This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
Elkenah & NekhenyFour Corners Of The EarthDominion Of IsraelFour Mayan Earth Gods
Skeptics claim the figures below the lion couch are “canopic jars containing the deceased’s internal organs.” Figure 5 of Facsimile 1 is “Qebehseneuf,” one of four Sons of Horus.
Does this debunk Joseph Smith’s explanation? No, this name Qebehsenuef does not contradict Joseph Smith’s explanation. As a resurrection scene, these canopic jars are much more significant than as mere containers for human organs. The Egyptian context matches what Joseph Smith explained.
Elkenah & Nekneny
El-kenah Is A Place – Chapter 1 of the Book of Abraham describes the altar of sacrifice as “the altar of Elkenah, and of the gods of the land.” The priest performing the sacrifice is the “priest of Elkenah,” not of the other gods. But then we see the Elkenah idol stand in equal size and importance next to the other three idols under the lion couch. It is just one of the four jars, right? Yet this verse makes it sound like Elkenah is of primary importance as far as the altar is involved. It is an altar of Elkenah. It is a priest of Elkenah. And so, we see a sort of discrepancy. Is the god of Elkenah one of four gods below the altar, or is he the chief god of the altar sacrifice?
The only reason it sounds like a discrepancy is because we are accepting the skeptics’ narrative and assuming that Elkenah is the god’s name. The Book of Abraham never actually says this. It is faulty logic to compare the name Qebehsenuef with Elkenah because these were names for two different things. Elkenah is the name of a place. This idol is god of the place Kanah, and the altar is of the place Kanah , and the priest is of the same place. That’s why Abraham included the god “of Egypt” in this list of idols. Egypt wasn’t the specific name of the idol, it was the name of the place that the idol came from. Same with this idol. We are never actually told by Joseph Smith what this specific idol’s name is. Just that it is god of the land Kanah.
So where is the location of this idol? A Hittite tablet told of “El-Creator-of-the-Earth” (El-qone-ersi, written El-ku-ni-ir-sa, pronounced Elkoners.) This name Elkoners sounds very similar to Elkanah. El means “God”, any god. Khanah is a land in Assyria which “formed part of the kingdom of Mitanni or Aram-Naharaim.” El-Kenah therefore is the god of this land Kanah. This kingdom of Khana existed from the “end of 18th century BC — middle of 17th century BC,” which is the same time period as when Abraham is estimated to have lived. It was located in the middle of the Euphrates river close to the Khabar river junction, in the middle of Abraham’s journey from Ur to Haran. Abraham would have doubtlessly entered the land of “Khana” during his travel. We know from 1500 and 1300 BC they were “in peace” with Egypt, according to letter B. 22,17, and they likely traded with and emulated Egypt in Abraham’s time. “Elkenah” was god of Kanah, or more specifically god of the earth’s creation. The priest from this region was the one officiating the sacrifice ritual, a ritual related to the Sed-festival ritual from which Facsimile 1 derived.
The ancient Catena Severi identifies the temple that attempted human sacrifice of Abraham as “Qainan”: “Abraham took fire in his zeal and burnt that famous temple of Qainan, the graven image of the Chaldeans… When the Chaldeans realized what Abraham had done, they were compelling Terah to hand over his son Abraham to them to death.” The Qur’an recognized this idol of Qainan to be the chief of their deities. “Abraham took the fire and burnt the famous temple of Qainan, the graven image of Chaldeans.” Qainan is phonetically almost exactly the same as as Kenah.
Location Of Altar Was ‘Lucifer’ – So Kenah was where the officiating priest was from, but where did the ritual occur? Along the Euphrates delta just north of Ur lies the city of Marad, site of Babylon’s sun temple. In Egypt, sun-temples “were built for the celebration of Sed-Festivals of the dead king” during the king’s life and after.” In Babylon likewise, the Lugal-Maradda sun temple in Marad was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar as a symbol of his right to rule. In a recovered inscription, Nebuchadnezzar boasts “no former king had seen since ancient days” the foundation stone which he dug up and rebuilt. Then he prayed for “prosperity” of rule, that the rebuilt temple will “be favorable and joyfully (make) my life to a far distant day with abundance of glory, fixity of throne and length of rule to eternity do thou lengthen.” This reclaiming of kingship was the purpose as the Sed-festival from which Facsimile 1 is derived–renewal of life and kingship. Another text from Nebuchadnezzar mentions the rebuilding of Lugal-Maradda and likewise entreats for renewal of kingship and intercession: “O Lugal-Marad, lord of all, hero, kindly look with favor upon the work of my hands. Grant as a gift a life of many days, an abundance of posterity, security to the throne, and a long reign. Smite the evil minded: break their weapons: devastate the lands of my enemies. Slay all of them. May they fearful weapons which spare not the foe be stretched forth, and be sharp for the defeat of my enemies. May they be at my side. Before Marduk, lord of heaven and earth, make my deeds appear acceptable: intercede for me” (Building Age, Volume 39)
In all the stories, Nimrod was the name of the king who antagonized Abraham and held the ritual sacrifice. The name Nimrod comes from “Nu-marad” and meant “Man of Marad.” We saw Nebuchadnezzar appeal to Marad in his Sed festival prayer. Marad is therefore the most likely place where the attempted sacrifice of Abraham took place. The very ancient sun temple at Marad would be an appropriate setting for a Sed-festival-like ritual of sacrifice, and Abraham was in the right place and time to be involved in it.
The word “Marad” in Hebrew came to mean “to rebel” against God. Seth was rebellious in his battle against Osiris, much like Lucifer’s rebellion and battle against Jehovah. This association appears even more likely when we consider that the name Nimrod had another meaning: “Namra-uddu, a star god.” Same thing as Lucifer the “Morning Star.” Namra-uddu translates to “shining light.” The word Lucifer is hel-el and translates to “a shining one.” Thus, the ruler who attempted to have Abraham sacrificed and the location of the ritual are literally the same name as “Lucifer.” So when we see this priest of the god of Khana standing in opposition to the angel of the Lord, attempting to kill the figure laying on the lion couch while the bird is attempting to revive him, we can see the association with Lucifer’s opposition to Jehovah.
Derived From ‘Nekheny’ Ritual Site – The name Qebehsenuef may not appear to relate to the name of this place Kanah. But Qebehsenuef is not the only Egyptian falcon god involved in the Osiris/Horus drama which is being referenced in Facsimile 1. The falcon god Nekneny was synonymous with Horus: “He later assimilated with Horus, who became Horus Nekhenite. Horus is the father of” Qebehsenuef. Nekneny is thus an appropriate name to be associated with the Anubis priest performing this ritual in Facsimile 1, and it just happens to sound very similar to El-kenah.
In fact, it turns out Nekehny is the name of the sun-temple monument where the Egyptian king and his cult performed the Sed-festival rituals, a site that perfectly matches Abraham’s description of the Elkenah altar. The Abu Ghurab Sun Temple of Niuserre was the most pre-eminent site of the Sed Festival. “Userkaf, the first king of Dynasty V built his pyramid complex at North Saqqara and was the first king to build a royal monument at Abusir, his sun-temple at Abu Ghurob, which he named ‘Nekhen-Re’ (Stronghold of Re). Swiss archaeologists suggest that the temple in its earliest form may have been connected to the goddess Nekhen, or the goddess Neith, perhaps representing the original mythological mound surmounted by a mast (the obelisk) or to promote the unification of the country by means of the sun religion.” (Egyptian Monuments, Su)
It therefore appears that the name Elkanah of the wicked priest was associated with this Sed-festival center Nekheny, and that this ritual was derived from the Sed-festival. Egyptians portrayed their king “as a god from the lion bed” in the typical Sed-festival lion couch scene, says Jeremy Naydler. The purpose of the lion couch scenes were to show “the birth of a god…. re-membering of the dismembered Osiris.” The ritual starts with the king being overcome by his enemies and being violently torn apart limb from limb. The priests and gods then tried to help him restore to life and regain his throne. Abraham was to be the human sacrifice in proxy of the king for this death. The figures under the lion bed symbolized by canopic jars, according to Naydler, pay “homage to the newborn god-man.” They aid in the “healing and revivification of Osiris.”
Four Corners Of The Earth
If Kanah was a place, the other three idols must reference places too, right? Yes they do. The four canopic jars represented the four cardinal directions, and the “jars were arranged in square formation to align them to the directions.” The kingdom of Kanah lay west of Ur and Marad, and it just so happens that Qebehseneuf was the god of the West in Egyptian mythology. Each of the names Joseph Smith assigns to these four jars matches with the cardinal direction they represent in the Egyptian context.
Four Kingdoms – The Book of Abraham texts suggests that the four jars reference locations, and Joseph Smith clearly was aware that they represent directions. In Facsimile 2 Figure 6, we see the same four characters, with the same four animal heads, standing in the same line, facing the same direction. But this time Joseph Smith explained that they: “represent this earth in its four quarters.” He was exactly correct. These four idols actually show up in each of the three Facsimiles as representations of the four corners of the earth.
In Facsimile 1 the sons of Horus play a unique role as “powerful protectors” for the dead, which is probably why Joseph Smith talked about each one individually instead of all-together like in Facsimile 2. They supported the king in his effort to regain life and kingship in the Sed Festival ressurection ritual. The Egyptians associated the four sons of Horus with four specific earthly kingdoms and four races of mankind. These four kingdoms were located in their respective general directions, under the authority of Egypt. Four priests representing the four sons of Horus carried the king on his bed to the temple, “in their aspects as the Souls of Nekhen and Pe.” This proves that in this context Qebehseneuf was synonymous with Nekheny, so Joseph Smith was right to use the name Elkenah. It also shows that the four kingdoms under Egypt’s authority were considered to be supportive of the king’s revivification. In the later derivative funeral ritual, “pallbearers at funerals played the roles of the Sons of Horus carrying the corpse of Osiris.” This is why Facsimile 1 shows them below the bedstead–to suggest their role in physically supporting the dead king on the couch.by kairoinfo4u, creative commons license
The Book of Abraham text, however, tells us that they stood “before” the altar, not under it. As one of the discrepancies between the Book of Abraham text and Facsimile 1, this leads me to believe that Facsimile 1 was not drawn specifically of Abraham’s sacrifice; it was created later in history for a different funeral context, and this funeral context was derived from the Sed festival ritual, which happens to be the same ritual Abraham experienced in Ur. Placement of these idols before the altar rather than under it would actually make more sense for a Sed-festival context, as they represented the four directions emanating from a center: “the four sons of Horus represent the four cardinal directions as they extend out from the center of Horus, represented as a circle.” The Sed festival altar at the Abu Ghurab Sun Temple of Niuserre symbolizes exactly this. It is shaped as “a mandala depicting the four directions” emanating from a circular center. Each son of Horus extended throughout the entire world as an increase of the king’s glory.
In another part of the Sed festival ritual called the Dedication of the Field, the king marked out a field representing the world and “walked across it four times, successively the four points of the compass.” Abraham likewise walked around the borders of his land Canaan four times to gain ownership. God gave Abraham his covenant promise four times that his posterity would spread throughout the world. This covenant was carried out through four main patriarchs in Genesis: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Four appears to be the symbol of the king’s authority and posterity spreading through the universe for eternity, along each cardinal point line.
If you look at Facsimile 1 orthographically, each figure behaves consistently with the appropriate son of Horus. Which character stands to the left or west side of the drawing? The priest of Elkenah. Kanah lay to the west of Ur. The king’s death and rebirth is consistently compared to the setting and rising of the sun in the Sed festival and lion couch context, and what is this priest doing over on the west side? Causing death, like the setting of the sun in the west. The priest of Elkenah assumes appropriate characteristics for this direction, protecting the child Osiris (the king for whom Abraham was proxy sacrifice) for rebirth. The knife north smites down the king’s enemies like the son of Horus for the north. The Horus bird east rises like the sun from the horizon like the son of Horus for the east. And the crocodile south devours as the son of Horus for the South which represents human emotion. Each figure acts to support the king’s rebirth in the same fashion as the son of Horus that represents that direction.
Abraham’s blessing passed down among four patriarchs, and then once the covenant of Abraham reached the fourth patriarch–Joseph–his posterity then divided into twelve branches. The twelve tribes of Israel, represented by the twelve-sided star of David. This follows the geometry of the Sed festival altar at the Abu Ghurab Sun Temple of Niuserre, with its twelve sides emanating outside the four-sided blocks. This multiplication of four and three to get twelve was also part of the Sed festival ceremony. Before achieving rebirth, “the king, alone in the ‘tomb'” found himself “in the presence of the twelve major deities of the Egyptian pantheon.” He went from the four sons of Horus to twelve gods to help him along. These mathematics are also seen in the Field ritual. Each side of the four-sided field was marked by three seals: “At Saqqara these markers are arranged in paris; on other Early Dynastic representations, such as the Narmer macehead and the ebony label of Den, they appear in sets of three. Oriented on a north-south axis, they clearly symbolise the territorial limits of the king’s realm, the ‘field’ between them representing the whole of Egypt… Clad in the tight-fitting Sed-festival robe, wearing the red, white, or double crown, and carrying a flail in one hand and baton-like object in the other, the king ran or strode between the two sets of markers, reasserting his claim to the land of Egypt.” (Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection)
In Egypt, this Sed festival symbolism appears to be based on cosmology of the star Sirius: “every fourth celebration was distinguished from the rest by a higher degree of solemnity, since it marked the completion of a twelfth part of the star’s journey through twelve months.” (Sir James Frazer) They went by intervals of four until they reached twelve. There was also the ceremonial shooting of arrows during the Sed Festival in each cardinal direction to symbolize the king’s conquering of those lands: “…in some sculptures at Carnac the queen is portrayed shooting arrows towards the four quarters of the world, while the king does the same with rings.” (Sir James Frazer) Guess how many arrows were shot in each direction?
The four sons of Horus in Facsimile 2 stand beside three characters which “symbolize the gods of the rising, midday, and setting sun.” Four times three is twelve.
This number symbolism shows up repeatedly in the scriptures as well. At the very beginning of the Book of Mormon, Lehi saw a vision of “One descending out of” heaven, and “twelve others following him” to the “face of the earth, “and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament.” In Revelation, John saw a vision of an angel standing on each side of the earth’s four corners. He saw an angel ascending in the east like the sun (like the Horus bird on the right/east side of Facsimile 1) holding the seal of the living God (king Hezekiah’s royal seal looked exactly like the Facsimile 1 sun-bird). The angel instructed the four angels to not hurt the kingdoms of the earth until the angel has spread his seal to the servants of God abroad. “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” (Revelation 7:1 -3)
And then we are told a number of servants to be sealed for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. This Horus bird in Facsimile 1 rises in the east to bring rebirth to the figure on the couch as the Lord does in each of these scriptures for the earth. The four angels in these verses match the Egyptian role of these four canopic jars: they protect Osiris on the lion couch at the behest of Horus, holding him up until Horus can seal Osiris in his heaven, except that Osiris on the lion couch represents the Saints on the earth.
Israel’s Dominion Over The Earth
Chapter 3 in the Book of Abraham describes Abraham’s vision of the hierarchy of souls and angels going up and down from heaven to the earth like the sun arcing in the sky, with Jehovah ruling at the top and Lucifer at the bottom. He saw that each soul was like a star with varying degrees of intensity.
Abraham’s grandson Jacob experienced a vision very similar to what we read in the Book of Abraham, of a heavenly “stairway,” with the same covenants being given and the same blessings being received. This vision is commonly known today as Jacob’s ladder or stairway to heaven. Jacob had taken the altar Abraham had used to try to sacrifice Isaac, arranged it with twelve sides like the the Niuserre Sed festival altar, and laid upon it like Abraham had laid on the Sed festival altar in Marad. Jacob then fell into a sleep which symbolized death and saw a scene similar to what we see in Facsimile 1 and read about in the Book of Abraham. “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 28:14)
The Legends of the Jews adds a few specifics: “He also saw the angels of the four kingdoms ascending the ladder. The angel of Babylon mounted seventy rounds, the angel of Media, fifty-two, that of Greece, one hundred and eighty, and that of Edom mounted very high, saying ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High,’ and Jacob heard a voice remonstrated, ‘Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the uttermost parts of the pit.’” (Legends Of The Jews)
We get a kingdom of the earth for each cardinal direction. This list of kingdoms sounds similar to the four kingdoms in Daniel’s prophecies, and is similar to the kingdoms which Egypt associated with the four quarters of the earth as well. Each kingdom represents a direction on the compass, and each kingdom is represented by an angel as well. That is also very interesting, because in the Egyptian context, each son of Horus has a protector god representing them. And so the similarities become to many and too compelling to ignore. There are four directions at the earth level under the ladder in Jacob’s vision, like the four sons of Horus at the earth level in Facsimile 1, and Jacob is standing in the middle between heaven and earth, and Jehovah is blessing him from on high–exactly like in Facsimile 1. But this time it diagrammatically represents a societal level of hierarchy, with Israel’s dominion over the earth.
Four Mayan Earth Gods
Earlier, I offered the possibility that Abraham’s altar which Jacob laid upon during this vision sailed with the Mulekites to the New World, and that the imagery of Abraham’s sacrifice as shown in Facsimile 1 thus passed on to Mayan altars and thrones. That is quite a claim to make, but at the very least there are remarkable parallels between Facsimile 1 and Mayan altars, both in looks and utility. One of these similarities is four gods representing the four quarters of the earth, supporting the king in his revivification.
Sed Festival Ritual Among Mayans – The Mayans believed in four gods for the four quarters of the earth, exactly like the Egyptians. The Mayan god of the west, Cauac, bears interesting similarity to Qebehsenuef. Each of the earth’s four quarters were associated with a year of the calendar by the Mayans, and the Cauac year was considered “a very evil year” full of darkness. Elkenah was obviously the most evil of the four idols. The first European to document Mayan customs, Diego de Landa, noted how the Mayans would offer sacrifices in a New Year ritual for the Cauac year, which is interesting enough considering Elkenah being associated with the priest and altar, but Landa further described how they “cut off the head of a fowl” and placed on the idol for Cauac “on top a carnivorous bird called kuch ‘vulture’, as a sign of great mortality.” The Qebehsenuef canopic jar has the head of a carnivorous bird on top. Landa said the Mayans then danced “various dances” (which we see happening in the Sed Festival sacrifice) among which was “the dance of the devil.” The location of the Elkenah altar was Marad–“Lucifer.” Landa tells us they brought drink to the chiefs in cups, again shown in the Sed Festival, and then made “offerings, the incense, and the prayers, while many drew blood from many parts of the body, to anoint the stone of the demon.” This was the function of Abraham on the altar, to provide blood for the altar, except in Abraham’s case the Lord provided “pleasant dew,” according to the Christian Chronicle. In Jacob’s case, he anointed the altar with oil after waking up.
Diego Landa described another ritual for Cauac where the priests constructed “a great vault of wood, filling it aloft and on the sides with firewood.” At night they lit the wood “which burned high and quickly,” and then walked on the coals–which is where we get the folk story of “coal walking” from. Some “came off with no lesions whatsoever,” while others came away burned but considered this restitution for the evils of that year. Considering all of the Abraham stories tell of the attempted sacrifice as a “furnace” that Abraham was to be burned in, this ritual would be a perfect way to honor Abraham’s attempted sacrifice by the god of the West, upon the altar of the West. Like Abraham, you would place faith in the Lord to come away from the fire unharmed.
God of Childbirth – Another interesting thing about the Mayan god Cauac is his association with childbirth. The hieroglyph for Cauac “may be a kind of portrait of the developing child,” and likely “symbolizes both the miracle of birth and the Feminine Principle which makes birth possible.” This is because the sun sets in the west and goes on to be reborn in the east. Like the Egyptian sons of Horus, each Mayan god of the Earth (called Bacabs) was associated with a protective god. The protective god for the west, Acat, was “associated with the growth and development of fetuses.
The Egyptian god of the west was associated with childbirth as well. Qebehsenuef was protected by Serket, the god who “protected women in childbirth and nursing.” She protected Osiris as a child from Set for his reviving, which mimicked the setting and rising of the sun. Serket is also seen holding knives and with a lion head “binding the hostile snake Apophis.” As god of the scorpion she could fight the dragon Apophis, an aspect of Set.
Dragon – Serket’s role with Apophis is an important parallel with the Mayan god of the west. Cauac was often pictured by Mayans as a great flying dragon that brought lightning and rain with him. Lucifer, of course, is repeatedly symbolized in the scriptures as a dragon. Both from its association with Marad and its possible meaning as “creator of the earth,” El-kenah therefore bears striking similarity to the Cauac dragon and its “terrestrial aspects.”
In the Egyptian sun festival we see the same kind of dragon architecture that ordains the Mayan temple. They located stelea in each direction like in Egypt, like the Djoser stelae placed on each cardinal directions of heb-sed court: “Wildung’s suggestion that stelae of this type came in pairs is worth attention. Furthermore, he believes that the Schlangensteine [stones of snakes] were instruments for the rejuvenation of the king during the Sed Festival.” (Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 80)