Megiddo Mosaic III

This blog looks again at more details of the Megiddo Mosaic, this time around the inscriptions. Before that, notes on BRB updates and shop work including color related details on Joseph's Robe and the first 3d print of the Vine.

BRB Updates

As this blog goes out there is an update to the BRB with a series of code changes. Hopefully no one using scripture apps this weekend will notice, but let me explain what is going on. These updates might cause bugs that could be seen by users here.

Ryan, of course, has been working heavily in the GRB app. This app is effectively a parallel Bible to the BRB. There are different principles behind these 2 apps. The BRB app began years ago when we needed to manage our own version of the Bible. Every time we found something which was a translation related problem, Ryan changed it. This allows looking at the next level of issues. Good examples include changing Jesus to Joshua and James to Jacob. There are dozens of other similar changes in the BRB.

He is handling the GRB text differently. Ryan is mostly leaving the GRB English text alone, but is annotating it heavily with notes. He is planning for a Greek based equivalent of the TT, and that new app will carry many of the changes that we have long had in the BRB.

Because of Ryan's need to document the issues he is discovering in the Greek OT of the GRB, he needed to add extensive notes to the GRB. This was never done in the BRB, so the GRB is diverging some from the design principles of the BRB.

The design of the code behind the menu system in the GRB was recently changed to allow different parts of the menus to be constructed in different ways. Remember, those menus can show story navigation, chapter navigation, and then any introductions and trailing notes. The various parts of the menus come from different sources and are composited by the build system in the app.

This week Ryan ported that new GRB menu system back to the BRB app. Not because he intends to heavily footnote the BRB, but so that there is only 1 menu system used in both places. Everything tests good in the BRB, but regular users should be aware of this change. Use the feedback form in the BRB app to report or ask about any obvious bugs.

The other thing Ryan did this week is update what are called the Exchange Tags of the BRB manuscript. These tags are used to give fine control over the process of subsetting the BRB manuscript for use in the TT and related apps like the SR, 400, QM and so on.

For example, in the BRB, the suspected hand of the editors is marked with various Filter related tags. Passages from the BRB which have these tags see those tags removed when they are displayed in the TT and friends.

The Exchange tags allow very fine control over cleaning up the final text seen in those other apps. This especially includes word substitution, capitalization and sentence punctuation. But those exchange tags can do essentially anything textually. They run as a preprocessor within the tool chain.

The set of actual exchange tags used in the TT and friends has grown slowly over the past 10+ years. It was unclear when we put this system together how it would even be used. Some of the TT text used exchanges, but no longer do. But in most cases the entire set of exchanges grew to became a disorganized mess because it grew as an ad-hoc system.

What Ryan did this week was clean up the list of exchanges used in the system. He sorted them into categories, and renamed all the exchanges to match the new categories. He also dropped exchanges no longer used. He did this 1 at a time, and carefully, but it was a big change to work through.

Like the menu system changes, these changes are not intended to be visible in the TT and related apps. But we have regular users here who often give Ryan feedback when problems are found. The next few weeks may see more bugs related to this change to the exchange tags. Please use the feedback form in the various apps should you find a problem in the running text. Ryan often turns around bugs reported this way within hours.

Joseph's Robe

When I finished updating the 3d printers in the shop I shifted to printing the exhibits that will eventually populate the Tent of Time, also known as the Tabernacle.

Because most of the exhibits needed design work, I wanted to get some simple item running on the printers that would both take many hours of printer time, and not require complex design and testing.

The best exhibit for that is known as Joseph's Robe. In ancient times this was likely made as a quilt, with colored squares and embroidered letters. It perhaps could have been rendered as a woven rug.

The 3d design challenge was the front of the Robe. It had to allow any square of any design, to sit anywhere on the quilt. This without regard to structural issues. An ancient seamstress would have been similarly free to build a quilt following any arbitrary quilt square design.

In my case, the entire Robe will end up as a wall panel about the size of an office whiteboard. I am also sectioning my first copy of the Robe so it is easy to transport in a car. This exhibit needs to be strong, with little flex, but without regard to the design on the front.

In the end, I came up with a 3d parts library, called quilt, that provides the part designs used for the Robe. There is a back, then a thin web layer, and then the decorative front. Small bolts clamp the layers together. As long as the front is designed using squares then any design is possible.

Shop Techniques

This exhibit has forced some rethinking about how to use various colors of plastic. Much of the total volume of plastic is hidden from view, where it does not matter to the external color seen by someone looking at the finished exhibit. Women making quilts often use random scraps of cloth for backing and stuffing. (Even the quilt squares themselves.) So there is a historical example for using scrap in quilts. My mother and grandmother made quilts regularly when I was a child, and their quilts were usually from scraps of cloth.

In the process I was looking for a way to use scrap plastic, I was also trying to limit the use of colored plastic. White is fast to get delivered, usually overnight, and often the cheapest plastic.

So after building a set of squares using a single color, I started doing these quilt squares using a thin colored surface with white plastic hidden below, out of sight on the final parts.

This lead to an unexpected visual effect. Squares with white backing are reflecting light different than squares with solid color for the whole piece. The plastic filament is partially translucent, and so a white back causes a brighter front. This makes the letters on the squares stand out, a nice effect.

This color effect is especially interesting because the letters are printed on top of the squares using black plastic. So brightening up the squares makes the letters pop.

Violet Vs. Magenta

Since I started doing 3d design work years ago I have been using plastic sold as purple which exactly matches HTML standards for the purple color, but which most people outside of the computer world would call magenta.

Magenta is an important color. In the colored ink system used to print on paper, the ink cartridges usually include 4 colors, CYMK, or Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and K for black. Cyan, Yellow and Magenta also combine to form black, but black is added for pure black text which is so common on printed pages.

This color system is in contrast to computer screens that are RGB systems, Red, Green, and Blue. This set is different because of the different ways RGB light combines to ultimately form white.

OK, so the Rainbow is the color system used to define the colors used in the exhibits. All references to the rainbow in the text are pointing at the color systems used in the exhibits in the Tent of Time. This can be directly on the Lamp item, or indirectly to the places these colors are used again, such as the audit pattern.

There are 2 differences between rainbows as commonly understood on the color spectrum and the color wheel used in artistic color theory.

The rainbow usually includes an orange located between red and yellow. The rainbow is normally not drawn with cyan, ie sky blue, as that is the backdrop for rainbows. This is the first change from Rainbows to the primary colors on the color wheel.

The other difference is that violet is found on real rainbows, informally purple, while magenta is not found on real rainbows. At least, of course, not as a big band of color.

So to stay faithful to the rainbow, I tried printing the quilt squares for Joseph's Robe using violet instead of magenta. This to be strictly faithful to the rainbow in the sky. I started assembly of this and will post photos on Telegram when this blog goes out.

The problem with violet is the color difference between violet and blue. From a distance, or in poor lighting, violet and blue look very similar.

I would also guess that some people who are color blind will see these as the same. I spent much time in my early computer career worrying about color schemes on computer screens that worked even for color blind users. It is a tricky and serious concern when a computer product may have many users. The same goes for computer manuals. In the end, very little meaning can be safely ascribed to color in many situations.

On the Robe, the colors are useful, they indicate shared vowels. This can be learned without the use of colors, but it is a help for someone starting out. Once the robe, using violet, was going together I was having emotional flash backs to my early work history.

So with violet there is no strong distinction between the blue vowels and the purple vowels. This is especially so with violet used for purple. Magenta would be better for various situations, not just poor lighting, but for people who cannot see very well.

I had to go read more about this, and there are comments on the color systems of rainbows that indicate violet is correct, but that often red is added to the violet in order to form a circle of color. So violet is often substituted by magenta even if magenta is not exactly correct to the rainbow in the sky. This makes the rainbow into yet a different color circle that is not the theoretical color circle which normally uses RGB and CYM.

I reprinted the quilt squares for the Robe, using magenta instead of violet, and will post photos on Telegram of that version too. Give me your feedback on telegram on this interesting point. This is not just for the robe, but for all exhibits in the set.

I am inclined to just use magenta for purple everywhere, as I have been doing, and not use any violet. But, if you know some reason not to do this, please give me your argument.

Layers Of Interpretation

I have covered this many times in this blog before. But for new readers, the process of understanding the text breaks down into 7 different layers, very similar to the 7 layers of design that makes the modern internet possible.

The bottom 3 layers in the textual model of layers of interpretation are 1) The alphabet drawn forms, 2) Words formed from letters and 3) Sentences formed from words.

Because most Bible studies that you might know of today are built atop a translation of the text, these bottom 3 layers are almost always hidden to English students of the text.

But, from a first principles perspective, if I was to teach you the text from scratch, I would work up a curriculum that starts at the bottom. I would start with the drawn forms of the letters. These are taught using the 3d models and the back side of the lid of the Table item in our future classroom.

Once students know the design systems for drawn letters they are ready to learn words. But not so fast. Joseph's Robe is the item that sits at the boundary between layer 1 and layer 2 in our conceptual system of textual interpretation.

That robe has 10 columns. Each column lists 22 different sets of 3 letters. There is a shuffle that the teacher shows students that demonstrates the construction of those columns. Each column is built from the previous column. The final column, when shuffled again, produces the first column. Mathematicians would say this is a closed system. An infinite loop.

Within the Robe there are a total of 220 proto-sentences. Each letter has 10 such proto-sentences that define how the letter functions in terms of the other letters. This is based on the letter definitions from the 3d objects, but then gives each letter a worked out sense of how they function in the real world of the inspired writing system.

The Robe is thus an important curriculum item for new students. But, there is a textual story for the Robe item that is important to consider. The exhibit item has a pattern that was on the robe that Jacob gave to Joseph. It is that robe, and special pattern, that got Joseph in so much trouble with his brothers.

Joseph's Dreams

The link here is to Genesis 37 in the BRB. This is where we learn about the Robe that Jacob made for Joseph. The story calls out Joseph as being the son of his old age. But we know from the story of Reuben that Joseph is really Jacob's first grandson.

The story begins with Joseph bringing and evil report about his brothers to Jacob. Even with this verse there are disputes in church circles over the nature of the evil here. Was Joseph being evil by saying something false about his brothers? I have heard this preached. These preachers say Joseph should have covered for the evil of his brothers, by not doing this, Joseph was evil. This is stupid. 2 wrongs do not make a right. But, this view is commonly preached.

The other interpretation is that Joseph was honestly reporting to Jacob about the evil actions of his brothers. We know from their actions later that they are an evil bunch. Without honest reports, it is impossible for leaders to ever run any sort of operation. Trump, for example, risks making bad decisions because people below him in the government are giving him untruthful reports. I have read that anyone working for Elon found telling him lies will be summarily fired. See the problem? It exists even in family businesses. Leaders cannot make sound decisions if they do not have sound data on which to base those decisions.

This is the problem that the story of Jacob and Joseph is teaching readers. Intermediaries in organizations must be willing to give bad reports. Leaders must be able to listen to these reports and not shoot the messenger.

Preachers who put evil on Joseph in this story are likely preaching relative morality of protecting their (Masonic) pack, and not following the commandment to not give false testimony.

This sort of honest reporting is going to endear Joseph to Jacob. Joseph is demonstrating at an early age that he can be trusted, unlike his 10 older brothers. In Jacob's case those brothers cannot be easily fired, unlike the people surrounding Elon.

In any case, within that relationship between Joseph and Jacob, Jacob made a special robe for Joseph. To righteous brothers, they would have gloried in the special gift and have been glad for Joseph. Instead, the robe makes matters even worse.

That robe will be the source of trouble when they finally put Joseph in a well and ultimately sell him into Egypt.

Design of the Robe?

The story itself does not explain the design on the robe. That design is left as a mystery to readers. But, remember the context for learning to read. The reference classroom for learning to read had a copy of Joseph's robe. Either hanging on a wall, or as a quilt, or even as a mosaic somewhere. Readers already know what is on that robe because they used it already when they were learning to read.

This is why Jacob made Joseph a robe too. Joseph needed it in his learning. You will too, if you ever plan to read Paleo. Presumably the older brothers refused to be taught how to read. This Genesis 37 story is suggesting as much.

That begs another question. Where did that Robe come from in the classroom?

For most of history, the answer is simple. The design was copied from earlier classrooms. It is part of the heritage that is supposed to be passed on along with the text. The room with the Megiddo Mosaic had a copy of this robe too. Either on a wall, or on cloth. Once the shuffle is learned, and you won't pass the class without knowing the shuffle, then anyone can recreate the whole robe from very simple first principles.

So where does the design for the model I am building in the shop come from?

One night at dinner, many years ago, I was suddenly caught in a vision where I was shown the setup for the first column, and then the shuffle used to create the second column. I excused myself from the table so I could go stand at a white board. Ryan was quick to ask, what is going on? I said I was in a vision.

Within a couple days I'd run the shuffle enough times to see it closes back to the first column, with a total of 10 columns, each with 3 letters.

There are the same number of columns on Joseph's Robe as Joseph had older brothers in Genesis 37. This is a hidden match to the text. It suggests a name for each column on the robe. Their birth order as given in Genesis is used nowhere else in the text. It is not copied in other lists of the tribes. The only use seems to be for naming the columns on the robe.

Curriculum Again

Once students can read the pattern of Joseph's Robe, then they are ready to start reading real sentences. Most students of languages need to see and read short sentences. I remember an early reader. The first chapter was 1 sentence, "See Spot run." The picture on the opposite page was Spot the dog, a Dalmatian of course, running in front of a boy who was watching Spot run.

Where do we find that sort of material in the textual world we are dealing with?

Proverbs is the likely book, and for this reason parts of Proverbs may be inspired. If nothing else but to teach early readers some simple sentences.

Ryan's work in Proverbs that I showed off in last week's blog thus sits atop the study of Joseph's robe.

It is very likely that Joseph was involved with the production of that book. Joseph would have known his robe, and then moved on to short proverbs, the sentences in that book.

It is also likely that there will ultimately be around 10 chapters of material in Proverbs, perhaps a chapter for each column on the robe, and thus for each of his 10 older brothers.

It may not be a happy story, at least for them.

The Vine

The 3d printing process for the Vine exhibit is coming along far enough that I will be posting pictures on Telegram when this blog goes out.

The vine is the stand for the silver set of 3d items. It is similar to a Christmas Tree, with birds at the ends of each of the branches. It has locations for each of the 18 birds that make up the set.

Each tier up the tree carries the letters that go with a shared vowel. Some tiers also carry mirror image items, which happen 5 times in the silver set. Most flowers on the vine have 2 leaves, 1 for each of the standard paleo letters that shadow the 3d object that is each bird. While there are 25 letter drawn forms, the 5 mirrored means there are 35 leaves on the tree.

The tree stands about 6 feet from the floor, this with 2 inch letter sizes used in the stand. It has a front, where most tiers up the tree have 2 different 3d models at that tier.

Once the 3d printing was far enough along that the central trunk had reached full height it was clear that there is some flex in this tree, just like a real tree at the same height. To help protect the birds from falling off the tree, I needed to rework the flower design so the birds can clip into the tree itself using the flower petals.

This took several iterations, clips and snaps are hard to design. I found a way to do it invisibly using the petals. The final effect is very nice. The bird sits in correct 3d space relative to the flower and the leaves. Birds will not fall off, but can be removed without dangerous force simply by flexing the front petal. Because the leaves also align perfectly, the 2d drawn forms line up with the 3d birds.

Once the central stock reached full height it was also possible to get a feel for how this will actually look. Before the first flowers were installed, it reminded one guest to the shop of an old fashioned hat tree.

Seeing this first draft of the Vine standing on the floor also gave me the ability to interpret more of the Megiddo Mosaic. Let me do that for you here so you can see how this was known, by this design, in ancient times.

Megiddo Mosaic

The link here is to another Youtube video introducing the Megiddo Mosaic. This video was recorded by Pastor Terry Feix at Crossings Community Church in Oklahoma City. It was uploaded to Youtube on April 4, 2024. In the video he discusses how he had read the "dig report" for this artifact. He also discusses how there was a team from the Museum of the Bible that was in Israel at the time of the recording.

They were working on removing the mosaic from the ground. The Green family, which you may recognize as the family that owns Hobby Lobby, is based in Oklahoma City. That family is the main financial sponsors of the Museum of the Bible. Pastor Feix speaks as though he is personally connected in some way to that museum, perhaps through the Green's themselves. This video is 57 minutes long, the longest of the Megiddo Mosaic videos I have shared here so far. Plan your time if you want to watch the whole thing. There are some important video shots that I will point out below.

Of all the mosaic videos so far, this one is the first by a big city pastor. That job usually pretends to its audience that it is technical with respect to the Bible, but it is mostly a political job. He can never diverge from his particular tradition without serious trouble from his audience and elder board. So he must watch what he says. I cringed at how he handles various topics, even in this short video on the mosaic. I am posting this link with the obvious caveat that I would not approach nearly any subject, including the mosaic, the same way as he must because of his job and tradition.

There is some redundancy to earlier videos I have shared here in the blog. Like the others, this particular video covers the location where it was found. It also covers the historical timeline into which this mosaic is dated.

In terms of timeline, he will reference Constantine's changes to the church in the early 300s. Constantine is not one of the primary villains, but why would anyone ever think the ruler of the Roman empire would ever be truth seeking? Or truth forming? Constantine had a power job, not a truth job. As all Christian traditions spring from Constantine's work, our Christian heritage is already suspect in terms of holding accurate truth, Constantine created a "State Religion" of which even Pastor Feix is an heir.

So Feix will dwell on the idea that this artifact is from at least 100 years earlier than Constantine. As I have said earlier, if they date this floor because of coins found from 230 AD, that only sets a burial date for the floor, not a construction date, which would be 100+ years earlier.

All of these are topics we've discussed here before. What makes this particular video important to add to our collection is how he looks at the inscriptions that are on that floor. There are 3 inscription blocks, and they hide more important artwork related to the 3d model system.

Because of the length of the video, let me give some time markers and topics. If you do not watch the whole video, you can jump to time stamps as you wish.

00:00 Introduction

At the beginning he indicates this is the first video in what he hopes will be a series on ancient artifacts related to faith.

~9:00 Megiddo

At the 9:00 minute mark he references how this was found near Megiddo, at the southern edge of the valley of Jezreel. This is of course the long expected location of the Battle of Armageddon.

Let me just speculate a bit on this point. If the Book of Revelation is mostly a book about the book, and how it was handled across time, and how handling of the book triggers soul harvests from earth, then that famous battle may well be fought not in that physical valley, but atop this mosaic. This floor may be the place where a major textual battle will be fought. A fight to end the work of the editors and their heirs like Constantine.

As you watch the rest of the video, think about the way Feix returns quickly to Constantine's version of history, even disregarding the text in the inscriptions that he is otherwise rightfully proud of.

12:39 Christian Worship Space

At this point Feix shows an artist's conception of the building that stood over the floor. This art was in the earlier videos too. He calls this a worship space, the artwork labels it as a Christian prayer hall.

The problem with this space is that the people studying the floor have no idea what such a place could be used for given what they understand of the Christian tradition.

We mostly have churches today. Big ones which range all the way up to Cathedrals, which are also usually government structures. And we have little ones, down to 1 room roadside chapels built on the side of someone's farm.

Given the idea that Christianity was an underground form of our modern practice of religion in the era when this building was in use, then there must be some other modern function that happened there, worship, common in modern churches, and prayer, less common in modern churches, are the 2 obvious choices. Take your pick.

Either of these make sense only until all the art on the floor is fully explained. No modern prayer hall, nor worship space, has such specific and strange geometric designs. These are not icons of saints, like the Orthodox would use, nor depictions of stories in the text, as would decorate Christian spaces for illiterate visitors for most of history.

These intricate designs have more in common with a Masonic meeting hall, except for the fact that the floor calls out Jesus as god. Masons would never say such a thing, much less record it in concrete. Pay attention to Feix's discussion on that point, it causes him trouble too. Feix himself will only go so far as to say Jesus is the son of god. He cannot accept the witness of the floor.

13:10 First View of the Mosaic

Once he gets to the floor itself he attempts to show how big the space is. This is another example of problems with this floor. Most careful archaeologists usually care about exact sizes of things they find. Red and White measurement sticks are often photographed against interesting objects. Nothing I have seen of that floor so far exhibits particular attention to detail in things like measurements.

Was it too much trouble to run a measuring tape so everyone would know the exact size of the room? With measurements on some of the other artwork it would be possible to work out what unit of measure they were using. Roman Cubits? Egyptian Cubits? Any of several possible Greek Cubits?

Again, these are examples where the Christian world shuns technical precision because should such precision be used, it would be used against the tradition itself.

Feix explains the details around the fish by explaining what is NOT there. No idols, no human depictions, no Roman gods, etc. He likes the fish, because that is recognizable. He says the fish are a Tuna, and a Bass. I do not know fish, so cannot confirm this nor correct it. The video closeup of the fish is good enough that any reader here who knows fish might be able to agree, or dispute, these fish types. Let me know if you can do that.

Identifying fish is more specific than anything else he called out so far. The problem here is that he uses the fish as a source for a joke. Those 2 fish are likely the 2 fish in the story of feeding the 5000. That floor is very seriously about manuscript multiplication.

In the end, Feix does not seem able to explain anything else.

The real point of trouble with this exhibit is that nothing on that ancient, expensive, Christian floor has specific meaning that has survived into modern Christianity. It certainly did not survive Constantine. Someone went to a lot of trouble to record something which has not been passed down to us.

16:25 Overview, Start of Inscriptions

At this point Feix will explain how everything is interesting, with a bird's eye view of the entire floor. He will only draw specific attention to the inscriptions. This is why we are watching.

17:00 Jesus Is God Inscription

Feix is going on a rabbit trail with modern, ultimately Masonic, teaching that Constantine made up the idea that Jesus is god. Of course this floor pre-dates Constantine and proves that the idea of Jesus' divinity is older.

I don't disagree with him on this point. Though he will use Bible quotes to support arguments later, he should do so here too.

I dare say the birth narrative in the text says Joshua is god. Immanuel, God with us, and how Jesus will be called the (heavenly) father, are both claims to divinity in the original account as known to us in the public Christian text. Those birth era truth claims are told every year in the Christmas story. They contradict and debunk Trinity, but I digress. Feix is a politician and cannot cite inconvenient truth from the Bible.

19:18 Close In View

At this point in the video, Feix shows a closeup of the Greek inscription that is making so many people very happy over this find. He will explain this again, but it is not news to anyone who has watched earlier videos linked from this blog on the Megiddo Mosaic. But, there is important art around that inscription that I want to explain here for the public record.

If you go to that point and pause the video you will see the area below the table grid. Ignore the specific Greek writing. Look at the trim on the left and right.

On the left are 2 half circles. On the right are 2 more half circles.

Each half circle is drawn with 2 black curves with a white or light divider.

In earlier blogs I ignored this detail of the artwork, in part because it was so hard to see. Now I now what these represent.

Each half circle is depicting one side of a cipher disk. These disks naturally sit inside the ring of the top of a clay pot. There are 2 half circles to each cipher. The handle on the lid can be thought of as dividing the 2 halves of the cipher. That handle can also be used as something like the needle on a compass across the top of a jar where the cipher is encoded around the outside rim.

One side of the cipher, say the left side, is the inbound side. The other side, say the right side, is the outbound side of the cipher. The cipher disks are the lids for the clay pots (or possibly baskets) that are used for transport of the exhibits. These are available for use in ciphering when the exhibit is set up.

Going back to the art on the floor. There are 2 black arcs, depicting the pot ring, the outer part, and then the edge of the cipher disk within the pot, the lid. The ancient ciphers were run by spinning the lid around inside a marked up pot.

The 2 sides of the cipher disk are divided and filled with an inscription because the art is indicating some Greek story that will be unpacked when the ciphers are run. This is what the builders of this floor wanted us to know. They had the ciphers, and ran them, and knew some interesting stories that we will one day be able to look up.

On the left side each half disk has a quad letter in the left half disk. This is the inspired manuscript as written by Joshua. Using the Qu Map allocation of kings, Joshua sits in the center with the Quad letter as depicted here. Quads, standing alone, mark Joshua or his work. So the left marks the inbound side of the cipher system. This is the letter perfect text that has been through the recovery process.

On the right side of this inscription Mosaic, the 2 half circles contain a Ta on the top and a Colon on the bottom. These are sequential in the system and are likely indicating which cipher disks need to be run, so 2 of them, in order to unpack the enclosed inscription. Ta will be disk 22 or 23, and the Colon will be disk 23 or 24. (Or else this is indicating a double cipher, less likely but possible. So run Ta then run Colon against Ta.) This floor indicates the folks who built it had run most of the ciphers, likely all of them.

The woman's name, Akeptos, is probably being misunderstood by those looking at this floor. She offered a table, so the 5x5 grid just above, or the artifact known as the table.

But, more likely, she is a character in a ciphered volume. We will learn more about her once we have text recovered and the ciphers worked out. Maybe the story of this entire room is in a ciphered volume.

This inscription may or may not have anything to do with the construction of the room itself. Anyone familiar with the text knows that gifts are to be given in secret. Why would this group disrespect one of the main principles of the text itself?

Outside of those half circles are more art. On the left, between the half circles, is a Dot. This is the character usually between words. It represents a single sown seed. On the right, again between the half circles, is a large solid dot, not an actual character in the language, but a fist full of seed.

This is likely playing off the parable of the sower. The single dot on the left indicates 1 letter sown into the text. The right hand side indicates a hand full of seed that comes through the cipher system. This agrees with the 2 fish being a sign of the feeding of the 5000, manuscript multiplication.

Notice at this point in the presentation, Pastor Feix is using this to reinforce current Christianity. Like a scene out of a 1970s era sitcom, like Giligan's Island, where a child plays with a loaded WWII grenade, not knowing what it is, nor how dangerous it may be to himself.

24:23 Long Inscription

At this point Pastor Feix turns to the long inscription on the side of the floor where there is the art with the 2 fish. You can pause at 24:31 for a good view of that inscription with the English translation.

Over on the left is another pair of half circles. Likely also indicating a pair of ciphers will unpack this inscription. The right hand side of this inscription appears not to have survived. Probably not a problem, once the ciphers are worked out this inscription will reference some story in the expanded volumes somewhere. A textual search should find it easy enough.

Stick Figure Tree

But also, at this point, there is a stick figure of a tree on the very left side of this inscription along with the 2 cipher disk halves.

If you go count limbs on this tree, there are 7 limbs on the right of the central trunk, and 5 tree limbs on the left. Then there is some sort of bud at the very top. This tree is tall and skinny, like a sun flower.

That stick figure tree is a depiction of the Vine item that once stood on this same ancient floor. My own copy just came together for the first time this past week.

I know this is the Vine because of the way 2 limbs are missing along 1 side of this tree. This is a very important and very subtle feature of the floor.

The silver items that are exhibited on this tree are found by folding the alphabet around an imaginary point between the Ku and Lu letters in the middle. That folding process has some aberrations that make the resulting set of 3d items irregular. Those irregularities reflect out into the branches of the Vine where they are exhibited. Those irregularities are how we know this floor is showing the silver series Vine, and not just some random tree.

The Dot/Colon punctuation characters fold like the other letters, but do not themselves share another side, nor vowel, with any other letters. These punctuation characters sit with a bird on only the right side of the tree, missing a matched limb on the left.

The Ba/Sha letters also fold together and share a vowel, but these letters do not share a vowel sound with any other letter pair. So this letter pair, with only 1 bird, also sits on a right side limb by itself. These are the 2 extra limbs on the right side of the tree as depicted in the mosaic.

The 10 remaining limbs, 5 on each side, are the 5 remaining vowels. Each of these vowels has 2 letter pairs, so 4 letters, with 2 birds that sit at the same level of the tree, 1 bird left, 1 bird right.

If you check my math, you can see I have explained all 25 standard writing glyphs. The Quad sits alone at the top, with 24 more glyphs spread across a total of 12 limbs, 5 on the left and 7 on the right. Every limb holds a bird with 2 letters. The flower at the top holds a bird but with 1 letter.

The actual tree must hide another 5 items, these are mirrored forms that are used for the construction of the sower and reaper. These limbs with their birds are level with the branches in the mosaic, but at the back of the tree, so out of sight to anyone looking at the tree directly from the front.

The very far right hand side of this inscription, besides 2 more cipher disk parts, may have held some sort of stick figure of a different tree, the fig tree. This would be the natural pairing tree to the vine on the far left.

Matthew 19:29

In this section of Feix's talk, he will then review the other references to centurions and buildings that are interesting in the NT. This is not a bad approach to understand the inscription. Centurions are interesting in the text.

But, I would suggest a different way to understand 100. Doing a word search in the BRB shows there are 100 references to the number 100. Any reference to 100 may be a parable back to any centurion reference. A few are very interesting, like Matthew 19:29 linked above. This involves a mysterious reference to receiving 100-fold for having left behind other things in pursuit of Joshua's name. Much of Matthew is filled with manuscript related parables. This 100 reference is found in other strange places in relation to the Tent of Time exhibits.

Fully understood, these inscriptions are likely telling us more about the floor and the space they had built, not just the builders.

34:30 The Women Inscription

This is the 3rd inscription on the Megiddo Mosaic floor. Like the others, it is surrounded by the same double cipher disk markers. There is a dot in the upper left half circle. This is not the quads like the others. It may be indicating a cipher of a cipher, or else the mosaic is not being particularly careful. In any case this inscription may also be referencing something in a ciphered text.

For the record, let me point out that the cipher system has steps that involve recovery of punctuation. Punctuation does not go through the cipher. A newly birthed manuscript must have punctuation added back to the text. This punctuation recovery step is called "weaning." Women's breasts are another way to see these 1/2 disks of the ciphers on all of these inscriptions. This alternative view simply reinforces the idea we are looking at cipher related art on that floor, they knew the process.

The text for this inscription is simple, Remember Primilla and Cyriaca and Dorothea and moreover also Chreste.

When Feix starts to explain these names he stumbles over a bunch of points. At this point he has launched into Pastor mode, and is diverging from the data presented by the floor itself. The idea that these are not Jewish names should be evident that these were Greek believers, if, indeed, these were names of people involved in the floor at all.

If these are names out of ciphered texts, these are references to places in the ciphers where this community likely found themselves mentioned in the extended volumes of the basic inspired book. These may be the names of additional volumes. Again, pointing at content that we cannot yet see.

But let me return to the idea that these women actually helped produce this floor. The technology I am using to recreate these items is 3d printed plastic.

If I had to do this work with methods and materials from ancient times, my selection would be the same as materials and methods from colonial times. The technology levels from these 2 eras are about the same.

The birds and their cages would be the handiwork of people who could make women's jewelry. Besides the Mosaic's on the floor, there would have been a series of quilts that handled most of the technical data I am putting on panels like Joseph's Robe I explained above.

Some of the items could be fabricated from pottery. There would also be a certain amount of woodworking, enough for simple frames, boxes and stands. Finally, maybe, some painting of these items.

Most of these skills, including jewelry making and sewing, are traditional women's work. Building this sort of room, especially making a copy from a known master, say from over at Capernaum, would have been a crafts intensive activity.

I have the added complexity that there is no master copy to follow. I must work through this problem prophetically, watching for Joshua's direction and inspiration.

If these are not stories out of ciphers, but are instead the actual names of 4 women involved in this room, then these are the craftswomen who built most of what was once in this space. They had plenty of work to do, probably each put in a year (or several) of individual high-skill labor.

Feix is unaware of this aspect of this sort of work because he does not understand the complexity and importance of what was in this room. Instead, he does a more general survey of women's activities in the text.

He continues answering questions and summarizing. In his summary Jesus again becomes the son of god, when the floor said Jesus is god. Not a very accurate witness to the floor.

46:50 The Table, Not Altar

Starting at the 46:50 mark he starts addressing the pedestal in the middle of the space. He does this using the word table in the Akeptos inscription.

I think he is making a good vocabulary point, but confusing the inscription with the pedestal, instead of the woven grid that is next to the inscription and the pattern on the Table item itself. But, let me return to his argument.

First off, he is clear to point out that this word for table means dinner table, and not, say, altar.

This is important, likely this term is used for the Table item in the set of exhibits. It is the most complex of the items, at least as far as I currently understand. The Table is what new students need to spend the most time studying.

The Table includes the Bramble 3d items, it includes the Qu Map and it explains the Audit Pattern. I also include "Dogs" that eat the crumbs from the table as a way to learn the audit with real letters and text.

The pedestal in the middle of the room is lifted up like a table, so I can see why he might apply the term table to that item, but the central exhibit does not look to be the tallest exhibit, so the central exhibit likely stands on a pedestal, thus the stones in the middle of the floor. The room itself may have reused a room built originally to hold a marble statue, which would have required a stone pedestal.

But eventually Feix gets around to calling out that central pedestal as the table for communion. Here he derails.

I have been around in church. I understand that communion represents the blood of Jesus shed on the cross as a sacrifice for sins. Sacrifices are killed on altars, not dinner tables. Human sacrifice, when the Jews wanted to do that, was done in Jerusalem outside the temple grounds, but it was still a human sacrifice. Remember, the high priest's argument was that it was better that 1 be sacrificed, rather than all die. See John 11:50.

Communion services in most churches are symbolic of that altar based sacrifice. Some churches' communion is celebrated at the altar, which is the front of the room itself. A circular meeting room puts the altar in the middle. Feix cannot get around this fact of church life. To call the altar a table because of a vocabulary word is a poor argument.

So to claim the table in view here is a communion table, and not symbolic of an altar is very much against the specific vocabulary used on the inscription itself. Feix is only making this argument because his tradition wants this to be so, not because the language allows it.

Blog Length

I believe this is the longest blog I have ever posted. The prophetic flow and topics of interest are moving faster than I have ever seen. Some of this was planned for last week, but held a week to limit that blog's size. Not a good plan, in the end it made this blog even larger. Will try to regulate this better in the future.

More Later,

Phil