December 18, 2009, 8:38 am by dc-agape.

The Coming of the Melchizedek

This Scroll is barely a page long and is somewhat fragmented.  The author(s) of this Scroll intended it to be a true interpretation of the Jubilee year, which occurred every 49 years.  Numerous Old Testament scripture has been used to explain the Yahad’s personal interpretation of the Jubilee year.  The Scroll is also filled with prophecy.  Unfortunately, this does not mean the prophecies took place.  The suggestion of using Bible verses to claim a prophecy will be fulfilled at a specific time is not a sign of a miracle.  This Scroll is a good example of how verses can be taken out of context and put in a future environment where they will lead to a “prophecy”.  The people of the time could not prove that the prophecy was wrong, and those people that lived when the prophecy was supposed to take place no longer knew that a prophecy had ever been written.  I will explain more about that and introduce the Old Testament verses that were used to create a false prophecy.

Lev 25:13 “’ In this Year of Jubilee everyone is returned to his own property.  

Deut 15:2 This is how it is to be done: every creditor show cancel the loan he is made to this fellow Israelite.  He shall not require payments from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.

These verses is interpreted as what will happen in the Last Days.  After 1878 years (1948 – 70 CE) the return of Israel to the Jewish people cannot constitute “returned to his own property”.  Family records were not kept of property ownership, so no one can return to their own property.

Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

Here the concept of Melchizedek is invoked.  It is Melchizedek himself that will proclaim the good news to the poor, the broken hearted, the captives and the prisoners.  This is a very Messiah like concept, written over 100 years before Jesus was supposed to be born. But unlike Christian theology a specific time and specific people were to receive this “Good News”.  During the 10^th Jubilee Year (500 years in the future) those who were predestined to be atoned for would receive the “Good News”.  So not just any poor or broken-hearted, or captive, or prisoner – no, only the Sons of Light would receive the “Good News”.

Isa 61:2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

This is the verse that the author(s) change to fit their own desires.  It is no longer “the Lord’s favor”, they change it to “Melchizedek’s favor”.  Now this gives the believer something to hope for that is not just a vague “sometime in the future near the End of Days”. 

Psalms 82:1 God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the “gods”:

The Yahad’s version of this verse is also slightly different than our NIV translation.  The Yahad believed that a second figure was to presided in YHWH’s presence and give judgment. 

Psalms 7:7-8 Let the assembled people gather around you.  Ruled over them from on high; let the Lord judge the people.  Judge me, Oh Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High.

They back up Psalm 82:1 with this verse claiming that one would rule from on high.  Their interpretation is that this person would be Melchizedek.

Psalms 82:2 “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

This introduces the evils of mankind and the source of that evil: Belial…not the Christian Satan.  Men’s desire for evil will punished by Melchizedek himself at this time (500 years in the future).

Isa 61:3 and provide for those who grieve and Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of one of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair.  They will be called the oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. 

Here is a promise for those who live righteously during that future time.  Melchizedek will be the one who bestows the crown, provides the oil and garments. 

Isa 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Here the “mountains are prophets and they will proclaim the truth to all Israel.  Notice that in hindsight this did not happen since between 300 – 500 AD the Israelite nation had crumbled. 

Dan 9:26 After the sixty two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.  The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.  The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations has been decreed.

This “Anointed One” is the same as the one from Isa 61:2 who provides the vengeance of YHWH and comforts “all who mourn”.  The “Anointed One” will teach the people about the Truth and eternity.  He will also be instrumental in take Belial’s dominion and return it to the Sons of Light.

Isa 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Here Zion is those who turn to Melchizedek and are the ones predestined to follow him.  They will differ from the ways of man by proclaiming good news, peace, good tidings, and salvation.

Lev 25:9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the 10^th day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.

The Scroll ends without explaining this last verse.  But it is obvious that this should be taken as the sign that the prophecy written in this Scroll has taken place when the people here the trumpet sound. 

As with most “prophecy”, this one was written for a future generation.  This one happens to be the one that would have existed in the newly Christianized Roman Empire.  Basically about the time when Theodosius died and the Roman Empire was split into two distinct providences: the Eastern and the Western.  So if this prophecy was “true” a very important question is raised.  Which “Church” is the correct church and which one follows Belial?  Would this be the Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox?  The implications are astounding, for the Protestant and the Evangelical Churches of the US are based on the Catholic branch. 

Posted in Important Questions, The Coming of Melchizedek, Dead Sea Scroll, kingdom of God, Freewill, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

December 8, 2009, 7:55 am by dc-agape.

A Vision of a New Jerusalem

The good news is that I finished the proposal for my trip to Korea!  The bad news is that I still have 2 journal articles to write and prepare 2-3 presentations for upcoming professional conferences!  Hopefully I will have time to devote to this blog again.

In attempting that I want to discuss the next Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls entitled “A Vision of a New Jerusalem”.  But this scroll will take two posts.  This post is dedicated as an introduction, whereas the second post will be the actual reading of the scroll.  The concept of a new Temple and a New Jerusalem is the reason for this scroll and I want to cover a little history before delving into the actual Scroll.

Of course the Old Testament has a number of references to a new Temple.  But only the New Testament (Ezekiel, Isaiah, Ezra and Tobit) has a reference to the New Jerusalem (Ezekiel and Revelation).  The Dead Sea Scrolls has an additional Scroll call the Temple Scroll that only deals with the New Temple itself.  What I want to do in this post is look at the other religious documents that relate to the Vision of a New Jerusalem.  These would be the five that I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.

The Book of Ezekiel was written between 593 and 565 BCE.  During this time Nebuchadnezzar and his armies destroyed the original Temple in 586 BCE, which Solomon built in 960 BCE.  Interestingly, when one does physical research on this “First Temple” there is not documentation (except the Bible) of it ever existing and worse is that there is no archeological proof that it existed either!¹  To add to this, even the Jewish Talmud claims that the Temple was not destroyed until 420 BCE.²  But if we should take Ezekiel at face value…his writings were either recorded as the Temple was destroyed or after the destruction.  One must keep in mind that the war between the Babylonians and the Israelites had been in progress since 597 BCE, prior to the recording of the Book of Ezekiel.  The chapters in the Book of Ezekiel of importance to this post are chapters 40 – 48.  Here Ezekiel has a vision of a new Temple surrounded by a new territory for the Israelite community.  As recorded in Ezekiel 45:1 the Temple grounds would be 25,000 cubits by 20,000 cubits (4.73 x 3.78 miles, 7.62 x 6.096 km) and the city itself would be an additional 4.48 sq. miles.  Yes that is right the temple would 8 times the size of the city of Jerusalem.  So the Temple plus the city would be 22.4 sq. miles, as big as Dover, Delaware, USA (the capital of that state)!  But 88% of the city would be devoted to the Temple.  The Levites would live in 11% of the city and the rest of Israel (the other 11 tribes) would have the remaining 11%.  This would be a very large city to cross by horse!  It is also the oddest organization of a city ever designed.  Most likely Ezekiel was fantasying about the good old days and exaggerated the size of the city.

This New Jerusalem’s design is almost as staggering as that proposed by John of Patmos who describes a city in the Book of Revelation.  In Rev 21:9-27, John of Patmos describes a city that is 1,350 x 1,350 miles in size.  That is nearly the entire area of the planet when the oceans have been removed (1,822,500 sq miles or 4,720,000 sq km)!  For a reference to this size: the USA is 9.6 million sq km and India is only 3.3 million sq km.  Heaven will be only half the size of the present day US.  I certainly hope there are not too many souls there!  India has become over populated at the present count of 1.2 billion people.

Two more of the references describe the dreams of the Israelite people and how they long for a splendor of the old days.  In the Book of Isaiah (Isa 54:11-12) the New Jerusalem is described as having layers on layers of fine jewels.

Isaiah 54:11-12 “O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build with stones turquoise, your foundations with sapphires.  I will make your battlements of rubies, and all your walls of precious stones. 

Will we can certainly say that this Zion has never been built!  Earlier in this chapter two other promises from YHWH have still not been fulfilled either (Isaiah 54:3 or 8).   Reading this chapter it is quite obvious that Isaiah was describing an earthly kingdom.  Nothing of the description of the New Zion indicates a heavenly city.  It is beautifully written, and beautifully described but these three promises have not been fulfilled.  So we can be sure that these were fantasies of a misplaced society wishing for better days.  The other Old Testament reference is only found in the Catholic Bible. 

Tobit 14:5 And that again God will have mercy on them, and bring them again into the land, where they shall build a temple, but not like to the first, until the time of that age is fulfilled; and afterward they shall return from all the places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem gloriously, and the house of God shall be built and it forever was a glorious building, as the prophets have spoken thereof.

The Book of Tobit was canonized in 397 AD.  So if it existed as an Old Testament book written by the Jewish people we have no proof of that.  So here we have a catholic writer pretending to be a Jewish writer wishing for the better Jerusalem.  Is it just me, being an Atheist that this sounds wrong?

One verse in the Old Testament does describe how the people of Israel were disappointed by the New Temple.  This would be from the Book of Ezra.  In verse 12 of that book it describes how the older members of the community wept bitterly for they knew that the New Temple was not what the prophets had described.  So here the bible explicitly indicates that the Second Temple was not the prophesied Temple of YHWH.  So even though an earthly temple was described by the prophets, as of this date no such temple has been built.  As an Atheist this would seem to be an unfulfilled prophecy, making it a false prophecy.  Yet to get around this problem, Christian apologist claim that the prophecy is related to a heavenly Jerusalem instead of an earthly one.  What a load a crap!

¹ D. Langmead and C. Garnaut (2001). Encyclopedia of architectural and engineering feats (3rd, illustrated ed.). ABC-CLIO, Inc. pp 314-319.

² Seder Olam Rabbah; An Ancient Post-exilic Judaic document written in the Hebrew language.

Posted in Contradictions, Vision of a New Jerusalem, Dead Sea Scroll, Inerrancy - My Ass, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

December 2, 2009, 9:24 am by dc-agape.

The War of the Messiah

Well I certainly did not finish these scrolls in 10 days!  And I was certainly not prepared to write posts for the last month – even if I had brought my copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls to North Carolina.  The only writing I accomplished was a rough draft and hopefully the final copy of my proposal to study in Korea this summer.  But let me get back to the DSC.

To refresh your memory and mine, I will repeat my opening statements about this particular scroll.  This Scroll is two pages long and when discovered created quite a controversy.  As more research was placed on the meaning of this document, the Yahad were determined to believe that the Messiah would be victorious and make Israel a leading nation in the world. 

The source material for John of Patmos’ Book of Revelations is sitting open in front of me at this very moment.  In the War of the Messiah, written between 200 and 100 BCE, the Israelite hopes of an earthly Messiah are recorded without apology.  Two Old Testament “prophecies” are recorded in this Scroll verbatim.  Both references are written with an introduction recorded as:

4Q285 Frag. 4 just as it is written in the book of Ezekiel the prophet:

Ezek 39:3-4 Then I will strike your bow from your hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand.  On the mountain of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you.

4Q285 Frag. 7 + 11Q14 Frag. 1 Col. 1 – just as it is written in the book of Isaiah the prophet:

Isaiah 10:34-11:1 He will cut down the forest thickets with an axe; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.  A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

To this very day many Christians claim that Matt 2:23 is in reference to Isaiah 11:1.  So there is little doubt that this concept – of linking Jesus with Isaiah 11 – was well known in the century when Christianity began.  Ezekiel 39 has the same connotation, since it has not come to pass yet: Lebanon is still a country in the Middle East, and is still bordering Israel.  For the Yahad the hope was that these verses would be fulfilled with the first coming of the Messiah, for Christian this exact same hope is now placed in the second coming of the Messiah.  But in the end for over 2100 years these verses have been used by Jews and Christians alike to claim prophecy in the Bible has accurate prophecies.

Isn’t wonderful that religion can depend on eternity to fulfill prophecy!  If it doesn’t work this time maybe in the following year or the year after that or maybe in the next century, or how about 2100 years from now this prophecy will come true!  They may be waiting for another 2000 years before these prophecies are realized…

It truly amazes me that random acts of current events can be used to claim that a “prophecy” has been fulfilled.  Yet the same people cannot understand that evolution can, but almost always does not, occur the exact same way!  The act of restoring the nation of Israel by the UN in 1948 has even been claimed to fulfill prophecy by those who believe that the rapture will occur before the seven years of tribulations.

To a gay Atheist these promises of unfilled prophecy are just fantasy of the desperate.  These are just people clinging to an old religion that has had fragmentation from the beginning of the religion.  As I read more of the Dead Sea Scrolls it becomes obvious that the people who started the Christian religion were just using specific hopes and desires of the community of that time to draw crowds to their fledging religion.  It is obvious that the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem was responsible for a large number of people to lose faith in Judaism.  Those same people were looking for something new, they found it in Christianity. 

Posted in War of the Messiah, Dead Sea Scroll, Readings | Print | 5 Comments »

October 25, 2009, 1:20 pm by dc-agape.

I have a new post up at my back-up blog entitled “The End is Near!!!“

Posted in Dead Sea Scroll, Traditions of Men, Readings | Print | 31 Comments »

October 17, 2009, 9:10 am by dc-agape.

This Scroll starts by claiming to “speak out freely” about various saying, parables, and riddles.  The term “speak out freely” is directed to those who are willing to hold fast to what is taught.  These include those who are devious, stiff necked, and even the Gentiles.  This sounds so familiar, yet we can be certain that it was written nearly a century for Jesus is teachings.  Is this not exactly what Jesus did?  So the Judaism had forms of religion that were evolving into Christianity. 

The next paragraph is so what fragmented but has a very interesting interpretation.  It would seem to be saying that there’s only one source for the desire of knowledge.  It even uses the words “Light” and “Illumination”.  This light and illumination is from the “angels from those we praise”.  This seems to indicate that light and illumination come only from YHWH.  But it is the origin of knowledge that this paragraph is referring to.  Interesting, if applied to Christianity, that wisdom and knowledge are equal and both come from YHWH.  How I wish Christians would take this to heart.  Knowledge is not evil; knowledge is from the one they worship.  In that case, there is nothing wrong with learning new things.

The next paragraph is actually rather simple but in a surprising way.  It basically says those that do not learn and from the past will repeat the past.  The only way to avoid this cycle is to know “this secret of the way things are.”   But what exactly is the secret of the way things are?

The rest of the scroll is devoted to explaining the secret of the way things are.  Unfortunately, it starts with a prophecy that has not occurred.  It claims that time will come when all evil has been eliminated from this world.  We will know when this occurs because there will be no more sin or folly.   It claims, it this prophecy, that the end of sin and folly cannot be averted!  I certainly can’t wait for that time…  But it’s if since this was written over 2000 years ago, the chances of that happening now are very slim.

The next paragraph tells how all cultures space and nations are similar.  This similarity is in the rejection of evil, the desire for truth, freedom from its oppression, freedom from theft, and possibly some more that have been fragmented away in time.  So the author(s) of this Scroll understood that all humans desire the same thing.  They also understood that all of these things cannot be stopped.  Evil occurs, falsehood is spread, oppression and theft continue to happen.  Even the “righteous” have fallen short of fulfilling these eternal desires.  And the reason for this is that the “righteous” have not sought the true secret of the way things are.

Since the wisdom of YHWH is secret, YHWH knows all secrets.  Not only does he know them all, but he “stands behind every thought”.  The “secret” is that all things are controlled by YHWH.  Even the times of our birth, the test of our heart, the limits of our deeds, and the actions of the Gentiles are controlled by YHWH.

So is there more to this secret?  From this Scroll the answer seems to be yes. One must understand that the stars, the day, the night the rivers in the seas, the rains, and even the mounds were created for humankind. The most important thing to keep in mind is that humans have the ability to understand knowledge, insight, and great intelligence.  The Scroll claims that we were created to pursue true knowledge and wisdom.  But YHWH locked this knowledge and wisdom up away from humankind so that we would have to search for it.

The final paragraph comes from a completely different scroll and does not seem to have much to do with the earlier part of the Scroll.  It speaks of YHWH having patience, great anger and splendor.  It ends by claiming YHWH to be the leader of Israel, honored by the people who are splendid and blessed when the period of wickedness is over.  

Posted in The Book of Secrets, Dead Sea Scroll, Readings | Print | 32 Comments »

October 16, 2009, 9:51 am by dc-agape.

This post I want to introduce the shorter Scrolls that have survived that deal with the life and beliefs of the Jewish Sectarian Association.  This group is not the Sadducees, Pharisees, nor Essences that you might be familiar with.  They have similarities to these three better known Jewish “denominations” of the 1^st century BC, but they are less political (similar to the Essences) yet more fundamental (like the Sadducees) and more importantly the Yahad (unity – the writers name for themselves) are similar to the Zealots and the Sicarii (they were prepared for a Messiah that would come and destroy the Romans (and all Gentiles).   Since these Scrolls do not lead well to placing the Yahad into one category I will take the position that they were independent of all the other Jewish groups present from the 2^nd century BC until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.  

There are number of shorter Scrolls that I want to cover over the next couple of weeks.  The first one is called The Book of Secrets.  This will be followed by The Charter for Israel in the Last Days.    To describe the Yahad’s tendency towards being a Masonic or even Sicarii group I want to cover the Scroll titled the War of the Messiah.  I also want to cover this Scroll titled A Vision of the New Jerusalem.   Following that will be the Scroll titled The Coming of the Melchizedek.   The three last short posts will be prefaced with a guide entitled “A Reader’s Guide to the Qumran on Calendar Texts”.  These three short Scrolls are entitled Calendar of the Heavenly Signs, Synchronistic Calendars, and Priestly Services as the Seasons Change.  In total this series of short Scrolls will take about 10 days to cover.

The Book of Secrets

This Scroll is only four pages long.  It is rather fragmented.  This Scroll is of the same form of “Wisdom books” like the Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.  As the title implies there is a secret hidden in this Scroll.  That secret is that wisdom only comes from YHWH.

The Charter for Israel in the Last Days

This Scroll is also only four pages long.  Is not nearly as fragmented and seems to be in rather good shape.  This Scroll is about what will happen when the Messiah comes to redeem Israel.  It is very Christian like, and shows that at least some Jews had specific believes about the results of the “begetting” of the “son of God”.

The War of the Messiah

This Scroll is two pages long and when discovered created quite a controversy.  As more research was placed on the meaning of this document, the Yahad were determined to believe that the Messiah would be victorious and bring Israel to become a leading nation in the world.

A Vision of the New Jerusalem

This Scroll is five pages long but many parts are missing.  The quality that stands out the most in this text is a similarity between the New Jerusalem of the Yahad and the New Jerusalem described in the Book of Revelation.

The Coming of the Melchizedek

This Scroll is barely a page long and is somewhat fragmented.  The author ff this Scroll intended it to be a true interpretation of the jubilee year, which occurred every 49 years.  When I get deeper into the scroll I will explain how the jubilee year and Melchizedek are related.

A Reader’s Guide to the Qumran on Calendar Texts

This guide is to attempt to explain the difference between a lunar year and a solar year.  During this period of time (2^nd century BC to 1^st century AD) some nations, and even groups within the nations, were using one or the other of these methods of marking time.  To understand the next three Scrolls the full understanding of this difference is helpful.

Calendar of the Heavenly Signs

This Scroll is written in a way that is rather confusing to the fact that it is actually an almanac.  But since such documents had not been created at this time the format is rather odd.  What it does do is described how the solar year and the lunar year are related.

Synchronistic Calendars

This Scroll is so fragmented that it can only be described as being as being four pages long.  What it does do is synchronize the rotation of the priestly family between the solar year and the lunar year.

Priestly Services as the Seasons Change

This Scroll is a single paragraph.  What it does do in that short paragraph is explain the other three month-long seasons relates to both the solar year and the lunar year.

In conclusion, some of these Scrolls will seem extremely boring.  Fortunately, they are also very short.  Together these Scrolls actually give great insight into the Jewish histories of the 2^nd and 1^st centuries BC.  When I finished these shorter Scrolls undo plan on moving on to a couple of the longer ones.  These would include Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, the Book of Jubilees, Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll.  I’ll just have to seeing if I actually make it to all of these before deciding to move on to the Nag Hammadi Library.

Posted in Genesis Material, Dead Sea Scroll, Introduction | Print | 3 Comments »

October 14, 2009, 9:59 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 21

This post will be the final post from the Gospel of John.  John does not write about the ascension of Jesus.  I will say more about this in the next paragraph.  He also writes a prophecy of Jesus that took place in his own lifetime…and just happens to have taken place before he wrote this Gospel.  That will be one of the major topics of this post.  The third most interesting thing that occurs in this Gospel is the number and locations of Jesus’ appearances after his crucifixion.  John, the only Apostle to be an eyewitness to everything that happened to Jesus, only records three visits. 

John ends his Gospel having left out the ascension of Jesus.  As far as John is concerned, this event, if it happened, was not import enough to record.  The other possibility is a John was not present at the ascension.  But it seems difficult to believe, since our only sources come from two men: John Mark (a follower of Peter while in Rome) and Luke (a follower of Paul).  In both these reports the ascension of Jesus is recorded as having happened in the presence of all the believers.  So what is John not include this very important Christian concept?  Why is it not important?  Of all the miracles, attributed to Jesus, is not the ascension of Jesus by far the most important?  It almost seems as if, the apostles themselves, either did not experience witnessing this, or but nothing about it!  It is only the followers of the original disciples that record this event.  Even the Gospel of Matthew does not record the event.  Relying on secondhand (or third hand) records seems very dangerous to the non-believer.  Stories always get manipulated, distorted, or exaggerated with extended retelling.  This seems to be the same case.

In the Gospel of John the prophecy and the death of Peter is record.  Unless, the death of Peter is a later addition, the date of writing this gospel can be insured to have occurred after Peter’s death in 67 AD.  As a result, recording a prophecy after the prophecy has occurred weakens the power of the prophecy.  Adding that this book was recorded some 35 to 40 years after the prophecy, the memory of the specific words Jesus used should be taken into account.  To make matters worse, our records of how and when Peter died are sketchy at best.  The truly are Traditions of Men and not sanctified holy script.

John ends his gospel with an interesting twist:

John 21:25 Jesus did many of the things as well.  If every one  of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

This most certainly is an exaggeration.  Recording the events of a ministry that lasted less than four years would not create that many books.  But we are told:

John 21:24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down.  We know that his testimony is true.

This is a very odd addition to a personally written document.  Basically he is saying, since I wrote these down they must be true.  To  the non-believer, this is arrogant, this does not prove the trustworthiness of the document, and adds nothing to validate the testimony given in this Gospel.

To the non-believer these issues are not solved by faith.  They only add more confusion, lack of unity in the Gospels, and create more questions that cannot be answered.  If these Gospels were inspired by an all-powerful Holy Spirit it would seem that these problems would not have occurred.  If these Gospels were inspired by the loving YHWH, who wants everyone to believe, these problems would not occur.  Instead, we have different stories (not different perspectives), Tall Tales, differing accounts, disorganized chronology, and difficulty tracing Jesus’ actual route used in his ministries.  I do hope that I get the chance to make a full scale map showing an organized chronological description of Jesus’ ministries.  Unfortunately, it will be very difficult since only the Gospel of John describes the additional trips to Jerusalem.

This is my last post from the New Testament for the time being.  My next posts will be from the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I have still not decided which order I will present the scrolls that I want to focus on.  But They Will Include: the Book of Secrets, Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, Charter for Israel in the Last Days, the Book of Jubilees, Work with the citation of Jubilees, the Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll.  This may seem like a large number of documents to cover before I start back into the Nag Hammadi Library.  But no actuality, many of these scrolls are either very short or very fragmented.  The total number of pages covered in the seven scrolls is actually only 105 pages.  Many of the pages are introduction to the scrolls.  Since the meaning of the scrolls are not as complex as the gospels, and that print type is much larger than in the New Testament, the pages should not take that long.  In actuality, only the Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, the Book of Jubilees, Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll have any length to them at all. 

Posted in Contradictions, Gospel of John, Dead Sea Scroll, Traditions of Men, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | No Comments »

June 10, 2009, 11:14 am by dc-agape.

Image via Wikipedia

In making an introduction to the Book of Exodus I want to make two things completely clear: the error in the Word of God as to how long they stayed as slaves and when the exodus actually happened.  So many points exist that refute the concept of 430 years in Egypt that I will use as many as I can in this post.  The timing of the Exodus is a hotly debated subject, but we do have enough information to be certain that Biblical scholars are wrong.  It did not happen in the 18^th dynasty of Egypt (1446 BCE).  I will point out in this post why how long the Israelites were in Egypt.  In my next post I will debate the timing of the Exodus.

To determine the time the Israelites spent in Egypt let me start with these verses:

Exodus 12:40-41 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.  At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.

Now let me compare to more verses:

Gen 15:13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

Gen 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. 

So in two different places the Word of God tells us that the Israelites would be in Egypt for four centuries.  Yet in a different verse it tells us that in the fourth generation they will leave Egypt.  Now here comes the question: was a generation 100 years?  No, they were not; we know that because four generations did actually live in Egypt and each of these generations did not live for more than 137 years!  We know that Jacob was close to 81 years old when Levi was born.  Jacob was 147 years old when he died and only lived in Egypt for 17 years (Gen 47:28) meaning that Jacob entered Egypt when he was 130 years old.  That would mean that Levi was 49 years old when he went to Egypt.  We also know that Levi died when he was 137 years old (Exodus 6:16).  This leads us to understand that Levi lived in Egypt for 88 years.  We also know the lineage of Moses: Levi, Kohath, Amram, and then Moses himself.  So Gen 15:16 is correct!  From the Dead Sea Scrolls we know that Kohath died when he was 136 years old and that the Israelites had been in Egypt for 152 years by the time of his death.  Two generation and we are already at 152 years into the exile.  The lynch pin to the whole 430 year exile in Egypt is how long did Amram live!  We know that Moses was 80 years old when he led the people out of Egypt (Exodus 7:7).  Combining what we know from the Dead Sea Scrolls (152 years) and what we know from Moses age (80 years) that adds up to 232 years.  So Moses was born when Amram was 200 years old, right?  Not so, Amram died when he was 137 years (Exodus 6:20).  So you see we are running into a problem here, it could not have been 4 generations and 430 years, the Word of God is wrong!  But by how much is it wrong, how old was Amram when Moses was born?  Moses was born 2377 years after the creation of the world.  With a lot of finagling we find that Amram was 72 years old when Moses was born.  This means that the Israelites spent only 304 years in Egypt.  To make things even worse we know that while Joseph was alive, the Israelites were favored by the Egyptian Pharaoh (Exodus 1:8).  So now comes a new question: how many years were the Israelites slaves?  Joseph died at the age of 110 (Gen 50:26).  He spent an additional 68 years in Egypt after Jacob died.  Levi lived an additional twenty years after Jacob. So for 88 years out of the 304 years the Israelites lived in peace with the Egyptians.  To make things even worse the Dead Sea Scrolls indicate in the Tractate Visions of Amram that the Israelites were free to travel from place to place.  In the time of Amram they were not slaves!

So as it turns out the Israelites definitely did not spend 430 years in Egypt making two of my opening sets of verses lies.  The Word of God is correct about the number of generation, but is completely false about the number of years spent in exile.  Using different dates of births and deaths the Israelites spent between 215 years and 304 years in Egypt of which 88 years were totally peaceful.  So the Word of God is fallible in both the number of years spent in Egypt and in the slavery of the Israelites!  As an Atheist I continue to find that the Bible is a complete work of fiction that should not be taken literally.  Creationism (taking the Word of God literally) is complete bullshit and as a result should not and cannot be taught as an alternative to science.  The two are not compatible, one is based on facts (science) the other is based on an extensively fallacious Book of Words.

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June 9, 2009, 6:39 am by dc-agape.

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Tales of the Patriarchs (Part 9)

Today I have reached the end of the Tales of the Patriarchs and also the end of the Genesis material in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Two last stories exist in this Tractate.  The first is the battle between Sodom and Kedorlaomer.  This begins by setting the scene, of how the king of Elam was attacking every city that did not pay tithe to him.  It ends just as in the Book of Genesis (Gen 14), with Abram rescuing Lot and freeing all of Sodom’s property and people from Kedorlaomer.  The second story is about how YHWH promises Abram that he will have a son and that YHWH will protect Abram against his enemies.

Now the story starts with how the King of Elam had 14 years earlier conquered all the surrounding nations.  But now Kedorlaomer is on the war path again, due to the King of Sodom rebelling he has ransacked all the way from the Euphrates to the Rephaim, the people of Amman, the Emim, the Horites, and all the way to El Paran.  Then they attacked En-mishpat and Hazazon Tamar.  All these places (nations?) must be between the Euphrates and Sodom.  At this point Kedorlaomer must have been getting close to Sodom and Gomorrah because these kings went out to battle the King of Elam.  Now you would think that an army that had been on the attack all the way from the Euphrates and fought at least seven nations already would be weakened, but they destroy the Kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela.  Unfortunately, in the process Lot and all his livestock and slaves have been kidnapped.  Abram feels horrible about this and gathers 318 of his best warriors???? He also brings along three friends: Armen, Eschol, and Mamreh.  The King of Elam continues his battles up to Damascus where Abram confronts him at night.  Then another Tall Tale is told.  These 322 men (where did Abram get his warriors from?) route this entire army that has ransacked multiple other kingdoms.   In the process Abram frees Lot and returns to Melchizedek.  Odd how Melchizedek is at Salem (Jerusalem) right in the path of this brutal warlord and does not get attacked…I guess this great King of Salem, this priest of the Most High, had paid his tithes to Kedorlaomer!  But the King of Salem does not help Abram; Abram destroys this warlord with 321 men.  Now it must be obvious to you, as it is to me that by the time Abram reaches Kedorlaomer, his army is pretty much spent all its power.  Of course, attacking at night is also not the most heroic actions. 

More is told about this Tall Tale, why does Abram go to Melchizedek when it is the King of Sodom that has lost his men, livestock, and other property to Kedorlaomer?  How is Melchizedek related to YHWH?  Is he a descendent of Shem?  He is living in Canaan which would indicate that he is actually a descendent of the cursed Ham.  How is he the priest of the Most High?  And isn’t interesting that he is the King of Salem, which will be the location of Jerusalem after the invasion of the Israelites.  At this point the King of Sodom, that most wicked and vile city comes to Abram at Salem and begs Abram to return the men of Sodom.  The king is not worried about the cities livestock or other property, for he offers it to Abram for a reward.  Abram turns down the offer and frees all the captives and property claiming that he does not want it to be told that his wealth comes from the King of Sodom.  Obviously he is already running into trouble with the fact that all his wealth actually came from lying to the Pharaoh of Egypt! 

In the final story of the Tractate, Abram and YHWH have a little one on one.  YHWH promises to protect Abram from his enemies.  Yet by the time YHWH gets around to telling Abram the man is 85 years old.  Talk about waiting for YHWH to do things in his own time!  Abram basically tells YHWH so what and he is close to death and has no heir, protection who cares.  The last sentence to the Tractate is a promise from YHWH that Abram will have a child.  Thankfully Abram still has 90 years to live, he doesn’t die until he is 175 years old.  Whatever happened to YHWH dictating man’s life to be 120 years (Gen 6:3)?   There has got to be an error somewhere in this, YHWH saying one thing and yet the complete opposite happens.  How can this be?  Could the Word of God be in error?  With the Tall Tales told in the Book of Genesis and this glaring error about human lifespan, how can anyone take the Bible as infallible? 

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June 7, 2009, 6:22 am by dc-agape.

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Tales of the Patriarchs

( Part 8 )

Today I want to focus on the two biggest lies ever believed by Christians.  I will be able to finish the Tales of the Patriarchs and the Genesis material from the Dead Sea Scrolls in two posts.  My post today will be one and the second post will be tomorrow.  After that I will start on the Book of Exodus.  What are the two biggest lies?  One that YHWH would give the entire Middle East to the descendants of Abram, but only the Jews.  The second lie that the Christians believe is that the Word of God is accurate. 

But first I need to deal with the short section on Lot and Abram splitting up.  In the Word of God, Abram and Lot separate because both men have too much livestock and they are competing against each other and the Canaanites and Perizzites (Gen 13:6-7).  Now, in the Book of Genesis, Abram allows Lot to choice the best fields (Gen 13:10-11).  Yet in the Tales of the Patriarchs, the only reason they split was the arguing of their shepherds. Now wouldn’t you think that the two most holy men alive at the time could teach their hired help how to get along?

So what about the lies?  The first one is that Israel has any portion of the Middle East!  When YHWH tells Abram to look upon his descendant’s eternal inheritance, Abram sees from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River.  Even though somehow the author(s) of this Tale believe that the Euphrates spills into the Red Sea!  But instead the two are parallel.  Abram’s descendants do inherit this territory…but after 70CE it was the Muslim (Ishmael’s descendents) who would inherit this land.  Only in 1945 did the UN give any of this land back to the Israelites.  But, of course, to inherit something for eternity would mean that YHWH was not going to destroy the earth at Judgment day!  It would mean that the earth would never cease to exist. 

The second lie that YHWH tells Abram, and Christians believe, is that Abram’s descendants will be “like the dust of the earth that none can count”.  Guess how many Muslims exist in the world today?  The Muslim population is 1.66 billion.  What about the Israeli population (Jewish)?  The Jewish population of the world is about 0.906 billion.  And for those of you who believe that Christians are also the descendants of Abram, what are their total population in the world?  The Christian population is 2.14 billion.  Sorry YHWH, you lied, we can still count the number of descendants that Abram has!  And if you claim that three significant figures is not accurate enough to claim that we can count them all, does your speedometer read more than two numbers?  Do you count time in 1/10 of a second?  Three sig figs is standard operating procedure when dealing with numbers in the billions.  What it means is that these numbers are significant to within ½ a percent.

I find it quite humorous that in the Tales of the Patriarchs the author(s) claim that Abram walked from Hebron to the Red Sea, followed the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, and then followed the Euphrates to the Sea of Persian Gulf.  After that he came back to Hebron.  Let’s look at that in detail.  The first distance was short: only 367 km (229 miles).  In this link it takes 5 days to bike, think about how long that would be to walk.  The next leg of his journey is actually about 300 km (186 miles) more, he was backtracking. The next leg is somewhat difficult to determine, the Euphrates River never joins with the Mediterranean Sea!  Through Israel it is about 208 km (130 miles).  He then had to pass through all of Lebanon, which is another 210 km (131 miles).  From the tip of Lebanon to the Euphrates River is about 700 km (421 miles).  He still had to get to the mouth of the Euphrates from there…about 475 km (286 miles).  Then all he had to do was travel the last 1300 km (2150 miles) back to Hebron!  Total distance…~3500 km (5700 miles) all on foot!  It would have only taken him about 2 years to complete, so I guess at the ripe old age of 82-85 years of age this was a short trip for him!  Can anyone say bullshit! 

As an Atheist, I just can’t believe that people fall for this crap.  The Tall Tales, the shear fantasy, and the gross geographical errors are astounding!  Yet in the United State, we have people who believe that YHWH promised the entire Middle East to the Israelites.  We also have people here in the US that fall hook, line, and sinker that these stories are the Truth.  If I can’t even get out of the Book of Genesis without finding the most egregious errors, why should I trust the Word of God to be inerrant? 

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