Monday, January 28, 2013

The Timeline of Creation. 13.75 Billion years ago to today.


Timeline of Creation .....

Our Universe was created 13.75 Billion years ago.... how many Universes existed before then ?

A Biblical Timeline.... some Events in History ..... going back a few years. Look at all the stuff that happened before Adam and Eve !!

According to the National Geographic Genographic Project our present Human DNA originates 500,000 years ago. Curious to know if Adam and Eve (5773 years ago) have different DNA ? J + K, E1b1b1-a1b + X etc etc ? Anyone know ? https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/about/

Friday, January 25, 2013

The Immanence (Within all) and Transcendence (Above all) of God. - The Bahir



There are two praises of the angels: The first is "Holy. Holy, Holy, the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with His Glory (Isa 6:3). This speaks of God's Immanence (presence in all things) where His Glory, which is the aspect of Malkut-Kingship, fills all creation. The Second Praise is "Blessed be God's Glory from His place (Eze 3:12) This indicates His Transcendence, where even his Glory, (which is Malkhut-Kingship, the lowest level of the 10 Sephiroth) must be blessed from afar. These two levels show that God both fills all Worlds and encompasses all worlds.

The word "bless" indicates the aspect in which God fills all the world. This however, comes from God's "place", that is, from the aspect where He is in the place of the Universe, encompassing all creation. Thus, when it is said, "Blessed be God's glory from His place", it means that the aspect in which he "surrounds all worlds" must be brought down so that He should "fill all worlds". - The Bahir p. 152

The Universe, the Kingdom of God, is Within You (Luke 17:21) ..... indeed we are all "star stuff".

Tallit, the 4,000 year old Prayer Shawl

$36 Tallit from Israel
Tallit is an Aramaic word from the root tll טלל meaning cover. Tallit literally means cloak or sheet but in Talmudic times already referred to the Jewish prayer shawl. The tallit is similar to the Roman pallium worn today by senior Roman Catholic priests, the Roman toga and the Arab keffiyeh.

On the fast day of Tisha B'Av, different customs prevail. Some Ashkenazim do not wear a tallit during the morning (Shacharit) service and those who do omit the blessing regarding donning a fringed garment (Tzitzit); at the afternoon service (Mincha), those who wear a tallit gadol make the blessing on fringes then. Some Sephardim (according to Kabbalah and the local custom (Minhag) for Jerusalem) wear the tallit at Shacharit as usual.

The Kabbalists considered the tallit as a special garment for the service of God, intended, in connection with the tefillin, to inspire awe and reverence for God at prayer.The tallit is worn by worshipers at the morning prayer on weekdays, Shabbat, and holy days; by the hazzan (cantor) at every prayer while before the ark; and by the reader of Torah, as well as by all other functionaries during the Torah service.

The use of the tallit begins in the Biblical period around 1800 BCE. (almost 4,000 years ago) The ancient Jewish tallit design was different than that known today. Originally it was a large white rectangular garment with tzitzyot in each corner and was used as a garment, bed sheet, and burial shroud.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Beam like the Sun ! Yeah Man ... Fantastic !!



You cannot define yourself in reference to other external coordinates. You must define yourself internally with your relationship with a Higher Entity. Think of yourself as a Manifestation of some Higher thing, some Higher Frequency. This (Here Now) is the visible realization, and you know that because you can't see atoms, can you, and you certainly can't see the forces that hold the atoms together. There, in the Micro Quantum World lie the answers to Everything. We can't understand it with our logical, rational minds but we feel it intuitively. Get yourself in alignment with that stuff and you Beam like the Sun ! (Jeepers Creepers) Yeah Man ! Yeah Man !

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Was the "Ad Herennium" the First Gospel , according to Cicero.... Written in 90 BC ?

Was the image of the Crucified Christ created in 90 BC ? 86 years before Jesus the Nazarene, Yeshua bar Yosef, was born in Bethlehem ? Was the icon of a bloodied and disfigured Messiah, a scourged, and Suffering Servant wearing a crown of thorns created by Cicero in Rome as a mnemonic device ? A pictograph by which the story of the Passion would be remembered ? The following is an excerpt taken from the Rhetorica ad Herennium (Loeb Classical Library No. 403)(English and Latin Edition) written in 90 BC as a guide on how Orators are to create Memory Pictures or Pictographs (Mnemonics) and used to memorize long stories. The Ad Herennium was the Orators Bible, the key to the Oral Tradition ......

" Why is it that some images are so strong and sharp and so suitable for awakening memory, whilst others are so weak and feeble that they hardly stimulate memory at all ? We must enquire into this so as to know which images to avoid and which to seek.

"Now nature herself teaches us what we should do. When we see in every day life things that are pretty, ordinary, and banal, we generally fail to remember them, because the mind is not being stirred by anything novel or MARVELOUS. But if we see or hear something exceptionally base, dishonorable, unusual, great, UNBELIEVABLE, or ridiculous, that we are likely to remember for a long time.... We ought then, to set up images of a kind that can adhere longest in memory. And we shall do so if we establish similitudes as striking as possible; if we set up images that are not many or vague but active; if we assign to them exceptional beauty or singular ugliness; if we ornament some of them, as with CROWNS or PURPLE cloaks, so as the similitude may be more distinct to us; or if we somehow DISFIGURE them, as by introducing one stained with BLOOD or soiled with mud or SMEARED with RED paint, so that it's form is more striking, or by assigning certain comic effects to our images, for that too, will ensure our remembering them more readily. The things we easily remember when they are real we likewise remember them without difficulty when they are figments." (Ad Herennium - 90 BC)





















Mark 15:17
They put a PURPLE robe on him, then twisted together a CROWN of thorns and set it on him.

Isaiah 52:14
Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so DISFIGURED beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness —

John 19:34
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of BLOOD and water.


Rhetorica ad Herennium [English: 'Rhetoric: For Herennius'], formerly attributed to Cicero but of unknown authorship, is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the 90s BC, and is still used today as a textbook on the structure and uses of rhetoric and persuasion.

It was the most popular book on rhetoric during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was commonly used, along with Cicero's De Inventione, to teach rhetoric, and over one hundred are extant. It was also copied extensively into European vernacular languages, and served as the standard schoolbook text on rhetoric during the Renaissance. The work focuses on the practical applications and examples of rhetoric. It is also the first book to teach rhetoric in a very highly structured and disciplined form.

Its discussion of elocutio (style) is the oldest surviving systematic treatment of Latin style, and many of the examples are of contemporary Roman events. This new style, which flowered in the century following this work's writing, promoted revolutionary advances in Roman literature and oratory. However, according to some analysts, teaching oratory in Latin was controversial because oratory was seen as a political tool which had to be kept in the hands of the Greek-speaking upper class. The Rhetorica ad Herennium can be seen as part of a liberal populist movement, along with those like Plotius Gallus who began teaching in Latin. The work contains the first known description of the method of loci, a mnemonic technique. Ad Herennium also provides the first complete treatment of memoria (memorization of speeches). - Ad Herennium 90 BC


.... "We ought then, to set up images that can adhere longest in memory. .. as striking as possible... if we ornament them with CROWNS or PURPLE cloaks,if we somehow DISFIGURE them, as by introducing one stained with BLOOD or soiled with mud or SMEARED with RED paint, so that it's form is more striking, or by assigning certain comic effects to our images, for that too, will ensure our remembering them more readily." (Ad Herennium - 90 BC)

Latin: "Docet igitur nos ipsa natura quid oporteat fieri. Nam si quas res in vita videmus parvas, usitatas, cotidianas, meminisse non solemus, propterea quod nulla nova nee admirabili re commovetur animus ; at si quid videmus aut audimus egregie turpe, inhonestum, inusitatum, magnum, incredibile, ridiculum, id diu meminisse consuevimus. Itaque quas res ante ora videmus aut audimus obliviscimur plerumque ; quae acciderunt in pueritia meminimus optime saepe ; nee hoc alia de causa potest accidere nisi quod usitatae res facile e memoria elabuntur, insignes et novae diutius manent in animo. Solis exortus, cursus, occasus nemo admiratur propterea quia cotidie fiunt ; at eclipses solis mirantur quia raro accidunt, et solis eclipses magis mirantur quam lunae propterea quod hae crebriores sunt. Docet ergo se natura vulgari et usitata re non exsuscitari, novitate et insigni quodam negotio commoveri. Imitetur ars igitur naturam, et quod ea desiderat id inveniat, quod ostendit sequatur. Nihil est enim quod aut natura extremum invenerit aut doctrina primum ; sed rerum principia ab ingenio profecta sunt, exitus disciplina conparantur.

Imagines igitur nos in eo genere constituere oportebit quod genus in memoria diutissime potest haerere.
Id accidet si quam maxime notatas similitudines constituemus ; si non multas nee vagas, sed aliquid agentes imagines ponemus ; si egregiam pulcritu- dinem aut unicam turpitudinem eis adtribuemus ; si aliquas exornabimus, ut si coronis aut veste purpurea, quo nobis notatior sit similitudo ; aut si qua re deformabimus, ut si cruentam aut caeno oblitam aut rubrica delibutam inducamus, quo magis insignita sit forma, aut ridiculas res aliquas imaginibus adtribuamus, nam ea res quoque faciet ut facilius meminisse valeamus. Nam quas res veras facile meminimus, easdem fictas et diligenter notatas meminisse non difficile est. Sed illud facere oporte- bit, ut identidem primos quosque locos imaginum renovandarum causa celeriter animo pervagemus

So, what is the meaning of Crown, Cloak, Purple etc ?

The "crown" represents the Sefirah of Keter-Crown, while the "cloak" is alluded to in the verse, "He wraps Himself in light as a garment" (Psalms 104:2), This "cloak" or garment is the light of Chakhmah-Wisdom and Binah-Understanding when they descend to protect the lower Sefirot from Evil. (The Bahir)


This forms the Top Three of the Sefirot :

Keter-Crown
Binah-Understanding (Left)
Chakmah-Wisdom (Right)
The Purple is what connects Crown (Atika Kadisha - The Ancient Holy One) through Binah(Imma-Mother)and Chakhmah (Aba-Father) to Tiferet-Beauty The Prince of Peace, The Son.

Sippur means the Retelling of the Story. The "Sefirot" (סְפִירוֹת), singular "Sefirah" (סְפִירָה), literally means "counting"/"enumeration", but early Kabbalists presented a number of other etymological possibilities from the same Hebrew root including: sefer (text), sippur (recounting a story), sappir (sapphire, brilliance, luminary), separ (boundary), and safra (scribe). The term sefirah thus has complex connotations within Kabbalah.

The Sephirot are considered revelations of the Creator's Will ("ratzon"),[2] and they should not be understood as ten different "gods" but as ten different ways the one God reveals his Will through the Emanations. While in Cordoveran Kabbalah, Keter (The Divine Will) is listed as the first Sephirah, it is an intermediary above consciousness between God and the other, conscious Sephirot. The Sephirot are emanated from the Divine Will, because Kabbalah sees different levels within Keter, reflecting God's inner Will and outer Will. The innermost, hidden levels of Keter, also in some contexts called "The head/beginning that is not known",[3] are united above the Sephirot with the Ein Sof (Divine essence).

Keter-"Crown": Divine Will to create/Infinite Light of the Creator/the Hebrew name of God "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh-I Am that I Am"

Chochmah-"Wisdom": First unbounded flash of an idea before it takes on limitations/male light/Divine Reality/first revelation/creation from nothingness

Binah-"Understanding": the infinite flash of Chochmah brought into the vessel of understanding to give it grasp of breadth and depth/feminine vessel that gives birth to the emotions/reason/understanding brings teshuva return to God



As to the actual significance of the numbers 10 and 22 in context of Judaism goes into Kabbalistic interpretation of Genesis. God is said to have created the world through Ten Utterances, marked by the number of times Genesis states, “And God said.”
Gen 1:3 - "And Elohim said, 'Let there be Light.' and there was Light." (Kether)
Gen 1:6 - "And Elohim said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the Waters, and let it divide the Waters from the Waters." (Chockmah)
Gen 1:9 - "And Elohim said, 'Let the Waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so." (Binah)
Gen 1:11 - "And Elohim said, 'Let the Earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth.' And it was so." (Chesed)
Gen 1:14-15 - "And Elohim said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so." (Gevurah)
Gen 1:20 - "And Elohim said, 'Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.'" (Tiphareth)
Gen 1:22 - "And Elohim Blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.'" (Netzach)
Gen 1:26 - "And Elohim said, 'Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'" (Hod)
Gen 1:28 - "And Elohim blessed them and Elohim said to them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.'" (Yesod)
Gen 1:29-30 - "And Elohim said, 'Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat.' And it was so." (Malkuth)

As for the 22 letter-paths, there must first be an explanation of the three different types of letters in Hebrew. See “Bahir Tree” of “Kircher Tree” image for reference.

There are three “Mothers” (Aleph, Mem, and Shin) that represent the horizontal lines.
Their difference from the other letters is a matter for another article.
There are seven “Doubles” (Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Resh, and Tav) that represent the vertical lines.
Each double is attributed to a soft and hard sound, positive and negative meaning, direction, planet, gate of the soul, color, angels, and vowel. Gimel, Dalet, Resh, and Tav’s second pronunciations are lost or disputed, with different dialects using different sounds. Tav has no second pronunciation in Sephardi, but Ashkenazi use a 's' sound when the dagesh is absent.

The twelve “Elementals” (Heh, Vav, Zayin, Chet, Tet, Yud, Lamed, Nun, Samech, Ayin, Tzaddi, and Qof) have one pronunciation, and represent the diagonal lines. Other sources say that they correspond to the twelve zodiacal constellations.
Each letter grouping has significance in Genesis 1:
The Mothers represent the three times Genesis states “God made."
The Doubles represent the seven times Genesis states “God saw."
The elementals (or singles) represent the rest of the times “God” (Elohim in every instance of Genesis Chapter 1) is mentioned.

The meanings of the drawn letters As you see in the chart before you, the meanings of the letters are not always clear or definite. The researchers determined them based on the connection of the letters to the text and their context.
– א aleph - To represent the word אַלּוּף(aluf), a head of a bull.
– בbet - From the wordבַּיִת (bayit), a square shape which represents home.
– גgimel - To represent a throw stick, boomerang.
– דdalet - To represent the word דַּג (dag), a fish.
– הheh - To represent הֵיי (hey), a man calling out “hey”.
– וvav - From the word וָו (vav), a peg knocked into walls to be used as a hook.
– זzayin - The meaning of this shape is unclear.
– חchet - This seems to derive from חוּט (choot), a piece of string.
- טtet - This might be to represent a roll of string, however the connection between the sound “t” and a role of string is unclear.
– יyud – From the word יָד (yad), an arm.
– כkaf – To represent the word כַּף יָד (kaf yad), the palm of a hand.
– לlamed – From the word מַלְמָד(malmad). This is a goad used by a herdsman to guide the cattle. Malmad comes from the word “to teach“ (lelamed in Hebrew), but is obsolete these days.
– מ mem - From the word מַיִם (mayim), water.
- נnoon - To represent the wordנָחָשׁ (nachash),a snake.
– סsamech - The meaning of this shape is unclear.
- עa’yin - To represent the word עַיִן (a’yin), an eye.
– פpey - To represent the word פִּנָּה (pina),a corner in a room.
– צtzadi – To represent the word צֶמַח (tzemach),a plant.
– קkuf - The meaning of this shape is unclear.
– רresh – To representרֹאשׁ (rosh), a human head.
– שshin - This might be a bow (keshet) or breasts (shadayim).
– תtav – To represent the word תָּו (tav),a sign, a note.

http://www.hebrewtoday.com/content/history-alphabet

Phoenician Writing

The Phoenicians, inhabitants of the coastal cities situated in Lebanon: Tyre, Sidon and others, contributed their part in forming the writing in the area. They reduced the number of letters to 22, as we know it today, they fixed the direction of writing from right to left and decided on the final design of the letters at that time.

The Phoenicians were seamen who were descendants of the Canaanites who lived in the region of the land of Israel. They had learned the art of writing from the inhabitants of the area, improved it a little and publicized it. Doing this was not too difficult as being seamen they travelled far and wide.

The Development Of Written Hebrew Unfortunately, very few findings of ancient texts from the time of the forefathers have been uncovered in the land of Israel. High humidity and poor quality ink ruined the chances for researchers to find remains of ancient scriptures. Yet, with the little we do know, lets try to trace the development of Hebrew writing from the days of King Solomon until today.

The first discovery, which proves the change from Proto-Canaanite writing to Hebrew writing, is a collection of arrowheads, which was found near Bethlehem. On them it said: chetz abedlebat חץ עבדלבאת)) which means that the owner of the arrows believed that he was a slave of the goddess Bat (עבד ל {אלה} באת). The interesting thing about the writing on the arrows was, that part of the letters were in Proto-Canaanite style and others contained the form of Hebrew writing. This style of writing started to take hold in the whole area.

The Bahir Illumination, Aleph, Yud and Shin

One of the oldest, most important and most carefully preserved of all the ancient texts. The Bahir Attributed to Rabbi ben haKana, master of the first century esoteric school.

"Rabbi Amorai said: What is the meaning of the verse (Exodus 15:3, "God is a man (Ish) .... "? Mar Rahumai said to him: Great Master, do not ask about something that is so simple. Listen to me and I will advise you.

He said to him : What is this like ? A King had a number of beautiful dwellings, and he gave each one a name. One was better than the other. He said, "I will give my Son this dwelling whose name is Alef. This one whose name is Yud, is also good, as is the one whose name is Shin. What did he do then ? He gathered all three together, and out of them he made a single name and a single house.

He said: How long will you continue to conceal your meaning ?

The other replied: My Son, "Alef" is the head. Yud is second to it. Shin includes the world. (p 10-11)

"In the beginning "is One. Two is (Isa 57:16), "The Spirit that enwraps itself is from Me , and I have made souls." Three is (Psalm 65:10), "the divisions of God are filled with water."

What are these "divisions "? You taught us, our Master, that God took the waters of creation and separated them, placing half in the skies and half in the ocean. This is the meaning of "the divisions of God are filled with water." Through them, man studies the Torah". (p 18-19)



Exodus 15:3 יְהֹוָה אִישׁ מִלְחָמָה יְהֹוָה שְׁמוֹ:

Exodus 3:15 וַיֹּאמֶר עוֹד אֱלֹהִים אֶל משֶׁה כֹּה תֹאמַר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵיכֶם אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם אֱלֹהֵי יִצְחָק וֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶם זֶה שְּׁמִי לְעֹלָם וְזֶה זִכְרִי לְדֹר דֹּר:

Thursday, January 17, 2013

The Gospel of Thomas in Aramaic / Syriac, 37 AD

Is this a copy of the earliest book of the Nazarenes ? The Gospel of Thomas... The Twin, written in Aramaic, ancient Hebrew script?

אלה הם אמירות הסודיות שחי ישו דבר ושהתאומים יהודה תומאס רשם

Translated: These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymus Jude Thomas wrote down.



Is this from a copy maintained by the Vatican ? On Wednesday, 27 September 2006 Pope BENEDICT XVI said the following regarding "Thomas the twin..... the proverbial scene of the doubting Thomas that occurred eight days after Easter is very well known. At first he did not believe that Jesus had appeared in his absence and said: "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe" (Jn 20: 25).

As we know, Jesus reappeared among his disciples eight days later and this time Thomas was present. Jesus summons him: "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing" (Jn 20: 27).

Thomas reacts with the most splendid profession of faith in the whole of the New Testament: "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20: 28). St Augustine comments on this: Thomas "saw and touched the man, and acknowledged the God whom he neither saw nor touched; but by the means of what he saw and touched, he now put far away from him every doubt, and believed the other" (In ev. Jo. 121, 5)..... A final point concerning Thomas is preserved for us in the Fourth Gospel, which presents him as a witness of the Risen One in the subsequent event of the miraculous catch in the Sea of Tiberias (cf. Jn 21: 2ff.) On that occasion, Thomas is even mentioned immediately after Simon Peter: an evident sign of the considerable importance that he enjoyed in the context of the early Christian communities.

Indeed, the Acts of Thomas and the Gospel of Thomas, both apocryphal works but in any case important for the study of Christian origins, were written in his name.

Lastly, let us remember that an ancient tradition claims that Thomas first evangelized Syria and Persia (mentioned by Origen, according to Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History 3, 1) then went on to Western India (cf. Acts of Thomas 1-2 and 17ff.), from where also he finally reached Southern India. - BENEDICT XVI, GENERAL AUDIENCE, Saint Peter's Square Wednesday, 27 September 2006

Oxyrhynchus papyrus fragments:

After the Coptic version of the complete text was discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, scholars soon realized that three different Greek text fragments previously found at Oxyrhynchus, also in Egypt, were part of the Gospel of Thomas. These three papyrus fragments of Thomas date to between 130 and 250. Prior to the Nag Hammadi library discovery, the sayings of Jesus found in Oxyrhynchus were known simply as Logia Iesu. The corresponding Koine Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, found in Oxyrhynchus are:

P. Oxy. 1 : fragments of logia 26 through 33, with the last two sentences of logion 77 in the Coptic version included at the end of logion 30 herein.
P. Oxy. 654 : fragments of the beginning through logion 7, logion 24 and logion 36 on the flip side of a papyrus containing surveying data.
P. Oxy. 655 : fragments of logia 36 through 39. 8 fragments designated a through h, whereof f and h have since been lost.

The wording of the Coptic sometimes differs markedly from the earlier Greek Oxyrhynchus texts, the extreme case being that the last portion of logion 30 in the Greek is found at the end of logion 77 in the Coptic. This fact, along with the quite different wording Hippolytus uses when apparently quoting it (see below), suggests that the Gospel of Thomas "may have circulated in more than one form and passed through several stages of redaction."

Although it is still generally assumed that the "Gospel of Thomas" was first composed in Greek, there is growing evidence that the Coptic Nag Hammadi text is a translation from Syriac (Aramaic). On comparing the Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus with the fuller Coptic version, Nicholas Perrin argues that the differences can be attributed to the reliance of both on a common Syriac (Aramaic) source.

Richard Valantasis writes: "Assigning a date to the Gospel of Thomas is very complex because it is difficult to know precisely to what a date is being assigned. Scholars have proposed a date as early as AD 40 or as late as AD 140, depending upon whether the Gospel of Thomas is identified with the original core of sayings, or with the author's published text, or with the Greek or Coptic texts, or with parallels in other literature."

Valantasis and other scholars argue that it is difficult to date Thomas because, as a collection of logia without a narrative framework, individual sayings could have been added to it gradually over time.(However, Valantasis does date Thomas to 100–110 AD, with some of the material certainly coming from the first stratum which is dated to 30–60 AD. Dating the Gospel of Thomas

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Was the Torah written in Hebrew ? or Proto-Sinaitic ?

In learning about the oldest fragments of the Hebrew Bible, known as Torah, the First 5 books, I have gone back further and further in time until I finally got to 15 Billion years old, actually before Time ..... How is this possible ? Well, according to some Traditions the Torah was the blueprint for Creation. God used the letters of the Hebrew Aleph-bet and the Word of Torah to create the Universe. OK. Since I don't know of any other records that were created around 15 Billion years ago I need to start from today and work my way back.

So I begin my search with the earliest example of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. For example what do we have from Archaeology ? According to most linguists Hebrew descends from a type of Aramaic, and Aramaic descends or is an offshoot of Phoenician, which could be the same as the Canaanite language, or some combination of what is called Proto-Sinaitic language.... A simplified or modified Egyptian.

There are examples of a very crude proto-Hebrew script found in the Turqouise Mines of Egypt that have been dated to roughly 2,000 BC. That would mean a type of Hebrew writing that existed almost 1,000 years before Moses, and probably around the same time that Abraham lived. So, who were the people that wrote these early pre-Hebrew words ? According to Several Linguists they were Canaanites. Trades People working in Egypt 1,000 years before the Exodus.

As the alphabetic script wandered with Canaanite caravans, it retained its pictorial forms for hundreds of years. People learned the letters from one another orally. For this kind of use, the pictorial nature of the signs was very important. It was easy to learn the alphabet simply by memorizing the pictures. The first sound of the picture was the letter. To remember the alphabet, all one had to do was memorize the pictures. The rest followed from that: The ―name‖ of the letter leads one to a picture, which helps to recreate the form of the letter: In the margin at right you can see the ox-shaped head of the letter aleph, the box-shaped house (bêt) for ―B,‖ the hand-like kaf for ―K,‖ wavy lines representing mayim (―water‖) or ―M,‖ the snake-like naḥash for ―N,‖ the eye for „ayin and the head (rosh) for ―R.

Read more here : The Origins of the Aleph-Bet -- BAR (Biblical Archaeology Review) 36:02, Mar/Apr 2010 How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs By Orly Goldwasser