Nimrod -
Babylonian - Musical
Worship Teams
X.Mem.1.6.13 Xen. Mem. 1.6.13
To this Socrates replied: “Antiphon, it is common opinion among us
in regard to beauty and wisdom
that there is an honourable a
nd a shameful way of bestowing them.
For to offer one's beauty for money to all comers is called prostitution;
but we think it virtuous to become friendly with
a lover who is known to be a man of honour.
So is it with wisdom. Those who offer it to all comers for money
are known as sophists, prostitutors of wisdom,
but we think that he who makes a friend of one whom he knows to be gifted
by nature, and teaches him all the good he can,
fulfils the duty of a citizen and a gentleman.
Sophis-tēs , ou, o(, A. master of one's craft, adept, expert, of diviners, Hdt.2.49; of poets, “meletan sophistais prosbalon” Pi.I.5(4).28, cf. Cratin.2; of musicians, “sophistēs . . parapaiōn khelun” A.Fr.314, cf. Eup.447, Pl.Com. 140; sophistē Thrēki (sc. Thamyris) E.Rh.924, cf. Ath.14.632c: with modal words added, “hoi s. tōn hierōn melōn” [melody in the holy place--a death sentence for any Levite]
Nimrod's Babylonian musical team was, like all nations, for the service of the king who viewed himself as either the god or the agent of the god. Click to see that Charismatic and Musical has always meant sodomy and often in the form of pederasty.
The Beginning of Musical Idolatry: Part Two of Lynn Anderson review. Isaiah 30 sees it as the sounds of God repaying his enemies driving them into "hell" with wind, string and percussion instruments.
Lynn Anderson Psallo justifies Instrumental Music and sowing of Discord. REVISED 9.13.08 to organize rough thoughts.
If you get nothing else please grasp that not among the Jews nor in the most vile pagan temples did the musicians enter into the Holy Places. Among the Jews, the Holy Place is a carnal type of the spiritual body of Christ. No Levitical musician could enter into this type of the church of Christ even to clean out the garbage.
The temple musicians in a "religious sense" (grouped with prostitutes in pagan religions) were in the court making a loud mocking noise during the sacrifice and burning of animals.
In fulfilment of the prophetic type, it was prophesied in Psalm 41 and fulfilled in the Dead Sea Scroll translation that Judas and the military musicians would attempt to turn Jesus into a coward. Click for some examples.
"In the cultic practices, humans fulfilled their destiny: to take care of the gods' material needs. They therefore provided the gods with houses (the temples) that were richly supplied with lands, which people cultivated for them.
The Tithe was added to support the priestly and civil authorities when Israel rose up to play in musical, perverted worship of the Egyptian Triad. The "lay by in store" scam intends to support the neo-Babylonian religion.
Plat. Euthyd. 289e-
[289e] For not only do these speech-writers themselves, when I am in their company, impress me as prodigiously clever, Cleinias, but their art itself seems so exalted as to be almost inspired. However, this is not surprising; for it is a part of the sorcerer's art,
Thespesios divinely sounding, divination.
Thaumastos lying wonder
Epode enchantment, sorcery, singing
Epodos a song, a Laded Burden, enchantment[290a] and only slightly inferior to that.
The SORCERER'S art is the charming of snakes and tarantulas and SCORPIONS and other beasts and diseases, while the other is just the charming and soothing of JURIES, assemblies, crowds, and so forth. Or does it strike you differently? I asked. [The other being lyre-makers in regard to their lyres]No, it appears to me, he replied, to be as you say.
Which way then, said I, shall we turn now? What kind of art shall we try?
For my part, he said, I have no suggestion.
Why, I think I have found it myself, I said.
What is it? said Cleinias."Musica , ae, and mu-sice- , e-s, f., = mousikę, the art of music, music; acc. to the notions of the ancients, also every higher kind of artistic or scientific culture or pursuit: musicam Damone socci et cothurni,i. e. comic and dramatic poetry, Aus. Ep. 10, 43 : musice antiquis temporibus tantum venerationis habuit,
Similar meaning:
Exegetice , es, f., = exęgętikę, the art of interpretation, exegesis, Diom. 2, p. 421 P.
Magice - , e-s, f., = magikę (sc. technę), the magic art, magic, sorcery medicinam [dico magicenque, magices factioFactio , o-nis, f. [id.] II. (Acc. to facio, II. B.; lit., a taking part or siding with any one; hence concr.) A company of persons associated or acting together, a class, order, sect, faction, party (syn.: pars, partes, causa, rebellio, perduellio, seditio).
B. In partic., a company of political adherents or partisans, a party, side, faction
Magia , ae, f., = mageia, the science of the Magi, magic, sorcery (post-class.),
Mageia , hę, theology of the Magians, m. hę Zôroastrou Pl.Alc.1.122aFrom these diversities it follows that the distinctive signs denoting those who are inspired are of many kinds. Not only among them are the motions of the body and of specific parts, but likewise its perfect repose,
and also harmonious orders and dances and musical voices, or the contraries of these.
The body also is seen lifted up, or increased in size, or borne along raised up in the air,14 or there appear occurrences in relation to it the contrary of these. There is likewise to be observed an evenness of voice according to extent, or with many deviations with intervals of silence and irregularities.
Again, sometimes, the sounds are augmented or relaxed after the rules of music, and sometimes after another manner.
14. M. Eugene Salverte in his work on the "Philosophy of Magic" remarks that in spite of their master's assertions to the contrary, "the enthusiastic disciples of Iamblichus affirmed that when he prayed he was raised to the height of ten cubits from the ground; and dupes to the same metaphor, although Christians, have had the simplicity to attribute a similar miracle to St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi."
in the common place for the college of the arts sacred to the Muses, and Apollo, and Minerva,
and also for that of the arts dedicated to Mars,
they with contest and sound of trumpet emulate the circus in the arena,
which is a real temple-I mean of the god whose festivals it celebrates.The gymnastic arts also originated with their Castors, and Herculeses, and Mercuries. [homosexual]
"In the temple the god was present in--but not bounded by--a statue made of precious wood overlaid with gold. For this statue the temple kitchen staff prepared daily meals from victuals grown or raised on the temple's fields, in its orchards, in its sheepfolds, cattle pens, and game preserves, brought in by its fishermen, or delivered by farmers owing it as a temple tax. The statue was also clad in costly raiment, bathed, and escorted to bed in the bedchamber of the god, often on top of the temple tower, or ziggurat.
To see to all of this the god had priests trained as cooks, bakers, waiters, and bathers, or as encomiasts (singers of praise) and musicians to make the god's meals festive, or as elegists to soothe him in times of stress and grief.
Because of the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai God "turned them over to worship the starry host." Saying so helped get Stephen murdered (Acts 7)
And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 1 Sam 8:5
Gowy (h1471) go'ee; rarely (short.) goy go'-ee; appar. from the same root as 1465 (in the sense of massing); a foreign nation; hence a Gentile; also (fig.) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts: - Gentile, heathen, nation, people
Speaking of Israel but inclusive of Judah:
And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. Eze.20:32
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 1 Sam 8:7
According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 1 Sam 8:8
Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. 1 Sam 8:9
God then defines the monarchy as quite identical to the Babylonian Harlot seen again in Revelation 18:22.
And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots [musical]. 1 Sam 8:12
And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 1 Sam 8:13
Confectionaries:
Raqach (h7543) raw-kakh'; a prim. root; to perfume: - apothecary, compound, make [ointment], prepare, spice.
And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries art: and they made a very great burning for him. 2Chr.16:14
DEAD flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour. Ec.10:1
Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned. Eze.24:10
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 1 Sam 8:14
And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 1 Sam 8:15
And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 1 Sam 8:16
He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 1 Sam 8:17
And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. 1 Sam 8:18
Cry is: Convene public assemblies, cry out, gather in great companies.
Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; 1 Sam 8:19
That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. 1 Sam 8:20
"Diversions from the daily routine were the great monthly festivals and also a number of special occasions.
Such special occasions might be a sudden need to go through the elaborate ritual for purifying the king when he was threatened by the evils implied in an eclipse of the Moon, or in extreme cases there might be a call for the ritual installation of a substitute king to take upon himself the dangers threatening, and various other nonperiodic rituals.
> Cleansing of the Temple in order to stop God's punishment (2 Chron. 29). People, places and things were cleansed and rededicated without music while only the burning of the sacrifice was signalled with music. Hezekiah reached all the way back to David for the prescription. 2 Chronicles 29:25, King Hezekiah's Reform, Worship Authority
> The Coronation of Joash with sound of judgment against Athaliah (2 Chron. 23, 2 Ki 11)
See more dedicatory and purification rituals as the major use of instrumental music, separated by almost 300 years in some events.
"Elegists and other funerary personnel were in attendance and conducted the laments seeking to give full expression to the grief of the bereaved and propitiate the spirit of the dead. In later times burial in a family vault under the dwelling house was frequent. Mesopotamia Cult, Britannica Online Or Click Here
"In many communities the lament for the dead god took the form of a procession out into the desert to find the slain god in his gutted fold, a pilgrimage to the accompaniment of harps and heart-rending laments for the god. Mesopotamia Cult
The very name "serpent" is directly connected to brass musical instruments which had the magical power to "hiss" and arouse or appease the serpent gods. In contemporary traditions Genun (Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain, Naamah) was taught how to invent and play musical instruments and organize mixed musical worship teams to pervert and destroy the holy Sethites who remained upon God's Holy Mountain. Satan's homosexual and music connection reaches back to the garden of Eden (in tradition) where he seduced Eve as a beautiful man and Adam in the form of a beautiful woman.
"Now therefore, since you do not yet understand how great darkness of ignorance surrounds you, sometime I wish to explain to you whence the worship of idols began in this world. And by idols, I mean those lifeless images which you worship, whether made of wood, or earthenware, or stone, or brass, or any other metals: of these the beginning was in this wise.
Certain angels having left the course of their proper order, began to favour the vices of men, and in some measure to lend unworthy aid to their lust,
"in order that by these means they might indulge their own pleasures the more; and then, that they might not seem to be inclined of their own accord to unworthy services, taught men that demons could, by certain arts--that is, by magical invocations--be made to obey men; and so, as from a furnace and workshop of wickedness, they filled the whole world with the smoke of impiety, the light of piety being withdrawn." (Reognitions of Clement, Book IV, Chapt XXVI, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 140)
"Under the assumption that a common pattern of 'myth and ritual' prevailed in the ancient Near East, it has been argued that the enthronement psalms belonged in the cultic setting of a 'throne-ascension festival,' held every New Year, when Yahweh's kingship over Israel, the nations, and the cosmos was celebrated in song, ritual, and pagent (play)."
"In the Babylonian cult, for instance, hymns of praise had an important place. Every New Year, when the cycle of the seasons returned to its beginning, the worshipers reexperienced and reactualized the victory of the powers of life over the powers of death. The creation myth of Enuma elish depicted the victory of the god Marduk over the dragon of Chaos, Tiamet.
Not only was the myth recited, but the battle was reenacted during the festival. At the climax of the celebration worshipers joined in the acclamation, 'Marduk has become king!' This is interpreted to mean that he had reascended his throne for another year." (Anderson, p. 522).
Musical worship teams repeating the Marduk / Nimrod pattern of female temple staff rapidly deteriorates to a Sabbaterian restoration of the Babylonian Shabatum.
See how Sophia and Zoe are involved as the "enlightener" or "female instructing principle" and who is identified as the "Beast."
The symbol of Babylon was the serpent in many forms:
"The symbol of Marduk is the pixax (Akkadian, marru), and his emblematic animal is a composite serpent-dragon (with a name derived from the Sumerian mush-hush, "fire-red dragon"). Finegan, Jack, Myth and Mystery, p. 29, BakerThis common story appears in many ancient writings. Marduk is the sun god of Babylon but other nations had their own distorted versions. For instance,
...........the serpent steals the Word of God or
...........he threatens the Sun as the life giver of Egypt."In Egypt the serpent opposed the sun god during the night, trying to prevent him from rising.
In Canaan, it was a sexual symbol in certain cults. According to the Gilgamesh epic, it was the serpent which stole the herb of life."... The essential concern of the text is to show that sin does not come from within man, that it is not part of his nature: it comes from outside." (Charpentier, Etienne, How to Read the Old Testament, p. 40).
Israel had historically lived under the oral law under the direction of first-born sons or patriarchs. There was no need for a "life-enabling document" as long as people lived right and practiced social justice. However, as preparation to going into Canaan, Moses at God's direction, wrote up to 2000 years after the Babylonian musical worship teams were already the accusers and overseers of the Babylonian people. His God-given goal was to turn Israel away from the same form of worship they had practiced in Egypt to the worship of Yahweh Who revealed Himself in righteousness and justice. He could not be awakened by arousal psalms.
God did not give and Moses did not write this history (often in parables) until Israel rejected The Book of the Covenant which was much like the Covenant given to Abraham. Because they failed the test and returned to an Egyptian form of the common religion they did not need the Mosaic law which was to police them as they lived among Canaanites.
In ancient pagan temple-states, the musical worship team was part of the religious-commercial complex. In Babylonia, they were part of a state worship team made up of priests, soothsayers and musicians.
God warned of a religion where:
"The rectangular central shrine of the temple, known as a 'cella,' had a brick altar or offering table in front of a statue of the temple's deity. The cella was lined on its long ends by many rooms for priests and priestesses. These mud-brick buildings were decorated with cone geometrical mosaics, and the occasional fresco with human and animal figures. These temple complexes eventually evolved into towering ziggurats.
"The temple was staffed by priests, priestesses, musicians, singers, castrates and hierodules (including Temple Prostitutes or ministers). Various public rituals, food sacrifices, and libations took place there on a daily basis. There were monthly feasts and annual, New Year celebrations. During the later, the king would be married to Inanna as the resurrected fertility god Dumuzi..."
Asherah: Queen of Heaven, Ashtoreth, Athirat, Astarte, and Ishtar. Her "male" priestesses were known as kelabim, the faithful "dogs" of the Goddess, who practiced divinatory arts, danced in processions, and served as hierodules, qedeshim, in the company of other priestesses.
Goddess worship were largely erased in a cultural purge c. 630 BCE by King Josiah.
"there may have been large numbers of eunuchs, as well as temple slaves. Merlin Stone believes that "sacred women" celebrated their sexuality and fertility by making love in Eanna in Inanna's name. This seems to be supported as that H.R. Hays says that there were temple prostitutes associated with Inanna, which is not too out of line as that she is supposed to be the goddess of prostitutes." (Interpreter's Dict of the Bible, Music, p. 461).
The ancient Middle East constituted an ecumene. The term ecumene comes from the Greek word oikoumene, which means the inhabited world and designates a distinct cultural-historical community. The material effects of the commercial and cultural interconnections that permeated the component regions of the ancient Middle Eastern ecumene are richly supplied by archaeological excavations, which provide evidence of the spread of architectural, ceramic, metallurgical, and other products of ancient Middle Eastern man's industry. Manufacturing and services tended to be monopolized by professional guilds, including religious personnel specializing in sacrifices, oracles, divination, and other kinds of priestcraft. The mobility of such guilds throughout the entire area helps to explain the spread of specific religious ideas and techniques over great distances. Just as guild potters spread ceramic forms and methods, so also guild priests spread their religious concepts and practices from the Indian Ocean to the Aegean Sea, and from the Nile River to Central Asia. The Greek poet Homer, in the Odyssey, noted the mobility of guildsmen, mentioning religious personnel as well as architects, physicians, and minstrels. Guild priests called kohanim were found at ancient Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria as well as in Israel. Moreover, Mycenaean Greek (late Bronze Age) methods of sacrifice are similar to the Hebraic methods, which are preserved in many countries to this day in the traditional techniques of Jewish ritual slaughter.
"The ancient Middle East made a place for homosexuality and bestiality in its myths and rites. In the Asherah cult the qedeshim priests had a reputation for homosexual practices, even as the qedeshot priestesses for prostitution. Israel eventually banned both the qedeshim and qedeshot, while in Ugarit the and kohanim were priestly guilds in equally good standing. Baal is portrayed in Ugaritic mythology as impregnating a heifer to sire the young bull god. The biblical book of Leviticus (18:22&endash;27) bans homosexuality and bestiality expressly because the Canaanite population had been practicing those rites, which the Hebrews rejected as abominations. Middle Eastern Religion
Lev 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Lev 18:23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
Lev 18:24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
Lev 18:25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
Lev 18:26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
Lev 18:27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
Lev 18:28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
The word 06945 qadesh is translated as sodomite in King James or as 'male temple prostitute' in the RSV. This word occurs only 6 times, once in Deuteronomy, 3 times in 1 Kings, once in 2 Kings and once in Job.
The word 06948 Q'deshah pronounced ked-ay-shaw' occurs four times. It is translated as harlot or female temple prostitute.
Prophecy in Islam: The centrality of prophecy in Islam
Pre-Islamic prophecy in Arabia was no different in character from other Semitic prophecy. Pre-Islamic terms for prophet are 'arraf and kahin ("seer," cognate to Hebrew kohen, "priest"). The kahin could often be a priest, and as a diviner he was an ecstatic.
The kahin was considered to be possessed by a jinni ("spirit"), by means of whose power miracles could be performed.
Also, poets were considered to be possessed by a jinni through whose inspiration they composed their verses.
The importance of the seers and diviners was noted in all aspects of life. Any problem might be submitted to such men, and their oracular answers were given with divine authority. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that a kahin often became a sheikh, a temporal leader, and there were instances in which the position of kahin was hereditary.
It was against this background that the founder of Islam, Muhammad, appeared. During his early career in Mecca (in Arabia) he was considered by his tribesmen, the Quraysh, to be only another jinni-possessed kahin. His utterances during this time were delivered in the same rhymed style as that used by other Arab prophets and were mostly the products of ecstatic trances. At about 40 years of age Muhammad experienced the promptings of the one god, Allah, and retreated into the solitude of the mountains. These retreats served psychologically as preparations for his later revelations. The central religious problem of Muhammad was the fact that Jews had their sacred scriptures in Hebrew, and Christians had theirs in Greek, but there was no written divine knowledge in Arabic. Muhammad's preoccupation with this concern, along with a sense of the coming Day of Judgment, became the seeds of his new religion. Contemplation had matured Muhammad, and biographers point out that, as one may conclude from the Qur'an, Muhammad received the divine call in a vision. His ecstatic revelations were in the form of auditions, usually involving the angel Gabriel reading the divine message from a book. The illiterate Muhammad had his wife Khadijah, who was 15 years his senior, record them, and they are preserved in the Qur'an. Because this is believed to be a verbatim copy of the Heavenly Book, literally the words of Allah himself, it cannot be questioned.
The form of "authority" outlawed by Paul in the "non-sedentary" role was and is sexual authority. It is not possible to have attractive and talented women standing between the "audience" and God claiming power to lead them into God's presence without insulting God and seducing men. See an example.
"Ephesus was famous for its shrine of Diana, where thousands of sacred prostitutes
believed fornication brought believers into contact with deity in much the same way the Gnostics used authentia (authority)
to bind the flesh and the divine together. When these women converted to Christianity they had to unlearn these pagan practices. 'Virtually without exception,
female teachers among the Greeks were courtesans, such as Aspasia, who numbered Socrates and Pericles among her students. Active in every major school of philosophy,
these hetairai made it evident in the course of their lectures that they were available afterwards for a second occupation.
But the Bible teaches that to seduce men in such a manner was indeed to lead them to slaughter and the halls of death (cf. Prov. 2:18; 5:5; 6:27; 9:18).
The verb authentein is thus peculiarly apt to describe both the erotic and murderous." (Trombley, Who Says Women Can't Teach, p. 177).
When david wore but then stripped off the ephod
"Wearing a linen ephod, David once performed an ecstatic dance before the ark of the Lord. From the fact that his wife Michal chided him for having uncovered himself before his servant's handmaidens (2 Sam. 6:20), it seems likely that the king's exhibition was vulgar and revealing. Apparently as a retaliation for her scolding, David fathered no children by Michal (2 Sam. 6:23)" (Garrison, p. 31-32)
Quasten notes that: "Women's singing was a vital part of all pagan worship. In very early times women became priestly singers of the gods in the temple.
"Women and girls from the different ranks of society were proud to enter the service of the gods as singers and musicians. The understanding of this service was universal: these singers constituted the 'harem of the gods'."
The Egyptian Opis (Apis) and others which Israel worshipped at Mount Sinal were worshipped throughout the area. "In preference to all other hymns these choirs generally sang the so-called epiphany hymns, which were intended to invite the gods to appear. Plutarch wrote:
Why do the women of Elis call upon God in song to approach them with the bull's foot? Their song is the following:
- Come, Dionysus, Hero,
- into the holy temple of Elis,
- together with the Graces [Grace = Chara or Charis = charismatic = homosexual)
- come violently into the temple with the bull's foot!
- Double Entendre
- Then they sang twice at the end: "Sacred Bull!" (Johannes Quasten, Music & Worship
in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p. 76)Choirs of young girls often officiated and they wore garments of the dancers consecrated to the gods. (The ephod was a feminine apron)
"professional musicians emerged in Israel about the time of David and Solomon. From then on, we have abundant historical evidence of the role which the professional musicians played in the organization of the temple ritual." (International Dictionary of the Bible, p. 461, Abingdon). "the testimonies of neighboring civilizations are of little value, as they concern chiefly the music of courts or temples, which in Sumer, Babylon, and Canaan was then in the hands of professional priests-musicians. We have only a few remarks of Herodotus about Egyptian practices, which were similar to those of ancient Hebrew popular singing. He refers to the 'lament for Linos, also to women's chants in procession of the cult of Osiris and the Diana of Bubastis. "In Phoenicia and Syria almost all popular music reflected the worship of Ishtar, the goddess of fertility.
Thus, popular song was usually a prelude to sexual orgies in honor of the goddess, led and organized by her thousands of hierodules." (Interpreter's Dict of the Bible, Music, p. 461).
Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. Ezek 33:29
Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. Ezek 33: 30
And they come unto thee as the people cometh,
........... and they sit before thee as my people,
and they hear thy words,
........... but they will not do them:
for with their mouth they shew much love,
........... but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezek 33: 31And, lo, thou art unto them as
........... a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice,
........... ........... and can play well on an instrument:
........... for they hear thy words,
........... ........... but they do them not. Ezek 33: 32And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. Ezek 33: 33
Music among the Babylonians, Hittites and Canaanites was from the beginning a way to force the gods through the use of music. That is, a way to restore the harmony lost when the planets (roving stars) did not conform to the divine order. The Jews adopted their music from these groups and it is not surprising that--
"Each of these musical modes was believed to possess an ethos of its own, which corresponded to the four elements, the four humors of the human body, and the four seasons of the year." (Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, p. 465).
"An Assyrian bas-relief's inscription praises the victory of King Sennacherib over King Hezekiah and relates the latter's ransom and tribute. It consisted, aside from precious metals, of Judean musicians, male and female.
BY the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Psalm 137:1
........... We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Psalm 137:2
"In Ps 137 we read that the Babylonians demanded from their Hebrew prisoners 'songs of Zion.' To ask for musicians as tribute and to show interest in the folk music of a vanquished enemy was unusual indeed. During the Hellenistic era, the geographer Strabo praises the singing girls from Palestine as the most musical in the world." (International Dictionary of the Bible, p. 459, Abingdon).
"BRYANT. The very name Orpheus is just a synonym for Bel, the name of the great Babylonian god, which, while originally given to Cush, became hereditary in the line of his deified descendants. Bel signifies "to mix," as well as "to confound," and "Orv" in Hebrew, which in Chaldee becomes Orph, signifies also "to mix." But "Orv," or "Orph," signifies besides "a willow-tree"; and therefore, in exact accordance with the mystic system,
"we find the symbol of Orpheus among the Greeks to have been a willow-tree. Thus, Pausanias, after referring to a representation of Actaeon, says, "If again you look to the lower parts of the picture, you will see after Patroclus,
"Orpheus sitting on a hill, with a harp in his left hand, and in his right hand the leaves of a willow-tree"; and again, a little furthe on, he says: "He is represented leaning on the trunk of this tree."
"The willow-leaves in the right hand of Orpheus, and the willow-tree on which he leans, sufficiently show the meaning of his name. (Hislop, Two Babylon's, p. 124)
Pausanias, Description of Greece
[6] Turning our gaze again to the lower part of the picture we see, next after Patroclus, Orpheus sitting on what seems to be a sort of hill;
he grasps with his left hand a harp,
and with his right he touches a willow.
It is the branches that he touches, and he is leaning against the tree.The grove seems to be that of Persephone, where grow, as Homer thought, black poplars and willows. The appearance of Orpheus is Greek, and neither his garb nor his head-gear is Thracian. [7] On the other side of the willow-tree Promedon is leaning against it. Some there are who think that the name Promedon is as it were a poetic invention of Polygnotus;
- others have said that Promedon was a Greek who was fond of listening
- to all kinds of music, especially to the singing of Orpheus. [8]
In this part of the painting is Schedius, who led the Phocians to Troy, and after him is Pelias, sitting on a chair, with grey hair and grey beard, and looking at Orpheus.
Schedius holds a dagger and is crowned with grass. Thamyris is sitting near Pelias. He has lost the sight of his eyes; his attitude is one of utter dejection; his hair and beard are long;
at his feet lies thrown a lyre with its horns and strings broken.
[9] Above him is Marsyas, sitting on a rock, and by his side is Olympus, with the appearance of a boy in the bloom of youth learning to play the flute.
The Phrygians in Celaenae hold that the river passing through the city was once this great flute-player, and they also hold that the
Song of the Mother, an air for the flute, was composed by Marsyas.
They say too that they repelled the army of the Gauls by the aid of Marsyas,
who defended them against the barbarians
- by the water from the river
- and by the music of his flute.
Inanna, like Istar the mother/bride of Tammuz worshiped by the women in the Jerusalem temple, got Ea drunk and forced him to give her the ME which were supernatual gifts. Perverted sexuality and instrumental music were two prized gifts:
-
The
ME, Inanna
- Ea - Gift of Wisdom and Music
- He gave me the art of lovemaking.
- He gave me the art of kissing the phallus.
- He gave me the art of prostitution.
- He gave me the resounding musical instrument.
- He gave me the art of song.
- He gave me the art of the elder.
- He gave me the kindling of strife
Remember that when Israel rejected Yahweh's theocratic rule under the Judges and then Prophets it was specificially to have a king "like the nations" so that they could "worship like the nations." Thereafter, the general population was represented by agents or "stationary men." However, the "like the nations" temple worship devolved into that common in Babylon and in Canaan. Then and now, music was used to prove that the "king set over us" perhaps by the sovereign grace of god was his sole agent. The music, as Josephus warned when the Levites wanted to be restored to clergy singers, was to uphold the cosmos or world order. This was the attempt of Judas and the clergy in knowing violation of Psalm 41:
"The priest-king of each city played the role of a god, usually of Enlil, who was the second figure of the Sumerian pantheon, being the son of the sky god Anu, and represented various forms of natural power and energy. In the role the king performed ceremonies depicting the defeat of Tiamat, the demon of the ocean, and the other monsters who followed her leadership.
"In these festivals, which were state festivals, the human state contributed to the control of nature,
to the upholding of the orderly cosmos...
Enacting these divine roles in religious dramas,the king became closely asociated with the gods and was sometimes regarded of divine descent...
"In Babylon, for example, his status was symbolized in an annual ceremonial in which he was stripped of his royal insignia,
smitten in the face by a priest, and made to prostrate himself before the image of the city god Marduk and confess his devotion;
then reclothed as a king,
he was brought out weeping to show himself to his subjects." (Parkes, Henry Bamford, Gods and Men The Origins of Western Culture, p. 56, Knopf)
In Babylon everyone worked for the temple-state. They devoted their time and energy, turned raw materials into finished goods, farmed and performed other choirs. All of the profit went to the priest-king who in turn doled out the bare necessities of life to the serfs. The "mixing" we noted above is that of mixing religion with commercial enterprises so that "free religion" is "diluted, repackaged and sold for a profit."
The following is from one involved with musical worship teams. Nevertheless, he notes the divisive nature of putting talent in front of worshipers who may not have the same talent. He seems to say that musical worship teams may be a cheap way to buy worship:
"Worship teams have also led to some huge business opportunities. There are some well-known companies which are out there making (literally) tons of music appropriate to a worship team setting. While the issue of spending money in and of itself is amoral, the act of how you spend it - i.e., stewardship - is the critical issue. I'm not implying that our investing in a worship team is a waste of resources (far be it from me to do this; after all, I've also been part of a worship team), but the consideration of what sort of worship you get for your expenditures is an important one.
The prophets identified the king of Tyre as a type of Lucifer as the harp-playing prostitute. Music and sex had roles to play in creating endorphins (meaning "morphine-like" or within) in the slave class to force them to create more religious and secular merchandise. The musical performers had the goal of cheating trans shipers out of their cargo.
For instance, the story of Wen Amon trying to buy cedar for Egypt illustrates how music and sex tried to seduce him out of his cargo. The end goal, of course, was to murder him. The reward for the "laity" "eating, drinking and being merry" was the feeling that they had met the gods "face to face." And, again, as Pogo would say, "He is us."
"All early civilizations saw their ideal music as an image (idol) of cosmic order and its practice in temple ritual and court ceremonial as a means of helping to maintain or reflect universal harmony. From such a philosophy stem the age-old concepts of the efficacy of numerical proportions in musical sound; the ethos (magical effect) of particular modes;
the music of the spheres; and the musical foundation of the state.
Such ideas steadfastly maintained throughout the ages, made for very conservative traditions of music whose fundamental patterns changed little over long periods of ti me." (Britannica, Music, p. 1091) Britannica Members OnlineThe Judas Bag was for "carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments." It is made up of words meaning "speaking in tongues" and "of the Cosmos." Jesus upset the clergy by refusing to dance and sing when they piped and He cast out the musical mourning team "more or less violently." Josephus notes that the Levites wanted to continue their unauthorized roles as clergy singers wearing linen garments. This music was necessary to continue the traditions of the professional clergy and animal sacrifices without which the priests would lose their "place" and "position." Therefore, they tried in total violation of Psalm 41 to "triumph over" Jesus with music.
As in all temple-states, the common people were not involved in the temple worship rituals:
"Each of the important deities had, in one or more of the Babylonian cities, a large temple in which he or she was worshiped. Temple services were generally conducted in open courts containing fountains for ablution and altars for sacrifices.
Only the high priest and other privileged members of the clergy and court were permitted to enter the cella, or inner part of the temple, which held the special statue of the deity
[Only these were involved with the musical animal sacrifices for purifying temple or personnel in the Jerusalem Temple.]
The needs of the deity were provided for in accordance with impressive ceremonies carried out by a vast institutionalized clergy that included
priests, musicians, magicians, soothsayers, dream interpreters, astrologers, and hierodules (temple slaves or prostitutes). Sacrifices of food, drink, or incense were offered daily. Numerous festivals were held, the most important of which was the celebration of the new year at the spring equinox. Encarta Encyclopedia
The focus on preaching and musical worship teams is clearly an attempt to restore ancient clergy systems to keep the laity from getting hurt trying to get close to the gods.
Musical worship teams seem to have unnatural power over the minds of lower class or immature people. For this reason, it was an early belief of the Babylonians that sensual (read sexual) enjoyment from women singers (and men singers for the priestly classes and others) had magical power. In the end, of course, anything directed to the human emotion and bypassing the rational (spirit) was really idolatry which is always self worship. In defining Christian singing as "filling up with the Word or spirit and then speaking that truth to one another to teach and warn" Paul understood that:
"According to the system which Nimrod was the grand instrument in introducing, men were led to believe
that a real spiritual change of heart was unnecessary,
and that so far as change was needful,
they could be regenerated by mere external means."Looking at the subject in the light of the Bacchanalian orgies (Read Ephesus and Corinth), which, as the reader has seen, commemorated the history of Nimrod, it is evident that
........... he led mankind to seek their chief good in sensual enjoyment,and showed them how they might enjoy the pleasures of sin, without any fear of the wrath of a holy God. (Voodoo, Rock, Boogie Woogie becomes Contemporary Christian Music)
"In his various expeditions he was always accompanied by troops of women; and by music and song, and games (ritual drama) and revelries, and everything that could please the natural hearts,
he commended himself to the good graces of mankind." (Hislop, Alexander, The Two Babylons, p. 55, Loizeaux Brothers)
Parkes notes that most groups normally do not exceed about 150 (the Mormons understand that) and there is normally no professional leadership. However, in the ancient religions during a crisis, someone often emotionally or sexually abnormal might chant a song during a dry spell.
Sure enough, it rains the the non-productive member becomes a prophet. It isn't too long before he turns from servant to master. "If you want your pigs to be born alive you had better pay me." Or, "I can solve your marriage problems if you attend my church."
"Awed by the mysteries of his own spirit (See 1 Cor 14) no less than by those of nature, primitive man was likely to attribute to divine influence any abnormal emotional state, whether above or below the usual level. Medicine men customarily went into states of trance
in which they were believed to be in communication with the gods,
and many tribes supposed lunatics and sexual deviants to be divinely possessed."In most early societies, moreover, men evolved techniques
........... for deliberately inducing the abnormal forms of consciousness
........... in which they supposed themselves to achieve union with divine power,
........... sometimes by the use of drugs and other physiological stimuli,
........... ........... sometimes by hypnotic dances and music.The wild utterances (speaking in tongues) to which they gave vent on such occasions were regarded as the words of a god and were interpreted as divine commands or predictions of future events." (Parkes, H.B., Gods and Men, p. 32-33).
[Note: The First Great American Awakening was given a a huge boost by George Whitefield, a little cross-eyed fellow who nonetheless new how to parlay his theatrical training into mass hysteria. By deliberately inducing these abnormal forms of consciousness they were told that they had be "born again" or had achieved union with Divine Power. This again happened with the most famous or infamous event taking place at Cane Ridge, Kentucky in 1801 where men like Barton W. Stone a Presbyterian had learned the manipulative skills. See our Colonial Index and our Awakening Index]
God would then "TEAM" them like animals to punish them. Our "pastor" of darkness slips out the word "TEAM" and uses it for musical praise teams to cause this union with the divine power. Unfortunately, when you admire abnormality in performance the "wrong spirits" oftean steal into the mind:
"in Primitive religion any violent or abnormal emotional state was attributed to the gods and regarded as mystical. Both in the Bible and in Homer there are examples of misleading and catastrophic inspiration.
When Jehovah wished King Ahab to be killed in battle, he put a 'lying spirit' in the mouths of his prophets in order that they might encourage the king to go to war (I Kings, xxii, 22)." (Parkes, Henry Bamford, Gods and Men, p. 33)
It is common for performers who worship or lead for the congregation to believe that God has given them some talent. If God did not want it used in church then why did He give the talent to me? The implication, inherent in a common Hebrew word for "praise," is that my self-boast, even if it seems perverse and unnatural, has more power than that of the "audience" or even God.
"The flash of insight that enabled an individual to achieve an original act of creation, whether in art or in technology, was always mysterious, and for early mankind it could be due only to the intervention of a god. Long after the advent of civilization, in fact, poets continued to believe that they wrote from divine dictation; inventors attributed their discoveries to divine aid." (Parkes, p. 34).
"What primitive men... wanted from the gods was health and strength, riches and long life, and they hoped to attain these things
chiefly by ritual and sacrifice
........ rather than by good conduct.The methods of early religion always remained largely magical,
........and its motivations thoroughly materialistic." (Parkes, p. 36).Again, compare that to God through Ezekiel:
Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed. Ezek 33:29
Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. Ezek 33: 30
And they come unto thee as the people cometh,
and they sit before thee as my people,
........ and they hear thy words,
........ but they will not do them:for with their mouth they shew much love,
........ but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezek 33: 31And, lo, thou art unto them as
........ a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice,
........ and can play well on an instrument:for they hear thy words,
........ but they do them not. Ezek 33: 32And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. Ezek 33: 33
Ye hypocrites [stage performers] , well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, Matt 15:7
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoreth me with their lips;
........ but their heart is far from me. Matt 15:8But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Matt 15:9And he called the multitude, and said unto them,
........ Hear, and understand: Matt 15:10Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man;
........ but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Matt 15:11Koinoo (g2840) koy-no'-o; from 2839; to make (or consider) profane (cer.): - call common, defile, pollute, unclean.
They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. Lu.7:32
Chalal (h2490) khaw-lal'; prop. to bore, fig. to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), eat (as common things) to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to play (the flute): take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self), prostitute
Of Lucifer controlling the king of Tyre:
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Ezek 28:13
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane (h2490) out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Eze.28:16
Lucifer's PIPES are both musical and sexual. He was primarily a SHE or female known in "worship" as Eve, Inanna and Zoe.
Neqeb (h5345) neh'-keb; a bezel (for a gem): - pipe.
Nagab (h5344) naw-kab'; a prim. root; to puncture, lit. (to perforate, with more or less violence) or fig. (to specify, designate, libel): - appoint, blaspheme, bore, curse, express, with holes, name, pierce, strike through.
Neqebah (h5347) nek-ay-baw'; from 5344; female (from the sexual form): - female.
In time, these abnormal men and women found that they could build a pyramidal marketing plan. If he hired ten more "gifted" people they could expand the "ministry" and he could get a "cut of the take." Then, if he is going to contact the gods for you to keep them from harming you, it is important to build a temple-state. All surplus energy is devoted to the "institution" and if you got a spare moment he could, because he was idle, plan a new "program" to make the "involvement minister" look good. This "anxiety from religious ritual" is the burden these professionals placed on your back. The highest goal of Jesus was to "get them off your back" by removing the "middle man" so that you could contact God yourself without getting zapped. "Let us come boldly before Him."
The ignorant love to claim that simple worship which does not permit the introduction of these paganistic, mind altering rituals are based on the Lockian, rational mind. However, it is a fact that any extra-Biblical rituals have to be a product of the rationalistic mind by which they impose the dominion of the rational elite over the emotional, in Hitler's words "human material" who live on emotions.
In the "burn down the old" and relight the fires in the Aztec pattern, or getting a new wineskin to contain the new, fermenting religion of exhilaration, or the Post-Modern or Post-Denominational patterns, the urge of the lost unable to find their way is to, in the words of Plato, change the laws by changing the music:
"Conquering tribes of herdsmen established themselves
........... as ruling aristocracies and then decayed,
........... each of them in turn bringing new languages and new religious beliefs;urban merchants and money-lenders
devised methods of exploiting the food-producers
and tried to impose their own rationalistic modes of thinking.""Prior to the spread of the commercial and industrial revolutions there was no essential change in agricultural techniques; and although the original
neolithic fertility rituals, cleansed of their more barbaric elements and adapted to the worship of new gods, gradually faded into popular festivals and folk tales and finally into children's games, the beliefs associated with them retained much of their vitality." (Parkes, Henry Bamford, Gods and Men The Origins of Western Culture, p. 49, Knopf)
When Jesus came, the Jews were practicing ancient fertility magic in rituals such as the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus refused to dance to their tune and called them "musical children just piping and playing games." These were the fertility rituals of wedding and funeral to be seen each Sunday in thousands of churches where revival and the sexual element are combined.
"Agriculture may at first have been a feminine occupation. It is a plausible theory that the women of a tribe first realized that seeds thrown away near their encampment were producing sprouts and deduced the possiblity of deliberately planting them. Early agriculture was associated everywhere with an emphasis on the femine principle in nature and among the gods on the analogy between human sexuality and the fertility of the earth." (Parkes, p. 40-41)
See the ZOE principle and the female instructing principle as the "beast."
Then and now:
"Not surprisingly, most Israelites declined the prophet's invitation to enter into a dialog with Yahweh. They preferred a less demanding religion of cultic observance either in the Jerusalem Temple or in the old fertility cults of Canaan. This continues to be the case: the religion of compassion is followed only by a minority; most religious people are content with decorous worship in synagogue, church, temple and mosque.
"The ancient Canaanite religions were still flourishing in Israel... the Israelites were still taking part in fertility rites and sacred sex there, as we see in the oracles of the prophet Hosea, Amos' contemporary. (Armstrong, Karen, A History of God, p. 47)
Along with the professional mourning women who sang, danced, wept and played instruments to appease the spirit of the dead girl, these musical worship teams were put out of the room "more ore less forcefully" so that Christ could perform his healing work. This is consistent with the fact that loud "praise the lord" ceremonies with instrumental praise was totally outlawed in the law of Moses (Nu 10:7)
Colonial Witchcraft and Revivalism
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