October 19, 2013 / Posted in  Ancient Egypt, Church history, Interpretation, Investigation, Old Testament, Researcn

Armageddon: from Reality to

Political Terrorism in the name of

Religion

 

Contents

1. Abstract

2. Thesis

3. Evidence (Textual Criticism: Greek, English, Spanish)

4. Antecedents (in Vogue Today)

5. Mistranslation, Misinterpretation, Misuse of Language in Quest of Propagandizing a perspective that is unhistorical

6. Conclusion

7. Recommendations

8. Bibliography

9. End Notes

Abstract

The Apocalypse, a tart twisted tale of terror and frantic foreboding, of transmogrified sanity in the utterances pulsating pen on parchment ejaculations of one who went by the name of John and lived on the island of Patmos.¹ forced upon the wretched world ripe for rapine and a repeat of past mutilative maiming myths of ancient wars and human carnage.   Frequently confused with John the Apostle², the two nearly mythical men had nothing in common in Constantine I’s bible, and John of Patmos had even less in common with the John of the Gospels, and worse for the Weltanschauung of this planet’s good health had even less in common with Paulinity: the religion that the Emperor started in 325 CE at his Council of Nicaea.³

Introduction

The earliest suggestion that the mincingly melodist for murder matching marching men mentally as disturbed as he, John was banished to the island of Patmos to live with other rabble, rogues and roughnecks.  Rather than cowering cowardly in a cave as if he was returning to the uterus of his mother, John came out with passionate purple prose peppering pregnant passages pushing gore and violence in the name of a violent, vicious, venal and venomous god and the religion of hate, battle, and bloodshed. His cause célèbre became a proto-center (πρώτο κέντρο) fold in the controversial polemics of a some-time Christian who tried to thread together a message that never existed, one Justin by name and Martyr by gifted title who wrote nothing before the early second century, yet is hailed as one of the earliest writers of a religion not yet founded allegedly on the life, labor and loveless ministry of one to be named Jesus of Nazareth.

Thesis

In the first century CE, Patmos was a place for protuberant political offenders and theological terrorists: the latter being a designation of many radical “reformed Jews”.  The men and women who put on the trappings and togas of state and lived according to a promise of a rabbi who died at least two generations before their natal day were later restyled as Christians (chrestianos and christianos appear in the Annals of Tacitus and refer to different groups of early believers in the Jesus of the New Testament; they are sometimes combined by copyists who have little linguistic talent as Χριστιανός) even though they followed the teaching of Saul of Tarsus (Paul) more than they did of the New Testament Jesus.⁴

This Saul (or Paul) has been a study for many psychologists and psychiatrists interested in his illusions, hallucinations and hysterical hortatory heralding his own peculiar definition of faith and deliberately countering, correcting, corralling and creating his own religion.  Saul/Paul did this at the expense of the family of the Nazarene.  All of Jesus’ brothers and sisters, his mother and other companions of the female sex are written out of all gospels existing since the great purge by Constantine, save for the missed memories of Mark, even though not a one of the gospels was an eyewitness record but the consignment of tales taken tenaciously to memory.

Antecedents (in Vogue today: Greek, English, Spanish)

John of Patmos would put the final finial nail crest into the tomb of actual biography so that Constantine could create new law courts that would be called churches (εκκλησία). The one line that gives divine imprimatur to the terror that would await those who caved to corporate and corporal power in Constantine’s court quest for unified, solemnized, nonobjective obedience to his vision of a catholic (universal) church was embedded, or perhaps merged from a marginalia into one of the Constantinian approved New Testament  gospels that liberally borrowed from the earliest gospel of Luke: Matthew with the key passage being found in what today is delegated the tenth chapter, thirty-fourth verse: μη νομισητε οτι ηλθον βαλειν ειρηνην επι την γην ουκ ηλθον βαλειν ειρηνην αλλα μαχαιραν.

Evidence (Textual Criticism and Aligning Translations)

Based on the text of the Apocalypse (popularly known as Revelation–without the vulgar s that is spoken and printed in street English, as John of Patmos had at most one nightmare, to the good fortune of all those who could push their way through his purgatory of words), it is obvious that the author John did not personally know Jesus, any of his apostles or other followers.  Like Saul/Paul, John of Patmos was decidedly anti-woman, depicting a woman riding on a beast and being the great whore of Babylon⁵ “who was a great whore.”⁶  The prostitute is defined as Babylon with a precious cup–all references to the Great Pharaoh Thutmosis III who defeated the “children of Israel” who cried out for revenge and restitution.⁷ The charitable chauvinism masked in Christianity ignored all the noble women of the New Testament, and rejected the equality of women, people of color or multiculturalism, and those who disagreed with his stark Pauline line of condemnations that has little to do with the Marcian message of a Jesus of Nazareth.  John of Patmos’ arguments were based his illusions and hearsay⁸ found nowhere else in any other writing from the alleged death of the Jesus (a nickname for Yehishua: Joshua a legendary figure who blew the walls down the walls of Jericho–that are basically still there, those that collapsed did so because of an mild earthquake) of the New Testament to the second century when remembrances sprang up like a spring flower in bud.

John of Patmos’ inclusion by Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome (who decidely massacred the Greek narrative and poetry that fashioned the New Testament in his Vulgate “translation”) give no strength to support and buttress Patmos’ panicking phantasm as the two men, scholars of contemporary note, were more than a hundred years after the thundering of John of Patmos had ceased and he was gathered into the arms of his loving lord.  John’s final home on the island of Patmos was, at that time, a lush garden area covered with luxuriant palm groves, that gained for the island the name of Palmosa,⁹ but most or nearly all of the lush foliage disappeared when the crusaders of 1088 conquered the island and built their monstrously menacing  monastery masoned into a fearful fort, fetching claims that it was guarded by ghosts and goblins of former residents who stayed, stranded there by state and church as  insane patients and political opponents as was the listless John who was inhospitably housed on the land bedecked with carved caves and crawl spaces for those shunning any light.

Unlike any sage or scholar who sought to chronicle the deeds and characters of those around him, the self-inflicting persecution psychosis the hermit held dear deemed otherwise and quite obviously resurrected the ancient lionized legendized story of one of Egypt’s best, most skillful, most determined pharaohs: King Thutmosis III, and his stellar victory at Megiddo.  Megiddo was a pyric period for ancient wanderers who became known as Hebrews once they settled land stolen (by gift offered them by their moon god Yah of Egyptian origin) from the original inhabitant of Canaan commonly known as the Philistines and Palestinians. Success and slaughter of the army of Megiddo was, without qualm, a triumphant Egyptian victory that belatedly became the belabored foundation for the frenzied fantasy of Armageddon¹⁰.

Mistranslation, Misinterpretation, Misuse of Language in Quest of Propagandizing a perspective that is unhistorical

While most of the distortions about the battle of Megiddo appear in evangelical¹¹ tracts, sermons and seedy cinemas, Patmos rejects the very premise of the Torah, where being naked was a sign of being closer to god, and clothes were hastily sewn together only when mortals discovered their humanity by “eating from the Tree of Knowledge” including that which was both good and evil becoming like the gods (homo sapiens). John of Patmos proclaims that the almighty lord who would conquer sin and evil (knowledge), implying a sleeping Jesus, would rise from his slumber, jump astride his horse and ride a fire-breathing stead down a rainbow with drawn sword to skillfully severe heads and slice throats of unbelievers,¹² provided, of course for the mock modesty required by Saul/Paul that the martial messiah was not naked. This indicates a mortal warrior, not one who is divine nor necessarily moral nor ethical and is as naked as creation unclothed even with clouds, but triumphant as the gods of Egypt. Patmos detailed this twist in thinkng in Revelation 16:15: ιδου ερχομαι ως κλεπτης μακαριος ο γρηγορων και τηρων τα ιματια αυτου ινα μη γυμνος περιπατη και βλεπωσιν την ασχημοσυνην αυτου.

Constantine’s Christianity used the absurd account as the raison d’ être for its abrogation of basic human rights and respect for individual dignity in its first six hundred years during which the widely hated and feared Holy Office of the Inquisition came into existence.  It  is the foundation of the deranged demonic dreams of Patmos that the early Roman Catholic church and latter day contemporary evangelicals tied to the morally bankrupt  State of Israel use to fortify their demands for the conquest of Damascus.  Feigned religious neo-cons tried desperately to persuade Barack Obama and other leaders to attack Damascus in 2013 in quest of bringing about the End Times that are fantasy words in Constantine’s bibles of the fourth century when the word was wrapped around war cries to solidify the empire already under attack by “vulgar persons” living outside the walls of Rome that they were hired to protect but seldom paid.¹³ What might have happened if the sleeping Lord (implying the New Testament Jesus) awoke and forgot his cloak and rode out naked is not even considered by Patmos, although he certainly would have had no personal wardrobe on Patmos as caves were neither ample nor comfortable, and all current records state that clothing or any cloth was not allowed not out of fear of suicide, but as a cover for armaments and weapons that rebels could use to overthrow the legitimate govenment of Rome, a legitimacy that all those labeled as rebels questioned, with John of Patmos worried that an emperor bore the mark of the Beast and would be overthrown before the High Lord could wake up, put on clothing, jump on a horse, ride out of heaven with a flaming sword and work havoc on the Roman Empire and its corrupt government. High officials and even revered clergy were found wanting and only escaped the assassins arrow or knife if the leader fashioned that the life of the corrupt sychophant worth savings.

The word Armageddon appears only one time in the Greek New Testament.¹⁴  It stems from the Hebrew word har məgiddô (הר מגידו), meaning “Mountain of Megiddo”.  The writers of the brief narrative were not accomplished translators or interpreters as they show no skill in the area of knowledge of their subject.

Megiddo was never a mountain but a hill.  Megiddo was much more like one of the seven hills of Rome, but artificial in origin, not risen from the breast of the sea during a underwater volcanic explosion.  Megiddo was created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot (a tell) to guard the Via Maris: a road to war, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia.  This was the main artery for commerce to the far East and the one through-way that would link Egypt with its subordinate colleagues that could arm in time to stop the rise of Israel and the threat of further wars and theocracy.  Religion was not a factor as long as there were a cornucopia of deities so that each individual could have the freedom to chose the one god that was best for the individual, but with a limited pantheon or a single monotheistic religion there was the threat that the priests of the only god would become tyrants to protect their exclusivity.  This idea that there was one god, one religion, one means and method of invoking or worshiping the one god had always led to a holocaust against those who did not conform, blasphemed against the current god enthroned as supreme, and distressment of its priesthood.  Religion has always worked wonders in recruiting the unemployed, the violent of temper and the weak in spirit to stand firm against known evils, as all that had to be in the official offering was a bevy of beauties or a particular number of promised virgins, and the men who were soldiers would die for them and the taste of a fanciful heaven.

The Via Maris was an ancient trade route linking Egypt with the northern empires of Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Syria, and Megiddo met the needs of men, women, cutthroats and mercenaries.  Later this walled fortress was the home of the radical, revengeful and ravishing rabble popularly known as the Apiru (who would be known later as the Hebrews) and who, while not coveting, would carry off ass, oxen, sheep, cattle, maid servants and a few man servants if they were under the age of twenty, and of course a neglected wife or one recently widowed felt  no qualms in killing, murdering, assassinating, or ending the life of any opponent by any means as if laying the foundation for Martin Luther’s treatise on how Jews should be treated in his torrid Von den Jüden und iren Lügen written in 1543 CE, complete with instructions on how to subdue and ultimately murder Jews, depriving them of land, liberty, education and human rights. The NAZIs admitted openly that they owed an enormous debt to the religious writings of their spiritual forefathers, especially the German one-time-Augustinian monk Martin Luther.

The absurdity of evangelical ejaculations escalating fanaticism to a frightful height can easily be discounted, as the city of Megiddo has never been known as a city on a mountain, nor has there ever been an historical or geographical record that there were mountains on or approximately near the city.  On the contrary, the city of Megiddo was so loathed by later Jews and even-later Israelis that this one-time occupied community has only, over the centuries since Thutmosis III slaughtered enemy Canaanite combatants, been known as the Plains of Megiddo.

The tart translations found in the various bibles copied since the early Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus were crafted for political reasons and perceived chances of imperial patronage by translators who had as little skill in linguistics as most students of translation and interpretation in the USA, South America and other Third World nations have in mediocre schools, high drop out rates of students from colleges and universities.¹⁵  The Hebrew word moed (מועד), means “assembly”.¹⁶  If the faulty translations of the Gideon Society, the absurdities found in the bibles issued by the Jehovah Witness cult.¹⁷

The most maligned of the deities was Ba’al who was worshiped as lord, husband, friend, superior and all superlatives for the head of a community.  At the same time, this deity who stood for fertility as also seen as a violent, malevolent, malicious and rancorously petty pretender to power who disappeared when faithful followers called for help or succor.

Gods had a way of appearing and disappearing depending on the denizen and design determined by their officiants.  Baál appeared in most scenarios from all corners of the known and settled world without so much as having to struggle to be identified, as those who praised him were subject to the greatest superstitions, left uneducated, and cowed into abject belief that no one could prove or disprove as scientific thought and critical considerations were not attempted save by few more daring who suffered for their audacity.  The gods who gave pleasure also gave pain.  There was no even division between love and hate, and peace and war, for mortals turned to that which they did not know, could not see, would not challenge and caved into the most absurd superstitions in quest of a better life on earth or in an illusionary hereafter.

It was a “kingdom of god” that allowed no other gods before the designated god, that split Egypt before, and would again if left unchallenged.  Originally “the Kingdom of God” was a Babylonian and Sumerian term.  It meant the deity Baal: a title specially applied to Merodach,¹⁸ and appears throughout the Torah and Prophets.¹⁹ A Northwest Semitic title, Ba’al had an honorific designation meaning “master” or “lord” used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, being a cognate to Akkadian בַּעַל / בָּעַל or Bēlu.²⁰ Most evangelical inspired bibles had a modicum of literary understanding and knowledge of the culture, customs, clime and basic history of the time a document was allegedly written (a reality that few translators of today indulge in and study, and is a term—that is not a place nor even a proper noun²¹—Armageddon would actually translate, cryptically, as “Mountain of Assembly”: a reference to Mount Sinai and later Mount Zion.²²  The concern over any deity was not so much a token of respect, awe, reverence, worship or devotion.  Instead attention given to any deity was out of fear, terror, frustration and worrying about what the future would hold if the deity was defied, denied, damned or ignored.  Gods did not exist for love but were violent, vicious, vindictive, vile and evil beings that thrived on the sufferings of mortals, consigned them to human sacrifice (as with Abraham ordered to sacrifice his son) and fodder for endless, senseless, bloody wars that the gods were too puny and weak to progress with themselves singularly or plural.  It is from the terrorist tracts and testaments hailing a deity that kings learned to initiate and imitate, mimic and impersonate gods either for capital gain, land, animals or male and female servants, slaves and subordinates as with such villains in religious tracts as Joshua and Gideon.

The war that Thutmosis²³ gave birth to the myth of Moses, as a collective proper noun, and uses many Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylonian laws to create laws that became the part of the world of Thutmosis.  The laws of Thutmosis are far more ancient than those claimed for Moses–by more than 900 years. Compare the Hebrews injunction “a tooth for a tooth” that comes from the Codex Hammurabi. “If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth are knocked out” (The Code of Hammurabi, 201). “When he knocked the teeth of a freed man, he shall pay one third of the gold Mina” (The Code of Hammurabi, 201). The Hebrews learned their law of “eye for an eye” from the Codex Hammurabi (The Code of Hammurabi, 196), and so forth.²⁴ III fought in one of history’s most startling, daring, cleaver, and misunderstood way, was against prince Kadesh according to Egyptian records written at the time of the battle and immediately after the battle ended. This was not the case with the opponents who felt the bitter brandishing of blade against flesh and steel, for the entire record was ignored in favor of the immature prattle of the losers who transferred the word to mean a sexually active devotee of the Canaanite goddess Asherah, who would become the wife of what would emerge from its Egyptian agricultural past as a high lord over other lords: Yahweh.²⁵

Kadesh was a word that would become known as “beloved city” lashed laconically, almost lovingly to what would be known as his kingdom: the future Jerusalem.  History, however, notes that there was no Jerusalem before 1330 BCE as recorded in the El Amarna Letters from Canaan. ²⁶ The word Jerusalem actually comes from the Bronze Age and is best translated as “foundation (Sumerian yeru, ‘settlement’/Semitic yry, ‘to found, to lay a cornerstone’) of the god Shalem, and that does not appear until the seventh to the sixth century BCE.²⁷ It was a dissolute, lascivious and lax bundle of barbaric structures hiding homes of paid assassins, mercenaries and murderers. It was actually in Syria–not Canaan–located on or near the headwaters or ford of the Orontes River.  It is the building of the myth of Armagedon to justify the emergence of a rogue state founded by mercenaries to oppose the rule of Egypt.

Thutmosis III had an excellent example to follow:  Thutmosis I. Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II; his mother was one of the king’s minor wives or concubines, named Isis. Since there was no living prince with a better claim to the throne, the ten year-old child was crowned king on the early death of his father and was betrothed to the heiress, his half-sister Neferure. Neferure’s mother, Hatshepsut, was the daughter of Thutmose I and wife and sister of Thutmosis II, and acted as regent for the boy king. Hatshepsut liked ruling. In the second year of Thutmosis’ reign this strong-minded and ambitious woman assumed the attributes, dress, and insignia of a king and to all intents and purposes reigned, with Thutmosis was consigned to an education he delighted in: mastering all military skills²⁸ and horsemanship, in which he showed considerable prowess bring him acclaim and the prophecy that he would be a great warrior.

Between 1504 and 1492 BCE, Thutmosis I campaigned north into Syria against the Mitanni²⁹ taking the city by surprise.  Mitanni was a vassal state of the Hittites who were feared warriors and recruited bands of cutthroats and thieves who swiftly employed all forms of vile and loathsome creatures, delighting in the  Apiru becoming a part of their paid mercenaries, and, along with Aram, was an ally of Kadesh.  It remained riotous, recalcitrant, restlessly rebellious giving the young king Thutmosis III the incentive to attack it again.  It was not as he remembered his forefather describing it.  He saw for himself. Mitanni had become more fortified and more determined for independence. Furthermore, Mitanni had, by the time of Thutmosis III, allies all opposed to the Pharaoh and his ally Damascus, joining its forces to those of Kadesh and the Canaanites who were skilled horsemen. The leaders earned the nickname of the Four Horsemen, being representative of tribes, territories, theologies and thrones (the latter were styled as spiritual successors to messengers or angels and were considered to sit around the High Lord who was styled as a god and his special retinue a heavenly sphere).

Thutmosis III won an overwhelming, but not definitive, victory, and since the final day during which “countless” Hebrews were slain, the City of Jerusalem (Kadesh) that did not even exist, promised a final battle that would end the reign of Egypt and its allies as four kings (Kadesh and his co-conspirators) riding horses would ride in to rescue the “holy ones” (another mistranslation of Kadesh that was transmogrified into Qetesh who was symbolized as holding snakes symbolizing fertility, being painted as extended and enlarged phallus that was both a rod to chastise with by withdrawing and withholding it as well as the Tree of Life from which came pleasure and with fertility the opportunity to extend oneself in a new generation: fruit of love as well as a special personal gift of knowledge of the actor and the recipient who receive the elixir of life).  While the juggernaut lunacy and hysteria of the cave dweller John on the prison island of Patmos treacherously trips over details disproving his own raw rhetoric religiously rigid as if his words would embed themselves in a warm cavern that would give his words strength to explode in the minds of his listeners to bring to being base, banal, and brittle insanity. The myth mouthed in the document  still crystallizes with the twelve times the word Megiddo appears in the Old Testament as descriptive.  Not a single verse can be easily, readily or linguistically identified or associated with any particular prophet belief.

If we analyze correctly in light of the culture, climate, clime, time and consensus, we find startling similarities.  For example, the lightweight Michele Bachmann,³⁰ toeing-the-line pushed by her new-found evangelical extremism after leaving the Wisconsin Evangelical Synod of the Lutheran Church, argued for the incendiary interpretation of the malevolent and provocative American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), its wealthy backers, intimidated politicians, and the ultra-orthodox rabbis in Israel and around the globe, that the world is near the End Times (a popular mistranslation, misinterpretation, and misconception of numerous verses³¹, all written by the authors collectively known as Saul of Tarsus.³² The character and conversion of Saul has been studied by numerous mental health experts and most conclude that there is sufficient evidence suggest a neurological origin for Paul’s ecstatic visions. Paul’s physical state at the time of his conversion is discussed and related to these ecstatic experiences, postulating that both were manifestations of temporal lobe epilepsy.³³ The account of Saul falling off of a horse on his trip to persecute those who believed in the message of Jesus does not appear in any of the post-Constantine I bibles as written and distributed by the bishop Eusebius.  The only records in the approved imperial canon are found in a few places: Acts 9:3-8, 22:6-11, 26:12-18, and 1 Corinthians 15:8, all written by the supporters of Saul, or by considerations by Saul himself or his friend Luke.³⁴.

What must be remembered is that Acts, probably written by Saul or, more likely,  those who used the name had a decided reason to omit details thus magnifying the fall as the source for his hallucination in keeping with the Greek demand of its oracles to experience visions and from these illusions issue prophecy.  Other oracles are induced by inhaling sacred fumes, usually the resort of burning various narcotic plants to produce the euphoria of dreamlike trances and preaching.³⁵ Far from other records, these passages are folksy.  Jesus and Saul/Paul are on a first name basis with unusual intimacy.  Elsewhere, the first person singular pronoun is used sparingly.³⁶

The Emperor Constantine I, who created his own “catholic (universal) church” ordered the burning and destruction of all tracts that did not support his interpretation of Paulinity and the establishment of a state church. This lead many dissenters to rush their copies of gospels, epistles, and other writings out of the empire, depositing many among Arabic tribes.  These tribes incorporated these accounts into their own literature.³⁷ There is a twist to this tale in “The Journey to Yathrib” were we read that the stumbling of the horse is a sign that the rider had not found favor with god: “Suraqah set off towards the group, with his horse galloping at full pace making up lost ground. As he got closer, his horse stumbled causing him to fall onto the ground. Suraqah consulted his arrows, which advised him not to continue. However, Suraqah continued moving towards the small group of travellers. Again he fell off the horse as its front legs sank into the sand. Suraqah was startled but again he continued.”  This would be more in keeping with the real script as even Saul admitted he was not well received, especially when he called himself an Apostle, but of the twenty-two times Saul/Paul is referred to as an apostle, he does the anointing with that title himself twenty of those times, the other two left to others. Saul/Paul’s arrogance is extraordinary: Barnabas was referred to an an apostle along with Luke³⁸ with is no reference to Barnabas ever referring to himself as an apostle.

Saul/Paul’s conceit is without equal, especially as read in “For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles.” … “As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Acaia.” ³⁹  A list of End Time bible verses are publicly posted⁴⁰ that I have taken deliberate pains to plainly dispute and expose by giving hieroglyphic texts and other forms of proof are considered as indisputable, invincible, infallible and idiotic proof of a distant god who seldom visits the works of his hand yet demands allegiance, subordination, and supplication by those too mentally enfeebled to think for themselves.  To accept the fantasy that any one man or woman, any religion or book of spiritual teachings is absolute and infallible degrades the human individual and makes the soothsayer a god to control empty minds and those who will think for themselves. The royal family were gods and mortals, and the two mixed well in an environment where rule was also see as rite and right, for those who had less sought to gain more by shadowing the leader and being accessible to and for the leader so that chance might smile favorably upon them.

Facts seldom influence evangelical extremists, like the Bachmanns, Dobsons, or LeHays, even when each point of evidence comes with a folio full of documents. Facts mean nothing to the denizens of denial and are seen as embracing and exchange the lightweight of justice like the divine feather of the goddess Maat compared to the scripting by the writers of the Bible. Today’s theological terrorists travel further than the priests of Maat (a name that translates as “that which is straight” and was the Egyptian goddess who personified the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice and prevented the universe from reverting to chaos), demanding not only the abjurations and palinodes of the condemned, but their blood and even their lives before being tossed into a fiery pit on earth as it is in heaven.

A careful reading shows that the theologians flogging faith and those cited for blasphemy and disbelief were those who frequently chose End Time passages in general. A critical scrutiny details how they have been transformed, translated and transmogrified within their own text. These random passages have been considered prophecy but without firm foundation (most based on the quicksand of time that erases or recovers the original intent to speak passionately in the manner that their benefactors favored), yet used by Bachmann and those with, surprisingly, even less education than the Minnesota Republican has completed such as with self-loathing racist Star Parker.⁴¹   This unfulfilled rapture (another invented word)⁴² that even the legendary Paul thought would be during his lifetime,⁴³ ran throughout the times that select committees on religion wrote spurious letters and testimonies claimed to be of the authorship of Saul of Tarsus claimed, beginning with the earliest Pauline record: The Book of the Apocalypse. In The Book of the Apocalypse, popularly restyled: Revelation, we read in the King James Version (KJV 1611)⁴⁴, in the Greek: ¹² και ο εκτος αγγελος εξεχεεν την φιαλην αυτου επι τον ποταμον τον μεγαν τον ευφρατην και εξηρανθη το υδωρ αυτου ινα ετοιμασθη η οδος των βασιλεων των απο ανατολων ηλιου ¹³ και ειδον εκ του στοματος του δρακοντος και εκ του στοματος του θηριου και εκ του στοματος του ψευδοπροφητου πνευματα τρια ακαθαρτα ομοια βατραχοις ¹⁴ εισιν γαρ πνευματα δαιμονων ποιουντα σημεια εκπορευεσθαι επι τους βασιλεις της γης και της οικουμενης ολης συναγαγειν αυτους εις πολεμον της ημερας εκεινης της μεγαλης του θεου του παντοκρατορος ¹⁵ ιδου ερχομαι ως κλεπτης μακαριος ο γρηγορων και τηρων τα ιματια αυτου ινα μη γυμνος περιπατη και βλεπωσιν την ασχημοσυνην αυτου ¹⁶ και συνηγαγεν αυτους εις τον τοπον τον καλουμενον εβραιστι αρμαγεδδων.  The English reads: ¹² Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. ¹³ And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. ¹⁵ “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” ¹⁶ And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon. The translation errors in this text are discussed later in this essay.

This is a bad attempt at plagiarizing an historical record–it does not have the marking or terminology of  a prophecy. John of Patmos is merely repeating the battle of Thutmosis as the Euphrates is a river that joins with the Tigris, and together they form the borders of Gan Eden (גַּן עֵדֶן) in Iraq, the route Thutmosis took to subdue the Canaanites. Gan Eden is derived from a Sumerian word meaning “plain” or “steppe”, and is at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates in northern Iraq, in Africa, and in the Persian Gulf. The later Hebrews had little if any sense as to geography or history, and penned poisoned prose based on politics and pandering to rulers.  For example, Ezekiel locates Eden⁴⁵ in Lebanon⁴⁶ while others misdirected their listeners and later readers to even more fantastic fringes of civilization.

It is the fate of all humanity, and was translated into English as: ¹² Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. ¹³ And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth⁴⁷ and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. ¹⁵ “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk(s) naked and they see his shame.” ¹⁶ And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.⁴⁸ Compare this with the most common Spanish translation:

¹² El sexto ángel derramó su copa sobre el gran río Éufrates; y sus aguas se secaron para que fuera preparado el camino para los reyes del oriente ⁴⁹. ¹³ Y vi salir de la boca del dragón, de la boca de la bestia y de la boca del falso profeta, a tres espíritus inmundos semejantes a ranas; ¹⁴ pues son espíritus de demonios que hacen señales, los cuales van a los reyes de todo el mundo⁵⁰, a reunirlos para la batalla del gran día del Dios Todopoderoso. ¹⁵ (He aquí, vengo como ladrón. Bienaventurado el que vela y guarda sus ropas, no sea que ande desnudo y vean su vergüenza.) ¹⁶ Y los reunieron en el lugar que en hebreo se llama Armagedón⁵¹.  The most startling and surprising sentence is the one that castigates the possibility that those who would watch might be naked, could be naked, or worse, would be naked, as being naked is what set the legendary first couple apart from the animals and equal to the gardener-god,⁵² as tribulation and sin entered only after the two saw themselves as being naked and thought of themselves as naked: a cryptic reference to judgment that nakedness was no longer the symbol and sign of divine favor, but rather the outward turning away from the godhead and owner of the garden in Iraq that was bordered by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates: the waters separating Gan Eden from the rest of the world and those in the world who had swooned before other gods and craved the sweetmeats of reproduction, recreation, and rich living riotous with food and drink and delight in being naked as the day they were born into a world of incorruptible, inculpable, impeccable innocence and trust.

The only time that there is even a mention of such a catastrophic war is when eighth century redactors slipped in marginalia that became known as Matthew 10:34, as with the English reading: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”  The Greek reads: μη νομισητε οτι ηλθον βαλειν ειρηνην επι την γην ουκ ηλθον βαλειν ειρηνην αλλα μαχαιραν, and is as distant and foreign as the Spanish: No penséis que vine a traer ⁵³ paz a la tierra; no vine a traer ⁵⁴ paz, sino espada.

The war quest for a “Messiah”⁵⁵ to wage war against the enemies of Israel and its league of backers was as weak as the River Jordan at low tide.  It had no resemblance to the Greek testaments held as relics by the early chrestianos or christianos until Paulinity took control of the Jesus cult established by James the Just, brother of the New Testament Jesus, and there was nothing similar to “an anointed one” or Christ⁵⁶ as was etched into clay bowls used by sorcerers and magicians in ancient Egypt (c. 300 BCE – 100 CE) that heralded the arrival of a Christ: the senior magician.⁵⁷   It appears only twice in the New Testament,⁵⁸ yet, these single verses has led military academies in the USA⁵⁹ and elsewhere push for a Final Battle, End Times, and Rapture⁶⁰—none of which has any validity, proprietary panacea or citation in any Constantinian scripture.

Muslims see this warrior Jesus as Masīh (عيسى المسيح). The early followers of Muhammad grown careless in the heat of the desert declared that Jesus was anointed for an omnipotent jihad against the enemies of Allah. Jesus is hailed as a great prophet and forerunner of Muhammad, one who would show the way to an other-worldly salvation complete with hosts of virgins for the true believers, all men, to ravish and enjoy. Early Muslim, not yet accepting of the injunction to have no images of life, produced portraitures that had Jesus with wet hair to announce his anointing.⁶¹

Troops in Iraq, sent by George W. Bush who was endorsed by End Time fundamentalist conservatives,⁶² were known to claim after lengthy indoctrination by evangelical chaplains to cry out “this is it”.  When it was not Armageddon, the same gaggle of gospel goons egged Obama onward to attack Syria and fulfill the spurious, sinister and spiteful pedantic prophecy by a pseudo-prophet later termed Isaiah.⁶³  To justify an attack on Syria, radical religious revolutionaries and zealot Zionists exhaled the vengeful venomous poetry fermented in Isaiah 17 that reiterated the attack on Damascus,⁶⁴ a counterweight more than a millennium and one-half past the war launched by Thutmosis III.  In this regard, reading the English translation of the text we find:

¹ “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
² The cities of Aroer are forsaken;⁶⁵

They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and no one will make them afraid.
³ The fortress also will cease from Ephraim,
The kingdom from Damascus,
And the remnant of Syria;
They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

⁴ “In that day it shall come to pass
That the glory of Jacob will wane,
And the fatness of his flesh grow lean.
⁵ It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain,
And reaps the heads with his arm;
It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain
In the Valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it,
Like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough,
Four or five in its most fruitful branches,”
Says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ In that day a man will look to his Maker,
And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ He will not look to the altars,
The work of his hands;
He will not respect what his fingers have made,
Nor the wooden images⁶⁶ nor the incense altars.

⁹ In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken bough⁶⁷
And an uppermost branch,⁶⁸

Which they left because of the children of Israel;
And there will be desolation.
¹⁰ Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold,
Therefore you will plant pleasant plants
And set out foreign seedlings;
¹¹ In the day you will make your plant to grow,
And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap of ruins
In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

¹² Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
¹⁴ Then behold, at eventide, trouble!
And before the morning, he is no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who rob us.

The Hebrew reads:

¹ מַשָּׂא דַּמָּשֶׂק הִנֵּה דַמֶּשֶׂק מוּסָר מֵעִיר וְהָיְתָה מְעִי מַפָּלָה׃

² עֲזֻבֹות עָרֵי עֲרֹעֵר לַעֲדָרִים תִּהְיֶינָה וְרָבְצוּ וְאֵין מַחֲרִיד׃

³ וְנִשְׁבַּת מִבְצָר מֵאֶפְרַיִם וּמַמְלָכָה מִדַּמֶּשֶׂק וּשְׁאָר אֲרָם כִּכְבֹוד בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל יִהְיוּ נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאֹות׃ ס

⁴ וְהָיָה בַּיֹּום הַהוּא יִדַּל כְּבֹוד יַעֲקֹב וּמִשְׁמַן בְּשָׂרֹו יֵרָזֶה׃

⁵ וְהָיָה כֶּאֱסֹף קָצִיר קָמָה וּזְרֹעֹו שִׁבֳּלִים יִקְצֹור וְהָיָה כִּמְלַקֵּט שִׁבֳּלִים בְּעֵמֶק רְפָאִים׃

⁶ וְנִשְׁאַר־בֹּו עֹולֵלֹת כְּנֹקֶף זַיִת שְׁנַיִם שְׁלֹשָׁה גַּרְגְּרִים בְּרֹאשׁ אָמִיר אַרְבָּעָה חֲמִשָּׁה בִּסְעִפֶיהָ פֹּרִיָּה נְאֻם־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ ס

⁷ בַּיֹּום הַהוּא יִשְׁעֶה הָאָדָם עַל־עֹשֵׂהוּ וְעֵינָיו אֶל־קְדֹושׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל תִּרְאֶינָה׃

⁸ וְלֹא יִשְׁעֶה אֶל־הַמִּזְבְּחֹות מַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו וַאֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ אֶצְבְּעֹתָיו לֹא יִרְאֶה וְהָאֲשֵׁרִים וְהָחַמָּנִים׃

⁹ בַּיֹּום הַהוּא יִהְיוּ עָרֵי מָעֻזֹּו כַּעֲזוּבַת הַחֹרֶשׁ וְהָאָמִיר אֲשֶׁר עָזְבוּ מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְהָיְתָה שְׁמָמָה׃

¹⁰ כִּי שָׁכַחַתְּ אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׁעֵךְ וְצוּר מָעֻזֵּךְ לֹא זָכָרְתְּ עַל־כֵּן תִּטְּעִי נִטְעֵי נַעֲמָנִים וּזְמֹרַת זָר תִּזְרָעֶנּוּ׃

¹¹ בְּיֹום נִטְעֵךְ תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי וּבַבֹּקֶר זַרְעֵךְ תַּפְרִיחִי נֵד קָצִיר בְּיֹום נַחֲלָה וּכְאֵב אָנוּשׁ׃ ס

¹² הֹוי הֲמֹון עַמִּים רַבִּים כַּהֲמֹות יַמִּים יֶהֱמָיוּן וּשְׁאֹון לְאֻמִּים כִּשְׁאֹון מַיִם כַּבִּירִים יִשָּׁאוּן׃

¹³ לְאֻמִּים כִּשְׁאֹון מַיִם רַבִּים יִשָּׁאוּן וְגָעַר בֹּו וְנָס מִמֶּרְחָק וְרֻדַּף כְּמֹץ הָרִים לִפְנֵי־רוּחַ וּכְגַלְגַּל לִפְנֵי סוּפָה׃

¹⁴ לְעֵת עֶרֶב וְהִנֵּה בַלָּהָה בְּטֶרֶם בֹּקֶר אֵינֶנּוּ זֶה חֵלֶק שֹׁוסֵינוּ וְגֹורָל לְבֹזְזֵינוּ׃ ס

The Septuagint Greek reads:

¹ το ρημα το κατα δαμασκου ιδου δαμασκος αρθησεται απο πολεων και εσται εις πτωσιν ² καταλελειμμενη εις τον αιωνα εις κοιτην ποιμνιων και αναπαυσιν και ουκ εσται ο διωκων ³ και ουκετι εσται οχυρα του καταφυγειν εφραιμ και ουκετι εσται βασιλεια εν δαμασκω και το λοιπον των συρων απολειται ου γαρ συ βελτιων ει των υιων ισραηλ και της δοξης αυτων ταδε λεγει κυριος σαβαωθ ⁴ εσται εν τη ημερα εκεινη εκλειψις της δοξης ιακωβ και τα πιονα της δοξης αυτου σεισθησεται ⁵ και εσται ον τροπον εαν τις συναγαγη αμητον εστηκοτα και σπερμα σταχυων εν τω βραχιονι αυτου αμηση και εσται ον τροπον εαν τις συναγαγη σταχυν εν φαραγγι στερεα ⁶ και καταλειφθη εν αυτη καλαμη η ως ρωγες ελαιας δυο η τρεις επ’ ακρου μετεωρου η τεσσαρες η πεντε επι των κλαδων αυτων καταλειφθη ταδε λεγει κυριος ο θεος ισραηλ ⁷ τη ημερα εκεινη πεποιθως εσται ανθρωπος επι τω ποιησαντι αυτον οι δε οφθαλμοι αυτου εις τον αγιον του ισραηλ εμβλεψονται ⁸ και ου μη πεποιθοτες ωσιν επι τοις βωμοις ουδε επι τοις εργοις των χειρων αυτων α εποιησαν οι δακτυλοι αυτων και ουκ οψονται τα δενδρα αυτων ουδε τα βδελυγματα αυτων ⁹ τη ημερα εκεινη εσονται αι πολεις σου εγκαταλελειμμεναι ον τροπον εγκατελιπον οι αμορραιοι και οι ευαιοι απο προσωπου των υιων ισραηλ και εσονται ερημοι ¹⁰ διοτι κατελιπες τον θεον τον σωτηρα σου και κυριου του βοηθου σου ουκ εμνησθης δια τουτο φυτευσεις φυτευμα απιστον και σπερμα απιστον ¹¹ τη δε ημερα η αν φυτευσης πλανηθηση το δε πρωι εαν σπειρης ανθησει εις αμητον η αν ημερα κληρωση και ως πατηρ ανθρωπου κληρωση τοις υιοις σου ¹² ουαι πληθος εθνων πολλων ως θαλασσα κυμαινουσα ουτως ταραχθησεσθε και νωτος εθνων πολλων ως υδωρ ηχησει ¹³ ως υδωρ πολυ εθνη πολλα ως υδατος πολλου βια καταφερομενου και αποσκορακιει αυτον και πορρω αυτον διωξεται ως χνουν αχυρου λικμωντων απεναντι ανεμου και ως κονιορτον τροχου καταιγις φερουσα ¹⁴ προς εσπεραν εσται πενθος πριν η πρωι και ουκ εσται αυτη η μερις των υμας προνομευσαντων και κληρονομια τοις υμας κληρονομησασιν.

The Spanish reads:

¹Profecía sobre⁶⁹ Damasco.
He aquí, Damasco dejará de ser ciudad,
y vendrá a ser un montón de ruinas.
² Abandonadas están las ciudades de Aroer⁷⁰;
serán para los rebaños, para que se echen⁷¹ en ellas,
y no habrá quien los espante.
³ Desaparecerá la fortaleza de Efraín
y la soberanía⁷² de Damasco,
y el resto de Aram
vendrá a ser como la gloria de los hijos de Israel
—declara el Señor de los ejércitos.

⁴ Acontecerá en aquel día que la gloria de Jacob menguará,
y enflaquecerá la gordura de su carne.
⁵ Será como cuando el segador recoge la mies⁷³,
y su brazo cosecha las espigas;
o será como el que recoge espigas
en el valle de Refaim.
⁶ Pero quedarán en él rebuscos como cuando se varea el olivo:
dos o tres aceitunas en la rama más alta,
cuatro o cinco en las ramas de un árbol fructífero
—declara el Señor, Dios de Israel.
⁷ Aquel día el hombre tendrá en estima a su Hacedor,
y sus ojos mirarán al Santo de Israel.
⁸ Y no tendrá en estima los altares, obra de sus manos,
ni mirará a lo que sus dedos hicieron:
las Aseras⁷⁴ y los altares de incienso⁷⁵.
⁹ Aquel día sus⁷⁶ ciudades fuertes serán como lugares
abandonados en el bosque,
o como ramas⁷⁷ que fueron abandonadas⁷⁸ delante de los hijos de Israel;
la tierra será una desolación.
¹⁰ Porque te olvidaste del Dios de tu salvación
y no te acordaste de la roca de tu refugio.
Por tanto, siembras plantas deleitosas
y les injertas⁷⁹ sarmientos de un dios extraño.
¹¹ El día que las plantes las cercarás con cuidado,
y por la mañana harás que florezca tu semilla;
pero la cosecha será un montón inservible
en el día de enfermedad y de dolor incurable.

¹² ¡Ay!, bramar de muchos pueblos
que braman como el bramido de los mares;
rugir de naciones
que rugen como el rugido de violentas aguas.
¹³ Las naciones rugen como el rugido de muchas aguas,
pero El las reprenderá y huirán lejos;
serán perseguidas como el tamo de los montes delante del viento,
y como polvo de torbellino delante del vendaval.
¹⁴ Al tiempo de la tarde, he aquí, hay terror.
Antes de la mañana ya no existen.
Tal⁸⁰ será la porción de los que nos despojan,
y la suerte de los que nos saquean.

Fancying war, partisan puritans urging the Super Powers to immediately initiate the End Times, even though few leaders showed any knowledge about the raison d’être for such an irrational conflict, and none of the Phillistine prevaricators leading nations had any idea of the catastrophic chances that were in play.  AIPAC had done its job well cojoining lies and carving out bleeding hearts of distraught, distracted, and distracted nations.  The history of Egypt is ignored in most schools, yet it was in Egypt that the antecedents for science, literature, and warfare were crafted, as seen in the testimonies of the scribes of Thutmosis III, the favored one named Tjaneni who kept a daily journal on parchment detailing the interaction of gods in warfare leading to the further details in John of Patmos Revelation (Armageddon).  The reality of Kadesh is lost, vanishing from history after it, the city as the man already had died, was destroyed by the invading Sea People, around the year 1178 BCE.  What survived was the remains of Hellenistic communities that were found in the upper levels of the tell⁸¹, and the summit this is still occupied today.

Thutmosis III was an astute, practical pandemic politician, warrior, and hero.  Thutmosis III was determined to keep the roads free and open, and this he did remarkable, not only during his march, but also during each subsequent battle.  The great Pharaoh⁸² had each detail set down by scribes for posterity, as found at Thutmosis’ temple at Karnak (today’s Luxor), Thebes.  On the walls we read the word Megiddo, detailing the importance of the city so that Egypt could reach the rest of his empire—a goal that the Hebrews wanted denied so that they could extort ransom for its use.

In 1479 BCE, Thutmosis III, the sixth ruler of the 18th Dynasty, with a reign lasting from 1479 to 1425 BCE, who has been called by some the “Napoleon of Ancient Egypt”⁸³, led his armies against Kadesh (actually against the capital of the ruler who self-styled his abode as “the Holy City”) on the River Orontes who was backed by the King of Mitanni.

Mitanni was determined to best Egypt and destroy Damascus for its own enrichment.  To do this, the king needed the priests to cast his opponents in the worse light possible.  This occurred with the rewriting of history and the battle of Thutmosis I.  It would escalate among the Apiru who raped and pillaged Canaan and later find its way into the distorted lies of its prophets, especially that of Isaiah.

Mitanni was joined a coalition with the heads of Egypt’s vassal cities of northern Palestine and Syria (the famed Four Horsemen: their names, in addition to Kadesh (in the Akkadian literature Kadesh is Qidshu), were Suttarna (or Sutatarra; fl. c. 1350 BC); Etakkama (c. 1340s; it was a common name and means “mayor” indicating more of a function or position in government rather than a particular individual) and his son Ari-Teshub (fl. c. 1330-1325) but none were as colorful as the characters of fiction crafted by John of Patmos.). Under the instigation of Kadesh, the cities openly rebelled—forcing Thutmosis III to attack.⁸⁴  The cry was made that Thutmosis III had to be stopped if the cities were to survive as the road to the East and other empires lay between them and if they controlled the wealth of trade, Egypt would collapse.  Greed was paramount.

During this time of tribulation, Thutmosis III left Egypt in the hands of his stepmother and aunt,⁸⁵ that took his opponents, especially the Apiru/Canaanites by surprise thereby allowing the Pharaoh to easily defeat them.  What caused consternation against his enemies who would build-up and buttress the myth of Armageddon was that Thutmosis III’s army carried boats over dry land to distant lakes and seas (this spectacular means of moving vessels is described on the inner wall of the great chamber housing the “Holy of Holies” at the Karnak Temple of Amun—a term and phrase later plagiarized by the uncivilized Apiru who were mercenary soldiers for Akkadian guards, when they established their worship of the golden calf Yah).

On the day his mother, Hatshepsut (meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies 1508–1458 BCE, was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt), died, Thutmosis, then 21 years old and certainly an adult by Egyptian standards, moved on Megiddo, passing through the border fortress of Sile (today’s Tjaru).⁸⁶ The ensuing Battle of Megiddo was probably the largest campaign in Thutmosis’ career.  Ignoring the advice of his council, Thutmosis candidly called his advisors cowards and crossed over the Aruna mountain pass that was, according to commentaries, only wide enough to let “horse after horse and man after man” pass to the valley below:⁸⁷ the Plain of Esdraelon, situated between the rear of the Canaanite forces and the city of Megiddo itself.⁸⁸

Both Egyptians and their mercenary soldiers from Canaan worshiped the gold calf Yah, carying it into battle with other tabernacles calling on the plethora of gods that would only be outlawed by an Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, Ikhnaton, and Khuenaten:  meaning “living spirit of Aten”.  Akhenaten established a novel idea that met with no favor among the Egyptians, but found acceptance among mercenaries from Iraq: the Apiru.  The Pharaoh laid the foundation for the law he passed that reads “No one shall other gods before me” as he set up monotheism that lasted only his lifetime.⁸⁹ It was later grudgingly adopted and adapted by the Apiru on their trek to Canaan and attack on the people of Jericho, although many returned to the worship of Yah, the golden calf, known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV until the deity became known as Yahweh.

The Canaanite forces failed to attack, no reason was ever fully given, but gossip recorded that the warriors were weary from a night of frivolity (but with whom is unclear as these pioneer warriors had strict rulers against camp followers or foreign prostitutes) and Thutmosis decisively routed them and captured the images of their gods on “Year 23, I Shemu [day] 21, the exact day of the feast of the new moon” (May 9, 1457 BCE).⁹⁰.  Thutmosis III finally succeeded in conquering Megiddo, a fortress city beyond Mount Carmel ridge, personally heading his army, after a siege from seven to eight months in duration, leading the Canaanites to vow vengeance and defeat Egypt and “the rest of the world”. Thutmosis III reestablished control over Palestine.⁹¹ Generosity was easy when the leader could call on those who could be led willingly into any theater in life and the dark stage of death, as all that was essential was to have available the martial, personal and psychological skills to create a sense of awe and wonderment to get those eager to be in the shadow of an alleged man to follow him even to their own death on a battle field or a sport arena where their gallantry and bravery would be put to the desk of the manhood and ability.  Thutmosis III’s mastery of the cross bow and other weapons of war provided great entertainment while also soliciting good will and adulation by those watching and their retinue.

Thutmosis III had each incident of the battle recorded on parchment and chisled into stone and rock by his scribe who was also his army commander: Thanuny.⁹²  The battle would become immortal,  but changed cataclysmically by the Apiru who vowed vengenance and the reality of the reasons and the outcome of the war were changed to meet their needs.

The veracity of the victory was questioned and the plight of the people ignored in the name of religion that made a lie out of the story of the battle and those who recorded it.  This has become the foundation for most fables, and one of those was the greatest lie of all: Armageddon.

The Pharaoh took pity on his conquered people.  Unlike other victors he did not demand a blood price.  Instead he sought to educate the people.  Schools were built, teachers who were competent in their subject matter hired, and students brought to the centers of learning.

Thutmosis III required that each of the defeated kings send a son to the Egyptian court. There they received an Egyptian education and returned to their homelands with the support of Egypt.

Thutmosis III was not the only sovereign to attack Kadesh (a vassal of Egypt for approximately 150 years) or Megiddo.  His grandfather Thutmosis I (1504-1492 BCE) did at Tell Nebi Mend that was falling under Hittite influence,⁹³;  as would various Rameses (c. 1274 BCE, most battles were lost by the Egyptians,  with the Hittites surprising the forces of Egypt in their own camp.⁹⁴.  The problem is that most translators, interpreters, theologians and apologists for Isaiah 17 and Revelation 16 are determined to show it as an attack upon their god, their sacred scriptures, and reality.

Those who dwelt on the misery of warfare, the cruelty of greed, and the anger of not being first frequently became prophets yelling of doom and destruction (read the Book of Joshua in any bible), with little thought for accuracy, historical truth, or genuine concern for facts.  What is certain, once reading the papyrus left to posterity, is that the prophets of ancient religions, such as Isaiah, and soothsayers such as John of Patmos, were better at plagiarism and invention than giving hope or showing how life could be improved.

 

Conclusion

As Umberto Eco wrote in his stellar masterpiece Mouse or Rat? ⁹⁵ literal translations (word-for-word, palabra a palabra, or verbatim) are not only wrong but egregious but flagrantly fraudulent.  Most bible translators I have known and worked with are quite similar to my undergraduate students in the School of Translation and Interpretation: under-trained untrained and unlearned.  Not only must the translator be fully fluent in his or her native tongue but equally fluent in the language that is to be translated–not only linguistically but also competent and fully knowledgeable about the time, clime, culture, and all other aspects of the civilization, education and its standards, and the writer (life, education, academic production and whether or not the writer has a bias, as with Isaias/Isaiah, John of Patmos, and other apologists) to render a translation correctly.

Wars have been fought for nearly three thousand years over Megiddo (Armageddon) without an understanding of the history, politics, social structure, and vanity of kings. Not once during any conflict over the site near the grand highway to the East was there or is there any record of any one considering the battle to mark End Times or seeing any king or savior lord riding down a rainbow on a horse after suitably covering his nakedness, nor were there four kings marking death, pestilence, etc. except in the dementia of false prophets from Isaiah to John of Patmos and the twentieth century neo-cons determined to get Barack Obama to launch an attack on Damascus to fulfill their death wish.

 

Recommendations

Schools of foreign languages must insist on students learning not only their own native tongue but the languages of other peoples, yet far more important is that these alleged institutions of higher learning demand that all future savants engaged in translation and interpretation study, in depth, the history, culture, social structure including its religion(s), politics, and other marks of intellectual life before initiating a translation, that must come long before any scholar is capable, intellectually, to render a factual and authentic interpretation (not a prophecy) and write any thesis or interpretations. Institutes, schools, colleges, universities must find and secure the services of those trained in these arts, not just select faculty because the future teacher has a diploma, license to teach, master or doctoral degree (especially if it is a field other than the subject that is to be taught) and must be a subject matter expert.  Too often I have worked with Teachers of English who have a MBA–that qualifies, perhaps, the individual to do work in an area or field of business–but disqualifies the teacher from working in the field of foreign languages, unless he/she passes a rigid and thorough test on grammar in his/her own language, culture, and history.

What is more appalling occurs when a teacher claims to have a higher education after they pass a test, such as FCE, CAE, PET, that merely mark that the individual knows English (or any other language) at the time of taking the test, but have no advanced degrees.  Especially in South America, where I teach at present, there are few standards for selecting faculty, so the wiser the institution is, the more aware its Academic Deans are that a profesor(a) is a teacher–not a Professor who has at least one terminal degree and substantial publications.  It is especially past time that the majority of the schools in South America and elsewhere in the Third World stop using their institutions to make money for political purposes and actually build real libraries, demand excellence from teachers and students, and raise the standards to pass any course.

Teachers must be required to take additional courses, to investigate and research, and learn the art of writing.  Few teachers I have met have books, and outside of myself, I have visited no teacher who has a private library beyond a small handful of books.  Teachers are those who help, facilitate, lead, and educate future generations, and do it best by example as students hear words but follow what they see.  It is time for dramatic and deep change to save not only civilization but education everywhere.

 

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End Notes