"The beasts of the field shall honor me..."
                Isaiah 43:20
Birds and Beasts



















                                     Animals or people?


Another old and often obscured viewpoint of Scripture involves another
possible misinterpretation of the original Hebrew. In our "politically correct"
societies, today, the mention of the following might be quickly greeted with
hostility or closed ears. Those alive in our ancient history, however, may
not have thought the same way we do.

The translators of the Bible's original Hebrew and Greek languages tried to
do so with the best of intentions. They went by the best of their abilities
and preconceived notions. When we see references to "birds" and "beasts"
in the English version of the Bible we, naturally, might assume the obvious.
We have evidence, however, from other alternate ancient texts, even the
Bible, that these references might be more than just animals. They could
actually be individual groups of people.

As some might not know, the writers of ancient times often referred to
people they didn't like as "animals". Not to single out anybody in particular,
but the ancient Jews, of whom wrote down the words of the Bible, often
thought in much of this same way. In consequence, people who tried to
translate the Bible, many years later, may have made mistakes. Not
knowing these were human beings, they could have tried to translate some
of the references to "animals" as members of the animal kingdom. As we
will see, there could be a lot more to many passages of the Bible.

This practice of labeling someone an "animal" is still done today, only in a
diluted version. Have you ever looked at someone in a distasteful way, and
called them an "animal"? Men sometimes brag about being a "dog". A
woman may refer to a cheating man as a "beast". There are also a number
of examples of this in the Bible: "Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and
reputed vile in your sight (Job 18:3)?" The word for beasts, in this verse, is
behemah. This Hebrew word could often be one of the words King James
translators mistook as an animal. Again, we do not set out to point fingers
at any one, we just want to show examples of how this could have panned
out. Note the following ancient Jewish source:


"There are many kinds among Israel that are called cattle and beasts. One
is from the side of the serpent and another from the side of idolatrous
nations, who are like animals and wild beasts."

               The Zohar,
               2 Bereshith a29


Interestingly, dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster (m-w.com) also seem
to confirm this. A lesser-known, or archaic, definition of cattle is "human
beings especially in masse (a group)". Another closely related word to
cattle is chattel. Chattel can also be defined as a "slave" or "bondsman".
Apparently, some of the cattle in the Bible, as we'll see, could also have
been servants to Adam in the Garden of Eden.

A beast, according to the above dictionary, can also be defined as "an
animal under human control, or a contemptible person". Could a number
of these biblical references to beasts also refer to people - those also
designated to help Adam? This same beast can also be defined as
"something formidably difficult to control". Often, the members of ancient
societies who were looked upon as "wild" or idolatrous were looked upon
in this way: as beasts.

Even though English translators may have thought these were animals we'll
see it is clear the Bahemah, among other ancient Hebrew words, could
actually stand for certain groups of people:


Zechariah 8:10 (KJV) "For before those days there was no hire for man,
nor hire for beast (bahemah)..."

-  what kind of animal gets hired, or paid?


Jonah 3:8 (KJV) "But let man and beast (bahemah) be covered with
sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: let them turn every one from his
evil way."

-  what animal knows he's evil, and cries to God?


Exodus 19:13 (KJV) "There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely
be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast (bahemah) or man..."         
           

-  what kind of animal has hands, except a human?


Exodus 29:11 (KJV) "No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of
beast (bahemah) shall pass through it..."                                                  
                          
-  what kind of animal has feet?


Exodus 20:10 (KJV) "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD they
God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle (bahemah),
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates."

-  this verse refers to only people, and how they work.


Jonah 3:7 (KJV) "... Let neither man nor beast (bahemah), herd nor
flock, taste any thing..."

-  if you notice, the humans and animals seemed to be grouped together
separately.




















Something truly strange is going on, here. Could these beasts or bahemah,
created around the time of Adam, be of some other groups of human
beings? Would that mean that Adam was not the father of everyone on the
earth? As we have seen in Untold Adam and Eve, there could have been
more than Adam and Eve who worked the garden. These other groups
have been referred to as pre-Adamites.

We know there were references to beasts of the field and fowl of the air
around the time of Adam. The proper Hebrew words, translated as beasts
and fowl, here, are chay and owph, respectively. Based on ancient written
evidence, there could have been four or five different groups of people on
the earth at the time of Adam. These were (in their original Hebrew names):

the "Chay (or beast) of the Field"
the "Bahemah"
the "Owph (fowl) of the Air"
the "Remes (or creeping thing) that Creepeth"
the "Adam" (or Adamites - the group Adam belongs to)


Could these be the names of actual groups of people present since the
formation of Adam - who continue to reappear, again and again, throughout
the King James Translation of the Bible? If these groups were indeed
people, then the Garden of Eden and the entire world of Genesis would
take on a whole new look. As well, the interpretations of many stories
throughout the Bible could take on a whole new meaning.

Let's look at another example:


Isaiah 43:20 (KJV) "The beasts (Chay) of the field shall honor me..."        

-  what kind of animal knows how to honor?


Clearly, these references seem to point to something beyond a member o
the animal kingdom, here.

The following verses seem to refer to how, at least in the Old Testament,
the Israelites needed to be separate from neighboring groups of people (or
nations). This was necessary, at least then, to fulfill the prophecy of
Genesis 3:15 - a true and unadulterated "seed" of Adam and Eve to pass to
the mother of Jesus (see Untold Adam and Eve). Note the same above
groups are referred to below:


Leviticus (KJV)
20:22 "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and all my judgments, and do
them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you out not.
20:23  And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast
out...
20:24  But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will
give it unto you to possess it... I am the LORD your God, which separated
you from other people.  
20:25  Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts (Bahemah)
and unclean, between unclean fowls (Owph) and clean: and ye shall not
make your souls abominable by beast (Bahemah), or by fowl (Owph), or
by any manner of thing that creepeth (most probably the Remes) on the
ground (earth), which I have separated from you as unclean.
20:26  And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have
severed you from other people..."


Since this prophecy was fulfilled, and Jesus' sacrifice was indeed carried
out (to "crush the serpent's head"), the need to separate these groups of
people was not as big an issue. What is important , however, is that these
other groups of people could have existed. What if there were groups of
people who did live during the time of Adam, who somehow survived the
flood, and continued to play a role in the affairs of us all?

God mentions these same groups in creation, just before the flood, and
shortly after, as we will see in Other Flood Survivors. Could there have
been many more people around in the days of Noah who survived the
flood, and what mark did they make on the world to come?

First, we need to move a little further along, before the flood. To find out
what could have happened next to Adam's world, and find out what
brought on the flood of Noah, please go to Giants of Scripture.


Copyright 2010, Brett T., All Rights Reserved