Jesus continues to heal the sick

by Damien F. Mackey ‘Go back and report to John [the Baptist] what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me’. Matthew 11:4-6 With these words, based on his miraculous actions, Jesus confirmed to the imprisoned John the Baptist, on behalf of John’s disciples, that He was indeed ‘the One who was to come’, the Messiah. And his healing work has not ceased to this day. With a new miracle (the 71st) now recorded at Lourdes, and with the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes occurring next week, 11th February (2025), I have decided to up-date this article. Caroline De Sury writes: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2024/12/10/lourdes-confirms-first-miracle-english-speaker-249449 Lourdes confirms 71st miracle—and the first for an English speaker Caroline De Sury — OSV News December 10, 2024 PARIS (OSV News) -- The list of miracles that have taken place at the French Marian shrine in Lourdes now includes, for the first time, an English-speaking soldier-patient. Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool, a seaside British city, officially announced on Dec. 8 that the 71st miracle had been granted to a British soldier, wounded during World War I. John Traynor, a soldier in the Royal Navy, was hit by machine-gun fire in 1915 in present-day Turkey. He was cured at Lourdes during a pilgrimage for his diocese in 1923. “This is a very special case, since we simply searched the archives for the result of investigative work that had been carried out almost 100 years ago,” Fra’ Alessandro de Franciscis, the doctor in charge of the Lourdes Sanctuary’s Office of Medical Observations since 2009, told OSV News. “In reality, this healing had already been officially recognized at Lourdes in 1926,” the medical professional, who is also grand hospitaller of the Sovereign Order of Malta, said. [Millions of pilgrims travel to Lourdes each year. What made it such an important symbol of hope and healing?] According to details provided by the sanctuary, Traynor had undergone numerous surgical operations after his injuries, but to no avail. He had lost the use of his right arm and suffered from severe epileptic seizures. Attempts at medical treatment had resulted in partial paralysis of his legs. “He was living on a war pension,” de Franciscis said, “but in July 1923, he went to Lourdes on the occasion of the first pilgrimage of the Archdiocese of Liverpool, and he was cured on the third day, immediately, instantly, after being immersed in the sanctuary’s pools.” St. Bernadette Soubirous witnessed 18 Marian apparitions beginning on Feb. 11, 1858, and people of her time witnessed the first physical and spiritual healing miracles after visiting the shrine or drinking or washing in the spring Our Lady pointed Bernadette to in an apparition. To date, dozens of miracles have been confirmed by the special medical commission permanently working at the shrine, which de Franciscis leads. “When he returned home to the U.K., he was examined by the doctors,” the doctor said. “They were amazed.” “I would point out that his recovery was complete,” de Franciscis added. “Previously, he was almost paralyzed in his legs, and out of condition to have children. But after his recovery, he and his wife had several children,” he stressed. “Three doctors who were with him on the pilgrimage encouraged him to return to Lourdes to testify to his healing,” the head of Lourdes’ medical office recounted. “That is what he did in July 1926. The collegial investigation took place in Lourdes, according to the usual procedures. The conclusion was that this cure was truly inexplicable.” Everything was properly noted by the predecessors of doctors now working in Lourdes. “The sanctuary’s newspaper published in full, at the time, the minutes of the Office of Medical Observations doctors’ meeting, with the testimonies from the English doctors who had examined John Traynor before and after this cure.” Because of post-war turbulence in Europe, communications between Lourdes and Liverpool regarding conclusions of the inquiry were never forwarded to the Archbishop of Liverpool. “But this was the post-war era, and there were still organizational and communication dysfunctions at the shrine. ... In general, the healings recognized by the sanctuary in the 1920s and 1930s were most often not made public until the 1950s,” the lead Lourdes doctor said. “After his recovery, John Traynor became a member of the Hospitalité of Lourdes, where he went every year,” de Franciscis said, referring to the religious confraternity under the spiritual authority of the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, which is active in Lourdes during the main pilgrimage season, providing people to welcome pilgrims at … the sanctuary’s baths. “He was strong and healthy, and to English and Irish Catholics, it was obvious that there had been a miracle. But the official documents attesting to his recovery in Lourdes, before and after the miracle, were forgotten,” the doctor told OSV News. “On the occasion of the centenary of this first pilgrimage to Lourdes by the Archdiocese of Liverpool, we turned our attention back to his case,” de Franciscis explained. “We undertook a search of the archives, and found the documents. They prove beyond doubt that the Lourdes Bureau had made a definitive judgment on the unexplained nature of this cure. They are clear and unambiguous.” In recent months, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes, was able to forward a complete dossier to the Archdiocese of Liverpool, which led its archbishop to recognize the healing as a miracle, the doctor confirmed. Traynor, who died in 1943, is therefore the 71st recognized miraculous cure from Lourdes. The 70th person miraculously cured is still alive, de Franciscis said. She is a French woman religious, Sister Bernadette Moriau, now over 85. Her miraculous cure was recognized in 2018, after 10 years of investigation. "And John Traynor is the first case of healing of an English-speaking patient," de Franciscis said. "Most of the miracles are French. There are Italians too, a Belgian and a German. But there were not any English speakers yet." "I am personally sensitive to this," the doctor concluded with a smile. "I myself am Italian, born in Naples, but of an American mother, from Connecticut!" And we read in the article, “Is there a God?”, of the scientifically inexplicable healings there: http://www.is-there-a-god.info/life/lourdes/ Healings at Lourdes This page in brief Apparent divine healings are a challenge to our natural way of thinking. Are the stories true? Is the evidence reliable? Are the explanations we are given true? Do they prove God exists and heals, or is that only for the gullible? This is a brief summary of the apparent miracles at Lourdes, how they have been investigated and the conclusions of a medical commission, which found many apparent miracles had insufficient evidence to justify acceptance, but a small number seem to have no other explanation. A world-famous place of healing Lourdes is a village in southern France, close to the Pyrenees mountains and the Spanish border. Many healing miracles are reputed to have occurred there since 1858, when a 14 year old girl claimed to have ‘seen’ a beautiful lady that Roman Catholics believe was the mother of Jesus. Of the estimated 200 million people who have sought a cure there, millions claim to have been healed. Where possible, people claiming healing are examined on the spot by a medical bureau, and the information is reviewed by an international commission of medical specialists, independent of the Catholic Church and including sceptics. To be regarded as authentic, claims have to satisfy four requirements: • the illness and cure was well documented, • the illness was serious and was unable to be effectively treated, • the symptoms disappeared within hours, and • the healing lasted for sufficient time to ensure the ‘cure’ was not just a temporary remission (e.g. in the case of leukemia, 10 years is required). The miracles Most claims lack sufficient evidence to be verified, but 68 miracles have passed this stringent checking and have been proclaimed as authentic, while several thousand other remarkable cures have been documented. Some examples of claimed healings include: • Margerie Paulette, 22 years old, cured of tubercular meningitis in 1929. • Mademoiselle Dulot, cured of stomach and liver cancer in 1925. • Louise Jamain, cured in 1937 of tubercular peritonitis. • Jeanne Fretel, cured in 1949 of tubercular peritonitis. • Rose Martin, cured of cancer of the uterus in 1947. • Vittorio Micheli, cured of a malignant tumour of the hip in 1963. • Serge Francois, cured of a herniated disc in 2002. The stories of a few other ‘approved miracles’ are outlined below at Some stories. Doubts and questions These miracles which have passed the medical commission’s strict criteria are apparently sufficiently well documented to meet any reasonable requirement for evidence. If we are willing to be convinced by evidence, then the evidence is there that in each of these cases, something very unusual happened. Many atheists and rationalists are quite sure that miracles cannot occur, and thus may not be willing or able to be convinced by any evidence. Therefore they probably will not be convinced here, and will look for natural explanations or, despite the evidence, question the truth of the stories. Protestant christians may also be sceptical that God would heal via the Virgin Mary, and in a place where they may believe superstition is prevalent. But again, how can they explain the evidence? Some stories Jean-Pierre Bely Jean-Pierre Bely was paralysed with multiple sclerosis, and was classified by the French health system as a total invalid when he went to Lourdes in 1987. He received ‘the anointing of the sick’, and when he returned home he was able to walk. Subsequently, virtually all traces of the illness disappeared. Patrick Fontanaud, an agnostic physician who looked after Bely, said there is no scientific explanation for what occurred. Gabriel Gargam Gabriel Gargam was severely injured in a railway accident in 1900, in which he was almost crushed to death and was paralysed from the waist down by a crushed spine. A court ordered the railway to pay him compensation because he was a human wreck who would henceforth need at least two persons to care for him. His condition continued to deteriorate. He was not a religious person, but his mother persuaded him to go on pilgrimage to Lourdes, very weak, fed via a tube and lapsing into unconsciousness. But at Lourdes his paralysis disappeared and he was able to walk, although still very thin and weak. Within a short time, he was eating normally, able to resume work and he lived to 83. Serge Perrin Serge Perrin began to suffer neurological problems in 1964 at age 35, and was subsequently diagnosed with thrombosis in the left carotid artery, for which surgery was nor recommended. He visited Lourdes in 1969 as his condition worsened, but there was no improvement. His deterioration continued until 1970, when he was almost blind and unable to care for himself alone. At his wife’s insistence, he visited Lourdes as second time and received the anointing of the sick. By that afternoon, he could walk without the aid of a walking stick and could see without using spectacles. He returned home, fully cured, as was confirmed by a serious of medical tests. References o Wikipedia on Lourdes and Our Lady of Lourdes. o A description of all 68 approved miracles at Lourdes in The Miracle Hunter. o A Protestant Looks at Lourdes. o Scientific Evidence of Miracles at Lourdes in Doxa.

Forgetting God, the works of the Lord, the holocaust

by Damien F. Mackey “Towards the end of his life [Primo Levi] was beginning to worry about precisely what Alastair writes about: that memories would fade and the horror of the holocaust – the greatest evil ever inflicted on man by man – might fade as well”. Fraser Nelson Forgetting the major lessons of history can have dire consequences for humanity. Hence the wise among the Hebrews were forever reminding their people: “Do not forget the works of the Lord!” “That they might not forget the works of God” (3) "That they might not forget the works of God" For instance, according to Psalm 77:11-15 (Douay) /Psalm 78: And they forgot his benefits, and his wonders that he had shewn them. Wonderful things did he do in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Tanis. He divided the sea and brought them through: and he made the waters to stand as in a vessel. And he conducted them with a cloud by day: and all the night with a light of fire. He struck the rock in the wilderness: and gave them to drink, as out of the great deep. A modern prophet had bemoaned the consequences of such forgetting: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened”: Solzhenitsyn (3) "Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened": Solzhenitsyn Although Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn here was thinking essentially about his own Russia, what he said has applications for the whole world. War, torture, starvation, death camps. “… orchestrated famines, deportations, civil wars, terror campaigns, forced labor, concentration camps, and mass killings” (see below). “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened” Fittingly, on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a Marist priest in Sydney told of one Primo Levi, himself a prisoner, who had feared that the holocaust, in time, would be forgotten. The priest urged the congregation to obtain a copy of Primo Levi’s book, The Drowned and the Saved: On a far lighter note, the same Marist priest had told a joke. An Italian lady had approached him and told him: ‘You look like Padre Pio’. He replied to her: ‘I look like Padre Pio because I am Padre Pio’. ‘Noooo’, she said. ‘Padre Pio very holy’. Remembering what the priest had said bout Primo Levi, I looked him up on the Internet and found this article by Fraser Nelson (Times and Spectator): https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-primo-levi-s-warning-about-the-young-forgetting-the-holocaust-resonates-now/ Fraser Nelson Why Primo Levi’s warning about the young forgetting the holocaust resonates now • 30 March 2018, 12:00am One of the most thought-provoking pieces in The Spectator this week is from Alastair Thomas on why his generation don’t get so upset about anti-Semitism. He explains the phenomenon and offers an explanation: the years have passed, the memories of the holocaust have dimmed. It’s no longer the experience of someone’s grandparents’ generation, but further back. Since then, there are more recent memories: of the Israeli Defence Force and Gaza. The conflation between Jews, Israel and Zionism has restored the idea of the Jews as being suspiciously powerful – the oppressors rather than the oppressed. This certainly stands to reason. Memories of the holocaust were kept alive for my generation by films like Schindler’s List. But there are few left to tell the story first hand. Reading Alastair’s essay made me think of a book I read years ago: The Drowned and the Saved, by Primo Levi, who was arrested for being a member of the Italian anti-fascist front and sent to Auschwitz. Towards the end of his life he was beginning to worry about precisely what Alastair writes about: that memories would fade and the horror of the holocaust – the greatest evil ever inflicted on man by man – might fade as well. When I first read it, I thought he was wrong: that the holocaust was taught in schools world over and films like Schindler’s List would keep the nightmare vivid for new generations. But perhaps he was right after all. That film is now a quarter-century old. A new generation will have new reference points. …. Levi’s writing is incredibly vivid, yet hard to track down in the digital era: The Drowned and the Saved, even If Not Now, When? are not on Kindle, not Googleable. So we have posted an extract from the book on Coffee House (here) to give a taste. For those who haven’t come across his writing before, you can find it all here, many for under £1. It’s dangerous, he says, to think that the evil of the holocaust sprang from the blackness of Nazi hearts and died with Hitler. It had all-too-human beginnings, and one of them was the general idea that the Jews are suspect, which can come back anytime, anywhere. At church services world over this afternoon, Christians will be saying the Good Friday prayer for the Jews. There’s plenty to think about after a week where Jewish leaders were driven to protest in parliament. But this is about more than Corbyn, or the recent attacks in France: there’s a general sense that anti-Semitism is back – partly because it doesn’t appal a young generation and the scenario that Primo Levi described is now coming to pass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_theology#:~:text=The%20well%2Dknown%20Lithuanian%20Jewish,religious%20observance%20for%20the%20enlightenment. “The well-known Lithuanian Jewish leader, Rabbi Elazar Shach taught that the Holocaust was a divine punishment for the sins of the Jewish people, and for the abandoning of religious observance for the enlightenment”. This is getting to the crux of the matter, not just for Jews, but for Russians, Germans, and indeed for the whole world. Our Lady’s Prophecy Fulfilled: Spreading Errors of Russia …. Our Lady of Fatima warned that if mankind did not stop offending God, and if her messages were not heeded, a worse war was yet to come. To prevent the evil of World War II, Our Lady requested both the Communion of Reparation on Five First Saturdays, as well as the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. As we have seen, the request was not heeded in time. World War II erupted, and the errors of Russia were spread throughout the world. ________________________________________ Our Lady appeared to the three children in Fatima eight days after Pope Benedict XV’s piercing cry for her intercession for an end to the war. Yet that was not the only providential reason for Our Lady’s appearance to the three children at that specific time. Something dangerous was also happening in Russia which would have a devastating impact on the world. The Russian Revolutions Russia suffered greatly from the negative effects of World War I. The high number of casualties, combined with economic stagnation and food shortages, caused the people to grow angry, restless, and critical of the country’s governance. This national instability culminated in the overthrow of the one thousand year-old Christian monarchy, and the execution of the Russian Tsar and the ruling Romanov dynasty. This revolution occurred in February 1917 (March on the Gregorian calendar), and a provisional government was established in its place. Seeing the Russian monarchy toppled, Vladimir Lenin, who had previously been exiled from Russia due to his revolutionary political agitations, saw his opportunity to return and once again involve himself with the nation’s politics. Lenin was fully committed to the economic, social, and atheistic philosophy of Marxism and sought to implement it in Russia. He banded with other leftist political revolutionaries to form the Bolshevik party, and he became its leader. The discontent about the ongoing war and the instability under the provencial government allowed the Bolsheviks to quickly rise to power, and they seized control of Russia during the infamous October Revolution (November on the Gregorian Calendar). Lenin became the head of Russia, and the Bolsheviks became the Communist Party. This was the keystone event that led to the founding of the Soviet Union. The country once called “Holy Russia” by her people, a land rich in faith and tradition, was overthrown. Our Lady was appearing in Fatima during this critical period in Russia’s—and by extension, Europe’s—history; the first and last of her apparitions corresponded closely with the first and second Russian revolutions in March and November of 1917. The Persecution Of The Church And The Family Essential to the realization of Lenin’s goal to implement his Marxist ideals and transform Russia into a communist country was to eliminate the influence of Christianity, especially the Russian Orthodox church. The following year, Russia implemented the law of separation of Church and State, “In order to ensure genuine freedom of conscience for the working people,” that is, freedom from the moral restraints that religion brings. The law of separation of Church and State was, in effect, a law imposing State atheism. Although religion was not officially banned, its influence on society was intentionally and aggressively attacked. The Marxist revolutionaries knew that to undermine religious practice one must first corrupt the morality of the people. In addition to weakening the Church, they also worked to upend the social unit of the family in order to realize their ideal of a classless society ruled by an authoritarian State. To further this goal, the Bolsheviks instituted no-fault divorce, thus supplanting sacramental marriage with civil marriage. Divorce was made swift and easily obtainable, with no provisions for the support of children. Laws were passed stating that there was now no such thing as an illegitimate child, a revolt against the natural right of children to be born into the stability of wedlock and raised by their mother and father. The result was utter moral decay among the people. Previously a deeply religious people, many Russians became promiscuous and literally began to divorce and remarry with the seasons. Women who were divorced by their husbands while pregnant sought to abort their children out of the fear of abandonment. Under Communist rule, Russia became the first country in the world to legalize abortion, and eventually the nation with the highest rate of divorce and abortion in the world. Before these disastrous laws were implemented, it was the Church who governed marriage, family, and the moral life of the people in the name of God. The Bolshevik Revolution was not merely a political revolution, it was a revolution of the fabric of society itself, and ultimately a revolt against the divine and natural law of God. If the Bolshevik Revolution is—as some people have called it—the most significant political event of the 20th century, then Lenin must for good or ill be regarded as the century’s most significant political leader. Not only in the scholarly circles of the former Soviet Union but even among many non-Communist scholars, he has been regarded as both the greatest revolutionary leader and revolutionary statesman in history, as well as the greatest revolutionary thinker since Marx. Encyclopedia Britannica Once Lenin defeated every political enemy which threatened his power, the Soviet Union was formed in 1922 under Secretary Joseph Stalin. Lenin then became the first dictator of the world’s first Marxist state, although briefly, as he died in 1924. His ruthlessness against his political enemies established precedent for his successor, Joseph Stalin, to preside over a campaign of brutality against his own citizens, especially Christians. Although Our Lady mentioned the need for the consecration of Russia during her apparitions at Fatima, she did not formally ask for it at that time. This request was not given to Sr. Lucia until June 13, 1929. Once again, the timing was providential as there was a significant event transpiring in Russia at that time. In 1929 Russia began a new wave of anti-religious persecution under the dictatorship of the infamous Joseph Stalin. Previously the Orthodox Church was persecuted indirectly; Christians were imprisoned by being labeled as enemies of the State. Now, an official political campaign was begun to actually destroy the Church. Ecclesiastical property and wealth was confiscated, religious activities were prohibited, churches were destroyed, and nearly all clergy, along with many laity, were killed or sent to concentration camps. Christianity in Russia was forced underground. In addition to unleashing a severe persecution on the Orthodox Church, Stalin turned on his own citizens in other evil ways. In the 1930’s Stalin forced a man-made famine on the Ukraine. This genocide killed an estimated 7-8 million people. During the famine’s worst period from 1932-34, it is estimated that nearly 30,000 Ukrainians were dying from starvation every day. Meanwhile, Stalin denied the existence of the famine while exporting Russian grain to other countries. Such was the brutality that would become the manner of rule for atheistic communist dictators throughout the 20th century: orchestrated famines, deportations, civil wars, terror campaigns, forced labor, concentration camps, and mass killings. Perhaps Jacinta, who often received visions of the future chastisements that Our Lady of Fatima prophesied, beheld the devastating Ukrainian famine when she said to Lucia, “Can’t you see all those highways and roads and fields full of people, who are crying with hunger and have nothing to eat? And the Holy Father in a church praying before the Immaculate Heart of Mary? And so many people praying with him?” Russia Spreads Her Errors The central error of Russia was the modern atheistic Marxist-Communist State and its attacks on morality, the natural order of human society, and the Church. This diabolical revolutionary spirit spread to other countries like an infectious disease, starting with the Eastern bloc countries, until more than half of the globe was ruled by communist dictators. Their brutal regimes which severely persecuted the Church and killed millions of their own citizens. …. The Russian Bolshevik revolutionaries … however, actively pursued a global atheistic communism. The Bolsheviks implemented Marx’s Communist Manifesto and became the world’s first communist state. The Soviet Union then became not only a dominant world power, but also a flagship for the rise of atheistic dictatorships around the world. These brutal regimes and their insidious philosophies threatened and slaughtered their own citizens in a heinous manner never before seen in history. The 1997 book, The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression by Stephane Courtois places the death toll of communism in the 20th century at 94 million, making atheistic communist regimes more deadly than the first two World Wars combined: People’s Republic of China: 65 million Soviet Union: 20 million Cambodia: 2 million North Korea: 2 million Ethiopia: 1.7 million Afghanistan: 1.5 million Eastern Bloc: 1 million Vietnam: 1 million Latin America 150,000 International Communist movement and Communist parties not in power: 10,000 In addition to the shocking death toll, the suppression and persecution of the Christian faith and the institutionalization of immorality was the most devastating for the salvation of souls. Without the light of the Christian faith to guide souls to the worship of the One True God, many souls under Communist regimes were lost for eternity. Looking back on this devastation, we are reminded of what Lucia said to the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, on the eve of the anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima in 1982: “The third part of the secret is a symbolic revelation, referring to this part of the Message, conditioned by whether we accept or not what the Message itself asks of us: ‘If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, etc.’ Since we did not heed this appeal of the Message, we see that it has been fulfilled, Russia has invaded the world with her errors. And if we have not yet seen the complete fulfilment of the final part of this prophecy, we are going towards it little by little with great strides. If we do not reject the path of sin, hatred, revenge, injustice, violations of the rights of the human person, immorality and violence, etc. And let us not say that it is God who is punishing us in this way; on the contrary it is people themselves who are preparing their own punishment. In his kindness God warns us and calls us to the right path, while respecting the freedom he has given us; hence people are responsible.” Again, it is incredible to consider that the Mother of God offered a means to prevent this disaster for humanity, with the responsibility of averting it given to the authority of the Vicar of Christ as the shepherd of the world’s souls.

Habakkuk’s solar imagery highly compatible with Akhnaton’s Aten

“Your glory was like the sunrise. Rays of light flashed from your mighty hand. Your power was hidden there”. Habakkuk 3:4 Nili Shupak, of the University of Haifa, has detected what appears to be a definite influence from Akhnaton’s Atenism imagery upon chapter 3 of the Book of Habakkuk. I refer to Shupak’s article, “The God from Teman and the Egyptian Sun God: A Reconsideration of Habakkuk 3:3–7”. Before proceeding to some of Nili Shupak’s comparisons, I need to say who I (at least) consider both pharaoh Akhnaton (Akhenaten) and Habakkuk to have been. Taking Habakkuk first, although he post-dated Akhnaton, I merely repeat my summary of the prophet, as to his alter egos, from my article: Magi were not necessarily astronomers or astrologers (4) Magi were not necessarily astronomers or astrologers …. In what follows it will become clear why I strongly favour this, albeit poorly known, tradition. But, for this to be facilitated, it is necessary for the prophet Job to be fully identified. Firstly, Job was Tobias son of Tobit of the (Catholic) Book of Tobit. This connection imposed itself forcefully upon my mind on this very same day (1st January, Solemnity of the Mother of God) some decades ago. Secondly Tobias (Job), who lived in neo-Assyrian captivity - and on into the Chaldean and Medo-Persian eras - and who must therefore also have had a foreign name, was the prophet Habakkuk (an Akkadian name). Thirdly, the Jews must have shortened the unfamiliar name Habakkuk to Hakkai (or Haggai). [End of quote] In sum: The prophet Habakkuk, abbreviated to (Hakkai) Haggai, was the famous prophet Job, as well as Tobias, son of Tobit. He was a righteous and very pure man who had received angelic visitation (cf. Job 16:19; Tobit 5:4-12:22; Daniel 14:34-36). As for Akhnaton, he I have variously identified in e.g. my article: Syrian Kingmaker in Ancient Egypt (DOC) Syrian Kingmaker in Ancient Egypt as the biblical leper, Na’aman and Hazael the Syrian, as El Amarna’s Syrian, Aziru (according to Dr. I. Velikovsky’s Ages in Chaos, I), but also - most importantly for my Syrian-Egyptian connection - as the Arsa (Irsu), or Aziru, of the Great Harris Papyrus, a Syrian who took control of Egypt and its gods. Akhnaton, prior to his becoming pharaoh, was the legendary Amenhotep son of Hapu, dutifully serving Amenhotep ‘the Magnificent’, whom I have identified also as the biblical Ben-Hadad, a veritable master king. Now, coming to consider what Nili Shupak has written, concerning the influence of Atenist imagery upon Habakkuk 3, I need firstly to recall the fact that Akhnaton was, in a properly revised (Velikovskian-based) El Amarna, influenced by King David. The pharaoh’s famous Hymn to the Aton has often been compared to David’s Psalm 104. See e.g. “Parallelism between “The Hymn to Aten” and Psalm 104”: https://projectaugustine.com/biblical-studies/ancient-near-east-studies/parallelism-between-the-hymn-to-aten-and-psalm-104/ Typically, though, but wrongly, Akhnaton is given the chronological precedence over King David. Nili Shupak writes: file:///C:/Users/Damien%20Mackey/Downloads/janes_28_shupak_nili_the_god_from_teman_and_the_egyptian_sun_god%20(4).pdf …. A new explanation in the Egyptian setting a. Amarna religion The problematic verse may be resolved in light of the perceptions and beliefs prevalent in Egypt in the fourteenth century b.c.e., [sic] known as the Amarna or the Aten religion. This religion extraordinary in the history of Egypt, was introduced by Amenhotep IV, Akhenaten, who ascended the throne in 1351 and reigned until 1334. Some regard the religious reform of this king as the first attestation of monotheism in the world. But whether it was a true monotheism or not, it is clear that Amarna religion was belief in one god, the god Aten. A new iconographic symbol was given this god, a sun disc with radiating rays each terminating in human hands imparting signs of life (‘nh) and strength (w·s) to the king and his family (see figure 1). The idea expressed in this symbol, namely, the god bestowing grace upon the king, is represented both in the art of the period—i.e., in the wall decorations of buildings and tombs—and in the inscriptions of the king and his high officialdom. For instance, in the inscription from the tomb of a courtier named Tutu, it is said: [When you are shining] you light up (˙q.k) the two countries (i.e., Egypt) and your rays (stwt.k) are (shining) upon your beloved son, your hands carry life (‘nh) and power (w·s). In the boundary stelae of Amarna, the new capital built by Akhenaten, the king declares that when Aten shines in Akhetaten (Amarna) he fills it with “his fair and loving rays, which he casts upon me, consisting of life (‘nh) and dominion (w·s) forever and ever.” The main source of our knowledge of the new religion is the Hymn to the Aten, which was probably composed by the king himself. As it appears from this hymn, one of the main features of the Amarna religion is the concept of the Aten as a universal god—no longer a national god of Egypt alone but the god who created all people and all languages, the god who bestows life and nurtures all of humankind. The Aten is the god of Egypt’s neighbors in north and south, Syria and Nubia—in the words of the hymn: The lands of Hor and Kush The land of Egypt, You set every man in his place, You supply their needs; Everyone has his food His lifetime is counted . . . You made Nile (Hapy) in the netherworld You bring him when you will, To nourish the people . . . All distant lands, you make them live, You made a heavenly Nile (Hapy) descend to them (The Hymn to the Aten, ll. 8–9). Another innovation in Amarna religion is the ritual of light. The emphasis is not on worshiping the sun as a physical body that projects heat, but the adoration of the sun as a celestial luminary, the origin of light.18 Already in the very beginning of Akhenaten’s reign, when the sun god was still called by his old name, Re-Harakhti, and depicted in the traditional image of a man with a falcon’s head wearing a sun disc, it was said that he rejoices in the horizon “in his name Shu (the god of light) which is in (or from) the Aten (the sun disc)” (The Hymn to the Aten, l.1). Light is the source of life on earth: “You are indeed one, but millions of lives (are) inside you to make them life” (The Short Hymn to the Aten).19 The terminology and expressions accompanying the description of the god Aten are usually associated with the semantic field of light: to illuminate (ssp, s’˙d, psd), to shine (wbn), rays (stwt), brilliance (t˙n).20 The opposite of this light is night’s darkness (kkw), which symbolizes death: “When you set in western horizon, Earth is in darkness as if in death” (The Hymn to the Aten, l. 3).21 Another element which distinguishes the new religion is the abstraction of the god’s image. The god Aten, unlike more ancient gods, is not presented as a sculpted or painted image. The concept is that the heavenly image of the god cannot be rendered as an earthly materialization (theomorphism). This concept is expressed in the following saying of the king: “(God is) the one who built himself with his own hands, and no craftsman knows him.”22 The only tangible embodiment of the god Aten, then, is on the one hand, the sun disc in the sky—“You alone, shining in your forms of Aten” (The Hymn to the Aten, l. 1123)—and on the other, the king, the earthly embodiment of the celestial god: There is no other who knows you, Only your son, Neferkheprure, Wa-ni-Re (The Hymn to the Aten, l. 12).24 The Aten religion, then, was essentially universal, focused on the celestial light, the sun, which exists anywhere on earth, unlinked to any particular theomorphic materialization. Therefore, it may well have been more apt for propagation among the neighboring cultures than any Egyptian religious concept that preceded it. - 18. Cf. J. Assmann, “Die ‘Häserie’ des Echnaton. Aspekte der Amarna-Religion,” Saeculum 23 (1972), 116–18; D. B. Redford, “The Sun Disc in Akhenaten’s Program: Its Worship and Antecedents, I,” JARCE 13 (1976), 47–56; J. P. Allen, “The Natural Philosophy of Akhenaten,” in W. K. Simpson, ed., Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt (New Haven, 1989), 89–101; E. Hornung, Echnaton, Die Religion des Lichtes (Zürich, 1995), 61–62. 19. In addition to the “Hymn to the Aten” found in the tomb of Ay, the Commander of Chariotry, theAmarna tombs also contained a shorter version of the hymn which is named here “The Short Hymn to the Aten.” Sandman, Texts, 15, lines 4–9; Lichtheim, Literature, 2.90–92; Murnane, Texts, 159. 20. The perception of the Aten (the physical sun disc) as a source of light is perhaps also reflected inthe musicians’ custom in the Amarna period of tying a white band over their eyes; L. Manniche, “Symbolic Blindness,” Cd’E 53 (1978), 13–21. 21. See n. 17 above. 22. W. Helck, Urkunden der 18 Dynastie (Berlin, 1958–71), 22.12–13. 23. See n. 17 above. 24. See n. 17 above. b. Interpreting Hab. 3:4 on the basis of Amarna religion Difficult terminology and expressions that are supposedly ambiguous and obscure in Hab. 3:4 may be clarified and explained in view of the Egyptian belief in the god Aten. hZo[U ˆ/yb}j< µv…w]÷/l /dY;mI µyin'r]q'÷hy,h}TI r/aK" hg'now is a literal description of the Egyptian god’s symbol. hy,h}TI r/aK" Hg'now. The primary meaning of Hg'no is “brilliance” or “brightness” deriving from light, and it is often borrowed to describe the appearance of God (see, e.g., Ezek. 1:4, 13, 27; 10:4 [in reference to God’s glory]; Ps. 18:13; 2 Sam. 22:13). r/a here means sunlight, so the meaning of hy,h}TI r/aK" Hg'now is that the brilliance and brightness, accompanying an epiphany of God, are like sunlight. In the two remaining cola of the verse the Hebrew God seems to carry the image of the Egyptian sun god, the Aten. /l /dY;mI µyin'r]q'. In /dY;mI the mem (“from”), as the prefix of the word, should be deleted, as dittography of the mem that is the suffix of the previous word µyin'r]q'. /l should be interpreted as genitive lamed, meaning rays (are) his own hands. The difficulty in this explanation is in the repetition of the possessive indication wdy, “his hand,” and /l, “his.” It would be preferable to apply hy,h}TI in the first colon to the second colon also: wl (hyht) wdy µynrq, “his hand will be rays.” Be that as it may, the meaning of the verse is, God’s rays are his hands. hZo[U ˆ/yb}j< µv…w]. µv…w] indicates the hands, or the rays shaped like hands, where God’s power is hidden. hZo[U, his power, refers to the hieroglyphic sign w·s (Gr. S40), the symbol of power and dominion bestowed upon the king and his royal family by the god Aten (see figure 2). Hence, the interpretation of the verse in light of the Egyptian parallel is: the epiphany of God resembles the rising sun, accompanied by intense light, and in his rays, which are his hands, his charismatic power lies hidden. Hab. 3:4 is therefore a literal description of the Egyptian icon. The symbol of the Egyptian sun god from the Amarna period was borrowed to describe the appearance of the Hebrew God. The advantage of this explanation is in the fact that it leaves the Masoretic text intact, except for a minor emendation, namely, omission of the mem to correct an error of dittography. Additional Egyptian features in Hab. 3:3–7 Further support for this interpretation is provided by the following details, which appear in the first part (vv. 3–7) of Habakkuk 3, there too revealing a certain contact with Egypt. a. On the one hand, the image of Yhwh as depicted in this part of the chapter differs from the image that follows in the second part (vv. 8ff.), but, on the other hand, it is close to the description of the god Aten in the Amarna writings. b. The portrayal of Yhwh arriving from south (vv. 3–7) is clearly related to the biblical tradition of the Israelites’ origin being in the south, in Egypt. c. Additional motifs in vv. 3–7 may be explained against the Egyptian background, and not necessarily—as they have generally been interpreted until now—as a product of contact with Canaanite or Mesopotamian mythology. We shall discuss these matters in detail. a. Yhwh is portrayed in vv. 3–7 as an abstract, ethereal image. His glory and fame, his brilliance and power, are mentioned (vv. 3–4). His revelation, we are told, shatters the forces of nature and causes dread among people (vv. 6–7). However, nothing is said about Yhwh’s emotions. The absence of reference to this is remarkable by comparison with the second part of the hymn, where we are told about God’s “wrath” (vv. 8, 12), his “anger” (v. 8), and his “rage” (v. 12). The deity, as described in the first part of Habakkuk 3 then, is cold and calculating, devoid of emotions such as anger, mercy, and forgiveness. These characteristics are typical of the Egyptian god Aten; as Redford has put it: But the new concept of deity that Akhenaten produces is rather cold. His disc created the cosmos and keeps it going; but he seems to show no compassion to his creatures. He produces them with life and sustenance, but in a rather perfunctory way. No text tell us he hears the cry of the poor man, or has compassion on the sick, or forgives the sinner. This portrayal of the god Aten is quite different from the image of the Hebrew God as he is usually described in the Bible. The latter is a deity of mercy and grace, who responds to the suffering and misfortune of the individual and the community; this is a god who repents and regrets what he has done, but also a god who can be vengeful and resentful; a god that becomes enraged, and vents his wrath upon his enemies (Gen. 6:6–7; Exod. 34:6–7; Num. 14:18–20; Deut. 32:11, 21–24, 41–43, etc.). b. The arrival of God from the south, and his appearance, are described in vv. 3–7: God came from Teman, a/by; ˆm:yTEmI H"/la” the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. hl:s< ˆr;aP: rh"mE ç/dq:w] His Glory covered the heavens, wdwh µymç hsk and the earth was full of his praise. . . . . . . ≈rah halm /tL:hIt}W He stopped and shook the earth; he looked and made the nations tremble. The eternal mountains were shattered. d[" yrer]h" wxx}Pøt}yw' the everlasting hills sank low . . . . . . µl:w[ t/[b}Gi wjvæ I saw the tents of Cushan under affliction; ˆç…Wk ylEh’a: ytIyaIr; ˆw,a: tj"T" the tent curtains of the land of Midian trembled (NRSV). ˆy;d]mI ≈r,a, t/[yriy] ˆWzGr]yi The tradition concerning the arrival of God from the south recurs in three other poetic passages, usually considered among the earliest compositions in the biblical literature: Judg. 5:4–5; Ps. 68:8–9; and Deut. 33:2. These three passages, as well as the aforementioned section from Habakkuk, belong to the literary pattern of theophany, and resemble each other, in structure and content, as shown by Jeremias. The uniform structure includes the mentioning of God, a verb or verbs referring to his arrival, and a place name, preceded by the preposition min/m (from). The common content is the description of God’s arrival, the effect of his appearance on natural forces—earth, sky, mountains and hills, and the names of the places: Seir, Mount Paran (parallel to Sinai in Deuteronomy 33), Field of Edom, and Teman. Hab. 3:3– 7 describes God as he arrives from Teman and Mount Paran. He casts his wrath and dread upon mountains and hills, as well as on human beings residing in the areas near the site of the apparition, Kushan, Midian, and perhaps also On (see discussion below). Of the three parallel passages, the closest to Habakkuk is Deut. 33:2: The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir wml ry[çm jrzw ab ynysm òh upon them; he shone forth from Mount Paran. With him were çdqø tbøbrm htaw ˆrap rhm [ypwh myriads of holy ones; at his right, a host of his own (NRSV). wml tD;v‘aE wnymym The arrival of God is indicated here by the verb jrz, meaning to rise up, to shine, associated with the sun, like µynrq in Hab. 3:4; and, perhaps, also by the word tD;v‘aE, which some scholars suggested to explain on the basis of Aramaic and Syriac, as outpouring, diffusion of light, namely an abundance of light to the right side of God. Thus, in Deuteronomy 33, as well as in Habakkuk 3, the description of God arriving from the south is tinted with solar elements. In Habakkuk the names Teman and Mount Paran indicate the stations in God’s passage in his travel from the south. Teman is not mentioned in the parallel passages, but it appears in the Bible as a synonym or in reference to Edom and Seir, as in Judges 5 or Deuteronomy 33.36 Mount Paran, which in Hab. 3:3 stands in parallelism with Teman, is identified as a region south of Canaan, east or west of the Arabah.37 Even though these names originally indicated some specific areas, they appear to refer to the southern region in general when used in the literary pattern of theophany. Likewise, Kushan and Midian in verse 7 should not be understood as specific regions but as the general wandering area of the nomadic tribes, the Kushites and Midianites. It extends from the southern part of Transjordan in the east to the Egyptian border in the west.38 As mentioned, the tradition reflected in these passages on the arrival of God from the south is an archaic heritage, and from recent archaeological discoveries, it seems to have been well known in Israel in the First Temple period. These discoveries include inscriptions from the 9th–8th centuries b.c.e., discovered at Kuntillet Ajrud in the northern Sinai, a site which served as a stage for caravans on their way south to Elat. In these inscriptions the name YHWH Tmn appears several times, and in one of them the verb zr˙ is used to describe the appearance of God, exactly as in Deuteronomy 33: mrh nsmyw . . . la jrzbw meaning, “when God shines forth . . . the mountains melt.”39 As in the biblical passages dealing with the theophany, the phrase YHWH Tmn should also be understood here as a reference to God’s arrival from the south, and not as an indication of a local god. Travelers heading south would pray to this god to assure them a safe and sound journey. Reigned over the Israelites,” in A. Hurvitz, E. Tov, S. Japhet, eds., Studies in Biblical Literature (Jerusalem, 1992), 191, and by Avishur, Studies, 163. This meaning is also maintained by Cassuto, “Deuteronomy Chapter XXXIII and the New Year in Ancient Israel,” Biblical and Oriental Studies (Jerusalem, 1973), 1.50. 36. Teman is the name of Esau’s grandson (Gen. 36:11) and a region of Edom (Gen. 36:34 = 1 Chron.1:53); it stands in parallelism with Edom and Seºir (Obad. 8–9, Jer. 49:7, 20). 37. For the location of Mountain Paran and its references in the Bible see Hiebert, God, 86–88. 38. The Midianites are depicted in the Bible as nomads wandering in the southern marches of Israel,which include the Sinai peninsula as far as southern Transjordan (Gen. 25:4–6; 36:35; Num. 10:29–31, etc.; Josh. 13:21; Judg. 6:3, 33, 7:12, 1 Kgs. 11:18). As to Kusan, Albright was the first to identify it with the Kusu who appear in the Egyptian sources as early as the second millennium b.c.e. (in the Execration Texts [Posener E50–51] and in the Tale of Sinuhe, l. 220). These sources show that Kusan was one of the nomadic tribes that lived in the deserts located in the south and southwest of Israel. The close relation between the Midianites and the Cushites is evident from the fact that Zipporah, Moses’ wife, is at times called a Midianite (Exod. 2:16–21) and at times a Cushite (Num. 12:1) (supposing that the two passages refer to the same woman). Scholars assume that these two tribes were blended into one national identity. See Hiebert, God, 88–89; B. Mazar, “Cushan,” Encyclopaedia Biblica (Jerusalem, 1962), 4.70–71; idem, Canaan and Israel (Jerusalem, 1974), 17–18, n. 15 [in Hebrew]. 39. The complete text is as follows: . . . µ(Ni)nub}G' ˆKUd'yw ÷µrih: ˆSUm"yw ÷ . . . la j"rzbW hm:j:l}mI µyoB} laE µv´l} ÷hmjlm µyoB} l["B" ˚reb:l} See S. A˙ituv, Handbook of Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions (Jerusalem, 1992), 160–61 [in Hebrew]; M. Weinfeld, “Recent Publications 3: Further Remarks on the Ajrud Inscriptions,” Shnaton 6–7 (1978– 79), 238 [in Hebrew]; idem, “Kuntillet ºAjrud Inscriptions and Their Significance,” Studie Epigrafici e Linguistici 1 (1984), 126. The tradition of the southern origin of the Hebrew God, which recurs in the Bible and in extra-biblical sources, has an apparently historical basis. Support for this may be found in the Egyptian sources. In topographical lists from the time of Amenhotep III, Akhenaten’s father [sic], and in copies of these lists from the period of Ramesses II (13th century b.c.e.), [sic] there is a region named t· s·sw Yhw, “ land of the Shasu Yehu.” Since this region is followed in the list by “the land of Shasu Seir” we assume that we are dealing here with a region named after Yehu, a local god who was worshiped in the land of Seir, the wandering area of the tribes of Midian and Kushan mentioned in Habakkuk 3. Finally the difficult phrase at the beginning of verse 7 ytIyaIr; ˆw,a: tj"T" has been emended to read ar;ytIw] ˆ/a tj"TE “On will fear and be frightened.” This emendation is supported by the fact that at least in one other reference in the Bible the spelling of the Egyptian town On is ˆw,a: (Ezek. 30:17; cf. Gen. 41:45, 50, etc.; and perhaps also Ps. 78:51). According to this version the city On, Iwn in the Egyptian sources, which was located in the northern part of present-day Cairo, should be added to the list of landmarks on God’s journey from the south. This detail is significant to our discussion since that city was an important center of sun worship in Egypt, from the Old Kingdom period to the late period, as attested by its Greek name Heliopolis, the sun city. Furthermore, Akhenaten was brought up and raised in On, and also served as the “First Prophet” of the local god Re-Harakhti. An additional argument seems to exist here in support of understanding Habakkuk 3 in light of the Amarna period in Egypt. In sum, whether the city of On is connoted in Hab. 3:7 or not, there is no doubt that Hab. 3:3–7, as well as Deut. 33:2 and the inscriptions from Kuntillet Ajrud, all reflect a tradition that uses solar elements vividly to depict God’s arrival from the south. ….

Jesus Christ, the new Temple, is able to hand out forgiveness

“Jesus handed out forgiveness whenever anyone humbly approached him. He acted like a mobile temple”. John Dickson John Dickson well explained this situation in this 2018 article: https://www.johndickson.org/blog/2018/2/7/jesus-as-the-temple Jesus as Temple - a forgotten aspect of his own claim to authority …. The temple was the centre of Israel’s national and religious life. This was where God chose to dwell, according to the Hebrew Scriptures; it was where sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins could be made; it was where the country’s leading teachers could be heard in the vast temple courts; it was where pilgrims gathered in tens of thousands, especially at Passover time, to sing and pray to the one true God. For the devout Jew, arriving at the crest of the Mount of Olives and looking down at the temple of God must have stirred up extraordinary feelings of national pride and spiritual awe. In the midst of this already heightened sense of occasion, toward the end of his public career as a teacher and healer, Jesus entered the Jerusalem Temple and proceeded to pronounce judgement on it—as if he had authority even over this central symbol of Israel’s faith: “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’.” — Matthew 21:12–13 It is hardly surprising that Jesus would be dead by the end of the week. It is also not surprising that one of the central charges laid against him at his trial was his reported contempt for the temple. Matthew’s Gospel records: “Finally two came forward and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer?’” — Matthew 26:60–62 Jesus did not answer this charge …. Historically revealing is the fact that in the Gospel of John’s account of the clearing of the temple (probably written independently of the other three Gospels) we hear a statement from Jesus that comes very close to the one recalled at his trial: “The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. ” — John 2:18–22 At first sight, this is a bizarre statement: Jesus’ body, crucified and raised, is the temple! However, this is not the first time Jesus has identified himself with the temple. The theme emerges a number of times in the Gospels. We get hints of it every time Jesus hands out divine forgiveness to people. In first-century Judaism, only the temple priests could pronounce forgiveness, and, even then, only after the appropriate sacrifice had been offered. This is why, after Jesus forgave the prostitute at the home of Simon the Pharisee, as discussed in the previous chapter, the guests murmured, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” (Luke 7:49b). Jesus handed out forgiveness whenever anyone humbly approached him. He acted like a mobile temple. An explicit comparison between Jesus and the temple is found in Matthew 12 in a scene set long before Jesus took on the temple priests. The Pharisees had criticised Jesus’ disciples for doing what looked like work on the Sabbath day. Jesus responded: “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath day [i.e., do work on the Sabbath] and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. ” — Matthew 12:3–6 The logic goes like this: priests are exempt from the Sabbath law when working within the precinct of the temple; how much more then are the disciples exempt when working in the vicinity of the Messiah. Jesus, according to these words, is more than the temple. This is an extraordinary statement in its first-century context. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, entered the temple and declared its ministry bankrupt, he was not acting as a mere religious radical. According to the witness of the Gospel writers, he was acting as God’s replacement temple, or, perhaps more accurately, as the reality to which the temple pointed all along. All that the temple had meant for Israel for almost one thousand years was now to be found in Israel’s Messiah. The presence of God which human beings so longed for was to be found through a personal connection with Christ …. The hunger for divine teaching could be satisfied, not in the courts of a glorious sanctuary, but by feeding on the words of Jesus. True “pilgrims” could henceforth declare their praises, not within the walls of one sacred building, but wherever people gathered in honour of the Messiah. And forgiveness of sins could be enjoyed through the one priestly sacrifice of Jesus, not through priest and sacrifice. The Jerusalem temple was eventually destroyed some forty years after Jesus’ death, when in August AD 70 Roman troops stormed Jerusalem to end a bitter five-year rebellion. …. From the point of view of the first followers of Jesus, the temple was really overthrown and replaced around AD 30. From the time of Christ’s death and resurrection, said the early Christians, a new temple was established for all nations. All who want to locate the Creator’s presence, learn his teaching, and enjoy his forgiveness can do so simply by embracing the Messiah, the new temple.

Magi were not necessarily astronomers or astrologers

by Damien F. Mackey “Magi from the East came to Jerusalem”. Matthew 2:1 Here it will be claimed inter alia that: - The Magi were not eastern Gentiles, but were Israelites living in the East; - The Magi would have been well aware of Micah’s prophecy about Bethlehem as the Messiah’s place of birth; - The Star was not a regular heavenly body of any sort; - The Magi saw the Star, but did not initially follow it; - They left their home quite some time later; - The Star did not lead them to Jerusalem; - The Magi eventually followed the Star from Jerusalem to Bethlehem; - They did not come to the Stable, but to the House. Introduction Amongst the many conflicting traditions regarding the Magi of Matthew 2 is one according to which the Magi were descendants of the prophet Job. This has appealed to me, given my view that some significant supposed Gentiles in the Bible were actually Hebrews (Israelites/Jews): Bible critics can overstate idea of ‘enlightened pagan’ (4) Bible critics can overstate idea of 'enlightened pagan' | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu In what follows it will become clear why I strongly favour this, albeit poorly known, tradition. But, for this to be facilitated, it is necessary for the prophet Job to be fully identified. Firstly, Job was Tobias son of Tobit of the (Catholic) Book of Tobit. This connection imposed itself forcefully upon my mind on this very same day (1st January, Solemnity of the Mother of God) some decades ago. Secondly Tobias (Job), who lived in neo-Assyrian captivity - and on into the Chaldean and Medo-Persian eras - and who must therefore also have had a foreign name, was the prophet Habakkuk (an Akkadian name). Thirdly, the Jews must have shortened the unfamiliar name Habakkuk to Hakkai (or Haggai). {A note on the Prophet Mohammed: The names of Mohammed’s parents, Abdullah and Amna, are virtually identical to the names of Tobias/Job’s parents, Tobit and Anna – the name Tobit being a Greek version of Obad-iah, in which the Greek substitutes τ for the silent ayin (עֹבַדְיָה) at the beginning of the name. Obadiah would be, in Arabic, Abdullah. Also the dreadful anachronisms of Mohammed having involvement with Nineveh, plus his claim that the prophet Jonah was his brother, may be accounted for by the fact that Tobit, Anna and Tobias had lived in Nineveh, and that they knew of Jonah/Nahum (cf. Tobit 14:4 USC)} A Reconstruction of the Magi Incident The pious Tobit, now dying, had expressed this wish (Tobit 13:16): ‘Happy too will I be if a remnant of my offspring survives to see your glory and to give thanks to the King of heaven!’ And here we have the key to the whole thing! The Glory of the Lord (כְּבוֹד יְהוָה) that the prophet Ezekiel had seen depart the Temple, prior to the Babylonian destruction of it (Ezekiel 10:18), apparently had not returned when the second Temple was finished under the inspiration of our man, Haggai, and Zechariah. This Glory was what is popularly called the Shekinah (not a biblical term). But the prophet Haggai, the son of Tobit (see Introduction), knew that the Glory would ultimately return (Haggai 2:6-9): This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this House with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘The glory of this present House [Temple] will be greater than the glory of the former House,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty. He who had once proclaimed: ‘For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth’ (Job 19:25), must have held an unshakeable hope that his father Tobit’s great longing for his descendants to see that Glory return would indeed be fulfilled. And see it these descendants of the Tobiads did, as the Magi of Matthew 2. The so-called Star of Matthew was actually the Glory of the Lord, not Venus, nor a constellation, nor a comet. The Magi knew from family prophecy that the Glory was returning, and that it would announce the arrival of the Messiah born in Bethlehem (cf. Micah 5:2). And that is why they recognised the phenomenon as His Star (Matthew 2:2). They were “from the East” (2:1) just like Job was (Job 1:3): “… this man was the greatest of all the men of the East”. The Magi did not initially follow the Star. Presumably they delayed to give the Messianic Child, the King of the Jews, time to be able to stand upright. Then they went directly to Jerusalem (they did not need the Star for that), perhaps fully expecting the Child now to be enthroned there. It was only after they left King Herod, that the Magi saw the Glory phenomenon again. This was the one and only time that they actually followed the Star, as it led them to the House where the Boy-King was now dwelling with Mary and Joseph. Strongly recommended as a supplement to this article is this one: The Magi and the Star that Stopped (4) The Magi and the Star that Stopped | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu