The Messiah With Bad Breath

By Jake Orkadmon

A kabbalistic journey into the heart of monotheism and the arrival of the long awaited Jewish messiah. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jake Orkadmon
• Release date: Sep 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781386522973

Book preview

By Jake Orkadmon

2016

[e-mail]

And you, Oh Bethlehem of Efrat, least among the clans of Judah; from you shall emerge for Me a Ruler of Israel, one whose origin is from old and ancient times.        Micah 5.1

INTRODUCTION

AWikipedia states that partial Bible translations into languages of the English people can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle English. More than 450 translations into English have been written.

So, what happens to the ancient prophecies regarding national Messianic redemption when they get changed from language to language to language to language? Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English, etc.

Those geniuses who are self-taught and unshackled by conventional chains are the most dangerous polymaths of all. This applies to studying history or combing the secrets of the Kabbalah for the ancient pagan heresies.

I have quoted from many books in this here novel, too many to list or even remember. I love libraries and book shops, new and second hand. Most books of the Kabbalah are available in English. This applies to most relevant German books as well. I can read Hebrew but unfortunately not German. It was Hitler who finally made German a forbidden language to Jews.

We live in the age of instant information. Checking most quotes is easy enough, jumping from one screen to another. All the quotes in this book are genuine. Although I think that Rumi is the greatest poet who ever lived, this book is not about him. This book is about a Jewish search for meaning in a post-Holocaust world; digging, specifically, into the Kabbalah. And a search to make some rational sense of the Bible and the modern state of Israel in a multi-faith world. For the record, the author is an Israeli Jew with no sense of humor whatsoever.

What is the point of this book? Jewish histories are a dime a dozen. The Holocaust has been thoroughly covered. There are many, many history books written in most languages covering the Second World War. Yet, unbelievably, the complete story has still not been told.

The first chapter of this book delves into the Jewish Kabbalah, taken from original sources in the vernacular: the Zohar, the Bahir and the Talmud. The second chapter takes the Kabbalah a step forward into the New Testament and Christianity. Although I genuinely started suspecting by myself that Jesus was a Kabbalist, I was also genuinely delighted to see that Professor Bruce Chilton in his good book ‘Rabbi Jesus’ thinks the same. The third chapter moves off into the world of Islam and so on.

When approaching the Kabbalah, a useful tool to follow is that the more light you personally throw on the subject, the more the subject in turn will reveal back to you. Said differently, it’s like your own understanding of a given text when you read it will depend on your own personal level of endogenous enlightenment. It’s entirely up to you. This probably applies to most aspects of life but most certainly to the Kabbalah.

This book is, first and foremost, an attempt to uncover the putative inner secrets of the Kabbalah; something that even eluded the great modern scholar of the Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem. It is claimed that these secrets exist although nobody ever tells you what they are.

The second part of the book deals with the Kabbalistic idea of Messianic redemption. It is a convoluted path leading to the miraculous creation of the state of Israel after the Second World War. This remains a subject mired in darkness and still lurking in the inky shadows. It could certainly benefit from a bit of hard light.

At the very least, the journey into the light occupied 15 years of my time and remains as interesting to me as when I began it soon after my father died. To me a good book must be entertaining. I hope this is to you.

I have explicitly tried to keep away from conspiracy theories downloaded off the internet. I have looked for evidence of some kind even circumstantial or tentative. In the context of the Bible, however, sometimes all you have is a thin hair to hold onto. For example, I make much of a two-word technological metaphor found in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy and nowhere else.

Most facts today are freely available and checkable on the internet. For this reason, I have not been too pedantic about references although all the quotes used are genuine and the general theories are my own. The search for so-called hidden knowledge not on Wikipedia is much more interesting and loads more fun.

As I am self-publishing this book online, I would enjoy all feedback. Thank you.

CHAPTER 1

––––––––

Even if you’re not a seeker, still

follow us

keep searching with us  Even if you don’t know how to play and sing, you’ll become

like us

with us you’ll start singing and dancing    Even if you are Qarun the richest of kings when you fall in love you’ll become like a beggar 

Though you are a sultan like us you’ll become a slave  One candle of this gathering is worth a hundred candles  its light is as great  Either you are alive or dead you’ll come back to life

with us

God’s Shams of Tabriz says to the heart’s bud  If your eyes are opened, you’ll see then the things worth seeing

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī(1207 – 1273)

Monotheism was introduced into the western world by Jews. Judaism is such an old religion that its original beliefs are pretty much lost to us. What is today practised as Judaism is some befuddled form of medieval claptrap. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: There are none so blind as those who will not see. Moses, our Teacher, may his name be blessed, is a typical case in point.

The truth goes something like this.

The very first form of Monotheism was still a form of pagan sun-worship. Early Judaism was a monotheistic Egyptian cult and Moses himself was a sun worshipper not too different from the Assyrian law-giver Hammurabi. Today, of course, this ancient pagan heresy is long suppressed and buried away and the historical Moses has undergone significant revision. The original cult of Moses was focussed on the hot desert sun and their ritual prayers invoked and praised this source of heat and light as a divine deity. God almighty and the solar star were one and the same thing.

Does the Bible today still include these ancient pagan heresies?

Naturally it does.

Contrary to millennia of obfuscation, the truth about Moses can still be observed in the Bible although later historical attempts to uncover the light have always been declared heretical and banned outright. The most well-known and least understood of these attempts to reveal the hidden light is the Kabbalah. In order then to get a sense of the real Moses, the Kabbalah is where we need to turn.

Much has been written about the Kabbalah but most of this is disinfected nonsense designed to further muddy the waters. The Kabbalah was and still is heresy. As a practice and body of knowledge and wisdom stretching back to Moses and earliest Jewish times – enlightened though it may have been – it was consciously and actively removed from the Jewish religion. Only a select few were ever entitled to delve into these ancient mysteries. By the time of the Talmud in the first few centuries after Jesus, the essence of what came later to be called the Kabbalah was regarded in a highly pejorative light by the Pharisaic masters. During later medieval times, the Kabbalah managed to shed its shackles and burst forth into the public domain but later in the 16th century, the so-called Kabbalist, Isaac Luria thoroughly sanitized and rubbished it to render it a pale and useless reflection of its former glory and splendour.

The process of intentional religious obfuscation started with the introduction of the book of Deuteronomy into the Mosaic canon by King Josiah of Jerusalem somewhere around 620 BC. The very ancient tradition known as Ma’aseh Merkava – the ‘Divine Chariot Throne’ – was severely curtailed and restricted. By the time of the Pharisaic Second Temple, the activity – which never completely disappeared – was considered heresy and those who practiced it were found in contempt of the Deuteronomy laws and even executed, Jesus being a typical and famous example.

Curiously, during the Christian Crusades of the 12th century in the Holy Roman Empire, this ancient tradition – now called the Kabbalah – sprang back energetically to life.

On 11 November 1215, Pope Innocent III painted an alarming picture of a Church dissolving in a sea of heresy. In the words of the medieval Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) concerning the ubiquitous heretics:

With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side; the other, on the side of the Church. On their own side there is the sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death. For it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith which quickens the soul than to forge money which supports temporal life. Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death. On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy which looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at once, but ‘after the first and second admonition’ as Paul the Apostle directs. After that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death.  Summa Theologica

The Catholic Church expended countless resources on tracking down heretics, inflicting pain and death on them in the most creative of ways and destroying their texts and holy manuscripts although the very Church was founded on the death of three Jewish heretics – Jesus, Paul and Peter.

The Buddha was famous for his journey into the light. Many cultures contain a path to enlightenment yet most eventually suppress them as well. The founders of both Judaism and Christianity – Moses and Jesus – were enlightened fellows. The many references to light in both the Old and New Testaments – 237 times in total – is proof of this. The Qur’an mentions light 49 times. I would not be remiss to observe that today, all three monotheistic religions are neither enlightened nor capable of pointing the way to personal spiritual enlightenment.

Enlightenment exists at the very root and heart of Monotheism yet who today seeks this venerable and ancient goal? The question who is the most enlightened prophet lies at the heart of the conflict over Jerusalem. It follows that the solution to this intractable problem can only come from an enlightened source; a pipedream perhaps.

Pseudepigraphy or pseudo-epigraphy was widely practiced during the writing of the Old Testament whereby a work was attributed by the real author to a figure of the past giving it greater authority. For example, the first five books known as the Five Books of Moses were all attributed to Moses himself yet the fact that the Old Testament itself shows that Deuteronomy was only introduced as late as the 7th century BC – some six hundred years after Moses – is conveniently overlooked. Moses began the Hebraic law with the Ten Commandments but in all likelihood penned nothing else. Besides the first five books, the Talmud even attributes the much later book of Job to the industrious scribe.

As described in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34, at the tail-end of the First Temple period King Josiah and a totally unknown Prophetess called Huldah were responsible for introducing the book of Deuteronomy into the Biblical canon. The fifth book of Moses set the world on a calamitous path of idiocy that continues to transgress to this very day. Deuteronomy is guilty of removing the spiritual light from the world. If I was the Messiah, I would start by repudiating and removing this book from the Bible.

Concealed things – hanistarot – belong to the Lord our God and only revealed things – haniglaot – belong to us and our children forever to do all the words of this Torah.          Deuteronomy 29.28

The Kabbalah makes no secret of its aversion to this nonsense.

The main works of the medieval Kabbalah – the Bahir and the Zohar – although attributed to earlier authorities from the Mishna period were all penned from the 12th century onwards. The heresy initially emerged in Provence in southern France and from there moved to Spain. It is highly probable that the Jewish Kabbalah owes its restoration in the 12th century to Muslim mystics who, ironically enough, kept this tradition alive as a result of Muhammad’s vision known as the Miraj as described in chapter 17 of the Qur’an, al Isra, which serves the exclusive Islamic claim to this holy site.

The Kabbalah which emerged in the Middle Ages was based on much older Jewish material. The Talmud was forced to include this ancient Jewish stuff yet as a sign of displeasure, wrapped it all up in one short chapter and hid it away amongst other irrelevant trivialities. At most, it was studied only by a very select few. During the 12th and 13th centuries, however, a new movement of Jewish spirituality based on this suppressed material arose and quickly shattered all pre-existing conditions of impropriety. Although heavily sanctioned, it never again disappeared and morphed into the much more lukewarm form of the Hasidic movement and later gave birth to Zionism as well.

In 711, Muslims came to Spain from North Africa. The Spanish Visigoths, with large minorities of Jews and ‘heretical’ Arians, welcomed the arrival of these Saracens. Invading France, they occupied the country for at least a century. Charles Martel defeated them at Poitiers in 732 after which they moved to Provence. They were defeated in several battles there but retained control of part of the Massif des Maures. They built a fortress on the heights overlooking the current village of la Garde-Freinet about 20 km northwest of St Tropez. From their fortress, the Saracens raided the surrounding Provence for another two hundred years until 973, when Count William the Liberator finally defeated and expelled them.

During their stay, the Saracens imparted to the locals much of their wisdom and knowledge. It is surely no coincidence that the Kabbalah emerged later in both France and Spain. It was in Provence where Jewish and Muslim scholars met to share notes and discuss topics of mutual interest under freethinking Christian leaders. First on the list would have been conquered Jerusalem and Muhammad the Prophet’s spiritual ascension from the holy Jewish site of the Temple up to the Seventh Heaven.  The Qur’an itself admits that the source of Muhammad’s ascension was the Jewish tradition known as Ma’aseh Merkava recorded in the second chapter of Tractate Hagiga.

Today, the Kabbalah is open to all and lurks freely along the prurient boulevards of Hollywood yet it still remains obscured by centuries of deliberate obfuscation. The Kabbalah is known as the ‘Torah of Light’ and also the ‘Hidden Torah’. Its usage of light-imagery is ubiquitous. The notion of hidden and secret things described by Deuteronomy – hidden lights and secret treasures of the Seventh Heaven – is found throughout the Kabbalistic literature. The Kabbalah is regarded as the deepest level of understanding the Torah – the sod or ‘secret’. The Zohar says that the Gematria value for ‘raz’ – another word for ‘secret’ – and ‘ohr’ meaning ‘light’ is the same: 207. What this means is that in order to uncover the secrets of the Bible, you need first to find the light.

The Kabbalah promises many things. On offer is nothing less than full enlightenment, Sophia or divine wisdom as attained by King Solomon and even prophecy in the mould of Isaiah and Ezekiel. Understanding the Kabbalah is an opening to understanding the true and original nature of monotheistic religion. It offers an explanation of the Jesus-phenomenon and the birth of Christianity. It also is crucial in attempting to fathom the complexities of the modern conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Both Jesus and Muhammad were directly inspired by the ideas of the Kabbalah in their quests for divine communion and revelation.

So, what is the Kabbalah?

During the Deuteronomic Reforms of Josiah, the notion of the Divine was dramatically detached from its pagan past and Monotheism itself was fundamentally revised. Later, a similar process would take place within Christianity as well. Both developments would give rise to the later Islam.

In Islam, there are two fundamental religious concepts: Tawhid and Shirk. They are both taken extremely seriously by Muslims. They mean, essentially, ‘monotheism’ and ‘partnership’. The first one is good, the latter is not.

Shirk is the sin of idolatry or polytheism. It involves the deification or worship of anyone or anything other than the singular God.  Literally, it means the establishment of ‘partners’ placed beside God. A very old Islamic religious argument erupted over which of these two better describes our innate and original condition. Were we originally pagan nature-worshipping cretins or were we all originally one-minded Muslims?

(Why is dancing around and kissing the Black Stone not considered Shirk?)

The accepted view established in the Shari’ah is that mankind was in the beginning a single nation based upon true Tawhid then gradually Shirk overcame them. The basis for this is the saying of Allah, the Most Blessed, the Most High:

Mankind was one Ummah, then Allah sent prophets bringing good news and warnings.       Sura Baqarah 2.213

Ibn Abbas explained: Between Adam and Noah were ten generations, all of them were upon Shari’ah of the truth, then they differed. So Allah sent prophets as bringers of good news and as warners.

Ibn Urwah al-Hanbali said: This saying refutes those historians from the People of the Book who claim that Cain and his sons were fire-worshippers. In it is also a refutation of some of the philosophers and atheists who claim that the basis of man is Shirk and that Tawhid evolved in man.

Interestingly, during early Islam times Jews had no problem in recognising the truth of the early Biblical characters. Today, Jews are unfortunately more narrow minded and inclined to beliefs bordering on the nonsensical.

After the time of Moses and Joshua, Israel enjoyed continuous political self-determination from Jerusalem. The Bible describes Solomon’s reign as one of unmatched security and prosperity. It was a time for love-making and the flowering of the peaceful arts. With Solomon’s death in 922 BC, the political structure erected by David unravelled and split into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

At the same time Assyria was rising as an imperial power in Western Asia. From the brutal Asshurnasirpal II (883 – 859 BC) to the vigorous and able Tiglath-Pileser III (745 – 727 BC) Assyria kicked ass. After Samaria fell in 721, Sargon II scattered a large part of the population of Israel – the so-called ‘10 Lost Tribes’ – among other provinces of Assyria and settled Assyrians and others from his empire in their place.

The Old Testament records the period.

And King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria and saw an altar in Damascus and King Ahaz sent to Uriya the Priest the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it according to all the workmanship thereof.        2 Kings 16.10

Jewish Jerusalem was a pagan place. After the Assyrian invasion, the altar in Jerusalem and her religious worship were refashioned by order of the king into the new Assyrian style. The reign of Ahaz attended by the Prophets Isaiah 1 and Micah was recalled by later generations as one of the worst periods of apostasy Israel has ever known.

He (Ahaz) burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.  2 Chronicles 28:3

King Ahaz was himself charged with throwing his infant son into the sacrificial fires as part of the general fun. The Assyrians were prodigious sun-worshippers. Male and female prostitutes cavort in the Jerusalem Temple as a part of the religious ritual. A prayer of King Ashurbanipal (668 – 633 BC) to the sun-god Shamash comes down to us.

O light of the great gods

Light of the earth

Illuminator of the world region

Exalted judge the honoured one of the upper and lower regions

You look into all lands with your light as one who does not cease from revelation

Daily do you determine the decisions of heaven and earth

Your rising is a flaming fire

All the stars of heaven are covered over

You are uniquely brilliant

No one amongst the gods is equal to you

The attention of all the gods is turned to your bright rising

They inhale incense and they receive bread offerings

The chanting priests bow down to you in order to remove evil

Etc.

The original version of this song with orchestral accompaniment and dancing girls would have been slamming.

Ahaz was followed by his son Hezekiah (715 – 687 BC) who began State-sponsored religious reforms.

He abolished the shrines and smashed the pillars and cut down the sacred post. He also broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until that time the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to it and it was called Nehushtan.      2 Kings 18.4

With Hezekiah, we find the beginning of the Messianic concept in Israel. The Assyrian epoch was not only a time of drug-induced orgiastic exuberance but also one of great national trauma. Assyria was the first major peril to the Jews, invading their lands and carrying off many of them into slavery and extinction. Hezekiah was the first of many false Messiahs leading to nothing but national disappointment.

The Talmud in Sanhedrin 94a:

Rebbi Tanhum said: Bar Kappara expounded in Sepphoris. The Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to make Hezekiah of Judah, the Messiah, and Sennacherib of Assyria, Gog and Magog. But the divine attribute of Justice said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the World, even though David sang many songs and praises before You, You did not make him the Messiah, and now You want to make Hezekiah the Messiah although You worked for him all these miracles and yet, he never sang a single song before You? Thus, Hezekiah did not become the divinely appointed Messiah and the matter was shelved.

Hezekiah’s Reforms were continued and reached their apotheosis during the long reign of Josiah (640 – 609 BC) at the tail-end of the First Temple period when the Mosaic Law was thoroughly revised.

After the death of Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian empire fell into chaos. Egypt was also weak and Judah obtained an unusual degree of independence. The following conspiratorial incident is recorded twice in the Old Testament. It occurs in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign in the year 622 amidst renovations to the Temple when a scroll of laws is ‘randomly’ discovered under a pile of rocks.

Ahem, check this out.

And Hilkiah the High Priest said to Shaphan the Scribe: I have found the Book of the Law in the House of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the Book to Shaphan who read it.        2 Kings 22.8

And when they brought out the money that was brought into the House of the Lord, Hilkiah the Priest found a Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses.        2 Chronicles 34.14

The King of Israel is presented with a hand-written scroll by Shaphan the Scribe. Although having sat on the throne for already seventeen years as one of those gorgeous boy-kings of antiquity, King Josiah was still a mere pup at the age of 25 years. He is told that the Scroll in front of him is part of the ancient Law of Moses and has been lost to Israel for many hundreds of years. Miraculously, it has just been found under a pile of rocks in the Temple rebuilding works!

This scroll is a completely new set of laws. Written in the same style as the existing scrolls and earlier laws, this specific scroll is unknown and a mystery. It resembles the other four so-called Mosaic scrolls but where has it been? Where does it come from?

The King instructs his servant to go with these chaps to the Oracle of Jerusalem, Huldah, for guidance. An Oracle in the great tradition of the oracles to the sun-God Amen of Egypt, she replied with these words:

"And to the King of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord thus shall ye say to him: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: These are the same as the ‘things’ – devarim - you have already heard."    2 Kings 22.18

Devarim is the Hebrew name of Deuteronomy and this scroll introduced by Josiah into Israel was the book or the essence of the book of Deuteronomy, the Fifth Book of Moses. This book contains many repetitions of earlier fragments such as the Ten Commandments and the laws of the Sabbath. It becomes clear that the so-called Five Books of Moses were not all – or not at all – penned by Moses. As Jewish society developed, new laws were promulgated and new scrolls penned in the same style were added to the original Mosaic collection. After a new oath-swearing ceremony, the laws were added and accepted as binding.

The Assyrian Empire was severely crippled following the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC. The nation descended into a prolonged and brutal series of civil wars involving three rival kings, Ashur-etil-ilani, Sin-shumu-lishir and Sin-shar-ishkun.

Deuteronomy was, first and foremost, a national purge of the hated Assyrians and their barbaric customs but also served to remove other pagan practices dating back to Moses and Egypt. It is possible that Deuteronomy originated in the northern kingdom of Israel, was brought to Judah and hidden away from the Assyrian overlords awaiting the opportune moment. With the collapse of the Assyrian empire, it was ‘found’ and introduced, once and for all, into the Old Testament canon by Josiah the Reformist.

The major feature of the Deuteronomic Reforms was the complete purge of foreign cults and practices. Native and external pagan oddities go out the window including the female Oracles of Wisdom. Solar and astral cults were banned. Eunuch priests and prostitutes of both sexes working in the Temples were put to death. Magic and divination were suppressed. Lastly, the outlying shrines were pulled down and public worship could now take place in Jerusalem only.

He tore down the cubicles of the male prostitutes in the House of the Lord at the place where the women wove coverings for Asherah.    2 Kings 23.7

Having consulted the Oracle who declared the work authentically Mosaic, Josiah summoned the elders of the people to the Temple, read the new Law to them and entered with them into a solemn Covenant and a public oath-swearing ceremony. Deuteronomy was now elevated to the status of Mosaic Law.

And what did Josiah get for his troubles?

In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, marched against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah marched toward him but when he confronted him at Megiddo, Pharaoh Neco slew him.  2 Kings 23.29

In the spring of 609 BC, Pharaoh Neco II led a sizable army of mercenaries from Egypt together with his Mediterranean fleet up to the Euphrates River. Taking the coastal route via Maris into Syria, Neco passed the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon. Waiting for him in the south of the Jezreel Valley was Josiah and the Judean army inspired by the death of the pharaoh Psamtik l a year earlier. At Megiddo, a fierce battle took place and Josiah was killed.

Why did Josiah choose the unknown Huldah over more established prophets? The Talmud in Megilla 14b picks up the thread:

But how could Josiah ignore Jeremiah and send for Huldah?  The members of the school of Rebbi Shila replied: Because women are tender-hearted.

The authenticity of Deuteronomy and indeed, the new version of the Divine, was based on a woman’s tender heart! After Josiah’s Reforms, Jeremiah was indeed brought forward as a vocal exponent of the Covenantal Relationship between God and Israel. That is to say, he became the main propaganda machine for the updated version of Monotheism.

"Your words - devarim - were found and I ate them and Your words were a joy to me rejoicing my heart, for I am called by Your name O Lord God of hosts."        Jeremiah 15.16

Predictably, Jeremiah was not fond of sun-worship.

And that time, says the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of the princes and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. And they shall spread them before the sun and the moon and the entire heavenly host whom they have loved and whom they have served and after whom they have walked and whom they have sought and whom they have worshipped, and they shall not be gathered nor buried but left for dung upon the face of the earth.            Jeremiah 8.1-2

The Deuteronomic Reforms and the revised version of Monotheism might well have contributed to the subsequent Babylonian destruction.

In 612 BC, the expansive Babylonia led a coalition that sacked the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. Wishing to keep Mesopotamia divided, the Egyptian pharaoh Neco set out to aid the Assyrians but retreated in the face of the victorious Babylonians. After being placed on the throne of Judah by Neco as a vassal, Josiah's son Jehoiakim was carried away into captivity by the marauding Babylonians.

Nebuchadnezzar II was king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and reigned from 605 – 562 BC. He engaged in several military campaigns designed to increase Babylonian influence in Syria and Judah. An attempted invasion of Egypt in 601 BC was met with setbacks and led to numerous rebellions among the states of the Levant including Judah. Nebuchadnezzar soon dealt with these rebellions, capturing Jerusalem in 597 BC and deposing King Jehoiakim. In 587 BC, responding to further rebellion, he destroyed both the city and the First Jewish Temple and deported many of the prominent citizens along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judea to Babylon.

Therefore He brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the sword in the House of the Sanctuary and had no compassion upon young men nor maiden, old man nor him stooped for age; He gave them all into his hand. And all the myriad vessels of God’s Temple and the treasures of the Lord’s Temple and the king’s treasures and his princes, all these he took to Babylon. And they burnt God’s Temple and tore down the walls of Jerusalem and burnt all the palaces and destroyed all the fine fittings. And those who remained alive were all deported to Babylon where they remained as servants to him and his sons until the reign of the Kingdom of Persia. To fulfil the word of the Lord through the prophecy of Jeremiah until the land had served its Sabbaths for while the land lay desolate she was in Sabbath for seventy years.        2 Chronicles 36.17-21

What do we know of the Babylonians? Herodotus, the ancient Athenian historian, records the Babylonian lifestyle:

The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit in the Precinct of Aphrodite and there have intercourse with a stranger. Many of the wealthier sort who are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages to the Precinct followed by a goodly train of attendants and there take their station. But the larger numbers seat themselves within the holy enclosure with wreaths of string about their heads and here, there is always a great crowd coming and going. Lines of cord mark out paths in all directions among the women and the strangers pass along them to make their choice. A woman who has once taken her seat is not allowed to return home until one of the strangers throws a silver coin into her lap and takes her with him beyond the holy ground. When he throws the coin he says these words: I summon you in the name of the goddess Mylitta. The silver coin may be of any size. It cannot be refused for that is forbidden by the law. Once thrown into her lap it is sacred. The woman goes with the first man to throw her money and rejects no one. When she has had intercourse with him and so satisfied the goddess she returns home and from then on no gift, however large, from a stranger will prevail with her. Some of the women who are tall and beautiful are soon released but others who are ugly have to stay a long time before they can fulfil the law. Indeed, some have waited three or four years in the Precinct. A custom very much like this is also found in certain parts of the Island of Cyprus.    Herodotus I.199

I kid you not.

The ancient sexual mores were, at once, more sanguine and adventurous – and might I say more fun? – than today’s civilised behaviour. In a word, we are a pale comparison to our former pagan selves. Prostitution, once ubiquitous and sacred, is now relegated to seedy and guilty bordellos in dark and smelly places.

Herodotus records another foul Babylonian habit:

Besides their fruit trees, the Babylonians also have a tree which bears the strangest produce. When they meet together in companies they throw some of it upon the fire round which they are sitting and presently, by the mere smell of the fumes which it gives out in burning, they grow drunk as the Greeks do with wine. Much of the fruit is then thrown on the fire and their drunkenness increasing, they often jump up and begin to dance and sing.       Ibid I.202

Although the Babylonians are clearly shown to possess cannabis, it is unlikely they introduced the herb into the general area. For this we must blame, once again, the Iranians. The mighty Scythians were killer horsemen. The metaphor of the ‘Four Horsemen’ comes from these Parthian horse-mounted fighters. Cannabis was carried by these people from its origins in Siberia into Persia, Arabia and ultimately to the rest of the Western world finding its ultimate resting place along the sacred canals of Amsterdam.

Continues Herodotus:

The Scythians, as I have said, take some of this hemp seed and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red hot stones. Immediately it smokes and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour bath can exceed. The Scythes, delighted, shout for joy and this vapour serves them instead of a water bath for they never by any chance wash their bodies with water.       Ibid IV 75

Even the Ancient World suffered from a hippie problem.  Stoned-out people in serious need of a scrub and refusing to work, loitered about suspiciously there too. Herodotus is also considered the earliest medical advocate of heliotherapy or the art of healing using light. He was interested in the human condition and observed how various things like wine, ganja and sunlight affect us.

Heliotherapy, it transpires, is a major theme of the Bible. The most famous exponent of this healing art was, of course, Jesus of Nazareth who was reported to heal blind people just by mixing his saliva with sand.

The Old Testament even refers to the much overlooked ACHOO Syndrome – the Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst Syndrome whereby bright light entering a person’s eye can trigger a sneeze.

His sneeze radiates light and his eyes are like the eyelids of dawn.  Job 41.18

Spuriously attributed to Moses by the Talmud, the book of Job was written as an attempt to resolve the spiritual dilemma created by Deuteronomy and Josiah. The Kabbalah makes full use of Job in its later attempt to address the same predicament.

The First Temple sun-worship was brought to an end by Josiah a mere 35 years before the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC. It certainly begs the question whether these two incidents were connected to each other? Is it a coincidence that the Babylonians and Abraham both come from the same place?

According to Jeremiah, there were people who blamed the destruction of the Temple on the very reforms of Josiah.

But we will certainly do whatsoever goes forth from our own mouth, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour our drink offerings to her as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of victuals and were well satisfied and saw no evil. Since we left off burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.  Jeremiah 44.17-18

Deuteronomy is the dividing line between Monotheism1 and Monotheism2. God ceases officially to be the sun and becomes, forever more, a myth of the Invisible Deity. Deuteronomy is also to blame for the creation of both Christianity and Islam. No longer the sun, God the Invisible Deity becomes subjective and pliable and may be adapted to new paradigms. The sun-god cannot change its appearance but the Invisible Deity certainly may!

Deuteronomy and not the earliest Ten Commandments of Exodus introduces the Biblical prohibition of sun worship for the first time.

And lest you lift up your eyes unto heaven and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and should be driven to worship them and serve them which the Lord your God has appropriated to all nations under the whole heaven. But the Lord your God has taken you forth out of the iron furnace out of Egypt to be unto Him a people of inheritance as of this day.    Deuteronomy 4.19-20

The Qur’an includes the same prohibition.

Among His signs are the Night and the Day, and the Sun and the Moon. Prostrate not to the sun and the moon, but prostrate to Allah, who created them, if it is Him ye wish to serve.        Qur’an 41.37

It is in the fifth book of the Bible where we find the first ban on sun worship. Of course, say the charlatans, Moses wrote this book also so he could not have been a sun-worshipper! Yes, but they are all charlatans and blind fools.

What is also of interest is the use of the metaphor of an iron furnace. It occurs nowhere else but in Deuteronomy. It is worthwhile to mine everything of any value from this simple metaphor.

Egypt is likened to an iron furnace? What does this mean? What is an iron furnace anyway?

It tells us that Deuteronomy was not written by the same author/s of the previous four books from Genesis to Numbers. It tells us that Deuteronomy was written after – long after! – the other books. It tells us that only Deuteronomy belonged to the Iron Age period unlike the previous Bronze Age works. It tells us also why the Israelites stopped worshipping the sun and, of course, it corroborates that Moses was a pagan sun worshipper who prayed to the sun as his God.

In the Middle East, the late Bronze Age was from approximately 1550 – 1200 BC followed by the early Iron Age. Is it possible that only Deuteronomy falls within the