Lascaux
17 –
Hebrews, water finders; also: wise Solomon, and Ôsignature elementsŐ in the
early alphabets of Asia Minor
/ Š 2018 by Franz Gnaedinger
Hebrews, water finders (part 1/12)
The SAP BIR apiru Hebrews wandered mainly between BIR
SAP Beersheba 'Seven Wells' and Har Karkom in the Sinai and the eastern part of
the Nile Delta. SAP means everywhere (in space), here, south and north of me,
east and west of me, under and above me, in all seven places, wherefrom words
for seven in many languages including Hebrew and Arabic. BIR means fur, Greek
byrsa 'hide, fur, leather', and named a well as fur place: where fur bags or
leather bags or goat hides were filled with water. SAP BIR apiru Hebrews named
people who found everywhere SAP water and dug wells that became fur BIR places
– Beer Bir.
Their leaders were Moses and Aaron figures, pulled
together to one single Moses and one single Aaron in the dramatic report of the
Bible. MmOS SAI Moses was the offspring MmOS of life SAI, namely, of the life
giving God, while Aaron worshipped God using the ancient name of AAR RAA NOS,
he of air AAR and light RAA with a mind NOS of his own, sky god of the Gbekli
Tepe. This god was implored for rain. Prayers for rain and the rising smoke of
sacrificial fires imploring rain were symbolized by snakes heading upward, and
falling rain by snakes heading downward, snakes being by far the most frequent
symbol on Gbekli Tepe pillars. The rods of Moses and Aaron turned into
serpents, meaning they found water. When they appeared before Pharaoh, Aaron's
rod turned into a serpent, and so did the rods of the Egyptian magicians,
however, the serpent of Aaron swallowed theirs, meaning Aaron and his apiru
surpassed even the Egyptian water engineers.
Beersheba was the center of a mysterious Chalcolithic
people, their legacy on a par with Predynastic Egyptian art. Har Karkom in the
Sinai, a modest mountain ridge, was a religious center between 4300 and 2000
BC, with more than 120 cult places, and 40,000 (forty thousand) rock
engravings, among them a staff and a winding snake, a radiating eye, and a grid
of ten fields evoking the pair of tables with the ten commandments of Moses.
Living in the Sinai required the ability of finding water everywhere, at which
the SAP BIR apiru Hebrews excelled.
MmOS SAI Moses, offspring MmOS of God who gives life
SAI, goes along with Egyptian mesi 'be born', Ahmose = given life and placed on
Earth by the moon god Ah, Thutmosis = given life and placed on Earth by the moon
god Thoth.
Hebrews, water finders (part 2/12)
Emmanuel Anati "claims to have documented 1,300
archaeological sites at Har Karkom, including 40,000 (?) rock engravings and
more than 120 rock cult sites, such as small temples, standing stones (masseboth),
tumuli, open-air altars, stone circles, and other types of shrines. Most of the
rock engravings, called petroglyphs, and rock cult sites are clustered at the
base of Har Karkom" (Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review, March /
April 2014). Anati equates the Har Karkom with Mt. Sinai in the Bible. The
crescent-shaped horns of the many ibices among the rock engravings may indicate
the moon god Sin (Magdalenian GEN for the three days of the young moon). Three
of the Bronze Age petroglyphs evoke the Exodus, and make Anati date back this
Biblical event by centuries if not millennia, to a time long before the
established date of 1200 BC.
Are there more connections between the Bronze Age at
Har Karkom and the Bible? If so, Moses and Aaron would have been collective
names for a series of leaders born at different times. Moses as a baby was
found in an ark of bulrushes among the flags by a river's brink – a water
child, so to say, water being the element and symbol of life: offspring MmOS
life SAI, together MmOS SAI Moses. This may be an older layer of the Moses
tale, while the Moses of 1200 BC led his people in a critical period, when a
climate change (proven for Southern Turkey) with droughts and occasional
torrents and a temperature drop ruined agriculture and caused mass migrations
along the Mediterranean, reaching Egypt as 'Invasion the Sea Peoples', in the
Bible symbolized by the plagues that befell Egypt.
Also David was a collective name, DA PAD dvd David,
away from DA activity of feet PAD - the hill tribes of Judah delivered from the
paw of the Egyptian lion, delivered from the paw of the Hittite bear, and
delivered from the 'paw' of the Philistine giant Goliath. And SAL MAN Solomon,
the son of David, was another collective name, overseer of those who work in
the watery ground of a valley SAL with their right hand MAN – water
workers again, using their skills also in mining.
To say it bluntly: the Bible turned a long and winding
history into a Hollywood story. Only much better than a Hollywood production, a
tale full of information wrapped up in symbols the unfolding of which is a
hermeneutic task.
Hebrews, water finders (part 3/12)
A phantastic book: Emmanuel Anati, Hara Karkom, La
montagna di Dio 'God's Mountain', Jaca Milano 1981/86. A rock on a path up to
the ridge has the shape of a steep mountain, below a pair of adorants with
raised arms, maybe the generic Moses and Aaron figures, and far above them, at
the narrow top of the rock, an 'abstract sign' which appears to me as a tangle
of snakes that look downward, snakes heading downward symbolizing rain in the
Gbekli Tepe iconography, here maybe even a thunderstorm with flashes. The
snakes form a golden aureole between them (natural color of the pricked stone;
all the local petroglyphs are yellow-orange, in a beautiful contrast to the
dark surface of the rock). The 'aureole' may be the lining of a cloud that
hides AAR RAA NOS of the Gbekli Tepe, the ancient sky god of air AAR and light
RAA with a mind NOS of his own, implored for rain that fills river beds and
water holes. Under the left man is a sign in the shape of a bowl, maybe a well
or a fur bag. The same sign indicates the fur giver BIR GID on a Gbekli Tepe
pillar. BIR meaning fur named wells as fur places Bir Bor Beer, wells where fur
bags were filled with water, numerous in the Negev and Sinai. AAR RAA NOS cared
for his people who commuted between Harran or Haran forty kilometers south of
the Gbekli Tepe
AAR RAA NOS AR RA N Harran Haran
and BIR SAP Beersheba and the Har Karkom in the
Negev/Sinai and Goshen in the Nile Delta. He appeared to Jacob who was on his
was from Beersheba to Haran, addressing him from the top of a heavenly ladder,
AS RAA ) or AS RAA L Israel, up above AS the Lord in an aureole of light RAA
has the say ) or L ..., and later on, declaring himself to be the one and only
God of the Israelites, he spoke to Moses on the Har Karkom, identified with the
Biblical Mt. Sinai by Emmanuel Anati.
Hebrews, water finders (part 4/12)
When the children of Israel entered the desert of Zin
and found no water, (Book of Numbers 20) they gathered against Moses and Aaron.
The Lord in his glory (an aureole) appeared before Moses and Aaron and told
Moses how he can get water out of a rock. Moses did as he was commanded, smote
the rock twice with his rod, and "water came out abundantly" for all
the people and all the animals ... KOD DhAG BIR NIA Kodesh-Barnea – let
us erect the tent KOD of the able one DhAG here, by the well, where we can fill
our fur bags with water, fur BIR, it is a good place, NIA (exclamation of joy
when a good place for a camp had been found, from the permutation group of NAI
for finding a new camp). KOD DhAG accounts for Hebrew qodesh kodash 'holy'
Arabic mu'kaddas 'holy' Turkish mukaddes 'holy' Persian mogaddas 'holy', with a
Christian cognate in Italian casa di Dio 'house of God' for a church.
The Lord spoke to Moses on the Har Karkom, better
known as Mount Sinai. Then the Israelites wandered some thirty kilometers
westward to the base of Mount Seir, abode of Jahwe – rider of clouds, the
Lord, the able one who had the say – and then between twenty and thirty
kilometers northward into the desert of Zin, where Moses with the help from
above did a miracle, commemorated by the name of Kadesh Barnea in the above
etymology.
DhAG meaning able is part of the double formula naming
the supreme sky and weather god of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age and Iron Age
ShA PAD TYR AS CA
DhAG PAD TYR AS CA
The ruler ShA goes
ahead (activity of feet) PAD
and overcomes in the
double sense of rule and give TYR
up above AS in the sky
CA / The able one DhAG ... (repetition)
ShA PAD TYR Jupitter Jupiter Jovis Giove, DhAG PAD TYR
Dis pater, byname of Jupiter. DhAG deus 'god'. TYR Sseyr Sseus Zeus, DhAG Dios,
genitive of Zeus, DhAG theos 'god'. ShA PAD Shiva and the TYR CA Durga
emanation of his wife. DhAG Dagan(u), father of Baal, close in rank to Ilu El
who had the say ) or L. A short version of the above formula named Jahwe, rider
of clouds from Mount Seir (close to the emphatic Middle Helladic form of TYR
for Zeus, Sseyr)
ShA ... CA the ruler in the sky
DhAG ... CA the able one in the sky
Did Moses perform a miracle in the desert of Zin? Yes,
by making the best use of his God-given ability of a SAP BIR apiru, finding
water everywhere.
Hebrews, water finders (5/12)
KOD DhAG accounts for Hebrew qodash modern kadosh
'holy' Arabic mu'qaddas 'sanctified, holy, consecrated' Turkish mukaddas 'holy
(of places)' Persian mogaddes 'holy, sanctified, sanctuaries' and has a
parallel in Italian casa di Dio 'house of God' for a church. Further
derivatives of KOD are for example Hebrew xasa (chasa) 'find protection' and
'setr 'hidden place, secret'. Hidden and well protected in the tent of the
Lord at Kadesh-Barnea were the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat on it
(Exodus 37). The ark of the covenant was a wooden chest 2.5 cubits long and 1.5
cubits broad and high. The mercy seat placed on the chest was again 2.5 cubits
long and 1.5 cubits broad. It was decorated by a pair of cherubim, their wings
covering the entire length of the mercy seat while touching each other in the
middle, so each pair of wings covered 1.25 cubits. The royal cubit of the New
Kingdom of Egypt measured 52.5 centimeters or 28 fingerbreadths of 1.875
centimeters each, 7 of them measure 13.125 centimeters and are the unit in the
following table
length of mercy seat
2.5 cubits or 10 units
wings of one cherub
1.25 cubits or 5 units
breadth of mercy seat
1.5 cubits or 6 units
wings of other cherub
1.25 cubits or 5 units
The Old Phoenician letters had also numerical values,
or the other way round, numerals can mean letters. 10 5 6 5 yield jhwh for
Jahwe, the famous tetragram.
We may then assume that the mercy seat invited Jahwe
to come down from the heavens and take place in the holy of holies and have
mercy on his people, for example by providing rain. He appeared hidden in a
cloud, source of rain, the lining an aureole, the Biblical Lord in his glory.
Concordance between the letters of the tetragram jhwh
in early consonantic alphabets and the numbers 10 5 6 5 and the ShA.CA DhAG.CA
formula of Jahwe (there may be more versions than given here, as the early Semantic
scripts vary):
Jod -- Egyptian 'i' an arm or hand or two fingers, Old
Phoenician 'j' a raised arm and hand of two fingers in the act of blessing or
commanding, numerical value 10 (corresponding to the ten commandments on the
pair of tables kept in the ark of the covenant), in the Sinai script a raised
arm and/or a hand of three fingers, again the double aspect of blessing and
commanding, ruler ShA (heavenly commander)
He -- Old Phoenician 'h' a wing, numerical value 5,
Old North Semitic a ladder (Jacob's ladder), in the Sinai script the underside
of a cloud, rain falling out of it, symbolized by a snake heading downward, and
flowing off as a river, sky CA (where the rain comes from, realm of the
cherubim, abode of the Lord)
Waw -- Egyptian 'f' a horizontal snake, Old Phoenician
'w' the combination of a staff and a snake, numerical value 6, in the Sinai
script a roundish form evoking the lining of a cloud, aureole of the Lord in
his glory, able DhAG (desert snakes can smell water from afar, the heavenly
Lord as the able one enabled Aaron and Moses, turned their rods into snakes =
made them find water, a most precious ability in an arid zone)
Some scholars argue that the Sinai script is older
than the Phoenician one. So it is either a prototype or then an adaption to
life in the Negev and Sinai. In both cases the letters of the tetragram seem to
have been the core of the consonantic alphabet and may help establish the
taxonomy of the early Semitic scripts. For example Arabic has 10 jod 5 ha 6 waw
while the form of the letters differ greatly from Phoenician and the Sinai
script.
Hebrews, water finders (6/12)
10 5 6 5 Hebrew jod he waw he Arabic jod ha waw ha
jhwh Jahwe has the say ) or L, Ilu El, in a longer form )OG or LOG, logos (in
the beginning was logos, and logos was with God, and logos was God) Elohim
Allah, while TON for making oneself heard might be present in Adonai.
Greek logos 'word' has a wide range of meanings:
speech, presentation, explanation, tale, talk; description, book, fable, prose;
rumor, pretext; manner of speaking; permission to speak; ability of speaking;
eloquence; (have a) talk, conversation, negotiation, discussion, deliberation,
proposition; word, expression; utterance, claim, saying, theorem, definition;
oracle; calculation; expectation; relation, proposition; intellectual capacity,
reason; Logos (= Jesus Christ).
Religion can go along with democracy living in free
discussions, with reason and science. Hydrology was an early science at which the
SAP BIR apiru Hebrews excelled. The Bible is full of not yet recognized water
symbols, beginning with the snake in paradise that symbolizes the huge amount
of water needed for irrigating cultivated date palms, and the consequences
thereof. Israel makes the best use of the available water, while 70 (seventy)
percent of the water in vast Jordania evaporates unused.
Hebrews, water finders (7/12)
Mallory and Adams 2006 give *kwen(to)- 'holy' as root
of Lithuanian sventas (shventas) 'holy' Old Church Slavonic svetu 'holy'
Avestan spenta ('e' a schwa) 'holy' and say that *kwen(to)- probably has a
verbal origin in *keu(h1)- 'swell'
hence 'swollen (with some sort of sacred force)'. Apparently the shift k
– kw – sv poses no problem, so there is another possibility, KOD
DhAG svetu Czech svatý 'holy'
KOD DhAG KweD D A Kwen to sventu svatý
The Divine Hind of Magdalenian times called moon bulls
into life. Her main sanctuary was Altamira. Moreover she was honored with
arbors. Her human emanation was the Divine Hind Woman, her constellation Orion,
and her emblematic animals were a pair of antithetic ibices or mountain goats
(the latter an insight of Marie E.P. Knig) when Orion reaches the highest
position in the sky.
A bronze disc (diameter some ten centimeters) from
Luristan in western Iran shows the Orion goddess, evoked by a big framing
hourglass of six stars, giving birth to the moon god emerging with a round head
from her vulva. A similar depiction is among the petroglyphs around the Har
Karkom, the round head of the moon child a 'smiley'. The woman on the plaque
from Luristan wears a hat of fir twigs indicating a hut or an arbor made from
fir branches. The name of the arbor could have been MUC KOD DhAG
moon bull man MUC
born in the hut KOD
of the able one DhAG
by the Orion goddess
MUC for bull named here the moon bull as bull man and
moon god. KOD for hut has a parallel in Egyptian hat naming a heavenly house.
And DhAG is here the mighty Orion goddess. MUC for the moon bull man would have
survived in Persian mah 'moon'. The entire compound may have been adopted in
Mesopotamia where it became Arabic mu'qaddas 'holy' and from where it returned
to the Iran in Persian mogaddas 'holy'.
GEN for the three days of the young moon bull and
inverse NEG for the three days of the old moon bull enclose the death of the
latter and birth of the former between them. NEG is possibly present in Negev,
and GEN in Sin Zin Sinai, naming the moon god Sin, worshipped from Haran to the
Sinai, represented by a crescent, hence the young moon. GEN for the three days
or nights of the young moon suggests the golden calf as moon god Sin,
celebrated with "lusting" and feasting and full "pots of flesh"
(Numbers 11) refused as idolatry by the worshippers of Jahwe who saw their God
in a cloud, source of rain, his glory the lining of a cloud, so they dropped
MUC mu from their compound, keeping just KOD DhAG qodash 'holy'.
Hebrews, water finders (8/12)
In 1960 Yigael Yadin or his team discovered a bowl in
the citadel of Hazor bearing twice the inscription qadosh 'holy', once on the
side, and once on top of the rim, in a peculiar way: the consonants 'q' and 'd'
and 'sh' mark the corners of an imaginary triangle (not quite equilateral but
close) inscribed in the circle of the rim. If you follow the circle in
clockwise direction you get q d sh q d sh q d sh ... qodesh qodesh qodesh ...
holy holy holy ...
Also these letters have numerical values, q = 100, d =
4, sh = 300. If you read them counterclockwise you get q sh d or 100 300 4, and
by inserting mathematical operators instead of vowels you can turn the numbers
into an endless calculation: 100 plus 300 equals 400 divided by 4 equals 100
plus 300 equals 400 divided by 4 equals 100 plus 300 equals 400 divided by 4
equals 100 ... This endless calculation might symbolize the eternal circulation
of water, sine qua non of life, swelling and subsiding and swelling again, and
could have been a prayer: may the heavenly Lord read the inscription from above
and make water flow eternally ...
Hazor in 950 BC belonged to the Solomonic era. The
'molten sea' on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem could have commemorated the
miracle of Kadesh-Barnea, so the same letters/numbers could have been incised
on the rim of that holy fountain, and the bowl of Hazor, placed in the
innermost sanctuary of the citadel, filled with water, might have reminded of
the same miracle in the desert of Zin.
Early symbols are easily overlooked because of their
simplicity. While utmost simplicity in a scientific result is a hallmark of
genius, for example in a mathematical or physical formula.
Hebrews, water finders (9/12)
The endless calculation derived from the qodesh
formula of the Hazor bowl may appear trivial but is actually the solution to a
mathematical problem involving the limit of an infinite series. Begin with any
number, add 300, divide the sum by 4, add 300, divide the sum by 4, and so on.
The division will approach 100, whether you begin with one or a million.
How come? The initial number divided by 4x4x4x4...
disappears, while 300 multiplied by '4 '4x4 '4x4x4 '4x4x4x4 ... or 1/4 + 1/16 +
1/64 + 1/256 ... approximates 100, as you can glean from the 'stairway'
development of that series
'3 = '3
'3 = '4 '12
'3 = '4 '16 '48
'3 = '4 '16 '64 '192
'3 = '4 '16 '64 '256
'768
'3 = '4 '4x4 '4x4x4
'4x4x4x4 '4x4x4x4x4 ...
300 times '4 '4x4
'4x4x4 ... or '3 equals 100
Solomonic wisdom included mathematical knowledge on an
advanced level.
The water basin called 'molten sea' on the Temple
Mount of Jerusalem had a diameter of 10 cubits and a circumference of 30
cubits, yielding 30/10 or 3 for pi. Imagine a 'black' cubit of 21 units for the
diameter and a 'red' cubit of 22 units for the circumference (rc). Now you get
660/210 = 22/7 for pi. Much better.
Combine the 'black' cubit and 'red' cubit (colors
chosen for the inks in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus) and you can establish a
series of geometrical formulae based on fine approximate values (22/7 for pi,
99/70 and 140/99 for the square root of 2, 49/40 and 60/49 for sqrt3/sqrt2)
diameter of a circle 1
bc
circumference 3 rc
diameter of a circle 2
bc
area 3 bc rc
diameter of a sphere 1
bc
surface 3 bc rc
diameter of a sphere 2
bc
volume 4 bc bc rc
radius of a circle 1
bc
side of inscribed
hexagon 1 bc
periphery hexagon 6 bc
circumference circle 6
rc
side of a square 20 bc
diagonal 27 rc
edge of a cube 27 rc
diagonal face 40 bc
diagonal volume 49 bc
The qodesh formula encoded on the rim of the Hazor
bowl can be visualized by a circle of the diameter 54 rc and the inscribed
equilateral triangle of the side 49 bc, while the circle inscribed in the
triangle has a diameter of 27 rc, radius of the qodesh circle.
Now the qodesh circle leads to the 'molten sea' via a
sequence of inscribed squares and circles, diameters and sides 54 rc, 40 bc, 27
rc, 20 bc, 13.5 rc and finally 10 bc, diameter of the 'molten sea'.
Picture the circles around the 'molten sea', spreading
like a wave gaining space, diameters 10 bc, 13.5 rc, 20 bc, 27 rc, 40 bc, 54 rc
- from the water basin to the qodesh circle, both commemorating the miracle of
the well at Kadesh-Barnea in the desert of Zin.
The circles might have been round, flat and somewhat
irregular steps leading up to the fountain on the apex of the Temple Mount,
symbolizing Mount Hor, and water spilling over from the well ...
Hebrews, water finders (10/12)
The endless calculation derived from the rim of the
Hazor bowl – 100 plus 300 divided by 4 equals 100 plus 300 divided by 4
equals 100 ... has a visual equivalent in the qodesh circle, in the inscribed
equilateral triangle, and in the smaller circle inscribed in the triangle.
Diameter of the qodesh circle 54 rc, side of the
inscribed equilateral triangle 49 bc, diameter of the smaller circle inscribed
in this triangle 27 rc, area qodesh circle to area small circle to area ring 4
: 1 : 3. Let one unit of area 'a' be 6 bc rc (also the area of the circle
around the square 2 by 2 bc) and use a pi-value very slightly better than 22/7.
Now the area of the small circle is 100 a, the area of the ring 300 a, and the
area of the big circle divided by 4 equals 100 a. Begin with the area of the
small circle, add the area of the ring, and then divide their sum, the area of
the qodesh circle by 4, and you are back with the area of the small circle 100.
The shift from the small circle to the big circle and
back to the small circle encoded in the qodesh formula may symbolize the
swelling and subsiding of water. Joseph in Egypt understood Pharaoh's dream:
the seven fat cows followed by seven meagre ones are a period of abundance
followed by a famine, so he took precautions and saved the people from
starving.
We can pray, or we can use our God-given intelligence,
and sometimes praying can help us find a well in a parched corner of the mind.
Early mathematics, underestimated, reveals the formula
'simple yet clever', while early symbolism followed the more general formula
'simple yet complex'. The three aspects of simple and clever and complex come
together in the qodesh rim of the Hazor bowl and in the 'molten sea' on the
Temple Mount of Jerusalem.
Hebrews, water finders (11/12)
A realistic version of the 'molten sea' made by
Solomon would have been a cylindrical stone basin decorated with brass reliefs,
inner diameter 10 (black) cubits, depth 5 (red) cubits, capacity 2,000 baths. A
Hebrew bat was 22 liters. If a Solomonic bath had been short of 20 liters, we
get simple numbers for the pair of complementary cubits in relation to the
royal cubit of the New Kingdom of Egypt measuring 52.5 centimeters
black cubit = 7/8 of
the royal cubit or 45.9375 cm (bc)
red cubit = 11/12 of
the royal cubit or 48.125 cm (rc)
unit = 1/24 of the
royal cubit or 2.1875 cm
bc = 21 units,
alternative subdivision 6 parts
rc = 22 units,
alternative subdivision 8 parts
'Molten sea'
inner diameter 10 bc,
depth 5 rc, capacity 375 bc rc rc
or 200 chomer = 400
letek = 2,000 baths or bat
= 6,000 sea = 12,000
hin = 36,000 qab = 144,000 log
(mistake sixteen
liters on nearly forty-thousand liters)
The log was a goblet and served as unit in the series
of measures of volume and capacity: 1/6 bc by 1/8 rc by 1/8 rc
chomer 'barrel' 720
log
letek 360 log
epha/bat 72 log
sea '(big) jug' 24 log
hin '(smaller) jug' 12
log
qab 4 log
log 'goblet'
(0.2770624 liters)
While the Egyptians used an elaborate number system,
the Solomonic method worked with the numbers provided by the Old Phoenician
alphabet (which might have grown out of the Sinai script), for example
product mss = 40 by 60
by 60 = 144,000
bc/w by rc/ch by rc/ch
= bc/6 by rc/8 by rc/8 = 1 log
A round bat(h) can be given as a cylinder of the inner
diameter 1/2 bc and inner height 1 rc. A cylinder of the inner diameter 1 bc
and inner height 1 rc has a capacity of a quadruple bat(h).
---
An exercise for illustration. Transform the 'molten sea' –
diameter 10 bc, depth 5 rc, capacity 2,000 baths – into a rectangular
cistern and basin.
If the diameter of a circle measures 2 bc, the area 3
bc rc. If the diameter measures 10 bc, the area is bigger by a factor of 5
times 5, hence 75 bc rc. Multiply this by the depth 5 rc and you get a capacity
of 375 bc rc rc which can be factorized as follows
15 bc by
5 rc by 5 rc
So the opening of the cistern measures 5 rc by 5 rc,
the depth 15 bc, and the capacity 2,000 baths.
2,000 baths are 144,000 log, 40 by 60 by 60 log, one
log being 1/6 bc by 1/8 rc by 1/8 rc, yielding
40/6 bc by
60/8 rc by 60/8 rc
and then, by switching two divisors
40/8 bc by
60/6 rc by 60/8 rc
5 bc by
10 rc by 7 1/2 rc
The basin measures 7 1/2 rc by 10 rc, diagonal 12 1/2
rc, depth 5 bc, capacity 2,000 baths.
Once you are acquainted with the method you can easily
transform volumes and capacities, shifting between round and rectangular shapes
without caring about the difficult number of the circle. A good approximate
value of this number, and of the square roots of 2 and 3, are encoded in the
basic formulae.
---
The Solomonic method might have been developed for the
religious building program on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem.
Later on the red cubit was abandoned, and the black
cubit of 45.9375 cm replaced by the little Egyptian cubit of 45 cm, 6 palms of
7.5 cm. The palm allowed new definitions of the above measures: log 2/3 cubit
palm or 2/3 ppp, qab 8/3 ppp, hin 8 ppp, sea 16 ppp, bat 48 ppp or 20.25
liters, letek 240 ppp, chomer 480 ppp. (These can't have been the original
definitions, because the 'molten sea' of diameter 10 and depth 5 cubits had now
a capacity of 1,767 bat, way less than the required 2,000 bat. And again later
the above measures were increased by a linear factor of about 36/35.)
In the story telling of the Bible: Solomon turned to
the ways of Egypt. However, not completely. The ingenuous method of the
complementary cubits left traces from which it can be regained. First of all
the seemingly poor pi-value suggested by the 'molten sea' as described in the
Bible, and then a 'signature element' in the consonantic alphabet of Asia
Minor.
Hebrews, water finders (12/12)
Hold a precious paper against the light and you may
see a watermark. Another mark that might be called 'signature element' is
present in several early scripts and alphabets.
* Hebrew, Phoenician, Arabic
tetragram jhwh 10 5 6 5 encoded in the 'mercy seat',
and the qodesh formula connected with the 'molten sea', expanding the Solomonic
method of combined cubits, 21 and 22 units long respectively, providing a date
for the remarkably stable and widespread correspondence of consonants and
numbers in Asia Minor: well established already in 950 BC (qodesh bowl from
Hazor)
* Ionic alphabet
from alpha to omega, 24 letters representing the
summer solstice from sunrise to sunrise on Samos and at Milet, a flat horizon
provided: Alpha the hour from 4 to 5 o'clock in our time concept, given as head
of a bull or rather as head of the golden calf, Baal as the morning sun (later
identified with the supreme sky and weather god Zeus); Thaeta, hour from 11 to
12 o'clock, the sun reaching its highest position in the year, given as a ring
cross for Th, initial letter of theos 'god'; Pi for the hour between 19 and 20
o'clock, the shape reminding of a gate, here the western gate passed by the sun
god in the evening, disappearing below the horizon, peirar 'end, margin,
border, exit' pera 'beyond', entering the Underworld; Ypsilon the hour from 23
to 24 o'clock, hypo 'below' hypnos 'sleep'; and Omega the hour from 3 to 4
o'clock, sunrise on the next morning, the sign borrowed from an Egyptian
standard showing the sun on the horizon
* Hieroglyphic Minoan, Linear A, Linear B
signature element Mi Nu The, from MUC NOS SAI, bull
MUC mind NOS life SAI, the bull MUC or Mi given as head of a bull for the moon
bull, and for Baal in the guise of the golden calf, rising as morning sun from
the tree of life; mind NOS or nu (Greek nous) given as visual pun of a bull
leaper on his feet hands feet, emblem of a Minoan astronomer calculating the
movements of the moon and sun and planets (yes, a piece of Minoan humor), and
life SAI or The given as an abstract version of the tree of life
MUC NOS SAI Mi Nu The Minos
MUC NOS SAI C NOS SAI Knossos
the legend of the Minotaur encoding a lunisolar
calendar, while Ariadne's thread had been number sequences, for example this
one relating lunations and years (l/y)
37/3 99/8 136/11 235/19 371/30
* Phaistos Disc, deciphered by Derk Ohlenroth
a peculiar alphabet of 46 tiny pictures, among them
six alphas and other multiples, from around 1650 BC, designed for representing
Elaia's grove at Phigalia and Middle Helladic Tiryns in word and image,
signature element a rosette of eight petals, windrose and lunisolar calendar (a
long month 45 days, five Homeric weeks of nine days, a year eight months plus 5
and occasionally 6 more days indicated by the tiny circle in the center, while
21 continuous periods of 45 days are 945 days and correspond to 32 lunations or
synodic months, mistake less than one minute per lunation, or half a day in a
lifetime), phonetic value emphatic Ss, emblem of the supreme sky and weather
god Sseyr Sseus Zeus (and of Poseidon in the guise of a stallion with Demeter-Elaia
in the guise of a mare, parents of Nyx, the mighty goddess of the Night, alter
ego of the Earth goddess Gaia)
What we may call 'signature element' are then supreme
deities honored by an early script and the epochal invention of the alphabet.
Hebrews, water finders (first postscript – Hazor bowl
inscriptions, read by a goy with a dictionary)
Qoph = 100 and Daleth = 4 and Shin = 300 on the rim of
the Hazor bowl from around 850 BC mark the corners of an equilateral triangle.
When read in clockwise direction they yield Q-D-Sh qodesh 'holy', and when read
in counter-clockwise direction they become numbers in a never ending cycle
– 100 300 4 100 300 4 100 300 4 100 ...
100 plus 300 (equals
400)
(400) divided by 4
equals 100
100 plus 300 (equals
400)
(400) divided by 4
equals 100
100 plus 300 (equals
400)
(400) divided by 4
equals 100
This looks trivial, but isn't. Begin with any number,
say 50 or 1 or a million, and the algorithm will approximate 100. (Picture a circle
of the area 400, inscribe an equilateral triangle, inscribe a circle in the
triangle, and its area is 100, one fourth of the big circle, and the one of the
ring 300 units of area. The equilateral triangle and the inscribed and
circumscribed circles belong to the Solomonic method of combined cubits, one
cubit measuring 21 and the other 22 units of length, a method providing simple
formulae for several geometric problems, and a system of volumes and capacities
that can easily be handled.)
Now for the lateral inscription on a shard from the
broken bowl
Ssade(?) Mem
Shin Daleth Qoph (dot) Chet He Jod Waw(?)
The upper letters are small, the lower ones bigger.
The Waw at the beginning of the lower line appears on the margin of the shard,
only the lower part of the oblique stroke visible. If it is a Waw it may be the
letter which turns the past into the future, and allows this possible reading
(small) Ssade Mem
– masa' '(Biblical) vision'
Waw – in the
future as in the past
Jod – Ja, Jahwe
He Chet –
hach superlative
Qoph Daleth Shin
– qodesh 'holy'
invoking
the miracle of the well at Kadesh
The lateral inscription may indicate the use of the
Hazor bowl in a ceremony of celebrating the miracle of the well at Kadesh in
the desert of Zin. A priest may fill the bowl with water, then raise it for all
to see, and then evoke a vision (masa') of the Israelites in the desert, and
the miracle of the well at Kadesh --- as long as the believers in the most holy
Lord remain faithful and abide by his laws, the Lord most holy (Ja hach
qodesh) will repeat the miracle of the well and make water return forever
(initial Waw), it will subside and return and subside and return, never subside
completely, always return ...
The bowl of Hazor would then have had the same
function as the 'molten sea' on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem (diameter of the
basin 10 shorter cubits or 210 units, circumference 30 longer cubits or 660 units,
yielding 660/210 or 22/7 for pi).
Hebrews, water finders (second postscript – combined
geometry of the Ômolten seaŐ and Hazor qodesh bowl and Gezer calendar)
The Gezer calendar from the tenth or ninth century BC
was carved on a limestone tablet, enumerating eight periods of time, 2 2 2 1 1
1 2 1 months, in all the dozen months of an agricultural year. Each of the
eight periods begins on a Jod, first letter of the Hebrew word for month, also
invoking Ja, short for Jahwe, in one of his functions the fertility god, and
the numerical value of Jod is 10.
8 times 10 equals 80. Imagine a circle of the
cirumference 80. Inscribe a square standing on a corner. The side measures
practically 18 and the periphery 72 units, yielding 6 units for one month. The
implicit value for the square root of 2 is 140/99
1 1
2
2 3
4
5 7
10
12 17
24
29 41
58
70 99
140
and the value for pi is 22/7, both values belonging to
the Solomonic method of combined measures
18 times 140/99 times
22/7 equals 80
The year begins at the top corner of the square.
Proceed in clockwise direction. Upper and lower left sides
2 months gathering,
Tishrei (Sep) Cheshvan (Oct)
2 months planting,
Kislev (Nov) Tevet (Dec)
2 months late sowing,
Shvat (Jan) Adar (Feb)
Now you have reached the bottom corner of the calendar
square. Go on in clockwise direction. Lower left side
1 month cutting flax,
Nisan (Mar)
1 month reaping
barley, Iyar (Apr)
1 month reaping and
measuring grain, Sivan (May)
and upper left side
2 months of pruning,
Tammus (Jun) Av (Jul)
1 month summer fruit,
Elul (Aug)
Each corner of the square would mark a festival and ceremony
of the agricultural year, the top corner New Year between summer fruit and
gathering, while the circle around the calendar square may symbolize the smooth
flow of time, year in year out, granted by the 'Lord most holy who was and will
be' (lateral praise on the qodesh bowl from Hazor).
We may imagine the calendar figure engraved on a brass
disc in a temple, bearing short inscriptions that were copied on the limestone
tablet from Gezer by one Abij(a) whose name and signature on the tablet means
'Ja is my father'.
A large mirror version of this calendar figure can be
integrated into the Solomonic system of combined cubits, a 'black' cubit (bc)
of 21 small units, and a 'red' cubit (rc) of 22 small units. Diameter of the
circle 80 bc, cicumference 240 rc, side of the inscribed square 54 rc,
periphery 216 rc, 18 rc for one month. (Consider how pleasantly the numbers 80
and 18 return.)
The large calendar figure might have designed a
botanical garden, with a place for the four main agricultural festivals and
ceremonies.
The Gezer tablet emphasizes the letter Jod which
refers to Ja or Jahwe, the heavenly Lord, and has the numerical value 10. We
find this number also in the ten commandments, in the proportions of the 'ark
of the covenant' and the 'mercy seat' on the ark, in the diameter of the
'molten sea', and in the power form 10 x 10 = 100 in the letter Qoph at the
beginning of q d sh qodesh 'holy' on the Hazor bowl that praises the 'Lord most
holy who was and will be' in the lateral inscription.
Combined Solomonic geometry of the Gezer calender and
Hazor qodesh bowl and 'molten sea'
Gezer circle, diameter
80 bc
inscribed calendar
square, side 54 rc
inscribed qodesh
circle, diameter 54 rc
inscribed equilateral
triangle, side 49 bc
inscribed circle, diameter 27
rc
inscribed square, side
20 bc
inscribed circle,
diameter 20 bc
inscribed square, side
13.5 rc
inscribed circle,
diameter 13.5 rc
inscribed square, side
10 bc
inscribed circle,
diameter 10 bc,
circumference 30 rc – 'molten sea'
The long sequence of easy numbers based on fine
approximations (22/7 for pi, 140/99 for the square root of 2, mirror value
70/99, and 343/198 for the square root of 3, mirror value 594/343) leads from the
Gezer agricultural calendar via the Hazor qodesh circle and triangle to the
'molten sea' that commemorated the miracle of the well at Kadesh Barnea in the
desert of Zin.
Whether king Solomon was a historical figure or the
personification of an era, he deserves being called a wise man.