First Lords is a Paradigm-Shifting Book

 

Dear Readers,

It has been a long time coming, but my book The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study is now available to purchase on Amazon. Options include Kindle, paperback, and hard cover, and all are priced to accommodate the book lover on a tight budget.

This book identifies the social structure and religious beliefs of the early Hebrew ruler-priest caste (6000-4000 years ago), their dispersion out of Africa, their territorial expansion, trade routes, and influence on the populations of the Fertile Crescent and Ancient Near East. It includes diagrams showing the kinship pattern of the biblical Hebrew.

It exposes a widely held misconception that the early Hebrew had a patriarchal social structure. For that to be true, descent, inheritance, residence, authority, and the right to rule would be vested exclusively with males. This book shows that none of these features of the Hebrew social structure suggest a strict patriarchy. 

The rulers listed in Genesis were Hebrew and the social structure of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste was unusual for that time in that it exhibited considerable gender balance. The binary feature of their social structure and its balance of male-female authority is addressed in great detail in my book. These are evident also in the male-female narrative couplets found in the Bible.

There are many examples: the distinct duties/responsibilities of the mother's house versus the father's house; male prophets-female prophets; male rulers-female rulers; inheritance by male heirs-inheritance by female heirs, patrilocal residence-matrilocal residence; Hebrew patronymics-Hebrew matronymics; and in the Hebrew double unilineal descent pattern, both the patrilineage and the matrilineage are recognized and honored, but in different ways. 

The blood symbolism of the Passover associated with Moses has a parallel in the blood symbolism of the scarlet cord associated with Rahab. The abusive behavior of drunken Noah toward his sons has a parallel in the abusive behavior of drunken Lot toward his daughters.

There is binary balance in the New Testament narratives also. Jesus restored the widow of Nain's deceased son to his mother (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus restored Jairus' deceased daughter to her father (Mark 5:21-43).

When Jesus was presented in the temple His identity as Messiah was attested by the priest Simeon and the prophetess Anna.

To understand the gender distinctions and binary balance of the early Hebrew, we must dismiss the false narrative that their social structure was patriarchal.

Readers say this book brings the figures of the Old Testament to life.

The research took 40 years, but I was able to make a rather complex subject easy to understand. I hope you will buy the book and discover answers to some perennial questions, such as:

• Who were the Horite Hebrew and the Sethite Hebrew?
• Where is the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship?
• Why did so many Hebrew men have two wives?
• What was the difference in status between wives and concubines?
• What types of authority did the biblical Hebrew recognize?
• What were some symbols of authority among the early Hebrew?
• How did their acute observation of the patterns in Nature inform their reasoning?
• If Judaism is NOT the Faith of the early Hebrew, what did they believe?

It is ancient history, anthropology, and biblical studies wrapped into one fascinating read. I hope you will find it helpful and informative.

Best wishes to you all,

Alice C. Linsley