A Lake shaped like a Harp

Now, this one article could be seen as more of a preface for what is coming in our research on the ancient Lakes of Southern Africa, in this particular instance, Ancient Lake Galilee. This infamous Biblical Lake was said to be close in vicinity to Lake Araba or The Sea of Araba, where there was little life. And if The Lake of Bareness was all the way up there in the Asphalt mining areas of Botswana, Lake Galilee was not far. Another point is, that The Sea of Galilee we know for a fact that even the Disciples were fishing on its shores. So there would have been plenty of life in Lake Kinnor (Galilee). Now, to find this Lake we need to look into the world of instruments and etymology, to figure out the true shape of Lake Galilee. So what do we have to go on? Well if we look at the sources such as Roman and Greek, the Lake was called Lake of Tiberias or Sea of Galilee (θαλάσσης τῆς Γαλιλαίας) as we can read in Gospel of John 6,1:

Some time after this, Immanuel crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.

Let us start this off by saying, that this seemingly Greek name Galilee (Galalaias) and the Hebrew Haggalil (הַגָלִיל) which meant district - would be as famous in the ancient world as say people today know where the Eiffel Tower is, AND they knew, just as we know the shape of the Eiffel tower today, they knew what shape Lake Galilee had back then. It was a given thing, people knew it by heart, like The Sabbath, all People knew Lake Galilee in the Land.

A Mangbetu from Sudan playing the African Bow Harp

These days, we cannot say with certainty where the Lake was, let alone being able to draw the Borders of Upper and Lower Galilee. Now from all of the Old Testament descriptions, it looked like a Harp or Lyre in its shape. We will get back to its most likely shape. Now, how do we know this as it was given its name from the shape it had. Galilee may then also be a play on words and another name for the instrument or area. However if we go to the ancient Hebrew word, it tells us this lake was called Lake Kinneret (Kinnor). And from that word Kinneret also spelled Kineret or Kinnor, derived from Genezaret again from The Land of Genesar - We build our case. You see, the word Kinor (כינור) in ancient Hebrew means harp or lyre. And it needs to be said that this is a DEEPLY African instrument, and almost every single African culture has their version of this instrument, Kora and Azande - although the instrument does have similar form, the music does differ greatly for each culture. The best modern word we have for this instrument is Harp or Lyre, to call this a violin, but may be off disservice because it is way different in playing it by using both hands for melodic creation, rather then one on the fret of the board. Just like a guitar, this instrument was well known in the ancient world, and We can find the first mentions in Genesis 4,21:

21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments (kinnors) and pipes.

So we can see that already in the First book of The Old Testament there are SEVERAL stringed instruments about, although kinnor is used here.

Here we see what we think is the Nevel, depicted the Tomb of Ramses III

The ancient historian Flavius Josephus describes the instrument as having 10 strings, made from sheep intestines. Which may be the original tune and form of the ancient Harp. Kinnor is mentioned quite a few times in the Old Testament books (42 times) and is mentioned in the setting of divine worship, prophecies, festivals but also in frequent in prostitution. Which means this was a nifty little instrument that would often find its way into female hands, for aiding in the art of section. In Scripture, there is another word NEVEL, also mentioned in conjunction with the Kinnor, but seems to be a much larger instrument. This might actually be the foregoer to the larger Ancient Egyptian Harp as in the image above. Now if King David had this in his satchel herding sheep, it would have been much smaller in size, and perhaps different in structure. But the base we think would have looked the same. And remember, set the correct shape of the instrument, and we will find the outlines of our Lake Galilee.

Adungu Harp - with the smallest one looking very much like it would fit in Davids satchel

 And the lake we are looking for is Ancient Lake of Kinnereth, most commonly know in our Bibles as the Sea of Galilee (יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר), also renamed Lake Tiberias after the Roman Emperor that crusaded in the area, but also known as Genezaret Lake in the Land of Genezareth (called Country of Genesar in Matthew 14,34). So it must have been quite the special place to have some many names AND have people so eagerly wanting to put their name on the place. Just like rulers of today, Queen Victoria was adamant in putting her name on things very far from her throne, like Lake Victoria, the ancient past was no different. And as we shall see comments of Josephus, these lands where breath-taking.

Silly attempt to illustrate what it may have looked like from above

Now, the theory is the Lake Galilee was a freshwater lake, could be however we are not so sure. There is no place in Scripture that says it was a purely salt-water lake or strict implications that it was the Ocean. We do know it was close to Sea of Araba (Dead Sea) and We do have some good evidence that these lands lay to the West and slightly North within The Promised Lands, which fits perfectly with Namibias outmost border there. Or we are completely off, and both of our suggest Lakes are wrong. Still, when the lake of Kinneret is found, it will look like the same instrument that King David was playing for Saul, as he was losing his mind. Please use your imagination of the image above, the location is probably wrong and we had to just draw something up, so have mercy. Still it is not far from Araba (Ntwetwe and Sue Pans you can see the area in blue) and may have been connected through an underground basin and further down running into the Jordan (Orange River). Or the Fish River Could have been regarded in ancient times as being part of the Jordan, running down from the mountains of North Namibia, running through Lake Galilee and out into the Great Ocean further down. Again, another article. But we are on it.

Natural flowers from the Karoo Desert

Now the term, Garden of Princes or Garden of Young Kings (Genesarim or Gansarim) we can find even in St. Jeromes writings (Latin Vulgate translator) and the Babylonian Talmud (this a a late work and may not even have been written in its entirety on the continent). Still the name Kinnereth stems from kinnor which means harp, lyre or zither (musical instrument). Now apparently as we will see this lake was shaped like a harp around its contours, that is why it kept its name for centuries until in started being called Lake Galilee. Lake of Many contours and Gulleys.

Now consulting our Bibles more we see that in Book of Joshua, there is a mention of Cenoroth and Cenereth (Joshua 11,1-3):

When Jabin king of Hazor heard of this, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon, to the kings of Shimron and Akshaph, 2 and to the northern kings who were in the mountains, in the Arabah south of Kinnereth, in the western foothills and in Naphoth Dor on the west; 3 to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah.

Mountains of Araba south of Lake Galilee... So here is the problem of North versus South again (which occurs every time there is mention of Jerusalem). If we go to the Gospels, and Matthew we can find this (Matthew 14,34):

34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret.

If you read the earlier verse you can see that they were close to uMsindisis hometown, which would be Nazareth. Now Joshua says these lands of Kinnereth were within the borders of Naphtali, which becomes confusing again. By consulting Josephus again we can find that the Lands of Genezareth (Nazareth) law to the west, and partly to the north of the Lake with the Same name. Now again, there was said to be Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee, which denotes that this district was large and may span several countries today. In these lands you would find the borders of Naphtali, Zebulon and Asher. Also on this Lake we would find Capernaum (which is a proper curveball), Corazin, Bethsaida, Arbela, Magdala (Mdala), Tiberias, and others.

For our imaginations to run a little we can read what Flavius Josephus wrote on this of the area being (Books of the Jews 3, 3§2):

"... as wonderful in fertility as well as in beauty". (..) "Its soil is so fruitful that all sorts of trees can grow upon it . . . for the air is so well tempered that it agrees with all sorts. Thus the palm-tree, which requires a warm atmosphere, flourishes equally well with the walnut, which thrives best in a cold climate . . . One may say that this place accomplishes a marvel of nature, forcing those plants which are naturally enemies of one another to agree together."

Josephus is on point in most of his writings, and the lands of Genezar become ever more alive by reading quotes like this. And remember remember - these areas were to be left desolate as per prophecies by Christ and several Scriptural references. So no wonder there is desert there these days. So its obvious that this thriving Paradise would not be what we are looking for today, indeed it would be completely devoid of natural beauty and life.

So then we can establish, from our Hebrew Bibles, it appears as Sea of Kineret in Numbers 34,11 and Joshua 13,27, but spelled Kinerot (כנרות) in Joshua 11,2. This translates to Harp Lake, in the vernacular and contemporary English. Now Matthew and Mark calls it Lake Galilee, but Luke calls it by Greek name, The Lake of Gennesaret (λίμνη Γεννησαρέτ), Limne Gennesaret (Luke 5,1).

Now historically, Genesareth becomes Galilee, which literally means District, of a compressed form of Gelil Haggoyim, which means District of Nations (Isaiah 3,23). And whereabout on this earth can you find more people of different ethnicities then in and around Cape Town (CaperNaum), Sea of Nations indeed. So the term Sea of Galilee did become widely known in ancient times as the Sea of Tiberias on account of the Roman occupation, then came the City of Tiberias that lay on the West Shore of Lake Galilee. Named so in honour of Romes second Emperor, Tiberius Cesare (Kaiser). Now lets look into the African Harps.

African Bow Harps

So when it comes to Bow Harps, which are the oldest harps or examples of lyres or so-called zithers that we have historical evidence of from the Continent of Africa, these have been well studied and are called African Bow harps. These instruments fit the descriptions well of King Davids preferred instrument, and they come in 3 basic types.

Biblical Harp?

Spoon in a Cup - bowl/shaped body with a long neck with string holders (tighteners) inserted into the neck and attached. The strings is what keep the harp stable. This one is found in Uganda (mostly) and is called the Ennanga of the Baganda people. To build this instrument you basically only need 3 components, rod, resonance bowl and strings. This type we see here is found mostly around Uganda, the Ennanga of the Baganda, the ekidongo of the Nyoro, Kimasa of the Basoga. Then comes the 5 stringed Opuk Agoya (Lotewrokuma) of the Acholi. Lastly is the Tum of the Lango which has a turtle shell as the resonator, this one is truly interesting. There are two other forms (and other formless ones as we have included one from The Congo that adheres to no real structure rules), this one is the most likely one in terms of being the Biblical one.

This is an example of an Ancient African Bow Harp, from Egypt, from the Middle Kingdom. This one is called a benet, covered by parchment or animal skin, the sound box would have resonated when the instrument’s five strings were plucked. (remember the Biblical harp had 10 strings).

The other forms, Cork in the Bottle we can find mostly in North Africa, and Congo, Uganda, Rwenzori Mountain worshippers the Bakonjo, ore of the Madi in North Uganda, and the Adungu of the Alur. Playing styles between these are night and day, with Babylonian influences from Nilotic People, a real and interesting divide between Northern and Southern Uganda. Then comes the Shelved Type - although there are other types around, these are the most traditional ones. Found more in West Africa, Gabon and Cameroon, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Now we firmly believe, find the instrument, find the lake.

Now obviously The Lake that had a shape like a musical Instrument - has been called by different names throughout its history, usually depending on the dominant settlement on its shores. With the changing fate of the towns, the lake's name also changed. And we have mentioned a few of them already, Sea of Kinneroth (Joshua 13,27), Water of Gennesar (I Maccabees 11,67), Lake of Gennesareth by Josephus (Wars of the Hebrews 3,506). And the New Testament references, remember heavily Hellenised, calls it Lake Galilee (Matthew 4,18 ; 17,27 and John 6,1), and the odd time its The Sea of Gennesareth or Sea of Tiberias (Luke 5,1 and John 21,1). So landmarks around and on the shores of this Lake, was access to the River Jordan, it lay in the valley of Ginnosar or Genesar to the Northwest, Bethsaida Valley was not far, Lots of Biblical cities on its shores. So the work here is not done by any stretch.

A Harp from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a 10 stringed harp, and does not fit any of the traditional 3 harp types.

If you start reading the ancient authors you will often meet the Term Via Maris, mentioned along with Lake Galilee and The Red Sea. This is often described as seemingly the same route by Romans and Egyptians. Via Maris (Via the Sea or By Way of Horus), means this would have been a fairly sizeable lake. And if the Egyptians called this Horus Highway, it may mean our theory is completely off, OR, Lake Galilee is talked about the Sea at the Bottom of South Africa or the East African Sea Which would be the Sea controlled by The Phoenicians. But then, if this is by Way of the Sea... How can it be shaped like a Harp then? Needs boundaries right, that is why we firmly believe this is talking about inland areas. Now along with by Way of the Sea, it was also called by Way of the Philistines... The Moabites... This changes things again, not to much but it becomes more fitting as we can include an already Harp-looking Lake below (Lake Malawi). We will have to do a separate article of what The Egyptians and the Romans truly meant by Way of the Sea, because, the information is conflicting. But that does not make it any less interesting.

We wanted to include this possible site for another inland lake in the previous article on Araba, but we thought it better to become part of this one. In speaking of lost African inland lakes we have to include another very interesting site, the Etosha Pan in Namibia. Now, this one does not necessarily span potentially VAST inland and cross-border areas like Lake Makgadikgadi in Botswana may have (potential candidate for being The Sea of Araba), this extreme weather area and environment in Northern Namibia, may be of interest when it comes to ancient lakes. Because there is one that fills in every now and then.

NASA image of Etosha Pan

Now because we believe, on account of SoNiNis withdrawal from the area, meaning lack of water OR to much water in short time spans, the area in northern Namibia is an EXTREME area when it comes to weather and climate. The landscape is white and slaty looking, which is admittedly from a prehistoric lake that dried up (off course) millions of years ago. These areas often suffer dry spells, cracked lands and very dusty. Its name, Oshindonga means the bare naked place or the Great white Place, which stems from the Owambo language (Oshiwambo, closely related to Herero and Himba). The image above shows the area after heavy rains, which may point out what it could be or at least we can image what it used to be in all its former glory. Now when the rain arrives and pours into the empty salt pan, it becomes anything but bare land. Not very deep, but the area literally turns into an ocean and a safe haven for many different migrating animals. Here you can spot very rare land animals such as, black rhino, ostrich, elephant, wildebeest, zebra and back in the day there would be many more predators such as lions and cheetahs roaming free. During rainy season you get your mopane woodlands, various grasslands, shrubs and lots of water holes that permeates the Etosha Pan. The image above is from NASA and shows the area, taken not more then a few weeks apart from each other. You can see the dramatic change.

Now we know this suggestion might not even be worth entertaining, but we will put this out there perhaps for someone to continue this research in the future. Les see what this leads to. There are other more suitable areas coming into South Africa and the Karoo, that have Harp looking remnants of lakes, and some are connected to the Orange River. This is more likely to be the outlines of a very famous ancient lake. But we will come back to that later. Now, since the Dead Sea might have spanned quite a large area it is entirely possible that the Etosha Pan was part of this Dead Sea, seen as it may have a very large Surface area. But it could also have been a part of another Lake and River System going down into South Africa, and forming Lake Galilee.

Lake Malawi or Nyasa, may have been much larger in ancient times.

Also possible. We will also include an image of Lake Malawi, which does look like the rod of a Harp (at least now) but missing its resonator box and also kinda out of place when it comes to the placement in the Promised Lands, and also out of place with the River Euphrates. That will change MANY things if this truly is Lake Galilee. We can entertain it, but we for starters need to go there, as we inspect most locations before publishing on them. Now going back to the information we have in our Bibles on The Lake - there is not that much more we can suss out in terms of Scripture on the matter. We do the Greek form ha-Galil which works as the carry-over translated word from Kinerot (Kinor). Still, there is another form that is mentioned in Gelil ha-Goyim - Circle/Waters of the Heathen Nations- Goyim is not a good word. On parr with Racca an ancient Nguni slurr for of the Nations. So it becomes apparent from this, and if you research the word Goyim - it becomes clear, the ancient Hebrews (the majority) were not very accommodating to other races and beliefs than their own. Samaritans were hated for no other reason then the blood in their veins, it seems. And the Samaritans were black Africans for sure. You might even go as far as saying the majority of Ancient Hebrews were Xenophobic to boot, much like today. But that is another can of worms we are not sure people are ready to read about. Because these attitudes have carried over to this day and age. It will bring up a mirror and the reflection might not like itself. White supremacy, black supremacy, its all the same thing folks. Darkness, deep deep darkness.

Summary Lake Galilee

Now away from that, and back to what we do best, locations. The Gelil ha-Goyim, The Waters of the Nations, was according to our Bible a mountaineous country that rose up to the East of the Plains of Jezreel, and went all the way to Lebanon (Ladder of Tyre?), divided into two districts, Lower and Upper Galilee, separated by the plain of Ramah (Joshua 19,36). Now there is a lot to go through if you read Flavius Josephus (Books of the Jews III 3, § 1), says that Galilee was bound in the North and West by Tyrian (Phoenician territories), in the South was Samaria and Scythopolis, in the East by The Jordan and the Jordan Valley and Lake of Gennesareth. Josephus also divided the Mountains of Galilee into two sections, lower and Upper. Kinda Like Lower and Upper Drakensberg (makes one wonder too). Just how much land did Galilee really span? Now sources say that Upper Galilee was bound by Bersheba (south from Ramahs plains), and on the West of Merot, and Baca in the N orth, Thella on the east on the Jordan River. Lower Galilee went from Chabulon (near Ptolemais), south of Ezaloth (Chisloth), and Tiberias to the East, all this we can read in Joshua 19, 12 & 18. In these areas would be lots of Olive production, even today, talked about as the Blessings of Asher (Deuteronomy 33). The Sicaris (Inkabis) of Galilee were renowned and talked about as being very effective. Many other historical notions and remarks are made in Maccabean times and by Josephus. After these times, when Herod the Great passed, Galilee fell into the hands of Herod Antipas who incorporated it as a Province of Syria.

Now most of the action around this Lake is described as happening during our Lord and Saviours time on the earth, as he walked the shores of Lake Galilee during larger parts of his recorded ministry. There would have been continuous band of settlements and villages developed on the shores of the Lake, active trade by boats and various ferries. Christ even recruited 4 of his Disciples from the shores of Lake Kinerot. These were fishermen Simon and Andrew, brothers of James and John. The Sermon on the Mount took place on a hill overlooking Lake Kinerot. This would then be where Christ walked on water, calmed the storm, caught a miracle load of fish and, feed the 5 thousand (Tagbha/Tabatha). Later on this seems to also be where Christ made his third appearance after he Had Risen from the dead.

aBantu bam, look at all the knowledge that has been lost... Even the ancient historical ancient civilisations are no longer where they are supposed to be, on the African continent. There is no proper conducted history to connect these dots. So So much culture among each and every tribe - but no history, haibo ! It should not be like that. And luckily culture is history, so let us get at it. Let us start decoding! Look at the attire, look at the colour of the beads, the old songs, some of them have great significance. There are traces there.

In closing we would also like to say, before some among you go out of his or her way, by making complaints about academia or historians, and how they do not consider Africa as being part of ancient history (even though we know they do leave it open for interpretation) or blame everything or the way things are on other people - we must look deep within ourselves. Why, has all this been hidden? Why the amnesia? Why is there no interest in learning about the lost history of the Biblical stories and placing The Children of Abraham on the continent... What is this force actively working against the hearts and minds of The People... Who is really against you as a person? We would say none, but yourself... If I cannot trust you my black, yellow, red or white brother, you will not trust me. And I must never forget, that I am you. And Christ dwells within us, and there is no separation in Christ. We are One, as SoNiNi is one.

Then, if SoNiNi is for us, nothing can be against us. Nothing can overcome us. Children of The Tribes and Children Abraham seek your past, seek SoNiNi, then you will understand your future.

SoNiNi unathi