"Brit-Am Now"-651
Contents:
1. Mormon Interest and a Misunderstanding
2. Changes in Human Skeletons: Brit-Am Understanding Vindicated Yet Again
3. Phoenician Inscription on New Mexico Rock: History or hoax?
4. Was a future union between Islam and Christian Europe predicted in the Vision of Daniel?
5. New Material on Our Website:
(a) The Book of Daniel
(b) Conspiracy Theory Debated
1. Mormon Interest and a Misunderstanding
SH wrote:
I read with interest your posting from the "Mormon" gentleman from France.
I found your need to defend said posting even MORE interesting.
Shalom, I found your letter interesting.
You are referring to our article:
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesChristianity.html
Question #3. What is the Attitude of the Mormon Church to Brit-Am?
Apparently the wrong impression has been created.
We were not apologizing but rather hoping to attract more Mormons
to our site without compromising ourselves.
As far as we understand:
The Mormon Church is mostly comprised of people descended from nations we
consider to be dominated by those of Israelite descent.
They also hold that they are descended from Israelites.
Each new member is told by an Elder what Tribe he or she belongs to.
They are not opposed to rational research to substantiate their beliefs
but rather encourage and in some cases generously fund it.
They should therefore be interested in Brit-Am studies and many of them indeed are
as we noted but not to an overwhelming degree.
A new web-site is being set up to deal with these issues from a Mormon point of view and we will
probably exchange linkages with it.
www.latterdayisrael.com
We feel that we could be getting more coverage and interest from their side
as well as from that of other Church groups etc who hold similar beliefs to our
own on the question of Israelite origins.
We are not however interested in inter-faith dialogue with anyone.
We believe in Divine Providence and adjusting ourselves to it.
At one stage we took a somewhat critical attitude towards Christianity in general.
Chris Josephson however (of Bible Light) pointed out that if she was not a Christian
she would not have taken an interest in the whole Israelite-Ancestry issue.
Other people said the same and so did Rabbi Avraham Feld.
This is in fact consistent with the view of Maimonides that both Christianity
and Islam have the task in Divine Providence of preparing the world to accept
Biblical Truth in the Messianic Era.
Brit-Am therefore tries not to offend anyone.
We do not wish to convert anyone.
We have the task of spreading knowledge about the present day identity of
the Lost Israelites.
Any group that has a similar belief or beliefs that could make them more amenable to the
Brit-Am message is part of the Divine Plan and Brit-Am should therefore make an extra effort to
reach out to such groups. This however is usually easier said than done.
God bless you
Yair Davidiy
2. Changes in Human Skeletons: Brit-Am Understanding Vindicated Yet Again
Time changes modern human's face
By Rebecca Morelle
BBC News science reporter
Researchers have found that the shape of the human skull has changed significantly over the past 650 years.
Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors.
Writing in the British Dental Journal, the team took careful measurements of groups of skulls spanning across 30 generations.
The scientists said the differences between past and present skull shapes were "striking".
Plague victims
The team used radiographic films of skulls to record extensive measurements taken by a computer.
They looked at 30 skulls dating from the mid-14th Century. They had come from the unlucky victims of the plague. The skulls had been excavated from plague pits in the 1980s in London.
Another 54 skulls examined by the team were recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose which sank off the south coast of England in 1545.
All the skulls were compared with 31 recent orthodontic records from the School of Dentistry in Birmingham.
"This new research shows how bones... can provide more knowledge to the scientific community, and ultimately the public"
Professor Robert Foley, Cambridge University
The two principal differences discovered were that our ancestors had more prominent features, but their cranial vault - the distance measured from the eyes to the top of the skull - was smaller.
Dr Peter Rock, lead author of the study and director of orthodontistry at Birmingham University, told the BBC News website: "The astonishing finding is the increased cranial vault heights.
"The increase is very considerable. For example, the vault height of the plague skulls were 80mm, and the modern ones were 95mm - that's in the order of 20% bigger, which is really rather a lot."
He suggests that the increase in size may be due to an increase in mental capacity over the ages.
Repatriating bones
The study of human remains has previously fallen into controversy, and a report commissioned by the UK government called for human remains to be repatriated where possible.
The ancient skulls used in this study, from which the radiographic films were taken, have either been reburied or are now housed in museums.
Professor Robert Foley is director of the Leverhulme Centre for Evolutionary Studies at Cambridge University, and sat on a government working group which has drawn up guidelines on working with human remains.
"The study of human remains can provide vital information about our past. There is a huge interest in our biological past - both from an evolutionary and a historical point of view - and research into human bones can tell us a great deal," he said.
"This new research shows how bones, and even the records of bones, can provide more knowledge to the scientific community, and ultimately the public."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4643312.stm
3. Phoenician Inscription on New Mexico Rock: History or hoax?
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/NuevoMexico
By Joseph Maes The New Mexican
January 26, 2006
RIO PUERCO Concealed within a small valley at Hidden Mountain is a 15-square-foot piece of basalt. The surface is carved with 216 characters that resemble Phoenician or old Hebrew. Translations have postulated buried treasure, a battle description and a exiled Greek named Zakyneros from 500 B.C.
I believe someone decided to write down the Ten Commandments , but the question is who and when, said Richard Melzer, a professor at The University of New Mexico-Valencia branch.
Many people of Jewish ancestry have traveled through the Southwest over the past 400 years, Melzer said.
In 1949, Professor Robert Pheiffer, of the Harvard Semitic Museum, translated the writing on the stone and concluded that the text is Paleo-Hebrew and is based on Exodus 20:2-17 .
Line one of the stone reads: I am Yahweh thy God who brought thee out of the land ...
Line two contains text that seems to have been added to the original passage: There shall not be unto them other gods before me.
In lines three through eight, the well-known text continues: ... of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shall not make unto thee a graven image.
Thou shall not take the name of Yahweh in vain.
Remember the day of the Sabbath to sanctify it.
Honor thy father and mother that thy days be long on the soil which Yahweh thy God (hath) given thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery . Thou shalt not testify falsely against thy neighbor. Thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife. Like Melzer, UNM history professor Ferenc Szasz believes this to be the correct translation, he also has a theory on who the mysterious author might be. I think its old, but not pre-Columbian , more likely from the 18th century, Szasz said Near the large rock are the initials A.M. the same initials are also present at Inscription Rock at El Morro near Grants. The initials are attributed to Andres Mu iz , chief interpreter of the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante Expedition.
Silvestre Velez de Escalante, a Franciscan priest, and his superior Francisco Dom nguez , were looking for a northern route to Monterey, in California, from Santa Fe.
Known to be versed in a number of language skills, Mu iz also might have had knowledge of ancient written languages.
Dom nguez treats Mu iz and his brother harshly in his diary. They manifested their little or entire lack of faith and their total unfitness for such an enterprise, Dom nguez wrote.
Dom nguez ordered that the sole mission of the expedition was to strengthen the people of this nation in their good intention of becoming Christians.
Szasz contended that Mu iz may have retaliated against the priest by inscribing text from the Old Testament at a sacred American Indian site covered with hundreds of petroglyphs
It is believed that Mu iz and his brother might have been conversos, Spanish Jews who converted to the Catholic faith.
Szasz said that he has heard that the Phoenician Inscription Rock is a hoax, but to date he doesnt know of anyone who has claimed responsibility for it.
One theory goes that, in the 1930s, a group of students chiseled the ancient lettering into the stone as a prank.
What is needed is a microscopic analysis of the tools or chisel used, Szasz said. For now, (the story of the rock) remains a mystery
The Phoenician Inscription Rock is under the care of the state of New Mexico and is located on state-trust land just off N.M. 6.
Maps refer to it as Phoenician Inscription Rock, but it also has been called the Mystery Stone, the Ten Commandments Rock and the Decalogue Stone.
4. Was a future union between Islam and Christian Europe predicted in the Vision of Daniel?
See the Brit-Am Commentary to Daniel 2:41
http://britam.org/Daniel/daniel2.html
5. New Material on Our Website:
(a) The Book of Daniel
This is a new series. The first two chapters are already available.
The Brit-Am Commentary on Daniel (God willing) will eventually cover all the chapters of Daniel
and we hope to proceed at a steady pace.
Some very important questions have already been raised and new insights obtained.
http://britam.org/DanielContents.html
(b) Conspiracy Theory Debated
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesConspiracy.html
New Questions and Answers Posted:
Q. 5. ARE CONSPIRACY THEORY ADVOCATES GUILTY OF WHAT THEY ACCUSE OTHERS OF??
Q. 6. Is Rejection of Conspiracy Theory Consistent With Biblical Prophecy?
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