Recommendations

Hello! Shalom! Aloha! Mabuhay!

If this is your first visit to Modern Apocrypha, I have only two recommendations for continuing on with minimal confusion:


1) Please begin with the first introductory post (found HERE) and work your way forward. Almost all the posts on this blog flow chronologically and will make more sense with the background and context of previous ones. Jumping in anywhere might be disorienting.

2) Please read along in the texts posted off to the right. I try not to summarize too much in the commentary and discussion, and being at least somewhat familiar with what we're discussing or I'm commenting on will be most beneficial and edifying for all involved. Plus, going along with the theme of this blog, any hidden truths to be brought to light will be found within the text itself and not necessarily within my ramblings.

Okay, fine, three recommendations:

3) Please read with an open heart, mind, and spirit. See what truths you can find in these works--ones which speak to you. Namaste : )

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

ANG AKLATAN - AHKMAN 1-3 - GENERATIONS OF SURAN


We're finally done with Suran! On to Ahkman, who now takes over as narrator and begins with describing who he is and where he comes from. This is a type of colophon (similar to what we see in 1 Nephi), a literary device used in ancient times where the author or scribe gives useful or relevant information about himself, often as a stamp of authenticity to their account. (Ruman does something similar in his introduction to Suran.)

Ahkman 1-3 lays out the generations of Suran, Ahkman's father, who had appointed him to administer the rites of the temple as its high priest. Ahkman states that his father was a direct descendant of both Semitic ("those... led out of captivity") and Levitic ("those who did journey to this land") lines as described earlier, and that he's recording this history for the benefit of future generations. (Also, I laughed at first when Ahkman said he was a direct descendant of his father, but then thought it would be important for him to state he was neither adopted nor illegitimate, and thus a rightful inheritor of his birthright.)

Suran had his children relatively late for a male within a hunter-gatherer or early agricultural society (Ahkman at 31, Shurak at 33, Kodal at 34, and Gura at 37), which usually marry young (and often, as marital laws and bonds are more relaxed and easily broken). Maybe their tribe had special norms or taboos. Here is the list of his 24 grandchildren:

Ahkman (5 children)
sons: Arakim, Laran, Subal
daughters: Seliam, Yaman

Shurak (4 children)
sons: Shuran, Shukar, Rakaal
daughter: Karila

Kodal+wife 1 (6 children)
sons: Telemek, Telakem, Barame, Kumalek
daughters: Terilan, Lorenu

Kodal+wife 2 (4 children)
son: Doronam
daughters: Dorima, Doruma, Rekel
(We'll get into Kodal's revelation and polygamy among Suran's people later in Ahkman 18-22.)

Gura (5 children)
sons: Kuman, Gavor, Rubak
daughters: Saram, Rabala

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