Author: nivtric

Earth from space

Sacredness of Creation

nivtricLeave a comment

Thus spoke Chief Seattle

To traditional peoples, nature is sacred. In 1854, the Native American Chief Seattle gave a speech when the United States government wanted to buy the land of his tribe. A screenwriter later rewrote it. His revised version became a religious creed within the environmentalist movement. It strikes at the heart of the matter. Nothing is sacred anymore. The pursuit of money destroys our values and planet. We may think we own the land, but we do not. We may think we control our destiny, but we do not. Whatever befalls Earth befalls the children of the Earth. Thus spoke Chief Seattle,

The Great Chief in Washington sends word he wishes to buy our land.

The Great Chief also sends us words of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him, since we know he has little need of our friendship in return. But we will consider your offer. For we know that if we do not sell, the white man may come with guns and take our land.

How can you buy or sell the sky or the warmth of the land? This idea is strange to us.

If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them from us?

We will decide in our time.

What Chief Seattle says, the Great Chief in Washington can count on as truly as our white brothers can count on the return of the seasons. My words are like the stars. They do not set.

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, sandy shore, mist in the dark woods, clearing, and humming insect is holy in my people’s memory and experience. The sap that courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man.

We are part of the earth, and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters[;] the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man―all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us.

The Great Chief sends word that he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably. He will be our father, and we will be his children.

But can that ever be? God loves your people but has abandoned his red children. He sends machines to help the white man with his work and builds great villages for him. He makes your people stronger every day. Soon, you will flood the land like the rivers that crash down the canyons after a sudden rain. But my people are an ebbing tide; we will never return.

No, we are separate races. Our children do not play together, and our old men tell different stories. God favours you, and we are orphans.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy, for this land is sacred to us. We take our pleasure in these woods. I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways.

This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father.

The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

The red man has always retreated before the advancing white man, as the mist of the mountain runs before the morning sun. But the ashes of our fathers are sacred. The graves are holy ground, and so these hills, these trees, this portion of the earth is consecrated to us. We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.

The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and he moves on when he has conquered it. He leaves his father’s grave behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children. He does not care. His father’s grave and his children’s birthright are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, and sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.

There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. There is no place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of the insect’s wings. But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleansed by a midday rain or scented with pinion pine.

The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath―the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like many dying for many days, he is numb to the stench. But if we sell our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. And the wind must also give our children the spirit of life. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind sweetened by the meadow’s flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition: The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers.

I am a savage, and I do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffalo on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage, and I do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man. All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

No, day and night cannot live together.

Our dead go to live in the earth’s sweet rivers, and they return with the silent footsteps of spring. It is their spirit, running in the wind, rippling the surface of the ponds.

We will consider why the white man wishes to buy the land. What is it that the white man wishes to buy, my people ask me. The idea is strange to us. How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land, the swiftness of the antelope? How can we sell these things to you, and how can you buy them? Is the earth yours to do with as you will, merely because the red man signs a piece of paper and gives it to the white man? If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them from us?

Can you buy back the buffalo once the last one has been killed? But we will consider your offer, for we know that if we do not sell, the white man may come with guns and take our land. But we are primitive, and in his passing moment of strength, the white man thinks that he is a god who already owns the earth. How can a man own his mother?

But we will consider your offer to buy our land. Day and night cannot live together. We will consider your offer to go to the reservation you have for my people. We will live apart and in peace. It matters little where we spend the rest of our days. Our children have seen their fathers humbled in defeat. Our warriors have felt shame, and after defeat, they turn their days into idleness and contaminate their bodies with sweet foods and strong drinks. It matters little where we pass the rest of our days. They are not many. A few more hours, a few more winters, and none of the children of the great tribes that once lived on this earth or that roam now in small bands in the woods will be left to mourn the graves of a people once as powerful and hopeful as yours.

But why should I mourn the passing of my people? Tribes are made of men, nothing more. Men come and go like the waves of the sea.

Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as a friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers, after all; we shall see. One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover―our God is the same God.

You may think now that you own Him as you wish to own our land, but you cannot. He is the God of man, and His compassion is equal for the red man and the white. This earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. The whites, too, shall pass, perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.

But in your perishing, you will shine brightly, fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and, for some special purpose, gave you dominion over this land and the red man. That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires. Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

God gave you dominion over the beasts, the woods, and the red man for some special purpose, but that destiny is a mystery to the red man. We might understand if we knew what the white man dreams―what hopes he describes to his children on long winter nights―what visions he burns onto their minds so that they will wish for tomorrow. But we are savages. The white man’s dreams are hidden from us. And because they are hidden, we will go our own way. Above all else, we cherish the right of each man to live as he wishes, however different from his brothers. There is little in common between us.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we agree, it will be to secure the reservation you have promised. Perhaps we may live out our brief days as we wish there.

When the last red man has vanished from this earth, and his memory is only the shade of a cloud moving across the prairie, these shores and forests will still hold the spirits of my people. For they love this earth as the newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat.

If we sell you our land, love it as we’ve loved it. Care for it as we’ve cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you take it. And with all your strength, mind, and heart, preserve it for your children, and love it as God loves us all.

One thing we know. Our God is the same. This earth is precious to Him. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers, after all. We shall see.

A religious desire for Eden

Perhaps you care for this planet, but what do you mean by that? When the last white rhino is dead, the Earth is still there. We may survive the demise of the rainforests. Humans have finished off other species for thousands of years. Why stop now? Nature doesn’t care. Predators kill prey, and natural disasters kill animals. Why should we care? Mr Lind, a professor at the University of Texas, noted that saving the planet has become the religion of politicians, business elites, and intellectuals in the West, replacing Christianity’s earlier mission of saving individual souls.1 He added that environmentalism is rooted in German 19th-century Romanticism, with a bias against organised society and civilisation and a pantheistic awe before an idealised Nature. In other words, environmentalists suffer from a religious desire for Eden.

In doing so, Mr Lind tapped into another 19th-century German tradition, that of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche hoped to leave traditional morality behind, saying, ‘God is dead.’ Religions like Christianity, Nietzsche claimed, were ruses to enslave us with a false sense of right and wrong under rules imposed by a priestly caste. And so do environmentalists, Lind implied. Nietzsche favoured the values of the strong to those of the weak embodied in Christianity and socialism. Slaves think in terms of good and evil rather than better and worse because they resent the ruling class. Nietzsche hoped to liberate us from our self-induced slavery and realise our full potential.

Mr Lind argued we should do away with false sentiments, saying, ‘There are costs to mitigating climate change as well as benefits, and rational people can prefer a richer but warmer world to a poorer but slightly less warm one. These individual policies benefit humanity, so there is no need to justify them on the basis of a romantic creed that defines the planet or the environment.’ That appears nice and dandy from behind the desk of Mr Lind’s air-conditioned Texas room. He says rational people might prefer money to a cooler climate. If it is too hot in France, you can go to the beach in Denmark. A few people may die due to heat stroke or extreme weather. We will be wealthier, so why care? We never cared. Cars kill one million people per year. That didn’t stop us from driving them.

A philosophy of connectedness

As our production and consumption increase, new problems emerge faster than we can solve existing ones with laws, technology, targets and other solutions. New technology, rules and controls don’t solve these problems. Meanwhile, millions of poor people try to escape their misery and look for a better future in wealthy countries. Is there a relation between these issues, and what is it? In the 1990s, the environmentalist group Strohalm wrote a booklet named Towards a Philosophy of Connectedness.2
It gives a vision for a sustainable and humane society centred around community solidarity. The principal founder of Strohalm is Henk van Arkel, a dedicated individual who remained its driving force for decades. He doesn’t blame anyone in particular. We are all part of the problem.

Everything is interconnected. Our actions have consequences, even though we may not know or ignore them. Wall Street traders who sold bad mortgages caused the financial crisis. Dumping plastic in a river, buying clothes made by children, or posting hateful comments on a message board has consequences. Western thinking, reflected in the scientific method, deconstructs reality to analyse the parts. In this way, the whole can get lost. Not seeing the whole can make us act irresponsibly. A single hateful comment doesn’t make someone take a semi-automatic rifle and shoot innocent people, nor would driving a single car change the climate. Still, hate makes people murder innocent people and driving cars contributes to climate change. If we accept that, we remain locked inside a cynical and uncaring world. It is our neglect. Good intentions can worsen things, but we can learn and do better next time. The alternative is turning evil.

Actions have consequences. We can’t look the other way if we hope to live in Paradise. We have to do the best we can to prevent harm. Our vision of harm fails us. If the relationship between our actions and the harm is remote or not proven, we feel free to do as we please. And that is the road to hell. And so, we have the choice of being free in hell or becoming a slave in Paradise. It is not slavery, as we understand it, the exploitation of one group of people by another, but slavery in Nietzsche’s sense, which is living under a self-imposed moral system that limits our options. And money shouldn’t be our highest value, which it is in the liberal-capitalist world. God owns this world, so it is not ours to destroy. The Sacredness of Creation is a religion. We need a new starting point and foundation for our culture, beliefs, thinking, and our place in the universe because we must change how we live.2

Latest revision: 20 August 2024

Featured image: Earth from space. Public Domain.

1. Why I Am Against Saving the Planet. Michael Lind (2023). Tabletmag.com.
2. Naar een filosofie van verbondenheid. Guus Peterse, Henk van Arkel, Hans Radder, Seattle, Pieter Schroever and Margrit Kennedy (1990). Aktie Strohalm.

The New Religion

nivtricLeave a comment

Perhaps you think, ‘How did I find out?’ It seems that I once encountered God in a dormitory during my student years in 1989. She was one of the students living there, an overbearing figure who dominated the group. She made my life miserable and forced me to leave the dormitory. She told me that I didn’t fit in the group, was rude and didn’t show my feelings. There was something off about Her. And She connected with me like no one else ever has. It also seemed that She didn’t care what would happen to me, as if I were nothing in Her eyes. A student from another dormitory who was in a similar position had committed suicide around the same time.

She cast me out as I didn’t fit in in Her little Paradise. I was autistic and hardly aware of the consequences of my actions, but I felt that something was wrong with me. And so, it wasn’t hard to make me feel at fault. It didn’t help that I was a simple rural guy with little life experience. I didn’t fit in an intellectual environment where people discussed art, literature, and feelings. Afterwards, I realised I had fallen in love with Her, which made me feel even more miserable. It turned out to be a life-changing event that helped me resolve my issues and become a better person. Only that took years.

Since then, I never saw Her again, found a wife and had a son. Over the years, a few strange coincidences occurred, reminding me of Her. Nineteen years later, in 2008, I had a psychosis, in which She appeared to make telepathic contact and appeared to be God. She had a message for me: ‘I am Eve, and you are Adam, and together we will recreate Paradise.’ That suggested that She has a romantic interest in me. I figured that Jesus had a similar connection with Mary Magdalene, and that She had made him believe that Adam was Eve’s son. I didn’t want to be mistaken, because most messiah claimants were delusional, so I checked whether it could be true. This book is the result of that effort.

I can’t rule it out. But nothing happened. I continued with my life, living with my wife, while trying to figure out what to do if it were true. After all, I hadn’t asked for this, so if God wanted me for Herself, She could come and get me, which She hasn’t done yet. I once emailed Her, asking Her what this was about, but She denied being God or having anything to do with the events in my life. But God has fooled us for thousands of years. Whatever the truth may be, my discovery could be meaningful, so I proceeded with this research. This world seems a joke, and we exist to amuse God. If it is all true, you might save yourself with my guidance, not because I am a genius or can do miracles, but because it is the plot of the story.

Paradise will be what God desires, not what we want. I am an actor in this play, so I play the role of guessing which way things will go and helping you find a way out. The future will likely be different from what I anticipate, but I may be right about the direction. Time will tell. Knowing the consequences of your actions and doing no harm are the keys to a better future. I felt I had no excuses when I was a student, even though I didn’t know I was causing harm. But I should have known. That also applies to you. There are no excuses. You should have known. And you should do whatever it takes.

Only from a Western perspective do things seem to fall apart. If you live elsewhere, you probably see things differently. If these are not the end times, it is the end of 500 years of Western dominance. What many in the West see as social progress, such as human rights, may soon regress. The West has shaped the world as it is today. If Hegel was right, and social progress coming from a dialectic duel between progressivism and conservatism will lead us to Paradise, we have arrived at the end of the line. Even the Chinese Communist Party has built its vision on Hegel’s ideas. There is either social progress and a coming Paradise, or there is no point to history. It seems we are about to find out.

In Eden, Eve and Adam lived simple lives in harmony with nature. That may also lie ahead for us. That will be the New Religion, at least if we all embrace these wonderful tidings. Overall, it can be good, but that doesn’t mean it will all be nice and dandy. And so, before you get carried away by the idea of entering God’s kingdom, picture life in Eden. The Talking Heads already did,

Here we stand
Like an Adam and an Eve
Waterfalls
The Garden of Eden
Two fools in love
…
There was a shopping mall
Now it’s all covered with flowers
…
If this is paradise
I wish I had a lawnmower
…
We used to microwave
Now we just eat nuts and berries
You got it, you got it
…
Don’t leave me stranded here
I can’t get used to this lifestyle

Talking Heads, (Nothing but) Flowers

Latest update: 28 November 2025

Featured image: The First Kiss of Adam and Eve. Salvador Viniegra (1891). Public Domain.

The Spider’s Web

nivtric1 Comment

The Spider’s Web is an informative documentary about the hidden world of offshore finance.

This is a documentary that everyone should watch to understand what is going on behind the scenes.

If you have Netflix, you can also watch it there.

The only known photograph of Chief Seattle

Thus spoke Chief Seattle

nivtricLeave a comment

The Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. The Great Chief also sends us words of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him since we know he has little need for our friendship in return. We will consider your offer. For we know that if we do not sell, the white man may come with guns and take our land.

But how can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them from us?

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people.

Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers.

This shining water that moves in our streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people.

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and yours, and you must henceforth give rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

The red man has always retreated before the advancing white man, as the mist of the mountain runs before the morning sun. But the ashes of our fathers are sacred. The graves are holy ground, and so these hills, these trees, this portion of the earth is consecrated to us.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.

The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father’s graves behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children. He does not care. His fathers’ graves and his children’s birthright are forgotten.

He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, or sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.

There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. What is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand.

The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath―the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a many dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.

I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever, happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth.

This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know.

All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

We may be brothers after all; we shall see. One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover―our God is the same God. You may think now that you own Him as you wish to own our land, but you cannot.

This earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.

God gave you dominion over the beasts, the woods, and the red man, and for some special purpose, but that destiny is a mystery to the red man. We might understand if we knew what it was that the white man dreams―what hopes he describes to his children on long winter nights―what visions he burns onto their minds so that they will wish for tomorrow.

God loves us all. One thing we know. Our God is the same God. This earth is precious to Him. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see.

Latest update: 18 May 2023

Featured image:

Sepphoris Mosaic

Sarah, Mother of the Jews

nivtricLeave a comment

Weaving one tale inside another

The Jewish Bible is a good read, apart from the sections that lay out the Jewish religious laws in excruciating detail. It features tales about the Jewish patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land under the guidance of a wrathful cloud. It is nearly all made up. Writing and editing the Jewish Bible took centuries. The authors wrote it to promote their religion rather than to provide an accurate account of history. That is how historians look at the Jewish Bible. If you believed it all, don’t blame the Jews for writing good stories, but yourself for your gullibility. You could have known if you had put some effort into educating yourself. And you don’t think reptiles live among us because scriptwriters in Hollywood made a film in which they do? Some do. That is how imagination becomes religion.

But what does the almighty owner of quadrillions of galaxies have to do with the Jewish Bible, a product of the fantasies of a petty nation dwelling in a small area on a tiny planet near an insignificant star inside one of those countless galaxies? To answer that question, imagine you are John Ronald Reuel Tolkien writing about Hobbits living in The Shire. The Shire might be an insignificant spot on a tiny planet in an infinitely large universe, but Tolkien hardly cares about the rest. Only the Shire and the Hobbits have his interest. Tolkien could write a story about a Hobbit who makes up stories about his maker.

If Tolkien can do that, God can do it too. After all, that is one of the perks of being all-powerful. If God is a woman and has been among us as Mary Magdalene, what roles did God play among the Jews? In other words, which women in the Jewish Bible were God in disguise? Inquiring minds want to know because many of these stories are fantasy. At best, these are local tales that may or may not have some connection to actual events and have become integrated into the biblical narrative. Hence, the first question you should ask is: Can God have played a role in stories that never happened in the story?

Tolkien can write a story in which a Hobbit writes a story in which Tolkien enters the Shire disguised as a Hobbit. But that story never happened in the story Tolkien wrote. It is a tale that a Hobbit wrote in Tolkien’s story. The Hobbit might not even realise that the Hobbit in the tale is Tolkien in disguise, but he thinks it is just a Hobbit with a special role in the story, because that is the plot Tolkien created. I hope you haven’t lost track. That is the level of deception we are talking about here. And what about the Hobbits starting a religion with an imagined creator? Then the truth comes out. Tolkien reveals himself, and the Hobbits all laugh. And then it turns out that, even though the story that this Hobbit wrote never happened, it featured Tolkien disguised as a Hobbit. So it is possible. And indeed, strong women, who could have been God in disguise, appear in the Jewish Bible.

Hiding it behind human motivations

Powerful women also appeared in the Jewish Bible for a mundane reason. The Israelites were too small a people and thus too weak to defend a territory. They had to survive as a minority in the lands of others. Military adventurism would be fatal for them. To facilitate the right attitude among Jewish men, the authors of the Jewish Bible invented a new type of hero. Rather than fearless warriors, their heroes were virtuous individuals who helped others, such as Boaz,1 people with weaknesses like David, and risk-averse, shrewd individuals. Abraham was not a courageous warrior, nor was his son, Isaac. Resourcefulness had to compensate for that. Jacob cheated on his brother Esau and took his birthright. Meet the Jewish hero. He is a family man, but lacks the courage to defend his wife’s honour. Yet he is shrewd and defrauds his brother. And he has God on his side.

Heroes die, but the cunning and timid remain, even more so if God is on their side. That is why there are still Jews, while other nations made a one-way trip to the dustbin of history due to their excess testosterone and stupidity. And, of course, they lacked divine support. That is why the authors of the Jewish Bible refashioned the role of men and women in family life. The stories of Jewish patriarchs focused on family life and domestic affairs, in which women played a central role. And women played a crucial part in Israel’s victories.1

That undermined male authority in war. In several cases, women achieved triumph on the battlefield or determined the fate of men. Jacob defrauded Esau of his birthright and deceived his father, Isaac, with the help of his mother, Rebecca. Esther saved the Jewish people from a plot in the Persian court. The Jewish Bible doesn’t depict events suggesting Rebecca or Esther could have been God in disguise. There are, however, a few stories that catch the imagination and qualify. According to the Bible, Jewish history begins with Sarah and Abraham. There was something special about Sarah, the matriarch of the Jews.

Sarah and Abraham

The Lord allegedly promised Abraham that one day, his offspring would be as countless as the stars and own the land between Egypt and the Euphrates River. His wife, Sarah, was barren. She asked Abraham to sleep with her slave, Hagar, so Hagar would bear a child in her name. Those were the days when slavery was not forbidden, and you could get away with that. Once Hagar was pregnant, she began to look down on Sarah. Sarah then mistreated Hagar, and Hagar fled. But God sent an angel, the famous Angel of the Lord, who ordered Hagar to return and submit herself to Sarah. Hagar bore Abraham a son, Ishmael.

That could have been good enough, but the Lord chose differently and presented Abraham with a covenant. It required the circumcision of all males, and Sarah was to become the matriarch of the Jewish nation. At the time, Abraham was one hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety. Abraham and Sarah laughed when they learned this. Remember, 4,000 years ago, there were no erection enhancement pills or fertility treatments. Sarah became pregnant and bore Isaac.

Like in most traditional agricultural societies, Jewish religious law prescribes that men precede women in inheritance. Daughters can only inherit if there are no sons. Nevertheless, being a matriarch of the Jewish people is crucial because you are a Jew if your mother is one. Your father is irrelevant to your Jewishness. God was particularly picky as to who was to become the matriarch of the Jews. In this sense, the Jews are not primarily children of Abraham, as the Jewish Bible says, but children of Sarah in the same way Christians are children of God.

Abraham feared for his life because of Sarah’s beauty. When the Egyptians asked if Sarah was his wife, he said she was his sister. The Pharaoh’s servants took notice and informed the Pharaoh, who took her as his wife. God then inflicted severe diseases on Pharaoh and his household. That is divine justice. God punished the Pharaoh because Abraham had deceived him. With a God like that, you don’t need Satan. Not surprisingly, that horned fellow was nowhere to be found in this tale. Perhaps he enjoyed a sabbatical. The Bible doesn’t tell. Abraham did the same in Abimelech’s kingdom, thus knowingly bringing Abimelech into mortal danger. King Abimelech then received threats from God after he planned to take Sarah as his wife. Luckily for him, God didn’t have a bad mood that day.

To us mere mortals, an intriguing question might be, what made Abraham worthy in the eyes of God? Is it that he intended to sacrifice his son when a voice asked him? If it had happened today, we would have locked up Abraham in a mental ward. If Abraham was God’s husband, it makes more sense. In any case, God works in mysterious ways, and a ram presented itself, and that same voice then asked Abraham to sacrifice the animal instead. That was a narrow escape. If that ram had not been there, there would have been no Jewish people, and world history would have been entirely different. That is chaos theory at work here, or is it God’s plan?

In family matters, God sided with Sarah. The Angel of the Lord summoned Hagar to return to her mistress, Sarah. Later, God told Abraham to send Hagar away. Sarah wanted this. Sarah became the matriarch of the Jews because the Lord commanded. The Lord thus represented her well. Had this been a scrap of history, Sarah might have been God in disguise and done an excellent job of hiding that. However, God can also play an undercover role in events that never took place. That is a perk of writing the story yourself. And why does God desire bits of male reproductive organs in exchange for making a covenant? That is indeed most peculiar unless the Lord is a Lady. Another, and probably better, explanation is that it is a hygiene measure. The Jewish Bible describes the rules for ritual hygiene that Jews are required to follow in great detail.

Joseph and Asenath

Jacob had twelve sons, but Joseph was his favourite and the best-looking one. His brothers were jealous and conspired against him. They sold him as a slave. Joseph ended up in the household of Potiphar, an Egyptian and a high-ranking official in Pharaoh’s court. Joseph did well there and became Potiphar’s favourite. Joseph was handsome, so he caught the eye of Potiphar’s wife, who wanted to sleep with him. When he refused, she accused Joseph of trying to seduce her, and Potiphar put him in prison. There, Joseph became the prison warden’s favourite. Joseph was adept at explaining dreams. That eventually brought him to the Pharaoh, who also made Joseph his favourite. The Pharaoh made him a Viceroy and put him in charge of the granaries.

Scholars believe that the biblical story of Joseph was once a separate story that originated in the Jewish community living in Egypt at the time when many other Jews were in Babylonian captivity. The story resembles several Egyptian tales about a seven-year famine, divine dreams, and a wise vizier who helped the pharaoh and priests to restore the land. One of these stories, in fact, is inscribed on a large monument called the Famine Stele near Elephantine, an Egyptian colony on the Nile River where many Jews also lived.

Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian high priest. The Jewish Bible tells us nothing about her. That raised questions as marrying pagans became a controversial matter for Jews. A later story about their marriage explains how Joseph, after he escaped Potiphar’s wife, ended up in the arms of a pagan priestess. How could God have let this happen? An explanation was needed and invented, and they named the story Joseph and Asenath, which was quite to the point. According to this tale, Asenath was proud and despised men, but became impressed by Joseph’s looks.

Joseph first didn’t want to marry a pagan priestess who bowed before idols and didn’t worship the God of the Jews. But lo and behold, Asenath showed repentance and changed her faith. And then an angel from heaven hurried to her chamber to bless the marriage. When Asenath told Joseph, he changed his mind and married her. It thus must have been convincing. Asenath’s change of faith appears insincere and may have been motivated by her desire to marry Joseph. Nevertheless, God blessed the marriage, which is remarkable considering the high standards that usually apply. Asenath might have been God in disguise if only this had actually happened.

Zipporah and Moses

A fellow named Moses allegedly led the Israelites out of Egypt. A burning bush claiming to be God commanded Moses to return to Egypt to free the Israelites. Moses then took his wife, Zipporah, and their sons and started his journey to Egypt. On the road, they stayed at an inn, where that same burning bush supposedly came to kill Moses, which is a reason why you should not believe it happened. Zipporah saved Moses’ life by circumcising their son and touching Moses’ feet with the foreskin, saying he was her bridegroom of blood (Exodus 4:24-26). Later, the burning bush allegedly transformed itself into an irate cloud of fire, which helped Moses lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.

Zipporah saving Moses’ life fits the agenda of the authors of the Jewish Bible, which is to undermine male authority so Jewish men wouldn’t strive to posthumously win the prestigious Darwin award for their military adventures and terminate the Jewish people in the process. After all, the success of Moses’ mission depended on Zipporah having rescued him from the consequences of his daring attempt to let his son remain uncircumcised. God somehow was particularly keen on that foreskin. Zipporah knew what God was about to do and the reason why. But Zipporah reading God’s mind? No mere mortal could accomplish such a feat, not even Jesus. Hence, Zipporah might have been God in disguise if only this had happened.

Bathsheba and David

Bathsheba, who was the wife of Uriah, brought ruin to David and his kingdom. While Uriah served in the army to fight one of David’s wars, Bathsheba conspicuously bathed on a rooftop near the royal palace, where David could see her naked. She intended to seduce him. The alternative explanation that there was no room inside the house to bathe isn’t persuasive. David ordered Bathsheba to come to his place. And so She did, apparently without even saying it might be a bad idea. She became pregnant after sleeping with him. David then commanded Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to go home, hoping he would sleep with his wife so the scandal would go unnoticed. But Uriah didn’t out of solidarity with his comrades on the battlefield. David then asked his commander to place Uriah on the frontline of the battle so he would die. After Uriah died, David married Bathsheba. Bathsheba turned out to be a true fate changer. She also bore the future king Solomon.

You might have learned that the Lord loved David, but the subsequent events don’t demonstrate that. From then on, everything went downhill. In hindsight, this sequence of incidents led to the son of Bathsheba ascending to the throne. The prophet Nathan foretold David that his act would bring a curse upon his house. David’s eldest son, Amnon, was murdered by his half-brother Absalom after he had raped Absalom’s sister Tamar. Later, Absalom declared himself king and started a revolt against David, and David’s troops killed him. That eliminated two potential heirs to the throne. In David’s old age, Bathsheba secured the succession to the throne of Solomon. The marriage was a grave sin, but God nevertheless loved Bathsheba’s son, who was to become king. Bathsheba could have been God in disguise.

That might shed some light as to why the Lord loved David so much, as it cannot be due to his moral virtue. And it presents us with a reason why he couldn’t resist Bathsheba. David is a historical figure, so there could be truth to the story. It, however, also fits the agenda of the authors of the Jewish Bible. Even Israel’s greatest king, David, had faults and crumbled in the hands of a woman. But who would have thought Bathsheba had something to do with the angry cloud dwelling in that tent? Remarkably, the name Bathsheba is composed of two parts: Bath and Sheba. Bathsheba seduced David by bathing naked on a rooftop near the palace. The Queen of Sheba later visited Solomon. That is a bit odd. Hence, the Queen of Sheba may also have been an avatar of God.

Deborah, the founder of the Jewish nation

Sarah is the matriarch of the Jews, but she never lived in that capacity as a historical figure. Still, the Jews have a real matriarch insofar as anything is real in this world. She is also in the Jewish Bible. The Jewish nation gradually emerged after Egypt retreated from Canaan around 1150 BC. That left a power vacuum in which states gradually developed from tribal leadership. It corresponds with the tribal era of the judges in the Bible. One of the oldest texts of the Jewish Bible is the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), dating back to the era before the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.2 Deborah was a tribal leader during this age.

Deborah was the fourth judge in the Book of Judges. Only Deborah may have lived in that era in that role. The Song of Deborah, not Genesis, is the actual starting point of the Jewish Bible. The song likely didn’t pop up out of nowhere. Jewish tribespeople composed it to celebrate the victory brought by their heroine, Deborah. She is the earliest historical person in the Bible. She attributed the triumph to Yahweh rather than El, so the history of the Jews as Yahweh’s people began with Deborah.

She took part in a battle (Judges 4:8-9). As the story goes, Deborah sent for Barak, the commander of the troops, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.'” (Judges 4:6-7) But it was Deborah who commanded Barak. And so, She might have been the God of Israel in disguise and founded the Jewish nation and religion in person.

Latest revision: 5 December 2025

Featured image: Sepphoris Mosaic. Pbs.org. [copyright info]

1. Wright, Jacob L. (2014). The Bible’s Prehistory, Purpose, and Political Future. Coursera.
2. Why is the Song of Deborah considered to be the oldest text in the Hebrew Bible? r/AcademicBiblical (2025). https://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicBiblical/comments/1mhfw3z