Douglas - Section 11, 12

<Section #11> Clay Douglas states: “Paul publicly claimed to be a ‘Pharisee of the Pharisees.’ He also claimed to be the son of a Pharisee. Additionally, Paul said that he was ‘of the Tribe of Benjamin.’ Whichever account you believe to be true does not make a difference. In either case, he is a liar. If Paul was a Pharisee, he would have been of authentic Edomite/Canannite [sic] stock. ... The family bloodline of Benjamin was Shemite (non-Jewish). It was a (Saxon) Israelite Tribe from the family bloodline of Issac [sic] through the paternal line of Israel. You can be one but not the other. Pharisees, or the ruling Jewish (Edomite) religious and governmental entity at that time in history, did not ‘recruit’ from Israelite tribes. It was a ‘supremacist’ clan, i.e. ‘Edomite tribe only.’ If Paul was truly a Benjamite (Southern Tribes, Isaac/Israel), then he was lying when he claimed to be a (former) Pharisee.”

In reply to section <#11>: Oh the lies which Douglas spouts here, and the audacity he has to call Paul a liar at the same time! Yet he offers not one ancient citation or an iota of historic evidence with which to support his claims! Not one! Such is the method of a novelist, and not of a historian. The slightest examination proves to a rational mind that Clayton Douglas is a liar, and not Paul. The historian Flavius Josephus discusses the three sects among the Judaeans “at this time” in the days of the high priest Jonathan, the same man found at 1 Maccabees 12:1 ff., which were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, at Antiquities 13:5:9 (13:171-173). This is some years before the recorded conquest of the Edomites by the Judaeans, recorded at Antiquities 13:9:1 (13:254-258), which was done by the later high priest Hyrcanus. In Antiquities 13:10 (13:270 ff.) Josephus mentions the Pharisees and their general opposition to Hyrcanus at length. So it is apparent that the sect of the Pharisees was prominent in Judaea long before any Edomites had the chance to gain political influence there, a situation which did not fully develop until after 80 B.C.!

In Josephus’ description of these three sects in Wars 2:8:2 (2:119-121) only the Essenes are described as racial separatists, being a “Judaean by birth” a requirement for membership, and not the Pharisees or Sadducees. In his autobiographical Life at 1:1 (1-6), Josephus records his own genealogy and shows that he was a Levite. Josephus then tells us that he was an Essene for a time (Life 2, 10-12), but settled upon following the Pharisees. There were other “good” Pharisees mentioned in the New Testament, such as Gamaliel and Nicodemus. Nicodemus was certainly no Edomite! See the accounts concerning him at John 3:1 ff.; 7:50 (where he is recorded as defending Christ before the high priests who wanted to kill Him); and at 19:39, where John tells us that he assisted Joseph of Arimathea (who was on the council, the “sanhedrin”, and who was likely also a Pharisee) with the body of Yahshua after the crucifixion. Here it should be absolutely apparent that Clayton Douglas, flippantly spouting accusations and offering no proof to back them up, is a liar!

While the word “Pharisee” surely does come from a Hebrew word which means “to separate”, the word was used only in the sense of religious, and not racial, separatism. Strong defines “Pharisee” in his Greek dictionary “a separatist, i.e. exclusively religious” (see #5330). This surely is obvious since the sect existed before the Edomites were absorbed into Judaea and Judaism! Christ condemned the Pharisees for traveling “sea and land to make one proselyte”, hardly necessary to find a willing Edomite! The Talmud attests that the Pharisees were converting people of all races into Judaism at the earliest times, for which see John Lightfoot’s A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, volume 2, pp. 55-63. Clayton Douglas? He is a liar! There is no doubt, from the historical record, that one may have been both a Pharisee and of the tribe of Benjamin. The Pharisees were only one of several religious sects, and it was quite normal for an ambitious young man who wanted to have a voice in the governance of his nation to join one of those sects. While today we live in a so-called “secular” society, the sects in Judaea were not much different functionally than the political parties of today.

 <Section #12> Clay Douglas states: “... Paul/Saul was a Roman citizen who was born around the turn of the century 2000 years ago in Tarsus, Cilicia. The country of Cilicia was located at the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia and the adjoining nations of Syria and Phoenicia on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea were all under the rule of the Roman Empire. The remaining country which bordered the ‘Sea’ on the east was Palestine, which joined Phoenicia on the south. Palestine was also under the rule of Rome. Rome, very nicely, controlled all of her acquired territory by using native puppet kings who were subservient to Rome. Saul was well educated and highly trained as a Roman citizen, though he was an Turco-Armenian by birth. He and his family were well known Pharisees of Tarsus. He spoke several languages as well as Latin, the language of the ‘empire.’ Early in his life he became a Roman soldier, and because of his nationality, he was placed in Jerusalem as a key person to both understand and help control the native Palestinians.”

In reply to section <#12>: While Douglas has some of his geography right, Syria and Phoenicia were never properly “nations”, but only geographical entities demarcated for the purpose of governmental administration, separated by the natural boundary of the Lebanon Mountains. A nation is properly composed of a single people of a common race, history, government and language and is not but a mere geographical or geopolitical unit. A government ruling diverse peoples is an empire, and this is true even when the peoples governed are of the same general race, as with the German Reichs, or empires. “Palestine” was a loose geographic term and never used to designate any particular province.

Tarsus, in Cilicia, according to Strabo in his Geography was originally built by the Assyrians, and he cites an inscription “in Assyrian letters” which stated as much (14.5.9). Strabo explains that the city which occupied the site in Greco-Roman times was founded by Argives (14.5.12), and while this is shrouded in myth, there is no doubt from Strabo’s account that Tarsus is a Greek city. The Geographer states at 14.5.13: “The people at Tarsus have devoted themselves so eagerly, not only to philosophy, but also to the whole round of education in general, that they have surpassed Athens, Alexandria, or any other place that can be named where there have been schools and lectures of philosophers. But it is so different from other cities that there the men who are fond of learning are all natives, and foreigners are not inclined to sojourn there; neither do these natives stay there, but they complete their education abroad, and when they have completed it they are pleased to live abroad, and but a few go back home ... Further, the city of Tarsus has all kinds of schools of rhetoric; and in general it not only has a flourishing population but also is most powerful, thus keeping up the reputation of the mother-city [Tarsus]”. Is it no wonder that Paul had such an excellent classical education, and called himself “a citizen of no mean city” (Acts 21:39)?

Now Cilicia itself was originally colonized by the Phoenicians, and those of Cilicia originally called themselves Hypachaeans, according to Herodotus (7.91). Now it should be no surprise that these people should take well to Greek culture and learning, since in Homer’s time Greece itself was said to be colonized largely by Phoenicians, along with the Danaans (tribe of Dan) said to come from Egypt, and Homer called those people Achaeans. As George Rawlinson notes in his edition of Herodotus, “The Cilicians were undoubtedly a kindred race to the Phoenicians”, meaning the ancient Phoenicians, which, as can certainly be established, were indeed the northern tribes of Israel.

Strabo wrote before 25 A.D., the year in which he is believed to have died, and only a few years before Paul. To call Paul of Tarsus a “Turco-Armenian by birth” is utterly ridiculous, since the Turks, an eastern Asiatic tribe of obscure origins, did not appear in or west of Mesopotamia for another thousand or so years! The Turks, invading from further Asia, conquered Baghdad in 1055 A.D., and invaded Asia Minor in 1071 A.D. This major gaffe alone exposes Douglas’ absolute ignorance of history, which he is by no means qualified to write about.

Armenia too, until the invasions of Arabs, Turks and Mongols, was a land inhabited by the white races. Where Herodotus tells us that the Scythians conquered all of Asia (1.104), Strabo identifies them geographically with “Greater Armenia”, (11.13.5). A large part of Armenia was called Sacasene, named for the Sacae who dwelt there (11.8.4). Herodotus affirms that the Sacae were indeed the Scythians (7.64), as does Strabo (7.3.9), who goes on to describe Iberia, the country north of Armenia, and says that the Iberians are “both neighbors and kinsmen” of the Scythians (11.3.3). Surely the Israelites who were deported by the Assyrians had called one of their first lands “Iberia”, just as the Israelite Phoenicians who settled old Spain had first called that land “Iberia”, because “Iberi” is “Hebrews” in Hebrew, whom they all were! So again, Douglas’ ignorance is wholly manifest. How many other false impressions and historical untruths does he spout forth daily?

Douglas states that early in Paul’s life “he became a Roman soldier, and because of his nationality, he was placed in Jerusalem”, and here he becomes a novelist, for not one iota of historical evidence is cited to support such a claim! And in fact, Douglas only knows that Paul’s “family were well known Pharisees of Tarsus” by guessing the “well known” part, and by Paul’s own statements in Acts 23:6. Why does Douglas choose to believe only some of Paul’s statements, and of those only the ones he can use against him! Just like a government prosecutor, Clayton Douglas is a liar and a hypocrite! Surely Paul was a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee (Acts 23:6), and an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin (Ph’p. 3:5) just as Josephus was a Pharisee, and an Israelite of the tribe of Levi.