by Walter Giddings
February 28, 2021
Scripture Reading: Acts 28:11 And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.
Greetings kindred. We are on a first name basis here. My name is walter. Your Real Teacher is The Holy Spirit. As your pedagogue I must lead you to Him. This lesson comprises Scriptures that have puzzled me for a long time.
This is Lesson 3, Twins. In Lesson 2 we questioned the mention of the Sign on the Alexandrian ship, Castor and Pollux, two bright stars in the tenth Sign of the Zodiac, Gemini. We concluded the Holy Spirit’s divine supplement was not a call to worship the Host of Heaven. Pursuant to The Laws of Bible Study we weighed the Evidence in The Scriptures. The Holy Spirit’s Revelation of the ship’s figurehead is in accordance to His Eternal Purpose and Will. We remained in remembrance that The Holy Spirit gave us this Divine Supplement to call us to do something. What is this a call to do?
Is this a call to examine the meaning of the ship’s figurehead? Could anything less be expected of us as disciples of Jesus Christ? Could anything less be expected of us as serious students of The Scriptures?
Another way to phrase this question is this: If we do not know that the Sign of the Alexandrian ship was Castor and Pollux, what are we missing? Why did The Holy Spirit record the ship’s Sign?
Romans 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
The sense of the Greek verb, to wait, is, here, an eager waiting. Then do we with perseverance eagerly wait for it? I cannot tell you how long the question stumped me. That question, why did God tell us (?), stumped me for a while..
Romans 8:26-28
26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27 And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Does Verse 26 remind us the Spirit helps us with our infirmities? Verse 27: “the mind of the Spirit”. What was the mind of the Spirit in telling us the ship’s figurehead was Castor and Pollux? In Lesson 2, we asked ourselves important questions. First, how could the Head of the whole family in heaven and earth do anything to no purpose? (Verse 28).
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
We asked another question in Lesson 2. If it seems, at this point, highly likely Luke and Paul noticed the figurehead and discussed its significance, should we do the same now?
What did Luke and Paul share with each other about the ship’s sign?
Does the Counterfeit always witness to the Genuine? Who counterfeits something that does not exist. Can a Counterfeiter counterfeit something or impersonate someone that has never existed? To pass a counterfeit it must most closely represent the Genuine.
Did Bullinger in his book The Witness of the Stars, tell us that we can see through the Grecian myths the original and ancient truth?
Would exploring the mythological story of Castor and Pollux give us important clues to the set of Twins in Scripture that they imitate or impersonate?
Or perhaps we should study Twins in the Scriptures first.. At the end of Lesson 2 we discussed what the princes of this world did not know. They orchestrated the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory because they did not know it. Review those verses with me.
First Corinthians 2:7-8
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Both Raymond Capt and E. W. Bullinger in their books, The Glory of the Stars and The Witness of the Stars, speak of the most ancient names of the stars of the Tenth Sign of the Zodiac, Gemini. Both authors show that the Constellation Gemini, the Twins, and the three minor Constellations, the Enemy, the Prince, and Procyon, the Exalted Redeemer, speak to the twin nature of Christ as Very God of Very God and Very Man of Very Man. But God ordained Christ’s Twin Nature as “hidden wisdom” and the fallen angels did not know this. In their ignorance they orchestrated the crucifixion of the Lord of our glory, the Lord of our resurrection.
Does it seem manifest that the Sign Gemini tells more than one story? How could the Greeks imitate, counterfeit, or corrupt the “older and original composition” of Gemini if neither they nor the fallen angels, “the princes of this world”, knew nothing of Christ’s twin nature? How could they corrupt a story even the fallen angels did not know existed? Did they corrupt another story the Sign Gemini tells? Did they corrupt a Bible story about twins? Did the Greeks rename the twins Apollo and Hercules? Did the Romans rename the twins Castor and Pollux? Where do we find The Twins in the Scriptures?
Genesis 25:24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
(Verse 20). Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife. (Verse 26). Isaac was sixty years old when the twins Esau and Jacob were born. (Verses 22-23). Rebekah entreated the LORD about the struggle in her womb. The LORD answered. Rebekah prophesied that two nations and two manner of people would be born of her, and the elder would serve the younger. Both manner of people fill the earth today. God instituted the elder serving the younger as protection for the younger. Whether the elder will serve the younger has been and will be the cause of wars. This sources from a conditional dominion announced earlier in Genesis. It is a conditional dominion.
Genesis 38:27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.
Look at verse 24. Judah’s daughter in law “played the harlot.” Result? “She is with child by whoredom.” What did Judah say? Burn her!
Look at verses 29-30. Judah’s twin sons by Tamar, his widowed daughter in law, are Pharez and Zarah.
Are there any other twins in Scripture? Some thought has been given to the possibility that Dinah was twin to her brother Zebulun, whose name means “dwelling.” This is based on verse 19 and all the pattern with the births of the sons of Israel. For each one The Bible shows a conception. For Dinah there is no stated conception peculiar to her. Verse twenty one simply says, “And afterwards she bare a daughter...” Genesis 30:21. No evidence is here to contravene the possibility that Zebulon and Dinah were twins. But, the Hebrew word for twins does not appear here.
Which set of twins has their story in Gemini’s star show?
How do we even begin to answer that question? What clues do we have from the stories of these twins to tell us which twins have their story in Gemini? And Capt and Bullinger do not even go on that hunt. All we have from them are too few tantalizing clues from the most ancient names of the stars. Neither one begins to look for a set of twins in Scripture that matches the ancient names of the stars in Gemini. All we appear to have are the Latin twins Castor and Pollux, and the Greek twins Apollo and Hercules. The Counterfeit witnesses to the existence of the Genuine. But, will it be sufficient witness to identify which set of twins has their story told in Gemini?
Remember: Bullinger said we can see through the Grecian myths “the original and ancient truth”. Are we ready to go on that journey? Is there any objection to looking at the Grecian myths to see through them “the original and ancient truth”?
To effectively interpose an objection, the objection must first be timely. Second, the objection must be specific. First things first. Now, now, is the time to object.
We first looked at some twins in Scripture. Which story of twins in Scripture does the Star show in Gemini tell?
In examining the Greek myths, to what do we specifically object? Does the examination of the Greek myths constitute obedience to the commanded rituals of a false god? Does acquainting ourselves with the Greek myths deceive us into practicing the sacraments of false god worship? Or, to fall into that error, would we have to take a step or two more?
Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Is what we obey our god? Is whom or what we obey an unimportant matter? Does the Holy Spirit, through Paul writing, urgently tell us this is not an unimportant choice? Does the Holy Spirit say this is a choice between “sin unto death” or “obedience unto righteousness”? Is study of the Greek myths obeying the rituals of false gods?
Is acquaintance the same as practice?
If we can admit to ourselves that viewing God’s Star show in His Heaven is not the practice of astrology, can we admit that study of the Greek myths is not obedience to the rituals of false gods?
Can we tell that a Counterfeit is a counterfeit if we do not look at it, or look into it?
If there exists no objection to the study of the Greek myths attached to Gemini that is both timely and specific, then are we free to test Bullinger’s thesis? We can see through them “the original and ancient truth” that God set in his Heaven, in His Sign, The Twins, Gemini.
The facts of both the Greek and Roman mythological stories are everywhere. Can we learn classical Greek without mythology? Can we learn classical Latin without mythology? Who has not seen one or more of the “Star Wars” movies? One of the producers baldly admits the story lines source from mythology. What myths, what stories do we find in connection with The Sign Gemini? The Bibliography in Johnson’s The Parthenon Code, alone, lists eighty major works. The Index has sixty references, alone, to just one Book of the Bible: Genesis! Eight of those references are blocks of pages, blocks of chapters from Genesis. Where have we found so far our references to twins in Scripture? Genesis.
From ilearngreek, Greek mythology, we learn this story. Relax. It’s in English:
Hercules was the son of Alkmene and Amphitrion. His actual father though was the king of Gods (sic.), Zeus. Zeus was enchanted by Alkmene’s beauty. One night, when Amphitrion was away fighting a battle, Zeus disguised himself as Amphitrion and went to her. Hercules was born and from the beginning showed his great strengths.
Encyclopedia Britannica has this version :
The more famous portion of the myth concerns Amphitryon’s wife. During Amphitryon’s absence, Alcmene became pregnant by Zeus, who, disguised as her husband, visited her; she became pregnant again by her real husband upon his return. Of these unions were born twin boys, of whom Iphicles was the son of Amphitryon, Heracles the son of Zeus.
Myths Encyclopedia, Myths and Legends of the World, tells this Legend:
While Amphitryon was away, the god Zeus, disguised himself as the hero and visited Alcmene..... Amphitryon returned home the next day, and learned from the blind prophet Tiresias that Alcmene had slept with Zeus and would give birth to a great hero. ... Alcmene ... became pregnant by him as well. Alcmene later gave birth to twins. One twin, Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon, was a mortal. The other was Hercules, the son of Zeus.
Oh boy! Or should I say Oh boys! What are we supposed to do with this? Can we hear the critics now? That’s what you get when you lower yourself into myths and legends! You better repent of this! Have you forgotten that Paul cautioned Timothy about fables?
First Timothy 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.
Can I see the wagging finger in front of my face? The critics are getting ready to pile it on! Are you leaving the Faith? Have you forgotten that Paul warned Timothy repeatedly?!
First Timothy 4:7 But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
Those in-your-face critics are asking, Are you sinking down unto ungodliness?! Why do you wallow in the profane? Receive deliverance before the quicksand goes over your head!
Second Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
The critics are asking, Do you prefer the fables to the truth of God? Why do you prostrate yourself before these idols? Did you forget that idolatry is entry level sin? Is the First Commandment a joke: Thou shalt have no other gods before me?
Titus 1:13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
The critics have asked, Are you in need of sharp rebuke that you might be sane, uncorrupted, true in doctrine, healthy and wholesome in The Faith? What does it mean to be “sound in the faith”?
Titus 1:14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men that turn from the truth.
Have the critics demanded repentance from making any investigation along these lines? Have some said, A woman giving birth to twins by two different fathers is absurd?! And why would we give heed to Bullinger’s thesis that we can peer through the counterfeit and discern the genuine, the ancient truth. It is a fact of history that Bullinger was an ultra dispensationalist. He is not even credible. Why hear ye him?
John 10:19-20
19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him ?
“Why hear ye him?” Can we see the same question was leveled against our Saviour while he was in our flesh, the flesh of Abraham, before he tasted our death in it?
Shall we view that last one first, the personal attack upon Bullinger? Is there any Adam without error? Is there any one in our midst that does not have the motions of sin in their flesh? Yes. There is but one: Jesus Christ, the Righteous. He wore our flesh as a burden and now is He risen from the dead. He is in our midst. We have because we asked. We are born into the wrong bodies, this fallen flesh. We have the motions of sin in our flesh. There was no one Righteous, not one. Now there is just One Righteous, Jesus, One with the Father.
Question. Among the fallen sons of Adam, has it ever been a question of who is right? Or, has it always been a question of what is right? What does Bullinger’s personal failings have to do with his thesis that we can see through the Greek and Roman fables “the original and ancient truth”? Is Bullinger’s thesis right?
Or, to ask the question another way, does the Counterfeit always witness to the Genuine? If the existence of the Counterfeit pleads the existence of the Genuine, then Bullinger’s thesis is not only plausible, but highly probable.
We assay the critics’ next to the last claim: their claim of a woman birthing twins by two different fathers as an absurdity.
There are a multitude of witnesses to an event that has been termed “Hetero paternal Superfecundation”. Hetero paternal Superfecundation is a combination of four words. Hetero sources from the Greek word eteros, meaning other, different, or mixed. Paternal is parentage, especially fathering, the deposition of virile semen. Super according to 1828 Webster is a Latin preposition, much used in composition, that means over, above, excess. Fecundation means impregnation (1828 Webster), or conception. To put it all together, the subject matter Hetero paternal Super fecundation is mixed parentage extra-ordinary impregnation.
This term, expresses the very event some critics claim to be absurd. Why does this term, Hetero paternal Superfecundation, exist? Does the term Hetero paternal Superfecundation describe a set of somewhat rare, but all too real events?
On Monday, May 18, 2009, Medical News Today published an article by Catherine Paddock, PhD., about a set of twin boys, Justin and Jordan. Their Dallas, Texas parents contacted the Fox 4 TV News Company to go public with the results of a paternity test conducted by a Dallas DNA Lab, Clear Diagnostics, revealing that the mother’s fiancee, James Harrison was not the father of Mia’s first born son, Justin.
The twins mother Mia told Fox 4, “I have twins, but they’re by different fathers.” She said she regrets her mistake and wants to warn others this can happen. “Be careful about starting an affair. Look what happened to me. Think hard about the consequences first. The most bizarre things can happen when you least expect it. Don’t put yourself in my shoes, because it can hurt and it does hurt!”
Mia said when her sons are old enough to understand she will tell them about their different DNA. She has no plans to tell the other father. In response, she said when Justin is older, if he wants to meet his biological father, “it’s his decision.”
James Harrison said he has forgiven his fiancee and promised to stay with her. He will raise the twins as his own. They are taking it day by day. “It’s going to take time to build that trust like we had.”
“He’s a great father and genuinely loves both of the twins,” Mia said. She thinks of him as the father of both boys. “He’s there every morning when they get up and every night when they go to sleep.”
Dr. Chris Dreiling of the Paediatric Association of Dallas who has not met the couple, said, when asked to comment, “A woman can release more than one egg during ovulation. Because sperm cells take a while to travel and eggs take a while to travel there can be an overlap.” ...
Does this couple’s predicament put us in remembrance of something?
On April 19, 2011, writer Rachel Quigley of the Daily Mail News of the United Kingdom, reported two deliveries of twins by different fathers. The American Television Show, Maury Povich, which features paternity testing, had two mothers whose test results showed their twins were by two different fathers. The first time on live television Povich admitted he did not know this was possible. The second time, in 2008, Povich, now fully prepared, explained it to a shocked audience.
Back in 1992, researchers Wenk et al., found, in a parentage test database of thirty nine thousand (39,000) records, three cases of Heteropaternal Superfecundation. Among the births of dizygotic twins (twins from a mother’s two eggs in the same cycle) the frequency of twins by two different fathers was 2.4%, or one in forty deliveries of twins. This was from a select data base: parents of twins involved in paternity suits. Their findings, published in the professional journal Acta Genet Med Gemeliol 1992; 41 (1): 43-47, had for its title this question, “How Frequent is Heteropaternal Superfecundation?”
Researchers Lu HL, et al., reported two cases of twins with different fathers in the Journal of Forensic Science 1994 July; 39 (4): 1100-1102. They emphatically urged that in all paternity tests for twins both twins be tested. “Great attention should be paid to such a situation where the twins paternity identification is asked for.”
Authors Girela E. et al, writing in Fertil Steril 1997 June 67 (6): 1159- 1161, wrote in the section titled “Conclusion(s) ... According to published data, the frequency of twins with different fathers is probably underestimated, at least in small selected populations such as those of paternity suits.”
May 7, 2015 the New York Times carried a story by Benjamin Mueller about a woman who gave birth to twins January 2013. She applied for public assistance in Passaic County, New Jersey. The Passaic County Board of Social Services filed in State Superior Court in Passaic County to establish the paternity of the reputed father. When the mother testified that she had relations with two men within a week, the Court ordered a paternity test. Both twins DNA were sampled. In November 2014, the results, filed into the case, excluded the reputed father, as the father of one of the twins. The Laboratory Director of the Identity Testing Division at Laboratory Corporation of America, Dr. Karl-Hans Wurzinger testified the mother’s twins were fertilized by different fathers in the same menstrual cycle. Dr. Wurzinger’s credentials included the publication of his study that in all reported paternity test cases, one in thirteen thousand (13,000) were twins with separate fathers. Judge Sohail Mohammed accepted the results on the basis of Dr. Wurzinger’s unrebutted testimony. The Times article also said “Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, called it a case of super-fecundation, a rare phenomenon classically illustrated in medical textbooks with a black baby and a white baby who are twins. In the past, Dr. Wu said, we were relying on nature and women who have more than one sexual partner in the same cycle around the time of ovulation. The phenomenon has become more common with the spread of assistive reproduction technologies, she said, as men in gay couples sometimes both contribute sperm to a pregnancy. That’s why we’re seeing it more often.”
Is it now obvious that the only fables left to the mythology of Gemini are the Greek and Roman name changes for the twins?
The existence of Heteropaternal Superfecundation rocks most everybody’s world. The President of Clear Diagnostics, Genny Thibodeaux, was quoted in the Medical News Today article, May 18, 2009, saying the test results revealing James Harrison as the father of only one of the twins are “very crazy. Most people don’t believe it can happen.” And the second time paternity testing revealed twins by different fathers on the Maury Povich show, he had a shocked audience that needed to hear his explanation how that is possible.
Both the Greek and Roman myths, centered on Gemini in God’s Star Show, are consistent in their stories of twins by two different fathers.
Before we studied Heteropaternal Superfecundation, and before we read the myths of Gemini, we looked first at twins in the Scriptures: Isaac and Rebekah’s twins, Judah and Tamar’s twins, and even the possibility of twins born of Jacob and Leah, Zebulon and Dinah. Which one of these are the Gemini twins? In Genesis 30 there seems no doubt that Zebulon and Dinah’s parents are Israel and Leah. Even the incident beyond the tower of Edar in Genesis chapter thirty five, where Reuben, Jacob and Leah’s firstborn, lay with his father’s concubine, Bilhah, cannot disturb the fact that Zebulon and Dinah have Israel as their father. Reuben’s act occurred well after the birth of the twelve sons. And the Scriptures are utterly void of any evidence of issue from that illicit liaison: consequences yes, issue no.
And Tamar was charged with playing the harlot and being “with child by whoredom.” Shall we read Tamar’s defense?
Genesis 38:25-26
25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man whose these are, am I with child : and she said, Discern I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.
26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah, my son. And he knew her again no more.
Do we recall that Judah’s pledge of signet, bracelets, and staff were to secure payment for a harlot’s consent? Tamar had disguised herself, and Judah could not find her to redeem his pledge. In verse 26, Judah said, “She hath been more righteous than I.” Is Judah’s declaration, based on all available Scripture evidence, conclusive of his fatherhood? We have two sets of twins by one father. Two down, one to go? Isaac and Rebekah’s twins?
Romans 9:10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
“Conceived by one.” Does “even by our father Isaac” explain “conceived by one?” If it is necessary to say Rebecca “conceived by one,” who then conceived by two? Who conceived twins by two? To be continued, God willing, on another occasion.
Scriptures
Old Testament Genesis 38:24-30 7 verses
New Testament Titus 1:10-16 7 verses
Responsive Reading Romans 8:24-31 8 verses
Lesson 3
1. Acts 28:11
2. Romans 8:25, 26-27, 28.
3. 1 Corinthians 2:7-8
4. Genesis 25:24, (20) (26) (22-23).
5. Genesis 38:27, (24) (29-30).
6. Genesis 30:21, (19).
7. Romans 6:16
8. 1 Timothy 1:4
9. 1 Timothy 4:7
10. 2 Timothy 4:4
11. Titus 1:13, 11
12. John 10:19-20
13. Genesis 38:25-26
14. Romans 9:10
Bibliography
Webster, Noah, L.L.D. An American Dictionary of The English Language. 1828.
Capt, Raymond, M.A. A.I.A. F.S.A. Scotland. The Glory of the Stars. Muskogee,
Oklahoma : Artisan Sales, 1976.
Bullinger, E.W. (1837-1913). The Witness of the Stars. Grand Rapid, Michigan :
Kregel Publications, 1967.