ichael David Moreno
July 4th, 2016. (Re-published 07-04-2017)
The Book of Jasher is an alternate narrative of the events that happened in the Old Testament, or Torah. Some of the stories are rather odd and mysterious. One such story is about an encounter with strange beasts called Yemim. They were described as small men, or children, with the heads of bears, and long tails that came out from behind their shoulders. In an attempt to describe what was seen, there are descriptions for two more creatures whose names remain a mystery; the keephas and the ducheephath.
This story is told by a man named Anah; that these creatures rode off with his charge of donkeys. Apparently, he was believable enough that the inhabitants of that land never returned to that area.
Anah is mentioned in the Book of Jasher as a man who lived in times of Esau, the elder twin brother of Jacob, who became the patriarch of the Israelites. Esau moved his family to the land of Seir, which he had conquered. His children married with the inhabitants. Anah is a grandson to both Esau, and Seir the Horite, of who the land is named after. (Jash. 36:20-28)
The story is told in the Book of Jasher, chapter 36; verses 28 through 35.
…and Anah, this was that Anah who found the Yemim in the wilderness when he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.
And whilst he was feeding his father’s asses he led them to the wilderness at different times to feed them.
And there was a day that he brought them to one of the deserts on the sea shore, opposite the wilderness of the people, and whilst he was feeding them, behold a very heavy storm came from the other side of the sea and rested upon the asses that were feeding there, and they all stood still.
And afterward about one hundred and twenty great and terrible animals came out from the wilderness at the other side of the sea, and they all came to the place where the asses were, and they placed themselves there.
And those animals, from their middle downward, were in the shape of the children of men, and from their middle upward, some had the likeness of bears, and some the likeness of the keephas, with tails behind them from between their shoulders reaching down to the earth, like the tails of the ducheephath, and these animals came and mounted and rode upon these asses, and led them away, and they went away unto this day.
And one of these animals approached Anah and smote him with his tail, and then fled from that place.
And when he saw this work he was exceedingly afraid of his life, and he fled and escaped to the city.
And he related to his sons and brothers all that had happened to him, and many men went to seek the asses but could not find them, and Anah and his brothers went no more to that place from that day following, for they were greatly afraid of their lives.
Mount Seir is on the southern borders of where modern Israel and Jordan meet, just north of the Gulf of Aqaba, the eastern sea that borders the Sinai Peninsula, which is part of Egypt. The Gulf of Aqaba runs into the Red Sea, and finally out through the Gulf of Aden to the northeastern Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.
So what are these creatures doing in a stela found in El Baul, Guatemala? (See Photo.)
The stela shows a bare-chested, non-muscled frame of a male. His bear head looks like a helmet; it even looks like an eye-hole showing a smaller eye inside. This bear-shaped head covering is connected to an apparatus around his neck, which is connected to a tube-shaped object, and a box of some kind. Is it a breathing apparatus? Could this tube be called a tail to someone who had never seen a tube? It is missing the length to be considered a tail, but we are not given clear view of what is behind him; except the legs of his victim tripping behind him. Down behind his left knee, there is a tube shape; but it is cut off by the stela itself. Could this be part of that ‘tail’?
Even stranger; his bear helmet looks like it is breathing out fire as he stands in dominance over another figure.
The story from the Book of Jasher is lacking in the way that it describes how these little bear-helmeted men travelled between the wilderness on the other side of the sea, then through the sea to where these donkeys were so quickly; and how their storm mesmerized the donkeys long enough to be mounted and stolen. Did they travel through sea or air? Something is missing; perhaps there is a clue in the stela.
At the top left, it looks like two clouds that resemble serpents facing each other. There appears to be some kind of tiny man holding out, or onto, a handle connected to what looks like a decorated purse-type object; what is that object? There are so many mysteries about this stela.
Currently, this stela is considered Classic Period, which was from 200 CE, to 1000 CE. Esau was born around 2006 BC, which leaves a margin of 3,000 years; that’s 3,000 years of possibilities.
Resources:
The Book of Jasher:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/
Photo of Stela in El Baul, Guatemala:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
When Esau lived:
