12 Apostles: Constellations, Numerology, &Theology in the world’s religions: Quest to Understand Origins; a study of textual criticism, translation, interpretation and linguistics

November 10, 2011 / Posted in  Ancient Egypt, Bible, Church history, crucifixon, Islam, Doctrines, Jesus Christ, Jewish history, Old Testament, Roman Catholicism, Torah

Christianity, like all religions, gives credence to numerology, and over the centuries has attempted to create perfect unions of numbers with beings. In order to fashion the perfect union, Christianity borrowed most of its theology, ontology, theophany, and religious ideology from other religions, philosophies, sciences and mathematics, and the writings the past contained.  From this plagiarism came the invention of a church created in 325 CE by the Emperor Constantine I.  It succeeded only by silencing the opposition, burning their books and their priests, and condemning those who do not accept as heretics, or those who leave the world of priestly disenchantment apostates. 

These practices all religions and secular and sacerdotal dictators have used from the beginning of recorded history in an effort to erase the past so they can rewrite it in their own image that was fanciful and lacking fact.  The belief continues that if a “reformer”  erases the words and the scriptures or volumes written by those you oppose, the opposition with melt away and be forced to join the new cult.  It was the raison d’être for the holocaust by the Hebrews in their war on the original inhabitants of Palestine: Canaanites, Palestinians, Philistines, etc., through the carnage of the crusades and Inquisition of the Roman Catholic

Church and Protestant Thirty Years War, the rise of Adolf Hitler who regularly proclaimed his faith in the God of Christianity, to the organized certified hategroups in the USA (such as Focus on the Family), to radical Islams that demand the death of democracy, freedom, and non-believers in the non-Muslim world while attacking non-Muslims in Muslim lands. This has always been the

case throughout the history of Christianity, Islam, and other theologies, with most congregations using the books to burn non-believers and apostates. 

Today evangelical extremists and religious fundamentalists, especially among the Baptists and Pentecostals, burn comic books, magazines, books, films and whatever they cannot censor: seeing in the unwanted media “pornography”–which has led even to the destruction of centuries old statues, as when Islamic radicals (Taliban) dynamited the famed Buddhas along the Silk Road in Afghanistan in 2001.  The statues had been carved more than 1500 years prior to their destruction, but when Islam conquered Afghanistan after numerous blood baths and the butcher of women, children and the elderly, the theological students (Taliban) of the new faith (Islam) began their systematic destruction of the famed statues.  This did not abate, for religious zealots continued to hurl stones against the great Buddhas who preached peace while Islam called for war (jihad) and demanded the destruction of all images–even though the images of Imams and the Prophet Muhammad continued for more than 1000 years: appearing in books–even the Qur’an–and papers (as I have in my private library).

Constantine accelerated by burning the writings of Arius (that, based on what slender information that exits, was closer to the New Testament Jesus than the Jesus of the official catholic [universal] Church). 

Constantine I (known as “the Great”) was a firm “pagan” who was far more devoted to the worship of Mithras than any other deity.  He created the catholic [universal] Church to win over the growing number of converts to the new cult out of the Middle East in an effort to stabilize a decaying empire. 

To buttress the Imperial state, he called together a small number of congregational leaders that history has deemed to be “bishops” to meet at the city of Nicaea.  At Nicaea the “bishops” hammered out details that led to a united group–coming out of the wreckage of various splinter entities that originated in Jerusalem and drifted away to Alexandria (the largest ghetto), Rome, numerous Greek πολις (polis: city-states), Egypt and other appendages to the empire.

Constantine tried valiantly to get the various communities of “Christians”  (chrestianos and christianos) to come together.  His solution, was to incorporate as many of the various rites, rituals, adiaphora contents, and so forth into what would emerge as official “Christianity”—but with little in common with the Jesus of the New Testament.  Instead, Constantine’s “church” quickly took on the tapestry of Paulinity: complete with doctrines that are nowhere to be found in the Sayings of Jesus, but popular throughout the Roman Empire: End Times, Apocalypse, and numerology: especially glorifying and elevating the number 12.

A group of twelve things is called a duodecad. Twelve was an appropriate number for the religions of the empire, as it represented a common reality: the number of months in a year in the Western and Eastern European provinces, and the division of the skies represented by constellations reflecting the annual movement of heavenly bodies. Since education was weak to non-existent for most of the people of the empire, religion created mythologies and gave rise to numerous serendipitous superstitions and rank religious beliefs that were piled on top of respect for the number 12.

Fortuitous fantasies and subsequent superstitions concerning signs of the Zodiac and life events have been, recently, comprehensively shown to be false. However, the shibboleth of ignorance brought with it a phylactery of priestly classes, pastors of congregations, and rabbis of writ to the detriment of learning, all disguised with the mask of the number 12. Eschatological symbolism in Judaism, as with the 12 Tribes of Israel (each being named after one of the twelve sons of Jacob) and early Christianity (with its invention of twelve apostles) was deeply indebted to the number 12, as will be discussed shortly.  But the debt that both Judaism and Christianity owe to this “divine number” goes beyond each of the religion’s history and antecedents.

The ancient Zoroastrian religion had twelve commanders (depicted with wings) on the side of light (light being a symbol for the sun).  The ancient Zoroastrian holy book, the Menok i Xrat, says that the “twelve Signs of the Zodiac, as the Religion says, are the twelve commanders on the side of light” (Sagan, Carl (1995). Cosmos. Originally published 1981 by McDonald & Company; the 1995 edition was published at Avenel, NJ, USA: Wings Books: Distributed by Random House Value Pub.; another printing is by Abacus a division of Time Warner Books UK, at London, UK.  p. 58).  

Zoroaster’s commanders are like archangels: fighting against evil in a battle for the fate of the world, and their invention came with the introduction of the mythology of End Times, Apocalypse and a universal war.  According to Zoroaster, this Final Battle, the ultimate universal war, would be with Ahura Mazda (Ahura means “light” and Mazda means “wisdom” in the Old Iranian language. Ahura Mazda is the “lord of light and wisdom” a creator god who had no beginning but is now and will “forever be”) ultimately triumphing over wickedness and evil. Ahura Mazda’s counterpart is Angra Mainyu, the “evil spirit”. 

Angra Mainyu is the creator of evil who will be destroyed in the Final Battle.  Zoroaster’s account antedates John of Patmos and his Apocalypse by 3000 years.  Zoroaster relates that Ahura Mazda gave the gods unique attributes: omniscience (all-knowing), omnipotence (all-powerful) and omnipresence (being everywhere).

Zoroaster’s Apostles spread out over the known world, following the same injunction that the followers of Jesus of the New Testament required of his believers, and matched in the nineteenth century CE by the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).  The Twelve Apostles are the second highest ranking group in the Mormon church. and are known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

They serve under the direction of the First Presidency, which consists of three high priests (considered by some to be the Mormon Trinity) generally selected from the ranks of the Quorum of the Twelve.  Mormons believe that their Apostles are identical to those selected by the New Testament Jesus.  The Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith said:

They are the Twelve Apostles, who are called to the office of the Traveling High Council, who are to preside over the churches of the Saints, among the Gentiles, where there is a presidency established; and they are to travel and preach among the Gentiles, until the Lord shall command them to go to the Jews. They are to hold the keys of this ministry, to unlock the door of the Kingdom of heaven unto all nations, and to preach the Gospel to every creature. This is the power, authority, and virtue of their apostleship. (Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vols. 2:200)

The Mormon Apostles seek unanimity in all their decisions. (Doctrine and Covenants 107:27).  The determine faith and morals, in the same manner as the Roman Catholic pontiff. 

Apostles of the LDS serve for their lifetime, unless removed from their position for iniquity or through resignation.  Few resign or are removed.

In all cases there is strong similarity.  All begin with saviour gods who were born during the time of a bright star; are visited by wise men, minister and preach a universal peace, are crucified, die, are born again, and return for a final battle. The star-gazers and sun-worshippers of the ancient world would be proud that they were followed by a long series of cultures that imagined a collection of twelve gods:

Among all the gods worshipped by the Greeks, the twelve deities who dwelt on Mt Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece, formed a special category of their own. The gods of Olympus were usually taken to be Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus and Hestia. In certain local variations, positions among the ‘twelve’ were occupied by Pluto, Dionysus, Heracles or other local cult heroes.

(Mavromataki, Maria (1997).  Greek mythology and religion: cosmogony, the gods, religious customs, the heroes. Athens, Greece: Editions Haïtalis (Astrous 13, 13121). p. 24). In short, there was not a single religion in the ancient world through the time of Constantine and even beyond to the present day that did not have a savior god or goddess who called 12 Apostles to minister in his or her name.

The Greeks went further than many other faiths.  While the Greeks imagined 12 Gods living, creating, ruling and judging from Mount Olympus, they were aided by numerous sons and daughters (the more important deities had 12 sons in a manner similar to the Jewish Jacob) who numbered from 12 to 70 or 72 (cp. Luke 10:1; 72 is a more reasonable number for the disciples, as it is more easily divided by 12, the ultimate number being 6 that is half of 12).  I will discuss the spiritual significance of 6 later and how it applies to all theologies from ancient Ethiopia and Egypt to the present plethora of religious faiths and pseudo-religions such as the contemporary New Apostolic Reformation and others.

Out of this came the Passion of Mithras: the slaughter of the Sacred Bull, the yeh of Imperial Rome before much of it is incorporated by Imperial decree into Paulinity.  The religion was a direct challenge to the rise of various Jewish sects, including that of Christian Judaism.

The followers of the God Mithras, who was born out of a rock/stone (petras:

πέτρα; cp. Matthew 16:18) that was to be the basis of faith as detailed in decorations and graffitti, including many Roman emperors such as Constantine, believed that the crucified Mithras was their eternal saviour who would transport them to a heavenly realm while having his message sent to all people of all nations by 12 disciples.  The same story is the foundation for what would become the faith of Christians who also believe that their saviour, in most ways identical to Mithras and with the Mithraist religion, had 12 disciples. 

Ancient religions used the number 12, believing, as Pythagoras argued, that it was a god-given gift to mortals and had divine properties and a profound mystical meaning.  This was because it is one of the lowest easily divisible numbers, unlike other numbers it has several dividing factors: 6, 4, 3, and 2. Since 12 was the lowest easily divisible number, it was used to prepare calendars and time pieces (clocks) that were used for and with astronomy (star-gazing, star charting, and that ultimately led to astrology—the study that assumes and attempts to interpret the influence of the heavenly bodies on human affairs—and the believe in a mystical heaven that was centered between the stars and composed of 12 constellations).

The oldest preserved zodiac dates from 3100 – 3000 BCE when the Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed their Zodiac based on the six heavenly bodies (known as “houses” or “star groups”) they could see with the naked eye (astronomy).  These celestial objects are now known as planets.

On tablets the Sumerians wrote of visitors from “beyond the stars” who  had selected certain Sumerian cities as special communities for worship. The symbols on the Zodiac were remembrances of those who came, and used to understand (“foretell”) the future.

While the Sumerians used symbols in their Zodiac, theirs were not the first symbols of religious orientation.  Much of ancient Sumerian theology became the foundation for what would emerge as Hebrew theology.  For example:

“In the beginning everything was ocean – the Apsu – Chaos, whence arose a number of divinities, including Tiamat (the sea) and the gods Anu, Enlil and Enki (Ea), the later representatives of the tripartite world. Now Apsu desired to destroy his offspring, but was killed by Enki, who looked upon the Apsu as his home. Then Tiamat, who went forth to revenge Apsu, was vanquished in conflict with Sumer, Babylon and Assur, respectively. Now before the struggle, Tiamat had created, in place of Apsu, huge monsters in animal form.” 

To strengthen the faith, a Zodiac was created with early symbolism and text that includes passages about winged being who came to earth and would return someday from distant planets.  In the Heavenly Ocean were a variety of animal constellations: the “vanished” gods.  By 2600 BCE the Sumerians are writing about a great battle between Sumer, Babylon and Assur: the foundation for what would become Gog and Megog (Hebrew: גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג  that translates as “the four corners/quarters of the earth”; it is the cornerstone for Ezekiel 38-39 that was used as the foundation for Revelation 20; but, in Genesis 10, where Magog is the eponymous ancestor of a people or nation the text is more realistic and most likely written after the battle of the King Gyges of Lydia (687 BCE-652 BCE), although Josephus in separate passages in the “Jewish Antiquities” and “Jewish War” of the 1st century details that Jews of that time identified Gog and Magog with the Scythians, and concluded that Alexander the Great locked these horse-riding barbarians of the far north behind the Caucasus mountains with iron gates (Bietenholz, Peter G. (1994). Historia and fabula: myths and legends in historical thought from antiquity to the modern age. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill).  It is a myth that has fascinated people from Scandinavia to China, speaks of giant warriors such as Ghengis Khan and contemporary dictators–but it remains an ever-expanding myth that brings out the wildest fears of many self-styled prophets (cp. Derry, T.K (1979). A history of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. St. Paul / Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press; Marshall, Robert (1993). Storm from the East: from Ghengis Khan to Khubilai Khan. London, UK: BBC Books, and Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California Press; and the thesis/dissertation of Christensen, Arne Søby (2002). Cassiodorus, Jordanes, and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth. Published in Copenhagen, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press).

Gog and Magog appear in Qur’an sura Al-Kahf (The Cave), 18:83-98, as Yajuj and Majuj (Ya-juj/Ya-jewjand Ma-juj/Ma-jewjor يأجوج و مأجوج, in Arabic), but this is a plagiarism from the “Gates of Alexander” story from the Alexander Romance, a thoroughly embellished compilation of Alexander the Great’s wars and adventures (Omrani Rekavandi, H., Sauer, E., Wilkinson, T. & Nokandeh, J. (2008), The enigma of the red snake: revealing one of the world’s greatest frontier walls, Current World Archaeology, No. 27, February/March 2008, pp. 12-22).  As with the Christian or Hebrew Bible or Torah, very little in the Qur’an is original or true.

Heavenly symbolism begins ca 4000 BCE and in Europe we have many megaliths and remains from the fourth millennium BCE.  Some megaliths with symbols can be dated back to 6000 BCE. The asterism (the science of the asterisk or “little star”; see: Walker, Christopher B. F. (1996). Astronomy before the Telescope.  London, UK: British Museum Press. pp. 50-67) Scorpio is the common denominator and symbol for the Ritual Age that extended from Northern Scandinavia and the Atlantic to the Pacific. There are no scorpions in Scandinavia so if we find several images it is surely the asterism; on the other hand there are a couple of rock carvings in the shape of Scorpio.

At the same time, the eye symbol is used for the moon and has been found in a cave in Canhal Mahona (moon cycle; noting that the original first deity was a goddess: Venus) Spain.  It is also seen in Egyptian roof paintings of the celestial world.

It would not be until the rise of Babylon (and Assyria) that the Zodiac would be transmogrified into 12 signs or symbols, arising in the second millennium BCE with a cult growing up around its astrology.  Astrology became a cult in itself, with official claim that it was one of the two chief means at the disposal of the priests (who were called bare or “inspectors”) for ascertaining the will and intention of the gods (the other being through the inspection of the liver of the sacrificial animal).

The Sumerians, however, had the number 12 and did more with the number 12 and astronomy than merely calculate the planets or tell times of planting and harvesting.  The number and its mythology played an intricate role in the Sumerian government, as the government was always composed of twelve people.

Sumerian ideas and technologies were passed to other civilizations: from Egypt to Mesopotamian empires, such as that of Babylon (Iraq).  In ancient Egypt, the number 12 stood for maturity, and girls under the age of 12, and boys under the age of 13, remained naked to testify to their innocence.  12 had no special divine qualities, but the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus show that the ancient Egyptians could perform the four basic mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division  (Gardiner, Sir Alan (1957). Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. Oxford, England: Griffith Institute. p. 197).  These were used ultimately, in praise of the Goddess Isis, a part of history’s original Trinity (Isis-Ra-El that the mercenaries known as Habiru/ Hebrews changed into Israel), and her theology.  From it came the obelisks and various calculated structures (Siliotti, Alberto (1998). The Discovery of Ancient Egypt. Edison, NJ, USA: Book Sales, Inc., p. 8 seq.). The Egyptians also used fractions, computed the volumes of boxes and pyramids, and calculate the surface areas of rectangles, triangles, circles and even spheres using principles underlying the Pythagorean Theorem: Area ≈ [(⁸⁄₉)D]² = (²⁵⁶⁄₈₁)r ² ≈ 3.16r ² being the basis for Pythagoras πr ² (Strouhal, Eugen (1989). Life in Ancient Egypt. Norman, OK, USA: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 241).  

Like the Sumerians, the Babylonians, with their numbering system of 60, found the number 12 to be practical and useful for calendars and times—and to explain how their religion influenced the religions throughout the Middle East: from Mesopotamia to Southern Egypt and beyond. The author of Science: a Four Thousand Year History, Patricia Fara, says “the Babylonians split the heavens into twelve equal sections, one for each lunar month and carrying the name of a prominent constellation. Translated into Latin, these now exist as the twelve signs of the zodiac familiar from newspaper horoscopes, such as Aries the Ram and Taurus the Bull” (Fara, Patricia (2009). Science: A Four Thousand Year History. Oxford, UK; New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press. p. 13). This idea was passed on from culture to culture:

The notion of the zodiac is very ancient, with roots in the early cultures of Mesopotamia. The first 12-signs of the Zodiac were named after the gods of these cultures. The Greeks adopted astrology from the Babylonians, and the Romans, in turn, adopted astrology from the Greeks. These people renamed the signs of the Mesopotamian zodiac in terms of their own mythologies, which is why the familiar zodiac of the contemporary West bears names from Mediterranean mythology.

(Lewis, James R. (2004) in Partridge, Christopher (2004).  Encyclopedia of New Religions (2004 edition). Oxford, UK: Lion Publishing. p. 337.)

The same situation occurs in the orient (the Far East). The Chinese zodiac (The Shēngxiào) also had twelve divisions; although they were different to the common ones that Western culture adopted from the Sumerians.  The Chinese used animals to mark the zodiac, not gods.  Some scholars argue that the animals were representations of god, such as the winged-lion in Christianity representing the Apostle Mark.  This Zodiac was used from Korea to Japan and throughout East Asia (the Thais have the most unusual of calendars: “การเปลี่ยนวันใหม่ การนับวัน ทางโหราศาสตร์ไทย การเปลี่ยนปีนักษัตร โหราศาสตร์ ดูดวง ทำนายทายทัก” where the year starts at different times. 

The Chinese Zodiac reflected time cycles divided into 12 parts, and each is widely associated with a culture of attributing influence of a person’s relationship to the cycle upon their personality and/or events in their life.  None of the animals of the Chinese zodiac are associated with constellations but are linked to agriculture leading to 24 two-week segments known as Solar Terms that were defined by popular mythology by the Jade Emperor who selected twelve animals to represent the generation of matter: planets, people, and so forth.

When China was influenced by Buddhism, the Zodiac and its cycles were affected, in part. As the division of the divine realm into 12 areas was based on the original stellar usefulness of the number, non-godly religions also developed mystical systems that divided existence into 12 parts. Buddhists hold that life is composed of 12 stages, which together keep the wheel of life turning, ensnaring all life in a samsaric (cyclic) form of existence from which it is hard to escape.

The Buddhist teaching on samsaric existence is […] depicted in the Wheel of Becoming. […] The rim of the wheel is divided into twelve segments and scenes. These show how beings pass from one realm to another, and are call the nidanas. […] These scenes depict Buddhist teaching on Dependent Origination: the causal chain which ensures that the Wheel of Samara keeps revolving.

(Erricker, Clive (1995). Buddhism. Publisher: Lincolnwood (Chicago), Illinois, U.S.A. : NTC Pub. Group, 1995, pp. 45-48; reissued: London : Teach Yourself, 2008.  Cp. Erricker, Clive (1995). Teach Yourself Buddhism. London : Hodder Headline, 1995.)

In nearly every theology there have been lesser gods (usually twelve in number) and twelve superior gods. The ancient Zoroastrian holy book, the Menok i Xrat, says that the “twelve Signs of the Zodiac, as the Religion says, are the twelve commanders on the side of light” (Mavromataki (1997) p. 24); the full passage from the actual text reads:

All welfare and adversity that come to man and other creatures come through the Seven and the Twelve.  Twelve signs of the Zodiac, as the Religion says are the twelve commanders on the side of light; and the seven planets are said to be the seven commanders on the side of darkness.  And the seven planets oppress all creation and deliver it over to death and all manner of evil:  for the twelve signs of the Zodiac and the seven planets rule the fate of the world.

It is also found in cuneiform on stones from Assyria, Samaria and Babylon, which read:

The signs on Earth, just as those in heaven, give us signals.  Sky and Earth both produce portents; though appearing separately, they are not separate:  Sky and Earth are related.

This gave antecedent to the horror mythology of John of Patmos, the alleged author of the Christian Apocalypse. Christianity, like Judaism and Islam, is, indeed, deeply endebted to Zoroastrianism.  In Zoroastrianism, long before the advent of any of the other Mesopotamian/Middle Eastern religions even surfaced to attract any attention, the commanders fight against evil in a battle for the fate of the world. The star-gazers and sun-worshippers of the ancient world would be proud that they were followed by a long series of cultures that imagined a collection of twelve gods:

Among all the gods worshipped by the Greeks, the twelve deities who dwelt on Mt Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece, formed a special category of their own. The gods of Olympus were usually taken to be Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus and Hestia. In certain local variations, positions among the ‘twelve’ were occupied by Pluto, Dionysus, Heracles or other local cult heroes.

Maria Mavromataki, Maria (1997).  Greek Mythology and Religion, loc. cit.

Some Gods had twelve sons, and some sun gods had 12 disciples to spread the message across the world that the sun wasn’t dead; it was rising again in the sky in spring, after being defeated in autumn.  This ideological theology transcended boarders, nations, and people, for it reached into Scandinavia, Russia, the Americas, and beyond.  As the stars are divided into twelve, it is only natural to presume that communities of Homo sapiens (even Neanderthals) can be divided into twelve geographical locations, and each one administered by a different personification of the Sun.

The Signs of the Zodiac became Leaders.  It was thought their influence over the lives of individual people could be worked out through a mixture of planet-watching and confused mysticism. The legacy that such lunacy left us was a deep-rooted religious tradition that the affairs of mankind are rightfully led by twelve leaders, with the religious literature of each including the notation: “As in heaven, so on Earth.”  

Odin (Old Norse Óðinn) was referred to by more than 200 names; see: Gylfaginning XX, and Harrison, Dick & Svensson, Kristina (2007). Vikingaliv. Stockholm, Sweden: Natur och Kultur, 2007. p. 63, in Swedish; cp. Finnur Jónsson (1926-28). Ordbog til de af samfund til udg. af gml. nord. litteratur udgivne rímur samt til de af Dr. O. Jiriczek udgivne bósarimur, pp. 51-51. København: J. Jørgensen & Co., in Danish where there is an unfortunate mixture of Biflindi and Byrlindi), for example, who sat on a chair that overlooked all of creation, has 12 sons, and like the sons of Jacob, Odin’s sons represented mortal nations and places.  The best known children of Odin are Thor , Týr , Freyr , Heimdallr , and Loki (the “trickster” who frequently becomes combative and sometimes is considered a devil).  Other sons include Balder, Sigi, Vali, and Vithar.

Odin (the father) is a part of the Norse Trinity, joined by his son Thor (who is crucified), and son of inspiration—a Holy Ghost—Freyr (Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum 26 notes:

In hoc templo, quod totum ex auro paratum est, statuas trium deorum veneratur populus, ita ut potentissimus eorum Thor in medio solium habeat triclinio; hinc et inde locum possident Wodan et Fricco. Quorum significationes eiusmodi sunt : ‘Thor’, inquiunt, ‘praesidet in aere, qui tonitrus et fulmina, ventos ymbresque, serena et fruges gubernat. Alter Wodan, id est furor, bella gerit, hominique ministrat virtutem contra inimicos. Tertius est Fricco, pacem voluptatemque largiens mortalibus’. Cuius etiam simulacrum fingunt cum ingenti priapo.

In this temple, entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor, occupies a throne in the middle of the chamber; Wotan and Frikko have places on either side. The significance of these gods is as follows: Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and lightning, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops. The other, Wotan—that is, the Furious—carries on war and imparts to man strength against his enemies. The third is Frikko, who bestows peace and pleasure on mortals. His likeness, too, they fashion with an immense phallus.

Much of this became the foundation for one of the greatest plagiarism in the ancient world: The Torah and the Talmud.  Not only were their twelve tribes named after the twelve sons of Jacob who is considered both a man (Genesis 32:24, 28) and a god (Genesis 32:28, 30), but Israel knew twelve tribes, called after the twelve sons of Jacob, according to mythology (there is no historical record of a Joseph in Egypt), Joseph had two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim who, by command of Jacob (actually one of the ancient gods of Israel [Is{is}-Ra-El]) were regarded as de facto “tribes” of Israel (Genesis 48:5, to preserve the numerological theology of 12; cp. Joshua 14:3-4). The best known of the sons of Jacob are Benjamin whose lineage produced King Saul and also who the Books of Acts of the Apostles introduces as Saul of Tarsus.  The priestly tribe of Levi produced Moses and the first High Priest, the brother of Moses: Aaron.  Judah’s family tree would boast of Kings David and Solomon and other rulers; the New Testament attached Jesus to the House of David even though there is no historical record to substantiate this Biblical figure.

The lineage of Jacob, in the Torah, includes: Reuben (it translates as “see”, and the tale is found in Genesis 29:32), Simeon (it translates as “hearing” and is also the son of Leah as was Reuben, and detailed in Genesis 29:33; he is not blessed by Moses and most likely was unknown), Levi (also a son of Leah, and translates as “joined” or “attached” and is found in Genesis 29:34), Judah (translates as Yah—not Yahweh—but is the name of an ancient Egyptian bull god, and is read at Genesis 29:35), Dan (a word meaning “judge” and the son of Bilhah who was Rachel’s servant, and is at Genesis 30:6), Naphtali (meaning “my wrestling” and invokes combat, with his nativity at Genesis 30:6), Gad (a word that details the Habiru/Hebrew’s origin, as it means “invader” or “troop” as the ancient Hebrews were mercenaries in Egypt working for the Hyksos; it is found at Genesis 39:11),  and he is the son of Leah’s servant Zilpah, whose story is at Genesis 30:11), Asher (which means “happy” was also the son of Zilpah and is recorded at Genesis 30:13),  Issachar (translates as “man for hire” or “wages” and implies prostitution; he is the son of Leah in Genesis 30:18), Zebulun (meaning “dwelling” and is the son of Leah and implies both greed and ownership, as it is recorded that Leah said “…now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons”—six being a division of twelve by two sisters as Jacob committed incest by marrying his two first cousins; the story is at Genesis 30:20b), Joseph (translates as “increaser” and was the son of Rachel, but also was a term used for anticipated future pregnancies and thus the enrichment of the land through additional laborers or soldiers; it is found at Genesis 30:24), and, finally: Benjamin (translates a “son of the right hand” born to Rachel as she was dying (in Genesis 35:18, Rachel calls the infant Ben-Oni—“son of sorrow”—but Jacob renamed him Ben-Jamin, to do his bidding).  There is a popular myth of 10 Lost Tribes of Israel, but there is no historical basis for this claim:  Most Hebrews moved before and after the “Babylonian Captivity” and Jews are found in Alexandria, Egypt in the first century CE.

Judaism includes prophecies that are more condemnation, as with Reuben who “defiled” Jacob’s bed: implying incest with the mother or possibly a sister.  Simeon and Levi were known for sadism, and were cursed to be “scattered”. Judah was the most favored to become a king and ultimately to produce a warrior leader (messiah) to go against the enemies of Jacob and his tribes. Dan who was to be a judge over Israel is also called a serpent: “a viper by the path” that will ultimately force a rider to fall backward—and thus is the foundation for the allegory of Saul of Tarsus trip to Damascus.  Naphtali was a flatterer who “uses beautiful words” but could not always be trusted, and most likely has his origin in Loki or Scandinavia. Gad was to be routed in battle, but becomes a king and a judge. Asher loves “dainties” (delicacies of food) and represents the gluttony of a few both in food and possessions: “Let him dip his foot in oil. Your sandals shall be iron and bronze”. Issachar was considered “strong [as a] donkey”, while Zebulun “shall become a haven for ships”.  Joseph was to wear a crown—for which there is no historical evidence, but he would be permanently separated from his brothers.  Benjamin was to become a warrior but shares in the spoils with his tribe. (Genesis 49:1-27, ref. Deuteronomy 33:6-25).

Besides the “sons of Jacob” (females were seldom counted), there were twelve “minor” prophets (the Hebrew Bible, the Nevi’im, or Prophets): referring to the length of each “book”—not to the writer’s importance.  The Minor Prophets are: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

There were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, (symbolic of the seventy disciples (Luke 10:1) and other groups of seventy) at Elim (אֵילִם : sExodu ), probably 100 km southeast of Suez.  The breast piece of the high priest was decorated with twelve stones bearing the names of the twelve tribes (Ex-28:21) and the “bronze Sea” in the Temple of Jerusalem stood on twelve bulls (1Kings-7:25), for the bull, seen as a Golden Calf, was the symbol of Yeh (Exodus 32:4-5); Yahweh’s original name was El (Genesis 6:3).

These are just a few of the many occasions in which the Old Testament mentions the number twelve.  There were twelve stones of Hoshen (breastplate of judgment or priestly breastplate (Hebrew: hoshen חֹשֶׁן) was a sacred breastplate worn by the High Priest for the Israelites that contained 12 jewels: three in four rows), twelve loaves of show-bread on the shulchan (table) in the Beit Hamikdash: “House of Holy” (בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ) or the Temple, and it was the age at which Bat Mitzvah is attained in Orthodox Judaism, and so forth.

Many sun-worshipping religions had their god-man figure gather twelve disciples, one for each division of space. The prime example is Mithras, the half-god half-human saviour of Mithraism, a Roman mystery religion. In keeping with other developed sun-worshipping religions, the saviour (Mithras) is depicted in drawing with an aurora behind his head, representing the sun. Followers were seen as stars.

As the stars are divided into twelve groups, it is natural to presume that communities of mortals can be divided into twelve geographical locations, and each one administered by a different personification of the Sun. The Signs of the Zodiac became Leaders; it was thought their influence over the lives of individual people could be worked out through a mixture of planet-watching and confused mysticism. The legacy that such lunacy left us was a deep-rooted religious tradition that the affairs of mankind are rightfully led by twelve leaders: As in (the heavens) heaven, so on Earth. Odin, for example, who sat on a chair that overlooked all of creation, has 12 sons.

Odin is one of more than 70 crucified saviours of the world. In Rúnatal, a section of the Hávamál (it translates as “Sayings of the High One” and is similar to the “Sayings of Jesus” presenting advice for living, proper conduct and wisdom and is both practical and metaphysical.  The Gestaþáttr is stanzas 1-80 (stanzas 1-79 comprise a set of maxims for how to handle oneself when a guest and traveling, focusing particularly on manners and other behavioral relationships between hosts and guests and the sacred lore of reciprocity and hospitality to the Norse worshippers of “the True God Odin”) and is a collection of proverbs and gnomic wisdom: sententious maxims put into verse to aid the memory that is considered divine opinions (it is best understood in the manner of Greek gnomes, belonging to the family of wisdom literature). Odin sacrifices to himself, being hung from the world tree (verdenstreet and världen träd) Yggdrasil for nine days and nights.  At this point Odin’s name is Hangatýr (meaning “the God who is hanged”; cf. Patton, Kimberley Christine (2009). “Myself to Myself: The Norse Odin and Divine Autosacrifice” in Religion of the Gods: Ritual, Paradox, and Reflexivity. Oxford, UK & New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press). Odin, the Father God, is pierced by his own spear (cp. John 19:34), in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds. The worship of Odin, in the Norse form is particularly acknowledged in Ásatrú, the “faith in the Æsir”, an officially recognized religion in Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Spain.

Many sun-worshipping religions had their god-man figure gather twelve disciples, one for each division of space. The prime example is Mithras, the half-god half-human saviour of Mithraism, a Roman mystery religion. In keeping with other developed sun-worshipping religions, the saviour (Mithras) is depicted in drawing with an aurora behind his head, representing the sun.  Mithras had twelve apostles, celebrated feasts with twelve loaves of bread and twelve cups of wine that he proclaimed symbolized his body and blood.  Christian apologists, such as J. P. Arendzen, attempt to portray Mithras as being but an offshoot of Hindu theology, or M. J. Vermaseren, who argued that it comes as a “late[r] date for the expansion of Mithraism to the west” affirming that Mithraism borrowed from Christianity (M. J. Vermaseren (1963). Mithras, The Secret God. London, UK: Chatto & Windus, p. 76).  The absurdities in the apologists’ claims are abundant and the result of their desire to disprove Mithras and the theology it inspired: 

The few texts that do refer to the cult come not from Mithraic devotees themselves, but rather from outsiders such as early Church fathers, who mentioned Mithraism in order to attack it, and Platonic philosophers, who attempted to find support in Mithraic symbolism for their own philosophical ideas [emphasis mine].

The majority tried to claim the deity to be of Sanskrit extraction (मित्रा) found in the Rig Veda (3, Hymn 59) but this reasoning is contrived and strained.  (Ulansey, David (1991). The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries. Oxford, UK & New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press; it is digested in Biblical Archaeology Review under the title “Solving the Mithraic Mysteries” vol. 20.5 [September/October 1994] pp. 40-53; discussed here).  

The destruction of Mithraic literature and theology was calculated and executed by the emerging community (εκκλσία: ecclesia that originally meant “assembly” as in a debating society, but became the word for a “church” militant”: ecclesia militans, ecclesia penitens, ecclesia triumphans in preparation for battle against an Anti-Christ who was seen in the followers of Mithras, later Roman emperors from Nero to Constantine, and all “foreign” religions, based on Matthew 10:34) of Chrestianos, who were determined to erase any heritage of the past or any item that countered their god Jesus—a reminder that is poignantly portrayed in Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. What exists, lives on in graffiti in the worship centers and in fragments of art (Francis, E.D. (1971). Hinnells, John R. ed. “Mithraic graffiti from Dura-Europos,” in Mithraic Studies, vol. 2. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. pp. 424–445).  Mithraic temples were neither isolated nor few.  These subterranean worship centers that numbered in the thousands have been found throughout the Roman Empire: from England in the north and west to Palestine in the south and east. Iconography in the Mithraea, such as that at Dura Europos wall paintings depict prophets carrying scrolls (Hinnells, John R., editor (1971). Mithraic Studies, vol. 2. Manchester University Press.  plate 25)—but their titles and duties are not found given the barbaric treatment the religion felt under the formally declared Christian church in 325 CE and its warrior bishops who were among the world’s most numerous book burners.

The iconography of Mithraism: the so-called tauroctony or “bull-slaying scene” in which the god of the cult, Mithras (Greek Μίθρας; the Persian is Mithra—an early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th century BCE work by Xenophon, the Cyropaedia (7.5.53), which is a biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great; in Porphyry’s Greek text De Abstinentia (Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων II.56 and IV.16 for Pallas, and De antro nympharum 6 (for Euboulus and his history), there is a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name “Mithras” as an indeclinable foreign word), accompanied by a dog, a snake, a raven, and a scorpion, is shown in the act of killing a bull.  Other iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock (Commodian, Instructiones 1.13), slaughtering a bull, having a banquet (Plutarch, Pompeii 24-25) and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). 

Contrary to early “Christians” who tried to prove their god superior and antedating Mithras, we have written evidence to the contrary.  As Marvin Meyer argues that “early Christianity … in general, resembles Mithraism in a number of respects—enough to make Christian apologists scramble to invent creative theological explanations to account for the similarities” (Meyer, Marvin (2006). “The Mithras Liturgy”, in A.J. Levine, A. J.; Allison, Jr. Dale C.; and Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus in Context. Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press. p. 179).  The Romans themselves regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources, a view sometimes argued by modern-era scholars. The historian Plutarch says (46 – 127 CE) that in 67 BCE a large band of pirates based in Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing “secret rites” of Mithras. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those “united by the handshake”.  Walter Burket noted: “Taking the right hand is the old Iranian form of a promise of allegiance,…” (Burkert, Walter (1987). Ancient mystery cults. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press. pp. 16-17). Later, in Judaism and Paulinity (the Christian church), this allegiance was sealed with a kiss (osculum pacis), that is still practiced in different religions and groups.

The earliest physical remains of the religion of Mithras date from around the end of the first century CE.  While the majority of the faithful came from the ranks of the military (primarily soldiers) who came from all nations under Roman jurisdiction (even worshipping gods associated with Mithras), the

religion’s membership included significant numbers of bureaucrats and merchants, as well as laborers and “occasional men”: in short, from all walks of life (Clauss, Manfred (1990). “Die sieben Grade des Mithras-Kultes”. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik [ZPE] 82: 183–194); only women were excluded.

This accelerated Mithraism‘s revival in the fourth century CE—although it was short-lived given the power being accumulated by the Christian Church (Griffith, Alison. “Mithraism in the private and public lives of 4th-c. senators in Rome”. Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies [EJMS]).  That Mithraism was a part of far older periods can be seen in the mummy funerary inscription of the prieset of Mithras (MS in Greek on linen cloth, Egypt, late 1st c. BCE, 1 cloth (complete), 14×39 cm, single column, (9×21 cm), 6 lines in Greek half-uncial. Provenance: 1. H.P. Kraus, New York). There are more than 677 papyri, mainly originating in Middle Egypt, including Oxyrhynchus and Fayum, that are in the collection of the renowned papyrologist Prof. Atiyah. We find confirmation in Porphyry (Πορφύριος, ca 234-305 CE, who was best known for his notable and scholarly  De Philosophia ex oraculis [Philosophy from Oracles] (Read: De Philosophia ex oraculis haurienda librorum reliquiae. Wolf, Gustaff, ed. Berlini [Berlin, Germany] 1856: in Greek; a Latin version is available) and Adversus Christianos [Against the Christians] in which he wrote: “The Gods have proclaimed Christ to have been most pious, but the Christians are a confused and vicious sect.” Read: Porphyry, Contra los Cristianos: Recopilación de Fragmentos, Traducción, Introducción y Notas E. A. Ramos Jurado, J. Ritoré Ponce, A. Carmona Vázquez, I. Rodríguez Moreno, J. Ortolá Salas, J. M. Zamora Calvo. Cádiz: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Cádiz 2006), De antro nympharum 6 [On the Cave of the Nymphs 6 in On the cave of the nymphs in the thirteenth book of the Odyssey, translation by Thomas Taylor. London: [n.p.], 1895; a Greek edition was reissued by [Buffalo, NY, USA] Arethusa [Dept. of Classics, State University of New York at Buffalo] 1969), and in numerous shards (a few that I possess in my private library), and fragments of graffiti.  Prophyry was among the earliest to declare that parts of the Bible, especially the Book of Daniel, were fraudulent, being the work of a writer in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (2nd century BCE). St. Jerome details this discovery (Gelasius, Historia Ecclesiastica III.23). 

Prophyry’s attack on Christianity caused many faithful to rethink their conversion.  This led Constantine to order the work’s repression.  However, copies survived, being hidden by those who trusted the writer–much in the same manner as Muslims protected the writings of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and other pagans, and spirited them to the Caliphate while Christian bishops and priests were hunting both the Muslims and the pagan writings in order to destroy them. The major error, however, made by those defending Mithras was in claiming the faith came from an ancient Iranian text—there is no Iranian text, iconography, or other evidence for this assumption.  All that is known by direct evidence is that the worship service and theology was Roman in origin and is older than the legends of the New Testament.

What gives Mithraism scriptural importance is its use of the Zodiac and the use of constellations: Taurus the bull being sacrificed, supported by the images of other astronomical symbols: Canis Minor (the dog), Hydra (the snake), Corvus (the raven), Scorpio (the scorpion), and so forth—all being the elements of a star map.  The “bull-slayer”—the figure of a male killing the bull—is an allegory of the Father slaying his son that does come from the Hindu idea that is personified in Brahama, who is fashioned into Abraham (the final “a” is moved from the back to the front) who was ordered to slay Isaac, as “Theos” (θεός that is both plural and singular and the name of many gods) god of the New Testament.

While the concept of god is monotheistic in Christianity, it has not always been that way in other related faiths.  In fact, in Judaism “god” has 72 Divine Names. Islam has 99 Names for God, and the Hindu scripture Mahabharata contains a thousand names of Vishnu.  In every case the god(s) was/were determined to slay his son (cp. John 3:16). 

All of these “religious sacrifices” were made under the constellations. This required that the saviour god(s) died at night—with a “cross” (Justin Martyr: crux, original text has σταυρός: pole) being made of wood: the spear that killed the bull (son) in Mithraism, the stake on which Jesus was sacrificed, the wood on which Isaac was to be burned after being stabbed, and so forth. 

From Mithraism came the story of Jesus and ultimately the New Testament. Christianity arose out of Judaism, and from Judaism and its predecessor theologies it inherited the reverence of the number 12. Jesus had 12 disciples. Early Gnostic Christians accepted this as a symbolic and figurative account, but later Pauline Christians took it all literally.

Jesus surrounds himself with 12 disciples [Barnabas was called Zeus, and Paul, in the Bible, is styled Hermes; Acts 14.12 my addition]. This is usually taken to be symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel. This notion of 12 tribes, however, is itself a symbolic reference to the 12 signs of the zodiac in Babylonian astrology, which the Jews adopted whilst in exile in Babylon. The zodiac was an extremely important symbol in the Pagan world. Osiris-Dionysis is symbolically represented as the still spiritual center of the turning wheel of change represented by the 12 signs. […] [In] the Mysteries of Mithras 12 disciples surrounded the godman, just as the 12 disciples surrounded Jesus. The Mithraic disciples were dressed up to represent the 12 signs of the zodiac and circled the initiate, who represented Mithras himself.

 Freke, Timothy & Gandy, Peter (1999). The Jesus Mysteries; Was the Original Jesus a Pagan God?  London, UK: Thomas (2000 paperback edition). [Book Review by Vexen Crabtree], p. 51.

Other religious scholars such as “Robertson, Niemojewski, Volney and others” also hold that “as son-god Jesus had twelve apostles representing the twelve houses of the zodiac” (Reynolds, Alfred (1993; originally published 1988).  Jesus versus Christianity.  London, UK: Cambridge International Publishers. p. 77-78).   The number 12 goes beyond the legendary apostles.  Revelation gives a description of the heavenly Jerusalem:  a city laid out like a square with twelve gates and twelve angels.  There are name plates on each of the gates, one for each of the names of the twelve tribes of Jerusalem, build on twelve foundations and with on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. It is clear that the writer wants to indicate that God’s new chosen people will be the followers of Jesus—no longer is heaven reserved for the Jews.  It is not clear why the heavenly Jerusalem required gates–to keep whom out? Nor is it stated why there would be houses, and angels acting as guards.  This reflects Babylonian theology, and does not take into consideration the laws of gravity.

The writer, whom tradition and redaction has styled as John Patmos, expresses his appreciation for the number twelve: “He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was using” (verse 17). The writer raises the number twelve to the square in order to elevate it above ordinary human dimensions but still an angel was required to use mortal measurements.

The number 12 appears in numerous other “miracles” that the Jesus of the New Testament performed. “And a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years and could not be healed by any one, came up behind him (Jesus), and touched the fringe of his garment; and immediately her flow of blood ceased” (Luke 8:43).

The number also plays a role in the tale of Jesus feeding “the multitude” with five small barley loaves and two small fish supplied by a boy (in the original it is 5000 men; cf. Mark 8:9, 6:40 NIV, the emphasis is on smallness that becomes greatness; cp. Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:10-17 and John 6:5-15).  When the men had eaten, the remaining food was gathered up into twelve baskets—an imagery found in most mystery religions. The story is repeated as the “Feeding of the 4000” with seven loaves and an unknown quantity of “fishes” [sic] in Mark 8:1-9 and Matthew 15:32-39.

Mary Magdalene’s name is mentioned twelve times in the New Testament: Matthew 27:56 and 61, 28:1; Mark 15:40 and 47, 16:1; Luke 8:2, 24:10, John 19:25, 20:1 and 8.

The mythology in the Book of Revelation has “a woman clothed with the sun,

with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (12:1); this is among the most pagan additions to Patmos’ publication as it comes from Ovid’s Ariadne (Αριάδνη) whose heroine is given a constellation of stars (the Corona Borealis) and became immortal when assumed into heaven, having sat on the lap of the God Dionysius while drinking wine that represented the God’s sacred blood and by imbibing the fluid she became the God’s bride after hanging herself on a tree (crucifixion); she was the mother of numerous deities: Oenopion, the personification of wine, Staphylus (related to grapes), Thoas, Peparethus, Phanus, Eurymedon, Ceramus, Maron, Euanthes, Latramys and Tauropolis and an “unnamed” twelfth (Euanthes, Latramys and Tauropolis are only mentioned in scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3. 997, read also Hesiod (ca 750 – 650), Θεογονία (Theogonia) 949 (showing Eastern influences such as the Hittite Song of Kumarbi and the Babylonian Enuma Elis that entered Greek culture by Greek trade with Mesopotamia that became highly popular in the 8^th-7^th centuries BCE); Ovid, full name Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BCE – CE 17/18) Metamorphoses (the Latin word comes from the Greek μετά meta and μορφή morphē, meaning “changes of shape”) l. c. ; Gaius Julius Hyginus (ca. 64 BCE – CE 17) Poeticon astronomicon opus utilissimum  ii. 5, while his Latin is acceptable, his Greek is saturated with elementary mistakes, but Hyginus does establish Ariadne theology and the use of stars denoting holiness and even divinity—almost always with women, setting the stage for tales of the assumption of virgins into heaven), setting the stage for the Twelve Gates, Twelve Pillars and other illusions illustrated by Patmos in his Apocalypse. 

Homer suggests that the goddess eloped with Theseus after he slew the Minotaur in Odyssey XI, 321-325, but this cannot be verified because of the paucity of records, for that which exists claim that Dionysius demanded the Goddess for his wife, and Theseus abandoned her: Diodorus Siculus iv. 61, v. 51; Pausanias, i. 20. § 2, ix. 40. § 2, x. 29. § 2; the abandonment, however, was rejected by Paeon of Amathus as cited by Plutarch in his vita of Theseus, cf. 20.3-5 that has Theseus’ ship swept off-course in a store, leading Theseus putting his suffering and pregnant Ariadne on land, then attempting to save his ship—but failing and being swept out to sea).  The stars are a symbol of the constellations and as were painted on the lining of the robe of Mithras, will circle the head of the “Blessed Virgin Mary” and numerous saints in various religions, and tie these pictorializations to theologies as late as 800 BCE within the Greek world, and far older in the North and West. 

Revelation also contains a Tree of Life.  It is abundant “with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit every month” (22:2). 

The Tree of Life is found in every religion that has ever existed.  It is not unique to the Jews or to Revelation.  In Hindu theology, the Tree of Life is the human body (koshas) and its fruit the reproductive elements (this indicates that what was the “sin” of mortals was oral sex) that, if allowed to germinate and grow brings new generations and thus “eternal life” (cf. 135th hymn of the 10th book of Rig-Veda, and in the 15th chapter of Bhagavad-gita(1–4). banyan is

believed to have nourished mortals with its “milk” before the advent of grain and other food. In Urartu around 13th to 6th century BCE, the Tree of Life was a religious symbol that had servants (some winged) standing on either side of the Tree of Life with one of their hands up as if they are taking care of it or petitioning God of Urartu for abundance and protection.  In ancient Egypt it was the same, although sometimes considered the tomb/coffin of Osiris, and at other times the penis of Osiris.

In the Osiris Legend, Osiris was induced by his wicked brother Set to lie down in a magnificent coffer under the pretext of a game at a banquet. Set and his seventy-two (cp. Luke 10:1) conspirators immediately closed the lid and threw the coffer into the Nile.  This led his sister/wife, Isis, to search the globe for it so she could impregnate herself to give birth to a divine child (Horus) and complete the Egyptian Trinity.  Sacred and divine knowledge is associated with the Tree (phallus or coffin) as sacred lotus lilies that by the fourteenth century CE were known as fleur de lis, used by the French kings.

After Judaism and Christianity, Islam became another Abrahamic religion to accept the traditional division of the land into 12 areas (See sura 2:60 of the Qur’an).  “And [remember] when Musa [Moses] asked for water for his people, We said: ‘Strike the stone with your stick.’ Then gushed forth therefrom twelve springs. Each [group of] people knew its own place for water.  “Eat and drink of that which Allah has provided and do not act corruptly, making mischief on the earth.” (Qur’an sura 2.60)

In all religions where there is a discipleship of twelve, those who oversaw in the past and today in the Mormon faith send out missionaries in groups of two, who were/are called Apostles who were and are considered guides to perfection.  They have always been viewed as holy people (singularly and when together in conclave or consortium).  The Apostles are depicted with a bright solar light around their heads (frequently oval, but in the case of some early Christian saints, the halos were square).  This depiction has been universally recognized as a symbol of being either the son of a god/goddess or sons of gods/goddesses (directly: when both parents are deities; indirectly: when one of the parents is a mortal).  Many of these Apostles are accompanied by their brothers and/or sisters (for example, in Christianity the brothers by later redactions were Simon “Peter” and Andrew (Mark 1:16), while Zebedee is given parentage of James and John, (Mark 1:19; the word, used as a name only in Mark 15:40 and Matthew 27:56, means “the gift of god”).  Legend has it that Zebedee was the husband of Salome.

Scholars since the nineteenth century (at the latest) began to accept the fact that there is no historical proof that there was ever an Apostle, with Adolf von Harnack, a German theologian, criticizing the Act of the Apostles as being historically inaccurate (Harnack, Adolf von (1909). The Acts of the Apostles. New York, NY, USA: G. P. Putnam’s Sons ; London, UK: Williams & Norgate.  In the first century no record keeper or historian, not even Josephus (Yosef ben Matityahu, Hebrew יוסף בן מתתיהו, ca. 37-100 CE), recognizes the existence of any Apostle of the New Testament Jesus, except for “James the Just” who is styled as the “brother of Jesus”, and only briefly mentions Jesus—but the reference in his Testimonium Flavianum found in the Antiquities of the Jews 18.63-64 has been contested by reputable scholars since the seventeenth century with the majority arguing that it is a later addition and even fraud since the words and phrases correspond with standard Christian formulae and were added by a Christian copyist (much like university students who copy and paste together essays) in an effort to create evidence of a real Jesus (cp. Meier, J. P. (1990), “Jesus in Josephus: A Modest Proposal,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 52, pp. 76-103; Wells, George Albert (1971). The Jesus of the Early Christians. London, UK: Pemberton Books, p. 190; Brandon, S.G.F. (editor). Religion in Ancient History: Studies in Ideas, Men and Events. London, UK: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., p. 309; and, old, but not outdated: Whiston, William (1826), The Works of Flavius Josephus, the learned and authentic Jewish historian and celebrated warrior, vol. 4, London, UK: T. & J. Allman, pp. 380-385).  “Jesus who was the Christ” has been universally rejected as meaning Jesus (Wise, Isaac Mayer (1868). The Origin of Christianity, and a commentary to the Acts of the Apostles. Cincinnati, OH, USA: Bloch & Co., p. 137; Remsburg, John (1909) The Christ: a Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of His Existence. New York, NY, USA: The Truth Seeker Company; Wells, George Albert (1986). Did Jesus Exist? London, UK: Pemberton Publishing Co., p.11, with Arthur Drews in The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus, stating: “In the edition of Origen published by the Benedictines it is said that there was no mention of Jesus at all in Josephus before the time of Eusebius [about 300 CE, Ecclesiastical History, 1.11).  Moreover, in the sixteenth century Vossius had a manuscript of the text of Josephus in which there was not a word about Jesus” (Drews, Arthur (1912)  The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus. Chicago, IL, USA: Open Court Publishing Co.; London: UK: Watts).  Claudia Setzer summarized the debate over the authenticity and historicity of Josephus succinctly:

British scholarship has been relatively positive about Acts’ historicity, from Lightfoot and Ramsay to W.L. Knox and Bruce. German scholarship has, for the most part, evaluated negatively the historical worth of Acts, from Baur and his school to Dibelius, Conzelmann, and Haenchen. North American scholars show a range of opinion. Mattill and Gasque align with the British approach to Acts. Cadbury and Lake take a moderate line and to some degree sidestep the question of accurate historicity.

(Setzer, Claudia (1994). Jewish responses to early Christians: history and polemics, 30-150 C.E. Minneapolis, MN, USA: Fortress Press, p. 94.)

The situation is no different in Islam.  The lineage of the Prophet Muhammad were his relatives and descendants.  His familial successors spoke as if they were infallible popes, on faith and morals.  People listened to them as if they were gods, and from this rose the ayatollahs who claimed that they acted for the god of Muhammad.

Islam, nothing more than a discount version of a combination of Judaism and Christianity, mixed with Greek fables and Bedouin ontology developed one group of faith known as Muslim Shi’ahs.  These followers created a list of 12 ruling Imams or Ithna-‘ashariyyah branch of Shī‘ah Islam following Muhammad.

It is believed by Twelver Shi’a Muslims that the Twelve Imams were foretold in the Hadith of the Twelve Successors and each of the Muslim Apostles (who originally were thought to be the twelve sons of Ishmael, the first-born son of Abraham: Genesis 25:13-16, cp. 25:17-20; ref. Sahih Bukhari 89:329), sequentially, is seen as the successor of Muhammad who is an infallible human individual who not only rules over the community with justice, as he is considered free from error and sin, and is chosen by divine decree, or nass, through the Prophet, being foretold by the Prophet he is able to keep and interpret the Divine Law and its esoteric meaning (Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1979). Ideals and Realities of Islam. London, UK: Unwin Paperbacks. p. 10; and, Momen, Moojan (1985).  An Introduction to Shi`i Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelve. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press. p.174). 

The Imam has the same stature and command as the Pope of Roman Catholic Church, the Prophet of the LDS Mormons, and the Patriarchs in the Greek Orthodox religion.  The first successor to Muhammad, was Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (Arabic: علي بن أﺑﻲ طالب) who was the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and ruled the Caliphate from 656-661 CE, having been the first male convert to the new religion (his reign was marked by caravan raids from Mecca, civil wars, and his assassination in the mosque of Kufa).

Islam’s history, with the Number 12, has not been glorious nor peaceful, and Islam has devolved into a religion of violence, mind and body control, and hated—matching that of what is contemporary Christianity (for example, the messages of hate bleated by Bradlee Dean (Smith) in Minnesota (a self-confessed drug addict), Dakota Ary in Texas, James Dobson in Colorado, and other would-be demigods).  In the case of Islam, the first eleven Imams were murdered—even though they were heralded as being divinely ordained to preach the gospel of the Qur’an/Koran.  And as it was with the medieval Roman Catholic church that ordained children and even sold bishoprics and the rank of cardinal to small children (as was the case especially under Pope Julius II, to pay for his wars that he rode into, covered with human beloved so he could “preach the gospel of love”).

Islam, as with all religions, had its mad prophets:

• from the illiterate camel driver who married a 6 (or 7, the age is not precisely known) girl (on the age of A’isha, consult: Spellberg, D. A. (1994).  Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A’isha bint Abi Bakr.  New York, NY, USA: Columbia University Press, 1994, p. 40; and, Armstrong, Karen (1992). Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet.  San Francisco, CA, USA: Harper, p. 157),
• to Ali (the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) who was slashed with a poisoned sword while praying in the mosque of Kufa in 661 CE;
• Hasan who succeeded his father and was poisoned by his fourth wife (Ju’da) in 669,
• he was followed by his brother Husayn—who was beheaded in the Battle of Karbala—in 680;
• he was succeeded by Zayn al Abidin (great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad) who survived the Battle of Karbala because he was too sick to fight but was murdered by poison in 712;
• Muhammad al-Baqir the son of the previous Imam, took over the caliphate and although it is claimed “he was respected by all”, he was murdered by poisoning in 743;
• Ja’far al-Sadiq who is best known for expanding Shari’a law to greater barbarity was murdered by poisoning in 765, was next;
• Musa al-Kazim was next in line and died similarly in 799,
• he was followed by an eight-year-old Muhammad al-Taqi who was poisoned by his wife in 835, a fate that awaited his successor:
• Hasan al-Askari, who died of poisoning in 874, and, finally, the
• twelfth profit, Muhammed Mahdi, son of Hasan al-Askari, went into hiding as a young child, and Shi’a Muslims still believe that he is alive and they are waiting for his return in Apocalyptic glory or gore in a Final Battle.

It has always been common in Islam to bestow Imamships on young children.  It is the belief that the Prophet loved young children so much that he married several, including the now famous Aisha bint Abu Bakr (612 – 678) (Arabic: عائشة‎) who has the unique distinction of achieving near divine status as the “Mother of the Believers” (أمّ المؤمنين in Qur’an/Koran 33.6; cp. Abbott, Nabia (1942). Aishah: the Beloved of Muhammad. Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press, 1942), and thereby gained for them eternal life following the resurrection of the body (يوم القيامة‎) before being judged (a break with pre-Islamic Arab thought) and sent to either be with Muhammad and the other Prophets (the Islamic heaven (جنّة‎ : paradise) is described in Qur’an/Koran 13:35, 18:31, 38:49–54, 35:33–35, 52:17–27 where everything anyone longs for in this life on earth will be found in paradise that is composed of seven levels, and the faithful obtain a level based upon their good deeds (the highest level has angels building palaces of solid gold for the chosen/most blessed, and everyone wears costly apparel, dines on exquisite banquets of all possible approved foods, and reclines on couches inlaid with gold or precious stones, while rejoicing in the company of their parents, wives, and children), or cast into a fiery hell (كفر‎‎). 

Hell was similar to that conjured by Christian prophets and priests. The Islamic hell is also divided into several levels where punishment is done according to the level of evil done in life, and while most of hell is fire (fueled by burning idols (rocks and stones) and human beings who were, in life, nonbelievers.  The hell known as Zamhareer is the coldest and most freezing of all and has regular blizzards, ice, snow, and cold that is unbearable—similar to Dante’s Inferno—and houses hypocrites (the most diabolical of sinners), two-faced people who claim to believe in Allah and his Prophet but denounce both in their hearts. 

Islam has a special regard for the stars and nature, it is within the realm of Islam  belief  that all things are of divine origin and that Allah is the author of the world and the sky in which there are various homes for the faithful to enjoy worldly delights.  The number 12, since it was twelve years after Muhammad began to preach and with his converts performed the Hijra (“emigration”) to the city of Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) in 622, and converted everyone by the sword.  Unlike other religions, Islam does not have a Zodiac as its calendar is not based on the sun but the moon (which prior to Muhammad represented the goddess of love: Venus) with the invention of a new calendar in 622 CE known as the year 1 AH (التقويم الهجري : Hijra calendar, or anno Hegirae); it is a lunar calendar with days lasting from sunset to sunset.  Islamic holy days fall on fixed dates of the lunar calendar, which means that they occur in different seasons in different years in the Gregorian calendar. Islam dates its history from the First Day: (1 Muharram 1 AH) or Friday, 16 July 622 CE.

More enlightened religions and theosophies also had Apostles but these were exclusively used as symbols of the zodiac that represented time.  This was the case with the advanced theologies of the Gnostics understood things had natural origins and were in quest of truth, and were like the twelve disciples of Mithras who understood the symbols of the Zodiac and the number 12 to be symbolic of the stages of the waning and waxing sun throughout the year and thus the bull (slavery) who was sacrificed is the mark of harvesting and the beginning of repose (death) before renewal (being reborn) in spring.  Later religions took it literally and believed in an actual 12 disciples.  Some religions still do believe that there were 12 actual disciples who spread the message of their god(s)/goddess(es) and rely on disproven theories and numerology, especially glorifying the number 12 and its divisible numbers (6 is numerological common number in Islam, for example).