THE IGBO ORIGIN OF THE HEBREW NAME OF GOD
Igbo generic word iyi ‘water’, ‘river’ or ‘sea’ appears to have been the foundational etymon of the Canaanite religion and to have given birth not only to the names of the major rivers in Palestine, but to the names of God in the Canaanite, Judaic and Cretan/Greek religions. Thus we have the root word Yam ‘sea’ being the title of the sea god Poseidon of Greece and Crete and of the Canaanite/Syrian god Sidon or Seth of the Hyksos and the Egyptians, sounding like a cognate of the Igbo phrase Iyi Oma meaning ‘The Glorious Sea’). The Nag Hammadi, which extols the name Seth as the name of the seed of the true Adam, also maintains that the nature of God is in the flowing waters and that Adam’s son, “Seth … instituted the holy baptism that surpasses heaven by means of the incorruptible one, begotten by the Word, the Living Jesus, with whom great Seth had been clothed”. Jesus and Seth are titled “Yesseus … living water … eternal being … Child, ES ES …” and the book in question is named “The Egyptian Gospel, a holy secret book, written by God … Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, ICH-THYS” (Quoted from The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, The Nag Hammadi, p. 265-269). “Yesseus … living water” a vernacular reference to Jesus, coincides with Igbo Iyi-Eshi – Waters of Eshi, while the references to the Savior as “Child, ES ES” sound like Igbo expression Eshi-Eshi.
Of the six main rivers in Palestine, four: Jordan River, Yarkon River, Yarmuk River and Jabbok River bear prefixes rooted in the Igbo etymon Iyi (river): Jordan, a possible cognate of Igbo Iyi Odu Ani ‘River at the Earth’s Bottom’ flows from the Dead Sea rift, reputed to be the lowest point below sea level on earth, at a depth of minus 3280 feet! In name and in location it fits the Igbo phrase Iyi Odu Ani. Likewise, Litani River rising from Mount Hermon, Palestine’s highest peaks (9232 ft above sea level) seems to have taken its name from the Igbo word Nlite-Ani which means ‘from the earth’s rising peaks’! Again a total match! Yarmuk River and Jabbok River would thus translate as Iyi ama okwu ‘the sea knows no disputes’ and Iyi abu Okwu ‘the river causes no disputes’. These names reflect the long years of communal strife in Palestine during which opposing camps shared the same water sources. The Igbo linguistic roots of these names also indicate the antiquity of Igbo/Canaanite presence in Palestine, since it is usually the autochthonous inhabitants who name the rivers. These findings help to reinforce our thesis of a global Mega Igbo community that brought the first language, the first culture and the first human civilizations worldwide.
Basic words from the Hebrew Cabbala/Qabbala also reflect Igbo roots. The most important word in Hebrew Cabbala is Sephirot. Sephirot (singular form is Sephirah) is a word that defines the manifestations of the deity. The word, which means ‘expressions of God’ is derived from Hebrew saper (to tell, to declare or express God) could have derived from Igbo phrase sapu ire/sape eri (loosen the tongue/speak forth about the god Eri); Hebrew vernacular word Qabbala means ‘tradition’, Igbo equivalent Kwu-ba ala means ‘restore tradition’. There are ten Sephirot, the fourth of which is named Tipheret, ‘Beauty’, ‘Adornment’. It could have been derived from Igbo tie-efe ‘to dress up’, ‘to adorn’.
The Nag Hammadi Scripture’s definition of God is in two phases: The invisible, unknowable, unutterable One who is neither male nor female, and about which nothing is known nor can be said beheld himself in and revealed Itself/Himself only to “the light surrounding Him, which is the spring of living water (that) provides all the realms… his image … the Spring of the Spirit … (and he) became enamored to (this) luminous water, for his image is in the luminous water surrounding him” (p. 110, The Secret Book of John). This thought, this image became a reality and shone forth from the unknowable one to become the “First power who preceded everything … the Mother-Father, the First Human (First Adam), the Holy Spirit, the Triple Power (Trinity), the androgynous One who is at once Parent and child, and whose three names begin with n as in Igbo – nne [Mother], nna [Father], nwa [Child].
This second Phase-Divinity is the only Knowable God, the God that has revealed itself to humanity. Nag Hammadi calls this aspect of God, “She – the Mother-Father”, and as we have seen, her nature is luminous water, spring of living water, flowing water.
Though current Igbo culture recognizes the flowing water as a deity, the aspect of water as the Great invisible Spirit of God (Chukwu) appears to have been lost in antiquity, though evidence that this belief once existed can be gleaned from the fact that in Igbo culture the great ancestral spirits of the masquerade are said to have their home in the sea ‘Iyi Owu’. Likewise, in Canaanite culture, names for rivers and for God are rooted in the Igbo etymon Iyi as in El-yon (Most High God), Igbo Elu-Iyi (High Waters); Greek word Yahweh from Hebrew/Canaanite Ieue, (The Self Existent) is a cognate of Igbo Iyi-Owe/Iyi Onwe (The Self Existent Waters). The Cabbala name for the Unknowable God from whom emanated the Father and all other Sephirah is Ein Sof or Ein Sofor (‘The Concealed Fountain/Spring’), Igbo Iyi Nso Ofor (the Concealed/Forbidden Fountain of Power). Greek ‘Messiah’ from Canaanite Mashiah, Igbo Mma Eshi Iyi (the Glorious Son of the Sun, Luminous Living Water); Cabbala - Yihudim (‘unifications’ of the names of God’) is equivalent to Igbo -Iyi aha dum (the Waters/God in whom unite all names).
The Cabbala says that Adam’s Fall was a breaking/smashing to pieces of the unity of the Godhead and that the process of restoration, “repair” or “fixing” of Adam’s scattered soul, or of restoring the original unity of the universe, is called Tikkun (E. Prophet, Kabbala, Ibid., p. 152-153). Igbo equivalent of Tikkun is tiko-onu meaning ‘unite -’, ‘bind -’, ‘join separate parts together’! The universal pre-eminence of the Tikkun/Tikonu philosophy is expressed in the Igbo Eucharistic symbolism embedded in the ritual of the kola nut (Oji), a seed whose divided lobes always stick together. Whenever the Kola is broken and shared in Igbo land, the ritual is done with the highest reverence and equanimity; with incantations intoning the spirit of unity, one Life, one Love, one God and one Igbo God-race. Oji is the embodiment, not just the symbol, but the spirit, of Life and Love, which is God. Oji is older than the Christian Eucharistic bread of the Hindu and the Hebrew which was only introduced after bread was invented. With all that has been said, it goes without saying that Igbo Eucharist is the precursor of the Christian Eucharis! It is the remembrance of the Eternal Union and the Eternal Day when the Igbo lived in the Eternal Light of the Great Invisible God.
The 8,000 B.C. canoe unearthed in Yobe State was built by Igbo.
The fact that Sub-Saharan Africa was technically isolated from the rest of the world, yet developed its own Metal Age at an indeterminate period in human history, would tend to suggest that Black Africa was most likely the world’s first inventors of metal-working. A dug-out canoe unearthed in Yobe State, Nigeria by German archaeologists from the university of Frankfurt, was dated 8,000 B.C. – ten thousand years ago, a mere two thousand year after the Deluge! This points to the use of metal implements in the early Neolithic period in Sub-Saharan Africa, and supports our thesis that the Canaan metallurgists were Black Africans and that the invention of metal was an African first! 8,000 B.C is so close to the date of the Flood of Noah, that one must conclude that West Africans worked metal in the Pre-Deluge period. Most likely the Yobe boat might have been sunk by the Deluge! In fact The Book of Enoch (Prophet, Forgotten Mysteries of Enoch, p. 427) records that Ham built a city immediately after the Deluge and named it after his wife – Ne elatama’uk,(In Igbo Ne-eleta m ukwu means ‘the one who nurtures my heaps’.) sparking off jealousy among his brothers, who then tried to imitate him. This portrays Ham (the father of the Black Africans) as the master technologist of the human family since no one can build a city without the use of metal implements. In Igbo Ne-eleta m ukwu means ‘the one who nurtures my heaps’.
Of the six main rivers in Palestine, four: Jordan River, Yarkon River, Yarmuk River and Jabbok River bear prefixes rooted in the Igbo etymon Iyi (river): Jordan, a possible cognate of Igbo Iyi Odu Ani ‘River at the Earth’s Bottom’ flows from the Dead Sea rift, reputed to be the lowest point below sea level on earth, at a depth of minus 3280 feet! In name and in location it fits the Igbo phrase Iyi Odu Ani. Likewise, Litani River rising from Mount Hermon, Palestine’s highest peaks (9232 ft above sea level) seems to have taken its name from the Igbo word Nlite-Ani which means ‘from the earth’s rising peaks’! Again a total match! Yarmuk River and Jabbok River would thus translate as Iyi ama okwu ‘the sea knows no disputes’ and Iyi abu Okwu ‘the river causes no disputes’. These names reflect the long years of communal strife in Palestine during which opposing camps shared the same water sources. The Igbo linguistic roots of these names also indicate the antiquity of Igbo/Canaanite presence in Palestine, since it is usually the autochthonous inhabitants who name the rivers. These findings help to reinforce our thesis of a global Mega Igbo community that brought the first language, the first culture and the first human civilizations worldwide.
Basic words from the Hebrew Cabbala/Qabbala also reflect Igbo roots. The most important word in Hebrew Cabbala is Sephirot. Sephirot (singular form is Sephirah) is a word that defines the manifestations of the deity. The word, which means ‘expressions of God’ is derived from Hebrew saper (to tell, to declare or express God) could have derived from Igbo phrase sapu ire/sape eri (loosen the tongue/speak forth about the god Eri); Hebrew vernacular word Qabbala means ‘tradition’, Igbo equivalent Kwu-ba ala means ‘restore tradition’. There are ten Sephirot, the fourth of which is named Tipheret, ‘Beauty’, ‘Adornment’. It could have been derived from Igbo tie-efe ‘to dress up’, ‘to adorn’.
The Nag Hammadi Scripture’s definition of God is in two phases: The invisible, unknowable, unutterable One who is neither male nor female, and about which nothing is known nor can be said beheld himself in and revealed Itself/Himself only to “the light surrounding Him, which is the spring of living water (that) provides all the realms… his image … the Spring of the Spirit … (and he) became enamored to (this) luminous water, for his image is in the luminous water surrounding him” (p. 110, The Secret Book of John). This thought, this image became a reality and shone forth from the unknowable one to become the “First power who preceded everything … the Mother-Father, the First Human (First Adam), the Holy Spirit, the Triple Power (Trinity), the androgynous One who is at once Parent and child, and whose three names begin with n as in Igbo – nne [Mother], nna [Father], nwa [Child].
This second Phase-Divinity is the only Knowable God, the God that has revealed itself to humanity. Nag Hammadi calls this aspect of God, “She – the Mother-Father”, and as we have seen, her nature is luminous water, spring of living water, flowing water.
Though current Igbo culture recognizes the flowing water as a deity, the aspect of water as the Great invisible Spirit of God (Chukwu) appears to have been lost in antiquity, though evidence that this belief once existed can be gleaned from the fact that in Igbo culture the great ancestral spirits of the masquerade are said to have their home in the sea ‘Iyi Owu’. Likewise, in Canaanite culture, names for rivers and for God are rooted in the Igbo etymon Iyi as in El-yon (Most High God), Igbo Elu-Iyi (High Waters); Greek word Yahweh from Hebrew/Canaanite Ieue, (The Self Existent) is a cognate of Igbo Iyi-Owe/Iyi Onwe (The Self Existent Waters). The Cabbala name for the Unknowable God from whom emanated the Father and all other Sephirah is Ein Sof or Ein Sofor (‘The Concealed Fountain/Spring’), Igbo Iyi Nso Ofor (the Concealed/Forbidden Fountain of Power). Greek ‘Messiah’ from Canaanite Mashiah, Igbo Mma Eshi Iyi (the Glorious Son of the Sun, Luminous Living Water); Cabbala - Yihudim (‘unifications’ of the names of God’) is equivalent to Igbo -Iyi aha dum (the Waters/God in whom unite all names).
The Cabbala says that Adam’s Fall was a breaking/smashing to pieces of the unity of the Godhead and that the process of restoration, “repair” or “fixing” of Adam’s scattered soul, or of restoring the original unity of the universe, is called Tikkun (E. Prophet, Kabbala, Ibid., p. 152-153). Igbo equivalent of Tikkun is tiko-onu meaning ‘unite -’, ‘bind -’, ‘join separate parts together’! The universal pre-eminence of the Tikkun/Tikonu philosophy is expressed in the Igbo Eucharistic symbolism embedded in the ritual of the kola nut (Oji), a seed whose divided lobes always stick together. Whenever the Kola is broken and shared in Igbo land, the ritual is done with the highest reverence and equanimity; with incantations intoning the spirit of unity, one Life, one Love, one God and one Igbo God-race. Oji is the embodiment, not just the symbol, but the spirit, of Life and Love, which is God. Oji is older than the Christian Eucharistic bread of the Hindu and the Hebrew which was only introduced after bread was invented. With all that has been said, it goes without saying that Igbo Eucharist is the precursor of the Christian Eucharis! It is the remembrance of the Eternal Union and the Eternal Day when the Igbo lived in the Eternal Light of the Great Invisible God.
The 8,000 B.C. canoe unearthed in Yobe State was built by Igbo.
The fact that Sub-Saharan Africa was technically isolated from the rest of the world, yet developed its own Metal Age at an indeterminate period in human history, would tend to suggest that Black Africa was most likely the world’s first inventors of metal-working. A dug-out canoe unearthed in Yobe State, Nigeria by German archaeologists from the university of Frankfurt, was dated 8,000 B.C. – ten thousand years ago, a mere two thousand year after the Deluge! This points to the use of metal implements in the early Neolithic period in Sub-Saharan Africa, and supports our thesis that the Canaan metallurgists were Black Africans and that the invention of metal was an African first! 8,000 B.C is so close to the date of the Flood of Noah, that one must conclude that West Africans worked metal in the Pre-Deluge period. Most likely the Yobe boat might have been sunk by the Deluge! In fact The Book of Enoch (Prophet, Forgotten Mysteries of Enoch, p. 427) records that Ham built a city immediately after the Deluge and named it after his wife – Ne elatama’uk,(In Igbo Ne-eleta m ukwu means ‘the one who nurtures my heaps’.) sparking off jealousy among his brothers, who then tried to imitate him. This portrays Ham (the father of the Black Africans) as the master technologist of the human family since no one can build a city without the use of metal implements. In Igbo Ne-eleta m ukwu means ‘the one who nurtures my heaps’.