WHO WAS RIGHT: GOD OR THE SNAKE?

A very intriguing story in Genesis is that of God warning Adam and Eve that when they eat the forbidden fruit they will die (Gn2:16-17), and later they eat but they do not die. What makes this story even more intriguing is that the snake convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit – Eve later convinces Adam to do so as well – by claiming that they will not die, but that their eyes will be opened and they will be like gods, knowing good and evil. Later we learn that Adam and Eve’s eyes were indeed opened (Gn3:1-7) – they suddenly realized that they were naked – and that Adam only died when he was 930 years old (Gn5:3). What does Genesis try to tell us by contradicting itself?

Genesis encourages us to think of a way that Adam and Eve may indeed have died after eating the forbidden fruit, even though they did not die physically. After a lot of research – Albert Einstein said, “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” – and taking into consideration a lot of different ideas, it becomes clear that the author suggests that before eating the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve were aware of their reincarnations, since that would make them inmortal. 

HONOUR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER…

One of the commandments that God gave to Moses says, “Honour your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.”(Ex:20:12) Most people only know the first part of this commandment and assume that it demands that we respect our parents. But this commandment tells us much more: in order to honor our parents, it is essential to know who they are. That is of course important to avoid incest.

When we take the ages of the first 20 patriarchs (10+10 or 7+13), we see that Enoch, the seventh patriarch on this list, was the second to die, while Peleg, the fifteenth patriarch, was the tenth to die. What do Enoch and Peleg have in common? Among other things, they both believed that their father was someone much older. Whereas Enoch was raised by Cain*, Peleg was raised by Shem**

*In case Yared had Enoch from Cain’s wife, Enoch was raised by Cain.

**Gn10:21 says that Shem was the father of all the sons of Eber. This means that Eber had children with one of Shem’s wife (not necessarily his mother) and that Peleg was raised by Shem.

MAY THEIR DAYS BE A HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS

The ages of the first seven patriarchs (from Adam to Enoch) add up to a total of 5,879 (930 + 912 + 905 + 910 + 895 + 962 + 365), just one less than 5,880, which is 7 times 7 times 120 years. Although the total is only 5,879 and not 5,880, 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. 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”.(Gn6:3)

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 and why it was Enoch that God took with him.

The ages of the next 13 patriarchs (from Methuselah to Abraham) add up to a total of 5,867 (969 + 777 + 950 + 600 + 438 + 433 + 464 + 239 + 239 + 239 + 230 + 148 +205 + 175), or 5,880 minus 13. These 13 years equal one per patriarch.* We thus see that Genesis suggests that just as God has something in common with Enoch, Enoch has something in common with Abraham.

Since Enoch died in the year 987 and Abraham was born in the year 1946, 959 years separates them, which is 960 (or 8 times 120) minus 1. The ages in Genesis were therefore not taken randomly and imply much more than one immediately is aware of. The immediate consequence of this discovery is that it demonstrates that the Hebrew Masoretic Text offers the right ages and the Greek Septuagint altered them.**

*Thirteen is also the age of Ishmael, Abraham’s firstborn son through Hagar, at the time of the covenant, when all the males among Abraham’s household got circunsized.

**All Bibles are based on translations from either the Hebrew Masoretic Text or the Greek Septuagint. The latter is believed to be a translation of the former, ordered by the Jews that lived in Alexandria and spoke Greek instead of Hebrew. Legend says that six translators of each tribe did the translation and afterwards stated that their texts matched one another. Strange enough the Greek Septuagint offers other ages. When we wonder why the ages were altered, we see that they tried to reconcile the chronology of the Old Testament with the ideas of the Greek world regarding universal chronology. The patriarchs are now often a hundred years older when they get their heir and therefore we find that 3,412 years elapsed between the births of Adam and Abraham, instead of the 1,946 years according to the Hebrew Masoretic Text.

BIBLE CRITICISM & INCONSISTENCY

There is no reason to assume that you are crazy when reading a message that says, ‘Whoever reads this is crazy!’* There is also no reason to assume that what the Bible says is the word of God and says the truth, just because the book itself says it holds the word of God and says the truth.

Whereas believers think that the Bible is the word of God and says the truth, skeptics say it is a book like all other books, but they do not judge it like other books: they think it is worthless because not everything it says is the truth.

Seekers – people who look for a better comprehension and question religion as much as science** – try to read the Bible without any prejudices. What interests them is to discover what the author tries to transmit with his stories. Whether the stories are true is a different matter. It is, for instance, not because animals don’t speak that fairy tales are worthless.

A believer, a skeptic and a seeker react very different when they read in Genesis that Adam died when he was 930 years. Whereas the believer assumes that an ancestor of us indeed lived for so many years, because in his opinion the Bible is the word of God and says the truth, the skeptic rejects this idea, because today people do not get older then a hundred and twenty years.*** The seeker neither sees a reason for accepting this idea nor for rejecting it. What interests him is why the author of Genesis invented these old ages and what they contribute to his stories.

Genesis says when the twenty patriarchs from Adam to Abraham had their ‘heir’ and when they died. This enables us to draw a graph and see that many generations coincided in time. Noah, for example, may have known the 18 generartions between Enosh, Adam’s grandson, and Abraham.

Being aware of how many generations coincided with each other, enables us to see that the Enoch in Cain’s supposed genealogy (based on the formula ‘Cain knew his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to...’) and in Seth’s real genealogy (based on the father begot son principle) may refer to the same person: Cain’s wife may have had Enoch from Jared, a great great grandson of Seth.**** This is important because it is by investigating how the Enoch and Lamech in Cain’s genealogy and in Seth’s genealogy – both also offer similar names for Lamech’s father – Methushael in Cain’s genealogy and Methuselah in Seth’s genealogy – may refer to the same people that we discover several cases of incest, endogamy and extramarital relations. These secrets prepare us for others, such as the one regarding Jesus’ father.

There are several things we have ignored about the old ages in Genesis. These ages for the first twenty patriarchs were not taken randomly. They clearly demonstrate that the author (authors) of Genesis was a genius.

*One indeed has to be crazy to believe that.

**Since Bible believers and Bible skeptics are only interested in demonstrating that their ideas are right, they do not evaluate information right and is therefore difficult for them to obtain a better comprehension of the world they live in.

***Many Bible skeptics lack humility. They think that this book makes no sense because they cannot admit that they do not understand it.

.**** This woman may have been much younger than her husband Cain and then we should also not ignore that Noah was five hundred years old when he had Shem.

JESUS: THE SON OF GOD?

Christians consider that Jesus was the son of God. But what is God and how can Christians think God has children? Some people claim that God doesn’t exist. Others only consider that the idea that Christians and other believers have of God is unrealistic.

One can see God as the forces that govern the universe.* Claiming that God does not exist then makes little sense, since one cannot deny the existence of the laws of nature. When one realizes that all laws of nature follow the principle of cause and effect, the belief in one God is the belief in the principle of cause and effect,** and someone who is so much aware of the principle of cause and effect – God – that by learning from the past he foresees the future can be referred to as a son of God.

Mohamed said that Jesus was not the son of God, but just like Christians he believed that Jesus was a prophet born of a virgin. Therefore, the revelation of the enigma in the gospel of Saint Matthew not only affects Christianity, but also Islam. Since Mohamed’s understanding of the forces that govern the universe – God – was much better than his contemporaries, it makes little sense to assume that the revelations he received from God were a complete fraud. The fact that he was also misled however teaches us that prophets make mistakes and forces us to question the nature of the revelations that prophets receive.

A prophet has a good connection with his subconscious and when that connects with him, through dreams or ideas that simply pop up in his consciousness, it is as if God speaks to him. Why? Because by filing all information according to similarities, one’s subconscious can reach many conclusions regarding the nature of the forces that govern the universe (God)*** and when one doesn’t realize where this information comes from it is logical to assume it comes from God. Only when a prophet is aware that it is his subconscious that is talking to him, he learns to question the revelations that he receives.

(*Whereas religions divide people, a better comprehension of the forces that govern the universe – God – brings them together.)

 (**Albert Einstein said, "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.")

(***Our consciousness processes information different. It continuously reaches new conclusions by basing itself on conclusions reached earlier on. To process information we have to see how new information affects all old information – how new theories affect all previous theories –, but when we are convinced that certain ideas (axioms, dogmas) are right, we do not do so)

JESUS: BORN WITHOUT SIN?

Christianity associates Jesus’ virgin birth with the idea of being born without sin and, therefore, with an exemplary life from the very beginning. This, however, does not square at all with what Isaiah prophesied about the Messiah: “The young woman will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’). On curds and honey will he feed until he knows how to refuse the bad and choose the good.”(Is7:14-15)

Neither does this idea square with what the story about the adulterous woman teaches us. The fact that Jesus says: “Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her”, and that Jesus does not throw a stone, shows that he also considered himself a sinner (Jn 8:1-8). Furthermore, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, who baptized people after they had confessed their sins (Mk1:4-9).

The fact that Christian authorities associate a virgin birth with a birth without sin, demonstrates that they consider it a sin to have sexual relations. Since centuries ago they were celibates – and Catholic authorities still are –, this should not surprise us. But they apparantly ignore that the gospel of Saint Luke says that people believed that Adam was the son of God. Do they consider God a sinner?

14 QUESTIONS ABOUT PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

-Do you question own ideas (beliefs) as much as you do other people’s ideas (beliefs)?

-Has religion had a positive or negative influence on our society?

-Is science bringing us salvation or self-destruction?

-Have perhaps all religions and philosophies safeguarded important values?

-Do you believe in God because your parents do, or do you not believe in God because your friends do not?

-Would you be an atheist if you lived in a communist country and a Buddhist if you lived in a Buddhist country?

-Are heaven and hell (purgatory, reincarnation, etc.) Only for people who believe in them?

-If the founders of our religions came back, would they recognize their work?

-Imagine Jesus came back. Would he be a Baptist, a Catholic, a Greek Orthodox...?

-Is the belief in dogmas not the belief in the authorities that defend them?

-Is the belief in scientific theories not the belief in the authorities that defend them?

-What do you think Jesus meant when he said, “the truth will set you free”?     

-Does the belief in miracles not oppose the belief in the principle of cause and effect?

-What do you think Jesus meant when he said, ‘it is easier for a camel’s hair to enter the eye of a needle than for rich person to enter paradise”?

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

Jesus said to his disciples, “…you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32), because he foresaw that for a long time Christians would believe in an idea that is false. Since this message appears not long after the episode of the adulterous woman,* and a bit later the Pharisees tell him, “…we were not born illegitimate” (Jn8:41), it is clear that he referred to who was his father.

The belief in the dogma of Jesus’ virgin birth has turned Christians into slaves, because they do not really have faith in this dogma, but in the authorities that defend this dogma, and their faith in authorities goes together with a lack of faith in themselves.

When we assume that authorities understand ideas that we don’t understand, how do we know whether they really understand these ideas or only pretend to do so? How do we then know whether they look after everybody’s well-being or only look after their own well-being?

People have followed authorities – I not only refer to religious authorities – like sheep follow a shepherd without realizing that the shepherd only protects his sheep against wild animals because he plans to eat them himself.

Jesus said, “The truth will set you free” because the fact that the gospel of Saint Matthew made the religious authorities come to erroneous conclusions, teaches us that instead of trusting authorities we must learn to understand the world we live in by ourselves.

Faith is positive when it refers to the future, because then helps to achieve objectives; but it is negative when it refers to the past – like Jesus’ virgin birth –, because then it encourages people to ignore all information that contradicts our ‘assumption’. Since wisdom comes from processing information right – seeing how new information affects all previously obtained information –, having faith in dogmas turns people into ignorants.

Both the dogmas of religion and the axioms of science are ideas that are supposed to be right but that have never been proved to be so. The difference is that whereas scientists realize that eventually a particular axiom may be proved to be false**, theologians consider that time can only demonstrate a dogma to be right.

Ignorance and arrogance often go together and are certainly at the origin and defense of the dogma of Jesus’ birth. When the gospel of Saint Matthew was discovered, the authorities of Christianity assumed it said that Jesus was born of a virgin, but they did not process all its information right. For instance, they did not look up what was special about the four women in Saint Matthew’s genealogy for Jesus, and also did not check the different prophecies that Saint Matthew refers to. If they had done so, they would have realized that whereas Saint Matthew refers to a prophecy regarding a virgin giving birth to a son, the original text in Isaiah refers to a young woman giving birth to a son. (Is7:14).***

(*Read the article ‘The adulterous woman’.)

(** The most important axiom says that two straight lines running parallel with each never cross each other. Wondering about how two straight parallel lines behave is the same as inquiring about the nature of the universe; since that is the space in which we project these lines. In case this axiom is false, we have to restate our ideas about the universe.)

(***The belief in the dogma of Jesus’ virgin birth made that when Christians found that Isaiah referred to a young woman, they assumed this prophet made a mistake.)

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO FIND NO SCANDAL IN ME

Jesus once said: “…and blessed is anyone who does not find a scandal in me!” (Mt11:6). Although I point out that the genealogies in the gospel of Saint Matthew tell us that Jesus was born of an incestuous relationship between Mary and her father-in-law, I find no scandal in Jesus. I see no reason for discriminating people who were born outside marriage.

I also consider that what matters about Jesus is his message, and not whether he was born of a virgin or from an incestuous relation. Is what matters about a present the wrapping paper that holds the present or the present itself? Is what matters about a doctor the university where he studied or the fact that he heals you? Is what matters about a goldseeker whether he has an official gold seekers degree or the fact that he finds gold?

How do you think a goldseeker feels when he learns that because he has no offical gold seekers degree, nobody wants to analyze whether his findings are gold? How do you think Jesus must have felt when he learned that because he was born from an incestuous relation, people didn’t want to listen to his message? Jesus said, “Blessed is anyone who does not find a scandal in me!” because only the people who found no scandal in him listened to his teachings and benefitted from them.

Christians have listened to Jesus’ teachings because they ignored the truth about Jesus’ father. If they had known Mary had Jesus from her father-in-law a lot of them would have seen scandal in Jesus.

THE ADULTEROUS WOMAN

Once we have discovered the enigma in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the story of the adulterous woman, which we only find in the Gospel of Saint John (Jn8:1-11), acquires a new meaning. We now see that Jesus had a good reason to defend this woman: she had a lot in common with his mother and may even have been his mother.

When the scribes and Pharisees invoked the laws of Moses to stone her, they hoped that Jesus would contradict this law so that they could accuse him. But just as on the occasion when the Pharisees asked him whether or not it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar and he responded: “Well, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Mt22:21), so on this occasion does Jesus find a solution to the dilemma he was facing by saying: “Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her.”

This reasoning is consistent with what Jesus said about judgments: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements that you give are the judgements that you will get, and the standard you use will be the standard used for you. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the great log in your own?” (Mt7:1-3).

Although everyone present in the story of the adulteress admits to having sinned, it is not clear what kind of sins they have committed, so it seems quite possible that among the crowd gathered to stone an adulteress to death there would have people who also had had extramarital affairs, but who were simply lucky enough not to have been found out.

Since it is more difficult for a woman to keep extramarital relations secret than it is for a man, because she is the one who gets pregnant, the person who had had relations with that woman might even have been among them, but whereas he could deny the facts, her pregnancy meant that she could not.

Also significant in this story is the fact that the Pharisees were accompanied by scribes when they asked him what to do with that woman. This seems to suggest that this adultery came to light through certain writings. And if this woman was Mary, this may have had to do with the census imposed by Caesar Augustus (Lc2:1-3), in which Mary may have indicated the true identity of Jesus’ father.

If this adulteress was Mary, Jesus as well got into problems. Although he saved his mother from getting stoned, he could no longer preach in the temple. Bastards were not allowed to enter that sacred place. In the Gospel of Saint John we indeed find that the Pharisees said to Jesus: “Are you trying to teach us, and you a sinner through and through ever since you were born!” (Jn9:34)

SAINT LUKE AND THE VIRGIN BIRTH

Whereas Saint Matthew offers Jesus’ real lineage, since it is based on the ‘father begon son’ principle, Saint Luke offers Jesus’ supposed lineage, since it starts with, “When he began, Jesus was about thirty years old; being the son, as it was thought, of Joseph, son of Heli, son of Mathat..” Saint Luke not only tells us that people thought that Jesus was the son of Joseph, but also that they thought that Joseph was the son of Heli, Heli the son of Mathat, etc. This explains why both genealogies differ from each other. It explains why, for instance, according to Saint Matthew Joseph’s father was Jacob and according to Saint Luke it was Heli.

Christian authorities have assumed that the ‘as it was thought’ in the gospel of Saint Luke and the ‘Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary who gave birth to Jesus’ in the gospel of Saint Matthew are there because Jesus was born of a virgin, but they have never explained in a satisfactory why these genealogies differ so much from each other and, for instance, offer a different father for Joseph.

When we compare Jesus’ real lineage in the gospel of Saint Matthew with Jesus’ supposed lineage in the gospel of Saint Luke, we find that the latter offers an additional generation between Adam and Abraham. Whereas Saint Luke indicates that people thought that Selah was the son of Cainan and that Cainan was the son of Arphaxad*, Genesis says that Arpachshad begat Shelah. This suggests that Arpachshad (we often find different spellings for the same name in the Bible) first had his son Cainan and later, when he became an adult, had Shelah from his daughter-in-law, Cainan’s wife.

Saint Luke offers an additional generation not only between Henoc and Abraham, but also between Abraham and David (14 generations in Matthew as opposed to 15 in Luke). Whereas Saint Luke indicates that people thought that Amminadab was the son of Admin, son of Arni, son of Hezron, Saint Matthew says that Hezron begat Ram and Ram begat Amminadab. This suggests that Aram begat Amminadab from his daughter-in-law, Admin’s wife.

These two examples of father-in-law and daugther-in-law relationships in Jesus’ lineage demonstrate that also Saint Luke knew that Mary had Jesus from her father-in-law Jacob.

 (*Saint Luke must have been familiar with the genealogies in Genesis)

WISDOM

Wisdom has more to do with asking the right questions, than with knowing a lot of things. Wisdom comes from processing information right; from investigating how new information affects all the information obtained earlier on. When we ask the right questions, we find answers that lead to new questions. Thanks to this dynamic, we continuously achieve a better understanding of ourselves and the world we live in.

Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, is a book of wisdom. It is a book that encourages the reader to ask questions. The answers later lead to new questions, and thanks to this dynamic we either discover certain secrets or obtain a better comprehension of certain matters.

Let us take the chapter regarding Abraham’s servant who goes to look for a wife for Isaac (Gn24). The careful reader notices that it makes little sense that after the servant gives silver and gold ornaments and clothes to Rebekah, he also gives rich presents to her brother and her mother. Why did Rebekah’s brother and not Rebekah’s father receive those presents?

When we ask this question, and investigate all the information regarding the family ties between the different protagonists of this story, we discover that Rebekah was the fruit of an incestuous relation between Milcah and her son Bethuel. Therefore, Bethuel was not only her father, but also her brother. The words ‘brother’ and ‘sister indeed only imply having one parent in common.

Since Rebekah is the mother of Jacob, a direct ancestor of Jesus, this will surprise a lot of people, but not those who, by studying the genealogies from Adam to Noah, have discovered several cases of incest, endogamy and extramarital relations. Furthermore, Milcah was Lot’s sister, and Genesis tell us that he committed incest with his two daughters.

Genesis says Milcah and Lot were children of Haran, but does not mention that Haran married. Since it tells us that his brothers Abraham and Nahor married, it encourages us to investigate Haran’s family ties and thus discover that he had his children from one of the wives of his father. That is why on a certain occasion Abraham referred to Lot as his brother and why Genesis refers to Haran’s children, but not to Haran’s wife. Haran could not marry the mother of his children, because she was already married to his father.       

The woman that Haran had children with was not necessarily his mother. His father had at least two wives, since Abraham and Sarah were brother and sister from the same father, but from a different mother (Gn20:12). The difference between a sexual relation with one’s own mother and one with another wife of one’s father is that in the latter case there is no inbreeding. But this relation is also considered incest, since this concept refers to any relationship between relatives who are not allowed to marry.

This definition may very well have its logic, because Genesis suggests that an incestuous relationship between a son and one of his father’s wives who is not his mother leads to an incestuous relationship between a mother and her son, or between a father and his daughter, one generation later. If this is true, it explains why Amos, an Old Testament prophet, while speaking of Israel, spoke out against fathers and sons having relationships with the same woman (Am2:7). Amos may have discovered what this would entail for the next generation.

PHILOSOPHY ON THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO

THE 12 ‘TRAVEL BROADENS THE MIND’ QUOTES AT HEIDI TASIN’S TABERNA VELLA, KM 32 ON THE CAMINO FRANCÉS.

-Not all those who wander are lost. J.R.R.tolkien

-The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. Saint Augustine

-The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Lao Tse

-A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. Lao Tse

-Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Mark Twain

-It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. Ernest Hemingway

-Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. Flaubert

-We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth. John Lubbock

-There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. Robert Louis Stevenson

-People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home. Dagobert D. Runes

-All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. Martin Buber

-Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going. Paul Theroux 

ARE WE PURE OR IMPURE ANIMALS?

When God asked Noah to take some of the animals with him on the ark, so that also they would survive the flood, He made a distinction between those that are pure and those that are impure. Of every pure animal Noah had to take seven pairs, a male and its female, and of every impure animal one pair, a male and its female. Therefore, Genesis encourages us to ask what are pure and what are impure animals.

Leviticus, one of the books of the Old Testament, offers lists of animals that the Jews can and can not eat. Basing themselves on this information, religious authorities have come to the conclusion that pure animals are those that people are allowed to eat and impure animals those that they are forbidden to eat. This explanation satisfies those who have a simple mind, but not those who have a questioning mind. The latter realize that the story itself explains what pure and impure are about. If one couple of each species of impure animals was enough to repopulate the earth, impure of course refers to incest and endogamy.

Since earlier on God referred to Noah and his family as animals*, Genesis encourages us to ask whether God considered them pure or impure. To find the answer we only have to count the couples that were on the Ark. There were four: Noah, his wife and his three sons with their wives. This number is right between one and seven. God considered them between pure and impure animals.

Genesis says, “God created man in His image, male and female He created them” Since we must assume that God is pure, and therefore that also Adam and Eve were pure – Adam and Eve are not the first people on earth, but only the first generation that put an end to harmony –, incest and endogamy must be considered a consequence of eating the forbidden fruit.

When we reflect upon how the seven pairs of each species of pure animals repopulated the earth, while avoiding incest and endogamy, we eventually become aware of the importance of the male (always from father to son) and female (always from mother to daughter) lineages. The best way to do avoid incest and endogamy would be if, with each new generation, each male (or female) lineage successively crosbreeds with all seven female (or male) lineages, so that seven generations later it is again the turn of the first female (or male) lineage. This explains why Enoch, a descendant of Adam, the great grandfather of Noah, is special. There are seven generations between God (the generation before Adam and Eve) and Enoch. It is therefore not a coincidence that it is Enoch of whom is said, “In all, Enoch lived three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God, then was no more, because God took him.”

*(this will be explained in a following article)           

A DESCENDANT OF KING DAVID

Saint Matthew refers to several prophecies to demonstrate that Jesus was the Messiah. Since the Jews expected the Messiah to be a descendant of King David, the first thing Saint Matthew does in his Gospel is to trace Jesus’ lineage back to King David. By basing it on the ‘father begot son’ principle, but ending with, “Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus. So the amount of generations is: 14 from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Babylonian deportation and 14 from the Babylonian deportation to Christ” Saint Matthew encourages us to discover how Jesus could be a descendant of King David. With Mary having Jesus from her father-in-law, not only Joseph but also Jesus was a descendant of King David.

If what mattered was to prove that Jesus was a descendant of King David, why does Saint Matthew trace Jesus’ lineage back to Abraham? He starts with Abraham because if he had started with David and had fininished with “Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus. So the amount of generations is: 14 from David to the Babylonian deportation and 14 from the Babylonian deportation to Christ” there would not have been anything inconsistent* about dividing these generations in the columns David/Josiah and Jechoniah/Jesus. We would then not have questioned the traditional division and therefore not have discovered that to be able to be a descendant of David, Jacob must have had Jesus from Mary, his daughter-in-law.

Saint Matthew says there are 14 generations from David to the Babylonian deportation (an event) and 14 generations from the Babylonian deportation to Christ, because if he had said there are 14 generations from David to Josiah (a generation) and 14 generation from Josiah to Christ, it was obvious that he pointed out that Jacob had Jesus from Mary, Joseph’s wife.

God offered a covenant to Abraham, King David founded a kingdom and God said that the Messiah would be a descendant of him. Since also Josiah, who marks the Babylonian deportation, is special – he imposed an important religious reformation –, we see that Saint Matthew suggests that this special lineage going from Abraham to Jesus attracted a special spirit every 14 generations. Therefore, he encourages us to look up who is separated 14 generations from Abraham going back in time. When we consult the genealogies from Adam to Abraham in Genesis that are also based on the ‘father begot son’ principle, we find this was Enoch and also he is special. Enoch walked with God and God took him with Him when he was 365 years old.               

*The traditional division Abraham/David, David/Josiah and Jechoniah/Jesus is inconsistent because it repeats David in the second column, but not Josiah in the third column.

A PHILOSOPHICAL CHALLENGE ON THE CAMINO

Pilgrims who pass by Arzúa on their way to Santiago encounter at Taberna Vella, km 32, a wall with a string of philosophical messages.

First there are twelve ‘Travel broadens the mind’ quotes by different writers and philosophers (Mark Twain, Saint Augustine, Lao Tse, etc.).

Then there are fourteen questions regarding philosphy and religion (‘Do you question own ideas (beliefs) as much as you do other people’s ideas (beliefs)’, ‘Has religion had a positive or negative influence on our society?’, ‘Is science bringin us salvation or self-destruction?’, etc.);

Later they find fourteen ‘Preparing the way..’ messages, with each new idea preparing the way for the following (‘Seekers long for a better comprehension. They question themselves as much as others, and religion as much as science’, etc)

Then comes the philosophical challenge, which refers to the origin of the dogma of the virgin birth. The next fourteen messages pilgrims point out that the Gospel of Saint Matthew holds an enigma which once made people assume it says that Jesus was born of a virgin, but really says who was Jesus’ father. Pilgrims are encouraged to consult secretsinthebible.com and secretsinthebible.blogspot.com.es for more information.

Finally people find ‘The Most Important Message Which Mankind Has To Learn’ next to a cartoon that is called ‘Today’s Society’. It shows a boat that is sinking. There are two people on the lower part and two people on the higher part of the boat. The first two, who are till their knees in the water, are filling buckets to avoid the boat from sinking. The two who are sitting very comfortable on the dry part of the boat, and one says to the other, “How lucky are we that the leak is on the other side…”

WAS JESUS’ FATHER ALSO JOSEPH’S FATHER?

What matters about my study of the genealogies in the Bible is not that it demonstrates that Saint Matthew says Mary had Jesus from her father-in-law – only ADN tests can prove so, and we neither have the bodies of Jesus nor of Joseph nor of Jacob –, but that it demonstrates that when the Gospel of Saint Matthew appeared (second century?), an enigma in its first chapter made Christian authorities assume that it says that Jesus was born of a virgin, when in reality it says that Mary had Jesus from her father-in-law.

What matters about my study is that it demonstrates that originally a book was regarded ‘sacred’ because one recognized it held ‘secrets’. Both ‘sacred’ and ‘secret’ are derived from the latin verb ‘segregare’ (to separate). What matters about my study is that it demonstrates that the word ‘religion’ comes from the latin word ‘re-legere’, which means ‘to re-read’. People have to read a sacred book many times to discover its secrets.

What matters about my study is that it demonstrates that we have ignored something important about the origins of Christianity and its sacred books: that according to an old Jewish tradition it is possible to create a mystery that reveals its secrets many generations later.

What matters about my study is is that it shows how easily the church leaders were misled. When the Gospel of Saint Matthew appeared, the church leaders were no longer descendants of Jews who were familiar with books that hold secrets, but of pagans who were familiar with pagan ideas such as the belief in a God who is born of a virgin (Egypt) or the belief in a Messiah who is born of a virgin (Persia). These church leaders may have known so little about the Old Testament that they ignored that Isaiah does not prophesize about a ‘virgin’ giving birth but about a ‘young lady’ giving birth. They may not have realized that the four women mentionned in Saint Matthew’s genealogy for Christ all had extramarital relations

What matters about my study is that it shows that Albert Einstein is right when he points out that blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth. Once the leaders of Christianity accepted the dogma of the virgin birth, it later became very difficult for church leaders to question it. People who wanted to dedicate themselves to religion were assumed to to understand this mystery and Hans Christian Anderson’s story of the Emperor’s Suit explains very well how difficult it is for intellectuals to admit their ignorance.

What matters about my study is that it demonstrates that not only the believers, but also the skeptics and cynics among the Bible scholars have ignored the secrets regarding the genealogies in the Old and New Testament. It shows that also they have ignored the very simple fact that due to extramarital relations some lineages are real and others are supposed. Also they have ignored that when we investigates the history of someone’s ancestors, there is a big difference between the female lineage of the person’s mother (always from mother to daughter) and the male lineage of the person’s father (always from father to son). Whereas one can be sure of the mother, one can not be sure of the father. Official documents do not prove anything, only DNA tests do. This means that with each new generation, one risks to follow the wrong lineage in case the child was born from an extramarital relation.

What matters about my study is that it demonstrates that we must question our religions. My ‘revelation’ not only embarrasses the authorities of Christianity, but also the authorities of Judaism and of Islam. Those of Judaism because also they have ignored that the genealogies in the Bible recognize the fact that because of extramarital relations some lineages are real and others are supposed and, therefore, have ignored the secrets regarding the genealogies that appear in Genesis. And those of Islam because according to Mohamed Jesus was a prophet (not the son of God) born of a virgin and we therefore have to question the nature of his revelations.

What matters about my study is that when one wonders who created the enigma in Saint Matthew, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that this was Jesus. One has to be enlightened to be able to create a mystery that reveals itself two thousand years later. 

INCEST AND ADULTERY IN GENESIS

Jews consider that someone is a Jew when his mother is a Jew. One can have doubts about the father, but not about the mother.

Genesis, the first book of the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament) recognizes the fact that because of extramarital relations some lineages are real and others are supposed. Whereas the real lineages are based on the ‘father begot son’ principle (Adam begot Seth, Seth begat…), the supposed lineages use formulas such as, for instance, “Cain knew his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.” Therefore, the Enoch and Lamech that appear in the supposed lineage of Cain (the first son of Adam) can be the same as the Enoch and Lamech that appear in the real lineage of Seth (the third son of Adam and direct ancestor of Noah).

Since both genealogies offer similar names for Lamech’s father – Methushael in Cain’s and Methuselah in Seth’s –, Genesis encourages readers with an inquisitive mind to find out whether that is a possibility. When one studies the information Genesis offers one sees that this is indeed possible, but that it entails endogamy, incest and adultery.* Once one has discovered the secrets regarding the genealogies in the OT, it is later much easier to discover the secrets regarding the genealogies in the NT.

*Adam and Eve refer to that generation that put an end to harmony and not to the first people on earth.