deceitfully with Rome and with high priest. Jason now replaced with Menelaus. (p.332, Mahaffy) (p.255, Rawlinson)
Verse 24: "He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time." Antiochus distributed wealth; issued threats; used propaganda.(p.332, Mahaffy) (p.255, Rawlinson)
Verse 25: "And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him." (171 BC) Antiochus Epiphanes reduced Egypt in four campaigns beginning in 173 BC. Forecast devices: a bribery and propaganda.(p.333, Mahaffy) (p.255-256, Rawlinson)
Verse 26: "Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain." (174 BC) Ptolemy Philometor of Egypt was betrayed to Syrians and made prisoner in guise of friendship because conqueror and prisoner were uncle and nephew. Egyptians in Alexandria made Ptolemy's brother king. (p. 333, Mahaffy) (p.278, Rawlinson)
Verse 27: "And both of these kings' hearts (Antiochus & Philometor) shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed." Uncle and nephew at banquet table each try to deceive the other. (p. 333, Mahaffy) (p.278, Rawlinson)
Verse 28: "Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land." (168 BC) Antiochus returned and persecuted the Jews who rejoiced upon hearing the false report that Antiochus died (1 Maccabees 1:19-20).(p.337, 495, Mahaffy) (p.255, Rawlinson)
Verse 29: "At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter." (168 BC) (like neither of his previous successful invasions) King of North returns to Egypt when brothers learn of uncle's treachery. Roman ambassador Popilius asked if he would obey the command of the senate and leaver Egypt in peace. He hesitated. So Popilius drew a circle around Antiochus and demanded an answer before he stepped out of it. Rome made Egypt a protectorate. (p.337, Mahaffy) (p.278, Rawlinson)
Verse 30: "For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant." (168 BC) Ships of Kittim were Greek or Roman fleet. Renegade Jews join with with gentile Syrians to destroy what remains of true religion in Palestine. (pp. 339-340, Mahaffy)
Verse 31: "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." Climax of horror. See Daniel 8:11-14. Idol of Jupiter Olympus set up. (168 BC June) (p.340-341, Mahaffy) (p.255, Rawlinson). Our Lord spoke of the abomination of desolation as yet something yet to come (Matt. 24:15) proving that prophecies have more than one fulfillment.
Verse 32: "And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." (168 BC) Many Jews rejected covenant of God. Maccabean revolt. (p.340-341, Mahaffy) (p.255, Rawlinson). It was led by the descendants of Asmoneus, a Levite. They were therefore called Hasmoneans. Perhaps the best known explanation of the word Maccabee is that the word is composed of the initial letters of a verse the Jewish people sang after God split the sea in Ex. 15:11: “Mi kamocha ba’eilim YHWH” “Who is like You among the mighty, O G-d.” It is said that this phrase was the battle cry of Maccabees, written upon their banners and shields. Judas Maccabeus raised an army and gained two victories over generals sent aginst him. Then Judas's army of 3000 men defeated Lysias's 40,000 Syrian soldiers. With 10,000 men Judas soon after defeated Lysias army of 60,000. Then another army led by Lysias of 80,000 Syrians was defeated and another twice that number led by the king himself. Then Judas went to battle with 3000 men against Nicanor's 35,000 Syrian soldiers and was victorious again. The Syrians were all slain. But when Judas sought an alliance with pagan Rome, he was slain.
Verses 33-35: "And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed." Maccabean revolt.
Verse 36: "And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done." The Temple of God was renamed the temple of Jupiter Olympius, and every conceivable outrage was perpetrated within its precincts: "And to pollute also the temple in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius; ... for the temple was filled with riot and revelling by the Gentiles who dallied with harlots, and had to do with women within the circuit of the holy places ... The altar also was filled with profane things ... and when the feast of Bacchus was kept, the Jews were compelled to go in procession to Bacchus carrying ivy ... there were two women brought who had circumcized their children; whom when they had openly led round about the city, the babes hanging at their breasts, they cast them down headlong from the wall" (2 Macc. 6:2,4,5,7,10). In the same book is recorded how the king tortured and maimed seven sons in the presence of their mother, and caused them to be fried alive. "It came to pass also, that seven brethren with their mother were taken, and compelled by the king against the law to taste swine's flesh, and were tormented with scourges and whips. Then the king being in a rage, commanded pans and caldrons to be made hot: which forthwith being heated, he commanded to cut out the tongue of him that spake first, and to cut off the utmost parts of his body, the rest of his brethren and his mother looking on. Now when he was thus maimed in all his members, he commanded him being yet alive to be brought to the fire, and to be fried in the pan" (2 Macc. 7:1,3,4,5)
Verse 37: "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all." Antiochus "Epiphanes" was one of the Seleucidae, a Macedonian, and therefore a descendant of the tribe of Dan. The god of his fathers was YHWH. But he magnified himself above all. He called himself the god "Epiphanes". He also caused himself to be depicted as the god Jupiter (Zeus) on some of his coins. Disregarding the desire of women for motherhood, and their children, "they hung the infants from their mothers' necks" (1 Macc. 1:54-61). Antiochus had no pity for the tears of mothers or the suffering of little children. We read: "they also strangled those women and their sons whom they had circumcised, as the king had appointed, hanging their sons about their necks as they were upon crosses" (Josephus Ant. 12:5:4).
Verse 38-39: "But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain." Antiochus placed an altar upon the altar of sacrifice in the Temple at Jerusalem to honour Jupiter. "And when the king had built an idol altar upon God's altar, he slew swine upon it, and so offered a sacrifice neither according to law, nor the Jewish religious worship in that country" (Ant. 12:5:4). Jupiter Capitolinus was the "god of forces" or fortresses. "When a foreign state had injured Rome, it was forbidden to begin war without a formal declaration by the fetiales or heralds, the ministers of Jupiter. Headed by the pater patratus populi Romani, they appealed to Jupiter to witness that they had been wronged, and denounced ruin on the wrong-doers. Having thus through his representative on earth solemnly warned the guilty, the god as Victor led his people to conquest. When the army returned, their entry was a religious ceremonial in honour of Jupiter. The general, as representative of Jove, was borne on a guilded chariot drawn by four white horses through the Porta Triumphalis to the temple on the Capitol, where he offered a solemn sacrifice to the god, and laid on his knees the victor's laurels" (Encyc. Brit. vol. 13, p.780)
Verses 40-45: "And at the time of the end (decay of Syrian kingdom) shall the king of the south (Ptolemy VI Philometer) push at him (Demetrius I till 150 B.C. or Alexander Theopater Euergetes in 146 B.C. Euergetes means Well-doer. But his subjects named him Kakergetes or Evil-doer): and the king of the north (Pompey of Rome) shall come against him (Antiochus XIII) like a whirlwind (in 64 B.C. Syria incorporated as a province of Rome), with chariots, and with horsemen (5000 cavalry), and with many ships (270 ships) (& 120,000 infantry); and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief (greater portion) of the children of Ammon (SE of Dead Sea not added to Roman province of Syria till Trajan's reign -- c. 106 AD) He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt ("granary of Rome") shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, (he returned to Rome in 62 B.C. with approx. 30,000 gold talents) and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east (Judea -- A firm persuasion had long prevailed through all the East, that it was fated for the empire of the world, at that time, to devolve on some who should go forth from Judea -- Suetonius, Lives of 12 Caesars, ch. 4) and out of the north (Germany's legions proclaimed Vitellius emperor in 69 AD & Gaul's insurrection in 68 AD) shall trouble him: therefore he (Vespasian) shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he (Titus) shall plant the tabernacles (or standards and eagles -- Num. 2:1-2) of his palace between the seas (Mediterranean & Dead) in the glorious holy mountain (Zion); yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him" (Dan. 11:40-45).
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