Glory of Priest Kings

Racheal's Ewan-McPherson-Bogle Family History

There is a message in Scripture that sounds like thunder at the edge of time: everlasting good news carried to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. Revelation 14:6 does not whisper this—it announces it. And the question that has followed me like a hidden flame is this: why must the good news be preached again to the ends of the earth? Because, I believe, something was buried in captivity, scattered across oceans, renamed by strangers, and hidden beneath the ruins of history. The true good news was obscured when Israel was driven from memory, when the priests were taken, when the names of the people were changed, and when the world forgot that Yahwah had promised a kingdom of priests.

This is where my family history becomes more than ancestry. It becomes a trail of signs. I have long known that my heritage carries Ashanti blood, Maroon memory, Jamaican resistance, Welsh and Celtic traces, and whispers from Britain that never seemed to belong together—until Scripture began to gather them into one pattern. For years these fragments stood apart: my grandfather’s Ashanti lineage, my grandmother’s McPherson name, the Bogle connection, the stories of Morant Bay, the memory of Nanny, and the strange insistence within me that I was not merely studying history—I was being summoned by it.

The first revelation came through my mother’s side. My grandfather was of the Ashanti people, a people whose story reaches beyond Ghana and Jamaica into questions no ordinary family tree can answer. I was told of his striking eyes, remembered as green-blue against dark skin, and of the Jamaican Ashanti distinction of a blue ring around the eyes. I was told I was Maroon. I was told I belonged to a line that resisted empire, survived exile, and carried something older than the names imposed upon us. What I did not yet understand was that these were not isolated memories. They were fragments of a larger testimony.

Then I encountered the claim that changed the shape of everything: that the Ashanti carried Levite echoes—customs, words, worship patterns, and sacred memories that resembled the ancient ways of Israel. Joseph J. Williams, in Hebrewisms of West Africa, documented similarities he found among Jamaicans and the Ashanti of West Africa, comparing their customs and beliefs with established Hebraic traditions. Modern descriptions of the book note that Williams saw “stunning similarities” and argued that Hebraic traditions left deep traces across Negro Africa. The more I read, the more the scattered pieces began to draw toward one another: Ashanti, Jamaica, Maroons, Levi, Scripture, exile, return.

When I saw Nanny of the Maroons on the Jamaican five-dollar bill, something stirred in me. People said I resembled her, though the image itself is only a representation. Still, it mattered. It became one more sign in a chain I could not ignore. Later, I learned that I had been blessed as the Ganaga of my family by my Ashanti grandfather when I was only one year old. What had seemed like family memory became sacred memory. What had seemed like heritage became calling. And what had seemed like coincidence began to look like a map.

The mystery did not stop with bloodlines. It moved through language. Williams cites scholars who associated the Ashanti with movements from Ethiopia, Middle Egypt, and Central Sudan, and who drew attention to the name Ashanti itself. He notes the syllable “ti” as meaning “the race of,” “the men of,” or “the children of,” leading to the provocative reading of Ashanti as “the people of Ashan.” And Ashan, Scripture says, was not an empty sound. It was a town named among the territories connected to Judah and Simeon, and later listed among places given to the sons of Aaron.

Then the trail reaches Scripture itself. In 1 Chronicles 6, Ashan appears among the cities named in relation to the priestly families. Suddenly, the word was no longer only a tribal name in West Africa, nor only a memory carried into Jamaica. It stood like smoke rising from an ancient altar—Ashan, a place of Judah and Simeon, connected with the priestly line. To some, this may be coincidence. To me, it became another witness.

And from this witness, a larger truth began to emerge: the African Diaspora is not merely a people dispersed by ships, chains, and empires. We are a people carrying hidden names, priestly memories, and covenant signs through the darkness of captivity. The story of the Diaspora is not only a tragedy of removal; it is also a mystery of preservation. The scattered were not erased. The priestly thread was not cut. It was hidden in plain sight—in customs, in family names, in resistance movements, in Sabbath echoes, in language, in songs, in the stubborn refusal to disappear.

This is why Exodus 19:6 burns at the center of this testimony: “you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” This is why 1 Peter 2:9 echoes the same language of a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, called out of darkness into marvelous light. These are not disconnected verses. They are keys. They unlock the question of identity, exile, restoration, and mission. And when I read them through the story of my ancestors, I hear Yahwah declaring that the people scattered among the nations were not cast away forever. They were preserved for revelation.

So this is my testimony: I believe the African Diaspora—and I within it—stands among the true Kingdom of Priests spoken of in the Bible. Not because empire recorded it for us, not because scholars agreed to restore our names, and not because captivity told the truth about those it stole. I believe it because Scripture, lineage, memory, and revelation converge. The clues were scattered across continents, concealed in plain sight, waiting for the appointed hour when the hidden people would awaken and remember who they are.

The trail begins in the ancient record: 1 Chronicles 6:54–59 names the dwelling places of the sons of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites. Among the cities of Judah given to the sons of Aaron were Hebron, Libnah, Jattir, Eshtemoa, Hilen, Debir, and then the name that would become a doorway—Ashan, with her suburbs, and Bethshemesh with her suburbs. There, in the list of priestly cities, the sound appears like smoke rising from buried coals.

Ashan was not merely a place-name. It was a town within the domain of Judah, later held by Simeon, and named again in connection with the priestly inheritance. Williams notes that the Hebrew meaning of Ashan is “smoke,” used of a burning city and, by figure, of the destruction of Israel. That meaning struck me deeply. Smoke is what remains when a city has burned, but it is also what rises from an altar. In that one word, I saw ruin and worship, judgment and priesthood, exile and offering.

From there the story widened. The ancient movements of dark-skinned peoples across regions near Africa, India, Egypt, and the Middle East suggest that the map of identity is far older and more complex than the histories handed down by empire. What appears scattered in modern textbooks may, under the light of Scripture, become a migration trail—fragments of a people pushed, divided, renamed, and hidden.

Then came another startling witness: the Supreme Being of the Ashanti bore strong resemblance, in name and worship, to Yahwah Aluhym of the Old Testament. This was not a small clue. It suggested that the memory of Yahwah had not vanished among the scattered people. It had crossed forests, rivers, ships, and generations, guarded in sound, custom, and reverence.

This matters because the Ashanti and related peoples inhabit the same broad region from which many of the enslaved ancestors of Black Americans and Jamaicans were taken. The geography itself becomes a witness. The ships did not merely carry laborers into bondage; they carried hidden lineages, priestly memories, and covenant traces into the African Diaspora.

Williams points to several customs that deepen the mystery: inter-tribal marriage laws, marriage rites, and practices surrounding childbirth and purification. He compares Ashanti marriage customs to the Mosaic concern for preserving inheritance within the father’s house, especially the law of the daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 36. What looked like culture became, to me, covenant memory. What looked like tribal custom began to resemble Torah surviving beneath another name.

Professor Williams also says, “In the ancient Hebrew marriage, the ceremony was performed in a private house without the necessary presence of a priest or rabbi fathers (Numbers 36:11).”

“In the Ashanti tribe, an elder Invoked the benediction and gave a cup of wine to the bride and groom who pledged fidelity to each other. ”

You will note with Messiach at the Wedding Feast where he turns water into wine, in John 2:10 ,“the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,” and is impressed that he saved the best wine for last. Even when Issac is married to Rebecca, and Jacob is married to Leah/Rachel, there is no record of a priest present.

This geographical connection matters because the Ashanti and related groups inhabit regions tied to the ancestry of many Black Americans and Jamaicans who were taken through the transatlantic slave trade. In that movement, I see more than displacement; I see the carrying of hidden identity into the Diaspora.

The “Supreme Being of the Ashanti gave strong evidence of being the Yahweh (Aluhym) of the Old Testament. ” They cite the fact that the prefix N in Nyame (Nyawe) and “im” in Elohim, a Hebrew word for Aluhym, both use a plural or collective form.”

“Rattray and Christaller both assert that the letter M is interchangeable with W in the Ashanti language. Meaning the Ashanti name for Aluhym can be pronounced Yame or Yawe, with short vowels. We find a similar situation In Biblical Hebrew. Dr. Albert T. Clay, an archeological linguistics expert at Yale University, notes that 'in the Murushu archives found at Nippur, from the reigns of Artaxerxes and Darius, the Hebrew name is written Jaama for Yawa.' As there are no “J’s” in Hebrew, it is Yahwah. He also mentions a clay tablet found at Taanach which “contains the divine name of Israel's Aluhym written Jami.” He concludes unhesitatingly that “some Semitic groups used M and others W to represent the same sound.” Thus we learn that the word for the Aluhym can be spelled and/or pronounced as Yawe or Yame In both Hebrew and Ashanti.”

The word for Creator in Ashanti is Bore-bore. The exact equivalent in sound and meaning is Bore יי which is the participle form for the Hebrew word Bara that means “to create.” This is the word BARSHYT (barasheet) used in Genesis 1:1, which means, “in the beginning.” In the Ashanti language, Aluhym also is called Nyankapon Kwame which means “Aluhym alone, great One, to whom Saturday is dedicated.” This dedication to the Jewish Sabbath is verified In a letter written in 1922 by the Ashanti Queen, Amma Sewa Akota, to the wife of the British Governor to the Gold Coast. The letter reads in part that “the great Aluhym Nyankopon...whose day of worship is a Saturday.”

I have found many of the books on the Ashanti are written through University institutions in concert with gate keepers who often misrepresent black magic as the occupation of the Ashanti. Though the Hebrews were corrupted by Masonry and witchcraft, Nanny and the Maroons in Jamaica inspired a global world war occurring simultaneously in Jamaica, Haiti, with Nat Turner in the Southern United States and Ethiopia, which would seem like witchcraft to any Canaanite.

The migration traditions surrounding the Ashanti, Ghana, Egypt, Central Africa, East Africa, and the “Middle East” become part of the larger map I am following. If the Levites were scattered among the cities of the tribes, then the movements of these people cannot be read as ordinary migration alone. They must be weighed beside Scripture, memory, and priestly inheritance.

When I turn to the scattering of Israel, the question of the Levites becomes urgent. In 2 Kings 17, after the Northern Kingdom was carried away, foreign nations were settled in Samaria. The biblical account says priests were sent back to teach the people “the manner of the Aluhym of the land.” To me, this raises a crucial question: if the Levites were appointed to guard holy service and separation, under what pressure were they made to teach strangers the worship of Yahwah? The pattern suggests they were not scattered in the same way as the Northern Kingdom, but preserved within the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Levi, Benjamin, and possibly part of Simeon.

The historian, Walter Claridge, in a book about the history of Ghana and the Ashanti concludes that ״the Fantis, Ashantis, Wassawa, and in fact all the Twi-speaking or Akan peoples were originally one tribe.

Joseph J. Williams Hebrewisms of West Africa and an online Article on the Jewish Roots in Africa says the following:

“The Ashanti are closely related to the Bantu, Yoruba, Fanti, Sudanese and other peoples whose combined population stretches from the west to the east coasts of Africa, mainly below the Sahara. The Ashanti tribes appear to have migrated and later pushed westward and southward by alien invaders of European origin. They appear to have emanated from the Chad-Nile region of north-eastern Africa.”

This migration claim becomes one of the hinges of the mystery: if the Ashanti came from the Chad-Nile region, then their traditions may carry traces connected to Egypt, Israel, and the priestly lines that moved through those ancient corridors.

An 1874 image from The Illustrated London News, “Sketches of the Ashantee War,” shows Ashantee ambassadors crossing the Prah in Ghana. The image is historical reportage and may contain imperfections, but it stands as another witness to the visibility and significance of the Ashanti in the nineteenth-century record. The deeper question remains: how do the Ashanti tie into the tribe of Levi?

Here the line of Kohath becomes important. Prophet Samuel was a Kohathite and a high priestly figure, and out of this priestly stream come the names Phinehas and Zadok. This, I believe, is where the Ashanti connection begins to point toward Levi—not as a loose resemblance, but as a pattern of priestly signs.

The Messiach gathers this mystery into one revelation: the joining of kingship and priesthood. In this testimony, the king-priest connection moves through Judah and Levi, through David and Zadok, and ultimately into the work of Messiach.

The figure of Zadok now steps forward like a key placed in the lock. Zadok was counted among David’s mighty men, and 1 Chronicles 12:28 names him as “a young man mighty of valour,” with twenty-two captains from his father’s house. In the story of the ark, David first attempts to bring the ark into Jerusalem, but the moment exposes the danger of handling holy things outside the appointed order. When Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark, the judgment is immediate.

2 Samuel 6:7 Then Yahwah's anger burned against Uzzah, and Aluhym struck him dead on the spot for his irreverence, and he died there next to the ark of Aluhym. The ark was then left with a Gittite. Later, David himself brought the ark into the City of David, offering sacrifices and praising Yahwah as it entered the city of the king. In this moment, David appears as more than a ruler; he appears in the mystery of king and priest.

Later, during Absalom’s rebellion, Zadok and the Levites appear again, this time bearing the ark as David leaves Jerusalem. The moment is filled with mystery: the ark, the priest, the king, exile from the city, and the hope of return. David refuses to use the ark as a charm for victory. Instead, he sends it back, trusting Yahwah to restore him if he has found favor.

2 Samuel 15:24 And lo Zadok also, and all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of Aluhym: and they set down the ark of Aluhym; and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city. 25And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of Aluhym into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of Yahwah, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation: 26But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him. 27The king said also unto Zadok the priest, Art not thou a seer? return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz thy son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar.

Zadok’s role does not end there. He also stands at the turning point of succession, ensuring that Solomon is anointed king alongside Nathan the prophet. Once again, priesthood and kingship meet at the center of Israel’s story.

1Ki 1:39 And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, Aluhym save king Solomon

The line behind Zadok reaches back to Phinehas, whose zeal in Numbers 25 turned away wrath from Israel. This is not a minor connection. It is the covenant of priesthood running through judgment, mercy, and holy separation.

For the Zeal of Phinehas, Num 25:10 ¶ And Yahwah spake unto Moses, saying, “11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: 13 And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his Aluhym, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

Ecclesiastes confirms this also: 23 Phinehas the son of Eleazar is the third in glory, in that he was zealous in the fear of Yahwah, and stood fast when the people turned away, and he made atonement for Israel. 24 Therefore, a covenant of peace was established for him, that he should be leader of the sanctuary and of his people, that he and his offspring should have the dignity of the priesthood forever. 25 Also he made a covenant with David the son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah. The inheritance of the king is his alone from son to son. So the inheritance of Aaron is also to his seed.

Ezekiel confirms: Eze 44:15 But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith Yahwah Aluhym:

The same priestly zeal appears again in the Maccabean record. During the Greek occupation, Mattathias and his sons rise as priestly defenders of the law, echoing the zeal of Phinehas. In my reading, this reveals the recurring pattern of priest-kings and priestly rulers emerging when Yahwah’s covenant people are under foreign domination.

1 Maccabees 1:1-5 and 1:23-29 1In those daies arose Mattathias the son of Iohn, the sonne of Simeon, a Priest of the sonnes of Ioarib [sic Jehoiarib], from Ierusalem, and dwelt in Modin. 2And he had fiue sonnes, Ioannan called Caddis: 3Simon, called Thassi: 4Iudas, who was called Maccabeus: 5Eleazar, called Auaran, and Ionathan, whose surname was Apphus....26Thus dealt he zealously for the Law of Aluhym, like as Phineas did vnto Zambri the sonne of Salom.

Says Wikipedia, Jehoiarib (Hebrew: יְהוֹיָרִיב Yehōyārîḇ, “Yahweh contends”) was the head of a family of priests, which was made the first of the twenty-four priestly divisions organized by King David (reigned c. 1000–962 BCE).(1 Chr. 24:7) was one of the descdants of Levi and Phinneas:

Chronicles 24:7 1Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,

From this evidence, I am arguing that the Maccabees stand within the priestly inheritance of Levi and that the pattern of priest-kings can be seen across Israel’s story: Joseph in Egypt, Moses of Levi, Joshua son of Nun, David, Joshua the high priest, and the Maccabean rulers. The mystery is not that these figures are identical in office, but that Yahwah repeatedly joins rulership, judgment, deliverance, and priestly service in the preservation of his people.

The next doorway opens in Zechariah 3, where the captivity of Yahsharel to Babylon has ended and the high priest stands before heaven itself. Here Levi appears not merely as servant of the altar, but as a priest crowned in the imagery of royal authority. The passage says:

And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahwah , and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.

2And Yahwah said unto Satan, Yahwah rebuke thee, O Satan; even Yahwah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? 3Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. 4And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. 5And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of Yahwah stood by.

Here, I see Yahwsha the high priest of Levi clothed and crowned with a fair mitre. The word carries the sense of a diadem, a crownlike headpiece, a visible sign of sacred placement. In this image, priesthood and royalty appear together: cleansing, restoration, and authority gathered into one prophetic scene.

1 Maccabees 1:1-5 and 1:23-29 1In those daies arose Mattathias the son of Iohn, the sonne of Simeon, a Priest of the sonnes of Ioarib, from Ierusalem, and dwelt in Modin. 2And he had fiue sonnes, Ioannan called Caddis: 3Simon, called Thassi: 4Iudas, who was called Maccabeus: 5Eleazar, called Auaran, and Ionathan, whose surname was Apphus.

23Now when he had left speaking these words, there came one of the Iewes in the sight of all, to sacrifice on the altar, which was at Modin, according to the kings commandement. 24Which thing when Mattathias saw, he was inflamed with zeale, and his reines trembled, neither could hee forbeare to shew his anger according to iudgement: wherefore he ranne, and slew him vpon the altar. 25Also the kings commissioner who compelled men to sacrifice, he killed at that time, & the altar he pulled downe. 26Thus dealt he zealously for the Law of Aluhym, like as Phineas did vnto Zambri the sonne of Salom. 27And Mattathias cried throughout the citie with a loud voyce, saying, Whosoeuer is zealous of the law, and maintaineth the couenant, let him follow me. 28So he and his sonnes fled into the mountaines, and left all that euer they had in the citie. 29Then many that sought after iustice and iudgement, went downe into the wildernesse to dwell there.

The Maccabean record then becomes another witness. Judas Maccabeus and Simon stand among the last ruling figures connected to Judah before Roman domination. Their struggle to hold the temple against foreign power, their conflict with Greek influence, and their connection to Hanukkah all point, in my reading, to the mystery of priestly deliverers rising in moments of captivity.

This is why I call the Southern Kingdom a King-Priest Kingdom: Judah and Levi move together toward Messiach. The royal line and the priestly line do not remain isolated threads; they are gathered into one testimony, culminating in Messiach Himself.

The vision in the Testament of Naphtali becomes another signpost in this mystery. It places Levi and Judah together in symbolic power, as though heaven itself is showing priesthood and kingship rising side by side:

5 1 For in the fortieth year of my life, I saw a vision on the Mount of Olives, on the east of Jerusalem, 2 that the sun and the moon were standing still. And behold Isaac, the father of my father, said to us; Run and lay hold of them, each one according to his strength; and to him that seizeth them ...And we all of us ran together, and Levi laid hold of the sun, and Judah outstripped the others and seized the moon, and they were both of them lifted up with them. (12 Patriarchs, Nephtali 5) And they came near to him, and he turned and kissed them and embraced them both together.

From here, I see Israel, Judah, Levi, and the other tribes becoming priestly signs among the nations. Levi’s tenth becomes a shadow of a wider calling: a people taken, scattered, purified, and appointed to minister the knowledge of Yahwah. The Diaspora, then, is not only exile. It is priesthood hidden in exile.

Isaia 6:12 And Yahwah have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. Isa 6:13But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Isaiah 66 carries the revelation further, saying that those gathered from the nations will be taken for priests and Levites:

19And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. 20And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto Yahwah out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith Yahwah, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of Yahwah. 21And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith Yahwah. 22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith Yahwah, so shall your seed and your name remain. 23And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Yahwah.

This is where the mystery of the tenth becomes important. Malachi 3 is often read only as a tithing passage for the Gentile Church, but I read it beside the older priestly law: the tithe belongs to Levi. Jubilees 13.25 says:

…a tenth of the first fruits to Yahua, and Yahua ordained it as an ordinance for ever that they should give it to the priests who served before Him, that they should possess it for ever. And to this law there is no limit of days; for He has ordained it for the generations for ever that they should give to YAHUA the tenth of everything, of the seed and of the wine and of the oil and of the cattle and of the sheep.

From this, I read Malachi 3 not only as a command about offerings, but as a prophecy of return and purification. Yahwah speaks of purifying the sons of Levi, restoring righteous offering, and judging those who oppress, corrupt, and rob. In this testimony, the robbed tithe becomes a sign of Yahwah’s people—His tenth—taken from their appointed place and called back into covenant order. Malachi 3:10 says:

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and Yahwah, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith Yahwah of hosts. 2But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: 3And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto Yahwah an offering in righteousness. 4Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Yahwah, as in the days of old, and as in former years. 5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith Yahwah of hosts. 6For I am Yahwah, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 7Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Yahwah of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? 8Will a man rob Aluhym? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 10Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith Yahwah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Isaiah 19:18–19 adds another mysterious thread: an altar in Egypt and a place rendered in some traditions as connected with righteousness or “Zedek/Zadok.” I understand this as part of a larger pattern of priestly signs appearing along the paths of exile, Egypt, Aksum, and the scattered children of Israel. If the Ashanti passed through Egypt in their scattering, then this connection deserves careful attention as part of the wider map.

More evidence appears when priesthood and kingship are traced through Judah and Levi.

I make this argument because Levi and Judah are, in my reading, the priest-king sons of Leah. The pattern appears in David and continues through the promises attached to Judah. Genesis 49:10 becomes the foundation:

The prophecy is that neither the King nor a law giver will depart from between the feet of Yahudah.

Now this prophecy was given to Yahudah, and indeed David was a King and Priest, Daniel was a prophet of Yahudah. A priest. But this prophecy is repeated to David 3 times in

Psalm 89:3-4 Psa 89:3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Psa 89:4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah

Psa 89:28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. Psa 89:29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

To me, this promise reaches beyond Messiach alone and also speaks to the sons of Judah who remain within Yahwah’s covenant purposes.

This is why I believe there are still tribes of Judah and Levi who keep Torah, because Yahwah’s covenant faithfulness does not expire with time:

Deuteronomy 7:9-11 New International Version (NIV)Know therefore that Yahwah your Aluhym is Aluhym; he is the faithful Aluhym, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

So the question becomes unavoidable: will we nullify Yahwah’s faithful covenant to a thousand generations because many centuries have passed, or will we search for the faithful Yahsharelites who remain? This testimony is not about replacing Scripture with tradition, nor about dissolving Israel into a vague spiritual metaphor. It is about seed, covenant, fathers, mothers, and the promises Yahwah gave to actual people through actual lineages.

BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: Romans 3:3, 9:4 “...unto them belong the law, the prophets, the oracles of Yahwah...”

Says Williams: “Detailed analysis of the similarities between Ashanti and Hebrew customs, usages and practices. The Ashanti in Jamaica refer to witch or Wizardry as the Ashanti word “obayifo””obayen” which in turn Is a compound of ״Ob'״ and “ayen,” together meaning witch-wizard.* This word, whose West Indian equivalent is “obeah,” can be traced, says linguistics expert John Bathurst Deane, “to the Canaanite superstition of Ob.”

Here I offer an interpretation rather than a settled historical claim: when I hear “Obayifo,” I also hear possible echoes that could be read through AbbaYah or “obey Yah.” I believe that in a western and Canaanite-shaped lens, the miracles and judgments of Yahwah’s priests may have been mislabeled as magic by those who did not understand the spirit behind them.

M. Oldfield Howey, an expert on African culture, notes more pointedly that “the witch of Endor is spoken of as an ob, and was applied to by King Saul for an oracle.”

This distinction matters because Scripture itself uses terms for seers and prophets, while also warning against forbidden practices. The ignorant may confuse the two, but the spirit behind them is not the same. Samuel, Hanani, Jehu, Gad, Asaph, and other seers stand in the prophetic tradition of Yahwah, not in the corruption of sorcery.

1 Samuel 9:19 And Samuel answered Saul, and said, I am the seer: go up before me unto the high place; for ye shall eat with me to day, and to morrow I will let thee go, and will tell thee all that is in thine heart. 2 Chronicles 16:7 ...And at that time Hanani the seer 2 Chronicles 19:2 ...And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer 2 Chronicles 29:25 the Prophet Gad was called a seer. 2 Chronicles 29:30 Asaph the seer. 2 Chronicles 33:19 sayings of the seers are sited against the sins of those kings who built high places. Isaiah 29:10 Yahwah covers the prophecies of the seers to punish Israel. He hides the prophets from Israel to punish Israel.

Because Israel would not listen to the prophets in Isaiah 30:10

“Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits...”

Even “Obayifo,” in my interpretation, may carry deeper echoes. I connect it with AbbaYah and the Ephod—the garment of priestly discernment and judgment. The historical illustrations of Ashanti priestly breastplates, together with the priestly garments described in Exodus 28 and Exodus 39, become another visual clue in the chain. To me, the Ashanti clothing traditions, head coverings, and wrapped garments preserve more than culture; they preserve priestly memory.

The word Ganaga also became personal revelation. I connect it with H5046, nāḡaḏ, an Evri word associated with chief, ruler, prince, king, messenger, or leader, and with “Ga'ah,” meaning to rise up, be lifted up, or be exalted. When my grandfather blessed me as Ganaga, I received it as more than a family title. I received it as a sign of calling, leadership, and remembrance.

The record of powerful women in West African history also speaks into this testimony. Figures such as Yaa Asantewaa and movements such as the Aba Women’s Riots show that resistance, leadership, and sacred memory did not belong only to men. The women of the Diaspora carried fire too.

The DNA discussion adds another layer, though I treat it carefully. I understand the dominant Y-DNA haplogroup associated with Asante/Ashanti paternal lines as E1b1a-M2, also called E-M2 or E-V38, a major African Y-chromosome lineage. On the maternal side, I connect myself with L-lineages such as L1, L2, and L3. For me, this evidence does not stand alone; it joins Scripture, family history, geography, and memory as part of the larger testimony.

The story then turns toward captivity and Jamaica. I believe many who were judged, displaced, or sold into captivity became part of the Maroon story, and that my own line descends from those carried into Jamaica. In this reading, the wound of enslavement becomes part of the larger mystery of exile, mercy, judgment, survival, and hidden identity.

This is why Paul Bogle matters so deeply in my family testimony. The name Bogle, the memory of Jamaica, the voice that urged me to remember Paul Bogle and the Ashanti tribe, and the connection to Gullah/Geechee traditions all became part of one unfolding revelation. I connect “Gullah” with redemption through Strong’s #1353, gullah, and see in that word the language of kindred, right, redemption, and return.

The Bogle name also opens a mystery I am still tracing. I connect Ephraim with the bow through Zechariah 9 and Psalm 78, and I consider the possibility of links between Bogle, Joseph, the “house of Calico,” the multicolored coat, King James, and the Black Scots. I present this as a theory, not as a settled conclusion, because the trail is suggestive but still requires more evidence.

According to Acts 29: And Paul, full of the blessings of Messiach, and abounding in spirit, departed from Rome, determining to go to Spain, for he had proposed to go there for a long time, and also from there to Britain. For he had heard in Phoenicia that some of the children of Israel, about the time of the Assyerian captivity, had escaped by sea to “the Isles afar off” as spoken by the prophet 1 , and called by the Romans, Britain.

For me, the hiddenness of such writings matters. “Apocrypha” means hidden, and I believe hidden texts, hidden names, and hidden histories were permitted to surface so Yahwah’s people could remember who they are. In this testimony, Britain itself becomes part of the mystery of the isles afar off.

My McPherson line is another personal thread in the pattern. I hold the opinion that there may be a connection between the Black Scots, King James, the Mac names such as McPherson and McDonald, and the Maccabees as priest-kings. I present this as part of my family-history investigation and testimony, not as a claim that has been fully proven.

How, then, am I legally Israel? First and above all, in Messiach. But I also look to the law concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, where inheritance and tribal continuity are preserved when a man has no sons. I also consider examples of grafting and household incorporation, including the Egyptian-named Jarha in the line of David and Timothy in Acts 16:3. For me, these witnesses show that Yahwah’s law is not careless with lineage; it preserves, grafts, orders, and restores.

The seed of the woman also matters. Yahwah chose a woman to bring Yahwsha into the world, and therefore the maternal line cannot be dismissed as meaningless. The women of Yahshrael carried covenant, memory, and seed through generations of danger. In my own testimony, my maternal line and African maternal lineages become part of the evidence I carry in my body, my family history, and my calling. This is why the story of the African Diaspora is not merely political, cultural, or genealogical to me. It is priestly. It is prophetic. It is the hidden Kingdom of Priests awakening from exile and remembering its name.