Ancient Wisdom: The Book of Ahikar Part 1 of 24
What Is The Book of Ahikar?
The Wisdom of Ahikar is one of the most ancient sources of human thought and wisdom. There are elements of this story within the scriptures, both the Torah and the Gospels and Epistles.
The date of this story has been a subject of lively discussion. Scholars finally put it down about the First Century when they were proved in error by the original story turning up in an Aramaic papyrus of 500 B. C. among the ruins of Elephantine.
I've decided, for your reading pleasure, to paraphrase the ancient story and wisdom here on the HIVE blockchain. To read the original ancient text, click here
This is an original retelling (paraphrase) of the Wisdom of Ahikar, originally posted on Steemit.com about four years ago, updated and reposted here on HIVE for a new audience.
Here Begins the Wisdom of Ahikar
We begin learning of this man named Ahikar. He was a Vizier in the days of King Sennacherib, son of Sarhadum, King of Assyria and Nineveh.
He was known by his vast fortune and for his goods. He was skillful and wise. A philosopher, great in knowledge and in opinion. He was influential in government. He also had a multitude of wives, all of which bore him children. This man had it all except for one thing. His multitude of wives never produced him a son that might be his heir.
Walking in the Council of the Ungodly
Ahikar was very sad on account of not having a son, so one day he assembled the astrologers and learned men and explained his condition. They said this to him: "Go and sacrifice to the gods and beseech them to provide you with a son."
Happy is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners. Psalm 1:1
Now in this regard, wise Ahikar acted very foolishly. He followed their advice and offered sacrifices to the idols. He besought them and implored them with his request. They answered him with silence. They spoke not a single word.
Of course!
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. Psalms 115:4-8
The Foolishness of Idolatry
One may wonder how an idolater would posses such wisdom as Ahikar the Grand Vizier of Assyria, but this fact is known, that the Most High has granted to the sons of men wisdom even while they are in error. Will Ahikar turn away from from this evil practice? Will he, in his wisdom, forsake the flesh and call upon the Name of the Most High God?
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21
Beseeching the Most High
Ahikar returned home sorrowful and dejected, departing with pain and unhappiness in his heart. He returned to his home, regretting his foolishness. He wept by his bed and cried out to the Most High with all of his heart. He implored the Most High God. He believed, beseeching Him with a burning in his heart. And this is what he said:
"Oh Most High God, Creator of the Heavens and the earth, Creator of all created things! I bessech You, that You give me a son, that I may be consoled by him, that he may be present at my death, that he may close my eyes and that he may bury me."
And a voice came to him saying:
"Since you have relied first on graven images and have offered sacrifices to them, you shall remain childless all your life long. However, you shall take the son of your sister and make him your son and teach him your learning and your wisdom and he shall bury you at your death."
With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is a mere breath. Hear my prayer, O YHVH, and give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner like all my fathers. Psalm 39:11-12
Nadad, Son of Ahikar
Ahikar was granted to be the father of Nadad, the son of his sister. He took Nadad while he was still nursing and handed him over to eight wet-nurses that he may be brought up in good health. Nadad ate good food and was trained with wise training. He wore silk cloths and purple and crimson, seated on couches of silk and gold.
When Nadad grew big and walked, shooting up like a tall cedar, Ahikar taught him good manners and writing and true science and inspired philosophy. Thus Nadad grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with man.
What shall become of Nadad in his wisdom? Will we learn of the wisdom that Ahikar taught his son? We'll find out in the next installment of "The book of Ahikar"
This concludes part one of the Book of Ahikar
There are many more parts to this story, this being only the first. We have more to the story and much wisdom for the reader to learn. Let's read this tale together and learn together, the wisdom which only comes from above, wisdom from the Most High.
Let us bless His Holy Name in fear and reverence.
Bless the Most High!
Life is Precious: Don't Worry About a Virus
I know, we're constantly bombarded with reminders of "covid don't you know" and it can be a real bummer, especially for those who simply want to enjoy a normal, prosperous life.
So I'll be quick.
Our family has partnered with Dr. Zelenko to promote his product Z-STACK. Why? Because we don't want YOU to go to a hospital. Why? Because the hospital system has financial and political incentives to make you a statistic. Don't become a statistic. Your life is precious. Stay out of the hospitals. Consider Z-STACK to help combat illnesses.
What is Z-STACK?
I am not a doctor offering medical advice, but repeating the recommendations of Dr. Zelenko. Please do your own research for medical decisions. If you have any questions, consult with American Frontline Doctors.
Z-STACK contains four ingredients that work together to stop the virus from spreading inside your body and help you recover quickly. Quercetin and zinc, backed up with immune boosting vitamin D and vitamin C.
- Elemental Zinc 30mg 1 time a day for 7 days
- Vitamin C 800mg 1 time a day for 7 days
- Vitamin D3 5000iu 1 time a day for 7 days
- Quercetin 500mg 2 times a day for 7 days or
Do Not Live In Fear, Except in the Fear of the LORD
Fear no one, but the one above.
Bless the Most High!
The operators doing V2K with remote neural monitoring want me to believe this lady @battleaxe is an operator. She is involved in the same discord groups around @fyrstikken and friends. Her discord is Battleaxe#1003. Shes in some groups with seemingly detached characters that dont even acknowledge the others in the group, looking oddly staged. She starts projects and does nothing with it or the delegations after its used to sway people. Like @steempowertwins does<------fake along with her @teamgood <------fake. No substance in her comments and has a following that adores her for what? Life coach she is not nor is she insightful with any meaningful skills to follow. Ruler of pixie dust maybe? I would like for someone to show me but probably wont out fear maybe? @fyrstikken groups around him down voted me into censored and not viewable on my accounts as soon I told what they were doing.
I cant prove @battleaxe is the one directly doing the V2K and RNM. Doing it requires more than one person at the least. It cant be done alone. She cant prove she is not one of the ones doing V2K because she cant and could care less. I guarantee she knows this is going around and still wont prove it because she cant. Many of us here can prove what they have been doing to survive the past 5 years. What does she live off of? It definitely isnt in public view here.
I was drugged in my home covertly, it ended badly. They have been trying to kill me using RNM with applied V2K mental games while revealing as many accessories to the crime as they can. I bet nobody does anything at all. Ask @battleaxe to prove it. I bet she wont. Pretty serious accusations to just blow off and leave the crypto community hanging in fear of this danger.
They want me to believe the V2K and RNM in me is being broadcast from her location. And what the fuck is "HOMELAND SECURITY" doing about this shit? I think stumbling over their own dicks maybe? Just like they did and are doing with the Havana Syndrome. They should start by looking at the communications between the top witnesses of Hive and the connection to @fyrstikken groups. Google his fucking name and see where his other interests lie around at least once maybe? The connections between @fyrstikken groups and all the exchanges built for Hive? Bet that would reveal some crazy ball less nutty shit. Homeland security should start preparing for their own incarcerations seeing how sloppy this was done. Patriot act my ass. Think we are really fools? Bad position your not getting out of. Dont be last to blow the whistle. Who will protect you?
People in and around @fyrstikkens groups are reckless and should have shown the proper media what they had before taking me hostage for 5 long torturing years and counting. That is a long time to wait for someone to die.
What would you say while having a gun pointed at your head from an undisclosed location? Have people find it? My hands are tied while they play like children with a gun to my head. Its a terrorist act on American soil while some yawn and say its not real or Im a mental case. Many know its real. This is an ignored detrimental to humanity domestic threat. Ask informed soldiers in the American military what their oath is and why nothing is being done. Nobody has I guess. Maybe someone told ill informed soldiers they cant protect America from military leaders in control that have ill intent. How do we protect locked up soldiers prevented from telling the truth from being treated as criminals? Not to mention civilians we let our leaders treat the same way. https://ecency.com/fyrstikken/@fairandbalanced/i-am-the-only-motherfucker-on-the-internet-pointing-to-a-direct-source-for-voice-to-skull-electronic-terrorism-terrorism
Really good post, Benjamin. I am not familiar with the book of Ahikar, but I look forward to the rest of the writings.
Thank you @beststart, I appreciate your enthusiasm! !ALIVE
@beststart! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @ironshield. (4/10)
The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Interesting story with some cool mythological motifs.
I have to admit though, I'm a little put off by the pill pushing at the end. I'd prefer if content on Scholar & Scribe wasn't jammed up with advertisements for random things.
Thank you for your comment and feedback @jfuji. This is my first scholar and scribe post, the rules are not so clear. I've been a long time poster on the blockchain (since 2017) and opinions about ads have always been mixed. If this sort of content with advertisements are not favorable, I will consider posting outside of the scholar and scribe community.
Fair enough! A big part of blockchain is all about making sure people can publish things that they want, so I don't want to sound like I'm advocating censoring anything :)
An interesting read certainly! I am not sure I am interested in having advertisements like the pills at the end of Scholar and Scribe posts and I am also not certain how true to the purpose of Scholar and Scribe "paraphrasing" existing texts is!
I appreciate the post to the community but please remove any advertising from the footer and be conscious of the purpose of our community- original creative writing content. I will leave the post up but be aware that it definitely toes a line! Please do not be offended that I do not vote on it.
Thank you for your feedback! As this is my first scholar and scribe post, there's some groping in the dark as to what's acceptable or not. If the Ahikar series is not acceptable in this category, I will refrain from posting it in this community.
I think that paraphrasing existing texts is fine in most instances- it just doesn't fit very well with the Creative Writing focus of Scholar and Scribe. We really want authors to post original works here! Stories, poetry, lyrics, freewrites, random musings, etc. There are a heck of a lot of content types that fit perfectly here and I have left the description pretty vague on purpose to encourage people to post. If you were writing satirically or writing a fictional religious text or something I would feel differently about it. This is basically a synopsis of another text.
To follow up on another comment- I am not against advertising links at the bottom of posts in general- especially where they are appropriate- to partner projects or to blogs you want to support, generally content within crypto or the hive ecosystem as those kinds of links are mostly relevant to the content and users of hive...
but this is a creative writing community- if you wished to link to your own creative content elsewhere or to your blog to self advertise I wouldn't have an issue with that- or if you wished to link to relevant hive projects you support I wouldn't have an issue with that- but this is literally just an affiliate marketing link to a weird supplement- totally outside of the hive ecosystem and not related to either the content of your post or the content of the Scholar and Scribe community.
Thank you for your feed-back. if this is a category of writing that is not acceptable here, I will refrain from using the tag.
Oh I would still encourage you to use the tag- just for creative writing content without links to external sales!
Glancing through this post @ironshield, just letting you know (in spite of the warnings elsewhere ...) that I followed your link to ZStacks and ordered some.
Please note that the link does not result in a webpage referencing ZStacks, but Z-DTox instead. I saw your reference ID in the original linked URL, but when I changed it to the ZStacks webpage for ordering, it went away ...
Thank you @roleerob for purchasing z-stack, our family is happy to have partnered with Dr. Zelinko who has made this product available. We really appreciate your support. Also thank you for informing me about the link. The homepage goes to their latest product which currently is z-dtox. I'll update the link to the z-stack page.
I may refrain from including our family's sponsor in the publication as I'm getting some unfavorable feedback.
Certainly. Happy to do it and support your family. My kind of family ... 😉
The only hesitation we had was seeing quercetin in it vs. HCQ. The latter is what we credit with getting us through our experience with COVID relatively easily. Perhaps a prescription vs. OTC issue ...
My understanding is that quercetin is not a replacement for HCQ, but still is a powerful OTC healing supplement, especially when paired with zinc. HCQ is closely related to quinine, so having some tonic water on hand might be good also. Quercetin also helps heal inflammation as it's an effective anti-oxidant. That's my understanding anyway.
https://twitter.com/zulfianfajri97/status/1523078863210749952
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