THE NOVEL NAVEL

(NOAH'S DAY RETURNS - APPENDIX B)

Let's explore the world of speculation just a bit further. The navel has long been linked with sin. From a physician's standpoint, we might note that (though the naval is somewhat lower), it is in the general region we commonly acknowledge as the stomach (the portion of our bodies which is the first to enlarge in response to gluttony or our lustful abuse of food). It is also located over the area of the body we know as the bowels. Various references in our Bible seems to credit this portion of our being with the dubious reputation of the seat of our emotions (a potential source of danger to the soul). Scientifically, the bowels are noted for the dishonorable duty of excreting the undesirable portion of the foods we consume.

In a more abstract study, we would refer to a drawing called the Man in the Pentagram from De Occulta Philosophia by Agrippa. It depicts an inverted pentagram (or five pointed star) within a double circle. The pentagram has a man beneath the interconnected lines which form it. The top point is the top of the head, the two side points are the extended hands, and the two bottom points are the feet (as the legs are spread apart). One of the more interesting features of this drawing is the location of the navel. It is found in the exact center of the cross line of the pentagram. It is the central focal point of the picture. In another somewhat sinister representation called Man as the Measure of All Things by da Vinci we find a similar occurrence. This picture shows the double image of a man. One of the images projects the extended arms at an angle that puts the hands at the level of the top of the head. The legs of this image are extended in like manner to the figure in De Occulta Philosophia. The man in the other image has arms extended straight out and feet in standing position. The head and trunk of the two images are identical, and appear to be as one. Most of the four hands and four feet provide the points from which various arcs of measurement are determined. Again, however, we find that the central focal point of this picture is the navel, through which a line extends to provide the end of one of the arcs. This drawing points to the proportion of Pi (1.618) in relation to the navel of man and the body. In his book The Pattern and the Prophecy, James Harrison suggests a most provable formula to be checked out individually. He instructs us to "First, measure the distance from your head to your navel. Second, measure the distance from your navel to the floor. Now divide the smaller length into the larger, and you get approximately 1.618 .... If you divide the larger into the smaller, then you get roughly 0.618 ...." The number for Pi is also referred to as the Golden Mean and is a basis for alchemical formulas. It seems to be likened to the ability to provide a sort of transitional function. It may be the Pi that was instrumental in the fall of man, and it may be what reverses the fall as well, as God's patterning is circular in nature. Noting the fall now, we link this Pi to sin, and to the naval.

As mentioned in other portions of this writing, it appears that the fall of man made the reproduction of mankind a necessity. We find in Genesis 1:27-28 that "God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: ...." Some would say that this means that reproduction was mandated before the fall, which occurs in Genesis Chapter 3. However, we would note that God does not describe the creation of woman until Genesis 2:18-25. Verse 25 then says "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed". Immediately thereafter (beginning with the next verse in Genesis 3:1) the serpent enters the scene, and the fall occurs. Then God came to visit with them (NOT UNTIL AFTER THE FALL), and Adam was afraid because he was naked. We must realize that Genesis 1:27-28 did not occur before Genesis 2:18-25. It was an overview of the verses to follow in Genesis 3:1-24, which all occurred in Day 6 of creation. Satan was so seductive that they fell within the first day! Blessedly, however, our God is a gracious God! He chastised Adam and Eve for their fall, providing some heavy punishment indeed, but He did not disown them. In spite of their fall, He still blesses them (Genesis 1:27), and tells them now to "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth ...." Now God would not command a man or a woman to be fruitful, as this is simply not within their control. Either they are or they are not fruitful. (Indeed many humans today cannot reproduce offspring!) Apparently His command to them was to multiply BECAUSE He had just MADE them fruitful. It appears that a part of His blessing upon them was performed by His speaking to them to "BE" fruitful. Rather than being a command, it seems that He was speaking into existence their fruitfulness after the fall, just as He spoke into existence the other forms of creation. They had partaken of the grape and received blood. Adam had just acquired the seed from the fall that was needed in order to procreate. God now ordains the completion of the reproductive capabilities of their bodies (particularly Eve's body) so they can reproduce. Indeed the timing found in Genesis 4:1 indicates that Adam did not "know" Eve in this intimate manner until after the fall. Then came the reproduction.

Now the navel is formed in the fetus to provide the umbilical cord which links to the mother for the necessary fetal nutrition and sustenance. We would also note here that the blood of the fetus is actually mingled with the blood of the mother through this cord during gestation. Because the navel is key to the human reproductive process, and this process became essential due to the fall of mankind through sin, we again see a most profound link of the navel to sin.

This reality of the navel in humanity today has created a curious dilemma to those who wish to artistically depict Adam and Eve. Because neither of them were brought into being through the reproduction process of humankind, did they have navels? Invariably, pictures of Adam and Eve are situated in such manner that the area where their navels would be are discretely covered in some way (a means by which the artist avoids confrontation re: this issue).

Throughout all of humanity, there is only one other man who was created by a means other than the normal process of human reproduction. This man knew no sin until He had to take upon Him the sin which should have been ours to bear. His Hebrew name was Yeshua which means "He will save". Some call Him Jesus, the The English translation of His name. We have also discussed the potential that He had a form of "living" water instead of blood (of which it is said that "life is in the blood"). This "living water" would be much different than our blood, and would most likely be SOLELY capable of sustaining life in the womb. Now the question would arise. What would prevent the living water from being mixed with the blood of the mother during gestation? In fact some would base their proof of Mary's divinity upon the exchange of fluid between this mother and Son. Indeed such an exchange of fluid from the divine Son would raise some intriguing theological questions in that area regarding the divinity of Mary (or even more appallingly the loss of divinity of the Son?). However, we are clearly shown by God's Word that the mother of Yeshua was NOT divine and that her Son was! One who is divine does not worship another. In Matthew 2:11 Mary fell down before her infant Son and worshipped Him. We are also told that Mary had to complete her days of purification after the birth in Luke 2:22. A divine Mary would not have been considered impure and in need of purification. Now could these verifications that Mary was NOT divine after gestation indicate that the normal exchange of the bodily fluids between this mother and Son did not occur? If the "living water" of the Son was completely self-sufficient to sustain the life of the Son within her womb, is it possible that this had no navel? Maybe our God (known for His patterning) actually designed His Son to be free even of the "symbol of sin" which we find that the navel has become. Maybe even this very absence of marking on His human body was uniquely designed to make a bold statement of his divine nature and exemption from the sinful "seed" passed down by all human fathers.

John 19:19-22 gives us the most detail of the sign which was put on the cross of our Savior. This passage says that it says "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews". Without going into a great deal of detail at this point, we would simply say that the English form of the actual Greek rendition should have been Jesus of Nazareth, and King of the Jews. Furthermore, we find here that Pilate wrote these words. He wrote them in Hebrew (as well as in Greek, and Latin). The Hebrew language has a strange manner of tacking some words to others as prefixes and suffixes. Accordingly, a proper Hebrew rendering of these words, would have been "Yohoshua Hanatzri Vemelech Hayhoodem". Now the Jewish people knew Hebrew inside and out, and they became extremely upset when they saw what was on the cross. Indeed we may see the reason if we look closely. The beginning four letters of these four Hebrew words, form what we would call an acronym that is very interesting. These four beginning letters form a word that is well known to the Jewish people. The Y is a yod, the H is a hay, the V is a vav, and the second H is another hay. Thus we have yod - hay - vav - hay. To the Jewish person, it was the ineffable (unspeakable) name of God; the tetragrammaton, known as the "holy name". Now they could see it boldly proclaimed in print at the top of the cross where the Lamb of God was slain. It is little wonder that the Jewish people who had commanded his death were irate when they saw it! They insisted that the sign should read that this is what Yeshua SAID He was! It is doubtful here that they were merely arguing over his kingship, as the words of Yeshua we find in our Bible don't seem to verify that He said He was king over the Jewish people. Various statements to the Jewish people by Yeshua do, however, indicate his claim of divinity, as He said (for instance) that He and the Father were one! These angry people most likely wanted the writing changed so it would not emphasize the "yod - hay - vav - hay" that they clearly saw in the Hebrew above the man they had caused to be slain! Pilate's response is also interesting here. He simply says: "What I have written I have written"! His choice of the very words that would create this acronym in the Hebrew, and his refusal to make the requested change may indicate that he had not only come to acknowledged the divinity of this man, but was suddenly intent upon publicly broadcasting it. What might have jolted Pilate into such a realization of the reality of the divinity of Yeshua?

We may want to note here, that only moments before Pilate wrote these words to hang over our Savior, John 10:1 tells us that "Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him". This would necessitate the disrobing of Yeshua. Had Pilate noted the distinctive absence of a navel in this "Adam" (I Corinthians 5:45)? Indeed (as he was so indecently displayed upon the torturous cross), might it not have been a horrible realization to many of those who looked upon Him that they had just cried out for the death of the divine? Curiously, it was shortly after His death that droves of Jewish men and women (the "remnant" of that day noted in Romans 11:5) became a large portion of the brethren of our Bible (of which Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28 that of those who had been baptized into Christ, "There is neither Jew nor Greek ...").

Yet, in spite of this, within God's perfect plan other Jewish people would remain blinded by God ", (Romans 11:25) to the evidence which was so boldly presented. They would look upon their only source of salvation and fail to recognize the evidence of his divinity. We find the shadow to this in Genesis 19:11 where the citizens of Sodom were supernaturally blinded. In this passage too we seem to find a specific blindness rather than total blindness. (If they had been stricken with total blindness, they would have been overwhelmed by the occurrence; confounded and panicky. Yet this passage does not indicate that at all, just saying that they wearied themselves trying to find the door! It looks as though they were merely blinded in such a way that they could no longer see the door behind which the angels (their only hope of salvation from death) stood, though it may have been right in front of them!

Before leaving this concept, we might want to take a look at the full body pictures of the Shroud of Turin. We might wonder if there would be a depression where we would expect to find the navel. Well, a view of these pictures yields an interesting finding. The elbows of our Lord had been extended outward from the body in such a manner that his hands are crossed to discretely cover the area where the navel would be found. Such placement of the hands by those who prepared the body would seem to be highly irregular. The logical portion of the body to be discreetly covered by the crossed hands would seem to be the genitalia. This also would be the more natural position of the arms, lying peacefully next to the body rather than extended outward to each side. Yet, we find that the area of the navel was hidden from view in the burial of this last Adam, just as it is discretely obscured in the pictures of the first Adam. Is it merely coincidence?