Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Nail of the Tent

Stories from the life of Abraham, our father:
Jasher 21:22-48
  1. And in some time after, Abraham said to Sarah his wife, I will go and see my son Ishmael, for I have a desire to see him, for I have not seen him for a long time.
  2. And Abraham rode upon one of his camels to the wilderness to seek his son Ishmael, for he heard that he was dwelling in a tent in the wilderness with all belonging to him.
  3. And Abraham went to the wilderness, and he reached the tent of Ishmael about noon, and he asked after Ishmael, and he found the wife of Ishmael sitting in the tent with her children, and Ishmael her husband and his mother were not with them.
  4. And Abraham asked the wife of Ishmael, saying, Where has Ishmael gone? and she said, He has gone to the field to hunt, and Abraham was still mounted upon the camel, for he would not get off to the ground as he had sworn to his wife Sarah that he would not get off from the camel.
  5. And Abraham said to Ishmael's wife, My daughter, give me a little water that I may drink, for I am fatigued from the journey.
  6. And Ishmael's wife answered and said to Abraham, We have neither water nor bread, and she continued sitting in the tent and did not notice Abraham, neither did she ask him who he was.
  7. But she was beating her children in the tent, and she was cursing them, and she also cursed her husband Ishmael and reproached him, and Abraham heard the words of Ishmael's wife to her children, and he was very angry and displeased.
  8. And Abraham called to the woman to come out to him from the tent, and the woman came and stood opposite to Abraham, for Abraham was still mounted upon the camel.
  9. And Abraham said to Ishmael's wife, When thy husband Ishmael returneth home say these words to him,
  10. A very old man from the land of the Philistines came hither to seek thee, and thus was his appearance and figure; I did not ask him who he was, and seeing thou wast not here he spoke unto me and said, When Ishmael thy husband returneth tell him thus did this man say, When thou comest home put away this nail of the tent which thou hast placed here, and place another nail in its stead.
  11. And Abraham finished his instructions to the woman, and he turned and went off on the camel homeward.
  12. And after that Ishmael came from the chase he and his mother, and returned to the tent, and his wife spoke these words to him,
  13. A very old man from the land of the Philistines came to seek thee, and thus was his appearance and figure; I did not ask him who he was, and seeing thou wast not at home he said to me, When thy husband cometh home tell him, thus saith the old man, Put away the nail of the tent which thou hast placed here and place another nail in its stead.
  14. And Ishmael heard the words of his wife, and he knew that it was his father, and that his wife did not honor him.
  15. And Ishmael understood his father's words that he had spoken to his wife, and Ishmael hearkened to the voice of his father, and Ishmael cast off that woman and she went away.
  16. And Ishmael afterward went to the land of Canaan, and he took another wife and he brought her to his tent to the place where he then dwelt.
  17. And at the end of three years Abraham said, I will go again and see Ishmael my son, for I have not seen him for a long time.
  18. And he rode upon his camel and went to the wilderness, and he reached the tent of Ishmael about noon.
  19. And he asked after Ishmael, and his wife came out of the tent and she said, He is not here my lord, for he has gone to hunt in the fields, and to feed the camels, and the woman said to Abraham, Turn in my lord into the tent, and eat a morsel of bread, for thy soul must be wearied on account of the journey.
  20. And Abraham said to her, I will not stop for I am in haste to continue my journey, but give me a little water to drink, for I have thirst; and the woman hastened and ran into the tent and she brought out water and bread to Abraham, which she placed before him and she urged him to eat, and he ate and drank and his heart was comforted and he blessed his son Ishmael.
  21. And he finished his meal and he blessed the Lord, and he said to Ishmael's wife, When Ishmael cometh home say these words to him,
  22. A very old man from the land of the Philistines came hither and asked after thee, and thou wast not here; and I brought him out bread and water and he ate and drank and his heart was comforted.
  23. And he spoke these words to me: When Ishmael thy husband cometh home, say unto him, The nail of the tent which thou hast is very good, do not put it away from the tent.
  24. And Abraham finished commanding the woman, and he rode off to his home to the land of the Philistines; and when Ishmael came to his tent his wife went forth to meet him with joy and a cheerful heart.
  25. And she said to him, An old man came here from the land of the Philistines and thus was his appearance, and he asked after thee and thou wast not here, so I brought out bread and water, and he ate and drank and his heart was comforted.
  26. And he spoke these words to me, When Ishmael thy husband cometh home say to him, The nail of the tent which thou hast is very good, do not put it away from the tent.
  27. And Ishmael knew that it was his father, and that his wife had honored him, and the Lord blessed Ishmael.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Joseph in Egypt

For the past several months my daughter has worked on the tech crew for a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. For some reason, the church-goers whom she works with are rather unfamiliar with the story of Joseph ben Israel. They regularly expressed surprise when she would tell them "more of the story". One co-worker, a student of history and member of the church my daughter attends, stated that there is no record of Israel in Egypt and that the Bible is myth, or words to that effect.

At about the time that the production was beginning, I happened to have been re-reading books to tie up genealogical threads, and two of them happened to discuss the same things: the Israel Stella and Joseph in Egypt. I let my daughter know of the things that my extra-biblical studies had uncovered. She asked that I send her a summary of my findings. I finally responded on September 7th. I include my response here for review:

The Merneptah Stele was discovered in 1896 by Flinders Petrie in Thebes. It includes the earliest known reference to Israel as a people (ca. 1210 BC) and the only reference to Israel in Egyptian collections. As such it is highly controversial and usually dismissed by revisionists. The wikipedia article presents a fairly balanced look at the Stela. It is also known as the Israel Stela and is located in the Cairo Museum.

Where I first learned about the Stela was in a 1996 book by Dr. Lyman Platt, The World Book of Generations (attachment WBG1.jpg). It is also discussed in Laurence Gardner (1943-2010), in his 1999 publication, Genesis of the Grail Kings (attachment GGK.jpg). Laurence Gardner has generally been dismissed as a conspiracy theorist and proponent of pseudo history.

Both of these books reference the works of Ahmed Osman (1934-):
  • Stranger in the Valley of the Kings, 1987
  • Moses - Pharaoh of Egypt, 1990
  • The House of the Messiah, 1992
The World Book of Generations quotes Osman extensively in its discussion of Joseph and Moses. Osman has a Master's degree in Egyptology and follows the thesis presented by Sigmund Freud in Moses and Monotheism, that Moses was also know as Pharaoh Akhenaten. Genesis of the Grail Kings also devotes two chapters to the discussion of Joseph and Moses, relying on Osman's works for their outline.

It is proposed in the above listed works that Joseph, son of Jacob (Israel) was known in Egypt as Yuya, Vizier of Egypt under two pharaohs (Tutmosis IV and Amenhotep III), father-in-law of Amenhotep III, grandfather of Akhenaten, father of Pharoah Aye, great-grandfather of Tutankhamun.

Because you are currently involved in the production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, I include the following excerpt from Stranger in the Valley of the Kings:
Although the tomb of Yuya and Tuya [Yuya's wife] was the most complete one to be found before that of Tutankhamun, nobody thought that Yuya personally was of any great importance. Davis wrote his account of the discovery, with an introduction by Maspero, in 1907: Naville published his study of Yuya's Book of the Dead a year later. Nothing much has been done since, other than some studies of different pieces of the funerary furniture and its texts. Yet in the case of Yuya there are enough curious facets to make it surprising that his origins were not the subject of more detailed investigation, either at the time or in the intervening eighty years.

... he is the only person we know from the time of the Hyksos kings onward to bear the title it ntr n nb tawi - the holy father of the Lord of the Two Lands (Pharaoh), the same title claimed by Joseph - and, although not apparently of Royal blood, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings rather than in the Valley of the Nobles, close to the village of Sheikh Abdel Korna. Furthermore, unlike the tombs of other nobles, Yuya's was neither decorated nor inscribed; his name, found on his sarcophagus, the three coffins and other pieces of funerary furniture, is not Egyptian and had not been discovered in Egypt before that time; unlike the ears of most Royal mummies of the New Kingdom, Yuya's were not pierced, and the position of his hands, the palms facing his neck under the chin, is different from the usual Osiris form in which the dead man's hands are crossed over his chest. Yuya, as far as is known, is the only Egyptian mummy to have been found with his hands in this position.

Yuya bore an impressive list of titles in addition to 'the holy father of the Lord of the Two Lands':

Father of the God, or Holy Father (This was a common priestly title which might be said to correspond to the 'Father' of the Roman Catholic Church and the High Church of England or the 'Padre' of the armed forces),
Master of the Horse,
Deputy of His Majesty in the Chariotry,
Bearer of the ring of the King of Lower Egypt,
Seal-bearer of the King of Lower Egypt,
Hereditary Noble and Count,
Overseer of the Cattle of Min, Lord of Akhmin,
Overseer of the Cattle of Amun,
Favourite of the Good God (Pharaoh),
Confidant of the King,
Confidant of the Good God,
Mouth of the King of Upper Egypt,
Ears of the King of Lower Egypt,
Prophet of the God Min,
Sole Friend (Unique Friend),
First of the Friends,
Prince,
Great Prince,
Great of Love,
Plentiful of Favours in the House of the King,
Plentiful of Favours under his Lord,
Enduring of Love under his Lord,
Beloved of the King of Upper Egypt,
Beloved of the Lord of the Two Lands,
Beloved of God,
Possessor of Favour under the Lord of the Two Lands,
Praised of the Good God,
Praised of his God,
Praised of his Lord,
Praised of his Lord Amun,
Praised of the King,
Praised of the Lord of the Two Lands,
Praised One who came forth from the Body Praised,
One made rich by the King of Lower Egypt,
One made great by the King of Lower Egypt,
One made great by the Lord who does things,
First among the King's Companions,
The Wise One,
He whom the King made Great and Wise, whom the King has made his Double.

Unlike his wife, Tuya, who had conventional Egyptian looks, Yuya was remarkably foreign in appearance, as Arthur Wigall recorded in his book The Life and Times of Akhenanten, published in 1910: 'He was a person of commanding presence, whose powerful character showed itself in his face. One must picture him now as a tall man, with a fine shock of white hair; a great hooked nose like that of a Syrian; full, strong lips; and a prominent, determined jaw.'
There follows a wonderful discussion of the name Yuya and its relationship to the name Joseph. I won't take the time to copy that now. I find the whole intriguing. If Yuya wasn't Joseph, Yuya did "become a star" as the cast at Hale Centre so ably sings every night.

If you need anything more, holler!

Love,

Dad

The day after I sent that message to my daughter, I took the day off to attend the funeral of a good friend. After the funeral and a wonderful lunch with my wife and another good friend, my wife spotted a new location of a used book store. We stopped in to see if there was anything of interest.

To my surprise, I found a work by John Romer, Valley of the Kings, which is a history of the archaeological findings in said valley. I flipped the pages to the table of contents and saw there was a chapter describing the discovery of the tomb of Yuya and Tuya. When I turned to that section, I was astounded to find the following pictures on page 201:

Yuya
Tuya
Here, to my delight, are pictures of my 3,000 year-old ancestors! The fact that Yuya looks like a New England farmer is only icing on the cake.

For years I have wondered about these two. Their love story has intrigued me. How did a prophet of the Lord find a woman willing to join him and forsake the teachings of her fathers? The spirit whispers that Joseph and Asenath really are my ancestors.

My database is just about to the point where I can link directly to them. I imagine that they'll be roughly 120 generations from me. I've recently brought my studies to the point that I am adding genealogical data from the biblical source. It is my opinion that a very large majority of people alive today share the blood of these two people, part of the blessing of the their ancestor, Abraham.

This episode humbles me. The synchronicity thrills me.

The work, wading through disinformation, separating the wheat from the chaff, is paying off. Still, questions remain. When any genealogical question is answered, at least three more are raised, so questions are okay. They point the way to further study.