Paul the Egyptian
Who was the
Apostle Paul?
We all
read our Bible skimming and skipping over critical facts to get to the point we
want to make. We pick and choose what we will read and understand and usually
it s within the prescribed mode of orthodoxy. When we come to curious or hard
sayings we rationalize
with a modern and ‘orthodox’ mindset and for awhile
that methodology answers the surface questions.
I
looked into the statement made about Paul, the latent Apostle of Jesus and here
is what he said.
“Just as
Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, ‘May I
say something to you?’ The tribune replied, ‘Do you know Greek? Then you are
not the Egyptian who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand
assassins out into the wilderness?’ Paul replied, ‘I am a Jew, from Tarsus
in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city; I beg you, let me speak to the
people.’ When he had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned
to the people for silence; and when there was a great hush, he addressed them in
the Hebrew language, saying:
Brothers and
fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you." When they heard that he
spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet.”
The
Apostle Paul or Shaul was called an Egyptian. What did that
term mean in that time? Just who was this man whose words and doctrine have taken precedence
over the Old Testament, the Apostles and even Jesus
the Messiah. Was the statement that 'he was thought to be an Egyptian', just a
sideline or does it have religious and ethnic significance? Should his ethnicity be
weighed in our assessment
of him? Does the Egyptian doctrine of Hebrewism differ from Pauline
Christianity?
Now
remember, the Egyptians that are in Egyptians now ARE NOT the original Egyptians.
The Original Egyptian were Black and not Arabic. When I talk about Paul being an
Egyptian I am talking about Paul being seen and known as a Black man in a Black world. The
observation was made concerning him was on point, and we will see from his
description of himself reveals anything.
Example:
If you were on a telephone trying to make arrangements to meet with a person you
had never met, how would you describe yourself over the phone or in an email
without attaching a photograph? You would use a description they understood and
possibly imagery. You could say;
"I am a
child of Africa decent, born in the Americas, from a city known all over the
world, New York and then you would start speaking to them in Spanish."
We could assume from
this information that you may be from the Caribbean, Central or South America
and your family were immigrants who migrated to New York and spoke Spanish in
the home although you are fluent in English. Paul's
introduction to the masses was his calling card.
Why wouldn't you say you are a
Blackman who spoke Spanish? Well, it wouldn't be necessary. If you say you are
from any of the above places I mentioned you could assume you were non-white and
probably would be of African descent whether light, medium or dark skinned.
California Indians
What Does
he says about himself?
Acts 22:3
'I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet
brought up in this city Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, (Acts 5:34-39) and
taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was
zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.'
Paul could speak Greek and his
native tongue Hebrew, but
from his appearance and his demeanor, the Roman tribune assumed he was an Egyptian. The Greeks
and Romans had contact
with the Egyptians for years, When the Mediterranean European [first the Greeks
and then Romans] were first denied entrance into the
Egyptian Universities, and later on admission, some like Plato and Socrates were
branded heretics when they brought their new learning to the ignorant Greeks.
After many, many years the Greeks stole Egyptian culture, mythology, religion,
science and medicine. [Stolen Legacy by G. GM James] and destroyed all the
great written works of Egypt and carted away the rest under Alexander [the
pitiful]
called Great.
Upper Egypt was renamed Alexandria and the original Egyptian
was
replaced by those who were either all Greek, or part Greco-Egyptian. Either way
the new Egyptian rejected his Black mother and her undisputed claim as the womb
that brought forth kings in favor of his Greek father who subjugated all under
his thumb. To make his heritage know Paul reached back into
Israel's past in his address to let them know who he really was and what/who he
aligned himself with.
We have established the fact
that the original Jews were of Egyptian heritage and ethnicity in many essays
that you can read at you leisure. No matter who they may have been when they
entered Egypt, 70 people exited as a million strong in either 4 generation, 240
years or 400 years, the bible is not clear on the length of their sojourn.
Abraham the Biblical father of Israel was an Ethiopian living in a subdivision
of Egypt. At the time of the chronicling of his life and by scribal record,
Ethiopia [land of the burnt-faces] was identified as Africa. Abraham was a Black
man and Sarah his sister-wife or 'milk sister' was a Black Queen/princess as her
name means in Hebrew.
Paul says
he was from
the tribe of Benjamin but what does that mean? These
statement that would have been understood by those he was speaking to at the
time he was speaking .
Rom 11:1 'I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For
I also am
an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin [Ben Oni].'
Let us
break down what we know about history. For all you that have not read my
Moses, Anu, Feast of the Hebrews and Jacobs Egyptian Funeral I suggest you do
so. In those essays we go over the name of Adonai and Yahweh to show the
Egyptian connection of the Israelite God to the Aten and the Bull or Ox symbol
to the Sun which were representations of the invisible God. Which can make
Paul's introduction statement read:
"I
say then has Adonai/Yahweh [Aten] cast away his people? Adonai/Yahweh [Aten]
forbid."
We have
also discussed and found evidence that the name change of Jacob my have been
associated to Is [Isis] Ra [the god of may guises on representing the
sun]. El[ the Elohim or multiplicity of God in the equal opposites of nature
like the Nerteru]
The sun is either the symbolic
interpretation of Ra, his entire body, or just his Eye The symbols of Ra are the
solar symbol of a golden disk or the symbol (circle with a point at its center).
Bindus circle
Aten
Christ with Aten Halo
The expanded statement would
signify:
I am an Is-Ra-El-ite and
further he identified himself with the SEED of Abraham and then with TRIBE of
Benjamin. T seed of the Father [of many] and the Tribe of the seed of the right
testicle or the Son of the Sun.
Benjamin was Jacob's youngest
son was name Ben-Oni by his mother, which the European revisionists not as 'Son
of my Sorrow' because she did after giving birth to him and naming him.
We have discussed in the essay on Moses, that Ben-Oni referenced the City of On
or Anu or Heliopolis and the worship of Amen or the Aten as the
representation of God in the Heavens.
Amen/Amun
Jacob later called Israel,
changed his son's name to Ben-Yamin meaning 'son of my right side'
or 'son of my right testicle. ]It was believe a male son [of destiny] would come
from the right testicle. Ben is son and Yam can also mean man.
The statement above could very
well read: ''I say then, Hath
Aten cast away his people? Aten forbid. For I also am
an Israelite [child of the Sun], of the seed of Abraham [seed of the
father of many], of the tribe of Benjamin [Ben Oni the Son of the Sun].' Sounds
pretty Egypti-fied to me.
Circumcised on the 8th day:
Phil 3:5 'Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee.'
The Hebrews took the ritual
and covenant laws of circumcision form the Egyptians. The was a ritual of the
priesthood.
"An early Masonic
historian, Godfrey Higgins ("Anacalpysis", London 1836), writes,
"Priests only of the Egyptians were circumcised." Candidates for
priesthood, and for circumcision, were usually chosen from among puberty-age,
virgin boys."
This would included
Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon and Yahshua.
"In ancient Egypt
learning was regarded as a high privilege and education was under the
direction of a small number of individuals who were organized into bonds,
pledges and vows of secrecy....(a candidate) having applied at Heliopolis, was
referred to the Learned of the Institution at Memphis, and these sent him to
Thebes (where) he was circumcised." Manly P. Hall - Free Masonry and the
ancient Egyptian -1936.
The City of Anu or On was the
key.
The first evidence of more
sophisticated surgical instruments comes from Egypt, regarded by the later
Greeks and Romans as the cradle of medicine. By the time of the pyramid
builders (around 2600 BC), the Egyptians were making copper surgical blades
sharp enough for simple operations, such as circumcision. Ancient Egyptian
men were normally circumcised sometime during later childhood; this custom
being prevalent in Africa, seems to have spread to the Jews, Arabs, and other
Near Eastern people from the skilled and talented Egyptians. More
elaborate circumcision rituals were performed on the holy men and royalty, as
well as forced upon many slaves taken from conquered nations.
Cultural pressures to
circumcise operated throughout the Hellenistic
world: when the Judean king John
Hyrcanus conquered the Idumeans,
he forced them to become circumcised and convert to Judaism, but their
ancestors the Edomites had practiced circumcision in pre-Hellenistic
times."
Ouch....
Kept the
Law of Moses:
Phil. 3:6
'Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless.'
The concept of blamelessness was attributed to the Ethiopians
[Africans] by Homer and others too:
'For Zeus had yesterday to
Ocean's bounds Set forth to feast with
Ethiopia
's faultless men, And he was followed there by all the gods…
For
the Ethiopians (Greek and Roman name for all Negroid people) are said to be
the justest men and for that reason the gods leave their abode
frequently to visit them."1
Lactantius Placidus, a 6th century AD grammarian
"The
Negroes are of all peoples those who most abhor injustice…Complete and
general safety one enjoys throughout the land (
Mali
Empire in
West Africa
)."2
Ibn Battua, 14th century Arabian scholar who had traveled to
China,India, East Africa, North Africa, and finally
Mali.
Paul
a Roman
Citizen:
Acts
22:25-28 'Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to
scourge a man that as a Roman and uncondemned?
When the
centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what
thou doest: for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came, and said unto
him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered,
With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.'
Why did they question him in
the first place? Was it because he was a Jew or ethnically Egyptian in features
or both? He stated he was a free born man and a citizen of Rome. He did
not have to buy his freedom as the chief captain.
A
Pharisee:
Acts 23:6
'But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other
Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the
son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in
question.'
Who were the Pharisees and
where did they come from?
The nature and status of all
of the various religious groups which arose after the fall of Judah (eg
Pharisees, Sadducees Boethusians, Essenes, Zealots, Samaritans; there were
probably many others) are shrouded in obscurity. These two
"parties" Sadducees and Pharisees] served in the Great Sanhedrin, a
kind of Jewish Supreme Court made up of 71 members whose responsibility was to
interpret civil and religious laws. The Pharisees also maintained that an
afterlife existed and that God punished the wicked and rewarded the righteous in
the world to come. They also believed in a Messiah who would herald an era of
world peace.
Question:
Since the Pharisees believed
in a Messiah and the afterlife, why was Paul originally against the Jewish
Messianic movement?
The belief in Messiah Yahshua
was not reviled in Jewish society until after the rise of Rome and Christianity.
just as the Lubavitch Jews are not castigated or revile for believing the late
Rabbi Menachem [The Rebbe] Schneerson was the Messiah although he did not fit
all the criteria. The Chabad-Lubavich movement was started by Shneur Zalman of
Liadi in Russia during the 1700's.
Why would the Messianic
movement of Yahshua be condemned, when Messianic figures had always been part of
Judaism?
A maker
of Tents who was partners with Aquilla [the Black].
Acts 18:3
'And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by
their occupation they were tentmakers.'
The term tentmaker is
interesting because the physical and metaphysical allusion. The tent being the
tent of skin and the ancient tabernacle in the wilderness called the Ohel Mo'ed.
The tents were made of skin and the ministers of the so-called new Jewish
messianic faith were tentmakers.
Previously Persecuted the Messianic Hebrews:
Acts 22:4
'And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons
both men and women.'
Held the
coats of those who stoned Stephen:
Acts 7:58
'And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.'
Apostle
to the Gentiles:
It was
Paul's general practice first to visit the synagogues and preach to the Jews; if
rejected by them, he would then preach to the Gentiles. At Antioch, Paul
delivered a memorable discourse to the Jews, concluding with these words (Acts
xiii, 46-47):
"It was
necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you
reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we now turn to
the Gentiles. For so the Lord commanded us, I have set thee for a light to the
Gentiles, to be a means of salvation to the very ends of the earth."
And
finally, taken for an Egyptian:
"'Are you
not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four
thousand men of the Assassins [Sicarii]
out into the wilderness?'" Acts 21:38.
Paul was
taken for an Egyptian, now this is where we are to look - why was this statement
entered into the log? What did it mean?
Egyptians and their
migrated children in the Zulus of Southern Africa and Great Zimbabwae
As a side
note: in Britain and other parts of Europe the term Egyptian was very
negative: Pip Wilson says:
'Dies
Aegypticus:
(Egyptian
Day), or Unlucky Day, Middle Ages In the middle ages, and right up till the
seventeenth century, British almanacs printed lists of unlucky, or ‘Egyptian’,
days, Dies Aegypticus. The ancient Greeks, Romans and Chinese also had lucky and
unlucky days. In Britain it was believed that on an Egyptian day, one
should not commence a journey or major project, nor eat goose-flesh.'
The term
Egyptian had become a negative on long before the advent of the British. Egypt
because of envy and then replacement theology from Greece and Roman and later
Europe in general, had become a hated nation.
Why would
they correlate Shaul with the Egyptians? This is what Josephus said happened:
"But there
was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews more mischief than
the former; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be a prophet also, and got
together thirty thousand men that were deluded by him; these he led round about
from the wilderness to the mount which was called the Mount of Olives, and was
ready to break into Jerusalem by force from that place; and if he could but once
conquer the Roman garrison and the people, he intended to domineer over
them by the assistance of those guards of his that were to break into the city
with him.
But Felix
prevented his attempt, and met him with his Roman soldiers, while all the people
assisted him in his attack upon them, insomuch that when it came to a battle,
the Egyptian ran away, with a few others, while the greatest part of
those that were with him were either destroyed or taken alive; but the rest of
the multitude were dispersed every one to their own homes, and there concealed
themselves." Flavius Josephus, War of
the Jews, Bk II, Ch XIII, Sns 5”
The
reason why they were so up in arms is because of the prophecy that is not talked
about in Jewish circles or Christian.
"Naturally
the rising tension produced a crop of Messiahs. Felix dealt with them in the
usual Roman way by sending in the cavalry. The most famous of these
Messiahs' was an Egyptian Jew who led his followers on to the Mount of
Olives claiming that God would throw down the walls of Jerusalem and hand over
the city to him." Peter Connolly,
Living in the Time of
Jesus of Nazareth.”
The
prophet Hosea wrote in chapter 11:1-2.
When Israel
was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called
them, so they went from them: They sacrificed unto Baalim and burned incense to
graven images. [Something they had not done in Egypt]
Matthew
2:15 quotes this passage when Jesus returned from his escape into Egypt, after
Herod was dead. Matthew associates this with the history as spoken of in Hosea
11:1.
“And was
there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of
the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
Out of Egypt I have called my
son. What was in Egypt that he sent for? Was it just at the time of his toddler
hood, when he as sent to Egypt with his family [he was not babe then] or
when he was not seen for 18 years between the ages of 12 and 30.
What happened educationally in
Egypt for a boy between those ages?
Again
let’s read:
"Naturally
the rising tension produced a crop of Messiahs. Felix dealt with them in the
usual Roman way by sending in the cavalry. The most famous of these
Messiahs' was an
Egyptian Jew who led his followers on to the Mount of Olives claiming
that God would throw down the walls of Jerusalem and hand over the city to him."
Peter Connolly,
Living in the Time of
Jesus of Nazareth.”
There was
a hope of a Messiah, and the moist famous was an Egyptian Jew? How could that
be? We see that the connection with Egypt and the Hebrew still reigns in the
fears of the Roman [European] world.
Paul was
thought to be an [specific] Egyptian, we read again.
"'Are you
not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four
thousand men of the Assassins [Sicarii]
out into the wilderness?'" Acts 21:38.
The
Sicarii were a faction of the Zealots, like Simon Zealots. The disciples of
Messiah were Zealots. But who else was an sicarii? I think there is a hint here:
"Many if not
all of his inner circle were hip deep in radical politics; Judas I(sicarii)ot
and Simon Zealotes (the Zealot) are blatant about it. What is an allegedly
peaceful Peter doing with a sword in the Garden of Gethsemane ?"
These me were not singing
Kum-ba-Yah each night. They were ready to fight. They wanted a revolutionary end
to the Roman occupation.
It was no
different than in the time of Paul.
“Acts 21:20
And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest,
brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all
zealous of the law."
This zealousness was not just
will-worship. They would kill behind adherence to the law. Paul was
a zealot before his 'conversion' and persecuted and killed many a believer in
Jesus, according to the biblical writers.
Paul
adhered to the Law:
The
Sanhedrin asked Paul to do a public act of the Law in order to prove his
faith. There were four men who were to undergo the ritual associated with the
Nazarite vow, and Paul was requested to put himself under that vow and to
pay the costs of the other four men.
What was
a Zealot?
The
modern-day definition of zealot is "a fervent or militant proponent of
something." The original Zealots, or Zelotes, were members of a Jewish sect that
at first just refused to pay tribute to the Romans, who then occupied the
land of Israel, declaring that God was their only King.
"This
eventually however escalated to violence and assassination against the Romans,
and anyone else, including other Jews, who cooperated with the Romans. The
overwhelming power of the Roman military caused their rebellion to fail, after
which they became scattered rebels who were also known as Sicarii ("dagger
men"), from their deadly use of the sica, a Roman dagger. The Zealots were
leading members of the revolt against Rome in 66-70 AD (see
Fall of Jerusalem In 70 A.D.),
and at
Masada
they committed suicide rather than surrender to the Roman Tenth Legion (see
Roman Legions).
At least one of
The Twelve Apostles,
who were personally chosen by
Jesus Christ,
after being directed by God in prayer, was a Zealot."
Did the zealots believe Jesus
was God in the flesh? Or the just the promised Messiah?
An
Assassin?
In Latin
"sicarius" is a common term for an assassin, as in the title of the law
promulgated by Sulla, the "Lex Cornclia de Sicariis"; and the word 
has
the same general meaning in the Mishnah (Bik. i. 2, ii. 3; Git. v. 6; Maksh. i.
6).
The
Mishnah mentions a "sikarikon" law enacting that title to a piece of property
held by a "robber" may be taken in case it has been first purchased from the
owner and then from the "robber" (such being the meaning of the word in this
passage), but not vice versa.
'One man's insurgent is another man's
Freedom fighter.'
They were
afraid that Paul was the Messiah foretold and for some possibly a usurper. Yep, folks was still looking for the
Messiah after he death and resurrection of Jesus.
'One
man's Egyptian is another man's Hebrew!'
All looked to Egypt for the Hebrew[ remember Hebrew is a sect of the greater
African religion and not a race] Messiah. Which makes the statement 'Out of
Egypt I have called my Son' more poignant an Paul being mistaken for 'that
Egyptian' very cryptic.
To be
continued....
Ekowa
Sources:
KJV Bible
Encyclopedia Britannica
Webster's
Dictionary
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/jan25.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/history-of-male-circumcision
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/040607Sicarii.html
The Wars:
Josephus
Excellent
website: http://endingstereotypesforamerica.org/black_and_white_morality.html