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Joseph,
Talking with the Angel about the Fate of Miriam and the Conception of Jesus
“Out of Egypt, I will Bring My Son”- The Mystery of Cleopatra of Jerusalem
The Ancestors of Jesus in First and Second Century Judea BCE
By Robert Mock M.D.
January 2008
Book One
Chapter Five
Matthew 2:14 – “Then he (Joseph) arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” (Hosea 11:1)
Topics
Jacob ben Mattan, the Patriarch of Jerusalem and Cleopatra of Jerusalem
The Babylonian Ancestry of Patriarch Jacob and Governor Nehemiah
37 BCE - The Restoration of the non-Jewish Davidian Lineages and High Priests of Zadok
Prince Shammai, the “Eighteen Measures” and the Split of the Pharisees
32 BCE – The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacob ben Matthan
Wives of Prince Jacob (Ya’akov ben Matthan)
30 BCE - The Arrival of the Royal Princess of Egypt and Rome, Cleopatra of Jerusalem
Husbands of Princess Cleopatra VIII
The Mystery of Cleopatra of Jerusalem - Reputed Posthumous Daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII
Cleopatra VII – The Last Pharaoh of Egypt
Cleopatra’s Royal Visit to Rome
Battle of Actium - The Final War of the Roman Republic
The Fall of the Greek Ptolemaic Empire
The Consequences of Cleopatra’s Royal Visit to Rome
The Marriages and Children of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Lineages
Wives of Prince Jacob (Ya’akov ben Matthan)
Husbands of Princess Cleopatra VIII
The Marriages and Children of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Jacob ben Mattan, the Patriarch of Jerusalem and Cleopatra of Jerusalem
It was in the year of 30 BCE, that the newly inaugurated
Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacob ben Matthan,
was sent as Herod the Great’s emissary to Alexandria Egypt
with 3000 Jewish troops. It was to be Herod’s token of fealty
to the one he prognosticated to be the next ruler of Rome.
How important this decision was to be. Octavian ended up not being the future
Dictator of Rome, but the future Augustus
Caesar. As such, he transformed Rome from a contender
for world domination to becoming the Empire for the entire
then known world. Though the historical information is
circumstantial, as the last gasps of Imperial Egypt were now
fading into history with the suicidal deaths of the Roman triumvir Mark Antony and the last Pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra VII, the fate
of her children had to be decided by the new conqueror, the
future, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus.
The Bust of Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Sixteen years before (46 BCE), Queen Cleopatra VII was at the height of her political career, as she arrived in Rome. In her imperial dreams, Cleopatra felt that she was destined to become the future wife of Julius Caesar, and the future Queen of Rome. With a dynastic marriage, the two strongest nations of the world would weld a imperial empire, potentially unrivaled in world history. Her political dreams would be destroyed in 44 BCE with the assassination of Julius Caesar, for he would be no longer her protector. Not only that, Julius Caesar never did publically acknowledge “their” son, Caesarion, neither did Caesar publically acclaim him as his legitimate son in Rome, nor legally proclaim Caesarion as his political successor, or potential successor in his will.
Only seven years before the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacob ben Mattan was sent to Alexandria, in the year of 37 BCE, a certain Boethus was inaugurated to be the 37th High Priest of Israel by Herod the Great. According to Flavius Josephus, we learn of this august citizen of Alexandria.
Flavius Josephus – “There was one Simon, a citizen of Jerusalem, the son of one Boethus, a citizen of Alexandria, and a priest of great note there.” (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XV,ix,3)
Here we are introduced to a new family, and the evidence of the return of a major dynasty of the Jewish people; the return of the high priestly dynasty of the House of Zadok. Simon was one of seven sons of a priest in Alexandria, Egypt called Boethus ben Ananelus (Hananeel the Egyptian). They were living in exile in the land of Egypt. Near to the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria was constructed a Jewish temple at Leontopolis that was built to rival the temple of Jerusalem that had fallen under the usurped control of the Hasmonean rulers. It was the non-high priest, priestly family of the Maccabees, who anointed themselves to be the high priests. They in turn replaced or usurped the biblically authorized family dynastic rule of the descendants of Zadok, the high priest of King David.
It was in 171 BCE that the 46th co-High Priest of Israel Lysimachus was assassinated by the Jewish population. Lysias, the Viceroy of the Syrian ruler, Antiochus V Eupator, who represented the first foreign ruler to step in and prevent the ascension of a Jewish high priest. This intervention by a globalist ruler who was assisted by Judas Maccabee, prevented the inauguration of Onias V, the son of Onias III (44th High Priest), the revered high priest of Israel. Judas Maccabee reigned instead as the acting high priest from 165-162 BCE when he was deposed in 161 BCE by the Syrian King Demetrius and put Alcimus (Jakim) in as the 47th High Priest between the years of 162 to 153 BCE.
The House of Zadok
Onias II (42nd HP, d. 226 BCE)
(10th in descent from Seraiah, the last HP of Solomon’s Temple)
____________________________|_____________________
| | |
Simon II (43rd High Priest, d.198 BCE) Manasseh (41st High Priest) Judah In descent from Eniachin, the
| | 2nd son of Seriah, the last HP of
| | Solomon’s Temple
___|____________ ______|_______ |
| | | | |
Onias III Jason the Apostate Menelaus Lysimachus Alcimus
(44th High Priest) (45th High Priest) (Onias IV – 46thA HP) (46thB HP-killed by Jewish populous 171 BCE)
| |
Onias V |
(Deprived as the 47th HP by Lysias, Viceroy of Syrian King Antiochus V Eupator, the 1st ruler to depose a High
Priest – Onias V emigrated to Egypt-159 BCE and started a new Jewish Temple at Leontopolis, Egypt |
| |
Ananias (Exiled in Egypt) |
| |
Hananeel the Egyptian (Ananelus) – (reputed as One of the HPs who sacrificed the Red Heifer)
| |
Boethus (56th HP-37 BCE) Theophilus
______________________|___________________________________ |
| | | | | | | |
Ananelus Phabet (Fabi) Simon IV Joazar Eleazar Sethus Kantheras Matthias I
(57th HP) | (60th HP-23-19 BC) (Twice 62nd HP) (III, 63rd HP) (Sie) (Simon VI, 72nd HP) (61st HP)
___________ |________ | |
| | | | |
Yeshua III Eliam Ishmael Joseph II |
(59th HP-36-23 BCE) | (66th HP) (“Cabi”-78th HP) ____|_______
| Joseph Yeshua IV Ananus, the High Priest
3 Daughters (HP 1 day) (64th HP – 4 BCE) Patriarch of the Famed House of Ananus
Jane High Priest Who Instigated Yahshua’s Death
Elizabeth With his son-in-law, the High Priest, Caiphas
(H)anna (65th HP-6-15CE)
This High Priest Alcimus was a descendant from the 2nd son, Eniachin, of Saraiah, the last high priest in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, during the years of the exile when Jozadak, was the official “high priest in exile.
The Babylonian Ancestry of Patriarch Jacob and Governor Nehemiah
Who was this Jacob ben Mattan that suddenly became the favored of King Herod the Great? Tracing back five hundred years prior, according to the conventional dates of history, Governor Zerubabbel was the guest of his grandfather, King Jeconiah, who had only recently been released from prison and restored as the “favorite” in the court of the new king of Babylon, King Evil-Merodach, the son of King Nebuchadnezzar. With his father, Prince Shealtiel, the 2nd Exilarch of the Jews, they frequented the Palace of King Nebuchadnezzar, where the royal Babylonian family was in residence. There the young Prince Zerubabbel met the Babylonian princess, Amytis, who was to become his new child bride, in a dynastic wedding sealing the good relations between the Jews and the Babylonians.
The Babylonian King Evil-Merodach ruled for twenty two years, according to the Jewish calendar of history, and during these years, Prince Zerubabbel and his new Babylonian Princess bride, Amytis, had a son whom they named, Prince Sheshbazzar. Here was the ancestral forefather of Prince Jacob ben Matthan. The subsequent four hundred years were neither years of fame and political acclaim for the descendants of Prince Sheshbazzar, for his mother, Amytis would become an “accursed woman” in Jewish society because she was not a Jew and Prince Sheshbazzar was not born to a Jewish mother. We do not know whether Amytis accepted the God of Israel and became a member in heart, mind and soul with the Jewish people. What we do know is, because she was not born a Jew, and when she was recognized not as a “foreign wife” but a gentile “pagan wife”, she was forced to divorce her husband, Governor Zerubabbel. The governor had already accepted the responsibility to take the Jews back to Jerusalem and begin the reconstruction of the city of Jerusalem and the temple of Lord that had been destroyed there in 586 BCE. The consequences, according to some historians, were not only devastating to two thirds of his family, but it possibly proved to be fatal to his own life.
The descendants of Governor Zerubabbel and his Babylonian wife, Amytis, became known as an illegitimate or “bastard” lineage by the Torah decree of Ezra the Scribe who returned in the second aliyah (return) of the Jews near the completion or just after the dedication of the Temple of Zerubabbel. The new governance of the Jewish people was being established. This time, the Jewish people would be governed by a theocratic government under the religious rule of the Zadokian high priest dynasty with the religious clerics. The political rule would be under the Davidian dynasty of Princes of David who would become Governors of Judea and Patriarchs of Jerusalem. Though still beholden to the imperial nations that governed their political fate, the semi-governance of religious rule would continue. The Jews were beginning to learn how to become a “separated people”.
The ancestral family of Jacob ben Mattat would have limited political affect upon the Jewish life, as the Abuidite lineage of King David’s descendants was ostracized from Jewish political life. There were exceptions, for a famous Jewish Governor Nehemiah, who was sent over directly to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem were of the Abuidite Lineage also. His sons for three generations would have significant influence on the fledgling Jewish satrap of Persia. A later Jewish general Nearchus (Prince Neariah) with the forces of Alexander the Great around 330 BCE, would gain international attention, but for a whole, this Abuidite family of Davidian princes who were of the royal lineage of King Solomon were abandoned by their own Jewish people.
It was in 40 BCE when King Herod the Great was appointed by the Roman Senate to become the new “King of the Jews”. Born as an Idumean, near the land of Petra, Herod was not Jewish. To establish his seat of authority, he had to uproot and destroy the Hasmonean throne in Jerusalem that was currently ruled by King Antigonas and Queen Alexandra II. Around the year of 41 BCE, Herod, as the Governor of Judea, appointed his brother, Joseph IV (Yosef IV), to become the new Patriarch of Jerusalem in an unprecedented act of usurping this centuries old office that was officiated by the authorized lineage of the Princes of David. Joseph was later put in charge of the military protection of Herod’s Palace at fortress at Masada.
In the year 37 BCE, Joseph made the fateful decision to storm the grain depots at the Hasmonean palace and military fortress at Jericho and there was killed. Not only was he killed but King Antigonas came out of Jerusalem and in an act of defiance decapitated the head of Joseph. The Battle for Jerusalem was about to begin. Before it was over, Jerusalem would fall, King Antigonas would also be executed by beheading, this time by Mark Antony, the Roman triumvir in charge of the Eastern Provinces of Rome. Herod was now in complete control and the official “King of the Jews”.
37 BCE - The Restoration of the non-Jewish Davidian Lineages and High Priests of Zadok
That same year (37 BCE), the Great Sanhedrin was convened to discuss the marriage of King Herod with a Davidian Princess called “Sara” who later would be known in history as “Doris of Jerusalem”. During this great convocation, the fate of the all-Jewish lineages of the House of David was noted with its alarming consequences. They were rapidly approaching the “critical mass” of all becoming extinct. Without a Prince of David, the promise of a future messiah for the Jews would never be realized. Without the hope of a messiah, the fate or the destiny of the Jewish people could lead to their own extinction as a national people. So, at this august meeting, the Abuidite Lineage and the Rhesaite Lineage were approved to once again become legitimate Princes of Israel who could become the Governors of Judea and the Patriarchs of Jerusalem.
That same year (37 BCE), King Herod had also sent by courier to Alexandria Egypt the request or the order for the “noted priest of Alexandria” by the name of Boethus to return to the city of Jerusalem. Boethus was to reestablish in the Temple at Jerusalem, the high priest office by the family of the official dynasty of high priests, the House of Zadok, the high priest for King David. While King Herod had abrogated the rule of the Princes of David for the Nasi or President of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem for they were the established power of Jerusalem, while he was destroying the priest-king rule of the Hasmonean dynasty, he was also making preparations for the re-establishment of the official dynastic rule of the high priest for he, Herod, planned to take over the kingship and rule of Judea.
In the office of the Governor of Judea, the son of Joseph IV, Joseph V (Yosef V) was appointed, when his father was killed in battle (37 BCE). In this office, of which we have little history, he ruled between the years of 38 to 32 BCE. Then Joseph V died suddenly. He also died childless and the office of the Patriarchate in Jerusalem stood vacant. King Herod did not have a family member to appoint and party-political feuding suggested that the Princes of David were again reasserting their power and authority. Out of the fires of dissent there arose a new Prince of David, who would make his mark forever upon the minds of the Jewish people, Prince Shammai the Great.
Prince Shammai, the “Eighteen Measures” and the Split of the Pharisees
Prince Shammai was of the official Tobaidite Lineage, the second cousin of a Davidian rival to the throne of Herod, Simon V of Perea the hot-bed of nationalism in Judea. It is of interest that this family branch of the famed all-Jewish dynastic lineage of Prince Tobit, would soon become the last branch to disappear in Jewish history as all their sons and their lineages failed and became extinct.
Prince Shammai assumed the duties of the office as the Patriarch of Jerusalem in the year of 32 BCE. This would be a short lived one year tour of duty as Shammai appeared to be ousted from his office. It was in August 2006 the BibleSearchers Reflections posted the in depth research articles on “Divine Mission to bring the “Good News” to the Gentiles by the Jewish Noahide Laws” which specifically looked at the rise of the powerful rabbinic scholar and founder of the Rabbinic Seminary called Beit Shammai, Rabbi Shammai, which we have now identified as the Prince of David Shammai ben Shamaiah, the former Patriarch of Israel in the year of 32 BCE. When Prince Hillel the Great began his rule in 30 BCE as the Nasi or President of the Great Sanhedrin, his first Beit Av Din (Vice-President) of the Great Sanhedrin was Menahem the Essene. In the next ten years, Prince Shammai, was a member of the Sanhedrin. During these many years, conflicts and great debates began to arise between the disciples of Hillel and Shammai that eventually included almost three hundred and fifty debates that riveted and divided the Pharisees over the next hundred years.
As we noted above, it was about the year of 20 BCE, that in the home of Hananiah ben Hezekiah ben Gurion, the son of Hezekiah the founder of the Zealots, the two major camps of Pharisees, the Pharisees disciples of Beit Hillel (Seminary of Hillel the Great) and the Pharisee disciples of Beit Shammai (Seminary of Shammai the Great) met in a “neutral” environment to reach a compromise on the “Eighteen Measures” that was forming a great rift between these two schools of Pharisaic thought. BibleSearchers Reflections documented this era in the article titled, “Rabbi Harvey Falk defends “Jesus the Nazarene’s Mission to the Gentiles” when it wrote the following:
BibleSearchers Reflections – “It was the Jerusalem Talmud that compared the day the School of Shammai gained control over the Pharisee sect in Jerusalem and passed eighteen measures overruling Beit Hillel as troublesome as the day the Golden Calf was built. (Shabbat 17A) What was this edict of the eighteen measures? Early in the presidency of Rabbi Hillel the Elder, the Nasi of the Great Sanhedrin, the two great rabbinic schools of Hillel (Beit Hillel) and Shammai (Beit Shammai) began to consistently assume two opposing interpretations of the Oral Torah. Their formative years were between 30 CE when Hillel became the Prince of Israel and 20 CE, when Shammai became the Vice President of the Sanhedrin.
The “Eighteen Measures” were composed by the advocates or disciples of Shammai. They were rules or laws that were to create barriers between the Jews and the Gentiles, thus isolating with the hopes of protecting and preserving the Jewish people from the evil influence of the Hellenism and the global forces that sought to change Judaism to be like the rest of the world. These “measures” appeared to be a good idea as Judaism, as a culture, appeared to be under siege and threatened, like the Shabbatean crises in the 17th century, to destroy the foundation of Judaism itself. These controversies became the fodder for the great debates between the Pharisee disciples of Hillel and Shammai…
The date for the initiation of the eighteen measures is still a subject of scholarly debate. Since it was the most fundamental division between the two Pharisee schools of Hillel and Shammai, it would appear that it might have been the trigger for the eventual mass exodus of the 160 disciples of Hillel and Menahem the Essene to the wilderness to establish a religion for the Gentiles. According to the Tosafists (Shabbat 14B), both Hillel and Shammai were present during the debates. (Shabbat 17A and Tosefta Shabbat 1:8) These debates had to have been held before the death of Hillel in 10 CE, when Jesus was about seventeen years old.
Most scholars suggest that these debates occurred before the Common Era (BCE) and during the formative periods of both schools, predominately between 30 BCE and 20 BCE. The tensions were high between the two schools and a neutral ground was proposed; the home of Hananiah ben Hezekiah ben Gurion. He was best known for his scholarly work on the Book of Ezekiel, the leader of the synod that compiled the Hebrew Scriptures called the TaNaKh and the compiler of the “Megillat Ta’anit” the official Jewish scroll on the Jewish fasting days.
It was at Hananiah’s house, they had a retreat (Shabbat 13B) in the hopes that a private setting with a respected scholar would insure peace between the two schools. The problem was that Hananiah was biased. He was the son of Hezekiah, the founder of the Zealot Party that Josephus called a “bandit” and was executed by Herod the Great. It was the Zealots who were pushing for armed revolt against Rome, hated all Gentiles and maintained close ties with Shammai.
On the day that the first vote was taken on the “eighteen measures” several disciples of Hillel were killed by the disciples of Shammai, called the Beit Shammai. Whether it was the Beit Shammai, the Zealots or the assassin squads of the Zealots called the Sicarii (dagger men) is irrelevant. They were initially all closely affiliated. What was recognized in both Talmuds is that swords were permitted to be in the house of Hananiah on that day of infamy.
At the time of this great debate in 20 BCE, Princess Miriam, Prince Joseph, and the “twins” Princes Ptolas and Clopas were living in the residence of Hezekiah the Zealot.
32 BCE – The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacob ben Matthan
As Prince Shammai was exiting the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, suddenly there arose another newcomer in Jerusalem politics. The Prince of David, Jacob ben Matthat was now appointed by King Herod the Great in an interesting shift of Jerusalem politics in the same year of 32 BCE. For those looking for a motive for the animosity of Prince Shammai and the disciples of Beit Shammai with Rabbi Yehoshua, many decades later, that “seed” of hatred and jealousy against the family of Jesus may have arisen at this moment of time. It was the Pharisees of Beit Shammai who sought to destroy Yehoshua (Jesus) when He was in the city of Jerusalem during the festivals of the Lord. It was the Pharisees of Beit Shammai who collaborated with Ananias the Elder, the Patriarch of the Zadokian family of high priests called the House of Hanan who became “The Jews” who hung Yehoshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah) on the tree on the Mount called Olivet in hopes of ending His messianic career.
The Patriarchate of Jerusalem had been under the governance of the all-Jewish princes of David for over five hundred years. A notable exception to this trend was the appointment of Prince Nehemiah who came to Judea under the orders of the Persian Shah Artaxerses to supervise the construction of protective perimeter walls around Jerusalem. Prince Nehemiah was a descendant of the Jewish-Babylonian prince Sheshbazzar, the oldest son of the Governor Zerubabbel. Now another descendant of Prince Sheshbazzar would claim the office of the Patriarchate that had been denied to their family for half a millennium, Jacob ben Matthan.
Jacob was already married and established in the Jerusalem world of business. He first married Eucharia, a Jewish princess whose official lineage is not known. Together they had one child, a young daughter called Miriam. This Princess Miriam would later become the aunt to her brother, Joseph’s wife, the orphaned temple virgin Mary, who was a daughter of the Prince of David and the Hasmonean Prince Alexander III Helios known in the New Testament as “Heli”.
Wives of Prince Jacob (Ya’akov ben Matthan)
Patriarch of Jerusalem (32-23 BCE)
Executed by King Herod in 23 BCE
Two Wives of Prince Jacob
__________________|__________________
| |
Princess Euchariah Princess Cleopatra VIII
| “Cleopatra of Jerusalem”
| |
Princess Miriam (b. 35 BCE) Prince Joseph “the Carpenter” (b. 29 BCE)
m. Prince Theudas of the Pelatiahite anti-Kings m. Miriam the Mother of Yehoshua
A “Prophet” and “Elder of the Nazarenes The “Twins”
Prince Ptolas m. Escha, dau. of Joachim (b. 26 BCE)
Prince Clopas m. “the other Mary” (b. 26 BCE)
Princess Miriam would later become the wife of Prince Theudas, who was famous as the last of the anti-Princes and the eldest son of the anti-king Athronges. It was the Anti-King Athronges who became the last dynastic Patriarch of the Pelatiahite Lineage that once descended from the officially approved Jewish lineages of oldest son of Governor Zerubabbel and his 3rd Jewish wife, Esthra’s second son. Unfortunately in the Jewish society, before Ezra the Scribe arrived on the religious and political scene at Jerusalem, he had already married a “foreign” bride and their son, Prince Pelatiah, became an outcast of Jewish society. Over the centuries they became known as the “anti-kings” for they continuously rose to challenge the rule of the “approved” descendants of the Tobaidite and the Onaidite official lineages. The last of the Pelatiahites waged continuous warfare against the Romans and the Herodians that the Romans supported for three generations. The most famous were Prince Athronges and his five sons that included:
1. Theudas became a rabbi and leader in the Hebrew Nazarene Ecclesia. He no doubt served as an “elder” on the Nazarene Sanhedrin. In the traditions of the Early Christian Church, Theudas held the office of the “prophet” in the Jerusalem Synagogue was a member of Jesus’ (Yehoshua’s) appointed “Seventy Disciples” and was called by Josephus a “wizard” or “miracle worker” for the many miracles in which he performed.
Prince Theudas and many of his supporters fled from Jerusalem after the Sauline pogroms against the Jesus people by the future Apostle Paul before the year of 44 BCE, during the consulate of Cuspius Fadus, the Procurator of Rome, to the region of Perea on the “other side of the Jordan River”. There, sometime between 44 to 46 CE, they were massacred by the Roman forces. As a member of the Jesus’ family in Jerusalem, Miriam, Prince Joseph’s older half sister, became the mother with Prince Theudas of at least five sons and three daughters.
2. Amram became the father of Alexander the Zealot and grandfather of Aimar (50 CE). It is believed that Prince Aimar was the last of the Pelatiahite Line. He fled the Middle East about 50 CE to France, becoming as some genealogists proclaim to be the ancestor of a noted noble house in ancient feudal France that became the origin of the British House of the Bourbons, a lineage that became extinct when its last heiress married a native Gallo-Roman prince.
3. Hanibas was called Annibas,
4. Dinai became the father of Eleazar the Zealot, who was killed in 60 CE, the father of Moshi, who was executed in 60 CE, and
5. Perisha became the father of Tahinas “Asida” about 44-45 CE.
Prince Athronges, called “The Shepherd” carried the banner of Roman resistance when Simon V of Perea was killed by the Herodians when he sought to topple the throne of King Herod in 4 BCE. As the dynasties next male line heir, when the Meshullam Male-line descendants failed and became extinct in 4 BCE, this anti-King called “The Shepherd” carried forward the Jewish Resistance Movement against Rome. He took the diadem (crown) of King Herod that Simon V of Perea had placed in his head in Herod’s Palace and set up his council and began a war of attrition against the globalist imperial forces of Herod and his descendants. He was later killed in battle against the Herodians.
When Jacob, now as the official Patriarch of Jerusalem went to Alexandria Egypt, he went as an official diplomatic envoy taking military assistance to Octavian, the Roman ruler who would soon have total control of the then known world. The ascendency to the office of the Patriarchate quickly placed a wedge between the rising influence of the Abiudite family of Jacob and the dwindling political power of the Davidian princes of the Tobaidite all-Jewish lineages. The most politically powerful, it appears in this era was the Tobaidite defender, Prince Shammai.
As we scan the political history, understanding the omens that the political trends were forecasting, a new era of imperial control, the Hellenistic abuses that were encroaching on living the life of Torah (halakhah), the power struggles over the Davidian control of the throne of King David, and the renewed Zadokian control over the throne of the High Priest of Israel gives us plenty of thought for the battles; spiritually, religiously, politically, and socially that were yet to come.
We remember that in 37 BCE, in the bid to legitimize his marriage to a Davidian princess, “Sara” whom history will know as “Doris of Jerusalem”, King Herod called together the Great Sanhedrin for council. This was right in the midst of the Herodian and Hasmonean war, where Herod’s brother, Joseph, was first killed in battle, and then decapitated by King Antigonas. Six months later in the bloody “Battle of Jerusalem”, the temple was desecrated with blood of Jewish defenders. When King Antigonas walked out of the fiery inferno, he met his death also by beheading by Mark Anthony. Herod was now in control of Judea and Jerusalem.
The Great Sanhedrin did affirm the legitimacy of Herod’s marriage with Doris. In King Herod’s mind, this affirmation now made he and his descendants’ heirs to the throne of King David. At that same time, the Great Sanhedrin also affirmed the legitimization of the former illegitimate Davidian lineages that were descendants of Governor Zerubabbel’s 1st Babylonian wife, Princess Amytis, and his 2nd Persian wife, Princess Rhodah. It was an inevitable decision for the officially approved all-Jewish lineages of the Tobaidite and Onaidite descendants of Zerubabbel’s 3rd Jewish wife, Princess Esthra were on the verge of extinction. It would take another thirty-three years for this fact to become a reality in 4 BCE. Without any royal Davidian princes, there would not be a Messiah of the loins of Kings David and Solomon.
It would not be until the fourth generation and 126 years later, when Boethus, a descendant of the last legitimate high priest of Israel, Onias III, was appointed as the high priest of Israel. From Josephus we know the father of Boethus to be an outstanding citizen who lived in Alexandria during the last years of the reign of Cleopatra VII of Egypt. The High Priestly Family arrived in Jerusalem in the year of 36 BCE.
30 BCE - The Arrival of the Royal Princess of Egypt and Rome, Cleopatra of Jerusalem
The Bronze Eighty Drachma of Cleopatra VII of Egypt
It was 30 BCE and Prince Jacob not only executed his official business properly but remained in Egypt while the rapid winds of political change were sweeping over the Egyptian landscape. Rome was in a civil war between the Senate appointed Octavian, and the powerful Roman Triumvir Mark Anthony, the lover of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. The Roman invasion of Octavian upon the Egyptian soil left both Mark Antony and Queen Cleopatra VII dead by suicide. It also sealed the fate of the last dynasty of the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt.
Octavian quickly searched the land of Egypt for the son of Cleopatra VII and Julius Caesar, Caesarion,the heir apparent to both Egypt and Rome. A true threat to Octavian who was seeking to seal his imperial control of the Empire of Rome, Caesarion was discovered and promptly executed.
Yet, the rumors of Rome were circling after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, it is now believed by many historians that the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII escaped from Rome, not only with her son, Caesarion, but a daughter who was about three months in utero, who would become the posthumous daughter of the Dictator of Rome, Julius Caesar.
Husbands of Princess Cleopatra VIII
Posthumous Daughter of:
Dictator of Rome, Julius Caesar and Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII
1st Married 2nd 3rd
| ________________________|_____________________ _____|
| | |
Prince Jacob ben Matthan High Priest Simon IV Boethus King Herod the Great
30 - 23 BCE 23 - 19 BCE 19 - ? BCE
Executed by King Herod Executed by King Herod
| | |
Prince Joseph “the Carpenter” Joseph II “Cabi” the 78th High Priest Herod Philip II m. Salome
b. 29 BCE b. 21 BCE b. 18 BCE
Prince Ptolas the “Twin” Cleopatra II of Jerusalem m. Herod II Herod VI, Common Citizen
Prince Clopas the “Twin” b. 20 BCE of Rome
b. 26 BCE
This daughter
was also discovered by the forces of Octavian
but since a woman could not sit on the imperial throne of Rome,
she was not a challenge to his imperial authority. This daughter,
known as Cleopatra VIII of Egypt
was given to an “eastern prince” in 30
BCE. It so happens that the Patriarch
of Jerusalem, Jacob ben Mattat was the most prominent “eastern
prince” in Egypt. Suddenly we hear of a Cleopatra of Jerusalem who arrives into
Jerusalem social scene. Cleopatra of
Jerusalem was not only a historical figure of prominence
but would eventually wed the three most powerful men in Judea;
the Patriarch of Jerusalem Jacob ben Matthan,
the High Priest of Israel Simon IV Boethus,
and “King of the Jews” Herod the Great.
Ancient Coins of Cleopatra VII (above) and Mark Anthony (below).
Courtesy of Newcastle University.
What happened to the wife of Jacob, Eucharia, is not known. Cleopatra of Jerusalem became the “foreign wife” of the Patriarch Jacob ben Matthan, a fact, according to the halakhic rule of Ezra the Scribe would have made their son, Prince Joseph “the Carpenter” not even a Jew. It is hard to understand how important this decree of Ezra was to the population in Jerusalem in 1st century BCE. Jacob already had one daughter, and with his new bride, the highly profiled daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, they soon had three more children.
Prince Jacob ben Matthan married Princess Cleopatra of Jerusalem, the posthumous daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Julius Caesar, the Dictator of Rome. Together they lived for eight years, between the years of 30 to 23 BCE, in the metropolitan city of Jerusalem. Jacob presided over his official business as the Prince of Israel in the role as the Patriarch of Jerusalem. During these years, Jacob and Cleopatra’s family grew to three sons and one older half sister.
Prince of David Joseph (Yosef), known as the “Carpenter”, who became the guardian and foster father of;
Yahshua ben Yosef (Jesus the son of Joseph)
Prince Joseph, it is believed, was born about 29 BCE. Despite the aging halakhic decree, “you are not a Jew unless your mother is a Jew”, it did not detract from Prince Joseph being recognized as a “royal heir of King David”. Strange as it may be, it did not make a difference with the High Priest who officiated at the betrothal of Prince Joseph ben Jacob and the young “temple virgin” Miriam who was orphaned when her father, Prince Alexander III Helios, was executed by King Herod during the pogroms against the Princes of David in the years of 20 to 16 BCE or 17 to 13 BCE, when Mary was between four and seven years old.
Who was this High Priest who reigned in the year of Joseph and Mary’s betrothal? Simon IV Boethus, the 60th High Priest (23-19 BCE), was executed by King Herod in the year of 19 BCE. After that date, we have the following high priests that ruled:
Matthias I ben Theophilus served as the 61st High Priest,
Joazar ben Boethus served as the 62nd High Priest,
Eleazar ben Boethus served as the 63rd High Priest, and
Yeshua IV ben Sethus ben Boethus served as the 64th High Priest beginning in the year of 4 BCE. The high priest reigns between 19 and 4 BCE have a certain historical sketchiness.
Depending on the purported birth date of Jesus (Yehoshua), Yeshua IV began his high priestly rule in the year of 4 BCE. BibleSearchers believes that Yehoshua was born about the year of 7-6 BCE probably in the reigns of either Joazar or Eleazar ben Boethus, all of which were uncles of Mary’s grandfather, Yeshua III (Yehoshua III) who was the 59th High Priest in the Temple of Herod at Jerusalem.
Bust of Cleopatra VII (C. 50 BCE) – The British Museum
It was the High Priest of Israel, who officiated at the “nomination ceremony” of the Davidian candidate Prince Joseph, when the granddaughter of the High Priest of Israel Yeshua III (Jesus III) and the daughter of Heli, the Prince of David as the Hasmonean heir Alexander III Helios, was ready to become the Princess child-bride to a young Prince of David. As we now know, Prince Joseph was the best candidate for this dynastic betrothal. It appeared that in reality, being a Prince of David appeared to supersede over being a “Jew”, because the royal lineage of succession always went from father to son, and not mother to son.
About three years after the birth of Prince Joseph (29 BCE), the family of Jacob and Cleopatra were blessed with “twins”. The young males were called Prince Ptolas and Prince Clopas (Cleopas). We quickly transport ourselves fifty six years later (30 CE), and meet again this same Prince Clopas (Cleopas) in the Brit Hadassah (ReNewed Testament) as he walked with his nephew, Yehoshua, after His crucifixion, on the road to Emmaus. Uncle Cleopas did not even recognize his nephew, for Jesus the Messiah (Yehoshua HaMaschiach) appeared different in his post-resurrection “glorified” state.
Luke 24:13 – “Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was , while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them…Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
The Mystery of Cleopatra of Jerusalem,
The Reputed Posthumous Daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt
During this silent era between the two Testaments of the Bible, called the inter-testament period, the history of the Jews within the two sacred canons are silent. Yet the accompanied Jewish historical books, such as the two “Books of the Maccabees” and the “Antiquities of the Jews” by Flavius Josephus continued to document the dynamic life and struggle of the Jews to reform a new identity of the Jewish people as the forces of the Gentile nations swarmed around them.
The bust of Cleopatra VII Thea Philopater, the Queen and last Pharaoh of Egypt
– Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany
Here was the period
of the desecration of the Temple of Zerubabbel by the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes IV, and the rise
of the Maccabee priests who evolved as rival princes of
Israel in competition with the Davidian princes. Here was
the Gentile era of the rival suitors for the attention of
the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII Thea
Philopater, the last Pharaoh of that ancient land so
involved with the Hebrews and the Jews. Here was the era of
the struggle for global imperial power throughout the Mediterranean
Valley and the Levant between Caesar
Augustus (Octavian) and Mark Anthony
in alliance with Cleopatra VII of Egypt
that ended with the famous suicide in Egypt on August 12, 30 BCE.
As reported in the extensive genealogies of David Hughes in the “Davidic Dynasty” and his new book, “British Chronicles” we find during the era of one generation before the birth of Jesus (Yehoshua), the imperial world of Rome swirling in intrigue, deception, political assassinations, power grabs for political and global control of Europe and the Middle East.
As David Hughes reports in “Davidic Dynasty”:
Davidic Dynasty – “The identity of Cleopatra "of Jerusalem" is a mystery. However, circumstantial evidence has suggested her identification with the posthumous daughter of Julius Caesar, the Roman "imperator", and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt; born six months after Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, for, when Rome conquered Egypt in 30BC, Octavius, the grand-nephew and heir of Julius Caesar, murdered Julius Caesar’s only son, Caesarion, begotten by Queen Cleopatra, saying that "the world was not big enough for two caesars", however, their daughter, Cleopatra, who had no legal standing under Roman law, was given in marriage to "an obscure eastern prince". The question is, could this "obscure eastern prince" have been the Palestinian "Nasi", Yakov (Jacob)? If so, that would make Joseph and his two younger half-brothers, the twins, the grandchildren through their mother, Cleopatra of Jerusalem, of Julius Caesar and Queen Cleopatra! Incredible as it may seem, but possibly true! Hence, the book's title: "Jesus, The Last Pharaoh", whose author makes a case for Jesus to have been called "the last Pharaoh of Egypt", supposedly formally installed as an infant during the Holy Family's stay in Egypt.”
Cleopatra VII – The Last Pharaoh of Egypt
Cleopatra VII was the last pharaoh of
Ancient Egypt and today remains one of the few historical figures
of antiquity that remain popular in our modern world. Through
her mother, Cleopatra VI of Egypt,
she still was a Macedonian Greek, a direct descendant from
her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes,
to Alexander the Great’s general, Ptolemy I Soter, whose parents were Arsinoe and Lacus
from Macedonia. Born and raised in the royal limelight of
Hellenenstic Greek culture, Cleopatra VII
broke the traditions of her Greek forefather’s and became
the first Greek Egyptian ruler in the royal family to learn
the Egyptian language in the 300 year rule of the Ptolemies.
She even worshipped and took on the persona of the ancient
Egyptian goddesses. It was her patron goddess, Isis that she
impersonated and later came to believe that she was the
re-incarnation and fulfilled the literal embodiment of this Egyptian
goddess of wisdom.
The Profile of Cleopatra VII on an Egyptian Coin - Ancient Orient Museum, Tokyo
Yet this was the era of the enlarging Roman imperial influence into the Middle East with the military power of the Roman legions pushing aside the ancient royal families. As the Hellenistic co-ruler with her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, and later her brothers, who became her husbands, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, Cleopatra VII became the supreme ruler of all Egypt. On her rise to power, Cleopatra foresaw the consequences of failed power bids for royal dominance. In 58 BCE, Cleopatra’s older sister, Berenice IV took over the throne. With the Roman alliance of Roman governor in Syria, Aulus Gabinius, Ptolemy XIII was restored to power in 55 BCE and in turn executed his sister. Then the oldest sister, Tryphaena sought to usurp the throne. She in turn was executed.
By March 51 BCE, the 17 year old Cleopatra II became the co-ruler of Egypt with her 12 year old brother, Ptolemy XIII, when their father, Ptolemy XII died. These were times of trial and tribulation, where for three years a famine swept across the land of Egypt and the life-saving inundations of the Nile did not arrive. Economic crisis and political conflicts arose.
Through these years, Cleopatra
began to assume power over her sibling. Within five
months, Ptolemy XIII’s name no longer appeared on royal documents.
Soon the coins featured only Cleopatra VII’s face, in the first
departure of ancient Egyptian traditions of the female rulers
being subservient to their male co-rulers. A dynastic power
struggle ensued spearheaded by the eunuch Pothinus by forcing Cleopatra from power
and restoring her brother, sometime between 51
to 48 BCE. In spite of an ill-fated rebellion, Cleopatra
was soon fleeing from Egypt with her only surviving sister, Arsinoë.
Bust of Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius) – Vatican Museums
To maintain her power in the land of Egypt, Cleopatra VII traded her famed beauty and prowess to form Roman liaisons first with Gaius Julius Caesar that solidified her power, and later continued this power politics with the Roman Triumvir Mark Antony when Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, March 15, 44 BCE. During her years in exile, the winds of fortune swung from Pompey to Julius Caesar, when in the Roman civil war in the autumn of 48 BCE, Pompey fled to what he felt was the secure sanctuary of Egypt. Yet, he was murdered and beheaded in front of this wife and children as he disembarked from his ship by one of his former officers on the harbor.
Fifteen year
old Ptolemy XIII watched the entire
assassination from his throne on the shoreline. This immature
royal order, thought to please Julius Caesar was a fatal
miscalculation for in two days, when Julius Caesar arrived
and was presented with the “head” of his political rival, he was enraged.
He wanted defeat not death of his arch rival for Pompey was the Consul of Rome. Soon
after, Julius Caesar’s only legitimate daughter, Julia, was left
a widow when her husband, Pompey’s son, died soon
after.
The Death of Julius Caesar – Painting (1867) by Jean-Léon Gérôme
Julius Caesar quickly seized Alexandria, the Egyptian capital. Queen Cleopatra secreted herself into the royal palace rolled up in a Persian carpet. When it was presented as a gift to Caesar and unrolled, out sprawled Queen Cleopatra. A quick civil war ensued and with the drowning of Ptolemy XIII in the Nile River, Queen Cleopatra VII was restored as co-ruler with her brother, Ptolemy XIV. Quickly with her charm, Cleopatra VII, at 21, became the mistress of Julius Caesar, at 50 years of age. Nine months later, she gave birth to their son, Ptolemy Caesar, on June 23, 47 BCE, carrying the nickname, “Caesarian” or “little Caesar”.
Cleopatra’s Royal Visit to Rome
About three years before the assassination of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Caesarion made a royal visit to Rome. They were no doubt there when Julius Caesar was assassinated on the East Portico of the Roman Senate floor. Earlier, Cleopatra sought to induce Julius Caesar to name his son as his heir and become the inheritor of Egypt and Rome, with the union between the East and the West. Yet, Julius Caesar declined and instead chose his grand-nephew, Octavian.
Cleopatra VII quickly sought another political
rival this time with one of the triumvirs who co-ruled
Rome at Caesar’s death. In fact the rapid exodus from Rome
by Cleopatra VII and her entourage
was accomplished by the assistance of the Roman Triumvir Mark
Anthony. It was he who arranged for ships to be waiting at
the Roman seaport, Ostia, at the mouth
of the Tiber River in order to transport the entire
Egyptian royal household back to Alexandria. It also suggests, that
the Mark Anthony was “waiting in
the wings” for a time in which he could establish his own
relationship with the Pharaoh of Egypt,
Queen Cleopatra VII.
Cleopatra and Mark Antony – Painting (1885) by Lawrence Alma-Tadema
As they exited Rome, this was also the point in time when Pharaoh Ptolemy XIV, Cleopatra’s full blooded brother, exited from history. According to Roman-Jewish historical researcher and Robert Killian of Monaco of the ExeGenesis New Biblical Chronology, when he wrote:
Robert Killian of Monaco – “That is the last we hear of Ptolemy XIV, her (Cleopatra VII’s) own full blooded brother who had "replaced" Ptolemy XIII after the drowning of this half-brother at the conclusion of the Alexandrian War in early January of 47 BC. Ptolemy XIV, now Pharaoh with Cleopatra VII on that voyage to Egypt was not seen together at or after that arrival in Alexandria. So, it can be "assumed" that "something happened" to the young lad, now about 14 years (in April-May 44 BC), on the trip back to Egypt. It was that same fall that Cleopatra was "invested" with her three year old son, Caesarion, as Pharaoh and reigned with him as Pharaoh until the event of August 30 BC the year of their deaths in Alexandria, Egypt.
In 42 BCE, she was summoned to Tarsus to give her oath of loyalty to Mark Anthony. With her elaborate entourage, Cleopatra VII arrived and mesmerized Mark Anthony. Together, they built their Roman-Egyptian fleet at Tarsus. One year later, he returned and spent the winter with her in Alexandria, Egypt in 41-40 BCE. Within twelve months, on December 25, 40 BCE, Cleopatra VII presented Mark Anthony with twins; Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene II.
Three years later, in 37 BCE, Antony returned to Alexandria in route to his Parthia campaign. Soon, this Egyptian capital would become his home, this time with his Egyptian bride. This marriage became the scandal of Rome, for Mark Anthony was still married to Octavia Minor, the sister to his fellow triumvir, Octavian, who was now the Caesar of Rome
Anthony continued to solidify his western empire
with the conquest of Armenia, and in the year of 34 BCE, at the Donations
of Alexandria, Cleopatra VII
took the title of “Queen of Kings”,
while she and Caesarion were crowned
as co-regents of Egypt, and Cyprus. Alexander
I Helios became the ruler of Armenia, Media, and Parthia.
Cleopatra Selene II was crowned as
the ruler of Cyrenaica and Libya while Ptolemy Philadelphus was crowned as the royal
heir over Phoenicia, Syria, and Cilicia.
The Bust of Octavian (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus), as Augustus Caesar
The Roman Senate, inflamed by the fury of Octavian (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus), known to us as Augustus Caesar, declared war against Egypt. This was because of a psychological war when Mark Antony declared that Caesarian, the son of Julius Caesar, was the legitimate Roman heir instead of the adopted nephew, Octavian. One third of the Roman Senate plus the two Roman Consuls sided with Mark Antony and Caesarian and a civil war was imminent.
Battle of Actium - The Final War of the Roman Republic
It
was on September 2, 31 BCE, that
the Final War of the Roman Republic began in the Ionian Sea near
the Roman colony of Actium in Greece. As Cleopatra VII arrived with her Egyptian
fleet, the “Battle of Actium” was already not going well.
The 500 ships of Mark Antony,
mostly three ton, massive quinqueremes with huge galleys with massive
rams weighing up to three tons were undermanned by weary
malaria ridden troops, were too cumbersome to the lighter
Liburnian vessels of Octavian with fresh and better trained troops.
The Battle of Actium between Octavian Caesar and the alliance of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt – Painting (1672) by Lorenzo A. Castro
With the defection of Delius, the general of Mark Anthony, along with his battle plans, both Cleopatra and Mark Anthony escaped with Cleopatra’s fleet and a few of Mark Anthony’s fleet and abandoned his entire Roman fleet, heading back to Egypt.
The political significance of the Battle of Actium between Octavian and Mark Antony was no less consequential than the Battle of Gaugamela (Arbela) when Alexander the Great of Macedonia Greece defeated the invincible Achaemenid Persian army of Darius III on October 1, 331 BCE. When Mark Antony lost his fleet, his army that was equally as strong as Octavian’s deserted him as he fled them; 19 infantry legions and 12,000 cavalry deserted into the darkness of the night even before their land forces had a chance to meet on the battlefield.
The battle arena
then moved to Egypt where initially Mark Antony was victorious
on July 31, 30 BCE, yet the desertions
continued until it was Mark Antony once again fleeing from battle.
Within the din of the confusion of battle, the news arrived to
Antony that Cleopatra had been captured, and he committed suicide.
The Defining Battle of Gaugamela when Alexander the Great destroyed the army of Darius II, the last of the Achaemenid Persian Shahs – Painting (1602) by Jan Brueghel the Elder
According to Olympus the physician, who was an eyewitness, Antony was taken to the tomb of Cleopatra, where she was hiding and there died in her arms. Within days, on August 12, Cleopatra was also dead by a snake bite to her breast. According to the accounts from ancient sources, she had hidden in a fig basket two asps, so when she put her hand in to eat, she would never know when she would die. With her, also were taken the lives of her two handmaidens. Octavian, waiting in a nearby building, went to confirm that his two rival of global power were now dead. With the death of Cleopatra VII, the last Dynasty of Egypt had now ended. Yet, with her death, she left her legacy.
The Fall of the Greek Ptolemaic Empire
The
Death of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra
– Painting (1892) by Reginald Arthur in the Roy Miles Gallery, London
The Egyptian people proclaimed Caesarion, the son of Julius Caesar as their new pharaoh, but Octavian had the last word. He had won the global war of power and control. Caesarion was captured and executed, resolving Octavian’s paranoia that “Two Caesars are one to many.” Even though the son of Julius Caesar was a potential rival to the Roman imperial office, the children of Antony and Cleopatra were not rivals and the three were taken back to Rome to remain in the care of the widowed wife of Antony, Octavia Minor, who was the sister of Octavian.
With the entire Mediterranean basin under his control, Octavian returned to Rome, secure in his legacy that he was Julius Caesar’s only “son”. This led to his adopting the title of Princeps or “First Citizen” and then accepting the title from the Roman Senate of Augustus Caesar. With this “august” name, Augustus Caesar preserved the iconic imagery of the Republic of Rome, while at the same time, transforming the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Even more so, with the rise of the Roman Empire, the final surrender of Egypt and the death of the last Pharaoh, Cleopatra VIII, the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt and the Hellenistic Age both began their final gasp at the Battle of Actium.
The Province of Judea was as fully engaged in the global political changes when the Hellenistic world was swallowed up by the Roman Empire as the State of Israel today is involved in the global political reorder of the world today. Surprise as it may be, the ancestors of Jesus the Nazarene (Yehoshua HaNotzri) were a part of this geopolitical shift along with the rise of Zionism in Galilee and Judea in the three to four decades before the birth of Jesus (Yehoshua).
During these vast swings in the bid for global international domination, King Herod was weighing the political landscape and placed his own political future on the side of the future Caesar of Rome, Augustus Octavian Caesar. It was this same year, according to some historians, that the Nasi, the new Prince of Israel, Yaacov (Jacob) ben Matthan was appointed as the “Patriarch of Jerusalem” by Herod the Great. With his new appointment, Patriarch Jacob was dispatched to Egypt with 3000 Jewish troops to join the forces of Octavian arriving upon the shores near Alexandria Egypt. The final days of Egypt had now come. Mark Antony was soon dead along with the final saga in the suicide drama as the last Egyptian Pharaoh, Cleopatra VIII died by the viper’s tongue, with her hand nestled in a bowl of figs.
The Consequences of Cleopatra’s Royal Visit to Rome
Fourteen years before, the twenty five year old Pharaoh of the Ancient land of Egypt, Cleopatra VII was at the height of her political career, as she arrived in Rome. In her imperial dreams, Cleopatra felt that she was destined to become the future wife of Julius Caesar, and the future Queen of Rome. With a dynastic marriage the two strongest nations of the world would weld an imperial dynasty, potentially unrivaled in world history.
The Bust of Gaius Julius Caesar - Archeological National Museum, Napoli, Italy
Julius Caesar had arrived back at Rome with great military acclaim and honors. He was nominated with the title as Pater Patriae (“Father of the Fatherland”), appointed for the third time as dictator with nine consecutive one year appointments for another decade as the Dictator of the Roman Republic. Soon after, the Senate appointed Julius Caesar as Dictator Perpetuus (“Perpetual Dictator”). Roman denarius coins were minted with his profile and the words, “Dictator Perpetuus” on one side and “Augur Pontifex Maximus” on the reverse with the image of Ceres, the goddess of motherly love and growing plants.
When a Senatorial
delegation went to bestow more honors upon Caesar, He received
them in the Temple of Venus Genetrix
yet did not rise in respect to greet them. This apparent
affront to the offended senators gave rise to an assassination
plot that was fully realized on March
15, 44 BCE. Julius Caesar was
heading to the Senate, he was diverted while he passed the
Theater of Pompey near the Campus Martius at the east portico. A
number upwards to sixty conspirators participated in Caesar’s
assassination
Morte de Césare (Death of Caesar) - Painting (1798) by Vincenzo Camuccini
Cleopatra VII and their son, Caesarion, quickly left the city as public disorder arose throughout the city. According to some historians, she left Rome by ship with a three month old fetus of Julius Caesar that was born six months later in the fall of 44 BCE. Yet as Cleopatra VII was fleeing Rome, the rumors were circulating the capitol city that she was carrying with her the offspring of the assassinated dictator. It was Cicero who wrote: “I am grieved to hear of Tertia’s loss of an expected child…(but) I should be glad of such a loss in the case of Queen (Cleopatra) and that (expected) heir of the breed of Caesar.”
This young daughter of Julius Caesar, about three weeks short of her 14th birthday, would watch her world crash as her mother, Cleopatra VIII and her full brother by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, both dead as the last Egyptian dynasty, the Ptolemaic Empire collapsed. This young daughter of the Pharaoh Cleopatra VII and Julius Caesar and the newly arriving Patriarch of Jerusalem, it is suggested crossed paths in a way suggesting divine fate. Unlike her brother, Caesarion, who was truly a threat to Octavian to contest the imperial throne of Rome, this young daughter did not have any royal rights to royal honors. As such, Octavian “married her off to an obscure Eastern prince” and returned with him to Jerusalem later to be known in history as Cleopatra of Jerusalem.
The Marriages and Children of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt (51-30 BCE)
marriage to her older half-brother, Ptolemy XIII
No Descendants – Lineage Extinct
Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt (51-30 BCE)
marriage to her younger full-brother, Ptolemy XIV (died 44 BCE)
No Descendants – Lineage Extinct
Cleopatra VII, Pharaoh and Queen of Egypt (51-30 BCE)
marriage to Julius Caesar, Roman dictator (died 44 BCE), had one son, and one rumored child, unborn at his death.
Ptolemy XV Caesar ("Caesarion"), co-ruler with his mother in
her reign 44-30 
BCE, and murdered by Octavian
the future Augustus Caesar
Cleopatra of Jerusalem was the posthumous daughter who was;
Married (1) Yaakov ben Mattan (Jacob son of Matthan), his (2), who was the "Nasi" or Prince of Israel, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem between the years of 32-23 BCE. They became the parents of:
Joseph the Davidian Prince (born 29 BCE), called the “Carpenter” who was betrothed to Princess Miriam, daughter of Heli, the Prince of David who was known as Prince Alexander III “Helios” married to Hanna, the daughter of Jesus III (Yeshua III), the High Priest of Israel. Prince Joseph adopted the son of Princess Miriam and became the foster father of;
Jesus the Nazarene (Yehoshua HaNotzri)
Prince Ptolas the “Twin” (b. about 26 BCE)
Prince Clopas the “Twin” (b. about 26 BCE)
Married (2nd) Simon IV Boethus, the High Priest (his (2nd) marriage. Together they had two children;
Joseph II “Cabi”, the 78th High Priest (b. about 21 BCE)
Cleopatra II of Jerusalem (b. about 20 BCE)
Married (3rd) Herod "The Great", King of Judea, his (5th) marriage. Cleopatra of Jerusalem gave Herod the Great one heir;
Herod, a Common Citizen of Rome (b. about 18 BCE)
Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt (51-30 BCE)
marriage to Mark Antony, Roman triumvir who died by suicide in the year of 30 BCE in the failed bid to conquer Octavian at the Naval Battle of Actium and Alexandria Egypt. They became the parents of:
Alexander I “Helios”
Cleopatra Selene, married to Juba II, King of Numidia
Ptolemy “Philadelphus”
The paternal grandfather of Jesus was a Davidian Prince who married the daughter of the royal dynastic families of both the imperial dynasties of Egypt and Rome and thereby received the royal genetic lineage to both imperial thrones. The maternal grandfather of Jesus, we will soon learn was also a Davidian Prince whose mother was the heir to the throne of the Hasmonean Dynasty of Judea and became the last Maccabee ruler of the Jews, yet married the dynastic heiress of the High Priest of Israel from the official high priest lineage of Zadok the High Priest of King David.
As
a young child, Yehoshua (Jesus)
was taken to Egypt as a safe haven for His protection from the upheavals
in the Herodian dynastic throne.
There he would also be shielded as the heir to the Caesar of Rome from the watchful eye of
Augustus Caesar (Octavian). He was welcomed
as the royal heir of Cleopatra’s Ptolemaic
Imperial throne, honored as the recipient of Zadokian high priest genetic bloodlines, respected
as the heir to the Hasmonean throne,
watched with awe as the heir to the royal thrones of Assyria, Babylon, the Medes and Persians,
yet recognized as the long awaited Jewish
messiah from the loins of Kings David and Solomon. The prophetic
voice would proclaim that here was the future “King of
kings, and Lord of lords”.
The Bust of Cleopatra VII, Pharaoh of Egypt
*****
Note – The genealogies and historical overlays of the family of Jesus are a project of continuing research. For any researchers with additional historical insight and genealogical information are welcome to contact any of the following researchers.
David Hughes – RdavidH218@AOL.com – Davidian Genealogy
Robert Mock – robertmock@biblesearchers.com – Biblical History
Robert Killian - rkillian@libello.com – Biblical Chronology
Go to Book One –
Chapter Six
“The Legacy of the Jewish Freedom Fighters in the Ancestry of Jesus”
Topics
The Great Shmittah Year Famine of 24 BCE
23 BCE - The Year of Love, Passion, and Calamity
The Gospel of Matthew Abiudite Lineage to Jesus through Joseph, Jesus’ Father
The Missing Ancestors in Jesus Matthew Lineage
Great Grandfather, Matthan ben Eliezar and the Founders of the Right Wing Nationalists, the Jewish Zealots
The Lineages of the Descendants of Matthan ben Eliezar
Lineages
Wives and Family of Prince Matthan ben Eliezar
The Gospel of Matthew Abiudite Lineage to Jesus through Joseph, Jesus’ Father
The Missing Ancestors in Jesus’ Matthew Lineage
The Lineages of the Descendants of Matthan ben Eliezar
Book One
The Ancestors of Jesus in First and Second Century Judea BCE
Go to Chapter One –
“The Royal Davidian, Maccabee, and Levitical Ancestors of Jesus (Yehoshua)”
Go to Chapter Two –
“The Political and Royal Heritage of Miriam, the Chosen Princess, as the Mother of the Jewish Messiah”
Go to Chapter Three –
“The Religious Heritage of Miriam, the Chosen Princess, as the Granddaughter of a High Priest”
Go to Chapter Four –
“The Jewish Temples in Egypt and the Zadokian High Priest Influence of the Ancestors of Jesus”
Go to Chapter Five –
“‘Out of Egypt, I will Bring My Son’ - The Family of Prince Joseph”
Go to Chapter Six –
“The Davidian Princes in the Days of Herod the Great”
Go to Chapter Seven –
“The Legacy of the Jewish Freedom Fighters in the Ancestors of Jesus”
Book Two
The History of the Jews surrounding the Princes of David
Go to Chapter One –
“The Maccabees and the Abomination of Desolation”
Go to Chapter Two –
“The Fulfillment of the Covenant of King David and Solomon by King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah”
Go to Chapter Three –
“Princess Tamar - the Dynastic Merging of the Lineages of Solomon and Nathan”
Book Three
“The Princes of David from Zerubabbel to the Messiah”
Go to Chapter One –
“A New Beginning – The Princes of Israel and Ezra the Scribe”
Go to Chapter Two –
“Zerubabbel, the Prince of Israel and the Patriarch of the Jews”
Go to Chapter Three –
“The Governors of Judea from the Persian to the Herodian Eras”
Go to Chapter Four –
“The Messiah, the son of David”
BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
for
Exegenesis Biblical Event Chronology
http://www.exegenesis.com/data_files/bible_event_chronicle.htm
by Robert Killian of Monaco
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliography for Davidic Dynasty
http://biblesearchers.com/yahshua/davidian/dynastybibliography.shtml
for
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/davidicdynasty.html
by David Hughes
Book
by David Hughes
LIST OF ARTICLES
by David Hughes
This Page,
http://hometown.aol.com/rdavidh218/myhomepage/index.html,
Is updated whenever a New Article is Posted to the Net
----------------------------------------
Note: Some of the
hyperlinks for some reason don't work, thus,
it may be necessary to copy &
paste some of the web addresses
-----------------------------------------------
1.
Five descent-lines from Roman Emperors to British Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/empire2britain.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/empire2britain.wps.htm
2.
Ancestors & descendants of Britain's King Arthur,
& the Anwyl Family
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/arthurian_genealogies.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/arthurian_genealogies.wps.htm
3.
Israel: From Moses, its first judge, to [H]Oshea, its last
king
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/israel.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/israel.wps.htm
4.
Israel's Davidic Dynasty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/davidicdynasty.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/davidicdynasty.wps.htm
5. Descent from Christianity's Holy Family to Britain's Royal Family: the Jesus Dynasty
or mirror site
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/holyfamily2royalfamily.htmlor
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/holyfamily2royalfamily.wps.htm
6.
The Grail-Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/grail_kings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/grail_kings.wps.htm
7.
Five Descent-Lines from Israeli Royalty to British Royalty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/israel2britain.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/israel2britain.wps.htm
8.
Old British Royal House
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/oldbritishroyalhouse.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/oldbritishroyalhouse.wps.htm
9.
Genealogy of the Lougher Family: male-line descendants of
Britain's Iron Age Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/LougherPedigree.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/LougherPedigree.wps.htm
10. The
Jacobites: The Stuart King James II & His Heirs
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/jacobites.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/jacobites.wps.htm
11. Kings
& Princes of Wales
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/welshkings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/welshkings.wps.htm
12. Kings
of Scotland
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/scottishkings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/scottishkings.wps.htm
13. Kings
of Ulster: independent Irish kingdom
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/ulsterkings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/ulsterkings.wps.htm
14. Kings
of Ireland
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/irishkings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/irishkings.wps.htm
15. The
Picts
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/picts.html
16. Early
Frankish kings & the Merovingians
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/earlyfrankishkings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/earlyfrankishkings.wps.htm
17. Some
descent-lines from Africa to Europe
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/africa2europe.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/africa2europe.wps.htm
18. Some
descent-lines from Arabic Royalty to European Royalty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/arabia2europe.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/arabia2europe.wps.htm
19. Some
descent-lines from Asia to Europe
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/asia2europe.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/asia2europe.wps.htm
20. Ancestors
& descendants of Central America's Aztec Emperors
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/azteckings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/azteckings.wps.htm
21. Ancestors
& descendants of South America's Inca Emperors
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/incas.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/incas.wps.htm
22. Egyptian
Pharaohs
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/egyptianpharaohs.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/egyptianpharaohs.wps.htm
23. Descent-line
from Ancient Egypt to Modern Britain
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/egypt2britain.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/egypt2britain.wps.htm
24. Descent-line
from Ancient Greece to Modern Greece
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/ancient2moderngreece.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/ancient2moderngreece.wps.htm
25. Ancient
Sumeria
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/ancient_sumeria.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/ancient_sumeria.wps.htm
26. The
Babylonian Emperors
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/babylonianemperors.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/babylonianemperors.wps.htm
27. The
Assyrian Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/assyriankings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/assyriankings.wps.htm
28. The
Balthae Dynasty: Gothic Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/balthae_dynasty.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/balthae_dynasty.wps.htm
29. Lombard
Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/lombards.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/lombards.wps.htm
30. Male-line
ancestry of the Plantagenets of England & the Capetians of France
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/plantagenets.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/plantagenets.wps.htm
31. Early
Danish kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/earlydanishkings.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/earlydanishkings.wps.htm
32. Cerdic
of Wessex
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/cerdic_of_wessex.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/cerdic_of_wessex.wps.htm
33. The
"Beli Mawr Pedigree"
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/beli_mawr_pedigree.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/beli_mawr_pedigree.wps.htm
34. The
"Aedd Mawr Pedigree"
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/aedd_mawr_pedigree.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/aedd_mawr_pedigree.wps.htm
35. The
"Beli & Anne Pedigree"
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/beli_anne_pedigree.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/beli_anne_pedigree.wps.htm
36. Heirs-Male
of the Old British Royal House
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/caratacus_descent-lines.html
37. Story
of the First Christmas
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/first_christmas.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/first_christmas.wps.htm
38. Jesus
& His Passion
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/JESUS.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/JESUS.wps.htm
39. Christianity
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/christianity.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/christianity.wps.htm
40. Atlantis:
the "Lost Continent"
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/atlantis.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/atlantis.wps.htm
41. Who
was Geoffrey of Monmouth's Brutus?
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/brutus.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/brutus.wps.htm
42. The
Mamikonids [genealogy]
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/mamikonids.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/mamikonids.wps.htm
43. Complete
list of British Monarchs
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/british_monarchs.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/british_monarchs.wps.htm
44. The
Habsburg Dynasty's origin
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/hapsburgs.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/hapsburgs.wps.htm
45. Carolingian
Dynasty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/carolingians.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/carolingians.wps.htm
46. Early
Kings & later Dukes of Brittany, now the French province of Bretagne
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/brittany.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/brittany.wps.htm
47. Tamar-Tephi
[&, a Jewish kingdom in Ancient Ireland]
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/Tamar-Tephi.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/Tamar-Tephi.wps.htm
48. House
of Dracula
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/dracula.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/dracula.wps.htm
49. Various
Royal Families which have Inherited England's throne
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/royal_houses.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/royal_houses.wps.htm
50. Descent
of Emperors of India to Kings of Britain
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/india2britain.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/india2britain.wps.htm
51. Descent-line
from Turkish Khans to British Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/turkey2europe.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/turkey2europe.wps.htm
52. Descent
of Chinese Empress Wu to Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, etc
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/china2britain.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/china2britain.wps.htm
53. Regnal-list
& Genealogy of the Indo-Greek Kings of Bactria
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/bactria.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/bactria.wps.htm
54. Descent
from Russian Royalty to British Royalty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/russia2britain.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/russia2britain.wps.htm
55. The
Maccabee Dynasty, House of Judas Maccabeus
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/maccabee.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/maccabee.wps.htm
56. The
Herodians, House of Herod The Great
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/herodians.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/herodians.wps.htm
57. The
Aaronic High-Priests of Israel & Judah/Judea
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/highpriests.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/highpriests.wps.htm
58. Kings
of Pontus, list & genealogy
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/pontus.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/pontus.wps.htm
59. Kings
of Thrace, genealogy
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/thrace.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/thrace.wps.htm
60. Kings
of Bosphore, now Ukraine
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/bosphore.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/bosphore.wps.htm
61. Tamerlane
& the Tartars
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/tamerlane.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/tamerlane.wps.htm
David Hughes,
Genealogical charts available upon request; Comments
Welcome
------------------------------------------------
note: FORTHCOMING BOOK!, "BRITISH CHRONICLES"
See Table of Contents at
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/britishroyalty.htm
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/britishroyalty.wps.htm
------------------------------------------------
Message from BibleSearchers
BibleSearchers scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end. It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”. Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth. In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest. Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace. Our defender is the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth. The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel. In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information. We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament.
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