HISTORY, A TAPESTRY OF HALLUCINATIONS

HISTORY: A TAPESTRY OF HALLUCINATIONS

I have always loved history and when I was growing up, I accepted as truth what I was taught and read. I grew up in the West Texas city of San Angelo. We had a restored Fort Concho where Union soldiers were stationed to keep peace with the Indians and for the cattle drives to Kansas. During this time, there was racial discrimination and the blacks were not allowed to associate with the whites except during employment. I am bringing this in, because I never knew until I returned in the late seventies to San Angelo that the soldiers stationed at old Fort Concho were the Horse Soldiers. These were black or Negro rough-riding U.S. Calvary soldiers. During the days of segregation, there had been a blackout of anything about them. These Horse Soldiers were brave, fearless and great fighters.

Some of you may remember having been taught in school that Columbus discovered America. There was even a holiday in celebration of this, when nothing could be further from the truth. Columbus may have visited this continent, but he did not discover it. The early Vikings and other were the first ones to explore the East coast. Some say Leif Erickson and now I have come across information saying the Hebrews/Israelites discovery of this continent happened thousands of years before Christ. Remarkable, and there are alleged archaeological findings that support this. Is this pie in the sky? But wait! I titled this segment History: A Tapestry of Hallucinations.

What do I mean by hallucination? According to the dictionary, one meaning is one’s perception of reality. This also can be viewed in a broader context: history as told or written by the winners. On the other hand, history became distorted and facts omitted. Or, history deliberately changed and altered.

During my research, I learned the Catholic Church has based much of its history on lies, deceit and omissions. I am not going into that information at this time because I want to reach further back in time.

I am going to address the New Testament (N.T.). For years, theologians and scholars have admitted that the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke do not give identical information. John supposedly was written later. I have asked myself, then, who is correct? The authors of these books are unknown. And yet, we have the Christian religions using these books plus other books in the N.T. as if they are factual truth. Once a lie is repeated a number of times and accepted, it becomes the truth for the populance.

Recently I read Elaine Pagels and Karen King’s book READING JUDAS. The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity. First, let’s touch on Judas. For centuries, he has been maligned because he supposedly betrayed Jesus and received monies from the Romans for doing this. Pagels and King have addressed this in their book and by also researching the first four gospels, have found many discrepancies that have rarely been addressed by scholars. The authors of these gospels purloined some information from the Old Testament. So who wrote the books of the New Testament?

Tony Bushby, in his book The Bible Fraud, tells of the so-called presbyters who collected wise and spiritual writings from India to Greece to Egypt to Rome and went from village to village and city to city, and were much like the soapbox orators. They would stand at the village center and recite these writings or perhaps read them. These were not necessarily learned men.

Therefore, it is entirely possible for writings from Egypt and India to become part of the N.T. books. However, what about Jesus? In his book The Myth-maker, Paul and the Invention of Christianity, Hyam Maccoby writes an excellent account regarding the books supposedly written by Paul. Maccoby puts forth an excellent presentation that it was Paul – yes, the Paul who really was the founder of Christianity – and eventually the Catholic Church who first said Jesus was the Christ and the only son of God.

Nowhere do any of these books subscribe to the possibility that Jesus was an Initiate of the highest order of ancient mystery schools. And what were these mysteries? Teachings and tests to discover the god within.

Paul is a very interesting character. Even in his book of Acts and other books, he is subscribed to have written there are conflicting statements. I can well understand this.

I am going to digress for a moment. Almost all the books written about Jesus and Mary Magdalene have in some way referred to the ancient writings of Josephus author of The Wars of the Jews, The Antiquities of the Jews and The Autobiography of Flavious Josephus. What does Josephus have in common with the Paul of the Book of Acts in the N.T. I came across a most interesting possibility in Ralph Ellis’ book Jesus, The Last Pharaoh. Ellis became interested in the similarities of Josephus and Paul. In his book, he lists the biographical aspects of their lives as given in the Book of Acts and in Josephus’ Autobiography. They are so similar, that it is difficult to separate the two. What IF, Josephus created the character of Paul? What IF Josephus wrote some of those books in the N.T.? It is a big mind-boggling, but it is not only a possibility, but a probability.

When I first researched information for Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls, the writings of Josephus had no mention of Jesus or Mary Magdalene. Then in a later return to another translation of his works, I found several small paragraphs, which mention Jesus.

Josephus was a Jew and claims lineage via the Maccabees. He states he went to Rome to ask for the release of some priests in Roman custody. He returned to Jerusalem and alleged he worked with the Jews to repel the Romans in their great uprising. He alleged he hid in a cave while the destruction was happening, and was captured, taken to Rome and made a Roman citizen. From another source, he was seen riding in the carriage of Vespasian after Vespasian became the new emperor.

So now, in this tapestry of fluid history, we have the possibility that the renowned Paul of the N.T. was a creation of Josephus.

Is there more? Oh my yes. Ellis has another book of Solomon and I also read the books of Immanuel Velikovsky – written in the 1950’s. Velikovsky had no computer for research. He did his painstakingly by going to libraries and to Egypt. He also compared the information in the Rhind Papyrus, the Egyptian paintings in tombs, statues and came to some very interesting conclusions.

From my interpretation of what I read in the two books, and the first one being that there is a distinct possibility the great Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt could have been the Hyksos who had ruled lower Egypt – the delta area – for 150 years. The Hyksos were ousted out by the last ruler of the Egyptian 17th dynasty by the pharaoh whose name was Ahmose or Amosis.

It is a possibility the Hyksos became so angry of being ousted that they later changed names in their writings. It is postulated that the books of Kings and Numbers were actually referring to Egyptian pharaohs and the Hyksos' time in Egypt.

I also learned by reading these two particular authors – Velikovsky and Ellis that a pharaoh or a king had more than one name. There was the birth name, the pharaoh name, a name known outside the country and possibly by other names. Wouldn’t it make sense that the same person could be referred to by another name on a document and down through history it was taken to be separate people?

There is also another potential, and that is King Solomon and King David were Egyptian pharaohs. Now I come to the Queen of Sheba. Sheba was a title meaning ‘sacred one.’ Ellis has also done extensive research. Much of the two authors' documentation comes from archaeological findings.

One of the mind blowers is the information that in 1939 Pierre Montet discovered some intact tombs – magnificent within the enclosure at Tanis. The latter of the tombs contained the intact sarcophagi of the pharaohs Psusennes II and Sheshong. Ellis had already identified these two pharaohs as being King David and King Solomon. These mummies all reside in the Cairo Museum along with the possible mummies of Joab, Hiram Abif and the Queen of Sheba.

In my book Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls, I have Mary Magdalene as being of the lineage of the Queen of Sheba. What I have learned AFTER I published the book is there is a great possibility the Queen of Sheba was none other than the Queen/Pharaoh Hatshepsut of Egypt.

In I Kings 10:1-13, it is written: And Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David. (I Ki 3:1)

This has been mis-interpreted or possibly an additional visit to King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba was added. However, the Kebra Nagast says the pharaoh’s daughter was the Queen of Sheba.

The similarities and coincidences point out that history is not at all what most of us think it is. I have given the potentials and possibilities.

Think of the many translations of the O.T. and the N.T. over hundreds of years. Think of the possibility of the Tribe of Benjamin having another name. Some have alleged Mary Magdalene was a Hasmonean princes.. I rather doubt that. If one looks at the track record of the Hasmoneans, I see no greatness coming from that lineage.

Another myth is that the bloodline of Mary Magdalene and Jesus is through the Merovingian Dynasty. I have done research on the Merovingians and there is only a history of war, brother murdering brother, and possibly not even being able to read much less write. Bishop Gregory of Tours in the 5th century began tutoring the sons of the Merovingians to read.

Jesus and Mary Magdalene would have left some awesome genes and in all of these allegations, I have found nothing to suggest greatness. In the genealogy charts I have read, rarely is the mother's name given.. Were these so-called kings hatched from an egg? Histories in the first 5 centuries are shrouded in mystery because there were almost no written documents except those written by the early churchmen. Moreover, those are suspect.

For nearly 2000 years, humankind has been duped by history in the name of religion. We have the potential of Paul being none other than Josephus. Paul could have come from the imagination of Josephus. And, if we look at the books found in the Nag Hammadi find and the Book of Judas, we get an entirely different perspective of the Disciple Peter – he hated Mary Magdalene and was jealous that Jesus would kiss her on the lips. Could there be a possibility that Peter was homosexual? Could this be why the Church has suppressed women? The possibilities from this are something that will be addressed at another time.

Therefore, I leave you with things to ponder. I urge you to do your own research. I am not an authority. I am only one who has researched and uncovered many potentials and possibilities for another side of history.