Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XII)

By Larry Fyffe

Singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan dabbles in biblical burlesque a lot as the unravelling the Dylanvinci Code reveals.

No doubt, everybody’s asking what leads time-travelling and time-stopping adventurer Bob Dylan to Tangier in Morocco, and finally to Memphis in the United Arab Republic of Egypt?

The answer is quite simple. The key to breaking the whole code lies in the following song:

Let me tell you about Ahab the Arab
The shiek of the burning sand
He had emeralds and rubies just dripping off of him
And a ring on every finger of his hand
(Ray Stevens: Ahab The Arab)

A reference to the song above pops up in the lines of the song quoted beneath:

Sheikhs walking around like kings, wearing fancy jewels 
and nose rings
Deciding America's future from Amsterdam, and to Paris
(Bob Dylan: Slow Train Coming)

Burlesquer Dylan, like the Spanish burlesquer – par excellence – in ‘Don Quixote’, drops red herrings to divert literary analysts off the trail.

Little wonder that Dutch Dylanologist Jochen Markhorst, as well as others, contends that certain song lyrics refer to Herman Melville’s whale-of-a-tale “Moby Dick”, and to its Captain Ahab.

But take note, it’s Captain “Arab”, not Captain Ahab, in the song lyrics below:

Well, the last I heard of Arab, he was stuck on a whale
That was married to the deputy sheriff of the jail
(Bob Dylan: 115th Dream)

[Editor’s note – despite the long intro this really is the right video]

According to the Holy Bible, Ishmael’s parented by Abraham and an Egyptian lady – although Abe’s married to Sarah.

God orders Abraham to kill Ishmael. Reprieved, the first-born son ends up living in the Arabian desert with his mother:

Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe say, "Man, you must be putting me on"
(Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited)

Decoded, the dream tells us that Ishmael marries a fat woman in the desert, an Egyptain lady who’s been married 115 times before.

Anyway, Dylan’s now off to Egypt in search of the burial site of Mary Magdalene.

As we have observed, according to the Dylavinci Code, Mary Magdalene marries brown-skinned Jesus, a descendant of Isaac, the younger half-brother of Ishmael – Isaac being parented by Abraham and Sarah.

Ahab, who provokes the white whale in “Moby Dick”, gets a mention in the Holy Bible:

And Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger
Than all the kings of Israel that were before him

(1 Kings 16: 33)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *