Tracing the Roots of Our Biblical Faith

The phonemes found in modern languages have their point of origin in the same place in Africa that genetics identifies as the birthplace of humans.

All the practices and beliefs of the ancient Hebrews have their origin in Africa. This includes circumcision, the male priesthood, animal sacrifice, divine protection through the blood, the veneration (not worship) of ancestors, and belief in a supreme Creator assisted by lesser divine powers, like angels.

The Biblical worldview and religious practices of the ancient Hebrew (Habiru) reflect those of the common ancestors of the Hebrew, the Khoisan, the San, the Ngunis and the Bantu. All emerge from the same Mt-DNA genetic root, Haplogroup L. 

L is the DNA macro-haplogroup that is at the root of the human phylogenetic tree. It traces humans from the so-called Mitochondrial Eve (not the same as Biblical Eve). Mitochondrial Eve lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

Abraham's ancestors listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11 are in Haplogroup R1b, which emerged out of macro-haplogroup L.

The highest density of R1b in Africa is in

Noah's homeland in the region of Lake Chad.

So how old is the Biblical worldview? It is the oldest worldview. This is supported genetics, linguistics and archaeology.

Here is an important principle in cultural anthropology: The more widespread the culture trait the older it is.

One of the oldest known practices is red ocher burials. Red ochre or hematite was mined in the Lebombo Mountains of southern Africa many thousands of years ago. It represents blood covering or divine protection. (The study of blood is called hematology.)

H.B.S. Cooke’s team discovered the 70,000 year grave of a small boy, buried with a seashell pendant and covered in red ochre in the Lebombo Mountains of southern Africa. This is the location of the oldest known mining operations in which thousands of mining tools have been found in tunnel mines. The custom of red ochre burial in the archaic world was widespread and therefore, it is recognized as an extremely old custom. Consider these archaeological discoveries:

A man buried 45,000 years ago at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in southern France, was packed in red ochre. 

“The Red Lady of Paviland” in Wales was buried in red ochre about 20,000 years ago. Her skeletal remains and burial artifacts are encrusted with the red ore.

P.L. Kirk reports that prehistoric Australian aboriginal burials reveal pink staining of the soil around the skeleton, indicating that red ochre had been sprinkled over the body. The remains of an adult male found at Lake Mungo in southeastern Australia were copiously sprinkled with red ochre. The Aborigines have priest who are called "red ochre men."

The ‘Fox Lady’ of Doini Vestonice, Czechoslovakia (near Russia) who was burial 23,000 years ago, was also covered in red ochre.

A 20,000 year old burial site in Bavaria reveals a thirty-year-old man entirely surrounded by a pile of mammoth tusks and nearly submerged in a mass of red ochre.

In the La Braña-Arintero cave in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain, 7000 year old skeletons were discovered in 2006. The bodies were covered with red ochre.

Two flexed burials were found in Mehrgarh, Pakistan with a covering of red ochre on the bodies. These date from about 5000 BC.

Native Americans used red ochre for ceremonies and burials.

Related reading:  Haplogroups of Interest to Biblical Anthropologists

Basalt "Ship" Not Noah's Ark

Alice C. Linsley

Claims of the discovery of Noah's Ark have circulated for decades, but none have proven to be legitimate. Based on a common reading of Genesis, the attention has focused on the Ararat mountains (shown below).

Recently, the longstanding claim of the discovery of fossilized Ark material was debunked when it was shown that the supposed Ark in eastern Turkey is a slab of basalt. Read the account here.

A careful reading of Genesis diminishes hope that the ship of Noah will ever be found. The Bible tells us that it was built of gofer or papyrus reeds which would have disintegrated long ago.

Reed boats of this type can carry up to 50 tons when fully loaded.

Reeds were a readily available in the region of Bor-No (Land of Noah) during Noah's time. Moses's mother placed him in a reed (gofer) basket which is called an "ark" in Exodus 2:3. This is why some Bibles correctly read: "Make yourself an Ark of gofer wood, with reeds make the Ark..." (Schocken Bible, Vol. I, p. 35)

If the ark was constructed of a wood frame with hollow reeds in large bundles it would have had great buoyancy. Thor Heyerdahl learned from the Marsh Arabs that reeds cut in August retain their buoyancy rather than absorbing water. 

Noah lived approximately 4190-4015 BC, when the Sahara experienced a time of wet conditions. In Genesis 6:9-11, Noah is described as God's favored ruler on earth; "an upright man among his contemporaries."

The Genesis accounts of Noah's flood do not specify a mountain and there is doubt that the word Ararat refers to a mountain or range in Armenia. That idea is based on a supposition that the Biblical Ararat corresponds to Urartu, the Assyrian name for a kingdom in the region of Lake Van.

This view is based on Jerome's reading of Antiquities of the Jews, in which Josephus wrote:

“the ark rested on the top of a certain mountain in Armenia ... However, the Armenians call this place, αποβατηριον 'The Place of Descent'; for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are shown there by the inhabitants to this day. Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark; among whom is Berossus. For when he is describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: "It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs."  (I.3.5-6, trans. William Whiston)

However, there is another interpretation that aligns with the biblical data about Noah, the Proto-Saharan ruler. The word ararat is from the root RRT in which the T was a mark symbolizing a mountain. The reduplicated R symbolizes a high-ranking ruler, even the Creator. Noah lands on a mountain where God confirms a covenant which marks a new beginning. In the Ugaritic creation story the twin mountains Trgzz and Trmg emerged from a universal ocean and held up the firmament.

Throughout the Bible mountains represent God's interaction with Man. Abraham and Isaac encounter divine grace and provision on Mount Moriah. Moses comes face-to-face with God on Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai.

The motif of mountains as the connection to the Creator and the Heavens is found in many ancient texts. In the Bhagvad Gita, Krishna says, "Among the mountains, I am Meru", that is, the spinal cord of the world. The Vishnu Purana (c. 200 BC) speaks of seven continents ringed by seven oceans. This cosmology was a mirror image of the seven celestail planets/bowls, following the ancient belief "as in the Heavens, so on Earth."

Likely, the association of Noah with Armenia has both a mythological and a historical basis. The word Armenia may be an inaccurate rendering of Har-Meni, meaning Mount Meni. As Noah's territory was Bor-No in the region of Lake Chad we should consider a mountain closer to Lake Chad. 

Josephus also quoted Nicolas of Damascus in his ninety-sixth book, where he wrote: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved." In the Greek we find Minyas and Meni in connection to the mount upon which the Ark was said to rest.

Noah's reign in Central Africa must have been one of great prosperity. There was abundant fishing and hunting. The climate sustained vineyards (Genesis 9:20). An oracle concerning Noah states, “This one shall bring us relief from our work and the toil of our hands.” (Genesis 5:29)

The dispersion of peoples from Noah's homeland has been verified by DNA studies. Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b is found in the region of Lake Chad, the Upper Nile, Southern Europe, France, and the British Isles. This dispersion took place long before Noah's time and was complete by around 40,000 years ago.

The dark red spot in Central Africa is Noah' homeland.

Haplogroup R1b, also known as haplogroup R-M343, is the most frequently occurring Y chromosome haplogroup in Western Europe, some parts of Russia (the Bashkir minority), Central Asia (e.g. Turkmenistan) and in the region of Lake Chad, Noah's territory.

This is the Haplogroup of Abraham's Proto-Saharan ancestors who dispersed widely and are known by different names in ancient history. Among them was a caste of ruler-priests known in ancient texts as Abrutu (from the Akkadian word abru, meaning "priest"), 'Apiru, Hapiru, Habiru or Hebrew.

Related reading: An Anthropologist Looks at Genesis 6; An Anthropologist Looks at Genesis 7; An Anthropologist looks at Genesis 8; Noah's Ark; Haplogroups of Interest to Biblical Anthropologists