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Donning the Garments of Edom: A Hebrew Catholic Insight

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The other day I was doing Eucharistic Adoration when I received an insight connected with the concept found in the Jewish mystical writings and traditions about donning or wearing the garments of Edom. There is a tradition that the skin garments donned by Adam and Eve after the fall, when they were no longer clothed in the light of the Divine Will, were from the skin of the bull unicorn which Adam and Eve sacrificed. 

These skins were taken by Noah in the Ark and eventually were donned by Nimrod which gave him great skill in hunting. They eventually came into the possession of Esau who was also known as Edom and it was these garments or skins that Jacob donned in order to deceive his father Isaac. Besides this more literal account the Zohar and other writings refer to the garments of Edom (which are also seen as the garments of Adam) with a more mystical and spiritual interpretation. Jacob Frank described his conversion and that of his followers who received baptism as those from Jacob (the Jewish people) who donned the garments of Edom (Rome).

This understanding was connected to the journey of returning to the garments of Adam. In order to return to the universal dimension of faith a Jew needed to don the garments of Edom which would then eventually be transformed into the garments of Adam. There were three different garments of Adam and Eve. The skin garments of the bull unicorn which represented reparation and sacrifice, the fig leaf garments (of the tree of knowledge) representing vulnerable nakedness and the garment of the light of the Divine Will and the return to original innocence. In order to restore all mankind back to living in the light of the Divine Will then both Jews and Gentiles must embrace baptism and the donning of the garments of spiritual Esau or Edom (the Holy Roman Catholic Church). 

The angel that Jacob wrestled with was called in this mystical tradition the Archangel of Edom or Esau. It was seen as part of the process of restoring the lost sparks of the Divine Will to its source after the breaking of the vessels.

For the last seven years I have embraced the vocation and calling of a consecrated brother or monacelli (little monk) and have donned the outward garments of a Catholic habit. One part of me has always felt conflicted as I no longer dressed like a religious Jew and my observance while still there in many respects has had to be modified and changed. 

As I sat in the Divine Presence I realised that while my vocation as both a Jew and a Catholic has led to the outward donning of the garments of Edom while in my heart I will always be Jacob and retain my Jewish identity though in a more veiled or hidden manner than other Jewish Catholics who will be called to live out their vocation in a more openly Jewish manner. I do this in order to don the garments of Adam and make reparation for all and unite (devekut) all in the life of the Divine Will. Just as the garments of Judah/Jacob have a deep interior meaning so do the garments of Edom/Adam.

At this time of salvation history there is much interior conflict and confusion for those trying to be true to their double calling as a Jew and as a Catholic but one embraces the way of sacrifice and the cross, offering for all and on behalf of all in union with the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Messiah.This is to live Torah at the level of Atzilut. Some others may have to continue to outwardly don the outward garments of Jacob while in their hearts they don secretly the garments of Edom which are the baptismal garments of grace.

In the 18th century 60,000 religious Jews decided to publicly don the garments of Edom while a much larger number retained the garments of orthodox and Hasidic Judaism while in the secret of their hearts and among fellow believers they embraced the Messiah and only mystically and interiorly embraced the garments of Edom. Those 60,000 were slandered and misunderstood and their message distorted and twisted by all sides forcing them into an ever deeper silence and hiddeness so that they became a leaven that disappeared into the larger body of Edom which was transformed in many hidden ways through the 1st and 2nd Vatican Councils and many Eucharistic, liturgical and Marian renewal movements.

Ellen Looney Downey: Irish Frankist Matriarch

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 The Grave of Ellen Ahearn (nee Looney) 1833-1919 in Victoria, Australia.

In the 1760's a number of Frankist families moved from Poland and Germany to Ireland. Some of these families moved to the areas of the counties of Waterford and Cork in southern Ireland where there had been a crypto-Jewish community since the 16th century. These families took Irish surnames and outwardly observed the customs of the other Irish Catholics but in the home and in their own Frankist meeting they observed their own Jewish Frankist customs. They intermarried mainly with only those of other Frankist or Crypto-Jewish families. These families maintain their Jewish identity in secret for a few generations before being totally assimilated into the surrounding culture.

One of the descendants of these families was Ellen Looney who was born in 1833 in County Waterford in Ireland. Her father John Looney on his paternal line came from one of the older Sefardi crypto-Jewish families that had been in Ireland since the 16th century. The Looney family were descended from Juan da Luna of Spain and Portugal. John Looney had been born in Waterford in 1798 where his parents Gerard Looney and Catherine Murray had moved from Youghal in Cork. The Murray family were also known as the Murzynski family before they arrived in Ireland in the 1760's with the other Frankist families.

Youghal was a centre of crypto-Jewish activity and in the 16th century two of the Mayors of Youghal had been openly Jewish from the Annyas (Ennis/ Anes) family that were Sefardi Jews from Portugal. The da Luna or Looney family intermarried with the Annyas or Ennis family. A small Jewish community of Marranos Jews was established in Cork City before 1690 and that these were members of the Commissariat of the Duke of Marlborough's army recruited by Isaac Pereyra, Commissary General of the Army in Ireland.

Ellen Looney's mother was known as Hanora or Hannah O'Connor and her Jewish name was Chana Kinnor. Chana's parents were Frankists who settled near Cork and Hanora was born in Cobh near Cork around 1811. She later lived in Fermoy with her family. Her father David Kinnor (O'Connor) had been born in the Rhineland in Germany. Kinnor means Harp in Hebrew and the Kinnor family claimed to be descended from King David. David's grandfather David Menke Kinnor was born in Poland in 1730 and moved to Germany where he was also known as David Harf. The Jewish Kinnor family may have arrived in Poland in the 17th century from Scotland. 

The Kinnear or Kinnor family in Scotland were crypto-Jews (and part of a crypto-Jewish network of families) who reverted to open Judaism in Poland. In the 12th century the Kinnor family settled in Fife at the Priory of St Andrew and Kinneir in Fife was taken from their surname. Le Kinnor in Normandy in France had been their home before coming to Scotland in the reign of King David I of Scots. Michael le Kinnor (de Kyner) was the founder of the family in Scotland and the Kinnear family were descended from his son Simon de Kyner. At this time a number of crypto-Jewish and Jewish families moved to Scotland due to trading possibilities and messianic excitement among some Jews of a new Davidic King in the north.

Hanora O'Connor's mother Mary Maher (Miriam Mayer) was born in Ireland in 1787 of a Frankist family descended from Jacob Frank the Rebbe or Tzaddik of the Frankists. Two of Hanora's brothers Michael and James became Catholic Bishops in America. 

When Ellen Looney's parents moved to England to escape the Potato Famine, Ellen decided to stay behind in Cappoquin, Waterford. However within a short time she had lost her employment and was forced to enter the workhouse in Dungarvan in Waterford County. At this time most of the farmers had to dismiss their servants due to their increasing poverty. She in 1849 as part of a group of workhouse orphan girls went to Australia and worked initially for a family in Geelong in Victoria. In 1850 at Port Fairy in Victoria she married Robert Downey who was a former convict who also came from one of the Waterford crypto-Jewish Frankist families. His father was Denis Downey (aka Dionzy Dawosky). Robert had been sent to Australia in 1837 and received his ticket of leave in 1846. He had been convicted on 16 July 1836 at Waterford.

Ellen and Robert Downey had a large family and left alot of descendants in Australia. The eldest two caused the family great heart-ache as Daniel Downey was imprisoned for being an arsonist and their daughter Susan was in and out of asylums. Robert in 1870 was tragically killed when he fell off his dray and was run over by his own cart. Ellen would remarry to another one of the crypto-Jews descended from the Ahearn family of Youghal. She had a daughter Kitty (Catherine) from this second marriage. Ellen would live until 1919 until she was about 86. On her tombstone it says she was 90, but death ages on tombstones are often incorrect.

Ellen's daughter Ellen Downey from her first marriage seems to have married another Australian-born Irishman of crypto-Jewish ancestry John Cavanagh. The surname Cavanagh coming from the Hebrew word Kevanah (meaning devotion or intensity in prayer). However by this time the Jewish customs of the family would probably have been minimal and they were totally assimilated into Irish Catholicism of their neighbours by the 20th century. The Potato famine's beginning in 1845 in Ireland no doubt played a large role in the disruption of the networks of crypto-Jewish and Frankist families.

Synklar Diamond Lords of Calalus and the Location of the Ruins of Rhoda

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In a past blog about 10 years ago in 2008 I first wrote about the Roman Jewish Kingdom of Calalus in North America connected with the Tucson Arizona artifacts as written about by Professor Cyclone Covey. I also wrote about their connection with the Septimanian Jewish Kingdom and the Welsh and Spanish royalty. I also linked them to the mystery of the Tuatha de Danaan.
 

The Manannan or Danaan people of the Tribe of Zebulon were also known as the Frisians (R1b U106 L48). Around 650-700 AD they had left their Kingdom in Calalus and settled on the Isle of Man as well as another group in France in the area of La Mans (Maine) and in the area of Frisia as well as their homeland of Frisland or Lochlann Island. Some of the Frisians had embraced Judaism and Catholicism while others remained or re-embraced paganism and others held to elements of all three. However the Frisians in the north were mainly pagans. The term Manannan (Manaan/ Manaanan, Maine and other variants) refers to the Western Lands (America) and can be confusing as it is a name used for the Frisians as well as for the British or Welsh inhabitants of Calalus.
 

Old English and Old Frisian are very closely related languages descending from the Zebulonite languages of which Old German, Old Yiddish and Old Dutch are also branches. The Basque language however was the language that developed in Calalus among the Rhodans drawing on the Aquitainian, Ladino and Welsh languages with also some input from the Tolteca (Ogham) language of America as well as Latin and Hebrew. Thus the Mananaans (Manaans) spoke Anglo-Frisian and the British Calalusians a version of Cymric (Welsh) and the Rhodans Old Basque-Aquitainian. The original Zebulonite language found in Western Europe developed from a mix of the Hebrew-Aramaic of northern Israel mixed with the Atlantean language (Old Greco-Hebrew Language). Old Western Yiddish in fact may be the language of the Synklar Jews of Calalus who settled in Germany and Poland from the 10th century and mixed with the Aramaic speaking Jews of Ashkenaz. This Synklar Yiddish influenced Middle High German. The Western Yiddish language would spread east and mix with the Slavic based Jewish language to create Eastern Yiddish. These Synklar Jews who joined the Ashkenazi Jewish communities belonged to both the Manaan R1b U106 and Rhodan R1b U152 and R1b DF27 haplogroups. Sadly these Jews suffered the greatest loss of numbers during the Holocaust.
 

As the Western Zebulonites didn't receive their U106 marker until about 580 BC they had in the time of the Northern Atlantis kingdom belonged to R1b P297 y-dna as part of the Sons of Leah. The R1b P297 Israelites including the Zebulonites may have received the M269 marker as a result of the cataclysmic destruction of Atlantis in 968 BC. It was during the time of the Atlantean Empire and after that the tall blonde haired blue eyed Zebulonites known as Danaan settled in the Americas. They encountered there the red-bronze skinned Rhodanim or Toltecas (probably C haplogroup) and the white skinned red haired descendants of Manasseh (R1 M173*) from which the name Manaanan or Manaan was given as a name for America.
 

The name of Tarshishim in Jewish tradition of a group of angels was taken from the blonde haired, white skinned and blue eyed Zebulonites descended from Helon. In the south Atlantean language and Mycenean Greek they were known as the Akero (messengers) and in the north Atlantean language of the Helonites it became Agelo and in West German as Eadgil or Engel. The mysterious blonde-haired white skinned Chachapoyas of Peru are descendants of the Chauci who were one of the groups of West German Zebulonites closely related to the Frisian and Angles. The Chauci disappeared from Europe in the 3rd century moving to the Americas. In the first three centuries AD the Frisians, Angles and Chauci lived in the area of the Elbe River. They were known as the Elben or Elven people. The Saxons moved into the former areas of the Chauci. The Saxons or Sacae were originally from the Tribe of Issachar. It would seem that the Angles, Frisians and Chauci came from Calalus (Calchi) to the River Elbe in Europe after Calalus and Mexico was conquered from the Olmecs and Toltecs by the Romans in 100 BC. It would seem that these tribes allied with the Romans to build the so-called Teotihuacan civilisation after their defeat of the Olmecs (Ogres). The so-called Zapotec culture is that of the Danaan or Frisians who were known also as the Be'ena Za'a (Cloud People) before the coming of the Romans and their oppression by the Olmecs. Before moving south and establishing the Zapotec culture around 600 BC they (Angles, Frisians and Chauci) came from Calalus from Atzlan (area of Colorado and Utah- an island in an ancient Lake), Colhuacan at Canyon de Chelly in Arizona and Chicomoztoc at the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico.




In 775 AD under King Nehemiah Theodoric (Theodore) of Septimania (Narbonne) Jewish Rule was reestablished in Calalus and a branch of the Manaan or Frisian Royal House returned to Calalus. Around 820 AD a grandson of Elidyr II of the Manaan was given the rulership of the area north of Arizona. This Prince or Lord was Cadrod Synklar (Siksika which means blackfoot in the Indian language) and he and his Manaan and Rhodan warriors ruled over a kingdom known as the Kingdom or Confederacy of the Blackfoot or Blackfeet. This Confederacy or Lordship acknowledged the overlordship of the Davidic Throne of the Rhodan Kingdom of Calalus. Cadrod married the daughter of King Israel I Guriad ha Makhiri (Magnarvm) of Rhoda and Calalus. Cadrod and Atala's son was called Ciman the Black Foot (Droed Ddu in Welsh) who succeeded him as the Synklar Ruler of Northern Calalus.

 The centre of this northern kingdom or Lordship was in the area of the Blackfoot Ranges and the Blackfoot River north of Arizona. This Lordship extended eastward over the Great Plains of America. While the Ruling class of the Manaan were Jewish and Jewish Christians the vast bulk of the natives under their rule were called Pagani or Pagans by the Synklar (Siksika) which became Pikanu or Peiganu. The Synklar Rulers were also known as the Lords of the Diamond Mines around Lake Kelsey (which was the original Diamond Lake). The so-called Fremont culture represents the heart land of this northern Siksika or Synklar kingdom which is south of the Blackfoot mountain ranges.
 

This Judeo-Christian settlement in North America was ruled over by a Jewish Davidic King and a Jewish Sanhedrin of elders. The round buildings called Kivas were the Jewish-Christian chapels or synagogues that were first built as Adoration chapels during the Arthurian period of Calalus' history. Larger Kiva's were built for community Eucharistic worship after the King and the leading citizens of Rhoda embraced a Jewish-style Catholicism around 800 AD.
 

One branch of the Synklar Lords became the Sinclair Lords of Rosslin (R1b U106 Z30) in Scotland and another branch known as the Finck (Diamond) Lords (R1b U106 Z331) went into Germany. The noble Finck von Finckenstein family may be one branch of this second family. Some of them joined the Ashkenazi Jewish community. Both these branches descend from Ithick (Idigg) the Diamond Lord of Calalus [born 925] who left America with his son Iddon (Yahalom Adon) who married Lady Papia of Normandy a daughter of Richard I the Fearless Duke of Normandy and his wife Lady Gunnor of Denmark. Another branch of this family may have been the founded by Aymon (Hamon) a grandson of Ithick who became the Viscount de Dinan or Dinant of Brittany and of the aristocratic family of Dinham in Devon in England. Another branch went to Ulster and became the O'Diamain family.
 

Iddig was the son of Lord Llywarch (the Horse leader) of the Synklar who in turn was the son of Lord Llofan of the Synklar the son of Ciman the Blackfoot. Lord Idigg had a son called Meurig or Mauger the Elder who was known in German as Markwart von Eppenstein or Elfenstein. This word came from the use of the terms of Elfen or Elven stone for the diamonds or jewels which came from Calalus. It was also known as Finkel stone. The Manaan who were usually tall and blonde were associated with the term Elf or Elven. One branch of this family were the Dukes of Carinthia and another branch became the Finck von Fickenstein family while other members used the name Finck, Finkelstein and Epstein. Finckenstein Palace in Poland and the name of the River and nearby fortress of Elblag or Elbling was named for these Elven Lords. Eppenstein Castle in Austria was originally the Elfenstein Castle. Also the area of Elfenstein in the Harz mountains of Germany was a settlement of the Elven Manaan.
 

Some researchers believe that the ruins of Rhoda the capital and royal city of Calalus was those at Tumamoc Hill overlooking Tucson and there is also the ruins of a fortress further south about 16 miles on Black Mountain (Arizona). In fact I hold that the capital city includes the ruins of Tumamoc Hill and Black Mountain but that the heart of the city is in the Tucson Mountains and the huge Limestone blocks found in the Tucson Mountains from the Chaos Mountain on the north east (not far from the Silver Bell Rd where the Tucson artifacts of Calalus were found) to the Bren and Cat mountains on the east and south are the remnant of the Limestone blocks that made up the walls of this great city. Thus the low Tucson Mountains may be the ruins of the great city of Rhoda.
 

It is also possible that the mountains of Santa Catalina, Rincon and Santa Rita along with the Tucson mountains all hide the ruins of the Rhodan Capital and hide a huge city complex surrounded by the four so-called mountain ranges. However the latter Limestone Rhodan capital may only be found in the Tucson Mountains and the bigger complex having been built and destroyed in earlier times of American history. In these earlier periods a long time before 100 BC and the establishment of Roman Calalus Arizona had a different landscape with large freshwater lakes and vegetation.
 

The dating methodologies used by archeologists and anthropologists are notoriously inaccurate and the dating of the periods is in need of revision. The so-called Pueblo I period is most likely the time of the Arthurian period in Calalus history around 520-700 AD. The Pueblo II period is that of the first phase of the Septimanian Roman Jewish period from 775-860 AD and the second phase of the Septimanian Roman Jewish period Pueblo III 860-1000. The so-called Basketmaker III era was most likely the period of Roman Calalus from 100 BC- 400 AD. Pueblo IV period is the period after the exodus of the bulk of the white population to Europe and any remnants mainly intermarried with the native American Indians. However there were still small groups of white tribes that moved elsewhere in the Americas. One group are the Mandans of the Alabama and Georgia areas and those that moved to the Appalachian Mountains and later became known as the Melungeons. Others went south into South America.
 

It may be that Tolkien's Middle-Earth may allude to the peoples of Calalus. The area of the Anasazi being that of the Hobbits who were British or Welsh settlers that were mostly under 5 ft 4. The Mogollon area of the Frisians or Manaan represents the Elves who are tall and blonde. The Synklar or Fremont area represents Rohan and Hohokam and Patayan represent Arnor and Gondor. The Dwarves represent the miners of the Calalus settlements. The Orks in Tolkien represent the Toltecas or Olmecs who invaded Calalus from Mexico. The Wizards represent the Romano-Jewish Catholic Bishops and Abbots of Calalus. Gandalf represents Quetzalcoatl.
 

It would seem that the Welsh settlers were not in favour of the evangelisation of the pagan peoples as they hadn't been in Britain. They were traditional enemies with the pagan Frisian Kingdom to their south. However the newly converted Jewish Catholics were keen on evangelisation. However this came to a head in the reign of Israel III in 880 AD who gave the Toltecas (pagan American Indians) their independence and he was banished and Israel IV took the Throne. After the defeat by the Indians of the Calalus kingdoms most returned to Europe but a remnant moved to the area of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia where the Rhodan, Welsh and Frisian remnants eventually united into one allied people and in the 12th century their settlement was reinforced by the Welsh under Prince Madoc of Wales. Both the Choctaws and the Comanche tells of these tall white giants (the Frisians) who they encountered and fought with and killed them in the area of Tennessee. It would seem some of those of the white remnant from the Synklar confederacy moved west to the Great Lakes area into western Canada and where they were visited and resettled on the islands of the northern Atlantic by Henry Sinclair the Earl of the Northern Isles in the 14th century.
 

It is also interesting that it is into this area in the south west of the USA that the crypto-Jewish Spanish settlers moved into during the time of Spanish expansion from Mexico. Many of these crypto-Jewish settlers may have been partly descended from the Rhodans who had returned to Europe and settled in northern Spain around 1000 AD and joined in the fight to free Spain of Muslim rule. Among these returnees to Europe were those who entered the noble and royal classes as Catholics who maintained Jewish customs and practices in the secrecy of their homes and families and those who joined the religious Jewish community. Due to the rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism these Jewish origins were hidden by both the Catholic and Jewish communities. 

Tucson Mountains seen from Tumamoc Hill

Lot King of Lochlann (490 - ) 
son of Cadlew King of Lochlann
/
Prince Gwalchafed (Gaheris/ Gareth) of Lochlann and Lothian (515 - )
son of Lot King of Lochlann and Princess Anna of Britain daughter of Huna Mar Exilarch and British King by his wife Lady Abiane Gwenllian of Mahoza and Gewisse
/
Eadgils King of Mrygings in Sweden (534 - )
son of Prince Gwalchafed (Gaheris/ Gareth) of Lochlann and Lothian
/
Llywarch Hen Calchfynydd (Llywarch the Graceful) King of Calalus (553 - )
son of Eadgils King of Mrygings in Sweden
/
Dwgywg King of Calalus (573 - )
son of Llywarch Hen Calchfynydd (Llywarch the Graceful) King of Calalus and Lady Morgana Le Fey daughter of
Cadrod Calchfynydd (Gideon of Rhoda/ Elidyr/Elisedd) King of Calalus by his wife Princess Wynne of Gwynedd
/
Gwyar (Gwair) King of Calalus (593 - )
son of Dwgywg King of Calalus
/
Tegid King of Calalus (612 - )
son of Gwyar King of Calalus and Lady Morgana daughter of Arthur of Dal Riata King of Gwent and Lady Lionor
/
Alcun King of Calalus (635 - 663)
son of Tegid King of Calalus
/
Sannde (Sandef/ Eagils ?) Frisian King of the Radbads (Rhodans) and Manaan (Man) aka Last King of Arthurian Calalus and Ruler of the Frisians (655 - )
son of Alcun King of Calalus and Princess Anna the daughter of Cadwallon King of Gwynedd by his wife Princess Alcfrith of Mercia
/
Elidyr of Rhodan Mananaan (Eadgils) Frisian King of the Radbads aka Radbad I of Frisia (673 - 719)
son of Sannde (Sandef/ Eagils ?) Frisian King of the Radbads (Rhodans) and Manaan (Man) aka Last King of Arthurian Calalus and Ruler of the Frisians 
/
Enkel Frisian King of the Radbads (700 - )
son of Elidyr of Rhodan Mananaan (Eadgils) Frisian King of the Radbads aka Radbad I of Frisia and Lady Celenion daughter of  Abu Aharon (Garin) of Babylon by his wife
Imma Bilhah Bat Heman (aka Mabile Ermenjart)
/
Elidyr II of the Manaan (730 - )
son of Enkel Frisian King and Lady Bilhah of Aquitaine daughter of Rabbi Ahunai of Palestine and Aquitaine (aka Hernaut de Beauland by his wife Lady Dode (Ita) of Aquitaine
/
Gwriad of the Manaan (755 - )
son of Elidyr II of the Manaan
/
Cadrod Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika) Ruler of Northern Calalus (795 - )
son of Gwriad of the Manaan and Lady Mynan of Calalus daughter of Prince
Yspwys II of Calalus
/
Ciman the Black Foot (Droed Ddu) Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika) (830 - )
son of Cadrod Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika) Ruler of Northern Calalus and Princess Atala of Rhoda and Calalus daughter of Israel I Guriat King of Calalus by his wife Princess Atala (Ethyl) of Gwynedd and Bernicia
/
Lord LLofan Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika) (860 - )
son of Ciman the Black Foot (Droed Ddu) Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika)
/
Lord Llywarch Sinclair (Synklar) (890 - )
son of Lord LLofan Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika)
/
Lord Iddig (Ithick) Sinclair the Diamond Lord (925 - )
son of Lord Llywarch Synklar
/
Lord Iddon Sinclair the Diamond Lord [Yahalom Adon] (955 - ) brother of Meurig (Mauger/ Markwart) von Eppenstein (Elfenstein/ Finkelstein)
son of Lord Iddig (Ithick) Sinclair and Lady Kerwita daughter of  Marchudd Lord of Rhos
/
Meurig (Mauger) of Sinclair (986 - 1040)
son of Lord Iddon Sinclair the Diamond Lord and Lady Papia of Normandy daughter of Richard I of Normandy by his wife Lady Gunnora of Denmark
/
Walderne Earl of StClair (1001 - 1047)
son of Meurig (Mauger) of Sinclair and Lady Germaine of Corbeil
/
William "the Seemly" Sinclair of Rosslin 1st Lord of Rosslin (1028 - 1078)
son of Walderne Earl of StClair and Lady Helena le Bon the daughter of Richard II Duke of Normandy by his wife Lady Judith of Brittany
/
Henry Sinclair of Roslin 1st Baron of Roslin The Crusader (1065 - 1110)
 
 see

King Arthur and the Comet

Calalus: A Jewish Catholic State in Early Medieval America


http://alternativegenhist.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/king-arthur-and-comet.html

Regime of Assimilation and Guilt:A Hebrew Catholic Reflection

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Nazis arresting Dutch Jews

Since researching the West branch of my mother's family tree who had remained in the Netherlands as orthodox Jews and their almost total destruction in the death camps of Poland I have gained a greater appreciation for the horror of many Jews when family members become baptised. For them being baptised is an abandonment of the Jewish people by the genocide of assimilation. Thus I have developed a kind of survivor's guilt. That my mother's branch went to England and mostly assimilated with very few maintaining any Jewish connection after a few generations is true. No doubt if the Nazi's had conquered Britain and her Empire then my assimilated branch would have also been exterminated as were the many assimilated of Jewish ancestry and Jewish Christians in the Nazi ruled lands.

This assimilation process has always been over the last 1500 years the greatest reason that Jews have resisted attempts at evangelisation which led to their people being converted into Gentiles and lost to the Jewish Community. Father Elias Friedman the founder of the Association of Hebrew Catholics called this the regime of assimilation. This I think is one of the greatest crosses that Jews in the Church bear in regards to their double identity. This has intensified in the light of the Shoah and the genocide of whole extended families. Thus Father Elias saw the necessity of a Jewish community that would be judicially approved and Jewish identity officially recorded and passed on in the Church. 

Even with the advent of Vatican II and a much more positive climate towards Jews many Hebrew Catholics or Catholic Jews have still to struggle against the desire of many to assimilate them and get them to abandon their Jewish inheritance with its customs and practices. Jewish experience has demonstrated that it is Torah and mitzvot that have preserved Jewish identity over the last 2000 years. To abandon Jewish Torah observances and mitzvot always leads to assimilation within a few generations. However 40 years ago Father Elias was reluctant to propose this and leaves this to further discussion and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is a challenge for both Jews and Gentiles in the Church in a time where assimilation doesn't just mean into a Church based society but into secular society and its values which are becoming increasingly hostile to religious values and morals whether Jewish or Christian.

Many Catholics are sad that their children and grandchildren are being assimilated into this post-Christian modern secular culture. Could this also be due to Catholic devotional practices being abandoned in the home and in the Catholic schools as well as in many parishes and dioceses?  Thus devotional practices and observances may be the necessary ingredient that preserves both Jewish and Catholic identity. Thus donning Tefillin or praying the Rosary are more than just devotional practices but a way to connect with God and to aid in the preservation of religious identity.

The best way to alleviate this guilt may be for Hebrew Catholics to work towards a non-assimilation model and a permanent established community for Jews in the Church as Father Elias proposed. Will this new appreciation for Jews in the Church who live a Jewish way of spirituality fulfill Romans 11 and bring riches to the Gentiles by a revival of Catholic devotional life and practices that will then bless the whole world? 

When I became a Catholic and joined the Association of Hebrew Catholics over 30 years ago I was one of the few voices advocating openly for the acceptance of Torah observant Hebrew Catholics.  However since then I have seen a shift in thinking and many more people supporting and open to this among Hebrew Catholics. What I found lacking in Father Elias'"Jewish Identity" I had found previously in Father Lev Gillet's "Communion in the Messiah". I had read it first and it in a sense allowed me to see that becoming a Catholic would not mean an abandonment of all that was best in Judaism and the hope of working towards an "Hasidic Jewish branch of the Catholic Church". I think that Messianic Rabbi Mark Kinzer's book on Nostra Aetate is another of these privotal books on the path to the Ingrafting.

For now we bear the inner conflict of seeming to our fellow Jews to have abandoned them while knowing that this is not really the case if we can build this Jewish space in the Church where we can live out fully our Jewish and Catholic election or vocation as an Israelite collective. The AHC began this journey 40 years ago to create an opening for that Jewish space in the Church and while there is still a long way to go much has been achieved in that time to prepare for the coming generation or generations that will lead us into the Jewish space and place in the Body of the Messiah Yeshua. 

Father Elias saw the rise of Messianic Jews as one of the signs of the times and I think the ideas of Mark Kinzer are a fruit of this sign and will play a part in this mystery of Israel. The life and example of Cardinal Lustiger of Paris was also privotal as was the interview Cardinal (then Archbishop) Burke gave to David Moss the President of the AHC in regards to Jewish observances. The recent Helsinki consultations on Jews in the Church is also an important step as is the informal dialogue between the Catholic Church and Messianic Jews that was established with the approval of Pope John Paul II in 2000. Of course the dialogue between Jews and Catholics and the magisterial documents beginning with Nostra Aetate have also been crucial and greater knowledge and acceptance of them is needed to flow into the consciousness of the wider membership of the Church.

A Jewish sub-Kingdom in Medieval Scotland: DF105 y-dna

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Many of us have read the fascinating book “When Scotland Was Jewish” which reveals some of the hidden Jewish history of Scotland over the last 800 years. In past blogs I have also written much about this hidden Jewish History of Scotland over the last two thousand years or more. I have discussed the role of the real life dark haired Jewish beauty Rebecca or Rae who Sir Walter Scott’s Jewish Rebecca draws on while set in an early period of Scottish and English history. 

This real life Rebecca was the illegitimate Jewish half-sister of Lady Margaret of Flanders. Margaret of Flanders was the wife of the heir to the Scottish throne Prince Alexander MacAlexander and her half-sister Rebecca was his mistress and the mother of his illegitimate children. After the young death of Prince Alexander, Rebecca (or Rae) married firstly Uilleam Earl of Sutherland and then secondly Angus I Mor ( b.1235 d.1296) the 3rd Lord of the Isles (r.1256-1296) as his second wife. Her son by Prince Alexander was Isaac MacRae (also known as MacRath) whose Gaelic name was Iain Alisdair and the English version was John Alexander. He was also known as MacRath Amuligane. Rebecca’s daughter Mariota married Angus I's son Alexander by his first wife Juliana. Rebecca’s other daughter Isobel or Yochabel Alexander married firstly Edward the Bruce High King of Ireland and then Sir John the 3rd Laird of Lamont.


Rebecca was also known as Reine or Reyna which means Queen. Her mother Yochabed or Yochabel was the Flemish Jewish Reyna or Queen who was the Jewish mistress of Count Gui de Dampierre of Flanders. Some of the anti-Jewish Christians referred to these Jewish Queens as Jezebels and Isabella was a popular name of females of this dynasty. Rebecca or Rae was the first Scottish Reine or Reyna and her daughter Isabella (Yochabel) was the second. Thus these Dark Jewish Queens were sometimes married to the Dark Kings but were a separate institution within the Jewish community of Scotland. The third Dark Reine or Rae was Mary Isabella Lamont the granddaughter of Rebecca. 

There was also another lineage known as the Fair or White Jewish Queens Malcah Bahira who descended from the red and blonde haired fair skinned Khazar Princesses who came to Scotland in the 11th century. The word used for them was a wordplay or pun on the Hebrew word Bahir for fair and the name of the Khazar state of Bihar in Hungary (Transylvania). These blonde or Fair Queens descended from Princess Adiva a daughter of King Alfred the Great of England and Wessex. She married the Khazar King Menachem who was also known as Menumarot as the Ruler of Bihar.

The Scottish Gaelic version of Rebecca is Beathag or Bethoc. Rebecca as Beathag de Gui in translation became reversed as Giles de Burgh and it is most probable that Rebecca married as the third wife to James Stewart the 5th High Steward of Scotland (d.1309). Others have incorrectly identified his wife as Egidia a daughter of Walter de Bourgh. Rebecca was the mother of Walter Stewart the 6th High Steward of Scotland (b.1297 d.1326). It is believed that Rebecca outlived her son Walter (Vidal or Chaim). James Stewart's mother Lady Jean of the Isles was a Jewish Princess of the Isles the daughter of Prince or Lord James (Jacob) of the Isles (descended from the Khazar Scottish Jewish King Shlomo (Somerled/Sorley/ Solomon) of the Isles) and his wife also a Scottish Jewish Khazar Princess Ragnhild (Rachel) of the Isles. Thus Rebecca was the grandmother of the crypto-Jewish Catholic King Robert II Stewart of Scotland. 

Like the Rebecca recounted in the Ivanhoe story of Sir Walter Scott, the real life Rebecca left Scotland with one of her daughters for Granada sometime after the death of her husband James in 1309. Her daughter Lady Alice (Ailis) Stewart (she took the Muslim name of A'isha) married a Muslim prince Ismail who would become the Sultan of Granada. Rebecca's grandson by Ismail was Yusuf I (also known as Abu-I-Hayyay) of Granada b.1318. Like Scott's Rebecca it is possible that Rebecca left Scotland due to accusations of witchcraft as she was known like her grandson Yusuf of Granada to have prophetic and healing powers. Nasr the crypto-Jewish Muslim Sultan of Granada (d.1322) married Rebecca around 1310 and built her the Torre de la Reine. It later became known as the Torre Abu-I-Hayyay before once again having a name change in the reign of Charles V and being known by a variant of its original name - Peinador de la Reina. Her daughter Miriam (Mariam) by Nasr left Granada after the death of her father and lived in Portugal where she took the name Maria Anes and married the Commander  or Governor of Santarem - Soeiro Mendes Petite. One of her daughters called Constance married Pedro the illegitimate son of King Peter III (Pedro) the Great of Aragon and his Jewish mistress Inez. Another daughter Maria married Estavao Perez Coelho a troubadour. The Catholic Princess Isabella of Portugal the wife of Charles V was descended on her direct maternal line from Maria and thus from Rebecca (Rae or Reine) the Dark Jewish Queen of Scots.

In a past post I speculated that the name of Amuligane or Molegan came from the Hebrew haMelekh haKatan which means “the Little King”, however it could also be haMelekh haKohen which means the Priest King or from HaMelekh Khaghan. Another possibility is HaMelekh haKeheh which means the Dark King. Hakeheh means the dark one. This title of the Dark King may have referred to the dark hair and skin of Isaac that he had inherited from his mother. This is the reason that this family were associated with the name Dubh (dark or black in Gaelic) or Duncan (a dark or brown warrior) and Maurice (meaning dark skinned or swarthy in Latin). Some of the anti-Semites of the time used this name in alluding to the Jewish king as the offspring of the dark one or Satan. 


The title Amuligane developed into the surnames Milliken and Mulligan and other variants. The emblem of this Royal Family was the Red Rampant Lion of the House of David representing the Royal Lion of Judah. This was used to demonstrate their descent from Alexander II and Alexander III Kings of Scotland who first used this emblem in its present form as the Royal Scottish Standard and thus claiming Royal Davidic descent from both David I of Scots and King David of Israel. King David I of Scotland would seem to have been the first Scottish King to use the emblem of the Rampant Lion. He was perceived by many Jews as a Messianic Davidic figure and through St Margaret he was of Royal Khazar Jewish ancestry. The Milliken coat of arms has three rampant lions which are red but originally the three were different colours of red, blue and black (sable). The Red Rampant Lion represented the Royal House of the Khazar Jews and the Scottish Kings of the House of Atholl-Dunkeld, the Blue Rampant Lion represented the Lion of Judah and the House of David and the Black Rampant Lion the Counts of Flanders and the Royal House of the Rhadanite Jews.


After the death of Prince Alexander, Rebecca fled north to her relatives in Moray and then married the Lord of the Isles. These relatives like Rebecca were descended from the Khazar Royal Kings called Khagan which had in Flanders been adapted to Kohen. Rebecca belonged to the Flemish branch of the Khazar Royal line. I have written in other blogs about the arrival of the Khazar Royal Warriors to Scotland so I will not repeat that now. Isaac was soon given lands in the area of Dumfries and Galloway and had a certain protection as the step-son of the Lord of the Isles. He later became allied with Robert the Bruce through his marriage to Robert's sister Lady Margaret Bruce.

Rebecca who was also known as haMalcah haKehah (the Dark Queen) was considered the leader or Queen of the Jews of Scotland and the Isles. Malca Kehah was the origin of the MacKay name and her son Isaac is also known as Iye Mor MacKay in the MacKay genealogies. Isaac I's son Daniel MacIsaac was also known as Donald MacKaheh or MacKay. Daniel married the MacHeth or McEth heiress. Rebecca was the true 1st Chieftain[ess] of MacKay. Rebecca’s father Count Gui de Dampierre was known as Guy de Cahan in the Scottish genealogies. Some of her descendants also took the name of MacGui (MacGhie) or MacGee. Mary MacGee married into the MacDevitt family and their son John took the MacGee (MacKee) surname and was the ancestor of the ZZ36 y-dna haplogroup. Gui's original Jewish name was Gershon. His mistress and the mother of Rebecca was a descendant of Rabbi Isaac of Dampierre (b.1120). However his name of Gui was connected to his nickname in Hebrew of Keheh (Dark one). Gui's coat of arms was a sable or dark rampant Lion which he wore on his surcoat. Rebecca’s son Angus II Og MacDonald, by her husband Angus I, became the 5th Lord of the Isles after the death of his half-brother Alexander II Og MacDonald in 1299.

Rebecca’s son Isaac was revered as being a Jew who was also the son of the last male heir of the older Scottish Dynasty of Dunkeld-Atholl. He was perceived as a Jewish sub or under King over those Jews who still practiced Judaism in quiet and private ways in Scotland, even those of Jewish origin who were members of the Catholic Church revered Isaac as a kind of mystical Davidic priest-king. He became the second Earl of Sutherland under the name of Uilleam or William on the death of his mother's relative Uilleam (Gilleoin) or William de Moravia the first Earl of Sutherland when he was a small child. The names of Isaac and William had first been connected when Isaac Kalonymus became known as Isaac Gellone and then Gellone became associated with William (Guillaume/ Guilelmus) in 8th century Septimania. Isaac's uncle Nathan Kalonymus (Gellone) was also called Guillaume de Gellone or William of Orange.
The first Earl of Sutherland may have been Rebecca's first husband who she married in 1283-4 after the death of Prince Alexander. It was after Uilleam's death in 1286 that she married Angus Mor MacDonald Lord of the Isles. 
 
Isaac I MacRae (b.1282 d.1314) was succeeded in 1314 as Scots King of the Jews (or the Dark King) by his son Keheh I MacIsaac (or Kahan I) whose Gaelic name was Angus Dubh Alisdair (also known as Maurice MacRae or MacRath). In 1320 he succeeded his half-uncle Angus II as Angus III MacAlexander the 6th Lord of the Isles (r.1320-1330). Angus may have been the the Earl of Sutherland from 1314 under the name of Uilleam or William (Gillanders). He has been often confused by historians with his half-uncle of the same name of Angus. His wife was known as Agnes MacDonald Cahan and she was the daughter of Alexander II MacDonald and Lady Mariota Alexander of the Isles (the daughter of Rebecca). Keheh I (Angus) had a brother Gershon MacIsaac who was also known as Gilbert de Insula who was granted lands in Menstrie in 1330. Another brother Chanan MacIsaac was known as Kenneth de Moravia the 4th Earl of Sutherland. His nephew Chanan MacKeheh was also called Kenneth (Kenzie) the 1st Mackenzie Lord of Kintail. He was the Mackenzie ancestor of the R1b M222 DF104 ZZ55 y-dna haplogroup.

Keheh I MacIsaac was succeeded as the Scots Jewish King by his son Isaac II Pharez MacKeheh (b.1320 d.1387) who was also known as Iain Alisdair or John Alexander as well as John MacRath or MacRae. His half-cousin John MacDonald of Islay the son of Angus II Og macDonald had succeeded his father as Lord of the Isles in 1330. On his half-cousin’s death he married his widow Amy Ruiari (MacRory) and became the 8th Lord of the Isles as John II MacAlexander (MacAlisdair) in 1345. He married a second time to Princess Margaret Stewart the daughter of King Robert II Stewart. Robert II’s wife Elizabeth Mure, the mother of Princess Margaret, was a maternal granddaughter of Isaac I and his wife Lady Margaret Bruce (who may have quietly embraced Judaism on her marriage to Isaac I). It is most likely Isaac II (aka John Alexander Lord of the Isles) who was the founder and ancestor of R1b M222 DF105 y-dna.

Isaac II as John II Alexander Lord of the Isles continued his cousin's support of Robert Stewart. In 1366 when King David II tried to raise a tax for his ransom, John rebelled and held out the longest. In a Treaty in 1369 John was reconciled to King David. King Robert II however decided to divide and conquer by granting certain parts of the Kingdom of the Isles to be inherited by the step-children of John (the children of his first wife Amie by his cousin John I McDonald) and the rest to John's own children by Princess Margaret Stewart. He was succeeded as Lord of the Isles by his son Donald.

Around this time there seemed to be an increase of the rate of mutations in the y-dna with the advent of the Little Ice Age due to cataclysmic events in the southern and possibly western hemispheres around 1320 and then again in 1530 and 1605 thus deepening the effects of the Little Ice Age. Isaac II was succeeded as Scots King of the Jews by his son Keheh II Mac Isaac who was also known as Hugh Alexander (Aodh Alisdair) as well as Dubh or Duncan McRae as well as Maurice MacRath. Keheh II as his name suggests was dark haired and olive skinned and his wife Lady Margaret McKay was blonde with fair skin and was known as Mariota Fionna (Margaret the Fair). Margaret was the Fair or White Jewish Queen (Malcah Bahira / Banrigh Fionn/ Rigain Fionn). Two of their sons Angus (Keheh) and Gilbert (Gershon) had the dark looks of their father and were known as MacDubh. Two of the sons Christopher (Chaim) and John (Isaac III MacKeheh) had the fair looks of their mother and were known as MacFinlay.

Keheh II (Kahan II) was the founder and ancestor of R1b M222 FGC4133 y-dna. Hugh or Keheh II had been chosen to succeed his father as his older brothers embraced the Catholic Church. His younger brother Marcus (aka Moses) also remained a Jew and some of his descendants were also known as Amuligane as the Dark Jewish King. Marcus married the Jewess Amy McDonald who was a maternal great granddaughter of Rebecca through the Campbell and Lamont families. Keheh II's brother Donald was the 9th Lord of the Isles and the founder of R1b M222 S588 y-dna. He was succeeded by his brother Alexander III MacAlexander Lord of the Isles who married Lady Mary Lennox and his son Alexander the 1st Baron of Menstrie was the ancestor of R1b M222 A259 and A260 y-dna and his other son John MacAlexander was the ancestor of R1b M222 DF85 y-dna.

It would seem that the descendants of Gershon MacKeheh (Gilbert Grierson) and Isaac III MacKeheh claimed the Amuligane or HaMelekh HaKeheh position or title and from about 1500 it started to be used as a surname by some descendants of both brothers. It would seem that Isaac III Keheh was succeeded as Amuligane by his son Keheh III MacIsaac (Cuthbert MacRath Amuligane)[b.1410 d.1462] who was succeeded by the grandson of Gilbert Grierson called Gershon I MacVedast (Gilbert Grierson Amuligane) [b.1443 d.1472]. Gershon I was succeeded by Keheh IV MacGershon (Cuthbert Amuligane) [b.1450 d.1485] a grandson of Keheh III. He was succeeded byTam I MacGershom (Thomas Amuligane son of William Grierson) [b.1449 d.1495]. He was succeeded by Pharez I MacPharez (Fergus Amuligane) [b.1475 d.1538] of Blackmyre. Pharez's I's grandfather was John MacRath (Isaac Pharez) who was the son of  Marcus (Moses) MacRath who was the son of Isaac II MacKeheh Amuligane (aka John Alexander Lord of the Isles). Pharez I was succeeded by his son Isaac IV MacPharez (John MacRath Amuligane) [b.1496 d.1547] and he was succeeded by his brother-in-law Keheh V MacReuben (Cuthbert Grierson Amuligane son of Robert Grierson) and his son William Amuligane was probably the last of the Jewish kinglets and the name just became a surname after his time. However they may have continued as secret Jewish Kings or the Amuligane until around the early 17th century


Isaac IV's relative Abraham MacPharez (aka Alexander Frew) b.1510 a great-grandson of Isaac Pharez MacMoses (aka John Fergus MacRath) became the ancestor of the Farew or Frew family of Ayrshire (Kilwinning). Abraham's grandfather may have moved from the Blackmyre region of Nithsdale to Perth in the north and from there the Frew family branched out to Kilwinning and Kilsyth and the area Gargunnock and the Fords of Frew which was named after this family. However it may not have been Nithsdale that the Frew's moved from but further north of Perth from the Glen Tilt area that they moved to Perth while the MacRath/Amuligane branch moved to Blackmyre. Isaac IV's son Isaac MacIsaac (John Mullikine) was the belonged to Z44996 y-dna. His grandson Chanan (Kenneth Mullikine) was the ancestor of A822 Y-dna.
 

The fourth Dark Jewish Rae or Reine (Queen) was Helena Campbell (b.1348) the daughter of Lady Mary Isabella Lamont (b.1318 d.1364). The fifth Queen was Lady Amy McDonald of Islay the daughter of Helena Campbell. Amy was the wife of Marcus (Moses) MacRath whose brother was the Amuligane or Dark Jewish King. Amy's daughter Isabella MacRath married Isaac III MacKeheh.

The mysterious figures of Rae (Rebecca), the MacIsaac family and the Amuliganes reveal a rich hidden Jewish history of Scotland. When I was younger I often heard of the Scots being referred to as the Jews of the North.  Cecil Roth in his writings sought to explain this Jewish input into Scotland by suggesting that many children from English Jewish families had their children taken off them in the Medieval period and sent North to the border region of Scotland and England. However it was the input from the Khazars (MacDonald) Kings or Lords of the Isles (of R1a y-dna) and the Flemish Jews of Flanders that were the major source of hidden Jews in Scotland. It was the MacDonald Clan that was the overarching shield of these various Jewish families and then the MacKay (Ikey Mo) Clan that had its origin within this MacDonald Clan among some of the descendants of Rebecca and Isaac.

It is also important to note that these Flemish Jews that are the ancestors of Rebecca's parents are not only those of Khazar ancestry who most likely enter Flanders from the Khazar kingdoms of the Isles and Moray (Moravia) in northern Scotland but of their intermarriage with the Rhadanite Jews of Flanders and France which may have a link to the Rhodan and Synklar Jews of Calalus who also arrived in Western Europe in the 10th century. This is a further area of study and research that will reveal more of the hidden Davidic, Jewish and Jewish Catholic history of Europe and the world which was hidden or obscured firstly by Gentile Catholics and Christians as well as Rabbinic Jews and later by the modernists in academia and science.

Among certain groups there are those that argue vigorously for certain ancestry for their families or nationalities. The reality is that those today who are Scottish or Irish and their more recent descendants in other countries are not purely Norwegian, Gaelic, Norman, Pictish, English, Flemish, French or Jewish but they are descended from all these groups no matter what origin the direct y-dna or the direct mt-dna reveals. It is not just those with the y-dna R1b M222 DF105 and mt-dna J1b1a1 that descend from Rebecca and her sons and daughters but those of many different haplogroups that they intermarried with so that today probably most Scottish people and probably most Irish and English people descend from Rebecca in some manner. This does not mean all these people are Jewish but it does mean they have some ancestors that were Jewish. Some of Rebecca's descendants very quickly became Catholics but these Catholics still retained their Jewish halakhic identity for 10 generations if it was on a direct maternal lineage after leaving the Jewish community. Others maintained in family and hidden groups their Jewish identity until at least the 17th or 18th century before assimilating into the Christian population.


see

New Subclades of R1b M222+ ydna: The Scottish Sons of Isaac (DF104)

Guy de Dampierre and the mystery of Rebecca: A Scottish Tale

 

The Blue Moon and the Month of flowers: Don Bosco and 2026

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"These things shall inexorably come to pass, all in succession.

"Things follow too slowly upon each other, but the great Queen of Heaven is at hand; the Lord's power is Hers. Like mist She shall scatter Her enemies. She shall vest the Venerable Old Man [Pope] with all his former garments.

"There shall yet come a violent hurricane. Iniquity is at an end, sin shall cease, and before two full moons shall have shone in the month of flowers, the rainbow of peace shall appear on the earth.

"The great Minister shall see the Bride of his King clothed in glory.

"Throughout the world a sun so bright shall shineas was never seen since the flames of the Cenacle until today, nor shall it be seen again until the end of time."Prophecy of St John Bosco in 1870.

This prophecy speaks of a future two moons in one month which is what is known as a blue moon. This year (2018) we had two blue moons in January and March with no new moon in February. The next time we have this will be in 2037. Some people have speculated that the month of flowers is in March others think that the month of flowers refers to May. I personally think May is the likely candidate for the month of flowers.

The next blue moon that occurs in May is in 2026. It would seem that this month of a blue moons is preceded by a rainbow of peace. Thus it seems to be alluding to the fact that the great hurricane or tribulation and chastisement will be completed before May 2026. The prophecy in the first part speaks of the problems of France and then the rise of the man who will become the Great Monarch and of the Venerable Old Man of Rome (Lazio) who will anoint him as the New Holy Roman Emperor.

St. Paul and the Letter of Philemon: A Hellenistic Jewish Context

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Philemon is the shortest letter of St Paul in the Bible however it can act as a door to understanding the much larger corpus of the Pauline Literature in its biblical and historical context. All Scripture including Philemon can be read at many levels and thus one can gain insights that relate to contemporary people and their modern concerns. However in order to read Scripture at different levels one needs to understand the literal historical level or sense first. While this historical level is primary it is not necessarily the most important or meaningful sense.[1]We all read Paul according to our own understanding or interpretation of the biblical and historical evidence and from one’s own world view and culture.

In recent years there has arisen a school of theology that is given the name of the ‘New Perspectives on Paul’ in which reference to the Jewish context of Paul is central. In fact Dunn calls this new perspective a quantum shift.[2] I would suggest that this occurred partly due to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. The previous theological approach used by many Protestants was of the Higher Critical School which in the 20th century was taken on by many Catholic scholars. This German theology was at its very core anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish according to a number of authors.[3]These insights of the ‘New Perspective on Paul’ have caused many to not see Paul as an antinomian rebel but as one faithful to the Torah as represented in Acts 21. Rabbi Jacob Emden (1697-1776) a leader among the Litvak Jews of Eastern Europe in his famous letter proposed an interpretation of Paul as a faithful Torah observant Rabbi who only taught that Gentiles didn’t need to be Jewishly Torah Observant but insisted on full Torah observance for the circumcised.[4][5]This was demonstrated when Paul circumcised Timothy because he had a Jewish mother.[6]Paul taught in Galatians 5:3 that one who was circumcised was obligated to keep the whole Torah.

There are many diverse opinions among scholars of the context of Paul’s Letter to Philemon. However almost everyone is agreed that the letter was originally written in Greek. Certain puns or word plays in the Greek make this clear.[7]There is a word play or pun on Onesimus’ name, which means useful, in verse 11. Marchal perceives a more sexual connotation to the term ‘useful’ in regards to the use of slaves for sexual pleasure. Is Paul by the use of this pun letting Philemon know that Onesimus has revealed something more shocking in their relationship than just simple master and slave?[8] Is this Paul’s version of Jesus writing in the sand?[9]

Even though the letter is written in Greek one of a Jewish background can’t help but perceive the Jewish expressions behind the Greek words. An example is in verse 7 where a Jewish reader may detect simcha gedola (much joy) and Chizzuk (encouragement/strength) with its deeper Hebrew meaning under the Greek equivalents. Is this because Paul comes from Tarsus and as well as being a Pharisee he is also an educated Hellenistic Jew? It is also possible that Paul speaks to them in this manner because Philemon, Apphia and Archippus are Hellenistic Jews too. Eastern Orthodox Tradition holds that Philemon, Apphia and Archippus were of the seventy apostles (Shelikhim) and thus must have been Jewish.[10]This tradition holds that Apphia was the wife of Philemon and that with Archippus they went as Shelikhim to evangelise Colossae where Archippus became the Bishop (Parnas Hegemon). These traditions also say that Philemon became the Bishop of Gaza in Palestine. Other scholars think that Archippus was the son of Philemon and Apphia. If they were Hellenised Jews then this would explain Paul’s expectation that Philemon knows the obligations of the Torah.[11] Paul doesn’t want to appeal to what is “anekon”( דזדקן righteous according to the Torah) but to love (agape/ahavah).[12]However by even mentioning “anekon” he has indeed reminded Philemon of his moral duty (chovah musarit) according to the Torah.

Most scholars believe that the Letter was written around 60-62 AD from Rome where Paul was imprisoned. Others hold that it was written almost a decade earlier and possibly from Ephesus.[13]  While most believe that Paul was actually in prison others believe the term ‘Prisoner of Jesus Christ’ has a more spiritual rather than a literal meaning.  It is believed by most to be addressed to the Church in Colossae but it is also possible it was a personal letter that was only addressed to the three Shelikhimespecially if the allusion to a sinful[14]homosexual relationship was involved as suggested by Marchal. It may have later after the death of its protagonists were dead been then read to the wider Church. In that case the mention of the “Church in your House” may refer to Archippus rather than to Philemon.[15]

The structure of this letter has also been the subject of intense discussion by scholars. Some believe that this is a letter of recommendation of the kind that a patron wrote on behalf of another that uses deliberative rhetoric. Deliberative rhetoric is that which was used when writing to convince someone to change their mind or actions. FF Church writes an interesting article about the use of rhetoric in the context of the letter to Philemon.[16]Osiek states that it is impossible to separate the indicative from the imperative in this letter.[17] Others have questioned this rhetoric approach as they don’t think it reveals the purpose of the letter. Could this be due to the hidden purpose suggested by Marchal? Is this a letter that is trying to encourage repentance by a prominent and influential leader in the Church? That Philemon is a saint of the Church and went on to be a Bishop in Gaza suggests that Paul’s purpose was achieved.[18]Frilingos stresses the use of familial language and metaphors in the letter. He sees this as part of Paul’s purpose to challenge and displace Philemon’s claim of power over his slave by the use of this familial imagery.[19]Elliot sees this as a rhetoric of tact that Paul uses to manipulate others in a demonstration of his own power and authority.[20]



However some scholars don’t believe that Onesimus is an actual slave but someone Philemon was treating like a slave. And there are many others scenarios that could be proposed. Many people have focused on the issue of slavery and perhaps read into the text the concerns of later Christians. Others have focused on the message of love, mercy and kindness that Paul seems to be proposing to those who have power over the lives of others. This letter may demonstrate that Paul practised tough love in that he lovingly corrects, admonishes and lures his fellow believers into behaving in a more Christ-like manner rooted in love. Dunham perceives the Letter as providing a model of transformation of life in the resurrected Messiah.[21]



There are many open questions regarding this Letter and its context and background, thus certain opinions cannot be held dogmatically and one needs to be open to further reflection and the insights of further scholarship. In such a small essay one cannot cover the issues presented by Paul’s Letter to Philemon adequately but I have endeavoured to briefly touch on points of interest which need further explication. At this point I incline towards believing that Philemon, Apphia and Archippus are Hellenistic Jews and that Paul and Timothy are writing to them from Rome in the early 60’s from prison. I also would at this stage accept the more traditional interpretation that Onesimus as an escaped slave who Paul is seeking to reconcile with his master and I think the Marchal’s interpretation about a sexual “usefulness” may have some merit that may explain some of the question marks about the true purpose of the letter raised by some scholars. If Paul is dealing with a more serious and scandalous situation among the higher leaders he may be using his Messiah’s advice of being as gentle as a dove and as cunning as a serpent[22] in order to correct and reconcile sinners in the Church (Kehilla). Philemon himself may be fond of Greek rhetorical approaches and Paul may be displaying his policy of being all things to all men in order to win them back (in this case) to a Christ-like way of life[23] by writing in a style that Philemon would appreciate. I think that the aspect of the New Perspectives on Paul that emphasises the Jewish context is opening fresh insights to Paul’s writings and ideas in general and to Philemon in particular.






Bibliography

Brown, Raymond Edward, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland Edmund Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Prentice Hall, 1990.

Church, F. Forrester. "Rhetorical structure and design in Paul's letter to Philemon."Harvard Theological Review 71, no. 1-2 (1978): 17-33.

Dunham, Robert E. “Between text and sermon: Philemon 1:1-25”. Interpretation: A Journal of    Bible and Theology; Richmond Vol. 52, Iss. 2,  (Apr 1998): 191-194.

Dunn, James DG. "The new perspective on Paul."HTS Theological Studies 64, no. 4 (2008): 1956-           1958 .

Elliott, Scott S. “‘Thanks, but no thanks’”: Tact, Persuasion and the Negotiation of Power in Paul’s             Letter to Philemon.” New Testament Studies 57 (2011): 51-64.

Falk, Harvey (Rabbi). Jesus the Pharisee: A new look at the Jewishness of Jesus. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2003.

Frilingos, Chris. “‘For My Child, Onesimus’: Paul and Domestic Power in Philemon." Journal of Biblical Literature 119, no. 1 (2000): 91-104.

Marchal, Joseph A. "The Usefulness of an Onesimus: The Sexual Use of Slaves and Paul's Letter to Philemon." Journal of Biblical Literature 130, no. 4 (2011): 749-770.

Maciejko, Pawel. The mixed multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist movement, 1755-1816.        University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

OrthodoxWiki. Apostle Philemon

Osiek, Carolyn. "Philemon." In The Catholic Study Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies 2016.

Schoeman, Roy H. Salvation is from the Jews (John 4: 22): The Role of Judaism in Salvation         History from Abraham to the Second Coming. Ignatius Press, 2003.







[1]Called the Peshat level in Judaism. The other levels or senses are Remetz (analogical), Drash (moral or homelitical) and Sod (anagogical or mystical)

[2]James DG Dunn. "The new perspective on Paul." HTS Theological Studies 64, no. 4 (2008): 1956-1958 .

[3]Roy H. Schoeman. Salvation is from the Jews (John 4: 22): The Role of Judaism in Salvation History from Abraham to the Second Coming. Ignatius Press, 2003.

[4]Harvey Falk. Jesus the Pharisee: A new look at the Jewishness of Jesus. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2003.

[5]Pawel Maciejko believes Emden drew this conclusion from an earlier Jewish work written by David Nasi in 1430. David Nasi was the brother of the famous Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos.

[6]Acts 16:3

[7] Robert E Dunham, “Between text and sermon: Philemon 1:1-25”.  In Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology; Richmond Vol. 52, Iss. 2,  (Apr 1998): 191-194.

[8] Joseph A Marchal. "The Usefulness of an Onesimus: The Sexual Use of Slaves and Paul's Letter to Philemon." Journal of Biblical Literature 130, no. 4 (2011): 749-770.

[9]John 8:4

[10]Apostle Philemon on OrthodoxWiki

[11]See verses 8-9

[12]Verses 8-9

[13] Raymond Edward Brown, , Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland Edmund Murphy, eds. The new Jerome biblical commentary. (Prentice Hall, 1990), 869-870.

[14]Perceived as sinful to Jews and Christians but not to the pagan Greeks and Romans of the Empire and possibly less so to the Hellenistic Jews especially those who had assimilated the most to Greek and Roman culture among the wealthy upper class which Philemon may have belonged.

[15] Philemon 1:2

[16]F. ForresterChurch. "Rhetorical structure and design in Paul's letter to Philemon." Harvard Theological Review 71, no. 1-2 (1978): 17-33.

[17]Carolyn Osiek. "Philemon." In The Catholic Study Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies 2016.

[18]Apostle Philemon on OrthodoxWiki

[19] Chris Frilingos. “‘For My Child, Onesimus’: Paul and Domestic Power in Philemon." Journal of Biblical Literature119, no. 1 (2000): 91-104.

[20]Scott S. Elliott. “‘Thanks, but no thanks’”: Tact, Persuasion and the Negotiation of Power in Paul’s Letter to Philemon.” New Testament Studies 57 (2011): 51-64.

[21]Robert E Dunham, “Between text and sermon: Philemon 1:1-25”, 191-194.

[22]Matthew 10:16


[23] I Corinthians 9:22

Divine Will, the Thief in the Night and the Gathering of Eagles: A Hebrew Catholic Insight

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Deuteronomy 32:11 describes the one who lives in Divine Will as a baby eagle (gosling) "As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings". The eagle represents the Divine Will soaring in the power of the Holy Spirit hovering or fluttering over the soul who lives in Divine Will.

This is linked to Genesis 1:2: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God fluttered upon the face of the waters."This alludes to the same concept of the fluttering or hovering of the Divine Will through the power of the Spirit of God over the 'face of the waters' (Our Lady in Eternity who lives in Divine Will). It also refers to Exodus 19:4: "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself."

Those who live in Divine Will are referred to as those who wait and watch for the Lord in the inner sanctuary. Isaiah 40:31"But those that wait for the LORD shall have new strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." They are the 36ers Lamed vavniks (lamed in Hebrew = 30 and vav =6) alluded to in Apocalypse 11:1 who remain in worship in the inner sanctuary of the Temple or Church when all the rest is destroyed. "And there was given me a reed like unto a rod, and he said unto me, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those that worship therein."The measuring rod according to Jewish teaching is 6 cubits long and each cubit is made up of six hand breaths (6 x 6 = 36) and in Judaism 36 refers to the Lamed vavniks who live in God's Will as Adam lived in Divine Will in the Garden of Eden for 36 hours and as the 36 candles of Hannukah represent a manifestation of the Divine Will. 

 In the Talmud, in Tractate Sanhedrin 97b, it says, “The world must contain not less than thirty-six righteous men in each generation who are vouchsafed the sight of the Shekhinah’s countenance, for it is written [in Isaiah 30:18], Blessed are all they that wait [lo] for him; the numerical value of ‘lo’ is thirty-six.” In this passage, the Hebrew word “for him” is “lo” which in Hebrew is spelled lamed vav, לו , that is 36. By reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” [לו] he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.” Luisa wrote 36 volumes of the Book of Heaven and there are 36 rays on the Divine Will medal of Luisa.  In Hebrew we could write the first two words of Luisa as לוּ [Lu] which is 36 and can also mean "for him" and the second half of her name as isha [אשה] which means woman thus she is the 36-woman and the woman for him. Isha [אשה] in gematria is 306.

Psalm 100:3 commands, “Know that YHVH [the LORD] is Elohim [God]. He made us, and we are `lo’.” The Jewish mesorah or tradition regarding the spelling and pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible instructs us that the word “lo” is spelled lamed-aleph [לא] but is read as if it was spelled lamed-vav [לו]. Thus the phrase in Psalm 100:3 means, “We are His,” but it is written as if it means, “We are not.” ִIf one wants to be “lo” (lamed- vav), that is “His,” one should be “lo” (lamed-aleph), that is “Not” or "Nothing". This means that a lamed vavnik is one who is very little, hidden and humble.

There are two categories of 36ers or lamed vavniks. The first are the lamed vavniks Tzadikkim (righteous ones) who follow God's Will in an almost perfect manner which can be found among both Jewish and Christian saints ( mostly unknown and not canonised). The second and higher but more humble category are the lamed vavnik kadoshim (holy ones) who live or dwell in the Divine Will by faith on earth who are able to be mystically present in all generations from Adam till the last man.
 
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.”Read more: http://forward.com/culture/13406/the-thirty-six-who-save-the-world-01872/
 

Again in Apocalypse  12:14 we see those who live in Divine Will connected with eagle wings. "And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the presence of the serpent into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times."This causes us to reflect on the mysterious saying of Jesus recorded in Matthew and Luke. Matthew 24:28: "Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together." and Luke 17:37: "And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Where the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together."

Many have translated and interpreted this as eagles or vultures who eat from a dead carcass or body. However I believe that the body here alludes to both the Church as the Body of the Messiah and the Eucharist where we gather to receive his Body. These verses reveal to us that those souls who live in Divine Will shall gather in the apocalyptic times to wait on and for the Lord with his Body the Church and become intercessors in Eucharistic Adoration in Divine Will. They live and abide in the Eucharist and are one with the blessings that flow from the monstrance and tabernacle into the world and to all generations. 

In this way they soar as an eagle in union with Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Luisa and all the other 36ers in Divine Will to all generations. This period is the time of the hidden or intermediate coming of the Lord as a 'Thief in the Night' who will appear as a lightning flash (the Divine Man revealed in his ten sefirot), not his final one in his flesh at the end of the world. This occurs at the end of the fifth period of Church history called the Church of Sardis.Apocalypse 3:3: "Remember, therefore, of that which thou hast received and heard and hold to it and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come to thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." 


The so-called "taken", referred to by some Protestants in regards to the "rapture", most likely refers to those taken by the Lord to the wilderness to live in Divine Will and to lead the battle for God's Kingdom which is the Divine Will reigning on earth as it is in Heaven.  They are the bridesmaids with oil waiting, watching and prepared for the coming of the Bridegroom in the Night. Merakhafet (fluttering or hovering) is the 18th word of the Torah and 18 means Life (Chai). Thus when we flutter in the Divine Will in the Holy Spirit we create Divine Life for souls. And 18 x 2 = 36 which is double life which alludes to the concept of Divine Lives (life in the plural which in Hebrew is Chayyim). The feminine of life or Chai is Chaya (plural Chayot or living creatures). In the Bible it refers to four Chayot of which one is represented by the Eagle. I believe this Chaya that is the Eagle is Luisa Piccarreta in Eternity. Let us desire to soar and hover in the Divine Will like the baby eagle resting on the Eagle's wings. 

The Peshitta Bible translates the Aramiac/Syriac of Apocalyse 8:13 as: "...And I beheld, and heard an eagle having a tail red as it were blood, flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, by reason of the other sounds of the trumpets of the three angels which are yet to sound!..". This would seem to allude to one who lives in Divine Will at the highest Zenith (possibly a future Pope) at the time of the coming of the comet (the tail of blood) and connected with the proclamation of the last three Marian dogmas of Our Lady as Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all Graces and Advocate towards the height of Jacob's trouble.

 



Australian Eagle being attacked by a magpie

St. Paul and the Letter of Philemon: A Hellenistic Jewish Context

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Philemon is the shortest letter of St Paul in the Bible however it can act as a door to understanding the much larger corpus of the Pauline Literature in its biblical and historical context. All Scripture including Philemon can be read at many levels and thus one can gain insights that relate to contemporary people and their modern concerns. However in order to read Scripture at different levels one needs to understand the literal historical level or sense first. While this historical level is primary it is not necessarily the most important or meaningful sense.[1]We all read Paul according to our own understanding or interpretation of the biblical and historical evidence and from one’s own world view and culture.

In recent years there has arisen a school of theology that is given the name of the ‘New Perspectives on Paul’ in which reference to the Jewish context of Paul is central. In fact Dunn calls this new perspective a quantum shift.[2] I would suggest that this occurred partly due to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. The previous theological approach used by many Protestants was of the Higher Critical School which in the 20th century was taken on by many Catholic scholars. This German theology was at its very core anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish according to a number of authors.[3]These insights of the ‘New Perspective on Paul’ have caused many to not see Paul as an antinomian rebel but as one faithful to the Torah as represented in Acts 21. Rabbi Jacob Emden (1697-1776) a leader among the Litvak Jews of Eastern Europe in his famous letter proposed an interpretation of Paul as a faithful Torah observant Rabbi who only taught that Gentiles didn’t need to be Jewishly Torah Observant but insisted on full Torah observance for the circumcised.[4][5]This was demonstrated when Paul circumcised Timothy because he had a Jewish mother.[6]Paul taught in Galatians 5:3 that one who was circumcised was obligated to keep the whole Torah.

There are many diverse opinions among scholars of the context of Paul’s Letter to Philemon. However almost everyone is agreed that the letter was originally written in Greek. Certain puns or word plays in the Greek make this clear.[7]There is a word play or pun on Onesimus’ name, which means useful, in verse 11. Marchal perceives a more sexual connotation to the term ‘useful’ in regards to the use of slaves for sexual pleasure. Is Paul by the use of this pun letting Philemon know that Onesimus has revealed something more shocking in their relationship than just simple master and slave?[8] Is this Paul’s version of Jesus writing in the sand?[9]

Even though the letter is written in Greek one of a Jewish background can’t help but perceive the Jewish expressions behind the Greek words. An example is in verse 7 where a Jewish reader may detect simcha gedola (much joy) and Chizzuk (encouragement/strength) with its deeper Hebrew meaning under the Greek equivalents. Is this because Paul comes from Tarsus and as well as being a Pharisee he is also an educated Hellenistic Jew? It is also possible that Paul speaks to them in this manner because Philemon, Apphia and Archippus are Hellenistic Jews too. Eastern Orthodox Tradition holds that Philemon, Apphia and Archippus were of the seventy apostles (Shelikhim) and thus must have been Jewish.[10]This tradition holds that Apphia was the wife of Philemon and that with Archippus they went as Shelikhim to evangelise Colossae where Archippus became the Bishop (Parnas Hegemon). These traditions also say that Philemon became the Bishop of Gaza in Palestine. Other scholars think that Archippus was the son of Philemon and Apphia. If they were Hellenised Jews then this would explain Paul’s expectation that Philemon knows the obligations of the Torah.[11] Paul doesn’t want to appeal to what is “anekon”( דזדקן righteous according to the Torah) but to love (agape/ahavah).[12]However by even mentioning “anekon” he has indeed reminded Philemon of his moral duty (chovah musarit) according to the Torah.

Most scholars believe that the Letter was written around 60-62 AD from Rome where Paul was imprisoned. Others hold that it was written almost a decade earlier and possibly from Ephesus.[13]  While most believe that Paul was actually in prison others believe the term ‘Prisoner of Jesus Christ’ has a more spiritual rather than a literal meaning.  It is believed by most to be addressed to the Church in Colossae but it is also possible it was a personal letter that was only addressed to the three Shelikhimespecially if the allusion to a sinful[14]homosexual relationship was involved as suggested by Marchal. It may have later after the death of its protagonists were dead been then read to the wider Church. In that case the mention of the “Church in your House” may refer to Archippus rather than to Philemon.[15]

The structure of this letter has also been the subject of intense discussion by scholars. Some believe that this is a letter of recommendation of the kind that a patron wrote on behalf of another that uses deliberative rhetoric. Deliberative rhetoric is that which was used when writing to convince someone to change their mind or actions. FF Church writes an interesting article about the use of rhetoric in the context of the letter to Philemon.[16]Osiek states that it is impossible to separate the indicative from the imperative in this letter.[17] Others have questioned this rhetoric approach as they don’t think it reveals the purpose of the letter. Could this be due to the hidden purpose suggested by Marchal? Is this a letter that is trying to encourage repentance by a prominent and influential leader in the Church? That Philemon is a saint of the Church and went on to be a Bishop in Gaza suggests that Paul’s purpose was achieved.[18]Frilingos stresses the use of familial language and metaphors in the letter. He sees this as part of Paul’s purpose to challenge and displace Philemon’s claim of power over his slave by the use of this familial imagery.[19]Elliot sees this as a rhetoric of tact that Paul uses to manipulate others in a demonstration of his own power and authority.[20]



However some scholars don’t believe that Onesimus is an actual slave but someone Philemon was treating like a slave. And there are many other scenarios that could be proposed. Many people have focused on the issue of slavery and perhaps read into the text the concerns of later Christians. Others have focused on the message of love, mercy and kindness that Paul seems to be proposing to those who have power over the lives of others. This letter may demonstrate that Paul practised tough love in that he lovingly corrects, admonishes and lures his fellow believers into behaving in a more Christ-like manner rooted in love. Dunham perceives the Letter as providing a model of transformation of life in the resurrected Messiah.[21]



There are many open questions regarding this Letter and its context and background, thus certain opinions cannot be held dogmatically and one needs to be open to further reflection and the insights of further scholarship. In such a small essay one cannot cover the issues presented by Paul’s Letter to Philemon adequately but I have endeavoured to briefly touch on points of interest which need further explication. At this point I incline towards believing that Philemon, Apphia and Archippus are Hellenistic Jews and that Paul and Timothy are writing to them from Rome in the early 60’s from prison. I also would at this stage accept the more traditional interpretation that Onesimus as an escaped slave who Paul is seeking to reconcile with his master and I think the Marchal’s interpretation about a sexual “usefulness” may have some merit that may explain some of the question marks about the true purpose of the letter raised by some scholars. If Paul is dealing with a more serious and scandalous situation among the higher leaders he may be using his Messiah’s advice of being as gentle as a dove and as cunning as a serpent[22] in order to correct and reconcile sinners in the Church (Kehilla). Philemon himself may be fond of Greek rhetorical approaches and Paul may be displaying his policy of being all things to all men in order to win them back (in this case) to a Christ-like way of life[23] by writing in a style that Philemon would appreciate. I think that the aspect of the New Perspectives on Paul that emphasises the Jewish context is opening fresh insights to Paul’s writings and ideas in general and to Philemon in particular.






Bibliography

Brown, Raymond Edward, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland Edmund Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Prentice Hall, 1990.

Church, F. Forrester. "Rhetorical structure and design in Paul's letter to Philemon."Harvard Theological Review 71, no. 1-2 (1978): 17-33.

Dunham, Robert E. “Between text and sermon: Philemon 1:1-25”. Interpretation: A Journal of    Bible and Theology; Richmond Vol. 52, Iss. 2,  (Apr 1998): 191-194.

Dunn, James DG. "The new perspective on Paul."HTS Theological Studies 64, no. 4 (2008): 1956-           1958 .

Elliott, Scott S. “‘Thanks, but no thanks’”: Tact, Persuasion and the Negotiation of Power in Paul’s             Letter to Philemon.” New Testament Studies 57 (2011): 51-64.

Falk, Harvey (Rabbi). Jesus the Pharisee: A new look at the Jewishness of Jesus. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2003.

Frilingos, Chris. “‘For My Child, Onesimus’: Paul and Domestic Power in Philemon." Journal of Biblical Literature 119, no. 1 (2000): 91-104.

Marchal, Joseph A. "The Usefulness of an Onesimus: The Sexual Use of Slaves and Paul's Letter to Philemon." Journal of Biblical Literature 130, no. 4 (2011): 749-770.

Maciejko, Pawel. The mixed multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist movement, 1755-1816.        University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

OrthodoxWiki. Apostle Philemon

Osiek, Carolyn. "Philemon." In The Catholic Study Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies 2016.

Schoeman, Roy H. Salvation is from the Jews (John 4: 22): The Role of Judaism in Salvation         History from Abraham to the Second Coming. Ignatius Press, 2003.







[1]Called the Peshat level in Judaism. The other levels or senses are Remetz (analogical), Drash (moral or homelitical) and Sod (anagogical or mystical)

[2]James DG Dunn. "The new perspective on Paul." HTS Theological Studies 64, no. 4 (2008): 1956-1958 .

[3]Roy H. Schoeman. Salvation is from the Jews (John 4: 22): The Role of Judaism in Salvation History from Abraham to the Second Coming. Ignatius Press, 2003.

[4]Harvey Falk. Jesus the Pharisee: A new look at the Jewishness of Jesus. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2003.

[5]Pawel Maciejko believes Emden drew this conclusion from an earlier Jewish work written by David Nasi in 1430. David Nasi was the brother of the famous Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos.

[6]Acts 16:3

[7] Robert E Dunham, “Between text and sermon: Philemon 1:1-25”.  In Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology; Richmond Vol. 52, Iss. 2,  (Apr 1998): 191-194.

[8] Joseph A Marchal. "The Usefulness of an Onesimus: The Sexual Use of Slaves and Paul's Letter to Philemon." Journal of Biblical Literature 130, no. 4 (2011): 749-770.

[9]John 8:4

[10]Apostle Philemon on OrthodoxWiki

[11]See verses 8-9

[12]Verses 8-9

[13] Raymond Edward Brown, , Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland Edmund Murphy, eds. The new Jerome biblical commentary. (Prentice Hall, 1990), 869-870.

[14]Perceived as sinful to Jews and Christians but not to the pagan Greeks and Romans of the Empire and possibly less so to the Hellenistic Jews especially those who had assimilated the most to Greek and Roman culture among the wealthy upper class which Philemon may have belonged.

[15] Philemon 1:2

[16]F. ForresterChurch. "Rhetorical structure and design in Paul's letter to Philemon." Harvard Theological Review 71, no. 1-2 (1978): 17-33.

[17]Carolyn Osiek. "Philemon." In The Catholic Study Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies 2016.

[18]Apostle Philemon on OrthodoxWiki

[19] Chris Frilingos. “‘For My Child, Onesimus’: Paul and Domestic Power in Philemon." Journal of Biblical Literature119, no. 1 (2000): 91-104.

[20]Scott S. Elliott. “‘Thanks, but no thanks’”: Tact, Persuasion and the Negotiation of Power in Paul’s Letter to Philemon.” New Testament Studies 57 (2011): 51-64.

[21]Robert E Dunham, “Between text and sermon: Philemon 1:1-25”, 191-194.

[22]Matthew 10:16


[23] I Corinthians 9:22

St Paul of Tarsus: Proud Torah Jew or Former Jew turned antinomian Christian?

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Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus transformed him so that he had an inner conversion to faith in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. This Jewish Messiah would be the light for all nations. Was this however an experience that led to his conversion to a new religion that abandoned Jewish observances or did it deepen and broaden his understandings as one who remained solidly within the framework of the Jewish religion and culture? Scholars debate on both sides of this and seem to strongly disagree with each other.[1] A part of Paul’s call was to provide a religious structure for non-Jews (Gentiles) in which they could share with the Jewish believers in Jesus without becoming fully and ethnically Jewish.[2] In the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) he proclaimed his ideas of this freedom or dispensation from full Jewish Torah observance for Gentile believers and won the acceptance of the Jerusalem Church and its leaders (Galatians 2:2).[3] In this sense we can say that Paul did begin to establish a new religion for Gentiles. However it was not a new religion without any connection to Judaism.[4]Judaism was the roots and mother of this Gentile model of the Church. Some would describe this as a bilateral ecclesial Church of Jews and Gentiles.[5]

Many scholars will use Paul’s letters in the New Testament especially Galatians and Romans to work out what is Paul’s position in regards to his new Messianic faith and Judaism.[6] It is through the literary prism or icon of Acts 21 that one should read the epistles of Paul in order to evaluate Paul’s Damascus road experience (Acts 9:1-9; 22:1-21; 26:2-18) and his subsequent mission to the Jews and Gentiles. Paul under the guidance of the leaders of the Jerusalem Church set out to demonstrate that while he allows freedom from Torah observance for the new believers from among the Gentiles, he does not advocate such for believers from among the Jews.[7]This portion of Acts speaks approvingly of Jewish believers in Jesus maintaining the circumcision of their children and of them being zealous for the Torah observances (Acts 21:20-21). Paul elsewhere also affirms this when he speaks about the circumcised remaining circumcised (I Cor 7:18). In Romans he also writes that there is much value in being circumcised (Rom 3:1-2). Galatians 5:3 demonstrates that Paul believed that the one who is circumcised is called to full Torah observance.[8]Scholars such as Longnecker, Young, Lapide, Shulam and Nanos hold that Galatians 5:3 means that Jewish believers and anyone who converts to Judaism is obligated to full Jewish Torah observance.[9][10][11][12][13]Thus Paul himself must have remained Jewishly Torah observant.

Campbell, Nanos, Eisenbaum and Tucker have supported the interpretation that Paul was a Torah observant Jew after his Damascus road experience.[14], [15], [16], [17]Nanos in his study of Romans states that Paul is a good practicing Jew although shaped by his conviction that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel.[18] Paul is also a Jewish mystic. Paul’s mysticism is rooted in the Pharisee’s desire to enhance Jewish domestic holiness by applying Temple sanctity into the life and home of the Jewish devotee.[19] Ephesians 2 is an example of this Pauline Jewish mystical context that alludes to mystical insights in regards to the Temple to explain the mystery of salvation. However due to the more mystical nature of Ephesians and Colossians some scholars have claimed that these letters were not written by Paul at all. However two important scholars Campbell and Wright both consider Ephesians to be written by Paul.[20],[21]

Paul in Romans 3 says that the Torah should be established or upheld (Rom 3:31). Ephesians states “He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules” (Eph 2:15, GNT). This however is better translated as “Making void the law of commandments contained in decrees” (Eph 2:15, DRA). These “commandments in decrees” (dogmasin in Greek) refer to the eighteen rabbinic decrees (gezerot in Hebrew) enacted by the Sanhedrin under the control of the Beit Shammai Pharisees.[22]These eighteen gezerot made a much stricter separation between Jews and Gentiles.[23]That these gezerot are the ‘commandments in decrees’ that has been nailed to the Cross and abolished makes much more sense than Paul saying that the Jewish Torah has been abolished.[24][25]

 Paul using this Temple theology or analogy refers to these gezerot as a dividing wall (mesotoichonin Greek and Soreg and Cheil in Hebrew) (Eph 2:14).[26]The original Temple had a court for the Gentiles but later the Soreg was introduced as a more strict separation of Jews and Gentiles.[27]Paul using the language of dividing walls and outer and inner courts alludes to the mystical Temple of the Messiah’s Body in which the dividing walls are broken down and those in the outer courts (women and Gentiles) are brought near in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Body of the Messiah.[28]Thus the eighteen gezerot are abolished. This is confirmed in Peter’s vision of the sheet (Acts 10:11) and later Judaism would also abolish them.[29][30]

The more mystical understanding of salvation in Paul (Gal 3:28) may then be understood that there are no barriers to salvation between groups or people even though they still have their distinct callings. This allows for the joining of Jews and Gentiles in the one family of Abraham.[31]. Paul confirms in Romans that God’s election of the Jews is irrevocable (Rom 11:29). Thus Paul after his Damascus Road experience is truly a Jewish prophet who is called to include the Gentiles in Israel’s inheritance without converting them to Judaism. While his place for Gentiles in the people of God has roots in the teachings of Beit Hillel, Paul provides a unique way or path for Gentiles who believe in Jesus as the Messiah. He does this while himself remaining a proud observant Jew and Pharisee (Phil 3:5; Acts 22:3,23:6). In Romans 11 Paul alludes to some great spiritual resurrection for the Gentiles and the world in the eschatological future as a result of the ‘ingrafting’ of the surviving Jewish community  into the Olive Tree that is the Church.


[1]Ian J. Elmer, Paul, Jerusalem and the Judaisers: the Galatian crisis in its broadest historical context (Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 3-25.
[2]Harvey Falk, Jesus the Pharisee: A new look at the Jewishness of Jesus(Wipf and Stock Publishers: 2003): 19.
[3]The relationship of Paul with the Pillars of the Jerusalem Church is another area of scholarly debate. Depending on how the Greek of Galatians is translated can affect how one perceives this relationship.
[4]Falk, Jesus the Pharisee…, 19.
[5]Mark S. Kinzer, Searching Her Own Mystery: Nostra Aetate, the Jewish People, and the Identity of the Church, (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015): 38, 218.
[6] Elmer, Paul, Jerusalem and the Judaisers…, 3-25.
[7]There were different levels of Torah observance among Jews. Some Jews like the Pharisees kept a more stringent form. There is nothing wrong with extra stringency when done from devotion either as individuals or as a group but should not be forced on other people or groups. Jesus often clashed with those who were trying to enforce extra stringencies on other Jews. The priests for example kept certain stringencies that were not meant to be forced on the lay Jews.
[8]Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law.” (Gal 5:3, NRSV).
[9]Richard Longenecker, Galatians, eds., Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard, Glenn W. Barker et al., Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1990): 41:226.
[10]Brad Young, Paul the Jewish Theologian: A Pharisee among Christians, Jews and Gentiles (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002), 90.
[11]Pinchas Lapide and Peter Stulhmacher, Paul: Rabbi and Apostle, trans. Lawrence W. Denef(Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1984), 42.
[12] Hilary Le Cornu and Joseph Shulam, A Commentary on the Jewish Roots of Galatians (Jerusalem: Akademon, 2005): 327.
[13]Mark D. Nanos, The Irony of Galatians: Paul’s Letter in First Century Context (Fortress Press: Minneapolis MN, 2002), 253.
[14] William S. Campbell, Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity (London: T&T Clark, 2008), 89-93.
[15]Mark D. Nanos, “The myth of the ‘Law-Free’ Paul standing between Christians and Jews,” Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 4:1 (2009): 4. Accessed 30 April 2018. doi: 10.6017/scjr.v4i1.1511
[16]Pamela Eisenbaum, Paul Was Not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), 252.
[17]Brian J. Tucker, ‘Remain in Your Calling:’ Paul and the Continuation of Social Identities in 1 Corinthians (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2011), 62-114.
[18] Mark D Nanos, The Mystery of Romans: The Jewish Context of Paul's Letter (Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press, 1996): 9.
[19]Albert Hogeterp, Paul and God's temple: a historical interpretation of cultic imagery in the Corinthian correspondence (Dudley, MA: Peeters Publishers, 2006), 55-57.
[20]Douglas A. Campbell, Framing Paul: An Epistolary Biography (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2014), 337.
[21]Nicholas Thomas Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2013), 60.
[22]Solomon Schechter and Julius H. Greenstone, Jewish Encyclopedia, “Gezerah,” 1906, accessed 28 April 2018, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6646-gezerah.
[23]Schechter and Greenstone, Jewish Encyclopedia, “Gezerah.”
[24]  Colossian 2:14 also refers to these dogmasin or gezerot which is translated as “handwriting in decrees”.
[25]Jesus saying in Matthew’s Gospel that the Torah was not abolished (Matt 5:17) seems to conflict with Ephesians saying the Law was abolished (Eph 2:15, NRSV) rather than just these rabbinic decrees being annulled when understood in its correct context.
[26]Clyde Weber Votaw, “The Temple at Jerusalem in Jesus' Day,” The Biblical World 23:3 (1904): 172-173. Accessed 1 May 2018, https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/473359.
[27]The Cheil is the stone wall and this is surmounted with lattice work and together they are called the Soreg. A sign threatening the death penalty for any Gentile passing this wall was hung on the wall.
[28]Tim Hegg, “The ‘Dividing Wall’ in Ephesians 2: 14: What is it? Who made it? How was it broken down?” accessed 1 May 2018, http://www.protorah.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/12/The_Dividing_Wall_in_Ephesians_2_14.pdf.
[29]Schechter and Greenstone, Jewish Encyclopedia, “Gezerah.”
[30]This vision had nothing to do with the abolition of Kosher food laws but was referring to the 18 gezerot and their extensions of strict separation of Jews from Gentiles.
[31]Pamela Eisenbaum, “A remedy for having been born of woman: Jesus, Gentiles, and genealogy in Romans,” Journal of Biblical Literature 123:4 (2004): 671-702. Accessed 1 May 2018. doi: 10.2307/3268465

Fairy Queens: Fair Jewish Queens of Scotand of H2 mt-dna

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The Fair Jewish Queen (Malcah Bahira) was also called the Fairy Queen in Scotland

The Dynasty of the Scottish Jewish Queens known as the Fair or White Queens in English and in Hebrew Malcah Bahira and in Scottish Gaelic as Banrigh Fionn were the H2 mt-dna descendants of King Menachem of the Khazars. After a split by those who followed a more Davidic Rabbinic form of Judaism with those who followed the Tengri-Judaic form, Menachem and the followers of the Tengri-Judaic Khazar religion (Kabars) moved west to Europe in the region of Transylvania and established a new Khazar state known as Bihar. The name of Bihar was the name of one of the ancestral Khazar Khagans (king or melekh). 

Menachem or Menumarot married Princess Adiva of England the daughter of King Alfred the Great. Adiva embraced the Tengri-Judaism of the Bihar Khazars which had a great devotion to the Mother Goddess or Sabbath Queen whose presence was seen as embodied in the Khazar Sacral Queen-Empress known as the Khagan Bek or Khagana Rebeka.  Queen Adiva of Bihar was the mother of Princess Men or Mena of Bihar who married Zoltan the Duke of Hungary. Mena's daughter Mariota of Hungary and Bihar was the wife of Aaron (Aharon) II the King or Khagan of Khazaria (d.940). Aaron II's brother Prince Judah was the father of Yochabel haKhagan the ancestress of the Dark Jewish Queens of Flanders and Scotland of J1b1a1 mt-dna. Yochabel was the 1st Dark Jewish Queen of the Khazar Jews and a daughter of Sybille a Rhadanite Jewess with raven black hair and olive skin.

Aaron II's son King Joseph of Khazaria (of R1a y-dna) fled Khazaria in 968 for the British Isles.  They selected King Joseph's sister Princess Agatha Bahira to be the new sacral Queen or Khagana Rebeka. She was the first of the Bahira or Fair Khazar Jewish Queens.  These Princesses from Bihar were blonde and fair and there was a word play between Bihara (of the Clan of Bihar) and Bahira (fair). Agatha's husband was Rognvald the Prince of Polatsk in Russia and of Waterford in Ireland. Her husband was descended from the Scandinavian Royal House of Waterford in Ireland. His ancestor had moved to Russia and become the Prince of Polatsk. Agatha married him while her brother was still King of Khazaria. Her daughter Rogneda the 2nd Fair Queen of the Khazars married Vladimir I the Ruling Prince of the Rus of Kiev. Their daughter also Rogneda married her relative Ragnall II King of Waterford and she was the first of the Sacral Queens descended from Adiva to move to the Isles. 

King Joseph and his family had already moved to Scotland and the Northern Isles around 968-9. King Joseph's grandson Prince Shlomo or Solomon (b.990 in Moray Scotland) married Ragna of Waterford and Dublin, the daughter of Ragnall II and Rogneda, who became the 3rd Fair Queen. Their son Margad became the King of Dublin. Margad's sister Agatha (b.962 Moray Scotland d. 1054 London) married Prince Edward Atheling in Hungary. Agatha's parents returned to Russia where Agatha's sister Margada married her relative Bryachislav Prince of Polatsk around 1040. Agatha's father Prince Solomon of the Scottish Khazars went to Hungary to assist his relative Andrew the White in claiming the throne of Hungary. It is here in Hungary that Edward the Exile, the Atheling heir to the English throne, met Agatha and married her around 1046.  King Andrew named his son Solomon after the father of Agatha. Agatha was the mother of St Margaret of Scotland the wife of Malcolm III King of Scots.

However it was Agatha's sister Ragna the 4th Fair Queen (Banrigh Fionn or Banrion Fairy) who remained Jewish and was the Queen of Dublin and Man (her husband was King Echmarcach). Her daughter Bride (Bracha) was the 5th Fair Jewish Queen who married Prince Solomon of Dublin. Their daughter Gormflaith succeeded her mother as the 6th Fair Jewish Queen who married Olaf Magnusson a prince of Norway and Dublin. At this time the Fair Jewish Queen was also associated with the term Fairy Queen (Banrion Fairy) by the Irish. She reigned from her palace which was near the present Dublin Castle. 

Queen Gormflaith's daughter Bride was the 7th Fair Jewish Queen who married Gilli the Jewish King of the Hebrides. Their daughter Agatha was the 8th Fair Jewish Queen who married Malcolm MacEth (of M222 y-dna) a Scottish Prince who was the Earl of Ross and Moray. Agatha's daughter Bride the 9th Fair Queen married the Khazar Prince Angus of the Isles and from this time the Fair Jewish Queens reigned from either the Isles or Moray and other places in Scotland. Bride's daughter Bethoc was the 10th Fair Jewish Queen who married Prince Ruari of the Isles. Their daughter Ragnhild the 11th Jewish Queen married Prince James of the Isles. Their daughter Euphemia (Elfame) (b.1222) was the 12th Fair Jewish Queen (Fairy Queen) who married Dugall MacRuari King of Kintyre and the Hebrides. The principal Palace or Abode of these Fair Jewish Queens was at Cnoc Rhaonastil on Islay which was believed by many to have been the residence of the Fairy Queen. Another of her abodes was at Schiehallion on the Scottish mainland. The Fairy Queen and her court were known to travel from residence to residence over the course of the year.


Euphemia or Elfame's daughter Agnes was the 13th Fair Jewish Queen who married Prince Iain MacDonald of the Isles a son of Alexander I King or Lord of the Isles and his wife Juliana. Their daughter Juliana was the 14th Fair Jewish Queen followed by her daughter Amie Ruari (MacRory) [1317-1350] who married John (Iain) I MacDonald of Islay the 7th King or Lord of the Isles. Their daughter was Margaret MacDonald the 15th Fair Jewish Queen who married Lord Donald MacKay of Strathnaver a descendant of Rebecca the 13th Dark Jewish Queen of the Khazars. She was the 1st Dark Jewish Queen of Scotland. Margaret MacDonald's daughter Margaret or Mariota MacKay was the 16th Fair Jewish Queen (Banrigh Fionn) who married the Dark Jewish King Keheh II MacIsaac (Lord Hugh). The area of the Eildon Hills and Melrose had been an abode of the Fair Jewish Queens or Fairy Queens since at least the 12th century and the families of Maxwell and Scott (R1b DF27 ZZ12) were part of these crypto-Jewish or Fairy families. It is said that the fairies left Galloway and Nithsdale in 1790 which may refer to the Jewish branch of the Maxwell family. These Jewish Maxwells were protected to a certain extent by the Catholic branch of the Maxwell family who were the Earls of Nithdale until 1716.

Under Catholic rule in Scotland the Jewish communities, while low key and secretive, had a certain tolerance as many of the aristocratic families were part of this hidden Jewish network. However with the advent of Protestantism in Scotland many of these Jewish women were accused of witchcraft if they followed the ancient practices of the Tengri and matriarchal influenced Judaism of the Khazars. Many Scottish families of Jewish origin have strong spiritual gifts such as second sight or premonition which are associated with the fae or fairy and they also use traditional herbal healing remedies. These practices and beliefs were demonised by the clergy and others. The figures of the Khazar Jewish Dark King and Queen and the Fair or Fairy Queen were associated with witchcraft and satanism. John Knox and his Calvinism was anti-matriarchal and promoted a unhealthy overemphasis on patriarchy rather than a balance between the two. This produced a society in which masculine rigidity and strictness based on the letter of the law over dominated. 

The Fair Jewish Queens descended from H2 mt-dna. They originated with Princess Asenath the Beautiful (Isnetnofret) who was a daughter of King Zedekiah the last King of Judah and his Egyptian-born Queen Tzaddah. Tzaddah maternally descended from Hephzibah the Queen Mother of Judah who was also Egyptian and a descendant of Nefertiti.  Adiva's immediate maternal ancestresses were from the Royal House of Mercia in Britain descended from Queen Redburga the wife of King Egbert I of England. 

Redburga was a Scandinavian Princess descended from King Ivar the Wide Fathom's daughter Hilda. Hilda's mother was a Frankish Princess descended from a long line of Frankish Princesses and Ladies of Metz going back to Queen Bertrude of Franks the wife of King Clothaire II of Franks. Her mother was a Jewish Princess from Persia descended maternally from Jewish Persian and Armenian princesses descended from Vahan I the Wolf  of Armenia and his wife a British Jewish or Gewisse Princess. She was in turn descended maternally from Irish and Gododdin Princesses which brings this maternal lineage full circle back to Scotland. Further back this lineage descends from Zenobia the Jewish Queen of Palmyra (born 240 AD). Zenobia was a maternal descendant of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. The Khazar maternal House of Kedi was also H2. The Fair Queens and the House of Kedi branch off from two of the daughters of Huna III the Babylonian Exilarch of the 4th century. The House of Kedi and the Fair Queens are probably both H2a1 mt-dna. 

Mary Queen of Scots belongs to another branch of H2 mt-dna and she and the Fairy Queen's both descend from two of the daughters of Lady Doda of Metz of the 7th century. The Fairy Queen's from Lady Rotrud (Ruth) of Neustria (b.674) and Mary Queen of Scots from Lady Doda (Dhoude) of Neustria (b.672). Their father was Chrodobertus (Reuben) Count of Neustria (Hesbaye). Lady Doda of Neustria married Mar David a son of Mar Chasdai II the Babylonian Exilarch and Lady Rotrud of Neustria married Lievin (Levi/Luitvin) of Hesbaye the Bishop of Treves and Guardian of the Grail Platter.


see

A Jewish sub-Kingdom in Medieval Scotland: DF105 y-dna




Review of Six Pauline Studies Articles

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Ian J. Elmer. “Pillars, Hypocrites and False Apostles. Paul’s Polemic against Jerusalem in Galatians”. In Polemik in der frühchrislichen Literatur. Tecte und Kontexte (2011), 123-154.



The article “Pillars, Hypocrites and False Apostles. Paul’s Polemic against Jerusalem in Galatians” by Ian Elmer proposes that the letter to the Galatians reveals the conflict in the early Church between Paul as the champion of a law-free Church and the Torah observant Jewish Christian community of Jerusalem. Elmer states that there are three hermeneutical keys or themes to understanding this perceived conflict between Pauline Christianity and Jewish Christianity to be found in Galatians. The first key or theme is Paul’s claim to a unique and divine apostleship, the second to Paul’s emphasis on the paternity of God and third theme that Paul’s gospel focuses on the efficacy of Christ’s death and perceives his opponents as following another gospel that’s focus is on Jewish law observance. Elmer links this conflict in Galatia with the events of conflict between the “Pillars” with Paul in Jerusalem and Antioch. Elmer’s approach and insights, which also make use of the higher critical school of theology, are a development of a traditional (especially Lutheran) understanding of the interchange between law and gospel or works of righteousness and faith. Elmer takes the insights of this so called older perspective on Paul to a more radical conclusion of an almost dialectical conflict or struggle between Peter, James and John and the Jewish Christians on one side and Paul and his new law-free Gentile faith on the other. [1]


Andrew Das, “‘Praise the Lord, All you Gentiles’: The Encoded Audience of Romans 15.7-13.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 34, no.1 (2011): 90-110, accessed May 28, 2018, doi: 10.1177/0142064X11415327



“‘Praise the Lord, All you Gentiles’: The Encoded Audience of Romans 15.7-13”by Andrew Das proposes that the encoded audience of Romans 15: 7-13 are Gentiles. He writes from the position of accepting the scholarship that proposes that Romans was written to an all-Gentile audience rather than to an audience of Jews and Gentiles. Criticism has been made that Stanley Stowers and Richard Hays pass over this section of Romans with little supporting evidence. Das with his article seeks to remedy this perceived lack. Through this discussion he then perceives chapter 14’s references to the weak and the strong as referring to a purely Gentile paradigm rather than one in which the weak are equated with Jews and the strong with Gentile Christians. This article strengthens the position of those scholars who perceive Paul as a Torah observant Jew after his Damascus Road experience. It weakens the position of those who would hold that Paul had a negative attitude to Jewish specific Torah observance by Jewish believers in the Gospel. The obvious erudite use and knowledge of the original Biblical Greek text in demonstrating his position is also a strength of this article.[2]


Frank J. Matera. “Christ in the Theologies of Paul and John: A Study in the Diverse Unity of New Testament Theology.” Theological Studies 67, no. 2 (2006): 237-256, accessed May 28, 2018, doi: 10.1177/004056390606700201



The article “Christ in the Theologies of Paul and John: A Study in the Diverse Unity of New Testament Theology” by Frank J. Matera proposes to discuss the differences in Christology between the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John. Matera perceives that Paul’s approach to Christology is focused on the redemptive aspects of the death, resurrection and parousia of the Messiah whereas John’s approach is focused on an incarnational insight of the Word becoming flesh. For Matera Paul’s understanding of the Messiah as the eschatological Adam is central. Matera links Paul’s redemptive focused missionary style with his dramatic experience of the risen Christ. Whereas John’s foundational experience is in the life of the Messiah as one sent by the Father. The importance of this sending by the Father in John is stressed by Matera. Matera sees these different approaches as providing insights into the mystery of Christ that allows for a multifaceted understanding of Christ. Others have written about these differences in a redemptive focus and an incarnational focus in regard to the differences between Dominican and Franciscan theology and Eastern and Western theologies. Matera provides an important insight that these two approaches go right back to the days of the early Church and that reflection on these two diverse ways of doing Christology leads to an enriched unity.[3]


Paula Fredriksen, "Why Should a" Law-Free" Mission Mean a" Law-Free" Apostle?"Journal of Biblical Literature 134, no. 3 (2015): 637-650, accessed May 29, 2018. doi: 10.15699/jbl.1343.2015.2974



Paula Fredriksen in “Why Should a “Law-Free” Mission Mean a “Law-Free” Apostle?” uses the term law-free with caution. Fredriksen does not believe that Paul proposed a law-free position for pagan converts but in fact Paul and the other Jewish Christian leaders imposed more Jewish aspects than the Synagogue did for God-fearers. In the article Fredriksen discusses the attitude of the Synagogue to pagan participation in its life. Fredriksen perceives Paul and the early Church’s position as based on an eschatological motivation. She stresses that Paul’s so-called law –free approach to Gentiles says absolutely nothing at all about whether Paul himself is Torah observant or not. However Fredriksen does believe that the New Testament demonstrates that Paul was Jewishly Torah observant. This article gives an important insight into the status of pagans in the Temple and Synagogue of the first century. The discussion of just how law-free or Jewish-free that Paul’s proposal for Gentiles in the Church was, is also another fascinating aspect of this article. This article demonstrates that Paul the Apostle is not necessarily also Paul the Apostate.[4]

Michael Benjamin Cover, "Paulus als Yischmaelit?: The Personification of Scripture as Interpretive Authority in Paul and the School of Rabbi Ishmael."Journal of Biblical Literature135, no. 3 (2016): 617-637, accessed May 29, 2018. doi: 10.15699/jbl.1353.2016.3094



Michael Benjamin Cover asks the question in "Paulus als Yischmaelit?: The Personification of Scripture as Interpretive Authority in Paul and the School of Rabbi Ishmael” about what school of the Pharisees did St Paul belong to before his embrace of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Cover agrees with Joachim Jeremias that Paul was originally a Hillelite rather than a Shammaite as proposed by N.T Wright. Cover proposes that Paul’s approach to hermeneutics was similar to that of the Ishmaelite school within Hillelite Pharisaism as opposed to the Akiban school of interpretation. This approach is that of the personification of Scripture as a self interpreting authority. Cover discusses the importance of hearing Scripture in both Paul and Ishmael’s approaches as well as a lack of references to halakhic authorities outside Scripture itself.  Cover also mentions two collaborating features of Pauline and Ishmaelian thought in regard to universalism and mystical ascent. Cover however does caution that Paul is not always proto- Ishmaelian in his approach and he gives some examples of how Paul can be proto-Akiban. This article is very important as it helps one to get a clearer understanding of the Jewish and Pharisaic background of Paul before his “conversion” and how this background manifests in his letters after his transforming experience of the risen Messiah.[5]


Mark Nanos, “Paul’s relationship to Torah in the Light of His Strategy to become Everything to Everyone (1 Corinthians 9:1-9),” accessed May 30, 2018, http://www.marknanos.com/1Cor9-Leuven-9-4-09.pdf



The article “ Paul’s relationship to Torah in the Light of His Strategy to become Everything to Everyone (1 Corinthians 9:1-9)” by Mark Nanos examines the common interpretation of this section of Corinthians, by those who think Paul abandoned his belief in Torah and mitzvoth. They understand this to mean that Paul changes how he behaves when he is with different groups of people. Nanos points out the rather dishonest, deceptive and hypocritical nature of such behaviour. Nanos holds to the position that Paul is still a committed and observant Jew after his transformative experience of the risen Messiah. Nanos proposes that Paul is thus proposing a rhetorical adaptability rather than a lifestyle adaptability. Nanos considers this as a discursive strategy for winning others to the Messiah. He also perceives this as a more productive approach which relieves Paul of the accusations of being a liar and deceiver which will help in Jewish Christian relations. Nanos’s insights coming from a scholar who is a non-Christian Jew is a strength of this article and of his other articles. In fact he is becoming a voice for this position which some call “Paul within Judaism” which is a theological child or sibling of the so-called “New Perspective on Paul”.[6]







[1] Ian J. Elmer. “Pillars, Hypocrites and False Apostles. Paul’s Polemic against Jerusalem in Galatians”. In Polemik in der frühchrislichen Literatur. Tecte und Kontexte (2011), 123-154.
[2]Andrew Das, “‘Praise the Lord, All you Gentiles’: The Encoded Audience of Romans 15.7-13.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 34, no.1 (2011): 90-110, accessed May 28, 2018, doi: 10.1177/0142064X11415327
[3]Frank J. Matera. “Christ in the Theologies of Paul and John: A Study in the Diverse Unity of New Testament Theology.” Theological Studies 67, no. 2 (2006): 237-256, accessed May 28, 2018, doi: 10.1177/004056390606700201
[4]Paula Fredriksen, "Why Should a" Law-Free" Mission Mean a" Law-Free" Apostle?"Journal of Biblical Literature 134, no. 3 (2015): 637-650, accessed May 29, 2018. doi: 10.15699/jbl.1343.2015.2974
[5] Michael Benjamin Cover, "Paulus als Yischmaelit?: The Personification of Scripture as Interpretive Authority in Paul and the School of Rabbi Ishmael."Journal of Biblical Literature 135, no. 3 (2016): 617-637, accessed May 29, 2018. doi: 10.15699/jbl.1353.2016.3094
[6]Mark Nanos, “Paul’s relationship to Torah in the Light of His Strategy to become Everything to Everyone (1 Corinthians 9:1-9),” accessed May 30, 2018, http://www.marknanos.com/1Cor9-Leuven-9-4-09.pdf

Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in Jerusalem in 2002

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In 2002  I sent a series of emails to the Association of Hebrew Catholics when I was in Israel doing Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration at the 4th station of the Cross at the Armenian Catholic Church. They were published in one of the Hebrew Catholic magazines that year. Unfortunately there are powerful forces for evil in the Catholic Church who set out to destroy this mission of Perpetual Adoration and we were forced to cease our Adoration under manipulation and deception which was revealed to us after I wrote these emails and I never wrote to the AHC what we discovered.



First Email.
I have arrived safely in Jerusalem. Everyone has been lovely so far but I lost one suitcase on the way. We are starting Perpetual Adoration here on August 15. Please pray for us...

Second Email 

I went to the Hebrew Mass today and it was celebrated by a Hebrew Catholic Jesuit priest. It was a lovely experience. We also had Vespers. This morning we also visited the Sisters of Sion and then met another one at the Hebrew Mass. Not far away from the Mass someone blew themselves up. We are living in the Old City so it is a strange experience. It is stinking hot at the moment here.

[In regards to this bombing I had been told by a friend to go and eat at a certain felafel or kebab shop. I was about to do so when I decided I would go to the Mass first. While I was at Mass someone walked into the shop and blew themselves up and I man came rushing in at the end of Mass to tell us what happened. At this time their were bombings in Jerusalem every few days however when the PEA began on August 15 there were no more bombings for the next four months in the whole of Israel. Even the media was commenting on how unusual it was. Even some Lutherans we met at the Ulpan told us to keep doing the Adoration as they thought it must have something to do with it. We also went everywhere trying to find a chapel or church in order to re-establish public Perpetual Adoration but were blocked at every turn. Our priests also tried to get permission to go into Iraq to start chapels of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration but they were refused and shortly after we had the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the devastation that was to cause leading to the present horrors in the Middle East.]
 

Third Email
Thanks everyone for your best wishes. I live in the Moslem quarter of the Old City at the Armenian Catholic Church on the Via Dolorosa between the third and fourth stations of the Cross. The Egyptian and Ethiopian monks had a big fight the other day at the Holy Sepulchre and 11 of them were taken off to hospital. [The fight was] all over a monk moving his chair out of the sun into the shade. I am off to the English Mass tonight at the Holy Sepulchre in the Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother so I will lift you all up in the Mass.

Fourth Email
Thanks for your prayers. My suitcase did turn up after a few days so I am very happy. I just came from giving a lecture on the descent of the European Royal Families from the Babylonian Exilarchs to an all-Orthodox Jewish group, with me the lone Catholic as the guest speaker. There is some celebration todayin the Ben Yehuda Mall with heaps of people wearing Rally for Israel tee shirts. Security is everywhere.Thanks
 

Fifth Email
I am going to start praying to Father Herman Cohen everyday. We have had all day and all night adoration here at the 3rd and 4th stations at the Armenian Catholic Church for the last month here in Jerusalem. We are doing it with 5 people so please pray for us as this city needs all the adoration and we come under intense spiritual attack. We are also doing a Divine Mercy Novena for the intention of starting Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in Bethlehem. Please pray for us...


[We were regularly joined in the programme with three Protestant girls from Switzerland who lived in the Armenian apartments behind the Church. They asked us what we were doing as it was changing all the people around them, after they joined us they said their ministry to the Muslim women and children had taken off and was much more fruitful. When the public Adoration was closed down after 4 months in which all the bombs stopped in Israel they joined us for the next 4 months in private Perpetual Adoration without exposition until such pressure was put on the Bishop that we decided to offer to leave. He was sad but relieved. The Armenian parishioners were also sad to see us leave and were a great support to us at this time.]
 

Sixth Email 
Please pray for me and my community...as we have had shock news that the Armenian Catholic Patriarch in Lebanon has ordered the Armenian Bishop here to get rid of us and our mission of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration even though we had paid a year ahead. The Bishop is really upset as we get on very well. No reason was given,but I think we all know as Pope Paul VI said that the smoke of Satan has entered in to the very heart of the Church. However we have to move out by November 1st. So pray we can find somewhere to Adore Jesus perpetually. We are the only ones doing this in Israel and the Churches and communities here have no room for our Eucharistic Lord to be adored perpetually just as there was no room for him in Jerusalem. Of course Satan is behind this so please pray pray pray that Jesus may be adored perpetually here in Israel.The Eucharistic Lord has been rejected and we with him...

 [We later found out that the Armenian Patriarch was sent a letter from Rome claiming to come from Cardinal Sodano pressuring the Patriarch- by God's designs the leader of our group happened to be with the Patriarch in Lebanon with a French priest when the letter arrived and the Patriarch was so upset he showed it to them. The Apostolic Delegate in Jerusalem denied there was a letter and the Armenian Bishop at first believed that there was but later told us the Patriarch had told him that we were correct there was a letter. They seemed terrified that we knew about the letter and the Apostolic delegate (who was a master of the charming romanita) flew into a rage at the mention of the letter and he revealed his true colours to us after I had sensed the evil spirits surrounding him and interiorly bound them. At first he had pretended to be very supportive and suggesting we go and ask around about doing the Adoration somewhere else. However after he heard about us knowing about the letter he revealed he was actually the one working against us and had already warned all the other Bishops in Israel to not accept our mission. He also revealed his attack on us was because of our Bishop protector in another country. This Bishop was speaking out about freemasons in the Church to the people and actually introducing his people to spirituality. They later so persecuted the Bishop that he retired early and was then slandered by the clergy in his country. The Armenian Bishop they removed from Jerusalem. For some reason our little group of nobodies who just wanted to adore Jesus were seen as an enemy to be destroyed at all costs.]
 

Seventh Email
Thanks for your response to my message and thank you for your prayers. They are much appreciated. We are trusting that Yeshuah will open the right door for us...I won't even try to tell you about the churches here but will just say I pray for unity and a transformation in the Spirit. It is no wonder that the statues of Mary are weeping all over the world. It seems that the Mystery of the Eucharist is not even comprehended by most Catholics. The Apostasy of the Gentiles is very great and I long for the time of the ingrafting and the Eucharistic Reign of Yeshuah. Father Elias really was a prophet in many ways. I am praying to him as well as to Herman Cohen and the Ratisbonne brothers. We are joining our sufferings here with the Popes in this very dark hour in the Church’s history which will lead to a great time of Light. We are adoring with Miriam (Bitter Sea) at the 4th station as she weeps
with Yeshuah for the Church and the World. I will offer you both up in my holy hours today for a blessing for your generosity of heart towards Our Eucharistic Lord who is so rejected and abandoned in all the locked Churches throughout the world. 


[The good news was that when I returned in 2007 there was day time Adoration in the Church and I was able to help out with the adoration. In 2008 I ran into the Apostolic Delegate in Washington DC at a conference and he was now the Nuncio of the United States. I pray for this man's soul as I knew he and his masters in Rome were Freemasons in the Church and he suddenly died while in office. It was common knowledge among the Armenian Catholics that many of the higher clergy in Jerusalem were Freemasons and many of them had stopped attending Church regularly as a result. In our time many Armenians started to come back to Church and a Armenian youth group was even started. We ended up not moving out in the November but stayed another four months as the Bishop took my hand and begged us not to go as he was so lonely there and he allowed us to continue with private adoration in the Church without exposition. He was a good pastor and a kind man.]

Y-dna Haplogroup Tree from a Biblical Perspective

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Adam and Eve were tall and had golden auburn hair with bronze red skin and green eyes similar to certain red haired bronze skinned modern day Asians and Genghis Khan. Before the Flood mankind had already developed into different racial groups. Firstly, those like Adam with red hair, bronze skin and green eyes which Adan the wife of Japheth brought into the post flood world. Secondly, those like Noah and his family with blonde hair and white skin with blue eyes. Thirdly, those with black hair, eyes and skin like Nahal the wife of Ham. And there were other mixes. Shem's wife Lebab the Tzadika (Sadek) was a close relative of Noah's wife Emzara. Adan and Nahal according to ancient writings were descended from the Cainite House of Isis on different branches. The first three cities after the Flood were named for the wives of Ham, Japheth and Shem. The cities were known as the Black, Red and White cities as they were built from huge Black, Red and White dolerite bricks in a process now lost. The name of Shem's wife Lebab is when reversed Babel as it was the Tower of Lebab that was built at the site of the city named in her honour of white Dolerite bricks (see Genesis 11:3). The terms of Lebab (heart) and Lebana (white) are connected as well as the word used for bricks (Lebenim).









The name Adan means red or judgement, the name Nahal means black or deep and Lebab means white or heart. Japheth means beautiful or bright, Ham means heat or hot and Shem means name or essence. The sons of Japheth (DE) have the gift of aesthetic intelligence, the sons of Ham (AB) have the gift or talent of emotional intelligence and the Sons of Shem (CF) have intellectual intelligence. It would seem that while the daughters of Adan (Neanderthal) have passed on their physical features and genes (autosomal) to humanity the direct maternal line has died out. In the same way the daughters of Nahal (Denisovan) have passed on their physical features and genes (autosomal) to humanity they have also died out in the direct maternal line. 


Today all women descend from the daughters of Lebab on the direct maternal line as far as we know. Lebab descends in a direct maternal line from Azura the wife of Abel. Abel and Azura's daughter Aklia married Seth. Nahal and Adan maternally descend from Luluwa the daughter of Awan the wife of Cain. Adan was descended from Adah one of the wives of Lamech of the House of Cain and Nahal from Naamah the daughter of Zillah another wife of Lamech of the House of Cain. Adah and Zillah were the daughters of Kenan son of Enosh and his wife Isis. Isis was the daughter of Enoch son of Cain and his wife Luluwa.

Pangaea after the Flood but before the Destruction of Babel and the Division of the Earth. Before the Flood the Interior Sea had a large mountain in its midst where the Garden of Eden was located. There may have been another smaller circular sea or well watered valley or depression in the area between India, Cipangu (now under the waters of the Pacific Ocean) and Tibet.

More recent view of the ydna Haplotree now accepted by many in Academia. It is slowly coming to look like my haplotree shown above.


This tree demonstrates that in the past there have been environmental influences including catastrophic events on the formation of mutations in which people of the same dna lineage as a group receive a new mutation rather than just one individual as happens at other times. However when groups move away from the geographical region as the others who share their dna, they group mutate differently to the parent or sibling group.

For example in the days of Jacob his six sons by Leah had a group mutation (probably due to increased radiation). This shared mutation was M343 which they passed to all their direct male descendants. However a group of Reubenites left the other Israelites who were in Egypt and settled in Turkey (Anatolia) where they received a group mutation of M335. The rest of the Reubenites who remained with the other Israelites in Egypt did not share this mutation. Those who remained in Egypt were to share the mutations of L278 and L754 which those now settled in Turkey didn't.

However some branches of the ydna tree are due to a single mutation in an individual. For example Moses received a mutation that his older brother Aaron didn't that we call V88. Both Moses' sons by his white Midianite wife Zipporah and his Black Cushite wife inherited V88. However his white son or sons received the mutation of M18 whereas his black sons didn't and they received their own unique marker Y7777. Of course when I say son or sons I mean genetic sons rather than his immediate son or sons. His black sons had been conceived in Ethiopia whereas his white sons were conceived in Midian in Arabia. The other Israelites who were still slaves in Egypt descended from Jacob and Leah received mutation L388 as a sign of their having gone through the events of the Exodus. In a sense all those men who have L388 today as one of their markers know that their direct male ancestor was in Egypt during the Exodus in the 14th century BC. In the same way Joseph's descendants that were in Egypt had the SRY1532.2 marker of R1a ydna and the Benjaminites of M424 of Q and the Tribes of Jacob from Bilhah and Zilpah have M214 of NO ydna (Naphtali and Dan belong to N and Gad and Asher to O). The main line Naphtali clan is N1c M178 (Siberian) and the main clan of Dan is N1c L666 (Russian). The socalled Kama culture in Russia was the culture of the Tribe of Dan probably after 600 BC.

The clan of Zerah of Judah remained in Egypt and then went to the Hebrew-Egyptian colonies where they received the M73/ M478 marker, whereas the Israelites of the Leah tribes who wandered in the Wilderness have the P297 marker and those of the Joseph tribes received the M17/M198 marker of R1a ydna. The marker M269 is the marker of the Leahites who lived in Israel in the time of the Judges including Boaz and his descendants Jesse and David who belonged to R1b M269 and the Joseph tribes marker was M417 of R1a. Akhenaten and Tutankhamen also belong to this M269 ydna which proves Velikovsky's claims about them living after the time of King David and are in fact his descendants.

At the time of the Assyrian invasion of Israel a large portion of the population was captured and moved by the Assyrians to a place where these Judahites and Levites received the PF7562 marker but not the L23. Whereas those of the Leahites of the Ten Tribes taken into Exile by the Assyrians, the Leahite Jews of the Babylonian Exile, those of the Tribe of Zebulon living in Western Europe and the Davidic House of Nathan living in Australia received the L23 marker due to the celestial and catastrophic events of that time. It would seem that the Judahites taken into Exile by the Assyrians were in an area where they where shielded in some way from the effects that caused L23 in the other Leahites. Or did their new PF7562 marker mean that the effects of the radiation of that time manifested differently in their genetic code than those Leahites that didn't receive that marker?

It would seem that the Jews of Judah received a mutation we call Z2103 before the events that caused L51 and L11/P310 in the other Leahite Israelites of L23 ydna.The Leahite Jews received this marker around 580 BC (around 700 BC in the Accepted Chronology of modern academia) and the other Leahites without Z2103 received L51 around 550 BC and L11 around 530 BC. The Zebulonite clans of Western Europe received their distinct U106 marker around 500 BC as did those clans of Issachar who had moved into the Russian Steppes and their marker was DF100/S1194. These clans of Issachar settled in the Pomerania area of Europe and were known as the Seubi. It would seem that the period around 650-350 was a time of cataclysm that led to many genetic changes in rapid succession to whole groups of people as it had at the time of the Exodus and in the time of Abraham and the Patriarchs of the Hebrews as well as at the time of the fall of the Tower of Babel.

The bulk of the remaining Leahite tribes including the Milesian House of Nathan that had moved to the Near East, Turkey and Egypt received the P312/S116 marker after 500 BC. At this time those of the House of Nathan also received the distinct S245/Z260 marker followed soon after by the L21 marker. This was the last of the group mutations in this lineage and individual mutations would be the general rule of nature from about 400 BC (differing in different groups). The remaining eastern clans of Zebulon, also around this time just after 500 BC, received the L238/S182 marker as they moved into the Russian Steppes.

The remaining Leahite clans in the Middle East from the Tribes of Issachar, Reuben, Simeon and Levi received their Z40481 marker before they went their separate ways. After this these clans of Issachar received the DF19/S232 marker in the Russian Steppes and they were known as the Sacae, Scythians and Saxons. This was to be the last of their group mutations. The remnant of Levi received the ZZ337 marker. The Tribes of Simeon and Reuben that were still in the Middle East received the ZZ11 around 460 BC.  Simeon fled across the sea to Spain where they received the DF27/S250 marker and the remaining clans of Reuben received the U152/S28 marker while still in the Middle East. One group of Reuben went to the south east and and the others west.


Recently I have been reflecting on the latest y-dna charts of R1b L21 of which R1b M222 belongs and the Davidic genealogies which I have been researching and studying for nearly 40 years. Different studies led me to the conclusion that Joseph of Arimathea or his son may have been the founder as well as ancestor of M222 rather than High King Niall of the Nine Hostages of Ireland. However as further research has progressed I think that the original idea that M222 began with Niall or his father or grandfather to be closer to the truth. It is from Niall's ancestor Nuadh or Nathan (Nahori) the Fisher Lord of Glastonbury (b.115 AD d. 171 AD) the son of Rabbi Meir that M222 seems to originate. His son went to Ireland and was known as Mar Eoghan (Ugaine Mor/Johannan/Angus Og) King of Munster and was the founder of the Irish M222 clan and was the ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The Southern English branch of M222 came from Nuadh's sons who remained in Britain.

St Joseph of Arimathea is the ancestor of R1b L21 DF13 Z39589 y-dna. St Joseph of Arimathea is also the ancestor of those who descend from M222 but he belongs to R1b L21 which is the ydna of the Davidic House of Nathan. St Joseph of Arimathea was the British Jewish Christian Nasi or Exilarch (Rosh Golus) at Glastonbury in Somerset. Niall is a male line descendant of Joseph's great grandson Zerah (Adon Glas) the Lord of Glastonbury (the Glas or Golus Isle) the son of Nathan the Red (Nectan Ruadh/Nuadh Nect) who lived from 30 -90 AD who is recorded as an Irish High King (Ard Ri) but was in reality the Jewish Christian Nasi or Exilarch known as a Rosh Golus (Head of the Exile) or Dayag Adon (Fisher Lord) of Ireland (Erani/ Hibernia). It is thus likely that R1b L21 DF13 DF49 (ancestral or upstream of M222) began with Zerah Adon Glas of what would one day be southern England (south-west Britain). DF 23 may be the branch of L21 descended from Rabbi Meir (Meir Duach/Raibh Dearg) the Dagda (Dayag Adon/Fisher Lord) [b.99 d.162] and famous Rabbi related to Nero. He was not the grandson of Nero as told in Jewish legend but it was his great grandmother Julia Nero that belonged to the same Nero family as the Emperor Nero.


The Royal House of Stuart are also descendants of St Joseph of Arimathea. Through the Dukes and Lords of Brittany the Stuarts trace back to Gabhran the Ruler of Dal Riata and all Britain and Brittany through his great-grandson Hoel Mawr Duke of Brittany. Gabhran or Gadeon was the son of a Jewish British Prince Huna Mar (Cunomor) who became a Babylonian Exilarch in the 6th century. Gabhran's great-grandson Hoel Mawr (son of Eochaidh Buidhe King of Dal Riata the son of King Aedan) was the founder of R1b L21 DF13 CTS658/DF41. All the later Babylonian Exilarchs descend from Huna Mar through Gabhran's brother the famous King Arthur Mor who was King at first of the Pennines and Goddodin before becoming the great British King Emperor.

King Aedan of Dal Riata and High King of Britain's grandson Domnall or Donald Brecc King of Dalriata is most likely the ancestor of R1b L21 L1335 ydna. Through Aedan's son King Eochaidh Buidhe of the Dal Riata Scots descends King Alpin of the Picts the father of Kenneth I Mac Alpin King of Scots and Picts. The MacKinnon and Buchanan Clan founders descend from the two sons of Constantine III (Kyan/ Kinnon) King of Scots (Alba) Anselan O Kyan and Findanus MacKinnon. The Welsh branch of L371 of R1b L21 may descend from King Aedan's son Arthur who was also a King of Gwent as well as a Dal Riatan Prince. This Dal Riatan Arthur and King Arthur Mor have been confused in the legendary tales of King Arthur.

Arthur Mor's son Amr (Mordred/ Nowy) was probably the founder of R1b L21 DF13 S470/Z251. It is from King Arthur Mor through his grandson Mar Ithiel (Ida of Bernicia) of S11556 that the later Babylonian Exilarchs and the Jewish Kings of Septimania in France descend on the direct male line. The Danish Royal House of Oldenburgh descends from him via the Exilarch family that went to Barcelona in the 10th century (of FGC11986). The Norman Kings of England descend from Machir Theodoric the Jewish King of Narbonne through his eldest son Mar Menachem (of Z18092) who was also known as Hernaut and Harald who married the Danish heiress Hilda. These lines also trace back to Nathan the Red of Ireland through his other son Mar Phares of Caledonia who was the first Jewish Christian Nasi or Exilarch (Guleta/ Guletic) of Scotland (Scotti/ Caledonia/ Alba). The Carolingian Kings and Charlemagne are also direct male line descendants of Mar Phares via Angus (Anlach/ St Brychan/ Banlach/ Ban) King of Breicheiniog in Wales the brother of Huna Mar and father of Lancelot. The Welf or Guelf family of Queen Victoria also descends from the Jewish Exilarchic family in Barcelona in the 10th century. Both the House of Oldenburgh and the House of Welf-Este descend from Mar Barzilay of Barcelona on the direct male line. The Spanish Kings of Castile, Aragon and Leon descend from Machir Theodoric the Jewish King of Narbonne through the Counts of Burgundy from his eldest son Mar Menachem (Harald Hildetonn/ Hernaut de Gironde).The Carolingian Kings may be of the Z16500 branch of R1b L21 ydna. The Anglo-Saxon Kings of Kent and Wessex descend from Athelbert King of Kent (d.616) of FGC13899 a grandson of King Arthur Mor. Z16943 descends from another grandson of Arthur Mor who is possibly the ancestor of the House of Savoy. Many of the Welsh kings and princes descend from King Arthur Mor's son Beli (or Cunobelin) who was a King of Calalus after his brother Amr (Mordred). From Beli's son Iago (Jacob) King of Gwynedd came the Gwynedd Welsh Kings and from them branch off R1b L21 L371.




Z16246 comes from the DF 63 branch of Milesian R1b L21 ydna haplogroup. They are a Milesian male line group. It is likely that DF63 are maternal descendants of Breoghan or Brennius who led the combined Gaelic and Celtic forces against the Greeks in the Balkans around 280 BC. It would seem that DF63, from which Z16246 descends, is from a son-in-law of Breoghan (Brennius) who remained in Europe as the leader of a contingent of Milesians that allied with the European Kelts while the other Milesians invaded Ireland and Britain. This was Barbe or Barbetruc a Milesian Prince descended on the direct male line from Allot the Milesian King who descends from Nathaniel of Jerusalem.


FGC11134 haplogroup of R1b L21 is the branch of the Milesians descended from Heber who invaded Ireland with Heremon and settled in the south of Ireland. DF1/L513 is most likely the haplogroup of the Milesians descended from Heremon who invaded Ireland with Heber. ZZ10 is most likely the clan of Ir of the Milesians. The socalled Dalcassians are probably descended from Conmac the son of Fergus MacRoy King of Ulster who has been confused with Cormac Cas the son of Oiliol Olum the King of Munster in the Irish genealogies. Conmac and Fergus descend from Olum Fodla and Ir.

DF 21 haplogroup are most likely the descendants of St Joseph of Arimathea's brother Nathan ben Eli (Nascien/ Tenaufan/ Tasciovanus) King of the Regnoi and Catevaullani. He is the ancestor of many of the early British Kings. FGC5494 may be the descendants of the Beredi or Breoghanites who settled in Britain when the others invaded Ireland.




Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in Jerusalem in 2002

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In 2002  I sent a series of emails to the Association of Hebrew Catholics when I was in Israel doing Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration at the 4th station of the Cross at the Armenian Catholic Church. They were published in one of the Hebrew Catholic magazines that year. Unfortunately there are powerful forces for evil in the Catholic Church who set out to destroy this mission of Perpetual Adoration and we were forced to cease our Adoration under manipulation and deception which was revealed to us after I wrote these emails and I never wrote to the AHC what we discovered.



First Email.
I have arrived safely in Jerusalem. Everyone has been lovely so far but I lost one suitcase on the way. We are starting Perpetual Adoration here on August 15. Please pray for us...


[In a strange way losing the suitcase was a relief as it was my first time in Israel and I had to find my way to the Damascus Gate and then try and find the Armenian monastery and Church. I was wondering how I could lug my old fashioned suitcase and another bag. Instead I just had my carry bag which took some of the pressure off. When I finally found the place the front gate was locked and no one answered my knocking so I had to sit at the Arab pizza shop opposite for a couple of hours until someone came out. It was all a bit overwhelming at first and I was happy to finally get settled into my room and to meet my fellow adorers - one was an older American from New Jersey who was to be ordained as a deacon and then priest in Rome before we left the Holy Land and he traveled with me to Perth and later went to Central America and became a chaplain at a Catholic University, one a younger American from Texas who had been a male fashion model and an Argentinian teacher who was also to become a deacon and priest at this time when we were in Israel and he went to South America where he has been able to open numerous chapels of Perpetual Adoration. We were joined when adoration began on August 15 by a Nigerian nun who did six hours a day with us. I ran into the nun again in 2008 when I was living in Jerusalem (in Nachlaot) and she was going to Bethlehem where some nuns had begun to do Adoration at the Milk Cave Grotto.]

Second Email 

I went to the Hebrew Mass today and it was celebrated by a Hebrew Catholic Jesuit priest. It was a lovely experience. We also had Vespers. This morning we also visited the Sisters of Sion and then met another one at the Hebrew Mass. Not far away from the Mass someone blew themselves up. We are living in the Old City so it is a strange experience. It is stinking hot at the moment here.

[In regards to this bombing I had been told by a friend to go and eat at a certain felafel or kebab shop. I was about to do so when I decided I would go to the Mass first. While I was at Mass someone walked into the shop and blew themselves up and a man came rushing in at the end of Mass to tell us what happened. At this time there were bombings in Jerusalem every few days however when the PEA began on August 15 there were no more bombings for the next four months in the whole of Israel. Even the media was commenting on how unusual it was. Even some Lutherans we met at the Ulpan told us to keep doing the Adoration as they thought it must have something to do with it.]
 

Third Email
Thanks everyone for your best wishes. I live in the Moslem quarter of the Old City at the Armenian Catholic Church on the Via Dolorosa between the third and fourth stations of the Cross. The Egyptian and Ethiopian monks had a big fight the other day at the Holy Sepulchre and 11 of them were taken off to hospital. [The fight was] all over a monk moving his chair out of the sun into the shade. I am off to the English Mass tonight at the Holy Sepulchre in the Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother so I will lift you all up in the Mass. 


[When I had arrived I had been quickly stamped and had no problems (except my missing suitcase) even though I had arrived via Amman in Jordan. The immigration lady had asked me one friendly question and that was it. When we later went to Immigration to get a year visa through the Latin Patriarchy, the others were in the computer but there was no record of me which surprised the Israeli immigration lady who was very nice to us. And in no time we had our visas. However when I left Israel with Father Robert we were questioned and searched in a very annoying and tedious process.]

Fourth Email
Thanks for your prayers. My suitcase did turn up after a few days so I am very happy. I just came from giving a lecture on the descent of the European Royal Families from the Babylonian Exilarchs to an all-Orthodox Jewish group, with me the lone Catholic as the guest speaker. There is some celebration todayin the Ben Yehuda Mall with heaps of people wearing Rally for Israel tee shirts. Security is everywhere.Thanks 


[Through my connections with this orthodox Jewish group I was to meet a Rabbi who employed me to teach English to Haredi Jewish youths who had been in trouble with the law. He also suggested I do the Discovery Course and then to go and study at a Jewish Yeshiva near the Kotel (Wailing Wall). This I did and did some wonderful Jewish classes taught by Haredi and Chasidic Rabbis. I also was studying Hebrew at the Milah Ulpan with one of our Adoration team. My Hebrew teacher was the wife of a Rabbi and her father was a member of the Rothschild's family.  I would also study in the Yeshiva in 2007 and in 2008 as well as do another Ulpan at Beit Am with my house mate Brian a Messianic Jew from America who had made Aliya to Israel.]
 

Fifth Email
I am going to start praying to Father Herman Cohen everyday. We have had all day and all night adoration here at the 3rd and 4th stations at the Armenian Catholic Church for the last month here in Jerusalem. We are doing it with 5 people so please pray for us as this city needs all the adoration and we come under intense spiritual attack. We are also doing a Divine Mercy Novena for the intention of starting Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in Bethlehem. Please pray for us...


[We were regularly joined in the programme with three Protestant girls from Switzerland who lived in the Armenian apartments behind the Church. They asked us what we were doing as it was changing all the people around them, after they joined us they said their ministry to the Muslim women and children had taken off and was much more fruitful. When the public Adoration was closed down after 4 months in which all the bombs stopped in Israel they joined us for the next 4 months in private Perpetual Adoration without exposition until such pressure was put on the Bishop that we decided to offer to leave. He was sad but relieved. The Armenian parishioners were also sad to see us leave and were a great support to us at this time.]
 

Sixth Email 
Please pray for me and my community...as we have had shock news that the Armenian Catholic Patriarch in Lebanon has ordered the Armenian Bishop here to get rid of us and our mission of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration even though we had paid a year ahead. The Bishop is really upset as we get on very well. No reason was given,but I think we all know as Pope Paul VI said that the smoke of Satan has entered in to the very heart of the Church. However we have to move out by November 1st. So pray we can find somewhere to Adore Jesus perpetually. We are the only ones doing this in Israel and the Churches and communities here have no room for our Eucharistic Lord to be adored perpetually just as there was no room for him in Jerusalem. Of course Satan is behind this so please pray pray pray that Jesus may be adored perpetually here in Israel.The Eucharistic Lord has been rejected and we with him...

 [We also went everywhere trying to find a chapel or church in order to re-establish public Perpetual Adoration but were blocked at every turn. Our priests also tried to get permission to go into Iraq to start chapels of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration but they were refused and shortly after we had the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the devastation that was to cause leading to the present horrors in the Middle East. We later found out that the Armenian Patriarch was sent a letter from Rome claiming to come from Cardinal Sodano pressuring the Patriarch- by God's designs the leader of our group happened to be with the Patriarch in Lebanon with a French priest when the letter arrived and the Patriarch was so upset he showed it to them. The Apostolic Delegate in Jerusalem denied there was a letter and the Armenian Bishop at first believed that there was no letter but later told us the Patriarch had told him that we were correct there was a letter. They seemed terrified that we knew about the letter and the Apostolic delegate (who was a master of the charming romanita) flew into a rage at the mention of the letter and he revealed his true colours to us after I had sensed the evil spirits surrounding him and interiorly bound them. At first he had pretended to be very supportive and suggesting we go and ask around about doing the Adoration somewhere else. However after he heard about us knowing about the letter he revealed he was actually the one working against us and had already warned all the other Bishops in Israel to not accept our mission. He also revealed his attack on us was because of our Bishop protector in another country. This Bishop was speaking out about Freemasons in the Church to the people and actually introducing his people to authentic spirituality. They later so persecuted the Bishop that he retired early and was then slandered by the clergy in his country. The Armenian Bishop they removed from Jerusalem. For some reason our little group of nobodies who just wanted to adore Jesus were seen as an enemy to be destroyed at all costs.]
 


Seventh Email
Thanks for your response to my message and thank you for your prayers. They are much appreciated. We are trusting that Yeshuah will open the right door for us...I won't even try to tell you about the churches here but will just say I pray for unity and a transformation in the Spirit. It is no wonder that the statues of Mary are weeping all over the world. It seems that the Mystery of the Eucharist is not even comprehended by most Catholics. The Apostasy of the Gentiles is very great and I long for the time of the ingrafting and the Eucharistic Reign of Yeshuah. Father Elias really was a prophet in many ways. I am praying to him as well as to Herman Cohen and the Ratisbonne brothers. We are joining our sufferings here with the Popes in this very dark hour in the Church’s history which will lead to a great time of Light. We are adoring with Miriam (Bitter Sea) at the 4th station as she weeps
with Yeshuah for the Church and the World. I will offer you both up in my holy hours today for a blessing for your generosity of heart towards Our Eucharistic Lord who is so rejected and abandoned in all the locked Churches throughout the world. 


[The good news was that when I returned in 2007 there was day time Adoration in the Church and I was able to help out with the adoration. In 2008 I ran into the Apostolic Delegate in Washington DC at a conference and he was now the Nuncio of the United States. I pray for this man's soul as I knew he and his masters in Rome were Freemasons in the Church and he suddenly died while in office. It was common knowledge among the Armenian Catholics that many of the higher clergy in Jerusalem were Freemasons and many of them had stopped attending Church regularly as a result. In our time many Armenians started to come back to Church and a Armenian youth group was even started. We ended up not moving out in the November but stayed another four months as the Bishop took my hand and begged us not to go as he was so lonely there and he allowed us to continue with private adoration in the Church without exposition. He was a good pastor and a kind man. Our Lady in many Catholic apparitions and locutions has warned us about Freemasonry in the Church but it is one thing to read about it and another to experience it. Of course the number of actual Freemasons is a lot less than the useful fellow travelers that do their bidding. At this time we also studied in a Hebrew language Ulpan with a rather rich and powerful secular French Freemason who was open about it. One day he gave us a bottle of wine and when we went to drink it, it had turned bitter like vinegar and we spat it out. I wondered if God was giving us a sign that the gifts of Masons are in reality bitter wine.]



The History of the Bnei Miriam Havurah: A New Blog

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This is the first post on a new blog called Bnei Miriam Havurah: Tasmania (click)


Brother Gilbert Joseph with Rabbi Yochanan Gordon of Tasmania
Athol Bloomer a long term and committed Australian member of the Association of Hebrew Catholics joined the Melbourne Havurah (later named the Mount Tabor Havurah) led by Holocaust survivor and co-founder of the Association of Hebrew Catholics in 1987 when he became a Catholic. In 2008 Athol had the idea of founding an adult learning programme on the Jewish roots of the Catholic faith called the Bnei Miriam Kollel (adult learning institute). Bnei Miriam is Hebrew for Sons or Children of Mary. This Bnei Miriam Kollel then began in the USA with Athol and his distant relative Jeff Ryan who he met in Jerusalem in 2007. They were supported in this idea by David Moss the President of the Association of Hebrew Catholics and they gave some talks at the Hebrew Catholic Center in St Louis Missouri. However Athol Bloomer returned to Western Australia and became a consecrated Brother as Brother Gilbert Joseph and he then adapted his idea to form the Bnei Miriam Havurah (Jewish roots study group) at his parish St Bernadette's in the Archdiocese of Perth in 2011.



In some ways our Bnei Miriam Havurah is unique in having been transferred 3,000 kilometres from Perth the capital city in Western Australia to Hobart the capital city of Tasmania in 2014 and then to the Huon Valley of Tasmania in 2015. In Perth we had mid weekly study meetings led by Brother Gilbert Joseph that connected Judaism and Catholicism on topics of spiritual interest and we began our yearly traditionally Jewish Passover Seders and our Friday night traditional Sabbath meals at the Presbytery at St Bernadette's parish in Glendalough. When Brother Gilbert Joseph and Brother John Joseph (who also was a Catholic of Jewish ancestry) moved to Tasmania they didn’t expect to meet many Hebrew Catholics but decided to maintain the traditional Friday night Sabbaths and they decided to hold a Passover Seder. Through needing to get Passover supplies the Brothers had to order them through the Chabad House and the only Rabbi in Tasmania. Thus began a relationship with the orthodox Jewish community that is still ongoing today.

Bnei Miriam Havurah Passover in Taroona in Hobart at St Joseph's Villa in 2014

 It turned out that in our parish in Hobart there were two families of Jewish ancestry led by two Hebrew Catholic matriarch’s Ariella (an Italian whose mother was Jewish) and Christina (an Australian whose maternal ancestors were Dutch and Bulgarian Jews). We became good friends with both these large families as well as another lady in our parish Dinah Moshe who is also a Hebrew Catholic. Christina and her husband John (of Polish Jewish ancestry) and their grown up daughter Rebecca attend our first Passover in Tasmania with about 20 or more other people including our parish priest Father Michael Tate (a former Australian Senator and law Professor) who is now the Vicar General of our Archdiocese and an order of Catholic nuns the Sisters of the Immaculata who also moved to our parish in the Huon Valley. Brother Gilbert believed he would be sacrificing his Hebrew Catholic ministry by moving to Tasmania but God surprised him.

Bnei Miriam Havurah Passover in 2014 with Thomas haggling with Br Gilbert for the Afikomen

 Next God called the Brothers and with them the Bnei Miriam Havurah to move south and go rural. Here the Brothers have continued with their weekly Sabbath meals and the yearly Passover for the last four years.  The first year (2015) when they lived in Huonville they had only the three brothers and David and Joyce who had helped them host the big Seder in Hobart the year before. In the second year (2016) at their new home in Dover they just had one guest for Passover their Hebrew Catholic friend Dinah from their parish Taroona in Hobart. However the Brothers had met another large family of Jewish ancestry in their parish and in 2017 they had a successful Passover Seder with just under 20 people. However this year our Passover almost doubled and we had over 30 guests. We had a lot more people that would have loved to attend but had to limit the numbers. Our connection with the orthodox Rabbi and orthodox Jewish community in Hobart continues and the Brothers attended Shavuot services and the Dairy Buffet organized by the Rabbi’s wife Rochel after in which the Brothers met new people and another Rabbi who was visiting from Melbourne. 

Bnei Miriam Havurah Passover Seder in 2017 in Dover

We continue to celebrate our Friday Night Sabbath meals. At the moment four members of our Bnei Miriam Havurah a young married couple Ryan and Amy Kay with baby Elizabeth and Ryan’s brother Daniel Kay have moved to Townsville in Queensland. However the Brothers celebrated Brother Gilbert’s birthday with their parents Tania and Des Kay. Tania and her sister Maria are of Jewish ancestry and members of our Havurah and descend from the man who built the Synagogue in Hobart which is the oldest synagogue in Australia. The rabbi and his wife have invited us and some other of our Hebrew Catholics to his daughters third birthday which is a very important Birthday in Judaism. We are involved with the Orthodox Jewish community in order to support and help that community in its outreach to the lost Jews hidden in the population of Tasmania. We had no agenda to try and proselytize Jewish people. So down here in the far south of the world God has placed Hebrew Catholic Havurah and he opens the doors so if we can do it then anyone can do it. You just need two people to start a Havurah and then you need to pray that God will send the right people in his time. 

Mosaic Covenant in the Light of the New Covenant

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The story of Moses is packed with encounters with the Divine Presence - the burning bush, the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire and the Divine Glory descending on the Tent of Meeting. The whole Torah is a means to purify the people of Israel so that they can enter into a deep relationship with the Divine Presence. The Torah and its sacrificial system are centred and rooted in the understanding that encounter with the Divine Presence is the reason for living.

Moses in the Wilderness pitched his Tent of Meeting in which he placed the holy Ark of the Covenant over which the Divine Presence dwelt. Exodus 33 reveals that Moses would commune with the Divine Glory as with a friend. Joshua ben Nun however remained in the Tent in Perpetual Adoration when Moses went back to the camp. This Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting was a chapel of Adoration of the Shekhinah.

Later we see in the time of Samuel that Samuel and Eli also practiced all night adoration of the Shekhinah lying prostrate before the Ark of the Covenant. The Israelite mystics, prophets and adorers lay prostrate before the Divine Presence. In the Temple there were rooms set aside near the Holy of Holies for this intense adoration of the Divine Presence manifesting above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Jeremiah (see 2 Maccabees 2) later hid the Tent of Meeting and the Ark of the Covenant on the mountain where God saw God’s inheritance (Mt Sinai) in a cave. Jeremiah prophesied that in the future when the Jews would receive God's mercy then a divine manifestation would occur on this mountain and the Tent and the Ark would be rediscovered. St Thomas Aquinas along with other Catholics speak of the Catholic tradition that Elijah and Enoch will appear and take the Ark of the Covenant from its hiding place and place Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament on the Mercy Seat and proclaim to the Jews that Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the Messiah and the Divine Presence of God.

The manifestations of the Shekhinah in the Old Testament times were awe inspiring events and Moses (Exodus 3:6),Elijah (1 Kings 19:13) and even the Seraphim (Isaiah 6:2) cover their faces in His Divine Presence. In the New Covenant the Shekhinah takes on flesh, and at the Last Supper He humbles himself and hides both His humanity and Divinity under the form of bread and wine. In the Eucharistic Presence one can gaze on the Divinity with unveiled face and approach Jesus without fear of death or disaster.

Joshua as mentioned above spent time in adoration of the Shekinah and the Torah states that he was full of the Spirit and thus selected by God to be Moses' successor. Joshua was given the name Joshua as a sign of the coming of God's salvation (Yeshuah). Joshua's original name was Hosea. Due to his many hours of adoration he is now named for God's Salvation (Yehoshuah) as a sign of the coming Messiah who is Salvation (Yeshuah) incarnate. Joshua a son (descendant) of Joseph of the tribe of Ephraim is the son of Nun - Joshua ben Nun. Nun is a fish or fishhook so Joshua is called the son of a fish or fishhook. Joshua enters the earthly Tent or Tabernacle and intercedes for Israel. The High Priest Yeshua (Jesus or Joshua) in the Book of Zechariah enters the Heavenly Tabernacle in a mystic vision. Both Joshua ben Nun and the High Priest Yeshua are signs of Yeshua ha Mashiach (Jesus Christ) who is the great High Priest of our Faith who enters the Heavenly Tabernacle to intercede for all mankind as recorded in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Joshua's name of fishhook is connected with the letter 'vav' of the Hebrew Alphabet which is also called fishhook. The 'vav' in the Jewish mystical tradition is the third letter of the Divine name YHVH. The 'vav' represents the manifestation of the Divine Presence in the spiritual realm (Yetzirah) called there Ben (Son) or Zer Anpin. In this Jewish mystical tradition the name Y-H-V-H is especially associated with the Divine Presence as Ben (Son). This is the Divine Son of Man mentioned by Daniel and also found in the Books of Enoch.

The concept of the fish and fishhook also leads us to Jesus' comments about His followers (talmidim) becoming fishers of men and the sign of Jesus was to be the sign of the Fish in the Early Church. In the 'Zohar' the Holy Child is associated with the sign of the Fish as a son of Joseph. The descendants (sons) of Joseph of Arimathea are also called the Fisher Kings. The concept of Fisher Kings can also be found in the writings of the Ancient Sumerians - which speak of Shepherd and Fisher Kings in the time before the Flood. The Patriarch Enoch was one of these Fisher Kings who was later deified by the Sumerians as the God Anu. Stories of magical fish are told in regards to King David's son King Solomon as well as in regards to David and Solomon's descendants the Fisher Kings of the Holy Grail.

In early Christian art fish, bread (loaves) and grapes are used as Eucharistic symbols. The multiplication miracle of the loaves and the fish are seen as a sign of the Eucharist (see John 6). Moses who is to be the Shepherd of Israel is fished out of the waters of the Nile by Pharaoh's daughter in his small reed ark. There is a deep Eucharistic connection between the three arks mentioned in the Torah. The ark of Noah, the ark of the baby Moses and the Ark of the Covenant.

In the New Covenant these three arks are all seen as signs of Mary the New Ark of the New Covenant. Mary is the Heavenly Ark of the Covenant revealed in Apocalypse 11-12 and in Luke 1 which describes the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Her maternal womb was the ark that contained her baby son Yeshua (Jesus) and her Immaculate Heart is the ark of refuge in the times of peril in the New Covenant. Jewish traditions further reveal that as babies both Noah and Moses shone with a supernatural light and later the adult Moses, after his encounters with the Divine Presence, shone so brightly that he had to veil his face. This light is the light of the Messiah who is the Divine Presence that was reflected by Noah and Moses and the other Adorers of the Shekhinah. 


Our Lady's Immaculate and burning heart manifests out of eternity as the fire of the Burning Bush from which the voice of her Son the God of Israel speaks to Moses. This fire of the Mother's Heart is also present at the Giving of the Torah and is the pillar of fire that leads Israel by Night for she is the one the walks in beauty in the night. She is Night and Dark Light as the Black Madonna and the Bride of the Song of Songs for she has no light except that of her Son who is the Divine Sun of the Will of God.

In popular imagination the knights of King Arthur and the Knights of the Grail are seen as wearing brilliant shining armour. In reality the Knights of the Grail shine with the Eucharistic Glory and their shining armour are the Divine Attributes of God that they become cloaked in as a fruit of their hours of Eucharistic Adoration.

Moses was chosen by God because he was the most humble man on the face of the earth in his day. It is only the humble (anavim) that can comprehend the hidden mysteries of the Divine Presence through lowering themselves in adoration before the Divine King. These are the Anavim of Y-H-V-H we meet in the New Testament. The Messiah Himself was to be the Aniv (humble one) riding on a donkey. The whole sacrificial system of offerings of flesh, wheaten cakes (i.e. bread), oil and wine in the connection with the shedding of blood into silver chalices, is rich in Eucharistic allusions and signs. The 12 loaves of shewbread on the Altar, the incorrupt portion of Manna preserved in the Ark of the Covenant and the Passover Seder meal with the Passover lamb are all deeply significant for an understanding of the Eucharist and Eucharistic Adoration. To fully draw out the Eucharistic significances in the Mosaic Covenant would take a library of books. 


The whole cult of the New Covenant priesthood and Sacrifice of the Divine Liturgy is not a novelty but a renewal at the deepest levels of the Sacrificial cult given to Israel in First Testament times. As Pope Benedict XVI taught that "the New Covenant as ratified at the Last Supper... was a prolongation of the Covenant of Sinai, which was not abrogated but renewed".

Bulgakov and the Jews

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Bulgakov was the leading Russian Orthodox theologian of the 20th century.

"When Bulgakov talks of a revived Judeo-Christianity which will be the new heart of an eschatological Christianity, what does he have in mind? ... The question which arises then is the following: if Jews accept Christ, should they abandon their Jewishness? Bulgakov’s answer to this is clearly: no. For, as we have just seen, he yearns to see a Judeo-Christianity “as it existed in the apostolic church, because this latter was just that,” a type of Christianity which would resemble the early Jerusalem church, whose disappearance he mourns. But has Bulgakov thought about what this would mean? After all, the members of the Jerusalem church visited the Temple, were circumcised, and observed the Law.That is, like Christ, they were Torah-observant members of the Jewish people.

Of course, this is an old chestnut. Two thousand years later, is it appropriate for Jewish converts to observe the Torah in the way the Jamesian church did? Entering into the question is an interpretation of Paul: was he polemically arguing against Law-observance only for gentiles, while leaving it open for Jewish Christians to be Torah-observant, or was he in principle against Torah-observance by Jewish Christians too? Leaving those complex questions aside, if we focus simply on the spirit of Bulgakov’s approach we sense a new contribution to the debate. If we take him more seriously than he took his own suggestions about Judeo-Christianity, we should read what he writes very closely: “Israel even in its backsliding has not ceased to be the Chosen People, the relation of Christ and his Most Pure Mother, and this blood relation is not interrupted and does not stop even after the birth of Christ....this is a fact which one needs to ponder and grasp with all one’s strength, in its dogmatic meaning as it applies to the fate of Israel.” ..."("Holy Russia, Sacred Israel: Jewish-Christian Encounters in Russian Religious Thought" Dominic Rubin p.134-136)

"...We have thus come to the end of our examination of Bulgakov’s “Judeology.”Though only a fraction of his output was devoted to exclusively Jewish questions, these writings mirror much in Bulgakov’s evolution from a young Solovievan philosopher of neo-Christianity to a mature theologian of Sophia, whose work continues to inspire many. While, of course, one of the great undecided questions in the study of Bulgakov is the place of Sophia in Orthodox theology, from the narrower perspective of this chapter, another controversial issue which Bulgakov left to his spiritual heirs was the – for him – closely related question of how Christianity should relate to a crying absence in her very heart. For if the divine-human Church should embrace all of humanity, where is that foundation-stone of humanity, Jewry? Bulgakov’s proposal that there must be a new Judeo-Christianity was, of course, not entirely novel – Soloviev had wrestled with the same question in his essay on Rabinowich, and Alexander I founded a society for Israelite Christians that he thought would be the kernel of a mass influx of Jews into the Church. Nonetheless, Bulgakov’s own grappling with this issue is profounder than Soloviev’s, even though it is enmeshed in contradictions, some of them inherent in the issue itself, which goes to the very heart of the mystery of Christ – as Bulgakov makes clear..."("Holy Russia, Sacred Israel: Jewish-Christian Encounters in Russian Religious Thought" Dominic Rubin p.147-148).

The First Trumpet and Jacob's Trouble: 2018 or 2019? A Hebrew Catholic Speculation

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In recent months there have been so many fires burning around the world and other weather disasters that some people may be wondering if  this Jewish year of 5778 (2017-2018) has been the first year of the tribulation that is associated with a third of the earth being destroyed in fires. Rosh ha Shanah 5779 begins on September 9th 2018. Is this the time of the Second Trumpet that ushers in the second year of Jacob's Trouble or is the start of the first year with the First Trumpet and we will see the fires continue over the next 12 months? While it is tempting to see 5778 as the first year I think that it is probably 5779 which will be the time of the First Trumpet and the first year of the Tribulation known as Jacob's Trouble.

As well as a more literal reading of a third of the earth burnt up with fires, it may also mean that a third of the earth will be on fire with revolutionary political and social fires. The mention of blood and fire would lead to an understanding of the fires connected with bloody or violent civil fires or unrest. Some older Catholic commentators have associated the Rider of the White Horse with the rise or coming of a Great Monarch as well as the Angel or Messenger of Apocalypse 10. Could 2019 be the year this young Duke has a conversion to he Catholic Faith through the intercession of Our Lady and St Joseph? 

The "Scroll of the Secret" alludes to this Great Monarch entering into the mystical marriage with Our Lady Shekhinah in a year connected to the number 12 (11 + 1= 12). Rebbe Nachman refers to this in the "Scroll of Secrets" to reveal that it is in the Jewish year 5779 that is 2018-2019. 2+0+1+8=11 and 2+0+1+9=12 and thus the year 11 refers to 2018 and the year 12 refers to 2019. Year 13 is 2020 as 1+3=4 and 2+0+2+0=4. The Scroll starts the rise of this Great Monarch or Messiah in the year 10 which was 2017 (5777) as 2+0+1+7=10 so his fourth year is 2020. 2020 also is associated with the Jewish year 5780 which is 5+7+8+0=20. It will be in his eighth year 2024 (2+0+2+4=8) that the Great Monarch may start to fight the third Antichrist (the Assyrian) in the year he turns 40 and thus finally defeat him in 2025 (2+0+2+5=9) in his 9th year. 

In the Year 6 (2022) on June 6 the Third Antichrist may receive full Satanic Power and begin his open reign. He may begin his hidden reign in December 2018-January 2019. His reign may end in December 2025 with the three days of darkness. Of course this is just my personal speculation in trying to read the signs of the times in accord with the request of Blessed Pope Paul VI.

Of course the seven trumpets may not correspond to the seven years of Jacob's Trouble. It would seem that it is also possible to interpret it as the final seven years of Jacob's Trouble only begins after the sixth Trumpet is blown and that this ushers in the first 3 and a half years and then with the seventh Trumpet the second 3 and a half years. If each Trumpet represents a three and a half year period then it is possible that the first Trumpet or Shofar was blown around Rosh ha Shanah of 2016 (5777). Is Donald Trump the Rider on the White Horse of this period? The second Trumpet may be blown on Passover of 2020 (5780). Is this the period when the Rider on the Red Horse is the Russian leader or the rise of Communism in Europe? Will we see the bloody revolutions break out in Europe and the assassination of the English King and the royal family going into Exile? The third trumpet may be blown on Rosh ha Shanah in 2023 (5783). Will this be the time of the rise of the Muslim Mahdi as the Rider of the Black Horse and a huge Economic collapse? Will we see the Russian Ruler and the Muslim Mahdi attack Europe in this period and be defeated by the Great Monarch who will be a Duke then? The fourth trumpet may be blown on Passover 2027 (5787). Is the Rider of the Pale Horse the forerunner of the Antichrist? The fifth trumpet may be blown on the Rosh ha Shanah of 2030 (5791). This will be a time of severe persecution of Christians in much of the world. Thus the sixth trumpet and the first three and a half years of Jacob's Trouble will begin on Passover of 2034 (5794) in which the Antichrist is reigning in a Hidden manner. A great Earthquake will occur in this period and the sealing of the Israelite evangelists. The seventh trumpet will then be blown on Rosh ha Shanah of 2037 (5798) and will usher in the open three and a half years of the reign of Antichrist until Passover of 2041 (5801). The Third Antichrist may have been conceived in 1998 and born on Tisha B'Av in 1999. this is of course just another possibility of how the prophesied events will play out and their are many other scenarios.



The Roles of the Theologian as Poet and Storyteller: A Hebrew Catholic Reflection

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The roles of a theologian as a poet and storyteller are the ones that most resonate with me. My ancestor Rebbe Nachman of Breslov’s stories were introduced to the academic world by Martin Buber.[1]Rebbe Nachman was famous for his fairy stories such as “The Lost Princess” and “The Master of Prayer”.[2] Rebbe Nachman spoke of the power of a story to awaken the sleeping souls.[3] These Hasidic stories have a therapeutic value that brings healing to the troubled soul.[4]
  
The concepts of theological poetry and storytelling are connected to the concept of literary iconology rather than just limited to a literal poem or story.[5]The ancient Greeks associated the term deep poetry with the creative arts such as dance, movement, music, dance, song, lyrics, tune, melody and storytelling.[6] Rebbe Nachman taught that music, melody, dance and song could turn depression and sadness into joy.[7] The Eastern Church fathers stressed the therapeutic dimension of Christian faith and they also spoke of verbal or literary icons.[8]Thus this deep poetry has therapeutic power that leads to divinisation or theosis.[9] Theosis or divnisation means becoming God-like or becoming whole by living in God’s will perfectly.


I rather like Terry Veilings’ understanding of the role of poetry in the theological endeavour which has this therapeutic dimension.[10] Such an approach allows for freedom and creativity with a diversity in unity that delves into the fullness of the faith but doesn’t limit with totalities so hated by Levinas.[11]


[1]see Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, New York: Schocken Books, 1947 and Martin Buber, Tales of Rabbi Nachman, New Jersey: Humanities Press International, 1988.
[2] Aryeh Kaplan, The Lost Princess and Other Kabbalistic Tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, (Jerusalem/New York: Breslov Research Institute, 2005), xvii.
[3] Kaplan, The Lost Princess and Other Kabbalistic Tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, xxi.
[4]Paul Bernier, Eucharist: Celebrating Its Rhythms in Our Lives (Notre Dame, Indiana; Ave Maria Press,1993), 61.
[5]Elena Volkova, “Literature as Icon: Introduction”, Literature & Theology, Vol. 20 #1 (UK: Oxford University Press, 2006), 1-6.
[6] James Hall, “Nine Muses” in Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. London: J. Murray, 1979.
[7]Yehuda Liebes, Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993) 138.
[8]Valerii Lepakhin, “Basic types of Correlation Between Text and Icon, between Verbal and Visual Icons” Literature & Theology, Vol. 20 #1 (UK: Oxford University Press, 2006), 20.
[9]See Norman Russell. Fellow Workers with God: Orthodox Thinking on Theosis. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2009.
[10] Roach and Dominguez, Expressing Theology: A Guide to Writing Theology that Readers Want to Read, 23.
[11] See Emmanuel Levinas, "Totality and Infinity (A. Lingis, trans.). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press,1969.
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