Tony Bushby ‘The Secret in the Bible’
published Stanford Publishing Group and Joshua Books 2003
reprinted Joshua Books 2006 by demand.
The following has been extracted from ‘The Secret in the Bible’
Matters of Confidentiality
To provide the new information presented in this book, the author was obliged to comply with two separate secrecy agreements specifically established to contain the release of ‘sensitive information’. Therefore, some insights were not directly divulged, the main one being the ‘seven things’ said to have existed before the creation of the world. The Rosicrucians called them the Seven Unspeakable Secrets and the ‘Legends of the Craft’ of Freemasonry originally referred to them as Seven Steps of the Winding Stairs. However, ancient rabbinic tradition openly maintained that the Torah was one of those ‘seven things’ and the extraordinary Secret it holds made it greater than the combination of the other six secrets. The other delicate issue was the true extent of subterranean chambers below the sands of the Pyramid Plateau at Giza. Nevertheless, previously undisclosed information about the Bible, Solomon’s Temple, the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx is publishable outside secrecy agreement commitments and that wisdom is revealed in this book.
The Soul’s Secret
In each of the sixteen chapters of this book, one special word is written with something different about its presentation. Those words are NoT misprints or typing errors, but are intentionally altered or ‘coded’ to spell out a special message. Those persons who search and record them in the order presented will find revealed a deep ancient secret that rests below the pages of the Bible; a deeper secret than what is openly revealed in this book.
That sixteen-worded sentence was extracted from the ancient Book of God, a mysterious old document written on a fabric of an unknown nature, and highly regarded by the Ancients thousands of years ago.
The ‘coded’ clues are called ‘Words of Truth’ and there is no glamorous earthly prize for their discovery, excepting hidden treasure to nourish the Soul. A special page is provided towards the end of this book to record each particular word upon its discovery.
CHAPTER ONE
The known existence of a Secret
In a cavern in the Spanish region of Sacro Monte, carefully sealed with great blocks of hewn stone and guarded by two vertical stone pillars, a bizarre discovery was made. A dozen skeletons, dating to 2000 BC, were found sitting in a perfect circle around the central corpse of a woman wearing remains of a leather tunic upon which was inscribed ‘22 strange geometric patterns’. Archaeologists also discovered a curious assortment of artifacts associated with ritual performance; a human skull, seven rainbow-coloured clay disks of the type usually identified with solar worship, an unusual lantern, and seeds of the narcotic opium poppy. Anthony Roberts, in his book, Giants in the Earth hypothesized that the central woman was an adept and spiritual guide who led her initiates into an astral state of contemplation. ‘The people who made this magic trip’, he said, ‘had never returned from its mystical revelations and this is quite possibly by choice’. It is clear from the cave discoveries that those people knew the Secret in the Bible and willingly experienced it right into physical death itself.
A clue to the motive behind their ritual suicide is preserved in secret manuals that provide the key to unravel a great riddle that Pythagoras (c. 580-500 BC) called, ‘the Mystery of the gods which has been hidden for ages of generations’. In the ancient world, there was widespread belief in the existence of exalted knowledge that was accessible only to initiated people, knowledge that, by definition, conveyed a sense of awe. The fundamental nature of their illuminated teaching enters into an esoteric domain that dwells between history and legend and connects directly with a transcendent realm. Evidence that special insight was concealed from the masses is mentioned in the oldest religious texts available to mankind; the Dead Sea Scrolls, the books of Enoch, Esdras and Jasher, the Holy Koran, the Talmud, the Mahabharata, the Old Testament, Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament and the personal records of some early church presbyters.
The concealed message that the Bible holds underscores the mystery teachings of the Secret Societies of Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Knights Templar, the Eastern Star and others that many people in the outer world have never heard. It was everyday knowledge that great secret systems flourished in the East, in Chaldea, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Italy, among the Hebrews in Babylonia and Phoenicia, the Druids of Britain, uncivilized African races, and later, among Muslims. ‘I received from the messenger of God two kinds of knowledge’, said Prophet Mohammed (570-632). ‘One of these I taught … but if I had taught them the other it would have broken their throats’. Gautama Siddhartha (c. 568 BC), Buddha, also referred to undisclosed knowledge, saying; ‘O disciples, the things which I have discovered and have not told you are more numerous than those which I have told you’.
A Masonic initiate into the Mysteries, Dr. Lawrence Buck, explained in his book Mystic Masonry (1922), that in ancient Secret ceremonies, and in all great religions:
… there was always an exoteric portion given out to the world, to the uninitiated, and an esoteric portion reserved for the initiates, and revealed only in degrees, accordingly as the candidate demonstrated his fitness to receive, conceal and rightly use the knowledge so imparted. Few professed Christians are, perhaps, aware that such was the case with Christianity during the early centuries.
That a certain ‘Secret’ predated and became part of Christianity is clear by the esoteric narratives in canonical Christian texts. Paul (Saul) described his knowledge of a man who had personally ‘experienced’ the Secret, one who had, in his lifetime, received the highest initiation. Paul said of him:
… and I know that this man was caught up into Paradise: whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows: and he heard things that cannot be retold, which is not lawful to repeat. (2 Cor. 12: 3-4)
Paul’s words are almost identical with those recorded of other initiates as they referred in awe to the extraordinary substance of the ancient Secret. Another New Testament statement also attributed to Paul declared that, ‘the wisdom is spoke only among them who are perfect’, the plain translation of that sentence being, ‘they speak of the Secret only amongst the initiated’.
Presbyter Hippolytus (170-236) wrote that a ‘great, marvelous, and most perfect mystery’ was revealed to him in the second grade of initiation. The illuminated teachers of humanity … Socrates, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Virgil, Homer and Apollonius of Tyana were all initiates in the ancient Sacred Mysteries…they knew the Secret knowledge. Other recorded initiates include Plato (427-347 BC), Plutarch (46-120), Celsus (c. 178), Clement of Alexandria (160-215), Plotinus (205-270) and Porphyry (233-304). Both Plato and Plotinus subtly described the ‘divine visions of the Mysteries’ as a secret science sought by many but known only to a few. Ancient Egyptian priests referred often to a ‘Secret Science’ known to them and so awesome was its power they taught it to no one who had not been firstly prepared, tested and accepted.
The Mystery Schools arose from the highest aspirations of the human mind, the desire for knowledge of eternal verities. Celsus, a Second Century historian and author, wrote a work called ‘True Discourse’ that was subsequently destroyed by St. Aurorius Augustine (354-430) in the Fifth Century (The Monks of Athos; R. M. Dawkings, 1936). Celsus was an acknowledged expert on religious institutions and an important intellectual opponent of the early presbyterian movement. He wrote about pre-requisites for admission into the Mysteries and advised those wishing to learn the Secret; ‘Let him approach whose hands are pure and whose words are wise’. Clement of Alexandria, wrote that teachings of the Mystery Schools concerned mainly Nature and the Universe. ‘Here ends all instruction … Nature and all things are seen and known’, he expounded. The Mysteries were closer to science and philosophy and more holy than the religion that was preached to the less mature in intelligence and morality. A few early presbyters were initiates into the Lesser Mysteries and their writings showed they fully appreciated the delineation between the esoteric (inner or hidden) and the exoteric (open or apparent).
However, not all presbyters were admitted into the Mystery Schools. In his book, The Apology of Tertullian, the ‘barbarous, uncouth’ Quintus Tertullian (Catholic Encyclopaedia, 1908, Vol. IV, Pg. 583), today called the Bishop of Carthage, expressed anger at his refusal of entry because he objected to the penalty of the promissory oath. Oaths were accompanied by peculiar rites, intended to increase the solemnity and reverence of the act and often required some form of personal sacrifice. Tertullian (160-220), would not swear to ‘the invocation of Deity to witness and avenge as a consequence of violating the oath’ and refused to be bound.
In the Fourth Century, leading advocates of the Christian church developed a secret worship from which a major portion of the public was excluded, and the custom of communicating only to a portion of the community became known as the ‘Disciplina Arcani’, or ‘The Discipline of the Secret’. The privacy of the sacred rites performed was guarded with utmost care from the obtrusive eyes of all who were not qualified to be present. The words, ‘Let none who are simply hearers, and let no infidels be present’ were proclaimed in a loud voice at the commencement of every ritual performance, and those not acknowledged were dismissed before the door was locked and guarded. The formula for expelling the unwanted at that point was loud recitation of the words, ‘Holy things for the holy, let the Dogs depart’. St. Augustine said that candidates involved in the ceremonies went veiled in public, and after baptism, the veils were removed as an emblem of the liberty of the spiritual life that was obtained by knowledge gained from the secret ceremonies. When fully initiated they were called the illuminati or Illuminated because they had been enlightened to secrets that were concealed from the general populace. So complete was the understanding of some early churchmen of hidden mysteries, and initiation into them, that St. Ambrose (333-397), Bishop of Milan, wrote a book called, ‘Concerning those who are initiated into the Mysteries’. So ancient were the Egyptian revelations, the great ecclesiastical historian, Johann Mosheim (1694-1755) admitted that ‘the origin of the sacred, mystic and celebrated ‘Discipline of the Secret’ used by the fathers in the early church was to be found in the Mysteries of pre-Christian Paganism’ (Institutes of Christian History; 1755).
Another Christian Saint, Gregory (540-604), Bishop of Constantinople, recorded his knowledge of concealed doctrines:’ You have heard as much of the Mystery as we are allowed to speak openly in the ears of all: the rest will be communicated to you in private; and that you must retain within yourself…our Mysteries are not to be made known to strangers’.
In the 1950s, classical scholar Professor Morton Smith of Columbia University, USA, discovered a rare Gospel when researching old manuscripts in the Mar Saba monastery in the Judean Wilderness. That Gospel proved to be an earlier version of the canonical Gospel of Mark, and attached to it were a series of writings purporting to be from the pen of Clement of Alexandria. In his book, The Secret Gospel (1974), Professor Smith recorded information from a previously unknown letter written by Clement that revealed that the newly-discovered Gospel, today called ‘The Secret Gospel of Mark’ was ‘hidden, and even now carefully guarded, being read only to those who are being initiated in the Mystery’.
Further evidence of concealed information in Christian writings is found in the records of St Jerome, (d. 420) who confessed of it in an unguarded moment. Jerome said he found a Gospel written in Hebrew at the library collected at Caesarea by a person called Pamphilius. He said that he ‘received permission from the Nazarenes, who at Beraea of Syria used this Gospel, to translate it…and which is called by most persons the genuine Gospel of Matthew’ (Commentary to Matthew; {XII; 13} Book II).
Writing later to bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus, Jerome complained that the translation of that Gospel was ‘a difficult work’ because the original author ‘did not wish it to be openly written’:
For if this (Gospel) had not been secret, he (the original author) would have added to the evangel that what he gave forth was his; but he made up this book sealed up in curious Hebrew characters, which he put forth in such a way that the book, written in Hebrew letters, and by the hand of himself, might only be possessed by the men most religious; who also, in the course of time, received it from those who preceded them. But this book they never gave to any one to be transcribed, and its text they related some way or other in secret.
St. Jerome admitted, not withstanding that he tried to translate it twice, that the ‘secret’ and ‘genuine‘ Gospel of Matthew was almost unintelligible to him. Jerome did not know the ‘Secret’ being revealed in this book, for had he done so, he would not have had difficulty in translating the work. He was an uninitiated man and, as the Secret unfolds, it shall become clear why he had translation problems with that particular Gospel. Consequently, ancient church records revealed that two early Christian Gospels, Matthew and Mark, were known to have contained some mysterious sort of ‘secret’.
Textual evidence of a hidden belief was further supported with the 1945-46 discovery of a particular document in a sealed funerary urn near Nag Hammadi in Syria. It was one of 52 manuscripts bound in 13 books and now called the Nag Hammadi Scrolls. The cache of writings were found literally ‘buried in the desert’ after a storm had blown away sand and exposed the sealed clay container. The writing of interest is the Gospel of Thomas, but it would have been more aptly called the ‘Gospel of Hidden Knowledge’, for that is precisely what it is.
The Gospel of Thomas received its great publicity because of its sometimes-close links with the canonical Gospels and modern synopses of those Gospels often compare the parallels to Thomas. Unlike the canonical Gospels, however, it is almost void of both narration and any discernable outline, and suggests a more mysterious route to enlightenment. It is composed of 114 sayings (or logia) and the possibility that the Gospel Rabbi Jesus knew some of the sayings it preserved are generally conceded. The origin of that Gospel is not known, but the church claimed the collection of mystical sayings was assembled sometime around the mid Second Century under the pseudonym of Didymus Judas Thomas. He was Judas Khrestus in the Gospels, the twin-brother of Rabbi Jesus, and the untold story of their lives was the nucleus of this author’s earlier book, The Bible Fraud. Some material in the Gospel of Thomas is thought to be much older than canonical writings and internal evidence suggests that it may have originally been an Essene composition. However, one thing is for sure; whoever wrote it was an Initiate, and knew the Secret in the Bible.
It appears that the original collection was theologically neutral but went through an evolutionary process until it received its name, and the sayings recorded in it applied to Rabbi Jesus. However, the important point is the fact that the Gospel of Thomas opens with a short statement advising readers that it was composed of ‘secret words’ and persons ‘who find the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death’ (Gospel of Thomas; 1:1). That profound statement immediately suggested that the document held some form of sacred intention and its clues to the existence of an immortal status were supported with this additional passage; ‘The Pharisees and the scribes have received the keys of knowledge and they have hidden them’ (Gospel of Thomas; 39/114).
That passage confirmed that scribes concealed something special in ancient times and that information was subtly encoded into not only the Gospel of Thomas, but also into major sections of the Old Testament when it was written centuries earlier. Special secret knowledge was known and possessed by certain members of the priesthood but withheld from the public for thousands of years. But why…? Maybe a clue rests in this statement:
And he (Jesus) took him (Judas Thomas the twin) and withdrew and told him three things. When Judas Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, ‘What did Rabbi Jesus say to you?’ “If I tell you just one of those things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me. (Gospel of Thomas; 13/114)
The curious assertion by Judas Thomas inferred that what he had learnt from Rabbi Jesus was unbelievable to the ears of common people. That, and other statements in ancient writings served to highlight the fact that a unique ‘Secret’ was in circulation in some quarters and was known to, and used by various sects, orthodox and heretical, Jewish, Islamic, Gnostic, Essenic and Christian. Its existence was a matter of common knowledge to certain people and this book systematically reveals what it was.
The secret books of the Essenes
The Essene movement, one of three religious sects that flourished in the Roman provinces around the commencement of the Christian era, was specifically established to preserve the Secret. In Philo’s First Century book, About the Contemplative Life, he spoke of the Essenes as ‘the ones who recognize the truth’ and whose sect was inspired into existence to preserve the secret knowledge in the Bible. Their organisation was a full and special branch of the Mysteries and knowledge of their doctrines was revolutionized by the Qumran Scroll discovery (The Dead Sea Scrolls). Some of the books found in that cache were purposely written to conceal ancient high wisdom and clandestinely pass on to initiates a certain esoteric knowledge.
Two primary secrets or mysteries played significant roles in the thought of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first was the ‘mystery of Sin’ followed by the ‘mystery of what we will Become’ (The Secret of Becoming) and the Scrolls urge continued investigation into those mysteries because that led to paths of truths and thus revealed the roots of evil. Sin was the name of the Babylonian Moon-god, ‘Lord of the city of Ur’, and was believed by the Essenes to be the ‘Enemy of the Truth’. Across a span of many centuries, the message of the Dead Sea Scrolls speaks directly to our hearts and minds and the hidden knowledge of the ‘Sin-fearing ones’ provides a vital clue in unlocking the Secret in the Bible.
Foremost among the books of the Dead Sea Scrolls is the Book of Enoch. Eight complete copies were found in the Qumran caves, indicating the importance it held to the hierarchy of the Essene movement. That old writing contained arcane information by deliberate design, preserving in symbolic manner evidence concerning the true nature of the Bible. The very word ‘Enoch’ means ‘initiated’ (The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries; Thomas Taylor, 1875), and its mystic meaning was revealed in the biblical years of life given to ‘Enoch’. They amounted to three hundred and sixty five, being equal to a solar revolution, and the prominent number of ancient rites. The Book of Enoch was one of the most highly regarded religious writings of early times and its significance will be clarified in later chapters.
The earlier founders of the Essene movement had formulated a definite mystical understanding of some aspects of the Old Testament and they paved the way for a far different understanding of scripture to that presented by mainstream churches today. Until the spectacular discovery of their hidden library, a veil of mystery hung over the Essenes but it is known that members were required to pass through a period of strict probation before attaining full membership and, in particular, were bound by a solemn oath not to disclose secrets imparted to them. A candidate for the society had to pass through a probationary period before he was given the emblems of the order…a special belt and a white apron.
The real test that served to distinguish an Essene from all who more or less closely resembled him was the fearful oath that he took on becoming a member. The oath was a strict promise not to disclose the secrets of the community and there is no certain knowledge of what the substance of those secrets were. In principle, the Essenes objected to oaths, but once taken they were never violated: herein lay the chief disciplinary power of the elders. The Essenes chose to cast a veil of secrecy over what they considered of the highest religious importance and conceal under the threat of death a great mystery. Modern scholarship confirms that in the time of the compilation of the Christian texts, the Essenes possessed a deep understanding of an ancient Secret Tradition that became the key element in the life of Rabbi Jesus.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, which is generally agreed were written by the Essenes, referred to the ‘wonderful secret of God’ and ‘the seven things hidden from men’ that were ‘created before the creation of the world’. They maintained that the movement of planets affects a person’s destiny and the day of birth determines each person’s individual character (Horoscopes). Their ‘Manual of Discipline’ alluded to ‘the revelation of the Mysteries, which has been kept in silence through all times eternal’. This hymn, found among the Scrolls recorded: ‘Thou hast made me the authorised interpreter of profound mysteries. Then hast given me understanding of thy faith and the knowledge of thy wonderful secrets’.
It is undeniable that the Essenes held an assemblage of doctrines carefully concealed from the multitude. First Century historian, Flavius Josephus, from whose records we learnt so much about life in Palestine at the time of his life, stated that he himself underwent the probationary period with the Essenes but then withdrew. After his experience, he wrote that they ‘live the same kind of life as do those the Greeks called Pythagorean’. The oath extracted from the initiate before he was admitted into the brotherhood stated that he was not ‘to have any secrets from one’s brethren and never to betray one of theirs, even at the cost of one’s life: to pass on the traditions one had received; never to be a brigand; to safeguard the secret books’.
The fact that they had ‘secret books’ is significance in this study and there is reason to believe the same people who encoded the Secret into the Bible wrote those mysterious books.
What was so special about the Bible?
Moses ben Maimon, the celebrated Rabbi, Jewish theologian and philosopher of Cairo (1135-1204), sometimes called Maimonides, expounded that the Old Testament was not historical but allegorical in its entirety. In an effort to explain its problems, Maimonides wrote:
Every time that you find in our books a tale, the reality of which seems impossible, a story that is repugnant to both reason and common sense, then be sure that the tale contains a profound allegory veiling a deeply mysterious truth…and the greater the absurdity of the letter, the deeper the wisdom of spirit.
That learned injunction damages the usual affirmation that ‘Holy Scripture’ is the only book in the world whose oracles contain plain unvarnished truth and recommended silence with regard the true meaning of biblical texts, particularly the Book of Genesis. This was what the highly-regarded Hebrew philosopher said:
Whoever shall find out the true sense of the Book of Genesis ought to take care not to divulge it. This is a maxim that all our sages repeat to us, and above all respecting the work of six days. If a person should discover the true meaning of it by himself, or by the aid of another, then he ought to be silent, or if he speaks he ought to speak of it obscurely, in an enigmatical manner, as I do myself, leaving the rest to be guessed by those who can understand me.
The Jewish philosopher confesses to a ‘Secret’ in the Bible, and others made similar admissions. Clement, for example, who had earlier been initiated into the Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries, said; ‘The doctrines they taught me contained in them the end of all instructions…and a great mystery’. Clement, in his book, Stromata, openly admitted to the existence of confidential information in ancient times and wrote that the hidden mysteries were not divulged to all; ‘But since this tradition is not published alone for him who perceives the magnificence of the word; it is requisite, therefore, to hide a Mystery the wisdom spoken, which Jesus knew’.
The Mystery that Rabbi Jesus knew holds within itself the answers to the individual seeker’s deepest needs and inner longings. Other church writings also established the Secret was known to Rabbi Jesus, such as this passage from the Clementine Homilies:
And Peter said; We remember that Jesus and Rabbi, as commanding said to us, guard the Secret for me, and the Sons of my House. Wherefore also he explained to his disciples, privately, the Secret of the Kingdom of the Heavens.
Indeed, some of Rabbi Jesus’ followers expressed surprise to find him using unusual forms of expression with the people. ‘Why speakest thou unto them in parables’, they inquired (Matt 10:13). Rabbi Jesus answered them; ‘To you it has been given to know the Secret of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given’.
According to Young’s Analytical Concordance, the exact sense of the word ‘Secret’ as used in the New Testament is, ‘that which is known only to the initiated’. Here we leaRN that Rabbi Jesus’ reply was that of one initiate speaking to another. New Testament narratives revealed numerous traces of a secret doctrine taught by Rabbi Jesus and clearly showed that he and some of his associates were in possession of classified information. Three examples are cited; ‘It is given unto you to know the Mysteries’; ‘we speak the wisdom of God in a Mystery’, and, ‘We are stewards of the Mysteries of God and understand all Mysteries’. The Gospel accounts of Rabbi Jesus’ ministry therefore provide a number of cases where he taught an open exoteric message (in parables) to ordinary folk and privately instructed associates in a deeper esoteric or secret meaning.
The Bible of ancient Egypt
The earliest known reference to the ‘Secret’ was found in a remarkable old writing first carved into stone at the dawn of civilization on Earth. That literature is the oldest known to mankind and is erroneously called The Egyptian Book of the Dead. The opening passage said this about itself; ‘This is a book of exceedingly great secrecy. Let not the eye of any profane behold it…That would be an abomination. Conceal its existence. The Book of the Master of the Hidden Places is its name’. Some call it the Bible of Ancient Egypt but it is much more than that, and in this study, constant references are drawn from ‘The Book of the Master of the Hidden Places’. However, it shall be called by its now commonly known name, the Book of the Dead, so as not to cause confusion as to what book is being quoted.
The Book of the Dead is the title generally given to the texts because they were found inscribed on the internal walls of tombs or on papyri rolls resting on or near mummies, and because they were deposited with the dead, that title developed in the late 19th Century. The longest papyrus version discovered to date measures 135 feet (41 metres) and 28’’ high (48 cms) and on many occasions, special papyrus roles were sealed in a hollow statuette shaped like the deceased’s favourite god and placed with the mummy.
Over the last 150 years or so, the discovery of burial chambers holding ‘funerary texts’ revealed to the modern world the innermost sacred secrets of a select body of ancient Egyptian priests. In those times, the Book of the Dead revealed the ultimate secrets of the gods and was carefully hidden beyond the eye of the living for what the priests thought would be forever. They believed that secrets revealed in their sacred writing were visible only to the eyes of the soul of the person buried in that crypt and thus preserved from the eyes of the profane. Chapter 114, for example, states:
I know it, (the Secret), for I have been initiated into it by the Shem priest, and I have never spoken nor made repetition to the gods…I have entered as a Power because of what I know; I have not spoken to men; I have not repeated what was said or written in tombs … it is a Secret.
Some verses of the Book of the Dead were later found in the Pyramid Texts which appeared carved in hieroglyphic form on the inside walls of the burial chamber and anteroom of the pyramid of King Unas, last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty (c. 2345 BC). Some of the 189 chapters are so old they were recorded on the sarcophagus of Queen Khnemnefert, who lived around 2700 BC, according to Egyptologist’s reckonings. Other hieroglyphs state that one particular chapter of the Book of the Dead was in existence during the reign of Hesep-ti, about 4266 BC and was established by Egyptologists as the most ancient documentation of any kind known in the world today.
The most moderate estimate makes certain sections of the Book of the Dead more than 6000 years old and archaeological evidence showed that, according to biblical chronology, those writings were in existence before God created the earth. In any case, Egyptologists were justified in estimating the earliest form of the work to be contemporaneous with the foundation of the civilization that came into Egypt thousands of years ago.
That fascinating, but perplexing, old writing provides an extensive description of systems of various chambers, passageways, halls, temples and gates that were accessed in a complex journey through twelve divisions of an underworld realm of darkness called duat. It also records a compilation of prayers, magic spells and incantations, and lists amulets that were to be worn to provide assistance in safely completing the journey. Although used for funerary purposes, some descriptions provided in the Book of the Dead are frequently unconnected with the mystical realm and seem to have originally had an entirely different use. In many cases, explanations are far removed from actual meanings of the passage and are presented in a romanticized manner. It is not an easy book to read but sometimes comments on particular heavenly passages show an accurate grasp of a subject matter having an earthly parallel. For example, seven halls are painstakingly described, along with a detailed description of twenty-one vertical columns or pylons. That documentation is significant in this study for those descriptions are directly associated with the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx at the Giza complex.
The elaborate commentary provided in the Book of the Dead seems to have been the work of an intensely formal mind, one that devised a number of explanations that fitted a dual purpose. In simple terms, it was written specifically to be comprehended on two different levels of understanding; esoteric and exoteric. Ancient Egyptians believed that the employment of the texts by the soul of the deceased would give them various divine powers that enabled them to secure acquittal at the Judgment. The numerous pictures and symbols were understood to assist the departed overcome the perils that they believed beset the path of the dead. However, those instructions were also used on the physical Earthly plane by the living and were coded initiatory processes used by ancient Egyptian priesthoods, the original guardians of the Secret knowledge. In other words, the deceased persons in the Book of the Dead became the living initiates in Egyptian temples. Therefore, the Book of the Dead is a secret manual of initiation from the mysterious First Times and describes a series of procedures and passwords to be spoken that purposely have two distinct levels of meaning, one spiritual and the other physical.
The ‘Hidden Places’ mentioned in the original title are particular underground chambers at the Giza complex and are described allegorically as mystical places in the abode in heaven. Underlying descriptions given in the Book of the Dead is the outline of an original priestly ritual used in Egyptian temples aeons ago. That ritual was romanticized by the author (authors, maybe) into a supernatural experience disguised as the pathway to be used by the deceased on the journey to the afterlife. In other words, it was possible to duplicate the trip to the heavenly existence while here on Earth, the purpose being to prove to the living that there was an afterlife that could be glimpsed, or experienced, while living the physical life. Therefore, the Book of the Dead records the earthly method used in discovering heavenly mysteries of the hereafter, concealed in words and symbols that themselves were hidden in tombs of the deceased.
The Book of the Dead carries some unusual narratives, with a curious reference to ‘those who live among the stars’. Another passage spoke of a specific knowledge that enabled those in its possession to ‘reach the vault of the sky’. The whole of Egyptian theology is clothed in mysterious statements and it will be revealed that its arcane writings and secrets in architecture were originally and purposely intended for a great and noble purpose.
The Pyramid and the Bible
Without the Great Pyramid and the mysterious Book of Thoth, there would be no Bible today, simply because the very essence of the hidden information evolved at the Great Pyramid. In church dictionaries, that statement is not corroborated but the result of this work shows the entire primary function of the Great Pyramid was directly responsible for the coming into being of both Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
The Great Pyramid is supreme among the wonders of antiquity, although now a poor reflection of its original grandeur. Herodotus (c. 484-430 BC), a highly regarded historian who traveled to Egypt in 449 BC, gave the earliest recorded eyewitness description of the structure and other marvels that surrounded it. What today stands as ruins, he saw in something of their original splendor and even then, the unique nature of the complex probably seemed but a distant memory to him. Herodotus is often called the Father of History and the World’s First Travel Writer. He was born at Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor, and traveled widely, living first at Samos and later at Athens. Herodotus was the first to carry on research into events of the past and treat them in a rational rather than a mythical manner. He had immense respect for the wisdom of Egypt and was personally initiated by high priests of the temple hierarchy. He spoke of the mystery of the Great Pyramid and what he learnt there with great reverence:
I impose upon myself a profound silence in regard to the secret of the Mysteries of which I am acquainted. I know the whole course of the proceedings in these ceremonies, but they shall not pass my lips.
There were no guidebooks and few recorded histories in the days of Herodotus. He started on his travels armed with a ready intelligence, a lively wit, and an insatiable curiosity to see, hear and record what was happening in the world, and to learn from others the story of the past. His primary informants were senior members of the high Egyptian priesthood who held the reputation as guardians of superior wisdom. Because of the respect they maintained for Herodotus, they shared with him their age-old Temple knowledge, and read to him from records of great antiquity. It was from Herodotus’ documentation that the world learnt what upper-level Egyptian priests knew of Egypt’s remote past preceding the Fifth Century BC, and much of that long-silent information is noted in this book.
The thesis provided in this work presents the spiritual side of the Great Pyramid and supports long-held contentions preserved in ancient traditions that it was not planned and built as a tomb for a Pharaoh. Those traditions claimed that the Great Pyramid was a place designed and used exclusively for holy encounters. Whether incidentally, or coincidentally, those traditions also said it was built as a monument for the preservation of wisdom and an everlasting prophet for the future. The Great Pyramid is connected with the same intelligence that fashioned the Sphinx and those creations were not built at random, but followed a definite structural plan both above and below the ground. For that reason, this work does not become involved in, or deal exhaustively, with the mechanical, engineering, scientific or other features of the design and structure of the Great Pyramid, except as far as they cast light on its spiritual symbolism and its practical usefulness in accordance to the thesis referred to above.
However, the important point is that whoever built the Great Pyramid was directly responsible for the Secret in the Bible that was subsequently, and intentionally, encoded into the original Torah. The word ‘Torah’ means ‘instruction’ or ‘guidance’ and is used in both singular and plural form. It is the original name of the first five books of the Old Testament, those being Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is those (now) five books that are of primary interest in this study for therein ‘lies hidden in every detail thereof’ (The Book of Zohar; the Book of Splendor of the Cabalist writings), the concealed secret knowledge.
In any discussion revealing the secret in the Torah, it is vital to mention that it was expressed in its original form as one unbroken scroll, not as a series of five separate books with pages like today, but as a large continuous parchment that was unrolled in one long piece. At what precise time the first part of the Bible was restructured from a single scroll into separate books and called the Pentateuch (Greek, meaning Penta {five}) is a question not yet settled. The word Pentateuch was used for the first time in recorded history in a letter to Flora by the Valentinian Ptolemy (Epip; Haer; XXXIII; IV, pg. XLI, 560), variously dated between 150–75 BC.
The importance of the Torah
In this work, it is of utmost importance to refer to the early books of the Old Testament as the Torah and stay with its original Scroll form. In that respect, the Zohar is a document presuming to be of great antiquity and ascribing its authorship to the Palestinian Tanna Simeon ben Yokai (Second Century) in the dialect of whose time the book was written. Of the Torah, it stated:
… each word of the Torah contains an elevated meaning and a sublime mystery. The simple take notice only of the garments or recitals of the Torah, they know no other thing, they see not that which is concealed under the vestments. The more instructed men do not pay attention to the vestment, but to the body which it envelops (Quabbalah, Vol. iii; folio 1526, pg. 102, quoted in Myers).
Only few people know the Secret of the Torah and even less know how it originated. Samuel (d. c. 254), head of the rabbinic school of Nehardea, sent a certain Rabbi Johanan (an Initiate) thirty-nine camel loads of written questions about the Torah in a desperate attempt to discover the Secret hidden within it. His requests went unanswered. Many early presbyters did not question or realize the importance of the Torah and regarded it as nothing more than a collection of symbolic fables. Origen (185-251), one of the shining lights of early Christianity, exclaimed: ‘If we hold to the letter, and must understand what stands written in the Torah after the manner of the Jews and common people, then I should blush to confess aloud that if it is God who has given these laws; then the laws of men appear more excellent and reasonable’. Of the Creation narratives in the Book of Genesis, Origen asked, in a fit of indignation:
What man of sense will agree with the statement the first, second and third days in which the evening is named and the morning, were without sun, moon and stars and the first day without a heaven? What man is found such an idiot as to suppose that God planted trees in Paradise, in Eden, like a husbandman? I believe that every man must hold these things for images, under which the hidden sense lies concealed (Huet, Origen, Origeniana, 167).
Origen clearly did not believe the account of Creation in Genesis yet millions of people in all ages believed every word of the Bible was unchallengeable, but he was right when he reasoned that ‘the hidden sense lies concealed’ below the surface. When Paul’s unequivocal statement in Galatian’s (4: 22-25) that the Torah’s story of Abraham and his two sons was ‘an allegory’, then little blame can be attached to any Christian who declines to accept the Bible in any other light than that of an ingenious allegory. However, it is more than ‘an allegory’, that being only a conventional explanation of what it really is.
A modern day printing of the Torah in any language, including Hebrew, is of no value in establishing the Secret in the Bible. All references to the Torah in this book are to the original handwritten versions and the reason for that shall become apparent as this work proceeds. Those particular Torahs are the same letter-for-letter reproduction as the original text and the author of this book was privileged to have had access to a 2000 year-old version for research. There is nothing like it in the history of literature or religion and in that respect, the handwritten Scroll stands indisputably in a class by itself.
For centuries, copying the Torah Scroll was made exactly in accordance with ancient regulations regarding tradition, namely written by hand, without vocalization, according to a prescribed arrangement of 49 vertical lines and sections and published by means of dependable materials. It was rigidly forbidden to have pictorial decorations on any Scroll and for ‘those who know’ (Zohar), every detail of the writing (or copying) was laid down to the minutest detail. The lineation, the division into columns and text (7 x 7), the margins and borders, the binding up of the individual parchment sheets into Scrolls by means of thongs (Isa. 34:4), and the division and adornments of letters, were all strictly controlled. Those tasks were undertaken with extreme care, providing painstakingly executed handwritten Scrolls from behind locked doors.
To preserve the Secret, and with loving care and sacred devotion, generations of rabbinic scribes jealously guarded every letter of the Torah Scroll. Detailed rules were laid down in order to ensure that reproductions of the Torah should be free from human error. If one tiny mistake was made, that particular copy was ceremoniously buried, for it carried within it the divine name of God and as such, destruction was forbidden. In the year 50, a Roman soldier desecrated a Torah Scroll and the popular outcry was so great that the Governor had him beheaded (Jewish War, Josephus, Book 2, Chapter 12, Sect. 2). Such was the respect for that extraordinary old text.
The institution of reading the Torah Scroll was indeed very old, and the first reference to a public reading was carried in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah (8) when the high priest, Ezra, read from the Torah at an assembly of people in the year 397 BC. The congregation thereupon obligated itself to the observance of the laws of life and how it was to be lived, as written in the 613 commandments in the Torah. With the rise of Judaism in the 19th Century, and the advance of the historical critical approach to the Bible, many Jewish intellectuals saw it, at least in part, as an exclusive moral, political and religious law of one particular body of people. That was probably so with a surface reading, but there is much more to the Torah than that and whileas it was (and is) read as narratives, its deep meaning is not at the story level.
The Rabbis ‘who knew’ had a profound and extensive knowledge of every word, jot and tittle (decoration of letters) of the handwritten Torah. The statement in the Talmud that the Soferim (a specific class of scribes) were so called because they counted every letter of the Torah, expressed only the mechanical aspect of their intense preoccupation with the text. Every word, every expression, was made the subject of intense study, the reason being that they knew, and were preserving, the sacred Secret information originally concealed in those writings.
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