In Pursuit of George G. M. James'
Study of African Origins in "Western Civilization"
by Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan
PHILOSOPHY AS RELIGION
This point has been cited because of the philosophical concept that's
fundamental to the beginning of JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN-ISLAMIC THEOSOPHY and GRAECO-ROMANO
["Western"] CIVILIZATION, all of which can be underscored as being
from the teachings of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV of the XVIIth Dynasty, ca.
1370–1353 B.C.E., who is otherwise more popularly known as Akhenaten.
In this regards the following from an "ARMANA PAPYRUS," attributed to
Pharaoh Akhenaten, states:
When you set in the Western horizon of heaven
The world is in darkness like the dead
Every lion comes forward from his den
The serpents all sting, and darkness reigns.
Light falls over the earth when you rise in the horizon
The two lands are in daily festival
Then all over the world they do toil.
How fruitful are your works!
They are hidden from our presence.
Oh my only God, whose powers no other has.
You alone created the earth as you desired, and alone:
All that are upon the earth.
We now see the plagiarism and distortion of this African's
teaching in the following from what has been labeled "PSALM 104" in
the Hebrew HOLY TORAH or OLD TESTAMENT, which has no existence before 700 B.C.E.
when its FIRST BOOK/GENESIS, was published. Of course, I am copying the Old
English usage of which most of us are familiar; thus:
Thou makest darkness and it is night,
Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth;
The young lions roar after their prey; they seek their
meat from God...
The sun ariseth, they get them away
And lay them down in their dens.
Man goeth forth unto his work
And to his labour until the evening...
Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works!
In wisdom has thou made them all;
The earth is full of creatures.
I suggest an examination of Barbara Mertz' Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs:
The Story of Egyptology, page 237, for an exciting evaluation of what is
implied here between these two quotes. Mertz could only conclude that the Hebrew
writers plagiarization of the Africans' work came from a "... literary
tradition which flourished throughout the Near East..." that covered an
extensive period of time. Of course the term "Near East," by
itself, is nebulous actually citing not a solitary piece of specific geography.
Yet this is typical of "Western Scholarship" in reference to
contemporary African scholars, and more so those of antiquity.
What I have just read for you came from the contents of a series of
papyri,
one such named "THE HYMN OF ATON," etc.
Let me cite two more parallels in the same context supportive of the forgone.
One of the basic tenets of Judaism's doctrines is found in the FIRST BOOK OF
MOSES, which is equally called GENESIS. Thus from Chapter I, Verses 26–27 the
following:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. ... So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.
Continuing the "creation of man" episode GENESIS, Chapter V,
Verse 1 recites:
In the day God created man; in the likeness of God made he him. ...
GENESIS, Chapter 9, Verse 6, and CORINTHIAN, Chapter 11, Verse 7, etc., both
deals with this "CREATION STORY" dating back to a work from the Xth
Dynasty, ca. 3249 B.C.E., or OLD KINGDOM PERIOD, which was more than 1,574
years before the birth of the first Hebrew or Jew—ABRAHAM—in
ca. 1775 B.C.E. For it is GOD RÉ, commonly referred by "Western
Academicians" as the so-called "SUN GOD RÉ," whom the Nile
Valley "MYSTERIES SYSTEM" taught first described "MAN" in
said type of "CREATION"; thus:
They [meaning mankind] are his likeness who have come forth from his [RÉ]
body.
In the XXVth Dynasty, cs. 729 B.C.E., the Ethiopian Period, other
writings related to this were commonplace. As such Pharaoh Taharqa's sister, Shepenwepet,
is described as being:
... the image of God Ré. ...
At this juncture the GOD of Egypt is also of the rest of the entire Nile
Valley—from Uganda or Punt in the far south of Central Africa/Alkebu-lan all
the way north to the Great Sea / Sea of Sais of Mediterranean that washes the
northern coast of Egypt's boundary of North Africa, etc. Included between these
two extreme points, of at least 4100 statue miles, were Itiopi or Ethiopia,
Old Meröe or Meröwe, and Ta-Nehisi of Sudan, etc.
In my research, down through the past four [4] decades, I have only
encountered one term for the philosophical and theosophical concept
of the "DEITY" or "GOD" among the Nile Valley Africans of
antiquity; that is:
THE GOOD SHEPHERD OF THE PEOPLE.
I have also noted that the Haribu, or Jews, adopted this from their
African teachers and attributed it to their DEITY or GOD they called "YWH"
of "JEHOVAH," which we find in their BOOK OF ISAIAH, Chapter 31, Verse
11. I will quote from each according to its chronological order stated in my
presentation; thus:
"He [God or Jehovah] shall feed his flock like a shepherd; "Hear
the word of the Lord... He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep
him as a shepherd doth his flock' "For thus sayeth the Lord God;
Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a
shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that
are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep. ..."
Note that as far back into the FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, otherwise the XIth–XIVth
Dynasties, or ca. 2152–1675 B.C.E., the DEITY/GOD was addressed by the ancient
Nile Valley Africans of Egypt and elsewhere as a "SHEPHERD." Thus it
is we find the great scribe and most venerable sage, IPUWER, saying the
following about God RÉ or AMEN-RÉ:
He is the Shepherd of everyone, in whose mind there is no evil. His herds
are diminished, yet he has certainly spent the day caring for them.
We must remember that the entire human family is often said to be "THE
NOBLE FLOCK." This is obvious in the following from the BOOK OF THE COMING
FORTH BY DAY AND BY NIGHT.
Men, the noble flock of God [Ré of Amen-Ré] are well taken care of.
Even Barbera Mertz conceded this fact when she referred to the SUN HYMN OF RE as
having the spoken words of RÉ; thus the ...
good shepherd who is tireless, capable and loving. ...
I am citing page 189 of her book, Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs: The story
of Egyptology.
The extent of the cooptation and plagiarization of the Nile Valley Africans theosophical,
theological and philosophical hypotheses by the ancient Haribu/Jews,
and later the Greeks, et al, is best realized in reviewing the so-called
"PROVERBS" attributed to certain jewish scribes, priests, kings, and
others. Yet, we find most of them in the major works of an African genius named
AMEN-EM-EOPE, which dates back to centuries before the authorship of the very
first so-called "HEBREW PROVERBS" in the Holy Torah or Old
Testament with its origin no earlier than ca. 700 B.C.E. Although I have
already cited some of these comparative works in The Black Man of the Nile
and his Family, pages 312भ?, and in many of my other publications. I
need just cite two such comparisons here; thus from PROVERBS, Chapter XXII,
Verse 4:
Do not toil to become rich;
Cease from your plundering!
Do you eyes light upon it?
It is gone!
For riches make themselves wings,
Like an eagle in which flies to the sky.
The original in THE WISDOM OF AMEN-EM-EOPE recites the following:
Do not exert yourself to seek gain,
That your needs may be secure for you:
If riches are bought to you by robbery,
They will not spend the night with you;
At daybreak they are not in your house;
Their places can be seen, but they are not there!
They have made themselves wings like geese
And have flown towards the shy.
The Hebrews turned the "GEESE" into an "EAGLE"; another
miracle by the Hebrew Deity Ywh! Quoting from another PROVERB, Chapter XXII,
VERSE 24, we have:
Do not be friendly with a hot-tempered man
Nor go with a passionate man,
Lest you learn his ways,
And get a snare for yourself!
We find the original in THE WISDOM OF AMEN-EM-EOPE written thus:
Do not fraternize with the passionate man,
Nor go too near him for conversation...
Do not make him cast his speech to lasso you,
Nor be too free with your answer.
The Hebrews turned a "LASSO" into a "SNARE"; both having the
same quality of entrapment.
If I may take leave of your patience for just one more example; this time
from the BOOK OF PSALMS of the Hebrews, and specifically Chapter 104, Verse 20,
which states;
Thou appointest darkness, that it may be night,
In which all the beasts of the forest prowl;
The young lions roaring for their prey,
To seek their food from God.
Lest us ignore the fact that the Hebrew PSALMIST who wrote this one did not
realize that "ALL THE BEASTS OF THE FOREST" do not "PROWL"
at night. But, let us examine how the original source was distorted from
a HYMN OF AKHENATEN; thus:
When you do set in the western horizon,
The earth is in darkness, liken to
death.
Man sleep in a bed-chamber, their heads covered,
One eye unable to see the other.
Were all their goods beneath their heads stolen,
They would be unaware of it.
Every lion has come forth from his lair;
All the reptiles sting.
Darkness prevails, and the earth is in silence,
Since he who created them rests in
his horizon.
Colleagues, fellow faculty members of African Studies and Research Center,
Cornell University, there could be no wiser manner to end this PAPER I have
completed in honour of one of the Masters of our family, and a "giant"
or "genius" in African History, Professor GEORGE G. M. James,
but with the following from PSALMS, Chapter 104, Verse 24; thus:
How manifold are thy works, O Ywh!
All of them thou hast made by
wisdom,
The earth is full of thy creations.
In the original text by AKHENATEN [in praise of his God] I found a "HYMN TO
ATEN" which was often quoted by Professor James; thus the following:
How numerous is that which you have created
and hidden from view!
You, only God, there is no other like you.
You did create the earth according
to your
own will, being alone.
The "ONLY GOD" to which Akhenaten referred, ATEN, he mentioned as such
even before the birth of the Hebrew Prophet MOSES in ca. 1346 B.C.E.; Akhenaten
having been dead from ca. 1352 B.C.E. All of this In Pursuit of George G. M.
James' Study of African Origins in "Western Civilization."
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