Third part of: BOB DYLAN SINGS, “GOD SAID TO ABRAHAM, “KILL ME A SON””

Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
the next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61”

The fact that Genesis tells us who put an end to the sacrifices of the firstborn should make us wonder whether it might also tell us who started them. Therefore, we must search for the first reference to the firstborn in this book: Abel and his offering of the first-born of his flock.  This encourages us to ask whether this ‘flock’ included his own son. The fact that ‘Abel’ and ‘Baal’, one of the names of that God contain the same consonants is a good reason for considering this possibility. Another reason for doing so is that Abel was a shepherd who sacrificed animals to God. Therefore, we can assume that he ate other creatures before God allowed people to do so.

When we assume that Abel sacrificed his firstborn, we must consider the significance of the words: ‘Yahweh looked with favor on Abel and his offering’. Since this seems to indicate that Abel obtained a benefit in exchange for sacrificing his firstborn, we must ask ourselves what he might have wanted so badly that he was willing to kill his own son.

When we read the chapter about the Fall of Man – his expulsion from Paradise – we see that after eating the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve, as well as their descendants, must have become terribly afraid of death. Therefore, we can wonder whether the sacrifices of the firstborn served to prolong their own lives; whether they perhaps explain the high ages of the pre-diluvian patriarchs.

There are apparently no reasons for assuming that there is a connection between the age someone reaches and the ages of his ancestors and descendants. However, when we reflect upon reincarnation – that is what I encouraged you to do at the end of the previous article – we realize that before a soul can reincarnate it needs a body in which to reincarnate. This means that in case people reincarnate, life can be prolonged by preventing a new body from being born.

When we look at the ages of the patriarchs, we see that although Shem, Noah’s son, reached the old age of 600 years, Abraham only lived 175 years, and that it was during his life or shortly afterwards that most of the post diluvian patriarchs died.  Therefore, there indeed seems to be a connection between the sacrifices of the firstborn and the old ages.

When we count the ages of the first seven patriarchs (from Adam to Enoch), we reach a total of 5,879, just one less than 5,880, which is 7 times 7 times 120 years. We thus see that the average lifetime of the first seven patriarchs is 7 times 120 years. Although the total ages of these first seven patriarchs add up to only 5,879 and not 5,880, we must take into account that the age of Enoch, who walked with God, was 365. This figure refers to the number of days in a year. And while a normal year has 365 days, a leap year has 366. And with this number we do reach a total of 5,880.

We thus see that the average age of the first seven patriarchs is 7 times 120 years. Whereas the number 7 should remind us of how the earth was repopulated starting from seven couples, the figure 120 should remind us that God said: “May their days be a hundred and twenty years”.

These figures show that the age of each patriarch is related to the age of the other patriarchs, since it is not that each of these seven patriarchs reaches the age of 7 times 120 years, but that together they reach the age of 7 times 7 times 120 years.

Earlier on we have seen that a male lineage that in each new generation successively crossbreeds with each of the seven different female lineages, the first and the eighth generation have something in common. This is what happened with God and Enoch. This may explain why it was precisely Enoch who walked with God.

Since the Bible gives such an importance to the lineage of the firstborn, we can wonder whether after death someone’s soul later reincarnates in a descendant of this person following the lineage of the firstborn: that particular descendant that is again the fruit of that special male lineage of his father crossing the same female lineage as his mother. In case that someone’s reincarnations indeed follow this pattern, it is of course possible to enlarge one’s life by killing the firstborn.