Brit-Am Historical Reports (7 July, 2015, 20 Tammuz, 5775)
Contents:
1. New Book Announced About American Identification of National Self as Hebrews.
2. Fairly Interesting Social University Lecture about the Khazars and the Origins of Ashkenazi Jews and how there is No Real Connection.
3. John Salverda: Parallels in Greek Mythology to the Story of Balaam and the Talking Ass
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1. New Book Announced About American Identification of National Self as Hebrews.
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(a) Review 1.
Chemi Shalev writes in Ha'aretz:
# In his book American Zion, Haifa University historian Eran Shalev provides a riveting account of the enormous influence that the Old Testament had on how Revolutionary America saw itself and how it conveyed that vision to others. George III was often cast as evil King Rehoboam or Greek persecutor Antiochus; his conniving advisers were the sinister Haman; George Washington, the brilliant commander and reluctant president was either Moses, or Joshua, or Judah Maccabee, or, most favorably, the brave warrior Gideon who won the battle but refused to be king.
In order to match the 12 Hebrew tribes numerically with the colonies, Jacob's son Levi was kept on the list of the tribes, even though he was not allotted any territory in Canaan, while Joseph was counted twice for his two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, who were. One of the role models for the fledgling republic, in addition to Rome, was its "Hebrew Republic" antecedent of loosely federated tribes, especially in the time of the Judges. The most frequently used parallel to the Revolutionary war, according to another research[er] of the same era, was the campaign fought by Deborah and Barak Ben Avinoam against the Canaanite warlord Sisera and his king Jabin.
The Old Testament was the "public bible" of antebellum America, as historian Mark Noll noted. The Puritans preferred its texts as their main religious guide while the Founding Fathers favored its nationalist-geographic narrative over the individual spiritual salvation offered by the New Testament, as Shalev writes. Benjamin Franklin famously wanted the Great Seal to include a portrayal of "Moses, standing on the Shore, extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh." Thomas Jefferson preferred the Children of Israel, led through the wilderness by pillars of cloud and fire. Congress ignored them both, opting for the Eye of Providence looking out over a pyramid and thus giving rise to generations of conspiracy theories about Freemason influence.
The predominance of the Old Testament began to fade in the first half of the 19th century. The Second Great Awakening, which was a reaction against the rationalism, deism and skepticism of the founding generation, saw a surge of Baptists and Methodists who preached of the approaching End of Days and anointed Christ as the single source for personal salvation. And while Abraham Lincoln preferred the Old Testament over the new, both as reading material and in public pronouncements, and even though he was viewed by many contemporaries as a latter day Moses, his victory over slavery in the Civil War marked the final step in the relegation of the Hebrew Old Testament to a secondary role. The widespread Confederate use of "Noah's curse" which consigned the supposedly dark-skinned Ham's son Canaan to be a "servant of servants" as justification for the enslavement of blacks, as well as what seemed to be the license given by Leviticus for perpetual servitude of non-Hebrews, tainted the Jewish bible in the eyes of many Northerners.
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(b) Review 2.
American Zion. The Old Testament as a Political Text from the Revolution to the Civil War
by
Eran Shalev
http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=0300186924
The Bible has always been an integral part of American political culture. Yet in the years before the Civil War, it was the Old Testament, not the New Testament, that pervaded political rhetoric. From Revolutionary times through about 1830, numerous American politicians, commentators, ministers, and laymen depicted their young nation as a new, God-chosen Israel and relied on the Old Testament for political guidance.
In this original book, historian Eran Shalev closely examines how this powerful predilection for Old Testament narratives and rhetoric in early America shaped a wide range of debates and cultural discussions, from republican ideology, constitutional interpretation, southern slavery, and more generally the meaning of American nationalism to speculations on the origins of American Indians and to the emergence of Mormonism. Shalev argues that the effort to shape the United States as a biblical nation reflected conflicting attitudes within the culture, proudly boastful on the one hand but uncertain about its abilities and ultimate destiny on the other. With great nuance, American Zion explores for the first time the meaning and lasting effects of the idea of the United States as a new Israel and sheds new light on our understanding of the nation's origins and culture during the founding and antebellum decades.
Eran Shalev is a senior lecturer in the History Department at Haifa University, Israel.
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2. Fairly Interesting Social University Lecture about the Khazars and the Origins of Ashkenazi Jews and how there is No Real Connection.
http://pauleisen.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-myth-of-khazar-conversion.html
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3. John Salverda: Parallels in Greek Mythology to the Story of Balaam and the Talking Ass
Dear Yair.
Just a short note to let you know that I am still out here, reading your news letters. I know that it's been a long time since I have sent you any articles but, sometimes our views are a bit out of sync (never-the-less, I feel that we are kindred spirits and, are in this thing together) and, I know that you don't usually have the time to go through my lengthy diatribes and edit them for the Brit-Am presentation. But, if you should happen to find some extra time on your hands, feel free to visit here;
https://independent.academia.edu/JohnSalverda
and take anything you like. I may suggest the following three articles as one that you have not presented as far as I know;
https://www.academia.edu/5681942/Aristaeus_the_Pelasgian_Philistine_Samson
https://www.academia.edu/3856448/David_as_Cadmus_Part_One_
https://www.academia.edu/8738482/David_as_Cadmus_Part_Three_
I saw your recent mention of the prophet Balaam and have noted how you have linked him to the division of the Kingdom (very nice work, and I concur wholeheartedly.).
It is my view that in Greece proper they had their own version of Balaam, an even more popular character, whom they called 'Melampus.' At least three Greek settlements had their own versions of the Balaam story that the rambling Israelites had brought with them and transferred to their Greek colonies.
Melampus was a widely known prophet who could understand the speech of animals. In each local version of the Melampus story, the native King would hire him after difficult negotiations (just as in the Scriptural rendition of Balaam's tale), to lift a curse (It's the same tale from a differing point of view.). This he would do by teaching the 'Â proper' observance of the rites of Dionysus (the calf god). This is the essence of his story told at Orchomenus, about the daughters of King Minyas, at Argos, about the daughters of King Proetus, and also the story of King 'Phylacus.'
Take note of the name 'Phylacus' Â in comparison to the name of King Balak, (Balaam and Balak = Melampus and Phylacus) After an extremely difficult negotiations period, Phylacus hired Melampus to lift a curse of sexual infertility (compare the dearth at the Baal-Peor incident). In this story Melampus understands the speech of animals and injures his foot/leg.
westerncivilisationamaic.blogspot.com/2012/06/prophet-balaam-also-known-as-priapus.html
Herodotus (and others) mention the part Melampus played in dividing the Kingdom; "Melampus on his part, when the women in Argos had been seized by madness, and the Argives endeavored to hire him to come from Pylos and to cause their women to cease from the malady, proposed as payment for himself the half of the royal power; and the Argives did not suffer this, but departed: and afterwards, when more of their women became mad, at length they accepted that which Melampus had proposed, and went to offer him this: but he then seeing that they had changed their minds, increased his demand, and said that he would not do that which they desired unless they gave to his brother Bias also the third share in the royal power. And the Argives, being driven into straits, consented to this also." (Herodotus Book 9, 34).
Melampus taught the rites of the calf god Dionysus (Baal-peor), see how "their women" had a large role in "the malady" and take note of the math, 1/2 + 1/3rd = 5/6ths, in other terms, 10/12ths of the kingdom was required by Melampus.
Now, I knew that Melampus had a role in the division of the kingdom but, I wasn't sure about any Scriptural verification of Balaam's role in dividing Israel. So thank you for pointing this out to me. -John