HAH-KO-KAU-BEAM
| Pearl of Great Price PN | 1. | HAH-KO-KAU-BEAM “the stars” (Book of Abraham Facsimile 2:5,22-23) |
Hebrew הכוכבים hakkōkābīm “the stars” (Genesis 1:16; Greek tous asteras). The Hathor-Isis cow in facsimile 2:5 is the sun. C. J. Bleeker says that she is the sky, the sun, and pilot of the sun-boat.[1] Robert Ritner says that the heavens are “symbolized by a celestial cow bearing the bark of the sun.”[2] Ḥatḥor is the Eye of Reˁ, and the Eye of Reˁ is the sun. Reˁ’s eye even goes forth as Ḥatḥor to destroy mankind in one tale.[3] Ḥatḥor is Queen of Heaven,[4] and “The Lady of the Stars” (Sinuhe, B, 270-271).[5] In addition, as Ḥatḥor-Isis-Neith she can be Spdt, “Sirius,” the most important star in ancient Egypt, whose “Emergence” (pr), or “Coming forth, epiphany” (prt), figures in the etymological explanation for FLOEESE, which see. Hathor-Isis is the mwt ntr “Mother of the Gods,” while the high priestess of Edfu carried that same epithet,[6] as did virgin Mary in Greek, Theotokos.[7]
In addition, facsimile 2:22 and 23 are likewise described as Hebrew כוכבים kôkābîm "stars" (ko-kau-beam in Sephardic transliteration there and at Abraham 3:13,16), which receive and transmit light of some discrete sort, include the "Sun" itself as a "star" (not only in modern astronomy, but in ancient Mesopotamia, with Akkadian kakkabu "star" = "Sun" ),[8] each baboon wearing a sun disk with crescent moon.
Very much in line with this, Bleeker has shown that the religious significance of light includes the Egyptian Зḫw as a glorious being as well as a word for "light."[9] Indeed, the very words for divinity and salvation are usually words for "light,"[10] and the same roots can be applied to words like ЗḫЗḫ "stars," and Зḫt "eye of god."
According to Jaroslav Černý, the Egyptians saw the stars as divine beings. The Stars were divided into two parallel groups:
- (1) iḥmw sk, "Indestructible stars, Circumpolar-stars,” and
- (2) ˁЗw, "Great ones, Circumpolar stars" (Pyramid Texts 405a, 733, 782, 1123, 2051; Coffin Text I, 271),[11]
both being identical with Hebrew כוכבי-אל kôkěbê ʼĒl, "Stars of God, Circumpolar stars" (Isaiah 14:13 ||2 Nephi 24:13), symbolizing "eternity,"[12] and identical with "the Mount of Council" or "Mt. Ṣaphon," and referring to the Supreme Council of God and to his throne (Psalms 48:3, 148:3; cf. the "great one" in Enuma Elish V:127, and in Abraham 3:3).
Enuma elish V:1, “He constructed stations for the great gods, Fixing their astral likenesses as the stars of the Zodiac. He determined the year and into sections he divided it; He set up three constellations for each of the twelve months. After defining the days of the year by means of heavenly figures, He founded the station of the pole star [Nebiru] to determine their bounds, That none might err or go astray. Alongside it he set up the stations of Enlil and Ea. Having opened up the gates on both sides, He strengthened the locks to the left and the right.”[13]
See KOKOB, KOKAUBEAM below.
Notes
- ↑ Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth, 103.
- ↑ Ritner, “The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re (P. Turin 1993),” in W. W. Hallo & K. L. Younger, eds., Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions (Egyptian) 1.22 (Brill, 2003), 34 n. 11, online at http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/information/REL499_2011/Papyrus%20Turin.pdf .
- ↑ Kaster, Wings of the Falcon, 85 (n. 24), 94 (n. 22).
- ↑ Kaster, Wings of the Falcon, 301 n. 27; cf. J. Gray, Canaanites, 124. Another epithet of Mary.
- ↑ Kaster, Wings of the Falcon, 301 n. 27. The epithet is reminiscent of Maria Stella Maris, “Mary Star of the Sea,” in Roman Catholicism.
- ↑ Yahuda, Language of the Pentateuch, 23 n. 1.
- ↑ Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I:xvi, II:220-221.
- ↑ Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, K, 47, citing CT, 23, 36:51 52; cf. Tawil, Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew, 156-157.
- ↑ C. J. Bleeker, “The Religious Significance of Light,” Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society of Columbia University, 5 (1973):33.
- ↑ Bleeker, JANES, 5:23 25.
- ↑ Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 21 (1935):5 n. 2.
- ↑ Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, 232 n. 69.
- ↑ http://www.crivoice.org/enumaelish.html , and http://www.sron.nl/~jheise/akkadian/enuma1.pdf .
Bibliography
- Tawil, H. An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV, 2009.
