LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE MAY I INTRODUCE TO YOU:

GOD OR THE FORCES THAT GOVERN THE UNIVERSE

When we reflect upon mankind’s evolution, we see that weapons have continually become more sophisticated and that nowadays there are arms of mass-destruction. We also see that continually a smaller percentage of the world population has gotten hold of a larger percentage of all available resources, thus increasing the tension between the different groups of people and between them and their environment. Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that a society that doesn’t live in harmony, like ours, is eventually bound to destroy itself.

It is the most important lesson mankind has to learn. It does not mean that we are bound to destroy ourselves, but that to guarantee our survival we must put an end to our conflicts and therefore discover why we have conflicts with the other people and with our environment.

Whereas our intellectuals – scientists, philosophers, politicians, theologians – ignore this, Genesis, which is at the origin of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, recognizes this reality: 10 generations after putting an end to harmony (Paradise), our ancestors almost completely destroyed themselves (the Great Flood). Since Genesis says our ancestors put an end to harmony by eating a forbidden fruit, we have a good reason for studying this book: asking why we have conflicts is the same as asking what the forbidden fruit refers to.

Genesis is a book of wisdom. It encourages us to ask questions whose answers lead to new questions, and this dynamic enables us to discover its secrets and reflect upon mankind’s true nature. Its main protagonist is God or the forces that govern the universe. With God’s main characteristic being the principle of cause and effect, the belief in God is really the belief in the principle of cause and effect.

Whereas the ultimate effect of not living in harmony is mankind’s self-destruction, its ultimate cause was a change in people’s diet: Adam and Eve were vegetarians before they ate the forbidden fruit. Eating the forbidden fruit made our ancestors get a bad understanding of God. Whereas, a bad understanding of the forces that govern the universe – not seeing all the consequences of our behavior – divides people, a good understanding of the forces that govern the universe – seeing all the consequences of our behavior – brings people back together.

The fact that a society that doesn’t live in harmony is eventually bound to destroy itself, teaches us that we are all on the same boat, and if that sinks, all people – rich and poor, good and bad, believers and non-believers – will perish. Therefore, we should not only care for our own wellbeing (material and spiritual), but also for the wellbeing of all the others. When we believe in God, we believe that there is a reason why people are poor, or sick, or evil. We thus realize that we are able to help them.

When we understand God – when we see all the consequences of our behavior –, we realize that it is better not to do to others what is hateful to us. ‘How’ we achieve our objectives is very important. When we do not respect certain rules – do not kill, do not steal, do not lie, etc. – we will sooner or later suffer the consequences. The end never justifies the means.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: THE BIBLE AND ITS SECRETS

The Bible is a book of wisdom. It invites the reader to ask certain questions whose answers lead to new questions, and this dynamic enables him to discover its secrets and attain wisdom. Its main protagonist is God. God refers to the forces that govern the universe. When one understands God, one understands why things happen the way they do. To be able to discover why things occur the way they do, one must however consider the idea that everything in the universe is based on the principle of cause and effect.

The Bible is special. Although only people with a questioning mind (seekers) can discover its secrets, all people can benefit from its stories as they help to improve their relations with the other people and with the environment. Hillel, a famous Jewish religious leader of the first century BC, said that the Bible teaches us not to do to others what is hateful to us. He considered that the Bible teaches us empathy; that its stories encourage us to put ourselves in the place of other people (our opponents).

The main idea of the Bible, which is often overlooked, is that our ancestors once lived in harmony and that they put an end to it by changing their diet: Adam and Eve, who were vegetarians in the days of paradise, were expelled from it for eating a forbidden fruit. Therefore, people who would like to live in harmony with the other people and with their environment should question the omnivore diet and wonder what the forbidden fruit refers to.

What the Bible says is not necessarily true. It is not because the Bible claims to tell the truth, that what it says is true. When someone writes on a wall, “He who reads this is stupid”, one has to be real stupid to believe this.

It is not because Genesis associates harmony with a vegetarian diet that all people whose religion is based on this first book of the Bible – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – should become vegetarians. However, when one longs for harmony – for a paradise on earth or one after death – it makes a lot of sense to reflect upon the possible benefits of such a diet, and even more when one considers that the Bible is a sacred book. One reason for becoming a vegetarian is empathy – vegetarians are able to put themselves in the position of the animals people feed on – and that is essential for living in harmony with the other people.

It is also not because religious authorities claim that the Bible holds the word of God and says the truth, that we should believe this. Like all other people, authorities make mistakes. Whereas most people accept what authorities say – believers accept what religious authorities say; sceptics and cynics accept what scientific authorities say –, people with a questioning mind evaluate ideas for themselves. They question religious authorities as much as scientific authorities.

When we accept that the Bible is not an authority by itself, we can read it like we read whatever other book. Instead of immediately judging whether its information is realistic are not – the old ages of the patriarchs, for instance –, we can wonder why the author invented them and what they contribute to the stories. One of the consequences of these old ages is that many generations coincided in time.

When we read the Bible with a questioning mind, we find that often what we at first think the Bible says, which is what religious authorities say it says, and often what that book makes us believe it says, is not necessarily what it really says. Genesis, for instance, does not say that Adam and Eve were the first people. It only says that they were the first people who put an end to harmony.

The Bible also does not say that Cain begat Irad. It says that Cain knew his wife and that she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Therefore, this Enoch may be the same as the one we find in the genealogy that goes from Adam to Noah. Once we realize that the Bible (Genesis) suggests that Yared begat Enoch from Cain’s wife, we discover that the genealogies in this book refer to several cases of incest, endogamy and extramarital relations.

An example of an incestuous relation is that of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob, who are direct ancestors of King David and of Jesus. When we process the information regarding the genealogies in Genesis we discover that Milcah had Rebekah from her son Betuel. Since Milcah was the sister of Lot, and Genesis says that he committed incest with his two daughters, this discovery should not surprise us.

Can one find in the Bible whatever one wants to find? The fact that in the past, people have used the Bible both to defend and to condemn the same idea – slavery, for instance – shows that this book can be interpreted in many ways. However, this does not mean that one can find in it whatever one wants to find. One can not find, for instance, that Adam and Eve ate other creatures in the days of paradise. What is true, however, is that one can ignore in the Bible whatever one wants to ignore. One can ignore that Genesis asociates harmony with a vegetarian diet. One can ignore that the genealogies in the Bible refer to incest, endogamy and extramarital relations.

Wisdom is not so much about knowing a lot of things, but about processing information right. To discover the secrets in the genealogies that appear in the Bible, we not only have to process all the information these books offer us regarding the familie ties between its different protagonists, but also take into account that because of the high ages several generations coincided in time.

Ignorance is not about not knowing a lot of things – Albert Einstein said, “We are all ignorant, but do not all ignore the same things” –, but about deliberately ignoring information. That is why ‘ignorant’ is a synonym for ‘stupid’. Some people know a lot of things, but ignore what is most important: that everybody is somehow family of everybody else and that the resources should enable all of us to make a living. They deliberately ignore that since the earth is limited, and therefore as well its resources, the bigger portion of the resources some appropriate, the smaller the portion that is left for all the others.

People also deliberately ignore certain information in the Bible. Religious authorities often stress the fact that God expelled Adam and Eve from paradise for eating a forbidden fruit, but ignore the fact that Adam and Eve were vegetarians in the days of paradise and that Genesis therefore asociates harmony with a vegetarian diet, and the end of harmony with a change in their diet.

Christian authorities have often been so much attracted to material wealth (they have befriended the rich and have been rich themselves), that they ignored that Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to make it through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter paradise. They have also often judged people, thus ignoring that Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

Wisdom requires humility. To be able to discover the answer to certain mysteries, we first have to recognize that there are mysteries; that there are things that we do not yet understand. Arrogance goes together with ignorance. People who can not accept that there are ideas that they do not yet understand either ignore them, consider that they make no sense, or give them an unsatisfactory explanation (by creating a dogma or an axioma).

Authorities – religious or scientific – are not reknown for their humility. On the contrary, they are often arrogant. Hans Christian Anderson’s story of the Emperor’s Suit explains very well how intellectuals can fool themselves. When the emperor’s tailor says that he has made a suit for the emperor from a special material that only intelligent people can see, all praise its beauty although the tailor hadn’t used any fabric at all. It is therefore a child that points out that the emperor walks around naked. A lot of people have such an ego that they are unable to admit that there are ideas that they do not understand.

A lot of the authorities that study the genealogies in the Bible claim that these make no sense. That is arrogant. They ignore the fact that because of extramarital relations some lineages are real and others are supposed and that the Bible recognizes this reality. They ignore that because of this Jews consider that someone is a Jews when his mother is a Jew. One can have doubts about the father, but not about the mother.

Whereas religious authorities are arrogant for not admitting that they do not understand certain ideas in the Bible and converting their erroneous interpretations into dogmas, scientific authorities are arrogant for not only questioning these erroneous interpretations, but also the Bible and religion itself. Religious and scientific authorities both ignore that the Bible holds secrets and that originally religion encouraged people to discover these secrets.

Most people find it difficult to consider that the Bible holds secrets because they can neither accept that there are ideas that they can not yet understand, nor that someone would prefer to keep certain ideas a secret from them.

Why does the Bible (Genesis) hold secrets? Why does it sometimes make people believe it says one thing when in reality it says something quite different? This is because not all people can immediately understand its wisdom – to grasp certain ideas people have to be ready for them / there is fast food, but no fast wisdom – and because it is better to avoid that certain knowledge falls into the hands of people who would use it to harm other people or their environment.

The Bible was created as a Trojan horse to help pagans become familiar with the idea of an only God. Its authors wanted its messianic message – restoring harmony on earth –to reach as many people as possible. This message not only had to be attractive to the poor, who would benefit most when people restored harmony, but also to the rich and powerful, who could easily regard a Messiah as a threat, and therefore oppose the messianic religions that are based on the Bible.

The Bible gives a lot of importance to vegetarianism, but does not openly condemn eating other creatures because it was created to attract people, and not to scare them away. If the Bible had questioned the omnivore diet too openly, our ancestors would not have accepted it as a sacred book.          

The religious authorities who wrote those books were very different from the religious authorities that later appropriated them and interpreted them. Those who wrote the important books of the NT, for instance, were Jews who had discovered the secrets in the OT and who were therefore familiar with books that hold secrets and with the idea that someone enlightened is able to create a mystery that reveals itself many generations later. The Christian authorities who later interpreted those books, and who are responsible for several dogmas and misinterpretations, were no longer Jews, but descendants of pagans who were still very familiar with previous beliefs such as, for instance, that of a God being born of a virgin.

The Bible interacts with mankind’s evolution. When we reflect upon our evolution we see that the creation of nuclear weapons is a milestone in mankind’s history. It not only teaches us that we are capable of destroying ourselves, but also that a society that doesn’t live in harmony – like ours – is eventually bound to do so: weapons continually become more sophisticated and once there are weapons of mass destruction it is only a matter of time before they are used. This does not mean that we will destroy ourselves in the near future, but that to guarantee our survival we must discover why we have conflicts with each other and with our environment.

Technology enables an ever smaller group of people to get hold of an increasingly larger proportion of all the available resources, thus creating many problems for everyone else. This in turn leads to increasing levels of tension among people, and between them and their environment. And when this tension increases too much, it explodes.

Peace is not the same as harmony. Peace eventually leads to war because it does not put an end to the struggle for the resources. The only difference is that during days of peace people struggle for the resources by keeping themselves to certain rules. Since people who are cut off from the resources will eventually question the benefits of keeping themselves to these rules, peace hold the germ of the next conflict.

That a society that doesn’t live in harmony is eventually bound to destroy itself is the most important lesson that people have to learn. Whereas our intellectuals –scientists, philosophers, politicians, theologians– ignore this, Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, recognizes this reality: 10 generations after putting an end to harmony (Paradise), our ancestors almost completely destroyed themselves (the Great Flood). After that catastrophe, mankind's evolution started all over again. The survivors went on with their lives as before. And since they continued to live in conflict with each other and with their environment we now find ourselves again close to our self-destruction.

Since today mankind is able to destroy itself, we can wonder whether it has already done so in the past. The fact that Genesis recognizes the most important lesson that mankind has to learn, tells us that it was written by someone who foresaw that one day mankind would find itself on the verge of destroying itself and that that he wrote Genesis to help mankind avoid doing so. How? By not only informing them of the ultimate effect, but also of the ultimate cause of not living in harmony.

Since the Bible interacts with mankind’s evolution, it is now that we find ourselves close to destroying ourselves that this book reveals its secrets. The main question this book encourages us to ask is what the forbidden fruit refers to – Genesis does not say it is an apple – and that is the same as asking why we have conflicts with each other and with our environment.

Since the Messiah is expected to restore harmony on Earth, we can assume that he will tell us what is the ultimate cause of our conflicts or what the forbidden fruit refers to.

Christians assume that Jesus was the Messiah. The Jews find this incomprehensible, since he did not restore harmony on earth, which is what they expected of the Messiah. This idea however makes sense when we consider the principle of reincarnation and assume that a reincarnation of Jesus – his Second Arrival – will restore harmony on earth.

The Apocalypses associates Jesus’ second arrival with the end of times – when mankind is close to destroying itself – and with a revelation: whereas its last book refers to the end of times, Apocalypses is greek for ‘revelation’. The Messiah that the Jews are awaiting is the same person as Jesus’ Second Arrival that the Christians are awaiting. We thus see that an important idea from religions that are not based on the Bible help us understand the secrets in that book.

In regards to the secrets in the Bible, we must also take into account that the first books of the OT were originally written in ancient Hebrew, a consonant language. When centuries later the vowels were added, these texts were interpreted, as the same combination of consonants often led to several words.

It may surprise many that ancient Hebrew held no vowels, but also the first alphabet did not recognize vowels. This is because our subconscious, which functions like a very powerfull database, files words – associates them with each other – in function of the consonants that compose them. Therefore, in all vocabularies words with the same combination of consonants have a lot in common with each other. This means that we must associate ‘genesis’ (Greek: beginning) with ‘gnosis’ (Greek: hidden knowledge).

Now that we are referring to the secrets of our vocabulary we can point out that calling the Bible a ‘sacred’ book originally meant to recognize that it holds secrets  –  ‘sacred’ and ‘secret’ both come from the verb ‘to segregate’ – and that ‘religion’, which come from the Latin word ‘relegere’ and means ‘to re-read’, refers to reading the Bible time and again to discover its secrets.

Second part of: THE BIBLE AND EXCELLENCE IN CORPORATE IMAGE

My boss was a genius in using language to his benefit. After the El País and El Mundo newspapers criticized his award celebrations, he changed the invitation letter. It now announced that the International Gold Star Award for Excellence in Corporate Image had been divulged in national newspapers such as El País and El Mundo. Although he often fooled people, he never lied and did not want us to lie either. Although our office was on the first floor, he also had an apartment on the eighth floor, which was where I worked.

My boss was not only a ‘con artist’. He was also a real artist. He was a painter and a sculptor. To promote his work he took pictures of one sculpture with the Prado Musem at the back ground and of another sculpture with the Royal Palace at the back ground. Then he had someone write a book about his work that included those pictures. He really knew something about Excellence in Corporate Image.

When three years later my boss offered me a percentage of the benefits I quitted. I did so because sometimes an attending company had misunderstood the award celebration and then I had felt terrible. I felt that if I accepted a percentage, I would be responsible whenever someone felt cheated.

I try to learn from all my experiences. Therefore, I do not feel bad for having working for this company. This experience has taught me to reflect upon co-responsibility, and has enabled me to discover the secrets in the Bible. What most people think this book says, is often what they are made to believe it says, but not what it really says.

Let me give you an example. Genesis says, “Cain knew his wife and she got pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.” Most people assume this means that Cain begot Enoch, but then why does it not simply say, “Cain begot Enoch”? Since a bit further on, in the the genealogies from Adam to Noah, Genesis says, “Jared begot Enoch”, there is a good reason for assuming Cain’s wife became pregnant from someone else and for wondering whether this person may have been Jared.

Two names – Enoch and Lamech – that appear in the genealogies from Cain to Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain also appear in the genealogies from Adam to Noah.  Since both genealogies also offer a similar name for Lamech’s father – Methushael in Cain’s genealogy and Methuselah in Adam’s genealogy – Genesis encourages us to investigate whether these three names perhaps refer to the same people. When we do so – when we process all that information –we discover several cases of incest and endogamy.

Someone is considered a Jew when the mother is a Jew. This demonstrates that the Jews realize that one can be sure of the mother but not of the father of a child. Therefore, it should not surprise us that the Bible recognizes the fact that extramarital relations make that some lineages are real (based on the ‘father begot son’ principle), and others supposed (based on formulas such as, “He knew his wife and she got pregnant and gave birth to…”).

Although I am self-taught, thanks to the International Gold Star for Excellence in Corporate Image Award celebrations I have discovered several secrets in the Bible that scholars ignore. The secrets that I discovered in the genealogies in Genesis have prepared me for the secrets in the genealogies in the gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke. Have you asked why Saint Matthew and Saint Luke offer two different genealogies for Jesus Christ? That the two genealogies may be right is something you can discover for yourself by simply paying attention to what these texts really say, and which is not what most Bible scholars think they say. And when you do this, you will also discover that the first chapter of the first book of the New Testament holds an enigma which conceals who is Jesus’ true father…

THE BIBLE AND EXCELLENCE IN CORPORATE IMAGE

Twentyfive years ago I worked for a company that had invented its own award celebration: the International Gold Star for Excellence in Corporate Image. Most of my friends considered these awards a scam and I eventually quitted because of conscientious objections. Strange enough, this experience later enabled me to discover the secrets in the Bible.

Through an advertisement in the newspaper I learned that this company was looking for someone who spoke different languages and who was familiar with wordprocessors and databases. I applied for the job and started to work a week later. At first I had no clue what the job was about. I had had an interview with the owner of the company, but although he had talked a lot, he had said very little.

Only bit by bit I discovered what that award celebration was about. Companies from all over the world were sent a letter which announced that they were elected for the International Gold Star for Excellence in Corporate Image Award. They were invited to receive the trophy during a gala dinner in a famous five star hotel in Madrid. The participation fee, which was 2.400 dollars, included two nights in a double room at that hotel, two invitations for the gala dinner, the trophy itself and logotypes that could be used for publicity.

The invitation mentioned a selection committee, but these people were all friends of the owner. More than fifty thousand companies received such an invitation. The owner had several adolescents putting addresses of companies into a data base. They used lists such as the yellow pages and whatever company with an advertisement that was big enough was put into the data base.

Most companies immediately threw those invitations in the trash, but some were curious and contacted us. My job consisted in answering their letters (faxes) by using phrases which sounded attractive but said very little.

The company was rather small and really dedicated itself to the design of publicity folders. The award celebration was something extra. I was the only one who worked for it full time. Companies that contacted us in regards to the award celebration however got a very different impression.

‘One moment sir, I will put you through with the eighth floor.’ By answering the telephone with that phrase callers assumed they were dealing with a big corporation.  Others were told ‘I will pass you on with International Relations’.  Then they were put on hold for a while and later a second person picked up the phone, and he ten passed the call on to a third person, the manager for Latin America, for instance. Although those three people could sit next to each other, callers were made to believe the company was huge.

A few days before the convention the owner asked whether I had a suit and a tie. I didn’t. Since I was officially the director of international relations, his daughter took me shopping. With that suit I suddenly looked like Richard Gere in ‘Pretty Woman’. I had never worn a suit or tie before and it surprised me that people looked at me different; that they now treated me with respect.

During the award celebration I was very anxious. I was afraid that those companies would think that we cheated them. To my big surprise I discovered that this was not the case. A man from Costa Rica even told me that he was so glad that he finally received public recognition for all his efforts. It amazed me that making a lot of money was not enough reward for him. He wanted someone to pat his shoulder and say, ‘Well done sir’ and was actually willing to pay a lot of money for that.

About seventy companies received such a trophy that night. The first companies received a lot of applause. Later people of course got tired of clapping their hands. Those worked for the company were standing at the back of the hall and then took over. At the end of the evening, my hands hurted from clapping so much.

With people being pleased with their awards, I saw no reason for quitting that job. My boss explained that his awards enabled companies to improve their corporate image. The trophy itself, the pictures taken during the Gala dinner and the logos helped to convince customers that they were ‘excellent’ companies.

He gave me an example. He said that the Dia Supermarket chain bought an award to promote their products. He said that when this company started business people distrusted their products, because they were not familiar with them. People assumed they were bad quality because they were cheap, but changed opinion when they read on the labels that they had received an award.

The owner of this company made me realize that often people do not read what a text says, but what they think it says. He said that if he would put ‘recyclable’ on his stationary, a lot of people would assume that he cared for the environment, ignoring that all paper is recyclable, but only certain paper has actually been recycled.

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.

Second 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”

Let us go back to Genesis. The God that the people from Canaan sacrificed their firstborns to was called Moloch or Baal. This enables us to discover something about two of the important people that Abraham had dealings with during his life: Melchizedek, a priest of God Most High and king of Salem, and Abimelech, the king of Gerar. When we take into account that Genesis was originally written in Old Hebrew, a language that didn’t recognize consonants, we see that the MLCH consonants of Moloch also appear in the names Melchizedek and Abimelech. Whereas the consonants in Melchizedek mean ‘justice of Moloch’ or ‘king of justice’, those in Abimelech (or Abba Moloch), mean ‘father of Moloch’.

Melchizedek was the king of Salem, which is the old name for Jerusalem and it was on Moriah, one of the seven hills of that city, that Abraham had to sacrifice Isaac. The fact that the firstborn were sacrificed in high places explains why Melchizedek is called ‘God Most High’. That Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything and goes to Moriah to sacrifice Isaac, indicates that he recognizes him as an authority; that Abraham is a subject of Melchizedek.

Although many Bible scholars have assumed that Melchizedek was a priest of Yahweh (because he brought bread and wine and Abraham paid him a tenth of everything) , he was actually a priest of Moloch, the God that demanded the sacrifices of the firstborn. This explains the fear that Abraham feels when he encounters Melchizedek and why Yahweh then tells him: “Do not be afraid, Abram! I am your shield and shall give you a very great reward.”

Abraham lived in Canaan and it is significant that immediately after a visit from Abimelech, king of the Philistines, who was accompanied by the captain of his army, Abraham decides to sacrifice Isaac. Abimelech demanded that Abraham show the same kindness that he, his children and grandchildren had shown him. This oath seems to have referred to him having to comply with the country’s sacrificial customs.

Sarah, Abraham’s wife, had spent time in the harem of Abimelech and he gave her a thousand pieces of silver to allay suspicions about her. This actually suggests the opposite; that Abimelech had something to do with her pregnancy. And since he thought it was his son, he had an additional reason to demand that Abraham sacrifice Isaac.

The unions between a family that sacrifice their firstborn and one that doesn’t must have caused serious problems. The descendants of such unions belonged to both families and if one family sacrificed its firstborn to protect their community against all kinds of evil, how could they allow relatives to let their firstborn live? The crux of the matter was that any member of the tribe could attract evil towards his community by letting his firstborn live. Therefore, they could not allow each person to do whatever they wanted.

Also Isaac received a visit from Abimelech. A lot of Bible scholars assume Isaac did not meet the same Abimelech, but they completely ignore that because of the old ages of the patriarchs many generations coincided with each other. Furthermore, Isaac’s adventures in Guerar are similar to Abraham’s, but there are differences. Both spent some time in Guerar because of a famine. Both said his wife was his sister. Both later received a visit from Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, who was accompanied by the captain of his army, and both refererred about a well that they had dug and which they called ‘Beersheba’ (which means: well of oath or well of seven, but also son of oath or son of seven). The difference is that whereas Sarah was Abraham’s sister (the same father, but not the same mother), Rebekah was not Isaak’ sister and that apparently she did not spent time in the harem of Abimelech, because the king of the Philistines discovered that they were married.