Bible Believers' Newsletter 935
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
Please welcome contributing author Jonathan Gray (www.beforeus.com) whose article, "Invisible, but the Camera saw It" reveals an unexpected clue whereby we know that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, perhaps on clay tablets or velum. It was not committed to memory and transmitted orally. This discovery exposes the rabbinical lie that the Talmud, which they call the "oral torah," was transmitted by God to Moses and orally transmitted from high priest to high priest, and from rabbi to rabbi until it was finally codified in the sixth century whereupon the Masorettes began the counterfeit Masoretic text of the Old Testament, afterward destroying all other Hebrew texts. If there ever was an "oral" Torah delivered by God to Moses, it was certainly not the Talmud which is the antithesis of the Pentateuch begun during the Captivity and based upon the ancient Babylonian codes.
Please read the full story is our current news and take note of the last item on currency collapse.
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.
Your brother-in-Christ
Anthony Grigor-Scott
China Hosts G20 Summit: Innovation, Structural Reform, 'Towards an Inclusive World Economy'
August 15, 2016 — The G20 Hangzhou Summit is at the cross-roads of world history . . . China's task is daunting, but throughout the last and present century, China has shown almost superhuman ability to overcome enormous and virtually insurmountable obstacles, as a result of powerful strategic thinking, great determination, and formidable intelligence. China's success in restructuring its own economy and society, and ascending to global pre-eminence, is a basis for hope that their win-win approach to the new global economic architecture will prevail and gain acceptance by all participants in the G20 Summit . . .
Among the challenges faced by China, as a nation is the resurgence of a cold-war mentality in sectors of some of the countries participating in the G20 Summit . . . provocative military investments by economies which prioritize profit maximization to the exclusion of all other considerations could precipitate another arms race, and ultimately Armageddon, for it is not possible to ignore the fact that war is one of the most profitable 'ïndustries' of all for the miniscule group of arms merchants . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
America's Illegal Wars of Conquest. Terrorist Embedded Propagandists, demonizing Target Countries
August 16, 2016 — We know that each illegal war of conquest is prefaced by a Public Relations campaign that demonizes the target country's leader and its government as it lies about on-the-ground realities. Muammar Gaddafi, for example, was presented to Western media consumers as a lunatic and despot. The Western narratives, however, were contradicted by the fact that he earned broad-based support from Libyans, all of whom enjoyed public services such as free healthcare and schooling, and a high standard of living.
The same demonization campaign is being waged against the hugely popular Dr. Bashar al-Assad, the democratically–elected President of Syria. Terrorist–embedded propagandists teach us that he is an evil dictator, who kills his own people, and that "he must go"; however, credible evidence inverts this logic. Henry Lowendorf, a member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council's Peace and Fact-Finding Delegation to Syria—recently returned from Syria—reports, that, "What we saw (in Syria) goes against everything we read in the United States."
He repudiates the Western media's demonization campaign against the government of President Assad and the Syrian Arab Army in these words:
"When you go to Syria, which I did last month, the popularity of the government and the Syrian Arab Army is rampant. It's not out of some dream fantasy. It comes obviously from the government and the army being the only thing between living a secular life on the one hand and the hatred and violence of ISIS and the various other terrorist groups underwritten by the terrorist Saudis and US and their allies on the other. The refugees who don't leave Syria do not flee to the terrorist side; they flee to the government side, in huge numbers. So would all of us in similar circumstances. Syrians don't want their country turned into Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia or any of the other countries the US has liberated".
The reality is an inversion of the propaganda lies fed to Western audiences. In fact, President Assad must stay, for the sake of civilization, and for the sake of destroying Western-backed terrorism. Each time Empire succeeds in destroying another country, the problem of terrorism worsens—as might be expected. The destruction of Libya, for example, set the stage for the attempted destruction of Syria . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: In "The Tax-Exempt Foundations," William McIlhany, interviewed Norman Dodd, Director of Research for Congressman Carroll Reece, chairman of a Senate Select Committee investigation into subversive activities of the tax-exempt foundations. Dodd repeated what his investigator Kathryn Casey had found in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (sic) organization's minutes compiled several years before the start of World War I:
[In the minutes] the trustees raised a question. And they discussed the question and the question was specific, "Is there any means known to man more effective than war, assuming you wish to alter the life of an entire people?" And they discussed this and at the end of a year they came to the conclusion that there was no more effective means to that end known to man. So, then they raised question number two, and the question was, "How do we involve the United States in a war?"
And then they raised the question: "How do we control the diplomatic machinery of the United States?" And the answer came out, "We" must control the State Department. Through an agency set up by the Carnegie Endowment every high appointment in the State Department was cleared. Finally, we were in a war. These trustees in a meeting about 1917 had the brashness to congratulate themselves on the wisdom of their original decision because already the impact of war had indicated it would alter life and can alter life in this country. This was the date of our entry in the war; we were involved. They even had the brashness to word and to dispatch a telegram to Mr. Wilson, cautioning him to see that the war did not end too quickly."
Today, former Secretary of State Killery Clinton is running for POTUS. I [Hillary Clinton] am delighted to be here in these new [CFR] headquarters. I have been often to, I guess, the mother ship in New York City, but it's good to have an outpost of the Council right here down the street from the State Department. We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won't have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future.
Trump's Aggressive Foreign Policy
August 16, 2016 — His August 15 foreign policy address in Youngstown, OH showed he'll govern as an establishment leader if elected in November—continuing dirty geopolitical business as usual vital to end once and for all. He'll wage endless wars to "defeat radical Islamic terrorism," he said—without explaining its US creation and support at least since the 1980s in Afghanistan against Soviet Russia.
Bin Laden was a Pakistani intelligence-recruited CIA asset. Obama didn't kill him. He died of natural causes in December 2001, widely reported at the time. Earlier mujahedeen fighters are today's Taliban, Al Qaeda, Nusra Front, ISIS, Boko Haram and similar groups—created, supported and used by America as imperial foot soldiers to do its killing and dying where they're deployed with the aim of replacing sovereign independent governments with US puppet regimes.
America isn't at war with "radical Islamic terrorism." It actively supports it as an instrument of US imperial foreign policy. Obama and Hillary didn't create today's deplorable geopolitical landscape. They exacerbated decades earlier policy—begun under Jimmy Carter, continued under Reagan, Bill Clinton, Bush II to today, certain to go on seamlessly under duopoly governance no matter who succeeds Obama. Today's gravest issue is systemic—neocon infested Washington bent on world dominance, doing whatever it takes to accomplish its objective, color revolutions and wars its strategies of choice.
Will Trump as president change things? No. Will he differ from another Clinton co-presidency? Only by being less likely to start WW III if he follows through on wanting better relations with Russia. If he continues waging imperial wars on the phony pretext of combating terrorism, US/Moscow geopolitical policies will be intractably at odds.
"ISIS . . . operat(es) in 18 countries with aspiring branches in 6 or more for a total of 24, and many believe it is even more than that," said Trump.
Fact: ISIS operates where US policymakers deploy their fighters, under commanders chosen by CIA and Pentagon officials—recruited, armed, funded and directed by America, NATO, Israel and other regional rogue states.
Fact: The way to defeat ISIS and other radical Islamic groups is stop supporting them. They can't exist without foreign backing.
Instead of diverging from America's imperial agenda if elected president, Trump could exacerbate it by belligerence against all nations where he says ISIS exists. He'll continue drone wars, mostly killing non-combatant men, women, children, the elderly and infirm threatening no one. He'll maintain Guantanamo (and likely America's global torture prison network) instead of shutting it down. He'll introduce ideological screening tests to suspend immigration from certain countries.
He claims wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya were mistakes he opposed after supporting them earlier. He called failure to seize Iraq's oil fields poor judgment. "In the old days when we won a war, to the victor got the spoils," he blustered.
He failed to explain all wars violate core international, constitutional and US statute laws without Security Council authorization. US presidents and Congress have no right to wage them without it—especially against nations posing no threat to America or any other countries.
All ongoing US direct and proxy wars are illegal acts of aggression. Trump promised to continue them—justified by pledging to combat radical Islamic terrorism America supports. US war on humanity will continue no matter who succeeds Obama. Prospects for world peace and stability are nonexistent—a deplorable situation threatening everyone.
Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: "Liberalism produced Constitutional States, which took the place of what was the only safeguard of the Goyim, namely, Despotism; [no, hereditary monarchies born and groomed to rule well], and a constitution, as you well know, is nothing else but a school of discords, misunderstandings, quarrels, disagreements, fruitless party agitations, party whims—in a word, a school of everything that serves to destroy the personality of State activity. The tribune of the "talkeries" has, no less effectively than the press, condemned the rulers to inactivity and impotence, and thereby rendered them useless and superfluous, for which reason indeed they have been in many countries deposed. The era of republics become possible of realization; and then it was that we replaced the ruler by a caricature of a government—by a president, taken from the mob, from the midst of our puppet creatures, or slaves. This was the foundation of the mine which we have laid under the GOY people, I should rather say, under the Goy peoples" (Protocol 10:10).
Council on Foreign Relations, its NWO One World Government Agenda
August 15, 2016 — New World Order propaganda rules and shapes the world. And there's no more powerful propagator of propaganda that rules and shapes US global hegemony, world events and major geopolitical developments than the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) . . . Since 1940 every Secretary of State but one has been on the CFR and/or Trilateral Commission, and a majority of Secretaries of Treasury have also worked for the shadow government. Multiple CIA directors have been in the CFR. For eight decades nearly every key National Security and Foreign Policy Advisor are/were members. And of course a significant number of US presidents and VP's have been CFR members. The fact is the Council on Foreign Relations has been controlling US foreign policy for almost a century, and chief among its most obvious agendas has been building and maintaining US Empire's global unipolar hegemony and military strength at all cost.
Americans are just now starting to realize that the glorious US history taught in our whitewashed schoolbooks has brainwashed multiple generations into wrongly believing America's always been God's gift and saviour to humanity and the rest of the world. Tell that to all the darker skinned peoples around the globe who've been bombed, raped and murdered, starting on US soil with the Native Americans and kidnapped African slaves and their descendants.
The public is just now finally coming to terms with recognizing that the system's been rigged against them for a long time. With Hillary's criminal exposure, presidential elections are blatantly rigged, the two-tiered justice system is horrendously in-our-face rigged, the stock market's rigged, gold prices are rigged.
The dumbed down education system that extends even to higher learning is rigged, having turned generations of college grads into lifetime indentured servants now unemployed or working minimum wage . . . college grad wages increased only 1.6% in the last quarter century . . . The US meritocracy work ethic that preaches working hard all your life eventually pays off is rigged because the entire Ponzi schemed economy's been rigged ever since the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. Placing privatized central banksters in charge of the nation's money supply manufacturing paper fiat out of thin air while charging interests off invisible reserves that don't even exist has given the elite unlimited power to infiltrate and hijack our government through organizations like the Federal Reserve and CFR that have systematically degenerated our once vibrant democratic republic into a fascist totalitarian police state on the verge of utter collapse . . . the nation so many of us grew up loving has been thoroughly fleeced and destroyed by the treasonous Clinton-Bush-Obama international crime cabal that governs the world employing the same bloody, lawless thuggery as organized crime. Their ruthlessly violent, demonically motivated tactics are one and the same, only the ruling elite and their political and corporate puppets have historically enjoyed a deceptive, undeserved legitimacy not afforded the mafia.
. . . history explicitly exposes the Council on Foreign Relations' relentless real agenda of one world governance that from behind the scenes is already informally operating, and how its promotion of global warming, global scarcity, global overpopulation, global terrorism, global refugee crises, global war and global economic collapse, all have been covertly contrived, manipulated and engineered by the ruling elite . . . objective is to finalize a cashless, RFID microchipped society under the absolute tyranny and control of an entrenched one world government. As a war machine maker, the Council on Foreign Relations should remain an enemy to every citizen of the world . . . Full story: empireexposed.blogspot.com
America's 'Humanitarian War' against the World
August 14, 2016 — The world is at a dangerous crossroads . . . Under a global military agenda, the actions undertaken by the Western military alliance (US-NATO-Israel) in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Palestine, Ukraine, Syria and Iraq are coordinated at the highest levels of the military hierarchy. We are not dealing with piecemeal military and intelligence operations. Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Asia Pacific region.
The current situation is all the more critical inasmuch as a US-NATO war on Russia, China and Iran is part of the US presidential election debate. It is presented as a political and military option to Western public opinion. The US-NATO military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states. America's hegemonic project is to destabilize and destroy countries through acts of war, support of terrorist organizations, regime change and economic warfare.
US and NATO forces have been deployed in Eastern Europe including Poland and Ukraine. In turn, military maneuvers are being conducted at Russia's doorstep which could potentially lead to confrontation with the Russian Federation. The US and its allies are also threatening China under President Obama's "Pivot to Asia." The US-led airstrikes initiated in August 2014 directed against Iraq and Syria under the pretext of going after Islamic State are part of a scenario of military escalation extending from North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to Central and South Asia . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: Meanwhile, the Judaeo-Roman Universal church awaits the outcome of this Hegelian dialectic which will result in the world imploring the pope to resolve the misery and take over as president of one world government. Rome will overplay her hand by transforming the US into a Protestant (sic) "image unto the beast" to force her pagan trinity upon mankind which will result in a revolt with the Jewish banksters and Black Nobility allying with re-communised Russia 'nuking' Vatican City State and the USA from the face of the earth, followed by Armageddon and the consummation of life.
Uber to use Autonomous Cars in next Few Weeks
August 18, 2016 — In a few weeks, Uber will start using self-driving cars to carry passengers in Pittsburgh, raising the stakes in the fast-track race to deploy autonomous vehicles . . . customers will be able to opt into the test program, which will use autonomous Ford Fusions summoned by the touch of a smartphone. Although other companies are testing self-driving cars on public roads, this is the first time the public will get access to them. The rides, which come with a human backup driver to handle situations that the autonomous cars haven't seen, will be free to those willing to take part . . . without drivers, the cost of hailing a ride will be cheaper than owning a car . . . Uber also announced a $300 million alliance with Volvo to supply vehicles and technology, and the acquisition of an autonomous big-rig startup in San Francisco as it pushes forward with self-driving vehicles. . . Full story: 10tv.com
Comment: The fourth vision of Brother Branham's apocalypse "was . . . of a plastic bubble-topped car that was running down beautiful highways under remote control so that people appeared seated in this car without a steering wheel and they were playing some sort of a game to amuse themselves" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 321:5).
Freedom for Saif al-Gaddafi in Libya
August 18, 2016 — All over Libya millions now hope for the return of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Meanwhile the US/NATO have stepped up their attacks on the country as part of their phony war on the very terrorists they still back. Alexandra Valiente of Jamahiriya News, and Libya 360 calls it the most sophisticated psychological warfare campaign in history. The US has also continued its phoenix program style assassination campaign aimed at supporters of the green resistance and the Libyan National Army. The war in Libya continues but the fact that Saif is now free gives reason for hope that one day all of Libya may be liberated from the terrifying occupation by the Empire of Chaos. Meanwhile in Lebanon Hannibal Gaddafi who was kidnapped by Hezbollah is still being held for a crime he couldn't possibly have committed since he was only 2 years old at the time of the mysterious assassination of Musa Sadr in 1978. Sadr's real killers were the Ed Wilson Theodore Shackley "Secret Team." The world must demand Hannibal's release. He was finally supposed to be freed last week when the court invented new trumped up charges to hold him . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Bayer AG makes Bee Contraceptives
August 13, 2016 — A study just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), identifies a dramatic reduction in sperm count in bees exposed to two of Bayer AG's most widely used pesticides—thiamethoxam and clothianidin. They found that those two neonicotinoids, "significantly reduce the reproductive capacity of male honeybees (drones), Apis mellifera. Drones were obtained from colonies exposed to the neonicotinoid insecticides or controls, and subsequently maintained in laboratory cages until they reached sexual maturity . . . the data clearly showed reduced drone lifespan, as well as reduced sperm viability (percentage living versus dead) and living sperm quantity by 39%."
The study continues: "Our results demonstrate for the first time that neonicotinoid insecticides can negatively affect male insect reproductive capacity, and provide a possible mechanistic explanation for managed honeybee queen failure and wild insect pollinator decline . . . As the primary egg layer and an important source of colony cohesion, the queen is intimately connected to colony performance. Increased reports of queen failure have recently been reported in North America and Europe; however, no studies have so far investigated the role of neonicotinoids and male health to explain this phenomenon" . . .
Bayer AG spreading bee death via its neonicotinoids, and now in a marriage with Monsanto who is spreading toxic effects harming to human embryo cells and much else? It's beginning to look like someone is out to dramatically reduce life on our beautiful planet. Full story: journal-neo.org
Economic Collapse Confirmed!
July 22, 2016 — This is a tough topic, because people either don't want to believe it or are not capable because they lack the knowledge to comprehend what is being said. When you understand that our country can only operate based on debt/credit, not physical dollars, you finally see that the USA is a huge Ponzi scheme built on nothing more that our ability to borrow money. Our status as the world reserve currency has allowed us to borrow money that we do not have. The government says that there are 10 trillion dollars sitting in the US Banking system that we can go and easily withdrawal. How can that be true when there only exists 1.4 trillion of real money in circulation (dollars and coins) and more than one half of that is outside the US. This doesn't include the 10s of trillions more that we owe other countries that have purchased our debt. If our creditors were to all come and ask for their money at one time there would be less than $1 dollar for every $1000 dollars owed. The world economy collapses. All Great empires based on fiat currencies end in this way . . . Full story: youtube.com
Invisible, but the Camera saw It
By Jonathan Gray © 2016 all rights reserved
A German photographer had an order for some portrait studies of a very beautiful girl. To capture her exquisite colouring, he used orthochromatic plates. But when they were developed and proofs made, the girl's face appeared to be covered with blemishes. The photographer complained to the manufacturer, who took and tested the plates. But the mysterious blotches were found to be the result of outside causes, and not due to any imperfection in the plates themselves.
The subject did not return to view the proofs until two months after her sitting. When she did appear, the photographer was horrified to see her skin scarred and roughened. A few questions cleared up the mystery. Two days after she sat for her portrait, the girl had come down with smallpox. The disfiguring marks were not apparent on her face at the time, but the sensitive orthochromatic plates had detected a change in the skin.
The experience led the photographer to make special studies photographing "invisible" things and in the end he became an expert at detecting forged documents and altered cheques.
You are about to discover some "invisible" (or should I say, some generally unnoticed) "marks" in the world's oldest document which will show this document in a new perspective. These "marks" are not immediately apparent to most people. You might say that, even though we read them with our eyes, yet they remain, as it were, "invisible" to us. It is only the discoveries of archaeology that have made it possible for us to "see" these "marks" in the biblical Book of Genesis. And these features embedded in the narrative are compelling evidence that Genesis is very, very ancient.
WHAT THE CRITICS CLAIM
There are compelling hints that the Hebrew leader Moses compiled the Book of Genesis some time before 1400BC. But critics continue to point to repetitions in Genesis as proof that many later writers, whom they call J and E and P and D, hashed it together—from oral legends.
Well, if the critic can go into such detail, could it be that he knows something we don't? After all, there are repetitions, just as he says. Here is one of them: "And TERAH lived seventy years, and BEGAT ABRAM, NAHOR, AND HARAN. Now these are the generations of Terah. TERAH BEGAT ABRAM, NAHOR, AND HARAN." (Genesis 11:26, 27).
Did you notice that "Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran" is written twice? So do the critics have a point?
Actually, there is some truth on both sides. Those who insist there was one editor are correct. Those who say there were several writers are likewise correct. However, there is some vital information that neither side has taken into account.
A REPEATED EXPRESSION
As you read through the book of Genesis, you may notice a recurring phrase: "these are the generations of . . ."
Genesis 2:4—"These are the generations of the heavens and the earth."
Genesis 5:1-2—"This is the book of the generations of Adam."
Genesis 6:9—"These are the generations of Noah."
Genesis 10:1—"These are the generations of the sons of Noah."
Genesis 11:10—"These are the generations of Shem."
Genesis 11:27—"These are the generations of Terah."
Genesis 25:12—"These are the generations of Ishmael."
Genesis 25:19—"These are the generations of Isaac."
Genesis 36:1—"These are the generations of Esau."
Genesis 36:9—"These are the generations of Esau."
Genesis 37:2—"These are the generations of Jacob."
Buried in the text of Genesis, this repeated expression contains a stunning clue, apparently unnoticed, of Genesis' great age. You see, what we are staring at here is a most ancient writing technique.
GENESIS CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN FIRST WRITTEN, NOT ORALLY TRANSMITTED
Before going further, however, we must dispel the idea that the contents of Genesis were merely handed down orally. In Genesis 5:1 we read: "This is the book of the origins of Adam." Here the word sepher (translated "book") means "written account" or "finished writing".
The Septuagint Version renders Genesis 2:4: "This is the book of the origins of the heavens and the earth."
The "books" of that time were tablets. "Book" simply means "record." The earliest records of Genesis, therefore, claim to have been written down—and not, as is often imagined, passed down by word of mouth. This is not to say that word-perfect oral transmission was impossible. Beyond doubt, brilliant intellects were able to accurately memorise information of such importance. But Genesis itself testifies that these records were transmitted in "book" form (Genesis 5:1). It is important to understand also that the very earliest records in our history were incised into baked clay or stone tablets, not to be altered.
SOMETHING VERY ODD
However, back to this recurring phrase "These are the generations of . . ." There is something very odd about this that has puzzled scholars. Why? Because in every case, the main history of the person named is narrated before this phrase occurs—NOT after it. For example:
* ADAM: Adam's story is given in chapters 2 to 4.
— Then comes "This is the book of the generations of Adam" (Genesis 5:1).
— Then after the phrase "This is the book of the generations of Adam," we learn nothing more about Adam, except his age at death.
So when we read "this is the book of the history of Adam" it is the concluding sentence of the record already supplied concerning Adam. It is placed AFTER the history of Adam.
Here's another example:
* JACOB: Jacob's story appears in Genesis 25:25 to 37:1.
— Then comes "These are the generations of Jacob" (Genesis 37:2).
— But after "These are the generations of Jacob," we read mainly about Joseph, not about Jacob.
What follows does not talk about Jacob at all!
The expression "These are the generations of Jacob" in Genesis 37:2 obviously has nothing to do with what follows: "Joseph being seventeen years old was feeding the flock with his brothers" (verse 2).
In each case where the person's name is given, the verses that follow DO NOT give the history of that person at all! And this appears not to make sense.
THE MYSTERY
So what does this phrase "These are the generations of," mean? If it is NOT an introduction, or a preface to the history of the person named, then whatever is it?
That is the mystery!
FIRST USE IS OUR GUIDE TO ITS LATER USE
It is often a rule in ancient Scripture that the first use of a word or phrase fixes its future meaning. So, when we take the phrase, "these are the generations of" where it is first used, this becomes our guide to understanding the same expression "these are the generations of" when we see it repeated through the Book of Genesis.
Here is its first use: "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created" (Genesis 2:4).
Again, you will notice that it is not placed before, but AFTER the history of Creation already given in Genesis chapter 1. So this phrase is the concluding sentence of the record already written. This means it is the end-title for what has gone before.
Other Books of Moses show this same feature:
• The Book of Leviticus has a simple opening, but the Book's conclusion is, "These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai."
• In the Book of Numbers the last sentence reads: "These are the commandments and judgments which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho".
Now to the Book of Genesis. It keeps repeating the phrase "These are the generations".
What does this word "generations" mean? The Hebrew word for "generations" is toledoth. This means "history," especially family history. And also the origin of anything, the story of their origin. For example, in Genesis 2:4, "these are the generations of the heavens and the earth" means this is the story of their origin (Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon).
So, put simply, the use of toledoth (generations) means "this is the history", "these are the historical origins of . . ." "these are beginnings of . . ." — signifying family history IN ITS ORIGINS.
It turns out that such end-titles were common practice in ancient times. We might cite, as an example, the Code of Hammurabi, an Eastern king who was contemporary with Terah and Abraham. Here the conclusion is more lengthy and formal than the introduction. It is at the end of his great inscription that he speaks of having written it. He says, "The righteous laws which Hammurabi the wise king established . . . my weighty words have been written upon my monument."
TITLE PLACED AT THE END
In those very ancient times the prevailing literary method of writing was to provide little or nothing of a preface, but frequently a very formal conclusion. So a title phrase, known as 'colophon', tended to be placed at the end of each tablet, or series of tablets.
Today, we place the title at the beginning of a book, but in very ancient times they placed it at the end. The title was the concluding sentence—and pointed back to the report just given. So when we read "these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created" (Genesis 2:4), it is the concluding sentence of the record already written. It is placed AFTER the history of Creation. It ENDS the section of history about Creation. Immediately after that COMMENCES another section.
Likewise, "These are the generations of Adam" ENDS the section of history about Adam. And immediately after that COMMENCES another section about something else. "These are the generations of Jacob" ENDS the section of history about Jacob. And immediately after that, "Joseph being seventeen years old," etc., COMMENCES another section.
REPETITIONS ARE LINKS
And that brings us to another very ancient writing technique that shows Genesis to have been written originally on clay tablets. Immediately following the phrase "These are the generations of," there comes a repetition. And repetitions were used to join the tablets.
Notice this example:
(a) Firstly, in Genesis 10:22-25 the children of Shem are listed: "The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash. And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg".
(b) Then in Genesis 11:10 appears this phrase: "These are the generations of Shem".
(c) Then in Genesis 11:10-16 the children of Shem are listed again: "Shem begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: And Eber begat Peleg".
In the above sequence,
(a) The descendants of Shem who were born during his lifetime are named.
(b) Then comes the end-title: "These are the generations of Shem." This ends Shem's tablet.
(c) Then the next tablet begins. And it repeats the end part of the previous tablet (Shem's tablet) to show that it is the tablet to be read next after Shem's tablet.
Repetitions, you see, were used to link tablets together.
When the lengthy nature of the writing required more than one tablet (just as today with the pages of letters or books), proper sequence was often achieved by the use of titles and catch-lines. At the start of the next tablet were written the last few lines of the previous tablet.
This very ancient writing technique is precisely what we find in the Book of Genesis. Sometimes we find these strange duplications, when we see a reference to "generations" in the Book of Genesis.
Here is another one:
"And TERAH lived seventy years, and BEGAT ABRAM, NAHOR, AND HARAN. Now these are the generations of Terah. TERAH BEGAT ABRAM, NAHOR, AND HARAN" (Genesis 11:26-27).
So the end of one tablet reads as: "And TERAH lived seventy years, and BEGAT ABRAM, NAHOR, AND HARAN. Now these are the generations of Terah".
And the start of the next tablet says: "TERAH BEGAT ABRAM, NAHOR, AND HARAN."
This links two tablets, one to follow the other.
The repetition of the names "Abram, Nahor and Haran," before and after the "generations" phrase, indicates that they are "catch-lines" and conform to the usual ancient practice. On the first tablet, after the last line, came the first words of the next tablet.
If the critic knew his subject better, he would realise that this charge of "repetition" could be brought against almost every piece of ancient writing. It is characteristic of the style of the time.
Hence Professor Arno Poebel, in commenting on some ancient Sumerian tablets found at Nippur, writes: ". . . the readers of the Bible, moreover, will recognise the quaint principle of partial repetition or paraphrase" (Poebel, Historical Texts. University of Pennsylvania).
We find that, except for the last part of Genesis (the report concerning Joseph in Egypt), every tablet or series of tablets begins with a repetition of facts contained in the previous tablet. This is precisely what anyone acquainted with the ancient methods of writing would expect. And it is further evidence of the faithfulness with which the records have been transmitted to us.
The literary methods evident in Genesis are those of the time of Moses and not of a later date when methods changed. (See experts of recognised international standing, such as Kenneth Kitchen, Professor of Archaeology and Oriental Studies; Dr D. Wiseman, Professor of Assyriology and a Semitist; Professor Alan Millard). By clutching at these repetitions in Genesis in his attempt to discredit it, the poor critic only shows up his own ignorance. Oh, one does feel so sorry for him!
Let's say it again. Repetitions were deliberate features, inserted to link two tablets.
EVIDENCE OF ITS GREAT ANTIQUITY
1. The phrase "These are the generations of . . ." is the end-piece of a document—and points back to the narrative already recorded.
2. It is in the style of the earliest written records.
3. It habitually indicates the writer or owner of the history.
But the most solid evidence that the Book of Genesis is the very OLDEST—yes, I say OLDEST—of all documents we have on this planet earth, such evidence would fill a book. nl935.htm
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Brother Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister who has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations overseas. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
Bible Believers' Church
Gunnedah NSW
Australia 2380e-mail e-mail Bible Believers
URL Bible Believers' Website
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