Isaiah was of Royal Descent

 

When King Amaziah died , his son, Uzziah/Azariah became king of Judah. The prophet Isaiah was the son of Amoz, who was possibly a brother of King Amaziah, so, Isaiah was of royal descent. 2 Kings 14: 19-22; 2 Chronicles 25-27.

Relatives of Jesus

 

9 December 598 BC/BCE: Death of Jehoiakim/Eliakim (608-598 BC/BCE), ascension of his son, Jehoiachin/Jeconiah (ruled 597 BC/BCE), as King of Judah (for a three-month and ten-day reign). Jehoiachin is held captive in Babylon for 37 years. The Sheshbazzar, “prince of Judah,” mentioned in Ezra is believed to have been Shenazzar, a son of Jehoiakin. This man would have been the uncle of  Zerubbabel, an ancestor of Jesus.  Ezra 1:8ff, 5:1-2,14, 2:63; 1 Chronicles 3:18; 2 Kings 23: 1-24:16.

Tracing Your Ancestors in Church or Synagogue Records

The Mormons do genealogical work as part of their religious activities called Temple Work. The concept a non-Mormon would most readily recognize is "baptism for the dead" which is mentioned in  1 Corinthians 15:29. What "baptism for the dead" might actually mean is not an object of discussion in this particular post.

I am not a Mormon and it is not necessary for you to be a Mormon to be interested in your family history. Your ancestry is a large part of who you are. It is your link to history. You love your parents. Why not also learn of and love your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents?

There are many techniques genealogists use to trace family relationships. One of them is studying church and synagogue records. These are as much primary source records as are public civil records.

Jewish genealogy seems to present particular problems since there is very little centralization of the records. The following repositories may be helpful: The Center for Jewish History, the American Jewish Archives at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, the Douglas Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center, and the Jewish Genealogical Center. The New York Public Library has a Jewish Genealogy Collection. If your family has a long connection with a particular synagogue there may be records available of some family specific information.

Christian church records are also highly fragmented because of the existence of over 200 different religious denominations in the United States alone. 

Many of today's Christian religious denominations have gone through highly contentious times, with multiple mergers, splits, mutinies, power battles, excommunications, shunnings, relocations, etc. Many splinter groups declared themselves to be the original pre-split group. The groups often took with them as many historical documents as possible. Lawsuits over ownership of property and documents produced court records which are also primary historical source material.

Organizational records may include payroll information, property rental and purchase documents, tax records, employment records, records of disciplinary actions, chains of command and job descriptions, etc. The records may also contain personal records (births, marriages, deaths, burials, consecrations, and ordinations.

When individuals shifted their allegiance from one group to another their church-held vital genealogical records usually were not shifted with them and remained with the parent group. The records may now be stored in the archives of the original body (which may or may not be in their original geographic  location.)

If you know the dates when organizational shifts occurred or the approximate dates when your ancestors moved from one group to another, you may be abler to infer the likeliest place to begin searching for a particular record. Early public records are often spotty and incomplete or even totally lost due to floods,  ,fires, or wartime rapacity. The only extant record of the marriage of your great-great-great-grandparents, who lived in California, may be housed in church archives in Florida for a group which originated in Minnesota.

Many universities and colleges with denominational ties have extensive records. Samford University (Southern Baptist) and Birmingham Southern College (Methodist) are two examples. Contact the national headquarters of your particular religious denomination and they may be able to steer you to their own historical repositories.

Biblical Greek Word Studies: μετοικεσίας

I started trying to read my Greek New Testament again recently, and very soon realized that the old adage "use it or lose it" really is true.  What I have especially forgotten is the vocabulary.

As I work my way through the new Testament, starting with the book 

ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ,

"according to Matthew"), I plan on posting vocabulary studies.  I hope you find the posts to be useful.

The first word is metoikesias μετοικεσίας which appears in Matthew 1:17.  The word is from metoikizo which means "changing one's abode," "resettle," or "deport."

Πᾶσαι οὖν αἱ γενεαὶ ἀπὸ Ἀβραὰμ ἕως Δαυὶδ γενεαὶ δεκατέσσαρες, καὶ ἀπὸ Δαυὶδ ἕως τῆς μετοικεσίας Βαβυλῶνος γενεαὶ δεκατέσσαρες, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς μετοικεσίας Βαβυλῶνος ἕως τοῦ χριστοῦ γενεαὶ δεκατέσσαρες. (SBL Greek New Testament)

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and

from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations;

and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. (KJV)

Blogger Rankings of Saints on the Loose

In each Blogger users profile is a list of the writer's interests.  Those who post about these interests are ranked by the number of their posts.  Here are the Blogger Post rankings for Saints on the Loose! and the number of persons who have listed each interest.

genealogy: #1 of 64,700
baseball: #1 of 51,500
Christianity: #1 of 42,700
grandchildren: #1 of 8700
grace: #1 of 1000
biography: #1 of 603
inventions: #1 of 579
doctrine: #1 of 134
Baptist: #1 of 128
Trinity: #1 of 98
competitive sports: #1 of 89
medical technology: #1 of 87
hematology: #1 of 35
literary agents: #1 of 32
Christian blogs: #1 of 10
Evangelical theology:  #1 of 7
Christian writers: #1 of 4
Christian Publishing: #1 of 1
films: #2 of 238,000
theology: #2 of 42,100
football: #3 of 210,000
religion: #3 of 103,000
comedy: #3 of 31,300
science fiction: #4 of 49,600
philosophy: #5 of 402,000
sport: #5 of 221,000
humor: #5 of 112,000
history: #10 of 246,000
art: not in top 10
books: not in top 10
writing: not in top 10

Book Comment: Who's Who in the Age of Jesus

The 2005 book, Who’s Who in the Age of Jesus, by professor Geza Vermes, is an extremely interesting book for those who love history, biography, and the Bible.  Dr. Vermes intended the book to emphasize the unassailable historicity and the intense Jewishness of Jesus. 

Many of the people Dr. Vermes discusses are persons you have never heard of before.  He talks, of course, about the Roman emperors, governors, procurators, and legates and the Jewish High priests, but also about important women such a Mariamne and Drusilla,  rabbis such as Yohanan ben Zakkai and Simeon ben Shetah, Jewish mystics such as Simon the Essene and Honi the Circle-Drawer, Jewish revolutionaries such as Simon bar Giora and Judas son of Sapphoreus, writers such as Josephus and Justus of Tiberias,  and important persons.

The book also contains genealogical charts and a chronological table.

Dr. Vermes was born in 1924 in Hungary into a Jewish family, some of whom (including his parents) died during the Holocaust.  The family became converts to Roman Catholicicsm and young Geza went on to become a Roman catholic priest.  Vermes is essentially a scholar and academic and became a specialist in Hebrew, Aramaic, Christian and Jewish history, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the life of Jesus. 

 Dr. Vermes questions some of the traditional Christian understandings of Jesus.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/mar/18/academicexperts.highereducationprofile

___________________________________________________________________

A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

A New Way of Looking At Genesis 5:1-32

I cannot stress this enough; NEVER ACCEPT INFORMATION JUST BECAUSE IT IS PUBLISHED IN A BOOK OR ON THE INTERNET!  Not everyone is a careful researcher and many jump to unwarranted conclusions without thinking things through to their logical conclusions.  But, watch this:

(Some videos will not play properly when you click on the triangle.  Instead,  click on the title line in the picture and the video will begin .  When the video is completed, close the You Tube pop-up window to return to this blog.)

The names are Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Manaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methusaleh, Lamech, and Noah.

1This is the written account of Adam’s line.

When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.a”

3When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

6When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the fatherb of Enosh. 7And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died.

9When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died.

12When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died.

15When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died.

18When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died.

21When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. 24Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

25When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died.

28When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29He named him Noahc and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” 30After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died.

32After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

I did a few quick searches on the Hebrew language origins of these names and here is what I found:

ADAM:  of the ground, taken out of the red earth, man, mankind

SETH: appointed, substituted (as in the substitution of Seth for the murdered Abel)

ENOSH: mortal, frail, feeble

CAINAN: fixed, possession, dwelling chamber

MAHALEEL: praise of God

JARED: a descent, going down

ENOCH: consecrated, dedicate, train up

METHUSALEH: man of the javelin, man of the dart, man of the spear, his death shall bring,  he shall die, it shall be sent

LAMECH: of uncertain derivation, strong, conqueror, destroyer, despairing, (There seems to be much disagreement and discussion over the meaning of this name.)

Noah: rest, comfort

Sources:

Easton, Matthew George, “Biblical meaning for ‘Cainan’ in Easton’s Bible Dictionary,”  bible-history.com-eastons; 1897.

“Methuselah’s Name,” http://www.apricotpie.com/james/methuselahs-name

Strong, James, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, 1895.

Tinney, Merill C., ed. The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary (Grand Raoids , Mi.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1967)

How Chuck Missler derived the meanings of the names in the list.

http://www.khouse.org/articles/2000/284/

A Descendant of Peter the Apostle?

Twelver Shiahs, who comprise about eighty-five percent of all Shiah Muslims, believe that Bibi Narjis Khatun, a female descendant in her maternal line of Jesus’ disciple, Saint Peter, became the wife of the 11^th Imam Hasan al-Askari.  A son of this marriage, Muhammad al-Mahdi, became the 12th and final Imam.  (Other traditions say that Narjis was a Byzantine slave or a black African slave.  She may have been of Persian and/or Roman descent.  If descended from Peter, she was, by Jewish tradition, Jewish.)

There probably is no way to prove historically that Narjis was a descendant of Peter.  Since Peter probably had children, it is, at least, possible.

Clearly, Peter and the other disciples of Jesus were married, as would be entirely normal for Jewish men of the biblical period.  The Bible plainly says that Peter was married. (Matthew 8:14, Mark 1:29-31, Luke 4:38-39, and 1 Corinthians 9:5)  Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, III, vi, ed, Dindorf, II, 276) said that Peter had children as did Philip, and probably Paul.

Ignatius of Antioch, in The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, chapter 4, verse 30, said  “… of Peter, and Paul, and the rest of the apostles, that were married men. “  Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, was in a position to know this because he was trained as a student by the Apostle John.

A Drum and Bagpipe Version of "Amazing Grace"

Click on the title line to start the video.

This is a very Scottish drum and 

bagpipe version of “Amazing Grace.”  This version, especially, stirred my Scottish roots.  I am descended from the Grier family, a sept of Clan Gregor (Grier, from Grierson, which is from Gregorson, which is from MacGregor, which is from Clan Gregor and descends from the ancient Kings of the Picts and Dál Riata.  The personal name is Griogar, a form of Gregory, which in Greek means “watchful.” “Mac” in Scottish means “son of.”).  The MacGregors ran afoul of Clan Campbell and were outlawed for almost two hundred years.  Bearing the name of MacGregor was punishable by death. The family still proudly exists. The current chief of Clan Gregor is Sir Malcolm Gregor Charles Mac Gregor of Mac Gregor, 7th BT, of Lanrick and Balquhidder, 24th Chief of Clan Gregor.

The song, "Amazing Grace," is very closely associated with Scotland.

For those who do not know: the “skirts” that the musicians are wearing are called kilts.  The plaid designs (tartans) on the kilts are specific to and identify individual families (clans) and were the traditional everyday clothing, worn with great pride.  There is a legend that during World War I, Germans on the battlefield called their kilted Scot adversaries “the ladies from Hell.”  The last time that Scots wore kilts in battle was at Dunkirk in 1940.

  

Bagpipes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagpipe

Tartan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartan

Scottish clan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_clan

Kilt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilt

Kagawa Toyohiko to Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 1946

"Whosoever will be great among you ... shall be the servant of all.  A ruler's sovereignty, Your Majesty, is in the hearts of the people.  Only by service to others can a man, or a nation, be godlike." Kagawa Toyohiko to Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 1946, in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Today, 29 April, is the birthday of Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989).  In Shinto, the official state religion of Japan, Emperor Hirohito was regarded to be a deity, a lineal descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu omikami.

Pashtun Descent from Israel?

There is a persistent legend that the Islamic Pashtun tribe of Afghanistan and Pakistan is descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel.  Actual historical research on the subject began in the 19th Century.  No definitive proofs of the theory have ever been found but there are vague hints throughout history: the Rig Veda (before 1200 BCE) mentions the Paktha tribe; Herodotus (ca. 450 BCE) mentions the Pashtuns as the Paktyaki.   There is no mention of an Israelite connection before the Islamic conquest of the area.

Modern Jews are descended from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah.  Other people who claim Israelite descent:

1. Samaritans: aka: Bene-Yisrael (Children of Israel), Shamerim (Observant Ones). Descendants of the Biblical Samaritan tribe, cousins of the Israelites.  Modern Samaritans still live in the same place as their fathers, speak Arabic, and pray in Hebrew.  They recognize only the Pentateuch as Scripture.

2. Saccans: A Central Asian ethic group.

3. House of Israel: This group in Ghana claims Israelite descent.

4. Efik Tribe: This Nigerian tribe traditionally claims to have migrated from Palestine to the Sahara to the Sudan and, finally, to Nigeria.

4. Bene Ephraim: A Telugu speaking group in Southeast India.

6. Bene Menashe: The group in Northeast India claims descent from Manasseh.  A Rabbinical court in Jerusalem has accepted the claim.

7. Falasha: aka. Beta Israel, Buda, Tebiban, Habashim.  This Ethiopian group is recognized as legitimate by the majority of world Jewry.  They claim descent from Menelik, son of David and the Queen of Sheba.

8. Beit Avraham: aka: Falasha Mura.  This Christian group broke from the Falasha.

9. Bnai' Ephraim: This group in Southwest Nigeria claims to be Jewish.  They speak a mixture of Yoruba, Arabic, and Aramaic.  They say they originated as Jews expelled from Morocco about 1492. 

10. Mizoram:  This primarily Christian group in Hindustan numbers about 800,000.  They claim descent from Manasseh.

11. Black Jews of Rusape, Zimbabwe.

12. Dimonas/Black Hebrews: This is a polygamous vegan African-American sect.  They are not recognized by the State of Israel.

13. Lemba Tribe: This predominately Christian African tribe shows DNA linkage to the ancient Israelites.  This means that they share genetic material with modern Jews.

14. Cimmerians: This Indo-European/Iranian/Thracian group was a nomadic equestrian tribe in central Asia.  Herodotus said that they arrived from Russia and the Ukraine in the 7th or 6th centuries BCE.  They were expelled by the Scythians.

15. Igbo Tribe:  This Nigerian tribe numbers about 30,000,000.  They say they came to Nigeria about 740 CE from Syria, Portugal, and Libya and claim descent from the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Zebulon, and Judah.

16. British Israelites:  Followers of this belief claim that Britain, the United States, and other English speaking peoples are descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.  One such group is the Worldwide Church of God.

17. Mormons:  Traditional Mormon doctrine claims that the American Indians and Polynesian peoples are descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel.

My Bibliography

A new item on my blog is my bibliography page. The link is located in a sidebar on the right side of the page. The bibliography lists books and magazine articles I have written plus reviews and listings of my work.

Church Genealogy

    I inadvertantly angered some Mormon acquaintances of mine when I submitted an article to their genealogical magazine detailing the historical development of the Mormon religion as well as its historical precedents.  This was as a follow up to a submitted article which has been posted in this blog on 15 and 16 September 2009.  Both articles were rejected by the magazine, I later learned, for doctrinal reasons.

     Mormons believe that the true church of jesus Christ had disappeared from the Earth until it was restored by God's revelation to Joseph Smith.  As such, the Mormon Church could have no historical precursors.  However, to a non-Mormon such as myself, it is obvious that no social, political, or religious movement just suddenly springs into existence without precursors.

     The Mormons historically include individuals gathered from numerous religious backgrounds, but there is a definite strong element of Congregational/Baptist thought in early Mormon history, especially through such leaders as Sidney Rigdon who rose to positions of power and authority in every religious organization with which he affiliated (Baptist, Campbellites, Latter-day Saints, and Bickertonites/Rigdonites).  

The Genealogical Value of Tracing the Historical Development of Religious Denominations: Part 2

     Many of today's religious denominations have gone through highly contentious time, with multiple mergers, splits, mutinies, power battles, excommunications, shunnings, relocations, etc. Each splinter group usually declared itself to be correct and the true church and took with it as many of the group's historical documents as it could.  Lawsuits over property and documents produced court records, another source of information about the groups and their leaders and members.

     Organizational records may include payroll information, property rental and purchase documents, tax records, employment records, records of disciplinary actions, chains of command and job descriptions.  In the case of religious groups all of the above will be included as well as records of the personal type (births, marriages, deaths, burials, consecrations, ordinations, etc) which we more commonly associate with genealogy.  

     When individuals shifted their allegiances from one religious group to another, their church-held vital genealogical records usually weren't shifted with them and stayed with the parent group.  The records may now be stored in the archives of the original body (which may or may not be in their original geographic location.

     If you know the dates when organizational shifts occurred, or the approximate dates when your ancestors moved from one group to another, you may be able to infer the likeliest place to begin searching for a particular record.  Early public records are often spotty and incomplete, or even totally lost due to floods, fires, or wartime rapacity.  The only official record of the marriage of your great-grandparents, who lived in California, may be located in church archives in Florida for a group which originated in Minnesota.  

The Genealogical Value of Tracing the Historical Development of Religious Denominations: Part 1

     The same principles used in preparing and interpreting genealogical descent charts can be applied to organizations (ie. churches, religious denominations, businesses, political movements, etc).  It is possible to trace persons as they followed their leaders from place to place, because, wherever the leaders went, the followers, and often, the group's organizational records, accompanied them.  Sometimes, especially in the case of contentious splits, the records were left behind when the move occurred.

     When individual church congregations dissolved, the records sometimes ended up in the possession of individual families who had been prominent in the church.  One example of this is the Presbyterian Record Book of Carolina Church, 1837-1845 (Coosa County, Alabama), which was carried to Sibley, Louisiana by the Graham family.  The final home of this book became Louisiana Tech University, in Ruston. 

     The level and nature of document retention varies greatly from group to group.  The smaller, more congregational, religious groups may have kept no information at all.  Others will have a mixture of local and denominational record keeping.  A few of the more highly structured denominations will have at least copies of almost everything collected into one central archive.

Part 2 of this article will be posted tomorrow.