Monday, March 24, 2025

Dr. Margaret Barker (Christian Hebraist): On the secrets of Christianity as ancient Judaism (Begotten) as the Tree of Life

Dr  Margaret  Barker  is  an  independent  biblical  scholar,  a former  president  of 
the  Society  for  Old  Testament  Study,  and  co-founder  of  the  Temple  Studies 
Group.  She  is  a Methodist  preacher. 
"This was a much broader movement than just the Christians" 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6EkE3cwA1E

 Nazareth actually has an Omega in it and meant "Jesus the Restorer"

Barker on the divine Feminine 

Barker on Mormonism 

Dr. Barker 

Dr. Barker part 2 

Dr. Barker on xmas 

part 3 

part 4 

 part 5

 The Red Dragon as Satan is straight from Daoist alchemy!!

 I just discovered last night Dr. Margaret Barker's research on the connection of early Christianity to Mother Goddess origins of Judaism - very fascinating that this healer makes the same connection.

 She is accessing nirvikalpa samadhi! That's what she means by the "higher dimension" - Ramana Maharshi describes this as the intensity of light gets so bright that you lose self-awareness just as in deep dreamless sleep. 

 

Dr. Margaret Barker is saying that Adam and Eve were supposed to eat from the "Tree of Life" - which is the lower tan t'ien as Sri Yukteswar explains!! 

Deborah means the Great Lady since G is also D in Hebrew.

the Red Dragon as evil is the same in west asia as in Daoism!!

 So the ancient eternal Day Atonement of creation (Covenant of eternal loving-kidness) with Noah and Mose is the secret of the Holy Supper as communion.

 Jesus in the Book of Hebrews is Melchizedek

 God was present in a human being - as being born again as a Son of God.

 The Old Testament is about not just one divine being.

 Scholars debate whether "El Elyon" refers to the same God as Yahweh or a separate deity, potentially above Yahweh

 The Holy Spirit is Feminine in Hebrew and actually was the Great Lady as the Mother Goddess!!

 Solomon was called God

 The Great Lady, the Mother of Emmanuel 

It's not "A" virgin shall conceive but THE virgin shall conceive.

 Dr. Margaret Barker

Evidence  from  the  time  of  Jesus,  however,  shows  that  there  was  another 
version  of  Isaiah  which  did  clearly  identify^  the  suffering  servant  as  the 
Anointed  One  in  the  way  that  the  present  Hebrew  text  does  not,  and  fur- 
thermore suggests  that  he  saw  the  glory  after  his  sufferings.  The  text  is  the 
Qumran  Isaiah  Scroll,  which  existed  in  the  time  of  Jesus.  The  Targum  of 
Isaiah,  the  Aramaic  translation  of  the  Hebrew  text  that  incorporates  mate- 
rial from  this  period,  also  knew  that  the  suffering  servant  was  the  Anointed 
One. 

An  important  problem  that  underlies  any  discussion  of  how  the  early 
Fathers  interpreted  the  scriptures  is  what  texts  did  they  use,  and  how  and 
when  did  those  texts  change  to  become  what  we  they  are  today?  In  the  New 
Testament,  the  Letter  of  Jude  quotes  from  the  prophecies  of  Enoch — a text 
now  known  from  Qumran— but  this  is  only  in  the  Old  Testament  of  the 
Ethiopian  Church.  When  Jesus  expounded  Moses  and  all  the  prophets  on 
the  road  to  Emmaus,  what  prophets  did  he  quote? 

There  are  many  quotations  of  prophecies  in  early  Christian  writings 
that  cannot  now  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament:  the  Letter  of  Barnabas 

 

has  several,  including  some  that  can  be  identified  as  coming  from  Enoch. 
Justin,  writing  in  the  mid-2nd  century,  showed  that  the  Christian  message 
was  proclaimed  in  terms  of  fulfilled  prophecies^  and  accused  the  Jews  of  alter- 
ing important  texts  and  even  removing  them  from  the  Hebrew  scriptures 
{Trypho  71).  There  is  sufficient  evidence  from  the  fragments  of  Hebrew  text 
found  at  Qumran  to  show  that  Justin  was  describing  what  actually  hap- 
pened: key  texts  that  the  Christians  used  were  in  the  older  Hebrew  text  but 
not  in  the  post-Christian  form  that  is  used  today. 

Origen,  when  he  began  his  great  work  on  the  texts  of  the  scriptures, 
recognised  that  there  were  passages  in  the  Christian  Old  Testament  that 
were  not  in  the  text  currently  used  by  the  Jews,  and  he  was  prepared  to  use 
the  “Jewish”  version  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures  as  the  basis  for  discussion  with 
them.  Jerome  also  chose  the  Hebrew  text  current  in  his  time  as  the  basis  for 
his  Latin,  despite  Augustine’s  warning  that  it  would  have  disastrous  conse- 
quences, since  it  implied  that  the  Greek  text  was  defective  (Jerome  Letters 
104).  Jerome  said  that  by  adopting  their  text,  it  would  put  an  end  to  the 
Jews’  claim  that  the  church  had  false  scriptures  {Preface  to  Isaiah).  The  ques- 
tion to  ask  is  not  only  “Did  the  Greek  and  Latin  Fathers  read  the  scriptures 
differently?”  but  “Did  they  read  different  scriptures?” 

This  is  true  also  for  the  New  Testament.  There  is  clear  evidence  that  the 
New  Testament  text  was  changed  during  transmission  to  remove  difficul- 
ties and  interpretations  that  the  church  could  not  accept.  St  Luke’s  account 
of  Jesus’  baptism  in  the  Codex  Bezae  has  the  heavenly  voice  declare,  ‘You 
are  my  son.  Today  I have  begotten  you’  (Luke  3:22).  Evidence  from  the 
2nd  and  3rd  centuries  suggests  that  this  was  the  original  reading,^  but  later 
texts  had  the  form  found  in  Mark:  “With  you  I am  well  pleased.”  The  “dif- 
ficult” reading  became  part  of  the  old  Syrian  baptism  rite  {Didascalia  93). 
St  Luke’s  account  of  the  last  supper  in  the  Codex  Bezae  does  not  mention 
the  covenant  cup  (Luke  22:19b-20).  These  are  but  two  examples  of  major 
variants.  Which  scriptures,  then,  both  Old  and  New  Testaments,  did  the 
Fathers  read? 

Irenaeus,  who  is  such  an  important  source  for  knowing  how  the  scrip- 
tures were  read,  quoted  sayings  of  Jesus  not  found  in  the  New  Testament, 
which  he  had  learned  from  Papias,  who  had  learned  them  from  John  {Against 
Heresies  5.33).  He  used  these  to  show  that  Jesus  taught  about  the  millennial 
kingdom  on  earth,  and  that  this  was  what  St  Paul  had  meant  when  he  wrote 
 about  the  creation  being  released  from  bondage  to  decay  (Rom.  8:19-21). 
Clement  of  Alexandria  knew  a saying  of  Jesus  not  found  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment: “My  mystery  is  for  me  and  the  sons  of  my  house”  (Misc  5.10  also  in 
Clem  Horn  19.20).  It  derived  from  theTargum  to  Isaiah  24:16,  the  words  of 
the  Righteous  One,  where  the  house  means  the  temple.  The  Christians  also 
preserved  2 Esdras,  which  says  there  were  94  books  of  Hebrew  scriptures, 
of  which  only  24  could  be  made  public — the  Hebrew  canon  as  we  know 
it  today.  The  other  70,  the  most  important  books,  were  to  be  kept  only  for 
the  wise,  for  in  them  was  understanding,  wisdom  and  knowledge  (2  Esd. 

14.45-47). 

Did  the  early  Christians  regard  the  books  or  teachings  not  in  the  public 
canon  as  more  important?  Maybe  the  mystery  was  kept  for  the  sons  of  the 
temple?  St  Basil,  in  his  treatise  On  the  Holy  Spirit,  wrote  of  teaching  handed 
down  in  a mystery  by  the  tradition  of  the  apostles,  which  accounted  for 
beliefs  and  practices  for  which  there  was  no  basis  in  the  scriptures.  These 
teachings  concerned  fundamental  aspects  of  Christian  worship,  such  as 
anointing,  baptizing,  and  the  epiclesis.  The  generation  that  taught  St  Basil 
(born  in  330  ce)  had  formulated  the  Nicene  Creed,  and  St  Basil  himself 
composed  one  of  the  great  liturgies  of  the  Orthodox  Church.  It  is  an  inter- 
esting exercise  to  see  how  much  of  the  creed  and  the  liturgy  can  be  rooted 
directly  in  the  scriptures,  and  what  might  have  come  from  the  “unwritten” 
temple  tradition. 

Fr  John  made  the  important  point  that  the  Tradition  existed  before 
the  New  Testament  writings,  and  that  the  person  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ 
were  expounded  by  means  of  imagery  drawn  from  the  Old  Testament.  The 
question  is:  Did  the  original  Christian  interpreters  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures 
re-use  them,  or  simply  use  them?  Was  their  way  of  reading  the  scriptures 
an  innovation?  Justin  [and  others]  emphasized  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy, 
a continuity  with  the  Hebrew  scriptures.  This  does  not  necessarily  imply  a 
re-use,  or  using  them  in  a difFerent  way.  The  Old  Testament  is  certainly  a 
compendium  of  words  and  images  used  to  describe  Christ,  and  the  older 
scriptures  were  understood  by  Christians  in  the  light  of  Jesus’  death  and  res- 
urrection. But  this  was  not  necessarily  a new  way  of  reading  the  scriptures.  It 
cannot  be  said  with  certainty  that  the  older  scriptures  “acquired  a coherence 
and  unity”  that  they  had  not  previously  had. 

The  Qumran  texts  have  shown  how  certain  Hebrew  texts  were  put  side 
by  side  to  describe,  for  example,  the  expected  return  of  Melchizedek.  Until 
these  were  found,  nobody  had  guessed  that  these  texts  were  related  to  each .............
 
 

The Great Lady of the Jerusalem temple was a defining presence in the religion of ancient Israel, yet she has been almost erased from the official biblical narrative. Only in recent years have her eclipse, and her shadowy enduring presence, been noticed and understood. In a diligent but daring and incisive approach to texts and material evidence, Margaret Barker begins a comprehensive restoration of the Lady's story.

As Barker has shown in her earlier books, a drive to expel the Lady, revered as Mother of the Davidic kings, culminated in King Josiah's purge in 623 BCE. Moses and the Law became central for the post-exilic faithful; Enochic voices called them the apostate generation; and the Hebrew Scriptures were edited by their scribes. Memories remained, but have been identified as later additions. In this volume Barker shows the Lady and her

Son hidden beneath the rewritten Scriptures.

  • Her devotees, Isaiah and his disciples, fled to 'Arabia'.
  • They preserved her ways and wisdom.
  • These Melchizedek priests were Matthew's Magi with symbols of their temple.
  • The Lady's most faithful son was Jesus of Nazareth, who restored the older faith.
  • The Lady's ancient titles appear in Christian hymns to Mary, the Mother of God. The New Testament is in fact the Older Testament.


The Great Lady: Restoring her Story is the second volume in a trilogy. It reveals the Lady in the Book of Revelation giving birth to her Son in the temple, and how her teaching underlies the Beatitudes. The first volume The Mother of the Lord was published in 2012. A third volume, The Oracle Page, will show how some newly-discovered leadbooks encode the older world of the Lady and her Son.

 

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