Steefen said
Comment 159
Thomas Didymus and “Doubting Thomas” refer to the exact same person: the Biblical Apostle Thomas. [1, 2]The Names of Thomas
Thomas Didymus: “Thomas” comes from an Aramaic word meaning “twin,” and “Didymus” is the Greek word (Didymos) that also means “twin”. The Gospel of John refers to him as “Thomas, called the Twin (Didymus)”.
Hi Steefen! You just made a very helpful correction. You are right that Thomas’ name origin of T’ōmā is Aramaic, not Hebrew:
Serene said
Thomas (Hebrew), Didymos (Greek)
How do we know that Jesus’ Apostles are all Jewish?
Matthew 19:28
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'”
It has long been academic consensus that some of the 12 judges of Israelites in the Book of Judges have clearly foreign names:
Othniel, son of Kenaz is Kennizite (Edomite-Canaanite clan)
Shamgar is a Hurrian or Hittite name
Gideon has the second name of Jerubabaal, a Canaanite name
They are given Jewishness after the facto.
As we move closer to the First Century Transjordan, in 1 Maccabees 5:8 (Maccabees is non-canonical to the Hebrew Bible but canonical to the Catholic Old Testament), Aretas, the Nabataean Arab king, is portrayed as exercising judicial authority over Jason, the Jewish High Priest. Again, I think this is the “second verse, same as the first” type story of Aretas IV seeking the Jewish High Priest’s emissary Saul/Paulus in 2 Corinthians 11:32 for the events described in Galatians 1:13.
They are descriptions of actions, not formal titles, like in Matthew 19:28 and Luke 22:30
…you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
When the towns are known that Jesus recruits from, they are historically found to be markedly multi-ethnic trade nodes and border junctions (like the 7 churches of Asia in miniature.) Apostles from Bethsaida would likely have been comfortable with attesting to Jesus’ signs and works to Gentiles, including Simon renamed Peter, who has an actually Hebrew birth name.
I just think it’s interesting that the Apostle Thomas is eager to take the chance that this may violate purity laws, considering that Jesus has um, not been declared alive.
And that this apparently new Apostle may not recognize what Jesus looked like before, like in the many instances of Luke 24:13–35.
** you do not have permission to see this link ** 81.3-82.5
When he said these things, I saw him as if they were seizing him. And I said, ‘What do I see, O Lord? Is it really you whom they take? And are you holding onto me? And who is this one above the cross, who is glad and laughing? And is it another person whose feet and hands they are hammering?’
The Savior said to me, ‘He whom you see above the cross, glad and laughing, this is the living Jesus. But he into whose hands and feet they drive the nails is his physical part, which is the substitute, being put to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness. Look at him and look at me.’
When I looked, I said, ‘Lord, no one is looking at you. Let us flee this place!’ But he said to me, ‘I have told you, “Leave the blind alone!” And you, see how they do not know what they are saying. For the son of their glory, instead of my servant, they have put to shame.
Steefen said
Bart,
Neither the Gospel of Thomas nor the Synoptics contain Thomas’ skepticism regarding the resurrection. Those are attestations that are needed.
QUESTION: Without multiple attestation, is Thomas’ skepticism not historical or is there more to this?
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Zebadiah, son of 👉Ishmael 👈 Judge of Jewish People
2 Chronicles 19
See, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of the Lord; and Zebadiah son of Ishmael, the governor of the house of Judah, in all the king’s matters
The Bible Gateway Cliff Notes:
A “governor of the house of Judah, in all the king’s affairs” (** you do not have permission to see this link **, [http://biblegateway/wiki/Courts, Judicial COURT OF LAW].
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My bolding.
The Question: Could a 9th Century BCE Judean really hear or use the name Ishmael without thinking of the famous son of Hagar in Genesis?
Hint: The 9th C BCE is exactly when the Ishmaelite tribal confederation begins operating in the Transjordan, per written Assyrian records.
Folk etymology implies that this Ishmael name is just a Jewish name that doesn’t nod to any sympathy or even mixed ancestry with the Ishmaelites, and I would like to offer my finest lol. All uses of the name Ishmael in the Hebrew Bible after the Ishmael of Genesis begin appearing exactly after the Ishmaelite confederation begins operating in the Transjordan, using contemporary written records.
Specifically, the first re-appearance of the name Ishmael appears in a trade-favorable Jewish administration, right before the last use of the term Ishmaelite in a trade-unfavorable Jewish administration.
Ishmaelite is an exonym. Son of Ishmael can either be an actual son of someone named Ishmael, or follow the usual tribal endonym ” Son of [Founder] pattern. Using an “Son of Ishmael” endonym would be proper once the lineage is inside the house.
Consider the example of Doeg the Edomite:
1 Samuel 21:7
Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds
But the Talmud explains that the “chief of Saul’s shepherds” is a euphemism. The Talmud scholars explain that Doeg the Edomite was the highest judicial authority in the land, the head of the Sanhedrin, and the highest scholar in the Kingdom of Judah, and that the sheep were his scholars.
Caveat — the Talmud is the 2nd-5th CE trying to explain the 9th C BCE, but the scholars of the Talmud would have a wider oral history and the written records of hegemons to draw from, like that of the Babylonian Exiles.
Could it have been politically incorrect to acknowledge someone of lowly lineage as being higher than the Jewish people? See the justification given for King Herod the Great’s actions regarding his lineage Jewish family, that they mocked his commoner (Edomite) background.
To me this really big euphemism — from “chief herdsman” to “head of the Sanhedrin,” is the legislative body over the Jewish people, raises the possibility that lowly lineage as characterized in the Hebrew Bible, like Edomite (because it is mixed with Canaanite), or Ishmaelite (dismissed slave origin), may be less overtly acknowledged as they started to rise, whereas conqueror lineage (Egyptian, Hittite, Moabite, Ammonite and others), landed kingdom lineage, would not be.
Son of [Founder], like the Son of David:
Luke 18:36-37
Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he called out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
“Sons of Aretas,” are the Banu Haritat. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is called the “Daughter of Amram” (Moses’ father) in the Quran. Or like the “Sons of Light”, in the Qumran Essene texts, Light being a personified being in Mandaean cosmology.
I think Ishmael could be the name of Zebadiah’s dad, just that for this century, and considering how tribal business operated as distinct from landed kingdom business, that this may nod at mixed lineage. Again, switching to the endonym tracks if the Ishmaelite tribal confederation intermarried with Jewish or Israelite people in the Transjordan.
Zebadiah, son of Ishmael’s administration of King Jehoshaphat (c. 870-848 BCE) was particularly known for alliance-making. Then the last time we see the word Ishmaelites used is in a closely-following administration, upset that the Ishmaelite confederacy allies across different ethnic groups (Hagar’s is Egyptian):
Psalm 83:5-6
With one mind they plot together; they form a alliance against you—the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites…
Then with the Book of Isaiah, it shows familiarity with smaller, emerging tribal confederacies, like that led by the lineages of Nebaioth and Kedar.
** you do not have permission to see this link ** that Yosef the Salit, Ya’akov, Issachar and Benoni don’t have anything to do with the Hyksos in Egypt called Salitus, Yaqub, Sakir-har and Benon — Hebrews come get your Patriarchs.
Luke 22:30
so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel
Now let’s look at this new Apostle Thomas with the Aramaean name again. The Apostle Thomas’s insistence on touching the open wounds of someone who could be a revenant, a ghost re-animating a corpse which was a fear of the First Century Mediterranean, or even a Weekend at Bernie’s disregards purity laws, the highest level of Jewish taboos, the Second Temple ritual purity laws called Tumat Met.
Early Christian history and Syriac texts (Acts of Thomas, Gospel of Thomas) sent him to the Syriac/Aramaean world — specifically Edessa (Osroene), Nisibis, Parthia, and further east.
While Thomas could certainly be Jewish, it’s not implausible that he could be a Syriac/Aramaean sent to witness to the scattered remnants of the northern Israelite tribes. They were widely documented in ancient Jewish memory as having preserved their diaspora communities in those territories.
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”
** you do not have permission to see this link ** and date to the Neolithic period (c. 4500–3900/3800).
I’ve split my follow-up comment on potential multi-culturalism in the Gospels and copied part of it here, because it explores the circa-Davidic kingdom era to compare it to Jesus‘ time:
What’s really exciting today is finding an academic study discussing the Talmud’s consensus take that titles like chief ‘herder’ and ‘shepherd’ were euphemisms for high placement in government:
** you do not have permission to see this link **, Shawn Zelig Aster, Journal of Biblical Literature
1 Samuel 21:7
Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.
** you do not have permission to see this link ** on Doeg’s knowledge of Torah:
And Rabbi Yitzḥak says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Where is he that counts; where is he that weighs; where is he that counts the towers [migdalim]” (Isaiah 33:18)? Where is he that counts all the letters of the Torah? Where is he that weighs, who considers all the elements of a fortiori inferences in the Torah? Where is he who counts the towers? This is Doeg, who would count three hundred halakhic conclusions with regard to the purity of a cupboard [migdal] that floats in the air [avir].
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: Doeg and Ahithophel raised four hundred dilemmas with regard to the purity of a cupboard that floats in the air, and they did not resolve even one, an indication of their great knowledge.
While the modern scholar, Shawn Zelig Aster concludes that shepherd in Doeg’s context was likely a title for a military commander. The use of a euphemism, shepherd (of people) for Doeg, imo could be because Doeg is an Edomite that is not related to the Jewish people.
King David’s sister Abigail was even married to an Ishmaelite, and he places his nephew Amasa as commander of the United Monarchy army:
1 Chronicles 2:17
Abigail bore Amasa, and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.
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King David says this to Amasa in 2 Samuel 19:13
And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? So may God do to me, and more, if you are not the commander of my army from now on, in place of Joab.”
A son of an Ishmaelite is King David’s bone and flesh. King Solomon even avenges this patrilineally Ishmaelite family member, Amasa. King David is the king in the Hebrew Bible that explicitly has Ishmaelite and Hagarite officials, peoples who become known as Arabs. Like-wise, the Book of Isaiah, the single-most quoted Hebrew text in the New Testament and again, nicknamed the ‘Fifth Gospel’ for how often this text was present among the early Jesus movement, highlights Arab Kedar, Nebaioth, Midian, and Sela as essential participants in the messianic restoration (Isaiah 42:11, 60:6–7).
Then there is King David’s innovation of dual High Priests, and his appointment of Zadok, which many biblical scholars interpret through the Jebusite Hypothesis. By elevating a priest whose name root matches pre-Israelite Jerusalem priest-kings like Melchizedek and Adonizedek, King David makes a classic move of multi-cultural statecraft.
Many scholars also perceive Zadok’s post-exilic literary assignment of a pristine Aaronid lineage (once this lineage becomes a mandatory requirement in Ezra 2:62) as an instance of fictive kinship — the common Ancient Near East practice of informal adoption into a royal house that became codified over time.
Could it become codified without an informal adoption in the actual time period, or the “over time” part? When according to Josephus, King Herod the Great’s close friend and biographer Nicolaus of Damascus tries to retroactively supply a royal Jewish background for him, even that great friend of the Herodian dynasty, Josephus, mouthes a silent whomp whomp:
Nicolaus of Damascus says that Antipas [Herod’s grandfather] was of the stock of the principal Jews who came out of Babylon into Judea. But this he said merely to gratify Herod and his son, who was king of Judea after him… for Herod was an Idumean by birth.”
— Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 14.1.3
So I wonder if new types of names in the Bible may not always be simply just the result of updated customs, or civic aliases in the lingua franca; I wonder if sometimes new types of names points to multi-culturalism.
And like the ANE “shepherd” title for king, including tribal king, that per Talmud becomes creatively utilized for a subordinate in a multi-tribal confederacy, I wonder if something like the traditional ANE practice of fictive kinship adoption is being described in the Gospels.
Rejoice!
On Apostle Paul writing to the Philippians (the “Epistle of Joy”) during Greece’s first Living God drought in almost 400 years — and the potential encodement of names.
For the other gods are either far away, or they do not have ears, or they do not exist, or do not take any notice of us, but you we can see present here; you are not made of wood or stone, you are real.
— part of a hymn to King Demetrios of Athens, 291 BCE in** you do not have permission to see this link **, by Angelos Chaniotis, Oxford, 2003
As far as I know, there is not a single historical record in the ancient Mediterranean or Near Eastern world of a poor, non-elite person being legally declared or worshipped as a “God” (Theos) or “Son of God” (Theou Huios). Zero. It was an exclusive legal instrument of imperial statecraft.
Not even the very cool Hanina ben Dosa in the 1st century CE — a Galilean charismatic contemporary of early Christians. Rabbinic tradition (b. Berakhot 17b) records that a divine voice (Bat Kol) declared daily:
The whole world is sustained for the sake of My son Hanina, yet My son Hanina is satisfied with a basket of carobs from one Sabbath eve to the next.”
A divine voice calls him “my son,” and yet no religion or even sect sprouts from Hanina ben Dosa. Hanina has no happy hymn, and he’s good at being content with carob. That is because the Son of God is a title.
Assyriologist Dr. Simo Parpola claims to decode Hebrew Bible texts using alphabetic ciphers like ** you do not have permission to see this link **, 2022) analyzes the New Testament for alphabetic ciphers, he claims it yields an overriding word, “King.”
As I’ve written before, I think this might tie directly to Nabataean King Malichus II, whose name literally means “King” (MLK). We do have records of Jewish figures ruling in other kingdoms, right? Like ** you do not have permission to see this link ** (41-48 CE.)
• The abjad form MLK is written in the Aramaic portion of the tri-lingual Titulus: Jesus, King (MLK) of the Jews
• Christ, meaning “the anointed one,” is a direct legal descriptor for a rightful king
• Malichus (root meaning “King”) shares the exact Semitic root with Malchus in John 18:10
As I’ve written before, I think that the use of the name Malchus in John 18:10 could be an impressive code-talker style of cypher with a Transjordan influence, as part of the New Testament’s already-acknowledged literary syncretism.
Mapping the Gospel of John’s Greco-Roman bios onto the originally pre-Islamic Arabian poetry style called the Qasidah, the name Malchus seems to appear at the exact takhallus — the pivot where the name of the author or patron is cleverly embedded, sometimes using a root meaning or homonym. For the Qasidah, it’s traditionally embedded between parts one and two:
Part one, Nasib: Elegiac reminiscence of a person and place now gone
Part two, Rahil: The hero’s challenging journey or trial/ordeal
Part three, Madh/Fakhr: Postscript of intense praise
There’s no alphabetic cipher in this technique, the encodement is just in embedding a name creatively. So I thought to myself: “I wonder if anyone has looked at Paul’s letters for names?”
~400 Years of God-King Tradition in Greece
Though deified kingship goes back millennia, in the Greco-Roman world that Paul addresses at Philippi, Alexander the Great (4th C. BCE) was the first Greco-Roman king to accept honors as the Living Image of Zeus-Ammon in Egypt —bridging Greece (Zeus) and Egypt (Ammon). His successors, both Seleucids and Ptolemies, kept the living ruler cult alive across the Mediterranean under the official title Theos Epiphanes (“God Manifest”).
When empire continues to drift west, Julius Caesar’s stone inscriptions hail him as God Manifest in the Greek East — but never within Rome itself. To Roman elites already accustomed to water-to-wine temple automata, medicated ointments, and signaling towers delivering good news from above, the Emperor was simply a First Citizen.
Culture keeps traveling west, and finally a Roman Emperor, Gaius Germanicus (37-41 CE) declares himself a living God in Rome. Interestingly, the instances where a Roman Emperor sought living divine honors — Julius Caesar, Gaius, Nero, and Domitian basically bookend the event timeline of the New Testament.
The rumors surrounding Gaius Germanicus, nicknamed Caligula, are gross, and it’s also reasonable to note that the rumors and his treatment seem to be not totally dissimilar to the rumors and treatment purported to be received by early Christians in Rome, so I take that with a grain of salt the size of a big thing. Or maybe he got the ring of power problem.
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The Epistle to the Philippians The Epistle to the Phillipians was written to a colony of retired Roman army veterans in Greece (Colonia Augusta Iulia Philippensis). Gaius Germanicus had been immensely popular among military veterans. Gaius was the son of Germanicus — the most beloved military commander among Roman legionaries — and Gaius immediately endeared himself to veterans by doubling military donatives and honoring military wills upon taking power. In fact, Gaius’ affectionate nickname, “booties” had been given to him by his father’s soldiers when he accompanied them on campaigns when he was a toddler, wearing a little soldier’s uniform that his mother made for him, including miniature military boots known as caligae. There may be a few pro-Gaius holdouts here, is what I’m saying.
The Latin name Gaius derives directly from gaudere, meaning “to rejoice” or “be glad.” In this brief letter to Roman veterans, Paul repeats the word “Rejoice!” (chairō /chara) an astounding 19 times. I think that because they are in Greece, which celebrated God-Kings, like with the hymn above, for ~400 years until Rome put it on pause right at that time, and because Gaius was the reason that they were living the good life in military retirement, that Paul may be appealing to fellow divine human appreciators for help here.
Roman state prisons did not supply food, clothing, or legal representation — the Philippians sent Epaphroditus with financial contributions (Phil 4:14–18), funding Paul’s legal counsel, paying off prison guards for better conditions (custodia libera), and securing scribal materials.
As citizens of a Roman colonia holding ius Italicum (the highest tier of legal privilege outside Italy), Philippian elites had direct access to Roman courts to submit formal legal petitions (libelli) or sponsor Paul as legal patrons (patroni). And retired senior centurions maintained active correspondence networks with serving officers, provincial clerks, and imperial freedmen along the Via Egnatia trade route, allowing them to exert back-channel influence on provincial governors.
Wishing everything turns out ok, Paul.
The Book of Revelation — could it be using a composite literature technique to highlight large-scale efforts to help Jewish refugees?
** you do not have permission to see this link ** agree that:
The Book of Revelation reflects the heavy shadow of the First Jewish-Roman War (66–70 CE) and Rome’s subsequent militaristic propaganda.
So would it be helpful to look at this exact historical period, and see if there are any traces of the historical large-scale charity efforts of the nearest kingdom that is known to be receiving the Jewish refugees? There are two kings involved. If you’ve been reading this thread, you’ll likely know who I’ll mention. I think it’s very likely that in Revelation they are being presented as a loose composite.
It is academic consensus that in Near Eastern scribal tradition, compressing a multi-generational dynastic arc into a single composite figure was a standard literary strategy. It was often used to preserve political continuity during times of imperial collapse.
For example, scholars generally believe that the Book of Daniel contains several historical actions of Nebuchadnezzer’s lesser-known son Nabonidus attributed to Nebuchadnezzer in it.
Ancient Near Eastern Literary Antecedents:
Sumero-Akkadian Royal Epics: The Sargon Legend and the Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin fused the separate military campaigns, rebellions, and legal decrees of multiple Old Akkadian rulers into a single archetypal “Sargon” or “Naram-Sin.” Scribes used this composite shorthand to create a unified legal precedent for royal authority.
Dynastic Telescoping Mesopotamian scribal historiography — seen in the Sumerian King List and later Aramaic apocalyptic literature (such as the four-headed beasts and composite statues in the Book of Daniel) — routinely collapsed entire royal lineages into one emblematic figure who embodied the state’s complete lifecycle.
Nimrod in Genesis
Scholars claim that Genesis 10 constructs Nimrod as a single primordial ruler out of historical fragments from several Mesopotamian kings (including Ninurta, Tukulti-Ninurta I, and Sargon II), attributing the dynasty to the recognizable or representative name.
Revelation 19:16
16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, “King of kings and Lord of lords.”
It just sounds compositey. Robe and thigh, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Malichus and Rabbel? Is that you?
During the period that scholars commonly ascribe to the Book of Revelation, Nabataean Kings Malichus II (40-70 CE) and Rabbel II (70-106 CE) are the father and son duo that send auxillary troops and take in a large group of refugees from the first Jewish-Roman War. Their names work out to King and Lord God Savior, respectively, and I think it’s worth exploring, at the least, to see if their good works may be discussed in Revelation.
Babatha of the well-known book ** you do not have permission to see this link ** , 2017, by Philip Oxler, Oxford University Press, is one such Jewish person found in the Nabataean kingdom of this period, and her extensive rights there as a Jewish woman are often positively noted by modern scholars.
Revelation 12:6
…and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for twelve hundred sixty days.”
Malichus is written MLK, and, Jesus Christ happens to be written as Yesu MLK in the Peshitta.
This reminds me of Thomas Didymos or other dual names that include a civic alias. So, it’s not a totally ridiculous idea to check out at least, I hope. It doesn’t take away from any possibility of miracles I think, I think it increases that possibility, and I happen to love the historical archaeological evidence for the mobilization of resources for the refugee people that really saved them from what happened to those that stayed in Jerusalem.
• Malichus II (MLK, meaning ‘King’)
Governed during the buildup and outbreak of the First Jewish-Roman War. Supplied 6,000 peace-keeping units in 70 AD; I use ‘peace-keeping’ because if you can take away anything from the First Century historians, it is that Nabataeans try everything first before conflict, but it’s just the times.
He is Nabataea’s first client king of Rome, installed by Agrippa’s best friend, Gaius Booties. Gaius The Living God Booties installed Agrippa too, something to think about when reading this fun quote:
Acts 26:28
Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?
He already believes in this stuff, Paul! Sell him the best eternal life tomb in Hegra!
• Rabbel II Soter (Rabb-El Soter working out to ‘Lord God Savior’)
Earned his official royal epithet, ‘nyf-dy hyyy w-šyzb ‘m-h “He who brought life and deliverance to his people” by pivoting the state’s economy away from the ending southern merchant route due to Roman action and into massive water harvesting, fruit tree planting, and grain-growing expansion in the Hauran (Auranitis).
Revelation 18:11-13
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver… cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour and wheat…”
Reads like an itemized Nabataean customs ledger (they were also famous for gold and silver). And like the Nabaioth-led (Nabataean-led per Josephus) caravan products in Isaiah 60:6-7. Matthew 2:11, too.
So, it is Rabbel II Soter that moved the Nabataean kingdom capital from Petra to Bostra in the Hauran/Auranitis behind the neutral Decapolis city of Pella, ie having a chronological overlap with the Flight to Pella.
The Mountains
Auranitis’ mountains were famous for Nabataean wine production. Auranitis traditionally had been under Nabataean hegemony, but the matrilineally-Nabataean Herodian Dynasty, by the time of Jesus, controlled part of it for a moment under Herod Phillip. Herod Phillip’s Trachonitis is mentioned in the Gospel of Luke.
As scholars date the story in Josephus‘ AJ 18.5, by 36 CE the war against Herod Antipas of Galilee-Peraea and Herod Phillip of Trachonitis, sparked in the breaking of a marital alliance, will be won. Phillip’s own troops had been persuaded to turn against the fight, again per Josephus. I’ve written before that I think that the Parable of the Tenants is written about the Jewish estates in Trachonitis:
The Parable of the Tenants
9 He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time…[stuff]
13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’…[stuff]
19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them.
I added [stuff].
So that’s the wine. The fertile plains of Auranitis supplied the grain, you might even say the Bread of Life considering Rabbel Soter’s epithet, “he who brought life…”
The Refuge
The Auranitis plains are bordered by The Lajat, which in Arabic means The Refuge or The Asylum, a lava tube field long known for being a successful place of refuge for the Jewish people. This whole greater region was the presupposed area of the Israelite lost tribes even.
Revelation 22:1-2
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month…”
Rabbel II Soter built massive stone aqueducts and planted fruit orchards alongside them in the new Nabataean capital build-out of Bostra. And The Nabataean Agriculture, a much later, 10th C CE work purporting to work from an original document dated to roughly Sargon of Akkad, that historians feel has desert additions, and written in a flavor of Mesopotamian mysticism that Enochian literature enthusiasts would find familiar. devotes about a third of the book to unusual and delightful fruit tree ** you do not have permission to see this link **.
The Haraun is also what most scholars believe is being described in the Inner Hawran. The refuge place of Jewish Mandaeans (John the Baptist’s followers) first escaping Jerusalem pre and post the first Jewish-Roman war, returning to the area around the world’s first water ablution temple of Eridu, which was on the lagion system of modern Nasoriyah. The Inner Hawran is also known as** you do not have permission to see this link **
Comparing The Book of Revelation to The Scroll of Great Revelation
Let’s see where The Scroll of Great Revelation thinks the Jewish refugees went to:👇
joineth to himself a people, and they are called Christians.
… and from Nisrat (Nazareth), a city of the Jews, which is called the city of Qum …
… because it is a shrine ; for Mercury founded a community in Qum, and Saturn founded a community in Sinai… …Jews were settled) in the Arab region which is called Basra, which is (also) called Sufat-Zaba …
👆Jews were settled in the Arab region which is called Basra
Bostra is acknowledged as this Basra/Bozrah, it’s just a Mandaean spelling variant.
Sufat-Zuba is Mandaean for the adjoining marshes. (Saturn imo might be Aretas, whose rough-and-tough epithet is Lover of His People?) Sinai is again, thought by some credible archaeologists to be the mountain at the entrance of Petra in Arabia. So does Paul, apparently:
Galatians 4:25
Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia…
Mount Sinai is where theThe Scroll of Great Revelation says that Jesus was ruling from.
So there are both early Christian (Eusebius and Epiphanius) and Mandaean traditions saying that Jewish refugees went to the general area (Pella is against Bostra, this counts as the general area) that is the new capital city of Rabbel II Soter, he who brings life and deliverance to his people. Building up a city when there’s a new influx of people makes sense.
Bostra even had a thriving “fortified” Jewish synagogue that is discussed several times in the Talmud, that a Galilean rabbi oversaw: ** you do not have permission to see this link **
And it’s not just the Hauran. By the time of Rabbel II Soter, in some areas of rock graffiti surrounding Petra, it rises to an average of six Jewish names to a Nabataean one.
Petra is acquired in 106 CE. By the early second century, the newly-discovered underground Christian city of Midyat, a city of 70,000 people at its greatest, will be within or near the ethnically-Nabataean Abgarid Osroene Kingdom’s borders, and interestingly, Midyat also had a Jewish prayer room, which is very cool.
Osroene, capital Edessa — a location of the trending Nabu “Lord of Love” religion, home to Gnostic Christianity, home to one of the world’s first, if not the first universities, said to be the first nation to consider making Christianity its official religion, and also people like Bardasain held to some pretty physics-based viewpoints.
Historians attribute the greatest geographical reach of the Nabataean kingdom to Aretas IV, and the treasury spend-down on Malichus and Rabbel Soter, but considering what they spent it on, whether their stories are similar to, or even helped inspire the Book of Revelation or not, they are my heroes.
How do you create a religion? You merit it.
Who Is the Little Lamb in the Book of Revelation?
🎼Mary, had a Little Lamb, Little Lamb, Little Lamb, Mary had a Little Lamb whose fleece was white as snow” 🎶
When the Little Lamb is introduced in Revelation 5:6, it’s emphasized that he extra little:
…Little Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.
Someone give the Little Lamb some electrolytes. But wait, isn’t your English translation just “Lamb”?
Yes, why does the NRSVUE and other English translations use “Lamb,” even though Strong’s Concordance and Greek Interlinear Bibles show you that this a different word — a diminutive “arnion” which is described as little lamb, or lambkin, and not “amnos” lamb?
** you do not have permission to see this link **
The New Testament uses that different word, arnion, little lamb, 29 times in Revelation and 1 time in the Gospel of John, where Jesus is talking affectionately about his own followers, and not himself. When John the Baptist announces Jesus, he uses the standard noun, amnos, for a sacrificial sheep:
John 1:29
…”Behold, the Lamb of God!…”
Levitical law requires sheep to be grown at least a year for sacrifice, and that is known as a grown lamb, and not a little lamb or lambkin.
Neither does Revelation 5:6 make that allusion — it’s as if it appeared to be, as if slain. As if, the revolving joke of Wayne’s World.
🎼Mary, had a Little Lamb, Little Lamb, Little Lamb, Mary had a Little Lamb whose fleece was white as snow”
The Expectation
In Revelation 5:5, John weeps because no one can open the sealed scroll. An elder tells him,
…Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Ok that makes sense — Jesus Christ in Revelation calls himself the root of David — so the Lion is Jesus.
The Subversion
In Revelation 5:6, John turns expecting to see a military leader (the Lion) but what he actually sees standing in the center of the throne is a
…a Little Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.”
A lamb, but make it littler.
Isaiah 11:6
…And a little child shall lead them.
Well, the Nabataean King Malichus II left a lil baby King Rabbel on the throne when he dearly departed in 70 CE, the year that Nabataea’s auxillary forces were sent in the First Jewish-Roman War.
In Aramaic, the primary administrative language of the area, the term for “little lamb” is ’talya (טַלְיָא), a polysemic noun that simultaneously means “child”, “boy,” or “young heir.”
Little lamb was a synonym for a child heir.
Scholars such as Theodor Zahn and David Aune have demonstrated that the seven-sealed scroll in Revelation mirrors a Roman client-king’s testamentum (will) — a document sealed with seven witness seals that could only be unsealed upon the ruler’s death to execute its military and dynastic clauses. Malichus happens to be a Roman client king. Mandaean texts happen to call Jesus a Roman.
Together, God and Lambkin share one throne in Revelation 22:1 and 22:3. The Apostle Thomas calls Jesus, ‘God’ in the Gospel of John, so could Jesus be God here in Revelation’s Christology?
John 20:28
Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
The Political Transmigration of the Royal Soul
In ANE divine kingship (such as the Egyptian royal Ka or Syrian Ba’al-kingship), the individual monarch was merely the temporary vessel for the eternal royal spirit.
While the Nabataean kingdom is inarguably the historian’s go-to for most syncretic, in the syncretic environment of 1st-century Syria, the Decapolis, and Phoenicia, Orphic and Pythagorean concepts of soul transmigration (metempsychosis) shaped how eastern provinces viewed their rulers. Eastern client-monarchs routinely adopted divine epithets (such as Epiphanes or Neos Dionysos) to signal that the predecessor’s divine royal principle had manifested anew in the young successor.
But what about among First Century Jewish people? In his 2024 webinar ** you do not have permission to see this link **Dr. Ehrman confirmed that the idea of soul transmigration, and not just resurrection, is present in the Gospels, like John 9:2, and Matthew 14:2.
Breaking the seal is only accessible to one who is “worthy”
** you do not have permission to see this link **, Gad Barnea, 2024
On early Nabataean silver coins, the child-king Rabbel II appears alongside his mother, Queen Shaqilat II, who served as regent. The Semitic root of her name — Š-Q-L — literally means “to weigh,” “to measure value,” or “to be worthy” (the root of the currency unit shekel).
The themes of being weighed, measured, and found worthy (axios) saturate the heavenly court scene in Revelation 4–5.
Revelation 4:11
You are worthy our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power…
It’s like Eats, Shoots, and Leaves up in here. Worthy, Our Lord, and God receiving glory and honor and power.
In my original hypothesis, Revelation introduces a third royal investiture:
• Jewish — Herod Antipas, Sanhedrin, shining robe
• Roman — Pontius Pilate, soldier acclaim, red/purple robe
• Northwest Arabian — God, a Mesopotamianized composite of four living creatures (lamassu), and a council of 24 tribal elders (presbyteroi) gathering at what seems to be an open-air high place. The Hebrew Bible tells me there’s 12 tribes of Israel and 12 tribes of Ishmael, do what you will with that information.
Revelation 14:1
And I looked and behold the Little Lamb was standing upon Mount Zion and with him an hundred forty and four thousand
Wait, isn’t Mount Zion in Jerusalem?
In the Hebrew Masoretic Text, Deuteronomy 4:48 names Mount Hermon as Sī’ōn (שִׂיאֹן), distinct from Jerusalem’s Ṣīyyōn (צִיּוֹן) that English translators translate as Zion, with the ‘Z’. But in the Koine Greek of the Septuagint and Revelation, both are the exact same word, Siōn (Σιών).
English translators take editorial liberties here with Siōn, just as they do with arnion.
Wordplay is a core feature of the apocalyptic literature genre, and it would make little logistical sense for 144,000 people to seek safety within the ruins of Jerusalem, which is the overwhelming academic consensus for the great city described in Revelation 11:8.
…the great city that is prophetically called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
Mount Siōn/Mount Hermon was at one point under direct Nabataean authority, but during the First Great Jewish War was administered by part-Nabataean Herod Agrippa II, while the local population were mainly Aramaean-Arab Ituraeans who wrote with a modified Nabataean script. In other words, a Jewish-Arab mixed population was already a reality there.
The Hauran plateau was the breadbasket of the Levant. Rabbel II and his mom, Queen Shaqilat, focused their reign on constructing massive agricultural expansion, serviced by new reservoirs, dams, and irrigation networks. Their new northern capital at Bostra hosted a thriving, diverse population, including a large Jewish community with an active synagogue important enough to be consulted by Galilean rabbis, per Shabbat 29b.
On Rabbel’s Aramaic inscriptions and coins, he adopted the regnal title Rabbel Malka, M’ḥyv v-Shyzb ‘Mheh, “King Rabbel, Who Brought Life and Deliverance To His People”. M’ḥyv, which also reads “life-giver,” is the same honorific as that of Nabataea’s supreme deity, Dushara, imparting a degree of divine identity to Rabbel. But the second half of his epithet, “Who Brings Deliverance To His People,” was rendered into Koine Greek on his coins simply as Soter (“Savior”).
Rabbel’s father Malichus II never received a savior coin. Even Augustus’s imperial birth announcements (evangelia) were kept to civic monumental decrees rather than coinage. In the Ancient Near East, while court poets and prophets might proclaim a royal heir a savior at their birth, much like the natal announcements of gospel tradition, the title Soter was ultimately sealed by public acclaim of large-scale relief. By providing water, grain, and sanctuary when Jerusalem was no more, Rabbel’s people, including Jewish people, acclaimed this former child heir as their Savior.
Reading Comprehension is a Gift 🌠 all copyright me 2026
Serene Decodes Revelation
In my original hypothesis, the Four Horsemen of Revelation simply map to the four client-king auxiliary contingents conscripted by Rome during the First Jewish-Roman War, as documented by Josephus:
1. White Horse — Malichus II
2. Red Horse — Agrippa II
3. Black Horse — Sohaemus
4. Pale Green Horse — Antiochus IV of Commagene
There were also a considerable number of auxiliaries got together, that came from the Kings Antiochus and Agrippa, and Sohemus, each of them contributing one thousand footmen that were archers, and a thousand horsemen. Malchus also, the king of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen, besides five thousand footmen, the greatest part of which were archers…
— Flavius Josephus, ** you do not have permission to see this link ** 3.4.2 (3.68–69). My bolding.
1, 2, 3, 4 👆
The colors correspond to the color of stone that defined each kingdom. The leaders rode horses.
1. ⚪️🐴 White Horse — Malichus
Revelation 6:2
I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
Standard Roman legionaries did not wield bows; specialized composite bowmen called sagittarii were supplied by Eastern auxiliaries.
The Ituraean mounted and infantry archers that were aligned with the Nabataeans were one such group, the** you do not have permission to see this link **:
…at the beginning of the 1st century AD, the Arab populations, namely Nabataeans and Ituraeans, imposed their domination on the regions they occupied at the time. The recruiting of Ituraean archers was attested since the first civil war. Caesar frequently used mounted and infantry archers…
…it being one of the units that took part in the wars against the Judaeans during the rule of Vespasian. The unit was also mentioned by Josephus Flavius as belonging to the auxiliary units of 1,000 infantryman that participated in the campaigns at issue.
— Ţentea, Ovidiu, Cohors I Ituraeorum Sagittariorum Equitata Milliaria. Orbis Antiqvvs: Studia in honorem Ioannis Pisonis, edited by Ligia Ruscu et al., 2004
While not all Ituraeans or Syrians with these skills served in these units, this profile carries over into the locust cavalry of Revelation 9:7-10
In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails like scorpions, with stingers…
Locust Cavalry Breakdown:
In appearance the locusts
** you do not have permission to see this link ** (not the North American insect, but somehow still translated that way) are associated with the desert and Arabs.
Compare Judges 6:2
The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, and because of Midian the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountains, caves and strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them...as thick as locusts.
And Judges 7:12
The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley as thick as locusts…
Midianites are “** you do not have permission to see this link **
were like horses equipped for battle
• Troops on horseback, but not in a conventional battle yet.
On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold
• Eastern archers wore ** you do not have permission to see this link **
their faces were like human faces
• Because they are human. As it’s my hypothesis that Sumero-Akkadian lore influenced the New Testament through the Antiquarian Revival of Seleucid Uruk (as well as** you do not have permission to see this link **, I’ve now discovered), the original written designation of human was used to denote civilized/urbanized and not everybody, which would inform the “were like.”
their hair like women’s hair
• Long hair was the standard Greco-Roman marker for Arab warriors. Pliny the Elder in** you do not have permission to see this link ** is depicted on a re-used block on the wall of Karnak Castle.
and their teeth like lions’ teeth
• Lions are the typical animal emblem for military/royal authority.
they had scales like iron breastplates
• ** you do not have permission to see this link **worn by Eastern auxiliaries.
and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
• The wings (pteruges) of an ancient army specifically referred to its flanks or cavalry wings (alae). The sound of galloping horse-archers charging along the flanks of an advancing force created a thunderous roar.
They have tails like scorpions, with stingers.
The “scorpion stinger” mimics the famous Parthian shot, where mounted desert archers feigned retreat while shooting low and backward over their horses’ rumps. Spears could also work here.
It is my best guess that this group, activated by the fifth trumpet (after the first four trumpets marked increasingly-scaled penalties), would be a tribe within Malichus’ confederacy acting as special forces. In more precise language, this might be a response to the FA segment of the** you do not have permission to see this link **, perhaps beginning in 62 CE per Josephus, or in 69 CE as reported by Hegesippus (c. 107-180 CE) and preserved by Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–339 CE), before the FO segment.
Notice the verb in that quote by Josephus: “Malchus also, the king of Arabia, sent…” Malichus II did not attend the event like the others. He is also discussed separately from the other three.
While ultimate execution rested with Rome, Malichus II functioned as the primary regional sovereign, contributing fully half of the 12,000 auxiliary troops. As there is no precise dating for his passing beyond the general year, it is within possibility that it is his testamentum that co-signed the campaign, considering that Nabataean interventions in Judaea in 65 BCE, 4 BCE, and 36 CE were already the established regional strategy, and that in 70 CE he left his wife and small child on the throne.
⚪️🪨 White Stone
Jesus promises white stone in Revelation 2:17.
…To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
This is the key to the cipher, the color of stone.
White stone was originally ** you do not have permission to see this link ** adorning Petra’s Great Temple, or the Kirhbet-et Tannur Zodiac.
It is indeed surprising for the modern visitor to learn that
the ancient inhabitants of Petra were not particularly sensitive to the natural beauty of the colourful rocks which are today the main attraction of this city, and that they coated the sand-stone with painted stucco. It is also noteworthy that a great
many of the Nabataean tombs which belong to the Oriental
crowstep or Hegra types were plastered, and that they exhibit
added cornices, pediments or door frames in stucco.
— Dr. Fawzi Zayadine
Decorative Stucco at Petra and other Hellenistic Sites, 1987
Their white limestone plaster was so advanced that people still today rely on their cisterns for water. And the area of ancient Nabataean Abgarid Osroene (also in Mesopotamia), the region of modern Şanlıurfa, Turkey, is covered in acres of white rock-cut limestone artifacts. Hold that thought.
2. 🔴🐴 Red Horse
Revelation 6:4
Agrippa II is patrilineally Edomite; Edom, אֱדוֹם, literally translates to “Red,” for its** you do not have permission to see this link **. The area of Petra was historically Edomite until the Edomite exile and recast as Idumeans. The Nabataeans are relative passers-through, and they allowed Rome to acquire Petra, too. By anchoring Malichus II in the white limestone aesthetic of Petra, an aesthetic original to prestigious Mesopotamia, the red sandstone of the South is freed to perform its true genealogical work in the cipher.
Agrippa II was leading Jewish troops against Jewish rebels in a civil conflict Josephus called stasis.
The Red Horse rider is given a machaira, the short, curved dagger/sword used for close-quarters fighting and internal insurrection (stasis), rather than the broadsword of regular foreign warfare.
3. ⚫️ 🐴 Black Horse
Revelation 6:5-7
** you do not have permission to see this link **
Sohaemus ruled Emesa (modern Homs, Syria) which was famous for the** you do not have permission to see this link ** because its historic buildings are built from local, black basalt.
It was a major agricultural region for vineyards and olive orchards. It is his troops that accompanied the Roman troops in sealing off Samaria and Judea; basic grain prices skyrocketed while cash crops (oil and wine) were preserved for Roman officer supply lines.
4. 🫥🟢🐴 Pale Green Horse
Modern critical editions like the NRSVUE update Revelation 6:8 from the traditional rendering of “pale” to its precise Greek sense, “pale green”, because chlōros explicitly denotes a pale greenish-yellow color:
I looked, and there was a pale green horse!…
Those translators couldn’t just let a horse be green, could they. What horse doesn’t like to roll down hillsides of grass? Most of ancient Commagene is within ** you do not have permission to see this link **). Josephus recorded that Antiochus’s unit spearheaded the unfortunate high-casualty assaults during the siege of Jerusalem.
It’s not indistinct as to whose side the Jesus movement was on:
Revelation 6:16
They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!”
Except the Koine Greek uses arnion throughout, so it’s
…the wrath of the little lamb!”
I wonder if anyone made a miniature military costume for the little lamb, just so I could use the word “lambula.”
It is academic consensus that Revelation’s final composition is written by c. 95 CE, and widely accepted by scholars that Revelation is informed by, or comments on, the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73/74 CE). Utilizing the primary imperial record, The Jewish War (c. 75-79 CE), or the records that it draws from would make sense.
It’s interesting to see that the Talmud and various Jewish websites perceive what is now termed the First Jewish-Roman War as God authorizing corrective actions against Jerusalem, to correct “baseless anger.” With 2000 years of perspective, I’m more of an “improve the system, don’t blame the people” person.
All copyright me, “I’m confident because I’m right” 2026
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