Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
The Genesis Creation and Flood stories seem clearly to have derived from the Mesopotamian / Sumerian stories, no matter what the transmission mechanism, oral or someone reading off cuneiform tablets. If the subtext was lost to the intermediate generations, it seems that today, at least, some are waking up to the fact that some of what was being discussed was cosmic matters such as involving precession and asteroid / comet strikes. The latter appearing to have terminated Sumeria proper and likely the IVC suffered the same fate.A lot of time from the period of the Sumerians and Gutians to the period above. However, there may be elements of religious worship that got transmitted -- how better to remember something than have the youngers memorize what they didn't really understand from their grand parents (Dr. Lundwall's point on oral traditions).
It is my belief that the Nasorean / Nazarenes name derives from the Egyptian 'NZR' for 'prince' and similar relates to 'branch', as in the root and branch of Jesse, etc.. This is why the reference to "the Egyptian" as a rebel leader, who we think is a cryptic allusion to the historical 'Jesus' (Izates - Monobazus the younger), not some literal carpenter from a city that likely didn't exist at the time, it's name invented to misdirect from what NZR implies.
Thus, when one is talking about the graft of the wild and domesticated olive tree in Romans 11, it is really an allusion to the grafting of Romans ('gentile' meaning gentil elites - not non-Jews) onto the pharaonic / Ptolemaic royal lineage. And, it becomes the fulfillment of the prophecy that Esau (Edom) will regain his Abrahamic inheritance from Jacob (Judah and/or Ephraim). The Talmud also identifies the Romans as Edomites, which make the Kittim association more cloudy, but not impossible.