Monday, November 12, 2007
David Ben-Ariel on Renew America
Germany's Fourth Reich Spreads its Wings
To Hell with Hamas!
FBI on the Fourth of July!
Racist Pig Mugabe Breaks Pledge to White Farmers
The REAL "Hell" Fire
Shimon Peres charged with the murder of Yitzhak Rabin
Israeli sheeple & Nazi-Muslims
Did GERMANY sell the Sarin to Sadaam Hussein?
Israeli Jews could learn from Christian Zionists
Brokeback Mountain Blues
Herbert W. Armstrong & WCG
Interracial Marriage Sermon by Herbert W Armstrong
Javier Solana Rewards Terrorism
Yeshua is the Suffering Servant
Shimon Peres has no clothes: Where's the peace?
Two Witnesses
May 1: Illegal Immigration Day Defused!
The Davinci Code, Christianity and the Bible
The bloody Vatican?
David Pack & the Restored Church of God
The Toledo Blade Bashes Israel
President Bush refuses to uphold American law
Yitzhak Rabin & the Kempler Video
Jesus would never marry a Catholic or Protestant!
German-American Israelites?
Church of God Must Reach the Cities of Judah
The Resurrection was NOT on Sunday!
Life is a Trek: Do You Know Where You're Going to?
Germany & George Bush
Herbert W Armstrong & Worldwide Church of God in Israel
Poland compares German-Russian pipeline to Nazi-Soviet pact
Never forget: Yitzhak Rabin & Shimon Peres
Israel Independence Day/ Yom Ha'Atzmaut
Born Again: The Kingdom of God!
The Economist assaults Jerusalem
Joseph isn't Jewish!
Machir and America
An interesting fact is that:
Machir was the first-born son of Manasseh son of Joseph (Genesis 50:23).
Machir was the forefather of the Gileadites (1-Chronicles 2:21).
The Phoenicians are believed to have visited AMERICA. According to Barry Fell the Phoenicians named it - "The Great North Country". The Hebrew Prophets predicted that in the end time the Lost Ten Tribes would return from the "North Country" (Jeremiah 31:8). The Prophets certainly were well acquainted with the Phoenicians some of whom were in effect Israelite Tribes. The Vikings later attempted to settle in North America and named it "MARKLAND" which is believed to mean "Land of Darkness"(1). Even so, Maruk (a permutation of Machir) and Mark (in "Markland") are not dissimilar. After the Vikings, the existence of America was realised by people in Britain including fishermen from the port of Bristol. Richard Ameryk, a Bristol merchant 1470's is now claimed to perhaps have given America its name. Ameryk was of Welsh ancestry and his family name originally was "Ap-Meryk", possibly denoting "Son of Machir".
The more commonly accepted explanation is that the name "America" comes from that of the Explorer, Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512) also called "America" and (after 1507) "America" is said to have been named in his honor. At all events, the name Amerigo or "America" is similar to Medieval appellations ("Aimerico"(2), etc.) for a Jewish Prince of southern France whose proper Hebrew name (from which the Latinised appellations were derived) was "MACHIR". The name in Hebrew was also given as "HaMachiri".
In Biblical Hebrew "HaMachiri" literally denotes "The Sons of Machir" (Numbers 26:29) but it could also connote "That which Comes of Machir" and in this case it was applied as a nickname to Machir himself and then Latinised to sound something like "America"!
The Hebrew version is difficult for untrained westerners to pronounce (or even remember) and so was rendered in Early Medieval Latin as "Americo" or "Amerigo" and this name was later given to Amerigo Vespucci who gave his name to the land of America. It follows that the name AMERICA may well be understood to mean "Land of Machir" (or "Land of the Sons of Machir"), son of Menasseh.
The very name "Menasseh" in Hebrew (according to the Commentary of Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch) can mean delegated responsible representation and this is a fundamental aspect of the North American character. The USA was created when its early settlers declared "no taxation without representation" and fought against Britain for their Independence.
America was named after Machir.
Brit-Am supporter Benyamin Turkia (of Finland, now living in Jerusalem) pointed out that "Machir" in Hebrew can mean "Selling" or even simply the Principle of Capitalism.
The principles of Capitalism and Free Enterprise have also become part of the American character.
Note: It should be noted that in Rabbinical commentaries on the Bible and in Jewish tradition the meaning and origin of names is very important and this principle is supported by the Bible itself. Great emphasis is given to the meaning of names, e.g. the names of Abraham, Sarah, and Israel.
References:
1. Whatmore, Arthur William. "Insulae Brittanica", Great Britain, 1913.
2. ZUCKERMAN, Arthur J. "A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, 768-900", New York, 1972. p.375
Zuckerman notes that Machir (Ha-Machiri) was referred to as Al Makhiri, "AYMERI", "Maghario" (p.180) or "Magharius", as "Aymeri", p.121 n.16., and as "Aimerico", and "Aimericus". Zuckerman p.131 n.38
Zuckerman describes how Machir ("Aimericus") became a legend whose name was celebrated in the ballads of Southern France and neighboring regions.
See also on this subject:
"Names Linked with Joseph": Manasseh as America
Related Articles:
"Biblical Place-Names in America
"Manasseh in Rabbinical Sources"
"Is the USA Ephraim or Manasseh?"
"Great Britain as Ephraim"
"The USA: Questions and Answers
"The USA in Biblical Codes
Sunday, November 11, 2007
The Commemoration Train
Nehemiah’s Wall Found in Jerusalem
Archaeologists who reject the biblical narrative or who believe the historical account is, at best, grossly exaggerated sometimes point to the wall Nehemiah is said to have built around Jerusalem during the 5th century b.c. and ask why none of its remains have ever been discovered.
Now those remains are beginning to turn up.
Yesterday, at an archaeological conference at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, Dr. Eilat Mazar told 500 attendees that she had discovered Nehemiah’s wall. The discovery comes, as our regular readers know, just two years after Mazar uncovered a small section of King David’s royal palace. Last winter, during the second phase of her ongoing palace excavation, she uncovered a massive wall on the eastern side of the royal complex, measuring 5 meters in width.
Adjacent to the palace wall stood a large stone tower archaeologists believed to be built during the Hasmonean dynasty (142-37 b.c.). Early last summer, a section of that tower, which was built on a steep slope just outside the palace, began to give way, indicating it was on the verge of collapse. And so what started as a simple task of repairing a collapsing tower turned into a six-week dig—and a fascinating new discovery.
“Under the tower,” Dr. Mazar said at the conference, “we found the bones of two large dogs—and under those bones a rich assemblage of pottery and finds from the Persian period [6th to 5th centuries b.c.]. No later finds from that period were found under the tower.” The pottery is what clearly dates the time period for the tower’s construction. Had the tower been built during the 2nd or 1st century b.c., Dr. Mazar explained, 6th-century pottery underneath the wall would leave a chronological gap of several hundred years. Therefore we know, based on the pottery dating, that the tower would have been built three to four centuries earlier than previously thought, during the Persian Empire’s heyday, which is precisely when the Bible says Nehemiah rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem.
Nehemiah’s Construction
After hearing about the great affliction of the Jews in Jerusalem, that the city walls were broken down and the gates burned, Nehemiah appealed to God for intervention. At the time, he was serving in the court of Artaxerxes as a cupbearer. When the king inquired about his distress, Nehemiah said he had a heavy heart because “the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire” (Nehemiah 2:3). He asked the king for a leave of absence so that he might coordinate several construction projects in Jerusalem. Nehemiah made this request in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, or about 445 b.c. (see Nehemiah 2:1).
The king granted his request and provided enough materials for Nehemiah to rebuild the gates of the temple, the wall around the city and a house for himself. A few Bible commentaries speculate that the house Nehemiah built for himself in Jerusalem might have been where David’s palace once stood. Even though the Babylonians had left the entire city in ruin early on in the 6th century b.c., Nehemiah knew right where David’s palace had been built (see Nehemiah 12:37). Wherever he chose to build his home, it must have been the size of a royal palace. While rebuilding, the Bible records, Nehemiah invited 150 construction workers to join him for dinner at his table (Nehemiah 5:16-19).
In Nehemiah 3, you can read a detailed account of the wall’s reconstruction. Nehemiah refers to 10 gates in the chapter. In verse 1, he mentions the northern entrance to the city—the Sheep Gate, where animals were brought into the temple for sacrifices. After that, Nehemiah describes the rest of the gates on the wall in order, moving around the western side of the city in a counter-clockwise direction and then up the eastern side back to the north end of the city.
By the time he gets to the Fountain Gate in verse 15, the passage becomes much more descriptive. “But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun … and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king’s garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.” The Fountain Gate, also referred to as the Spring Gate today, was located somewhere near the Gihon Springs, which is a short walk south from where Dr. Mazar’s palace excavations are going on.
In verse 16, Nehemiah mentions the tombs of the kings of Judah, which have not yet been discovered today. But putting Nehemiah’s description together with what Dr. Mazar keeps finding in the City of David, they must be close by.
Many of the landmarks described in Nehemiah’s book can now be clearly identified today thanks in large part to the work of Eilat Mazar. She has been working hard and fast, just as Nehemiah did 2,500 years ago. Nehemiah’s frantic pace resulted in his crew completing the wall in 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15), which might explain why the tower began to collapse over the summer!
While he was working, Nehemiah had to withstand the attacks of numerous critics who were determined to slow down his progress (Nehemiah 4:8). Yet he kept right on building, working with a hammer in one hand and a weapon in the other (Nehemiah 4:17-18).
Dr. Mazar was introduced yesterday as the first speaker at the conference. Walking up to the podium without the benefit of any notes, she delivered an impassioned, persuasive 30-minute presentation straight from the heart. She spoke about the fantastic discoveries made at the palace during the last two years: the 5-meter-wide wall, the rooms, the collections of metal industry, the pottery and the bullae. She concluded by revealing the details about her most recent find: a tower from a wall that Nehemiah built. She then left the stage.
For the rest of the morning, Dr. Mazar’s colleagues spoke one after another, each of them picking apart her findings, some even rejecting her conclusions. But the entire morning session of perhaps the most important archaeological conference of the year in Israel was devoted to Eilat Mazar’s work—not her theories, her work.
And that’s just the way she likes it. As she has said before, in the end, the stones will speak for themselves.
Nehemiah couldn’t have said it any better himself. •
****************
Jerusalem's Fall, Division and LiberationMiriam Weiss: Holocaust Survivor and Kibbutz Mother
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Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives
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Herbert W Armstrong and Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
EU to Conquer Anglo-Saxons and Jews
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CAPAI: Christians Against Proselytizing Among Israel
Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God)
Jews Should Follow Judaism to Israel!
Philadelphia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Part 1)
Philadelphia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Conclusion)
What part about TEMPLE Mount doesn't Bush get?
Muslim terrorism trial in Toledo
Christian forums for Church of God members
"Sabbath Keepers"
"Open Christian Debates"




