The ages of the first 7 patriarchs (from Adam to Enoch) totals 5,879, which is 7 times 7 times 120 minus 1. The ages of the next 13 patriarchs (from Methuselah to Abraham) totals 5,867, which is 7 times 7 times 120 minus 13.
Genesis offers ages for the first 10 patriarchs (from Adam to Noah) and for the following 10 patriarchs (from Shem to Abraham). It tells us the years they had when they had their heir; the years they lived after they had their heir, and the years they lived in total[i].
By giving such importance to these numbers, Genesis encourages us to investigate whether perhaps they hold secrets; whether perhaps we ignore something about them. When we research these numbers[ii], we find that the ages of the first 7 patriarchs (from Noah to Enoch) totals 5,879, just one less than 5,880, which is 7 times 7 times 120 years.
The age of Enoch[iii], the seventh patriarch, is 365. This figure refers to the number of days in a year. While a normal year has 365 days, a leap year has 366. With this number we reach a total of 5,880.
When we now count the ages of the next 13 patriarchs (from Methuselah to Abraham), we come to a total of 5,867, or 5,880 minus 13.[iv] These 13 years equal one per patriarch. However, thirteen is also the age Ishmael, Abraham’s firstborn son[v], had when Yahweh gave Abraham a covenant. It is the age at which a child becomes an adult because he is now able to procreate.
Secrets in the Bible
The fact that the ages of the first 7 patriarchs total 7 times 7 times 120 minus 1, and the ages of the next 13 patriarchs total 7 times 7 times 120 minus 13, tells us that Genesis holds secrets[vi]. This should not surprise us because calling a book ‘sacred’ originally referred to recognizing that it held secrets and ‘religion’ originally referred to reading a sacred book many times in order to discover its secrets.
The word ‘sacred’ has the same origin as ‘secret’ and derives from the verb ‘to segregate’. Our ancestors called the part of the temple that only the high priest could enter ‘sacred’ because it was ‘segregated’ (separated) from the rest. Since what is segregated conceals something from other people, the ideas ‘sacred’ and ‘secret’ were associated with each other from the very beginning. Therefore, when later they created stories that held secrets, they referred to them as ‘sacred’, just like the books in which these stories were later written down.
The word ‘religion’ derives from the Latin verb ‘legere’, which originally meant ‘to gather’ and, subsequently, ‘to read’. The prefix ‘re’ means ‘once again’. In order to discover the secrets in a sacred book we have to read the texts over and over again, i.e. re-read them, because this helps us to associate certain ideas with each other – in other words, to ‘reunite’ scattered ideas – and thus gain a better understanding of the whole.
May their days be a 120 years
Right before telling about the great flood, Genesis refers to sons of God that had children with the daughters of men. In regard with the sons that were born of those unions Yahweh said, “My spirit will not stay in man forever, who are only flesh; let their days be a hundred and twenty years (Gn6:3).”
Since not only the patriarchs who lived before the flood (from Adam to Noah), but also those who lived after the flood (from Shem to Abraham) were much older than 120 years, it makes a lot of sense that the figure 120 shows up in regards with the sum of the ages of the first seven patriarchs and of the next thirteen patriarchs.
When we research these numbers a bit more, we also see that after having their heir, none of the patriarchs live longer than 7 times 120 years. Kenan is the one who lived longest after he had his heir, and he only lived another 840 years, which is exactly 7 times 120 years.
When we research a bit more we also find the following:
-There are exactly 3 times 120 years between the death of Adam and the death of Mahalalel.
-The number 1556, the year that Noah has Shem, Ham and Japheth is 13 times 120 minus 4.
-Noah was 600 years (5 times 120) when the great flood happened.
-Shem, Noah’s son, died when he was 600 years (5 times 120 years).
-Between the death of Enoch, in the year 987, and the birth of Abraham, in the year 1946, 959 years pass (8 times 120 minus 1).
-Eber died 1198 years after Enoch died (10 times 120 years minus 2).
-The ages of the father (Enosh) and son (Mahalalel) of Kenan total 1800 (15 times 120).
-The ages of the father (Methuselah) and son (Noah) of Lamech total 1919 (16 times 120 minus 1).
-The ages of Peleg y Reu are 239 (2 times 120 minus 1).
The number 7
Genesis mentions the number 7 on several occasions: the 7 days of creation (Gn2:2), the 7 fold vengeance that people will suffer who kill Abel (Gn4:15), and the 7 pairs of pure animals that Noah is asked to take with him on the Ark (Gn7:2).
In regard with the genealogies it is relevant that Yahweh asked Noah to take with him on the Ark seven pairs of each species of pure animals and one pair of each species of impure animals, so that they as well would survive the flood. Since God differentiates between pure and impure animals, it is logical to wonder what ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ refer to. The answer is obvious[vii]. If seven pairs of pure animals (male and female) and only one pair of impure animals (male and female) were needed to repopulate the earth, ‘impure’ refers to incest and inbreeding[viii].
When we reflect upon how seven couples can populate the earth while avoiding endogamy, we eventually become aware of the importance of the male (always from father to son) and female (always from mother to daughter) lineages. If we take the male lineage A and, in the first generation, crossbreed it with the female lineage H, in the second generation with the female lineage I, and successively cross it with all female lineages, seven generations later it is again the turn of the female lineage H. This tells us that God, the father of Adam, has something in common with Enoch: it explains why it is Enoch who walked with God. (Gn5:24)
What is interesting about the story of the Flood is that in order to discover whether the author of Genesis considered Noah and his family pure or impure, we only have to count the pairs of humans on the ark. There were four: Noah and his wife, together with their three sons and their respective wives (Gn7: 13). This leaves humans right between pure and impure.
When we assume that Adam and Eve were the first couple on Earth, it of course doesn’t surprise us that God associates Noah and his family with incest and endogamy. But Genesis indicates that Adam and Eve were only the first couple who put an end to harmony. It says that God created man in his image, male and female. How can we assume that God is impure? Furthermore, it also refers to sons of God who had children with daughters of man. Does that not clearly refer to two different communities that coincided on Earth: those who lived in harmony (gods) and those who didn’t (men)? Therefore, we can consider that incest and endogamy are yet another consequence of eating the forbidden fruit that put an end to harmony.
[i] Genesis doesn’t mention the amount of years the last 10 patriarchs lived after having their heir. The only exception is Shem. Genesis mentions how many years he lived after he had his heir, but then doesn’t mention the total amount of years he lived, which it does for all other 19 patriarchs.
[ii] Albert Einstein said, “If we knew what we were looking for, we wouldn’t call it ‘re-search’, would we?”
[iii] Genesis says of Enoch that he walked with God.
[iv] In regards with the ages of the Patriarchs I must point out that they hold an enigma which I have not been able to resolve but perhaps you may do so. Genesis says that Noah had his sons when he was 500 years; that when he was 600 years old the flood occurred, and that Shem was a hundred years old when he begat Arpachshad, ‘two years after the flood’. Being unable to resolve this enigma I took the year of the flood (1656 ) as the year for the birth of Arpachshad.
[v] Whereas Isaac is the son Abraham had from his wife Sarah, Ishmael is the son he had from Hagar, Sarah’s servant.
[vi] Although these genealogies were given in two groups of 10, we can now divide them in one group of 7, which is a number of good luck, and another of 13, which is a number of bad luck
[vii] Although the answer is obvious when we reflect upon those animals having to repopulate the earth, religious authorities base themselves on the dietary laws of Moses to claim that pure animals refer to those God allows us to eat and impure to those that are forbidden.
[viii] In the Spanish translation of the Jerusalem Bible this is even more obvious as it says in regards to the seven pairs: “so that caste survives all over the earth”.
Only when you believe that Genesis is a sacred book, and it is therefore supposed to say the truth, the patriarch’s old ages seem to discredit it, given that nowadays few people live more than a hundred years. When you however consider that Genesis is a book that holds secrets, the patriarch’s old ages make you wonder why its author invented them and what they apport to the story.
The first thing that catches our attention with regard to the genealogies in Genesis is the high ages of Abraham’s ancestors. As it is assumed they were our ancestors, and given that nowadays few people live more than a hundred years, these ages seem to discredit this book; consequently, many people assume that Genesis is a myth and it is not worth studying the genealogies.
This is a mistake, because in a book anything is possible, and what matters first and foremost is not whether some of our ancestors really did live to such an old age, but what the author is trying to tell us by referring to these ages.
Although these high ages make no sense to us, we should bear in mind that the author must have had a good reason for referring to them. What did Genesis stand to gain by including these high ages? Apparently, nothing. What did it stand to lose? Credibility. Why would the author of Genesis want to discredit his own work? Well, he may have wanted to guard a secret that only few people were able to understand.
These high ages have something in common with the long lists of unusual names we find in the genealogies. What did Genesis stand to gain by offering these lists? Apparently, nothing. What did it stand to lose? A vast number of readers, because they get so bored with these lists that they give up on the Bible. Why would the author of Genesis want to bore his readers? Well, he may have wanted to protect the secrets concealed in those genealogies.
Trying to make sense out of the old ages
These high ages have posed many problems for theologians and Bible scholars. For them these ages make no sense, since people do not tend to live nine hundred years or beget children when they are over one hundred years old, and there is no reason to wait so long to have children. This meant that both the believers and non-believers among them were attracted to the idea that at a certain time copyists must have made a mistake when transcribing those numbers. Since believers consider that the Bible is the work of God, and God of course doesn’t make mistakes, they had even more reason for assuming that the copyists made mistakes.
This point of view is easy to understand when we take into account that the three different versions of the Bible[i] –the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the Greek Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch– offer different ages for Abraham’s ancestors. This obliges us to ask which version offers the right ages and why they offer different figures.
After reflecting on these ages, some people realized that this problem can be solved by making two assumptions: the Greek Septuagint contains the original figures and they must be divided by ten. They assumed that the original text had these figures listed in a pre-cuneiform script – Genesis tells us that Abraham came from Ur, in Sumer, the southern part of ancient Babylon – and that much later someone made a ‘decimal error’ when these texts were translated into cuneiform.
With these new figures, Noah and his ancestors had their children at the age that we usually have ours, and also died at the age when most of us die. But there is a problem with this theory. Although nearly all of Abraham’s ancestors were in that case about 20 years old when they had their children, apart from Noah who was 50, Shem would have been only 10, and that seems too young. And another problem is that the Sumerians attached a great deal of importance to the number 6 (or 60) when calculating time. It is due to them that we have hours of 60 minutes, minutes of 60 seconds, and divide a circle into 360 degrees. Therefore, it makes little sense to assume that they originally divided a year into decimals. Saying that Methuselah was 16,7 years old when he fathered his son, and 96,9 years old when he died, sounds ridiculous to us, and it must have sounded even more absurd to the Sumerians.
This theory is simply trying to adapt these figures to ages that we can relate to. It is very similar to another theory which assumes that years originally referred to months. This theory is even more ridiculous, because in the case of the figures in the Masoretic Hebrew text, Enoch would have been 65 months old –about 5 years– when he fathered Methuselah.
The fact that scholars have gone to such lengths to match the high ages in Genesis with the ages at which we usually have children or usually die is quite incomprehensible, because Genesis acknowledges that these ages are unusual. For example, Sarah laughs when she is told that she is still going to have a child at her age –she was over 90 (Gn17:17) and had ceased to have her monthly periods (Gn18:11)–. And just before Flood, God says: “My spirit will not stay in man forever, who are only flesh; let their days be a hundred and twenty years.” (Gn6:3)
Which version of the Bible offers the original ages?
It is amazing that the three different versions of the Bible – the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the Greek Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch –do not coincide with regard to certain important points, such as, for instance, the ages of the Patriarchs.
The Greek Septuagint is believed to be a translation of the Hebrew Masoretic Text. Around 250 BC the Jews that lived in Alexandria decided to translate the Bible into Greek, because this was the language they used instead of Hebrew. Legend has it that six translators from each of the twelve tribes came from Jerusalem. After translating the text they found that their texts matched one another. Although Septuagint is Greek for 70, this name refers to the 72 translators.
The Samaritan Pentateuch has only the first five books. It is different because after the reign of Solomon, when Israel was split into two, Judah and Israel each had their own history. It is written in the Samaritan alphabet, which differs from the Hebrew alphabet, and which was the language used prior to the deportation to Babylon.
Whereas Jews, Catholics and Protestants prefer translations from the Hebrew Masoretic Text, Orthodox Christians tend to favour the translations of the Septuagint, while the Samaritans use the Samaritan Pentateuch.
Since it is with the ages that appear in the Hebrew Masoretic Text that the ages of the first 7 patriarchs total 7 times 7 times 120 minus 1 and the ages of the following 13 patriarchs total 7 times 7 times 120 minus thirteen, it is obvious that the Hebrew Masoretic Text offers the original figures. This should not surprise us as the Greek Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew Masoretic Text.
That the Greek Septuagint falsified these numbers is something we can also discover by studying the numbers in that book. The Greek Septuagint indicates that Methuselah was born in the year 1287 and died at the age of 969 (the same age as in the Hebrew Masoretic Text). This means that he died in the year 2256, which is 14 years after the Flood, which according to this version of the Bible occurred in the year 2242. Since Genesis tells us that only Noah, his wife, his three sons and their respective wives survived this catastrophe, there of course has to be something wrong with the figures in the Greek Septuagint.
The first falsification of the Bible?
The fact that the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Septuagint offer other figures is very intriguing. The legend that says this translation is the work of 72 people that came from Jerusalem (6 from each of the 12 tribes), and found their texts matched one another, was obviously invented to give credibility to the Greek Septuagint. This was necessary because they wanted to justify certain discrepancies with the original text, such as, for instance, the different ages for the Patriarchs.
But why does the Greek Septuagint offer different ages? When we look for possible reasons, we find that they may have tried to reconcile the chronology of the Old Testament with the ideas of the Greek world regarding universal chronology. In the Greek Septuagint the patriarchs are often a hundred years older when they fathered their child, 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 Masoretic Hebrew Text.
Many Jews believed that the Bible was the Word of God and told the whole truth. But it was much easier for Jews in Palestine to accept this than for those living in Egypt, who were constantly in contact with Greek culture. These people did not want to give up their traditions, but considered it important to adapt their Holy Scriptures to their newly acquired knowledge.
These translators assumed that Adam and Eve were the first people on Earth. They did not consider the possibility that Adam and Eve only referred to the first generation that put an end to harmony. Therefore, it worried them that according to Greek knowledge, there were already people on Earth way before Adam and Eve lived according to Jewish chronology, which was based on the ages of the Patriarchs.
We should bear in mind that the Jews who lived in the Greek world devoted themselves to proselytizing. How could they convince pagans that the Bible was the Word of God and told the whole truth if its timing did not tally with the Greek ideas regarding universal chronology? Therefore, we can assume that the religious authorities of Alexandria changed the Masoretic Hebrew Text on purpose. As they were so sure that the Bible tells the whole truth, discovering that its timing did not tally with the universal chronology may well have led them to conclude that copyists had made mistakes when copying these figures. After all, it is not known which system the original version of Genesis had used for these numbers.
The consecuences of the patriarch’s old ages
When we make a list of the ages and draw a graph we can see how the different generations coincided in time. The most significant characteristic of these genealogies is that many generations may have known each other. Noah, for example, may have known the 18 generations between Enosh, Adam’s grandson, and Abraham. Lamech, Noah’s father, may still have known Adam. This means that through his father, Noah may have found out what caused mankind’s fall. This is important because, according to Genesis, this lies at the root of all evil. And through Noah, Abraham may have learned not only what caused the Great Flood, but also what he discovered about the fall in the days of Adam.
Whereas today people tend to have children between the ages of 20 and 40, the patriarchs, who are supposedly our ancestors, had theirs between the ages of 65, in the case of Mahalalel or Enoch, and 500, in the case of Noah. And whereas we tend to grow old rather early, Genesis suggests that this was not necessarily the case with our ancestors. When Noah was 500 years old he may still have had a similar appearance to when he was 30.
We should also point out that the children on this list are not necessarily the firstborn. Seth is not Adam’s firstborn; both Cain and Abel were born earlier. Moreover, the Enoch in Cain’s genealogy could not have been his first child, because Genesis says that Cain founded a city, which of course requires a large population. What is special about Seth –and may also have been the case of other patriarchs on this list– is that he was a son “in his likeness, after his image”.
The importance of these high ages is as well that it teaches us that the Enoch in the genealogy of Cain and the Enoch in the genealogy of Seth may refer to the same person. That Enoch’s real father (Jared) and Enoch’s supposed father (Cain) were separated several generations from each other, and the former was born at least 460 years before the latter, means nothing since Noah had his sons when he was 500 years old.
To discover that the Enoch in these two genealogies may refer to the same person we however also have to acknowledge that due to extramarital relations lineages can be real or supposed, and that Genesis recognizes this by basing real genealogies on the ‘father begat son’ principle and using for supposed genealogies formulas such as, “Cain knew his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch.” The big difference between tracing back the female lineage of your mother (always from daughter to mother) and the male lineage of your father (always from son to father) is that you can be sure of the former, but not of the latter. Each time you go back a generation, you indeed have to do a new DNA test, as a child is not necessarily the son of the husband (partner) of its mother.
Only when we are aware of how these old ages affect the genealogies and that because of extramarital relations lineages can be real or supposed are we ready to discover the secrets in the genealogies. It is only then that we realize that the information in Genesis regarding family ties enables us to draw family trees that reveal several cases of extramarital relations and also of incest and endogamy.
Honour your father and your mother
One of the Ten Commandments says, “Honour your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.” (Ex20:12) Most people only know the first part of this commandment and therefore assume it demands that we respect our parents. But this commandment tells us much more: in order to honour our parents, it is essential to know who they are. Only when we know who our parents are, can we avoid incest and endogamy and that is what this commandment is really about.
When we take another look at the graphs which offer the ages for 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, both may not have known who their real father was. Both may have believed their father was someone much older: Enoch was raised by Cain[ii], while Peleg was raised by Shem[iii].
[i] All current Bibles are based on one of these three versions.
[ii] When we realize that because of extramarital relations some lineages are real and others are supposed, and are aware of the fact that Genesis encourages us to discover how the Enoch and Lamech in the genealogies of Cain and Seth may refer to the same people, we eventually discover that this book suggests that Yared, a descendant of Adam, had Enoch from Cain’s wife.
[iii] Genesis says that Shem begat Arpachshad; that Arpachshad begat Shelah; that Shelah begat Eber; and that Eber begat Peleg. Since it says as well, “Also sons were born to Shem, the father of all the sons of Eber” it suggests that Eber begat Peleg from one of Shem’s wives and that Shem therefore acted as a father towards the child.
Certain versions of the Bible say: “Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber”, because the translator knew the term ‘father’ is also used in a much broader sense – Jabal, for instance, was the father of tent-dwelling herdsmen – and therefore believed this was what the author was referring to, since he simply could not fathom that Shem might really be the father of Heber’s sons. He thus created a new mystery, since the information about Shem being the ancestor, and not the father, of all the sons of Eber is completely superfluous, and people now have to wonder why Genesis doesn’t also mention that Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Arpachshad, or of all the sons of Shelah.
One of the main contradictions in Genesis is that God tells Adam and eve they will die if they eat the forbidden fruit, yet they eat it but do not die. Why does Genesis contradict itself? How do we explain that the serpent, which we associate with the devil, tells the truth when it says that Adam and Eve will not die after eating the forbidden fruit?
The fact that God said to Adam that the day he ate the forbidden fruit he was doomed to die suggests that in the days of Paradise Adam and Eve were immortal.(Gn2:16-17) Therefore, we must reflect upon immortality. We assume that this refers to never dying, but when we take into consideration the principle of reincarnation we see that it may also refer to the ability to remember previous lives. By remembering past reincarnations, we know that we reincarnate in the future and, therefore, that life continues.
The idea of a life that continually renews itself is certainly more attractive than the idea of never dying, which seems more like hell. Who would not like to be able to pass through the different stages of life? Who would not miss the pleasure of seeing the new generations grow up?
No longer remembering past lives explains the ‘supposed’ contradiction we find in Genesis. When God says the day Adam eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil he will die, He informs him that by no longer being able to remember his past lives, he will no longer be certain that life goes on after death. Although Adam does not die physically after eating the forbidden fruit, he dies spiritually, because from that day onwards he fears death more than anything else, because of the uncertainty that the end of this life brings.
We tend to reject the idea of reincarnation, because we are unable to remember our past lives. But what if not remembering our past lives is a consequence of our ancestors having eating the forbidden fruit? Is all the violence we suffered (because of others and caused to others) not such a traumatic experience that we have a good reason for not wanting to remember our past lives?
The similarities between the genealogies in Genesis and in the gospels
The genealogies in the gospels are, without any doubt, the work of someone who discovered the secrets in the genealogies in Genesis. Both recognize the fact that because of extramarital relations lineages can be real or supposed. While Genesis and Matthew base real lineages on the ‘father begat son’ principle, for supposed lineages Genesis uses formulas such as, “Cain knew his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch” and Luke the formula, “Jesus was supposed to be the son of Joseph, the son of Heli…”
Matthew, who offers Jesus’ real lineage, says there are 14 generations from Abraham to David; from David to the deportation to Babylon and from the deportation to Babylon to Jesus. Since Matthew suggests that Jesus’ special lineage attracted each 14 generations a special spirit, we looked up which generation marked the deportation to Babylon and who is separated 14 generations from Abraham going back in time. We discovered Josiah marks the deportation to Babylon. He is special because he imposed an important religious reformation. We also discovered that Enoch is separated 14 generations from Abraham going back in time. He is special because Genesis says of him that he walked with God and that God took him with him when he was 365 years old.
Enoch is also special because when we reflected upon how seven couples of pure creatures repopulated the earth while avoiding endogamy, we saw that if a male lineage successively crossed with each of the seven female lineages, eight generations later it would again be the turn of first female lineage. God, the generation before Adam, had therefore something in common with Enoch.
When we take into account that all people are the result of a female (always from mother to daughter) and male linage (always from father to son) that crossed each other, we can wonder what happens when several generations later they again do so. Do they perhaps attract the same spirit each time they cross each other? Is that what Genesis refers to by mentioning seven pairs of pure creatures that had to repopulate the Earth? Is that what Matthew refers to by indicating there are 14 generations from Abraham to David; from David to the deportation to Babylon and from the deportation to Babylon to Jesus?
Since only four pairs of human being survived the food, before that catastrophe it was every seven and after that catastrophe every thirteen generations that this male and this female lineage crossed each other. The DNA of the other three pairs of course survived in the DNA of the four surviving pairs of human beings as male lineages successively crossed with each of the seven female lineages and female lineages successively crossed with each of the seven male lineages.
If Jesus was not only a descendant of Abraham, through a strict male lineage, always from father to son, but also a reincarnation of Abraham, it should not surprise us that he discovered the secrets in Genesis, since that book is very much based on the adventures of Abraham, and Judaism starts with him.
And if the Messiah is Jesus’ second coming?
Whereas Christians consider that Jesus was the Messiah, Jews claim that he wasn’t, because he didn’t restore harmony, which is what they expect of the Messiah. Since Christians believe in the Second Coming of Jesus, we can wonder whether Jesus’ Second Coming will restore harmony and whether the first Christians believed that Jesus was the Messiah because they believed in reincarnation and knew that Jesus Second Arrival would finish the work started by Jesus.
Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross without having had children. But how can they assume that this special lineage going from Adam to Enoch, Abraham, David and Josiah ended with Jesus? How can they assume that Jesus’ Second Coming will not have anything to do with Jesus? Is it not logical to assume that Jesus’ Second Coming will be a descendant of Jesus following this particular lineage? Is it not logical to assume that many generations later the male lineage of Jesus’ father and the female lineage of Jesus’ mother will again cross each other and thus attract the same spirit? How can they ignore that the fourteen Stations of the Cross should remind them that there are 14 generations from Enoch to Abraham, from Abraham to David, from David to Josiah, and from Josiah to Jesus? How can they ignore that the ideas of the crucifixion and the Fourteen Stations of the Cross refer to how the descendants of Jesus were going to marry each other to obtain, several 14 generations later, a clone of Jesus: His Second Coming?[i]
Christians consider the crucifixion to be very important because they believe that Jesus managed to save mankind by dying on the cross. They do not realize that the idea of Jesus’ crucifixion (found in the Bible) and the idea of dividing the Passion of Jesus into 14 stations (which is not in the Holy Scriptures) require an explanation. How did Christians come to think that Jesus saved mankind? Would he have saved the world if instead of dying on the cross he had died in an accident, after a stoning, or simply of old age? Why is the Via Crucis divided into 14 stations instead of, say, 12 or 23? When we reflect upon these questions and look for answers, we realize that the crucifixion also symbolizes a hidden reality: the Messianic plan going from Jesus to His Second Coming.
Was Barabbas Jesus’s son?
In the gospels we find the story of Pilate who lets the people decide whether he should free Jesus or Barabbas. Whereas Saint Matthew only says of Barabbas that he was a notorious prisoner (Mt27:16), according to Saint John he was a thief (Jn18:40), while Saint Mark and Saint Luke tell us that he was in jail with the rebels who had committed murder during the uprising (Mc15:7/Lc23:19). However, ‘bar’ and ‘abba’ are Aramaic, the language spoken at that time in those territories, and mean ‘son’ and ‘father’, respectively. Therefore, ‘Barabbas’ literally means ‘son of the father’.
The fact that Pilate lets the people choose between Jesus and someone called ‘the son of the father’ suggests that he had arrested Jesus’ son.[ii] This means that Pilate gave the Jews no real choice. If they chose Jesus, he would feel guilty about the death of his son. By choosing Barabbas, the Jews opted for that particular male lineage that many generations later would lead to Jesus’ Second Coming.
This new interpretation explains why only a few days after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem the Jews suddenly wanted Jesus to be crucified. This reaction only makes sense when we consider that the Jews had decided to save his son.
Reflecting upon reincarnation
Although many people assume that after death a soul can freely choose a body in which to reincarnate, it is logical to assume that, just like with all other things in the universe, there are laws that govern our reincarnations and, therefore, that our future generations follow a certain pattern.
In regards with Enoch, Abraham, David, Josiah and Jesus, it seems that first every 7 generations and later every 13 generations this special lineage of Jesus attracted the same spirit. Therefore, the pattern of our reincarnations may follow the pattern of the female lineage of our mother and the male lineage of our father.
In regard with this pattern, it is important to realize that it is not so that each of the first seven patriarchs reaches the age of 7 times 120 years, but that together they reach the age of 7 times 7 times 120 years. This suggests that the age of each patriarch is related to the age of the other six patriarchs.
Questions we have to ask in regards with reincarnation are:
-Can a soul only reincarnate when the body is ready that it has to reincarnate in?
-If the Earth is limited, and so its resources, does the fact that people once lived in harmony suggest that there is a limited amount of souls?
-What happened to all the souls of the people who got killed during the flood?
-Is there perhaps another world where a soul has to wait till is body is ready and it can return to Earth?
-How does murder affect the pattern of someone’s reincarnations?
-Is that perhaps what Cain’s sevenfold vengeance refers to?
-When Cain asks God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” does he refer to how he has to produce offspring for Abel?”
-Is it because Cain produced offspring for Abel that we find in the genealogy of Cain that Zillah ‘begat’ Tubal-Cain and her husband says, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me. Sevenfold vengeance for Cain, but seventy-sevenfold for Lamech?”
-If we later reincarnate in a descendant following the lineage of the first-born, is giving the inheritance to the first-born not an egoistic way of taking care of ones own future?
- If we later reincarnate in a descendant following the lineage of the first-born, can one perhaps prolong his life by killing his first-born?
Abraham’s covenant
If we look at the graphs, we not only see a difference between the ages of the 10 patriarchs that lived before the flood and the 10 patriarchs that lived after the flood, but also that it is during the life of Abraham and Isaac that all the patriarchs from Noah to Terah die.
What happened during the life of Abraham that made that people no longer managed to prolong their lives – only a few generations after Abraham people no longer lived longer than a 120 years – is that there existed this tradition to kill the first-born and that Abraham put an end to it by neither sacrificing Ishmael[iii], his firstborn with Hagar[1], nor Isaac, his firstborn with Sarah.
[2] Traditionally Jesus was believed to be only about 33 when he died, because according to Saint Luke he was, ‘as it was thought’, 30 years old when he began his ministry, which lasted three years. This seems too young to have a child that can get accused of being a rebel. However, those who later studied the information in the gospels have estimated that Jesus was around 40 at the time of his crucifixion and even the Vatican nowadays assumes that he was about that age at the time of his crucifixion.
[3] Whereas Genesis refers only to the sacrifice of Isaac, muslims are familiar with a similar story about Ishmael, who they believe is the father of all arabs.
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